Tiến sĩ Eben Alexander, Đại học Harvard : Proof of Heaven.
Bác sĩ hàng đầu Mỹ tin vào 'thế giới bên kia'
TỪNG BÁC BỎ GIẢ THUYẾT VỀ SỰ TỒN TẠI CỦA THẾ GIỚI CỦA LINH HỒN, SONG MỚI ĐÂY MỘT BÁC SĨ PHẪU THUẬT NÃO HÀNG ĐẦU CỦA MỸ THAY ĐỔI QUAN ĐIỂM SAU ÔNG KHI TRẢI QUA CẢM GIÁC CẬN KỀ CÁI CHẾT.
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| Bác sĩ Eben Alexander tin con người vẫn có khả năng tư duy sau khi chết. Ảnh:thedailybeast.com. |
Tiến sĩ Eben Alexander, một bác sĩ phẫu thuật não từng tốt nghiệp Đại học Harvard danh tiếng tại Mỹ và hành nghề trong 25 năm, rơi vào trạng thái hôn mê 7 ngày trong năm 2008 sau khi nhiễm bệnh viêm màng não, Telegraph đưa tin.
Alexander kể rằng, trong quá trình hôn mê, vùng não điều khiển suy nghĩ và cảm xúc của ông ngừng hoạt động. Sau đó ông trải qua cảm giác cận kề cái chết và gặp một phụ nữ đẹp với đôi mắt xanh dương to tại một nơi đầy những đám mây trắng. Một chuỗi âm thanh giống như bản nhạc có âm lượng lớn và âm hưởng hoành tráng vang lên. Bác sĩ Alexander nghe rõ từng âm thanh và cảm thấy chúng giống như những giọt mưa rơi vào làn da nhưng lại không gây cảm giác ướt, lạnh.
"Cảm giác sâu sắc ấy mang đến cho tôi một lý do khoa học để tin vào sự tồn tại của ý thức của con người sau khi chết", ông nói.
Trước đây nhiều bệnh nhân từng kể với Alexander rằng họ đã trải qua trạng thái cận kề cái chết, nhưng ông đều cho rằng đó chỉ là sản phẩm của trí tưởng tượng hoặc ảo giác. Nhưng giờ đây ông đã thay đổi suy nghĩ sau khi trải qua cảm giác ấy. Thậm chí ông còn xuất bản cuốn sách "Proof of Heaven" (tạm dịch là "Bằng chứng về thiên đường" để mô tả trải nghiệm của bản thân.
"Mọi người đều nói sự tồn tại của ý thức sau khi chết là điều dị thường, khó tin. Nhưng trạng thái mà tôi trải qua không phải là ảo giác. Tôi cảm nhận nó rõ ràng như những sự kiện thực sự từng xảy ra trong đời tôi. Trong nhiều thập niên qua, tôi hành nghề bác sĩ phẫu thuật não tại một trong những cơ sở y khoa danh tiếng nhất tại Mỹ. Giống như mọi đồng nghiệp, tôi hiểu rõ lý thuyết về não. Nhưng niềm tin cũ đã sụp đổ bởi sự kiện mà tôi trải qua", Alexander bình luận.
PROOF OF HEAVEN?
In an article for Newsweek, neurosurgeon Eben Alexander recounts his near death experience during a coma from bacterial meningitis. This is sure to become a staple of the NDE/afterlife community, as Alexander recounts in articulate and breathless terms his profound experience. His book is called, Proof of Heaven – a bold claim for someone who insists he is and remains a scientist.
Alexander claims:
There is no scientific explanation for the fact that while my body lay in coma, my mind—my conscious, inner self—was alive and well. While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension I’d never dreamed existed and which the old, pre-coma me would have been more than happy to explain was a simple impossibility.
While his experience is certainly interesting, his entire premise is flimsily based on a single word in the above paragraph – “while.” He assumes that the experiences he remembers after waking from the coma occurred while his cortex was completely inactive. He does not even seem aware of the fact that he is making that assumption or that it is the central premise of his claim, as he does not address it in his article.
Of course his brain did not go instantly from completely inactive to normal or near normal waking consciousness. That transition must have taken at least hours, if not a day or more. During that time his neurological exam would not have changed significantly, if at all. The coma exam looks mainly at basic brainstem function and reflexes, and can only dimly examine cortical function (through response to pain) and cannot examine higher cortical functions at all. His recovery would have become apparent, then, when his brain recovered sufficiently for him to show signs of consciousness.
Alexander claims there is no scientific explanation for his experiences, but I just gave one. They occurred while his brain function was either on the way down or on the way back up, or both, not while there was little to no brain activity. During this time he would have been in an altered state of consciousness, with different parts of his cortex functioning to different degrees. This state is analogous to certain drug-induced mental states, or those induced by hypoxia and well documented, and there is even some overlap with the normal dream state. All of these are states in which the brain’s construction of reality is significantly different from the normal waking state.
Documented features of these altered states (and features commonly experienced by everyone during dreams) include a sense of oneness with the universe, a sense of the profound, of being in the presence of a godlike figure, and of automatic knowledge with absolute certainty. The latter is not uncommon during dreams – you just know things in your dreams that were not communicated or directly observed, and you have no doubt about that knowledge.
Alexander writes:
According to current medical understanding of the brain and mind, there is absolutely no way that I could have experienced even a dim and limited consciousness during my time in the coma, much less the hyper-vivid and completely coherent odyssey I underwent.It took me months to come to terms with what happened to me. Not just the medical impossibility that I had been conscious during my coma, but—more importantly—the things that happened during that time. Toward the beginning of my adventure, I was in a place of clouds. Big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky.
The “hyper-vivid” description is also common of altered brain states. It is naive to assume that such experiences must be hazy or “dreamlike.” By inhibiting certain parts of the brain extremely vivid and hyper-real seeming experiences can result.
Further, he recounts that it took him months to come to terms with his experiences. This brings up another important aspect of such experiences – that we must remember them with our waking brains. Most people have probably had the experience of having a vivid and bizarre dream that makes perfect sense to your dreaming self, and then when your waking self tries to recount the dream major aspects of it no longer make sense, and you marvel at how your dreaming self did not question the fantastical aspects of the dream.
The story that Alexander now tells is the attempt by his waking brain to make sense of experiences that occurred in an altered mental state. We therefore don’t know what he really experienced, only what his waking brain interprets and remembers about what his partially functioning brain experienced.
In addition to fluffy clouds, Alexander experienced beautiful angels and an overwhelming feeling of love. Even though he says he was not a devout Christian before the experience, his experience is strangely consistent with the cultural norms of his background. This is also typical – hallucinations and delusions often take the form of cultural and personal beliefs.
Conclusion
I understand that what Alexander experienced was strange, powerful, and profound and is coupled with the fact that he experienced a brush with death and survived. I will not presume to know how such an experience would affect me. This does not mean, however, that we can take his interpretation at face value.
Alexander, in my opinion, has failed to be true to the scientist he claims that he is. He did not step back from his powerful experience and ask dispassionate questions. Instead he concluded that his experience was unique, that it is proof of heaven, and that it defies any possible scientific explanation. He then goes on to give a hand-waving quantum mechanics, the universe is all unity, explanation for the supernatural. This is a failure of scientific and critical thinking.
Addressing his one major unstated premise, that the experienced occurred while his cortex was inactive, demolishes his claims and his interpretation of his experience.
As a neuroscientist I admit to a fascination with such experiences. I would love to experience something similar, to see what it is like (although I am not willing to damage my brain or take mild-altering drugs to do it). I would think that a neuroscientist would see such an experience as a powerful window into how the brain works (as Susan Blackmore did), how it constructs reality, and how the subjective experience that results from that construction can be altered, not as a window into a mystical and supernatural world.
Steven Novella in Neurologica:
Alexander claims:
There is no scientific explanation for the fact that while my body lay in coma, my mind—my conscious, inner self—was alive and well. While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension I’d never dreamed existed and which the old, pre-coma me would have been more than happy to explain was a simple impossibility.
While his experience is certainly interesting, his entire premise is flimsily based on a single word in the above paragraph – “while.” He assumes that the experiences he remembers after waking from the coma occurred while his cortex was completely inactive. He does not even seem aware of the fact that he is making that assumption or that it is the central premise of his claim, as he does not address it in his article.
Harvard neurosurgeon Eben Alexander 'sees heaven' in near-death experience
Conversion: Dr Ebon Alexander, a Harvard-based neurosurgeon, has claimed in a new book that he had an out-of-body experience in a coma
A skeptical scientist who had spent his career studying the mechanics of the brain and dismissing patient tales of journeys to heavenly realms has revealed his extraordinary conversion after his own encounter with the afterlife during a near-death experience.
Dr Eben Alexander spent 15 years as an academic neurosurgeon at Harvard but he was struck with a nearly fatal bout of bacterial meningitis in 2008 and had no brain activity when he lay comatose for seven days at a Virginia hospital.
Though he was unconscious and unresponsive during that period, he is now describing a 'hyper-vivid and completely coherent odyssey' to a place beyond, filled with butterflies and resounding music that has shaken his scientific viewpoint on human consciousness.
He says he entered a place filled with clouds and the sound of chanting, and was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman.
Dr Alexander describes his paradigm shift from focusing solely on the scientific make up of the brain to considering the spiritual realm of the mind, in a deeply reflective essay in Newsweek in advance of the release of his book, Proof of Heaven.
'As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences,' he writes in his article, explaining how he had previously relied on 'good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.'
Though he considered himself a nominal Christian he said he lacked the faith to believe in eternal life.
When his patients would tell tales of going to heaven during near death experiences, he relied on 'current medical understanding of the brain and mind' and disregarded them as wishful thinking.
Skeptic: Dr Eben Alexander was dismissive when patients would describe journeys to heaven after near death experiences ... until the scientist experienced the pinked-tinted world of heaven for himself
But after he became the patient, he says he 'experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.'
The 58-year-old has an impressive pedigree. His ancestors were well regarded politicians and prominent fixtures in society in Tennessee. His father was Chief of Neurosurgery at Wake Forest University from 1948 to 1978.
The younger Alexander graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and received his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1975. He earned his medical degree from Duke in 1980.
He spent 15 years teaching neurology at Harvard Medical School and the University of Virginia - lecturing on and researching brain mapping, the treatment of brain tumors and trying to understand cognition.
In 2008, the father-of-two was in 'good health and good shape,' preparing to embark on a hike with his son of a volcano in South America, he said in a July interview about the ordeal with Skeptiko.
Little did he know that he would soon become a patient at the very hospital where he taught.
Vivid: Alexander details his experience in his book, Proof of Heaven. An excerpt also features in Newsweek
The doctor's life was nearly cut short on November 10, 2008, when he awoke at 4:30am to get ready to go to work at the Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia, where he worked as a neurosurgeon.
All of a sudden, he developed a severe pain in his back and within 15 minutes he was paralyzed in anguish and could barely even move.
His wife, Holley, rushed in to assist him and began to rub his back to relieve the tension but his condition worsened.
Before he began convulsing in a seizure, his last words to his wife were, 'Don't call 911,' and he lost consciousness and has no memory of what happened for an entire week.
Fortunately for him, his wife disregarded his advice and he was rushed to an area hospital and was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.
'My entire cortex - the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion and that in essence makes us human - had shut down,' he writes in his essay.
'Doctors determined that I had somehow contracted a very rare bacterial meningitis that mostly attacks newborns. E. coli bacteria had penetrated my cerebrospinal fluid and were eating my brain,' he added.
He was placed on a ventilator at the intensive care unit and for six days he was treated with triple antibiotics to fight the bacteria but his brain had little functionality and he was unresponsive, leaving doctors to believe he would not recover.
As his family prepared for the worst, on the seventh day he suddenly opened his eyes.
His breathing tube was removed and he miraculously told doctors, 'Thank you.'
He suffered from amnesia and could not remember his life at all prior to his illness and remained in a haze for the first few days after he came out of the coma.
As he recovered though, he began to recall vivid memories of a magical mental experience during his time in the coma.
Illness: Dr Alexander, pictured with a scan of his infected brain, was in a coma for seven days and doctors did not believe he would emerge. A month later he had almost fully recovered
'There is no scientific explanation for the fact that while my body lay in coma, my mind - my conscious, inner self - was alive and well.
'While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension I’d never dreamed existed and which the old, pre-coma me would have been more than happy to explain was a simple impossibility,' he writes.
He says he entered a 'place of clouds - big, puffy and pink-white,' filled with butterflies and angel-like creatures that were 'simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms.'
In this heavenly realm, he says he heard 'a sound, huge and booming like a glorious chant, came down from above,' providing him with a sense of joy and awe.
A beautiful young woman accompanied him during his stay, 'she was young, and I remember what she looked like in complete detail. She had high cheekbones and deep-blue eyes. Golden brown tresses framed her lovely face.'
Heaven: The doctor says the place he visited was filled with butterflies, music and angel-like creatures more glorious than humans could ever imagine
Alexander admits his description might sound like something straight out of Hollywood, but to skeptics he says he has a clear sense that is was indeed real and 'not some fantasy, passing and insubstantial.'
After his remarkable experience in 2008, Alexander says the impact has been both on the professional and the spiritual.
Now the scientist has committed his energy to 'investigating the true nature of consciousness and making the fact that we are more, much more, than our physical brains as clear as I can, both to my fellow scientists and to people at large.'
But the self-described Christian-in-name-only, now says his experience with heaven has deepened his understanding of God and strengthened his faith .
'At the very heart of my journey [is this], that we are loved and accepted unconditionally by a God even more grand and unfathomably glorious than the one I’d learned,' he concludes.
SOURCE: dailymail.co.uk
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