Slice of heaven?

A best-selling book claiming to present evidence of life after death may not be all it's cracked up to be.

I recently read an article ("Heaven's Gate", SA Weekend Magazine, The Advertiser, December 8, 2012) written by a US neurosurgeon, Dr Eben Alexander III, in which he describes having a near death experience (NDE). This changed his scientific view of the mind and consciousness - the "most staggering experience of [his] life," he said.

He claims that during a bout of bacterial meningitis, for seven days, he had a "complete absence of neural activity in all but the deepest, most primitive portions of [his] brain". But he claims that for those seven days, he "not only remained fully conscious but journeyed to a stunning world of beauty and peace and unconditional love". He says this was not "a brain-based delusion cobbled together by [his] synapses after they had … recovered". But he does remember a period when his mind began to "regain consciousness" and remembers "a vivid paranoid nightmare in which [his] wife and doctors were trying to kill [him], and [he] was only saved by a ninja couple after being pushed from a 60-storey cancer hospital".

He later claims to be "as deep a believer in science, and the truth-respecting values that created it, as [he] ever was". But he wishes to tell of this "world beyond the body", and has written a book about his experience, titled Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife.

Well, what can we make of all that?

Being somewhat old and computer-illiterate, and not having the time to investigate, I have no knowledge of this man's upbringing, or his religious beliefs, or anything about him but this article. But I do know my own upbringing, and have knowledge of more than half a dozen NDEs which I have personally experienced myself. Not the same as his, but NDEs nevertheless. Allow me to comment on his story by using my own as an example.

I was raised a strict and obedient Roman Catholic in the 1950s and early 1960s, but eschewed religion in my early teens when my brain matured enough to begin to reason and question things. I read extensively about religion, about science and nature, about "the world, the universe, and everything". My curiosity was unbounded. I still read extensively and subscribe to numerous journals of science and skepticism.

In my late twenties I began to experience irregular heartbeats. These occurred with increasing frequency, and sometimes led to 'brown-outs'. My condition was not diagnosed for a number of years, during which time I had several NDEs. As Alexander says, "most NDEs are the result of momentary cardiac arrest". The heart stops pumping blood to the brain which, deprived of oxygen, becomes unable to "support consciousness". My own case was slightly different, in that my heart did not stop beating, but would beat either very rapidly or irregularly and slowly. In both these situations, pumping is very inefficient, and the result to the brain is the same - lack of oxygen. Which is why I had the brown-outs. I never had a complete blackout.

But my NDEs were not these. It is likely, however, that the brown-outs were the cause. My NDEs were quite different, and always occurred when I was alone late at night watching television. On a number of occasions I felt myself leaving my body and floating up into the air behind myself, up to the ceiling above a bookshelf in the corner of the room. From there I would watch myself watching the TV for a few moments, before floating back down and re-entering my body. At first frightening, these experiences became pleasurable, and I actually looked forward to the next one.

Of course, I could not normally bring them on at will, but on one occasion after re-entering my body, I did. I wanted it to continue, and immediately left my body again for the ceiling. How that happened, I cannot explain.

I am myself a medical doctor, was an academic for 20 years (which included that period of NDEs) involved in neuromuscular research. Some of the research on which I have collaborated was published in Nature, with a cover photograph, and revisited in their "Ten Years Later" column, again with a photograph.

I reasoned that the cause of my experiences was the lack of blood to the brain and subsequent biochemical disturbances to the electrochemical processes at the synapses between my brain cells. Very much the same as Alexander reasons regarding his NDE, and probably the obvious and correct explanations. Unlike him, I did not turn to supernatural explanations.

Some time afterwards I was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a condition involving an additional electrical pathway in the heart, which produces inefficient heart rates and pump function. This extra pathway was destroyed by radio-ablation surgery. I have never had the heart problems since. I have never had NDEs since. I miss them. But I often think of how close to death I may have been!

In an interesting coincidence, I have also experienced (on another occasion, during a different illness) vivid paranoid delusions like Alexander's. Not from meningitis, but from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus septicaemia (MRSA) - 'Golden Staph blood poisoning' - and a spinal abscess. I spent two months in a hospital bed and a further two-and-a-half months in rehabilitation. As in Alexander's case, the first seven days were the most interesting ones. I was obviously delirious, and had paranoid delusions as did Alexander. My delusions were, I think, more interesting than his. Unlike Alexander, I had no meningeal infection, although I did have bacteria coursing through my brain.

I was in a major, multistorey, tertiary teaching hospital in the city. Because of the dangers of spreading MRSA to others, I was in an isolated room at the end of a ward, on IV antibiotics, with strict antiseptic procedures in place. Yet, in my delirium, I imagined I was in a closet barely large enough to contain my bed, and people could walk through my room to access another larger room which in turn led to the outside. And this was all controlled by an Asian cartel dealing drugs. Just outside the ward was a cannabis plantation, and every day a car would drive up to collect the drugs. The nursing staff were involved also, and would take customers through my room to the other for their deals. I was in severe pain, but they would not give me my opiate medication because they were selling that too. I feared for my life lest they thought I would give their game away. One of the nurses had a daughter who would arrive every evening for her dinner (which was mine, which I could not eat because I was lying on my back, absolutely flat and still, because I could not move from the pain). The child would then spend the night sleeping in the adjacent room, and leave for school the next morning. I lost 22kg in weight during my hospitalisation.

Eventually, I was moved to another ward, and as the IV antibiotics exerted their effects, I came out of this delirium, my brain recovered, and I became lucid again. I still had not recovered physically. I had numerous visits from relatives, friends, and hospital staff during that period, none of which I could remember afterwards. But I could remember my delusions. The brain works in mysterious ways.

Unlike Alexander though, I think I reached the correct conclusions regarding my brain function. Quite simply, biochemical and electrophysiological abnormalities account for these experiences - both the NDEs and the delusions. These abnormalities, although very basic and simple in themselves, lead to extremely complex neuronal interactions and disordered brain function. Being an atheist, I cannot entertain a supernatural explanation. These experiences have not been sufficient for me to do that, because there is a genuine logical and non-supernatural explanation.

I suppose those with a religious bent would try to harmonise such experiences in that light. If they also had some scientific-medical background, they could try to reconcile their beliefs. But the two are not compatible. Alexander is not consistent, in stating at one stage that he had "a complete absence of neural activity" and yet claiming that he "remained fully conscious" during that period. And further on he talks about his mind regaining consciousness and remembering his "vivid paranoid nightmare". He also states that the only neural activity in his brain was in the "deepest, most primitive portions". He presumably means the subcortical regions of the brain stem responsible for the maintenance of life - not the production or memory of dreams.

I have no such delusions about my own situation. I am sure that thousands of people have had experiences similar to those described. But we haven't necessarily had any such epiphany as Alexander had.

Alan Moskwa lives in Joslin South Australia. This article was originally published in the Australian Skeptic.