Look into eternity

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Glance into Eternity is the title of a sensational book by the neurosurgeon Eben Alexander , which was in some cases criticized as pseudoscientific , and in which he describes and interprets a near-death experience that he experienced . Despite all the criticism, the book became a bestseller . The description of the experiences shows in various points peculiarities compared to the majority of otherwise reported near-death experiences. Criticism also came from the technical and medical side.

The external event

Alexander initially describes himself as a conventionally believer, but otherwise scientifically, rationally and skeptically thinking person. He had never dealt with near-death experiences before his own because he believed them to be an illusion of the distressed brain.

On November 10, 2008 he suddenly fell ill with an extremely rare bacterial meningitis , which led to a complete suppuration of his neocortex . Despite treatment, his chances of survival drop dramatically to the point of medical improbability while he is in a coma for seven days . During this time relatives are always at his bedside, holding his hand, talking to him and praying. His wife turns on a friendly medium who tries to get into mental contact with him. After seven days, the disease resolves as suddenly as it appeared. After a period of rehabilitation, he will be completely healthy again. His case is well documented and is considered unique in the medical literature.

The inner experience

In a coma, he has three repetitive experiences. The first is the feeling of being in a kind of brown jelly with roots or veins running through it. Faces of groaning and moaning animals appear, worm-like creatures snake past him. He has no sense of time and no awareness of his identity and initially perceives this state as normal. In the distance he hears a constant, increasing metallic hammering. There is a smell of blood, feces and vomit around him. Gradually he feels this place uncomfortable and becomes scared. He calls this phase the "earthworm perspective".

At some point he hears a melody and a light descends on him. In the center of the light there is an opening through which it is pulled. He sees the earth below himself in a paradisiacal state : idyllic landscapes, happy people and animals. Then a beautiful young woman appears, with whom he flies on the wing of a butterfly in a wave of millions of butterflies. This woman conveys three messages to him: “You will be deeply loved and valued forever.” - “You have nothing to fear.” - “You cannot go wrong.” Above him, he sees a dark blue sky with pink clouds and transparent spheres, which he interprets as angels and which produce a hymn-like sound. He asks questions and receives immediate answers that appear not as words but as thoughts. He calls this phase the "transition".

One step further he experiences a “huge emptiness (...) completely dark, immeasurably large, but also infinitely comforting.” Next to him he feels a living, shining ball of light. He has the feeling of perceiving the presence of an "all-encompassing" being, which he alternately calls "God" or "the Om". But since the Om is too immeasurable, the sphere of light functions as a kind of mediator. At the same time, the ball of light is also the girl with the butterfly. The Om has personal character and properties such as "(...) warmth, compassion, pathos ..., even humor and irony." The Om tells him that there are countless universes, all of which have love as their center and through a divine reality are connected. Alexander calls this phase the “center”.

For a while it is possible for him to switch between the three phases at will, then he is denied access to the “transition” and he learns that he has to go back.

Until 2007, Alexander, who was adopted as a child, tries to establish contact with his birth mother, which he is initially denied, but then succeeds. He learns that he has other biological siblings, including a sister who died young. When he later received a photo of her from his birth mother, he recognized her as the girl from the "transition".

Interpretation of the experience by the author

Alexander sees his experience as a religious experience, even if he avoids reference to a particular religion. When he was already in a coma, he is said to have suddenly shouted “God help me!” And his first word after waking up was “Thank you!”. The day he was admitted to the hospital, it began to rain, atypical for the time of year and the Virginia region, and it continued for as long as he was in a coma. The cause of his illness and the spontaneous healing cannot be clarified medically. The attending physician comments on this in the appendix to the book.

According to Alexander, everything is consciousness or spirit, existence is only a production of that spirit. The brain does not create the mind, but acts as a kind of filter that narrows perception and thus forces the consciousness to choose between good and bad. Free will is part of a necessary growth process. Each person is observed and accompanied by a spherical being. He sees the postulate of quantum mechanics that the observer and the observed are connected, that observation changes the observed, as the scientific equivalent of his experience, that everything is connected and that there is no separation between subject and object. The same applies to the fact that elementary particles are connected to one another, although there is no causal connection . Alexander also includes the previously unknown dark matter and dark energy in his consideration. He sees it as his mission to pass on his experiences and has founded the organization "Eternea" for this purpose.

shape

The presentation of the book is based on popular science. However, instead of scientific explanations, preference is given to explanations that fit the previously defined explanatory pattern of an afterlife, so that the book is more likely to be assigned to pseudoscience. Chapters with external and internal events alternate and should create tension, just as the entire narrative structure relies on elements of tension. The narrative character also includes numerous decorations, weather and landscape descriptions and frequent verbatim speech. Two appendices and an extensive list of references complete the personal presentation.

expenditure

  • American original edition: Proof of Heaven. Simon & Schuster , New York 2012.
  • German edition: A look into eternity. The fascinating near-death experience of a neurosurgeon. 11th edition. Ansata, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-7787-7477-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/07/02/esquire-unearths-proof-of-heaven-authors-credibility-problems/
  2. ↑ http://www.esquire.com/features/the-prophet
  3. ↑ Eben Alexander: Blick in die Ewigkeit , Ansata Verlag 2012, p. 131 f.
  4. ↑ Eben Alexander: Blick in die Ewigkeit , Ansata Verlag 2012, p. 63
  5. ↑ Even Alexander: Blick in die Ewigkeit , Ansata Verlag 2012, p. 71 ff.
  6. ↑ Eben Alexander: Blick in die Ewigkeit , Ansata Verlag 2012, p. 73
  7. ↑ Eben Alexander: Blick in die Ewigkeit , Ansata Verlag 2012, p. 249 ff.
  8. ↑ http://www.eternea.org
  9. ↑ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-near-death-experience-isnt-proof-heaven/
  10. ↑ Even Alexander: Blick in die Ewigkeit , Ansata Verlag 2012, z. BS 116 ff.