PROOF OF HEAVEN PART II
“Science vs Spiritual Reality”
In his best-selling book featured as the cover story in the last print copy of Newsweek Magazine, neuro-surgeon, Dr. Eben Alexander, talks about his scientific point of view vs the new spiritual dimension he encountered.
Dr. Alexander said as much as he had wanted to believe in God and heaven and the afterlife, his life in the scientific world had caused him to question how such things could be real. He said, “modern neuroscience dictates that the brain gives rise to consciousness – to the mind, to the soul, to the spirit, to whatever you choose to call that invisible part of us that truly makes us who we are – and I had little doubt that it (the scientific point of view) was correct,” ( P. 34)
Based on the scientific point of view, he said the stream of evidence seemed to push “our significance ever close to zero.” He goes on to add, “Belief would have been nice. But science is not concerned with what would be nice. It is concerned with what is.” (P. 35)
However, being in a coma for seven days from e-coli meningitis of the brain changed all that. In his so-called near-death experience, seeing and hearing were not separate. He could hear the visual beauty of silvery bodies and he could see the singing, “the joyful perfection of what they sang,” (P. 45) Everything was part of everything else.
Dr. Alexander said that the “physical side of our universe is as a speck of dust compared to the invisible and spiritual part.” (P. 82) Even though the neo-cortex of is brain was dead, he felt very much alive and aware…” (P. 130) He sensed that the eternal spiritual self is more real than anything we perceive and is divinely connected to the infinite love of the Creator.” (P. 140)
He sensed the universe has no beginning and no end and God is entirely present in every part of the universe. And the purpose for bringing us into existence is to allow us to participate in the glory of God. Thus we should open ourselves to “that part of the universe we already possess, that is, our connectedness with the Divine.” (P 157, 161)
The events of Dr. Alexander’s experience broke the back of scientific reductionism, that is, the view that all can be reduced to a “chance collocation” of materialist atoms, and that is all that exists.
But Dr. Alexander’s experience convinced him the mind and soul and consciousness live beyond the death of body. More than that, says Dr. Alexander, his near-death experience convinced him that everyone in the universe is loved. However, he says, “without recovering that memory of our larger connectedness, and of the unconditional love of our Creator, we will always feel lost here on earth.” (P. 170)
Science tells us that the material realm is all that exists. But mind, spirit, soul, consciousness and the eternal love of God are the ultimate realities, “the great and central mystery of the universe. I am the living proof,” (P. 171)
What do you think? Do you have a scientific, materialist view of the universe? Do you believe all things are a “chance collocation of atoms” including mind, soul, and spirit? Do you think love is at the center of the universe or that the universe is blindly indifferent to human fate? What is your thinking? Why?
