A Neurosurgeon's Afterlife Experience

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thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/07/proof-of-heaven-a-doctor-s-experience-with-the-afterlife.html
As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.
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Thoughts?
 
I am fascinated by NDE’s. He mentions psychic channeling though!:eek:
 
I’m not sure how I feel about N.D.E.'s. I would -love- for them to be true, because it would constitute a form of proof, at least for the individuals who experience them. However, I do not think it is possible to prove God in our reality, because that would negate faith.

That said, I’ve always said we can’t prove it until we’re dead, so technically, if these people do die, then they aren’t proving it in this reality, but rather the next. Following this logic, then they are entirely possible ^^

Either way, it was an interesting story, I’m glad to have read it. Thank you.

In fact, having read it again, I would say that is goes beyond interesting to positively reaffirming… Thank you very much for posting this.
 
Leave it to the comments on this page for all the atheists to come out of the wood work to try and disprove what this doctor experienced. I, personally, have my reservations to the article to begin with. At least from the picture where (presumably) God tells him he can “do no wrong”. That doesn’t sound like God to me? Nothing in his experience “taught” him anything. About coming to Christ’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. About living a holy life (as best as he could). Nothing about doing what Christ wants for us. Sounds like a bunch of poppycock to me lol
 
SaintPatrick333 said:
Leave it to the comments on this page for all the atheists to come out of the wood work to try and disprove what this doctor experienced. I, personally, have my reservations to the article to begin with. At least from the picture where (presumably) God tells him he can “do no wrong”. That doesn’t sound like God to me? Nothing in his experience “taught” him anything. About coming to Christ’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. About living a holy life (as best as he could). Nothing about doing what Christ wants for us. Sounds like a bunch of poppycock to me lol
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I took it to mean that you can do no wrong there.🙂
 
John_of_Woking said:
I am fascinated by NDE’s. He mentions psychic channeling though!:eek:
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Exactly. I hope everyone else caught that.

So what is the truth value of these experiences? Not much. Every single one of them is anecdotal. Even if I were to have one tonight and told someone about them, it would just be another " story. " The same holds for visions, even the visions of the Saints. They are just anectodal. Although in the case of the latter, we have more reason for trust.

But I don’t think we have to go to these extremes to prove we have a spiritual soul. Because really, a purely material being simply cannot have vegetative, sensative, and/ or intellective processes. You cannot explain the existence and processes of living beings through simply materialistic actions. Why? Because matter alone does not have these attributes. It really is that simple but for some reason a large number of people can’t " see " it.

St. Thomas does a magnificant job of explaining all this. And if we will read him and reflect upon it we will see it too.

But I think we can provide a personal anecdotal exercise for everyone. I have had and we all have had, I am sure, dreams or even strange errant thoughts. How explain these things which have no relation to any personal experience we have had ?.

Or again. Think back to the very first time you were confronted with a choice in which you immediately recognized a " …no, this would not be good…" No one had ever told you it would not be good. I began to have them as early as about eitght years or so. And I can tell you for sure no one had ever said anything to me about sex. But I recognized clearly that to concent to such a thing or to such a thought or act would definitely be wrong. Now, no glob of matter ever warned me about such things. It was God acting through my conscience which is an attribute of a spiritual soul. You can probably think of a similar experience. 👍
 
They soon sank to near nonexistent. For seven days I lay in a deep coma, my body unresponsive, my higher-order brain functions totally offline.
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Then, on the morning of my seventh day in the hospital, as my doctors weighed whether to discontinue treatment, my eyes popped open.
<…>
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,
<…>
Not just the medical impossibility that I had been conscious during my coma,
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He’s lucky they didn’t declare him brain-dead and harvest his organs. He managed to open his eyes just in time. Hopefully he will re-evaluate that diagnosis for others in the future and pass on his experience to his colleagues.
 
Interesting read…Didn’t listen to the link - was that where the “channeling” comment was??

In the article I couldn’t help but note a couple of things…
  1. The different “levels” he was going through…Made me think of St Paul’s talking about the three heavens
  2. His attempts to describe what he was experiencing seemed to have the same tenor as some of the writings of mystic saints.
  3. Love is at the core of everything and holds everything together…Love is all…
Overall, I think that this is an interesting occurrence - especially having happened to someone with his background.

God is great and loving…Such hints should only reinforce our Love and Faith…

Peace
James
 
I accept anecdotes as evidence as much as objective tests; otherwise I would have to accuse the person of lies or lunacy. One thing that puzzles me is that the God and nature of reality in NDEs contradict the Church’s teachings. Yet at the same time God points out to the people on earth that the Church is true by the means of miracles. Some NDEs talk of reincarnation, others of universalism, Yet God gives the Catholic Church first class miracles as a sign to separate it from all others. What can this mean?
 
InJesusItrust said:
I accept anecdotes as evidence as much as objective tests; otherwise I would have to accuse the person of lies or lunacy. One thing that puzzles me is that the God and nature of reality in NDEs contradict the Church’s teachings. Yet at the same time God points out to the people on earth that the Church is true by the means of miracles. Some NDEs talk of reincarnation, others of universalism, Yet God gives the Catholic Church first class miracles as a sign to separate it from all others. What can this mean?
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I have not studied NDE’s so I cannot speak to specific things that may or may not contradict Church teaching. However, as to the apparent contradictions I can only say that it may have to do with an inability to express in human words what they experienced. This is noted time and again in the writings of the Saints who have touched the unitive stage of the spiritual journey.
What I find fascinating about this particular experience is his reference to “Love” as and all encompassing, and all permeating reality. This speaks directly to NT Scriptures such as Mt 22:36-40 and 1 John 4:7-8 and 1 Cor 13:8-13.

Now we see darkly…Then we will see clearly.

Peace
James
 
As a rehabilitation nurse life care planner working with individuals with severe traumatic brain injury I was thrilled at this story. For so long we have heard from neuroscientists that the bright light is just the brain firing and not anything outside of ourselves. To have a neurosurgeon experience an NDE and to be able to come back and show that it is not just brain activity going on and to be able to describe it from a neuroscience point of view is wonderful to me. I was doing an assessment once and had a patient share his NDE with me- he saw my Miraculous Medal and felt safe to share his with a fellow Catholic. All of these stories give me such hope because He really did prepare a place for us and His promises are true! God Bless,

Val
 
JRKH said:
I have not studied NDE’s so I cannot speak to specific things that may or may not contradict Church teaching. However, as to the apparent contradictions I can only say that it may have to do with an inability to express in human words what they experienced. This is noted time and again in the writings of the Saints who have touched the unitive stage of the spiritual journey.
What I find fascinating about this particular experience is his reference to “Love” as and all encompassing, and all permeating reality. This speaks directly to NT Scriptures such as Mt 22:36-40 and 1 John 4:7-8 and 1 Cor 13:8-13.

Now we see darkly…Then we will see clearly.

Peace
James
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I also think we should keep in mind that just because a person has a NDE experience and might see a glimpse of the afterlife, that doesn’t mean that all Truth (or any Truth) is revealed to them during their experience. They still have to come back and make sense of what happened to them and they often do that based on their own beliefs that they had before the experience. So just because somebody has a legitimate NDE experience doesn’t mean they’re going to come back and suddenly embrace the Catholic church…or Christianity for that matter. The only Truth they come back with is an affirmation that there IS something there after death…and maybe an affirmation that there IS a God. Nothing more.
 
A lot of these experiences and they are too similar. On the other hand, I have heard skeptics arguments as well. What do they say? Lack of oxygen. Still, I heard from a good source a sickly lady in our community before passing away supposedly saw “some things” that would seem to say heaven awaited.

There is not too much of this kind of coverage or stories in Catholic media, is there? I’ve faithfully listened to a Catholic Radio show and I think this subject has been touched on briefly a few times.
 
masondoggy said:
I also think we should keep in mind that just because a person has a NDE experience and might see a glimpse of the afterlife, that doesn’t mean that all Truth (or any Truth) is revealed to them during their experience. They still have to come back and make sense of what happened to them and they often do that based on their own beliefs that they had before the experience. So just because somebody has a legitimate NDE experience doesn’t mean they’re going to come back and suddenly embrace the Catholic church…or Christianity for that matter. The only Truth they come back with is an affirmation that there IS something there after death…and maybe an affirmation that there IS a God. Nothing more.
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Good points as well.

It occurred to me today that our ability to communicate one to the other is so limited. We are basically limited to our five senses and, to a certain and less precise extent, emotions that we share. Look at how we try to describe things…By analogy and metaphor…Something is “like” something else.
Science is, to a large extent, built on this limitation…What does something look like, taste like, smell like, feel and so on. Even things that are not directly sensory have to be put into some sort of “sensory” context…to help us to understand.

The good Dr. described the problem well when he talked about his difficulty with putting things into some sort of sequence - timeline, or when he said that sight and hearing were not discreet functions - that he could “see the music” and “hear” the very existence of the angelic beings.

I have to think that, just from a humanistic standpoint, while science provides so many wonderful and practical advances and understandings, that it also puts us in a “box” that can prevent what could be tremendous spiritual growth…

Peace
James
 
masondoggy said:
I also think we should keep in mind that just because a person has a NDE experience and might see a glimpse of the afterlife, that doesn’t mean that all Truth (or any Truth) is revealed to them during their experience. They still have to come back and make sense of what happened to them and they often do that based on their own beliefs that they had before the experience. So just because somebody has a legitimate NDE experience doesn’t mean they’re going to come back and suddenly embrace the Catholic church…or Christianity for that matter. The only Truth they come back with is an affirmation that there IS something there after death…and maybe an affirmation that there IS a God. Nothing more.
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Don’t knock it, though. That’s still a step in the right direction! 👍
 
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