Proof of Heaven

Corey's grandmother passed away in 2008 just a few weeks shy of her 99th birthday.  She had been anxiously awaiting her death and moving on to the next life for over a decade.  Each Christmas, to help her get more excited about what was coming, Corey got her a near death experience book.  Trying to keep her hopes up that her time would come and she hadn't been forgotten. 

Since she passed, I've been happy to take over the role of recipient of the NDE Christmas book.  So, continuing with that tradition, Corey got me another one for Christmas this past year.  Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander. It was ok, I'll give it 2.5 stars.  It wasn't among my favorites.

So Mr. Alexander wasn't much of a believer in God or the afterlife before this experience.  And I could understand how his coma helped him realize that there had to be a spirit and we weren't all physical brain and neurological activity, but I still couldn't totally relate to most of his other conclusions. I also found his whole experience to be a little weird and confusing, maybe it's just how he described things?  He kind of lost me in his talking of hell (?) or something, I'm not sure, as "the Realm of the Earthworm's-Eye View" - and calling God "Om" and describing places he visited/saw as "the Spinning Melody," "the Gateway", "The Core" - I don't know, some of it I just didn't really understand, left me a little confused.  Not sure if he was just trying to truly and purely describe what he saw in a new and/or accurate way or if it's cause of his education or previous disbelief that he was trying to describe it to non-believers by not using just normal words or descriptions typical of other NDEs.  Anyway, that's my basic/overall take away, left me a little confused and didn't really resonate with me.  One thing I did really like was on page 132:

I was the quintessential good-natured, albeit skeptical, doctor.  And as such, I can tell you that most skeptics aren't really skeptics at all.  To be truly skeptical, one must actually examine something, and take it seriously.  And I, like many doctors, had never taken time to explore NDEs.  I had simply "known" they were impossible. 

I loved that, cause it reminded me how I believe lots of skeptics of the LDS Church are - they really aren't skeptical at all, cause they never look at it and give it a chance, they just don't believe it outright. 

So, again, this book might be interesting to people unfamiliar with religion, spirituality, and life after death experiences, but for anyone who's read about these topics elsewhere - there's nothing new, profound or thought-provoking in this book. Dr. Alexander describes his experience and this book may be a starting point for scientifically-minded skeptics but it is NOT written for spiritual seekers. It does sound like a valid experience written by a previous skeptic, however.  :)