Proof of Heaven - Dr Eben Alexander (Simon and Schuster 2012)

When I was initially in the Realm of the Earthworm’s-Eye View, I had no real centre of consciousness. I didn’t know who or what I was, or even if I was.

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I’m not sure this book warrants a review on a literary blog but to be fair to Eben Alexander, I expect he isn’t offering it as literature. As the title suggests, its purpose is to provide evidence to support an idea (although I do not think its contents constitute the ‘proof’ he claims they do). The book’s cover does much to bolster its ‘science-y’ feel – the honorific ‘Dr.’ appears eight times – and the presence within of an index, appendices and a reading list seem part of this. But, lest I be accused of proselytising for the other side or approaching this with a closed mind, let me first acknowledge certain elements of his case. That he experienced a ‘miraculous’ recovery is not in doubt: E-coli meningitis affects one in 10 million adults in the US annually, and the duration of his symptoms suggested a 97% likelihood of death. His full recovery is without known precedent. That his medical credentials are ‘impeccable’ and that he is sincere in his attempt to understand and explain his Near-Death Experience (NDE), I also accept. And that there may be non-physical processes or entities (souls, spirits – call them what you will) which science has yet to reveal and explain – although this is not part of his argument – I can also just about accept. But that Alexander’s description of his NDE and his enquiry into its causes make him ‘living proof’ of the existence of God and Heaven, I do not.

I realise an experience like his could act as a spur to religious faith, both for him and for those close to him. As he says (after admitting it will sound grandiose), he’s ‘certain [it] happened for a reason’, and he reserves his final and ‘unbounded’ thanks in the Acknowledgements section to God. The reason for his recovery, by the way, seems to be to tell his story to others – to spread the word. But in Alexander’s case, it also seems the conditions for religious conversion were in place before his NDE, thus sharpening the spur considerably. In plotting his emotional and psychological trajectory before the coma, he talks of ‘feelings of lack of worth’ because he had been adopted and because his birth parents had rejected his requests to reestablish contact. He suffered from the knowledge he’d ‘been given away’ and explains how he was ‘struggling to forgive that fact.’ He admits to a period of excessive drinking that threatened his professional and familial stability; his wife was a church-going Christian and his local pastor led prayers by his hospital bed during his coma. Sure enough, soon after his recovery he ‘hobbled to the altar’ of his local church to take Communion, while ‘tears streamed down [his] cheeks.’

I applaud Alexander’s emphasis on the importance of ‘love’ in human relationships; however, when he speaks of our ‘divine connection to the infinite love of the Creator’ as a ‘deep and comforting truth’, I understand the ‘comforting’ part, but am far from convinced it’s a truth.