'proof of heaven' by dr. eben alexander

when we were studying meditation last year during yoga training, and the deepness it can bring, my teacher shanon spoke of dr. eben alexander.  he is a neurosurgeon and man of science - he didn't believe in anything that couldn't be proven to him.  he wanted facts, in front of him, black and white - he didn't have faith or believe in anything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZFml7LEn68

one morning a horrible headache quickly turned into him being in a coma from bacterial meningitis.  doctors used to define people as 'medically dead' when their heart stopped beating.  but because of modern day technology that can bring your heart back so quickly, the definition has been expanded to being brain dead.  the medical world has expanded 'medically dead' to those that are in a vegetative state - their heart may still be beating, and lungs still breathing (oftentimes by a machine), but their consciousness is gone.

dr. eben alexander came out of his coma right before his wife and family were going to unplug the machines and let him go.  he and his family experienced a miracle.  his medical staff could not explain it.  after he woke up, he could not explain as a man of science what happened to him - his experience went against everything he was taught to believe in the medical fielf.  although he still cannot explain it, he is now left with this faith he had never known before. 

'as a practicing neurosurgeon with decades of research and hands-on work in the operating room behind me, i was in a better-than-average position to judge not only the reality but the implications of what happened to me.

those implications are tremendous beyond description.  my experience showed me that the death of the body and the brain are not the end of consciousness, that human experience continues beyond the grave.  more important, it continues under the gaze of god who loves and cares about each one of us and about where the universe itself and all beings with in it are ultimately going.

the place i went was real.  real in a way that makes the life we're living here and now completely dreamlike by comparison.'

while in deep meditation, i know i feel at one with the universe and my god.  i feel the energy inside of me.  i feel warmth, love, calmness, and a genuinely pure happiness.  not to sound too cheeseball, but the feeling is almost magical.  i feel that we are all interconnected, and a part of something so much greater.  we each are a piece of the universe, and each have this love and energy (whether you call that god, allah, the creator, etc.) inside of us.

The above excerpt from the book made me think of the namaste prayer.  i say this prayer at the end of every yoga practice - i then bring my hands to my head's center to ask for clarity of mind, at my mouth for clarity of word, and at my heart for clarity of action.  i admit that i don't always adhere to this - i can have negative thoughts, words, and actions.  but this prayer always brings me back to my center, and what is truly important.  the meaning of the namaste prayer and what it specifically means to me have been very important to me, especially over the last few years. 

dr. eben alexander spoke of this 'mother' and 'her' constant caring, and the almost maternal feeling he felt throughout his experience in this different realm and world.

'...the 'mother' was god, the creator, the source who is responsible for making the universe and all in it.  this being was so close that there seemed to be no distance at all between god and myself.  yet at the same time, i could sense the infinite vastness of the creator, could see how completely miniscule i was by comparison.  i will occassionally use OM as the pronoun for god because i originally used that name in my writings after my coma.  OM was the sound i remembered hearing associated with that omniscient, omnipotent, and unconditionally loving god, but any descriptive word falls short.'

the overall meaning of OM is 'the universal sound of life'.  when he was in this realm while in his coma, the constant sound he heard was this humming of OM.  the yogi in me, of course, thinks this is just awesome.  i can see why he often now refers to his god and creater as OM - it makes sense to me.  OM is the sound and vibration of the universe that connects us all.  whenever we chant 'OM' in a yoga class, the aim to connect to everyone around us - and when i do chant 'OM', i in fact feel connected to each and everyone not only in the room, but everyone.  whenever i chant 'OM' at home while practicing by myself, i still feel connected to all life around me.  it's pretty cool...

the overall feeling he felt while in this 'place' was love - undying, unconditional love.  it was a love he had yet to experience in the physical world, and one that would never be able to be fully replicated here.  even though he did not hear the words spoken to him, they were communicated to him in a way he cannot articulate.  it was just an understood truth with him and god.  the message he received was:

'you are loved and cherished.  you have nothing to fear.  there is nothing you can do wrong.

'if i had to boil this entire message down to one sentence, it would run this way - you are loved.

and if i had to boil it down further, to just one word, it would (of course) be simply - love.

love is, without a doubt, the basis of everything.  not some abstract, hard-to-fathom kind of love but the day-to-day kind that everyone knows - the kind of love we feel when we look at our spouse and children, or even our animals.  in its purest and most powerful form, this love is not jealous or selfish, but unconditional.  this is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists or that will ever exist, and no remotely accurate understanding of who and what we are can be achieved by anyone who does not know it, and embody it in all of their actions.

not much of a scientific insight?  well, i beg to differ.  i'm back from that place, and nothing could convince that this is not only the single most important emotional truth in the universe, but also the most important scientific truth as well.'

how beatiful is that message?  the single most important thing in life is love.  how simple is that, yet how often forgotten as well?  unfortunately, hate is all around us and has been throughout history.  maya angelou once said, 'hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.'  can you imagine a world in which love, compassion, and acceptance prevailed?  it would be a world without war, without violence.  we would have a world in which everyone was truly treated as an equal - no racism, no descrimination, only accepting unconditional love for one another.  it would be a world in which the golden rule was lived everyday, by everyone.  one could argue it would be heaven on earth.

i know what this great love is like.  i have yet to experience it with a spouse as dr. eben alexander describes it, but i have witnessed the love, bond, and commitment between my Mimi and Didi, and between my parents.  i will consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world to have even part of what they do.  although i don't have children of my own yet, i have seen how my sister looks at, cares for, protects, and loves her son simon.  i have felt this unconditional love from my parents - they have loved me when i have been the most unloveable.  i know and trust they will always love me and be behind me, no matter what.  it pains me when i have seen that not all children have this with their parents.  and funny that dr. alexander mentioned one can experience this love when even looking at an animal.  i think we all have not but one soulmate, but different ones throughout our life.  i have friends i feel are soulmates.  my family are soulmates of mine, especially my twin sister.  and my dog toby is a soulmate of mine.  he has been with me since rehab, through thick and thin, through all my struggles - he has been there.

'...our truest, deepest self is completely free.  it is not crippled or compromised by past actions or concerned with identity or status.  it comprehends that it has no need to fear the earthly world, and therefore, has no reason to build itself up through fame or wealth or conquest.

this is the true spiritual self that all of us are destined to one day recover.  but until that day comes, i feel, we should do everyone in our power to get in touch with this miraculous aspect of ourselves - to cultivate it and bring it to light.  this is the being living within all of us right now and that is, in fact, the being that god truly intends to be.

how do we get closer to this genuine spiritual self?  by manifesting love and compassion.  why?  because love and compassion are far more than the abstractions many of us believe them to be.  they are real.  they are concrete.'

i'm not saying this is true, and what happens to everyone.  the fact of the matter is, no one knows what happens when you die - only the people that have truly moved to the spiritual world know.  everyone has a different belief that they believe and is true to them.  but, this book is a great read.  even if you do not believe in the afterlife, or if the afterlife you know to be true is different than the one dr. alexander experienced, it's a great book with such a strong message.  the overall message regardless of what you believe in is love.  we are all interconnected, we all are one - and what connects us all is love and life.