Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Near-Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife

If you're reading this review then you are contemplating the purchase of this book. Correct? Just get it. You won't be disappointed.

However, if you (as other readers have) expect the book to "deliver on it's promise" of including "God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit" then you will be disappointed. But, I do urge you to get the book and listen with an open mind.

I find it quite rude to give a negative review and rating to a book based solely on the fact that it does not conform to your set of beliefs. Nowhere in the description of the book does it promise to do so either. It is a well-written and researched book and deserves to be reviewed as such.

Those of you who do purchase the book I ask you to give it a fair review. No need to type out a response, just a click on the stars will do. Thanks!

The title "Proof of Heaven" is a bit of an overstatement but Dr. Alexander does add interesting data to the debate. He had a near death experience as a result of bacterial meningitis. This illness placed him in a coma and took his neocortex off-line for seven days. The highly detailed and hyper-real NDE experienced by Dr. Alexander would be dismissed by some skeptics as brain activity while the doctor was in coma. The thing is that with the neocortex non-functional it was biologically impossible for him to have the NDE that he did, if it was reliant upon brain activity. This basic fact is the prime message that he presents through the book. The book is a challenge to skeptics who automatically reject any experience that can not be explained away through material means. His data do not fit the material paradigm and he sees this as requiring the serious seeker of truth to look for alternative explanations. His personal conclusion is that consciousness is more than just an epiphenomonon of brain activity. Now, some might like to reject his conclusion out of hand and seek the opinion of experts, the thing is that he is the expert! There are few people in the nation who know more about the working of the brain than Dr. Alexander.

The book is fascinating and works at several levels. First, it tells the story of Dr. Alexander's illness and the impact it had on his family. This part of the story is moving and offers insight not only into Dr. Alexander and his family but into the plight of many families who are trying to cope with the devastation of brain injury and coma in a loved one. It is worth a credit for this part of the story alone. It also works in delivering Dr. Alexander's challenge to the scientific community. He has good, well documented data and challenges others to make sense of the data...in good scientific fashion.

The frustrating part of the book is that he doesn't really give much information on his NDE experience other than the general outlines and visual impressions.
Though he suggests that he experienced a good deal of intuitive insight during the experience. Perhaps the insight is too difficult to translate into more mundane concepts but it is a real loss to the interested reader/listener who doesn't have to be convinced of the validity of his experience.

The author is also the narrator. He does a good job. It helps that the book is about very personal experiences, so that he brings an emotional investment to his narration that enriches the listening experience.

Comforting, moving, inspiring

The author as he came from a scientific background and was able to find a bridge between science and spirituality that makes sense.

Eben himself, as he as the main person everything was happening to.

There is an afterlife, and so much more beyond that!

His voice is easy to listen to. His story is compelling. I've heard so much about this book and all the positive reviews were correct, from my perspective. Whether you believe his conclusions or not, his experience is his and his alone and there is no question that the actual medical situation was real and the fact that he survived at all is in and of itself a medical miracle. If nothing else, it is inspiring to hear a story where someone was on the brink of death and miraculously survived. Those are the stories that give all of us a little faith that if a circumstance that looks hopeless happens, maybe just maybe we or our loved one, will be given a second chance and if you believe his conclusion, even if there isn't a second chance, the beyond is not to be feared. Everyone should be able to take something positive away from this story.

Scientific and logical

Eben He was able to describe his extraordinary experience and it seemed very realistic.

His long term experience as a physician and non-believer is somewhat normal. However, his life changing experience and explanation convinced me! He was able to explain to me how science and god can coexist. It finally make since to me. I studied medicine formally for 13 years and I've treated patients for the past 28 years.

Yes

Truthfully Raw and educational...........never a dull moment!

When Eban is relating his experience to his colege and it hit home that he was not alone in this experience of trying to decide who he could trust with this precious news.

When his youngest son was with him just before he awoke from his coma saying "everything will be ok"

I would have had I had the time. I did listen in 4 sittings.

I would recomend this book to anyone in the field of medicine.

I spend most of my Audible "reading" on business books, but bought this book because the story sounded so interesting. This book is very compelling. The author, an accomplished neurosurgeon who was a committed scientist and religious skeptic (if not an outright non-believer) before he went into a coma that should have killled him or left him hopelessly brain damaged, made a miraculous recovery. That alone would be an interesting story, but Dr. Alexander absolutely believes that he visited heaven during his near death experience.

Dr. Alexander's prior skepticism, when combined with his scientific analysis of why what happened to him could not have been produced by his brain, makes his story extremely compelling, and, for some, will probably be life changing. The book has certainly caused me to examine my own beliefs, and has also added some comfort to my belief that there has to be something out there more than the day to day linear existence of our life on this small planet. At the same time, Dr. Alexander's story also makes you thankful for your life and blessings here on earth.

If you are buying this book because you expect a detailed description of heaven, you should know that it is a small part of a pretty short book. The book is as much about Dr. Alexander's life and family and his struggle to deal with the fact he was given up by his birth family and adopted as it is about his experience while in coma.

I do not want to say much more because I feel it will be spoiling the reader's experience. Read this book. It may change your life.

By the way, it turns out the doc is a pretty good narrator, too!

It was very personal, especially because it was read by the author, and it was like listening to him tell me the story himself. I was genuinely touched by the personal, human side of his story, but riveted and satisfied by the depth of his scientific, professional knowledge and his striking ability to blend the two aspects into a very moving, thought-inducing story. I have to listen to it again, because I want to hear the details I missed going through the first time. Adding to my list of all-time favorites!

Yes!
I downloaded this book after seeing a special on ABC about the author's experience. I found his testimony of life after death to be remarkable and strong.
What I loved the most was his honesty. I enjoyed, Proof of Heaven better than 90 Minutes in Heaven,because of his overall message of God's love verses a detailed religious overtone. I didn't feel preached to in Proof of Heaven or that the author was trying to convert me to a specific religion.

I love the message that we are loved and cherished. Would recommend this audio to anyone having a hard day or feeling alone-will give you peace knowing that God loves you.

I felt as if the author was telling me first hand his experiences. Eben is a good storyteller and I found myself not being able to pause the book!

I felt as if I knew the author and he was a friend telling me his experience in real-time.

Yes, I would listen again because it is very informative. It kept me on the edge of my seat to get to end of the book.

His son because of his strong belief in his father's recovery.

Yes, his communication with God and how he described it.

This book left me wanting to know more.

I already have recommended this book to several people because the truth of this doctor's personal experience is hard to deny. I believe what his spirit or soul, etc. went through was very real. I appreciated that the author is a doctor and a scientist whose was/is a practicing neurosurgeon (what better person to tell us how the brain works) and the fact that he was a skeptic on the subject, before he had his NDE (Near Death Experience). In other words, he is the last person who might admit there is life after death.

I was mesmerized by the description of the clouds; the transparent, shimmering beings; the huge, booming sound "like a glorious chant"; the way the author could hear the visual beauty of the silvery bodies of the beings...and how he could see the surging, joyful perfection of what they sang, etc. I particularly loved the "super-vivid aliveness" of the doctor's NDE. It was and is completely welcoming and soothing to know that life is better after death.

I just loved this audiobook. It is not just a story or another person's experience. It is the gift of hope and love to those of us who haven't or will never have a NDE.