As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. Eben Alexander More Quotes by Eben Alexander More Quotes From Eben Alexander 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 a God who loves and cares about each one of us and about where the universe itself and all the beings within it are ultimately going. Eben Alexander body important brain Laughter and irony are at heart reminders that we are not prisoners in this world, but voyagers through it. Eben Alexander laughter inspirational life Communicating with God is the most extraordinary experience imaginable, yet at the same time it's the most natural one of all, because God is present in us at all times. Omniscient, omnipotent, personal-and loving us without conditions. We are connected as One through our divine link with God. Eben Alexander divine links natural Evil was necessary because without it free will was impossible, and without free will there could be no growth—no forward movement, no chance for us to become what God longed for us to be. Horrible and all-powerful as evil sometimes seemed to be in a world like ours, in the larger picture love was overwhelmingly dominant, and it would ultimately be triumphant. Eben Alexander love-picture powerful evil Our culture is obsessed with youth because we have lost the ancient knowledge that growth never stops. We are not transient, momentary mistakes in Eben Alexander curiosity player mistake Our eternal spiritual self is more real than anything we perceive in this physical realm, and has a divine connection to the infinite love of the Creator. Eben Alexander real self spiritual To experience thinking outside the brain is to enter a world of instantaneous connections that make ordinary thinking (i.e those aspects limited by the physical brain and the speed of light_ seem like some hopelessly sleepy and plodding event. 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, it has no need to build itself up through fame or wealth or conquest. Eben Alexander self past thinking We-each of us-are intricately, irremovably connected to the larger universe. It is our true home, and thinking that this physical world is all that matters is like shutting oneself up in a small closet and imagining that there is nothing else out beyond it. Eben Alexander home world thinking Love is, Eben Alexander bases doubt love-is 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. Eben Alexander self mind facts My journey deep into coma, outside this lowly physical realm and into the loftiest dwelling place of the almighty Creator, revealed the indescribably immense chasm between our human knowledge and the awe-inspiring realm of God. Eben Alexander dwelling-place almighty journey We - each of us - are intricately, irremovably connected to the larger universe. Eben Alexander universe connected I had a foretaste of another, larger kind of knowledge: one I believe human beings will be able to access in ever larger numbers in the future. But conveying that knowledge now is rather like a chimpanzee, becoming a human for a single day to experience all of the wonders of human knowledge, and then returning to one's chimp friends and trying to tell them what it was like knowing several different Romance languages, the calculus, and the immense scale of the universe. Eben Alexander knowing numbers believe Our spirit is not dependent on the brain or body. It is eternal, and no one has one sentence worth of hard evidence that it isn’t. Eben Alexander body spirit brain We can only see what our brain’s filter allows through. Eben Alexander filters brain How did I gain from not remembering my earthly self? It allowed me to go deep into realms beyond the worldly without having to worry about what I was leaving behind. Throughout my entire time in those worlds, I was a soul with nothing to lose. No places to miss, no people to mourn. I had come from nowhere and had no history, so I fully accepted my circumstances-even the initial murk and mess of the Realm of the Earthworm's-Eye View-with equanimity. Eben Alexander eye self views The part of my brain that was responsible for creating the world I lived and moved in and for taking the raw data that came in through my senses and fashioning it into a meaningful universe: that part of my brain was down, and out. And yet despite all of this, I had been alive, and aware, truly aware, in a universe characterized above all by love, consciousness, and reality. There was, for me, simply no arguing this fact. I knew it so completely that I ached. Eben Alexander data meaningful reality A story-a true story-can heal as much as medicine can. Eben Alexander true-story medicine stories I finally chalked it up to the fact that the brain is truly an extraordinary device: more extraordinary than we can even guess. Eben Alexander devices brain facts Physical life is characterized by defensiveness, whereas spiritual life is just the opposite. Eben Alexander spiritual life-is opposites
