CyberWeave:
Spirituality and the Internet By Mary Montgomery
A Neurosurgeon’s NDE Continued: Consciousness Gives Rise to the Physical
Dr. Eben Alexander Part 2: My February Cyberweave column started the in-depth exploration of neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander’s (
www.lifebeyonddeath.net) presentation at the 20th Anniversary Conference of the International Association for Near- Death Studies (IANDS, http://iands. org) on Labor Day weekend, 2011. Dr. Alexander’s talk, “Childhood’s End,” included a subsequent scientifi c analysis of what he calls the most diffi cult question facing modern science: the profound nature of consciousness. Part 1 of my Cyberweave exploration described Dr. Alexander’s actual NDE and included YouTube and interview links. If you missed it in the February issue of The Monthly Aspectarian, you can check out Part 1 at the Lightworks website (www.
lightworks.com) and click on the link to the February issue of The Monthly Aspectarian. The Cyberweave column is on page 47. And if Dr. Eben Alexander Part 2 really piques your interest, you may want to see and hear him in person on March 10th, 2–5 p.m., at the monthly meeting of Chicago IANDS at the Frank Auditorium in Evanston Hospital, 2650 Ridge Ave. (at Central) in Evanston, Illinois (details at
www.chicagoiands.org). In a nutshell, Dr. Eben Alexander is
a neurosurgeon whose NDE radically shifted him away from his previous material reductionist neuroscientifi c viewpoint to the belief that consciousness gives rise to the brain and to physical reality. Following Dr. Alexander’s NDE, came the realization that his experiences while in deep coma confl icted with his neuroscientifi c knowledge. This confl ict became part
of the transformative process that also included the lessons Dr. Alexander learned during his NDE and the scientifi c conclusions that he reached.
The Lessons:
Love vs. Evil We who study consciousness and beyond have heard over and over about the importance of love. Dr. Alexander’s NDE also emphasized the importance of love. But he also addresses the existence of Evil, which in his NDE appeared as a trace constituent. In his words:
“And it was very clear in what they were showing me, that love was a tremendous part of the constituent[s] of all of being. That it was not as if we had good versus evil and the great battle coming up. The love of the creator was everywhere and evil was there as a trace constituent, because, of course, without the evil there could not be the good. So it was the simple fact of the opposites. But, to answer Einstein’s question ... the universe was absolutely this totally beautiful love throughout. And I remember the appearance of evil. It was as if, looking at it from the outside, these tiny little specks, kind of bluish- black specks, and they were there, but it was only because that was the part that allowed the good to exist and also had a lot to do with what the ultimate purpose is of our souls ... facing up to that evil and doing the right thing in this imperfect and sometimes unjust world that does have evil in it. But it was all so clear and that was one of the most fundamental lessons.”
The Power of Love
Although that evil does exist, it does not have the deep power of love. In his words:
“From the neuroscientifi c standpoint, that incredibly powerful love that is there at the very foundation of our existence was very hard to explain. And initially I was looking at it as a physical law, even more fundamental than gravity ... But I really saw that love is at the very, very basis of it all.
The Power of Loving Prayer Dr. Alexander talks about being billowed up by loving prayer whenever he fell back into what he calls “earthworm eye view” of his barely functioning brain. These prayers helped him go back into the Gateway and Core of the spiritual realm. In his words: “And at that point I was being billowed up on these beautiful, bright clouds and what I saw were arcs of people going off into the distance below me and they were all kneeling and heads bowed and ... there was this murmuring and there were these clouds, these beautiful clouds full of this love billowing me back up. Of course, I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but in looking back on it, it was clear to me that these were people praying for my safety and my return.” As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Alexander recognizes that prayer does not necessarily cure patients or bring them back from the brink of death. “I have spent much time with patients with malignant brain tumors and very bad brain disorders, wonderful families and lots of prayer and the patient did not come back,” he points out. “But, what I
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