But the conclusions people make based on their personal experiences, those make me skeptical like a Sports Authority employee selling a treadmill to Chris Christie. I wrote a post about how personal experiences don't bring us any closer to the truth about God and ultimate reality. Near-death experiences are no exception.
A friend encouraged me to read Dr. Eben Alexander's book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife. It's a doctor's first-hand account of his own near-death experience while he was in a coma for seven days.
After recovering and recording his experiences, he began researching near-death experiences. "Though no two NDEs [near-death experiences] are exactly alike, I discovered early on that there is a very consistent list of typical features that they contain." But the fact that no two NDEs are the same is the beginning of the disproof of his proof of heaven.
If NDEs were proof of a particular belief system, then all NDEs would have to be very similar. If after we die we all go to McDonalds, then everybody who has an NDE better see a chubby guy with a half-tucked-in shirt and a name tag that says "Manager." If even one person has an NDE in which they are offered Doritos Locos Tacos, then the inductive, experience-based proof of McDonalds-after-death is invalid.
Even if everyone who had an NDE had the exact same experience, consistency of experience among the near-dead isn't enough to prove whether or not something (like heaven or McDonalds) is real. People who take the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca report a consistent list of hallucinations. They regularly see jaguars and snakes. But no one contends that the stoner confronted with the jaguar and/or snake has encountered an actual jaguar and/or snake. What it does seem to signify is that brains in a similar states (ayahuasca trips) report similar perceptions (snakes and jaguars).
In Chapter 24, Dr. Alexander's describes what he calls his post-coma "ICU psychosis." He went nutballs immediately following his coma and near-death experience. After waking up he saw Russian and Chinese emails in the air in his hospital room. "I became obsessed with an ugly background of 'Internet messages' that would show up whenever I closed my eyes, and that sometimes appeared on the ceiling when they were open." And for a stretch of time he was convinced that his wife and his physicians were trying to kill him.*
Due to qualitative reasons, Dr. Alexander believes that his waking delirium did not reflect reality, but he holds tightly to the truth, validity, and memory of his NDE - the NDE felt realer than the ICU psychosis. Everyone agrees that he was not experiencing reality when he was seeing Chinese internet messages on the ceiling, yet many are convinced that he truly experienced heaven as he flew through the air upon vast fluttering waves of butterflies next to "a beautiful girl with high cheekbones and deep blue eyes."
I trust that Dr. Alexander's NDE did in fact feel realer than the ICU psychosis, but feelings of realness don't substantiate the truth of subjective, personal, inner experiences.
But even if I take Dr. Alexander's word for it, and believe he really went to heaven, that doesn't do much to alter my agnosticism (my "doubting atheism").
The heaven Dr. Alexander visited was a universalist picture of the afterlife: no hell, no judgment. The message Dr. Alexander received during his NDE and summarized multiple times in his book was, "You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong." The easiest theological interpretation of this is that everybody is loved, no one has anything to fear, and no one can do anything wrong. That's universalism, and I'm okay with universalism.
Listen. If God does exist and knows everything I've ever done, thought, said, and felt, and he still loves me deeply, dearly and forever, that would be awesome. I hope that's for real. I don't believe there's enough evidence to support it, but I hope it's for real.
Another interpretation Dr. Alexander's message of love and comfort is that it was intended specifically for him and not necessarily for the rest of us. Maybe if I had a near-death experience God would tell me, "You're tolerated and mediocre. You're afraid of dogs. You can't do anything right."
But this more exclusivist interpretation this still doesn't line up with most Christian traditions. Dr. Alexander had no reason to expect favorable treatment from God. He was not a committed Christian prior to his near-death experience. He was sort of raised Christian, he was married in an Episcopal church, and he attended church only on Christmas and Easter. Regardless, as he explains in his book, he had pretty much written off the idea of God's existence.
His experience could be explained by Calvinism: despite himself, he was chosen by God, predestined unto salvation. And I'm cool with Calvinism. If God has chosen some people for glory and others for hell, there's nothing I can do about it other than hope I'm one of lucky ones. Doesn't seem fair, but God doesn't necessarily need to be fair.
Assured salvation (once saved always saved) could also explain Dr. Alexander's NDE. Many Christians believe that once a person comes to Jesus in a true act of repentance, that person is guaranteed admittance into heaven and escape from hell. Maybe Dr. Alexander repented and came to Christ as a child, and was therefore permanently put on God's good list. I'm probably covered too if this is true. I followed Christ wholeheartedly for 20 years despite persistent doubts, so I should be good. Still seems unfair to atheists who weren't lucky enough to convert for awhile.
Mormonism could also explain the NDE. Mormonism is similar to universalism in that Mormons believe that everybody is going to one of three degrees of heaven (except apostates who go to outer darkness - a Mormon version of hell). Maybe Dr. Alexander was checking out the Terrestrial or Telestial level. I'm cool with Mormonism because if it's true I get to go to a pretty sweet place. Maybe not the best place, but still pretty fucking sweet.
Dr. Alexander's proof of heaven doesn't align easily with established religious thought (for example, Jesus was nowhere in his vision of heaven). As a result, many religious people, like this guy, reject his experience as false. Interpreting Dr. Alexander's NDE isn't an atheist vs. theist issue. It's more like Dr. Alexander's experience vs. any worldview that runs contrary to Dr. Alexander's experience.
Finally, what if Dr. Alexander is just full of shit? Like I said, I tend to believe people's personal experiences, but there's a chance that the dude is just plain lying.
Check out this interesting passage from Chapter 30:
Another NDE author, the young Alex Malarkey who co-authored the book The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, recently made an official statement saying,
Look at NDE stories from a fraud triangle perspective. The fraud triangle suggests that three things need to be present for a normal person to commit fraud: opportunity, incentive, and rationalization.
The opportunity to lie about an NDE exists for anyone who almost died. No one can fact-check their statements. At best people could look for inconsistencies, and inconsistencies can be explained by saying that we are limited to human language to express things that are beyond our ability to communicate.
There's incentive to lie about having an NDE. The NDE book market is hot, and your book could be made into a feature film. Fame and fortune are available to people with near-death experiences; fame and fortune came to Dr. Alexander.
Lying about NDEs can be rationalized pretty easily, too. Dr. Alexander expressed a wonderful, even charitable, rationalization above. His lie could soften the bunt-force trauma of inevitable death.
I'm not saying that Dr. Alexander's story is a fraud. But I am saying that it could be.
One last thing. Dr. Alexander explains that his experience occurred while his noecortex was shut down. This is the closest he comes to proof. His reasoning goes something like this:
NDEs are extremely interesting. However, they aren't proof of heaven. But they don't disprove heaven, either. They're just fascinating experiences. Like seeing Russian email messages on the ceiling or hallucinating about jaguars and snakes.
*Immediately before coming out of his coma, his wife and his doctor were discussing pulling the plug on him. So although they were no longer considering killing him, his paranoia may have been the best substantiated of all his strange experiences.
**Upon closer inspection, it's hard to tell from his letter whether he's saying that he lied about his experience, or if he's saying that he now rejects his NDE because it doesn't fit comfortably with his current conception of Christianity.
A friend encouraged me to read Dr. Eben Alexander's book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife. It's a doctor's first-hand account of his own near-death experience while he was in a coma for seven days.
After recovering and recording his experiences, he began researching near-death experiences. "Though no two NDEs [near-death experiences] are exactly alike, I discovered early on that there is a very consistent list of typical features that they contain." But the fact that no two NDEs are the same is the beginning of the disproof of his proof of heaven.
If NDEs were proof of a particular belief system, then all NDEs would have to be very similar. If after we die we all go to McDonalds, then everybody who has an NDE better see a chubby guy with a half-tucked-in shirt and a name tag that says "Manager." If even one person has an NDE in which they are offered Doritos Locos Tacos, then the inductive, experience-based proof of McDonalds-after-death is invalid.
Even if everyone who had an NDE had the exact same experience, consistency of experience among the near-dead isn't enough to prove whether or not something (like heaven or McDonalds) is real. People who take the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca report a consistent list of hallucinations. They regularly see jaguars and snakes. But no one contends that the stoner confronted with the jaguar and/or snake has encountered an actual jaguar and/or snake. What it does seem to signify is that brains in a similar states (ayahuasca trips) report similar perceptions (snakes and jaguars).
In Chapter 24, Dr. Alexander's describes what he calls his post-coma "ICU psychosis." He went nutballs immediately following his coma and near-death experience. After waking up he saw Russian and Chinese emails in the air in his hospital room. "I became obsessed with an ugly background of 'Internet messages' that would show up whenever I closed my eyes, and that sometimes appeared on the ceiling when they were open." And for a stretch of time he was convinced that his wife and his physicians were trying to kill him.*
Due to qualitative reasons, Dr. Alexander believes that his waking delirium did not reflect reality, but he holds tightly to the truth, validity, and memory of his NDE - the NDE felt realer than the ICU psychosis. Everyone agrees that he was not experiencing reality when he was seeing Chinese internet messages on the ceiling, yet many are convinced that he truly experienced heaven as he flew through the air upon vast fluttering waves of butterflies next to "a beautiful girl with high cheekbones and deep blue eyes."
I trust that Dr. Alexander's NDE did in fact feel realer than the ICU psychosis, but feelings of realness don't substantiate the truth of subjective, personal, inner experiences.
But even if I take Dr. Alexander's word for it, and believe he really went to heaven, that doesn't do much to alter my agnosticism (my "doubting atheism").
The heaven Dr. Alexander visited was a universalist picture of the afterlife: no hell, no judgment. The message Dr. Alexander received during his NDE and summarized multiple times in his book was, "You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong." The easiest theological interpretation of this is that everybody is loved, no one has anything to fear, and no one can do anything wrong. That's universalism, and I'm okay with universalism.
Listen. If God does exist and knows everything I've ever done, thought, said, and felt, and he still loves me deeply, dearly and forever, that would be awesome. I hope that's for real. I don't believe there's enough evidence to support it, but I hope it's for real.
Another interpretation Dr. Alexander's message of love and comfort is that it was intended specifically for him and not necessarily for the rest of us. Maybe if I had a near-death experience God would tell me, "You're tolerated and mediocre. You're afraid of dogs. You can't do anything right."
But this more exclusivist interpretation this still doesn't line up with most Christian traditions. Dr. Alexander had no reason to expect favorable treatment from God. He was not a committed Christian prior to his near-death experience. He was sort of raised Christian, he was married in an Episcopal church, and he attended church only on Christmas and Easter. Regardless, as he explains in his book, he had pretty much written off the idea of God's existence.
His experience could be explained by Calvinism: despite himself, he was chosen by God, predestined unto salvation. And I'm cool with Calvinism. If God has chosen some people for glory and others for hell, there's nothing I can do about it other than hope I'm one of lucky ones. Doesn't seem fair, but God doesn't necessarily need to be fair.
Assured salvation (once saved always saved) could also explain Dr. Alexander's NDE. Many Christians believe that once a person comes to Jesus in a true act of repentance, that person is guaranteed admittance into heaven and escape from hell. Maybe Dr. Alexander repented and came to Christ as a child, and was therefore permanently put on God's good list. I'm probably covered too if this is true. I followed Christ wholeheartedly for 20 years despite persistent doubts, so I should be good. Still seems unfair to atheists who weren't lucky enough to convert for awhile.
Mormonism could also explain the NDE. Mormonism is similar to universalism in that Mormons believe that everybody is going to one of three degrees of heaven (except apostates who go to outer darkness - a Mormon version of hell). Maybe Dr. Alexander was checking out the Terrestrial or Telestial level. I'm cool with Mormonism because if it's true I get to go to a pretty sweet place. Maybe not the best place, but still pretty fucking sweet.
Dr. Alexander's proof of heaven doesn't align easily with established religious thought (for example, Jesus was nowhere in his vision of heaven). As a result, many religious people, like this guy, reject his experience as false. Interpreting Dr. Alexander's NDE isn't an atheist vs. theist issue. It's more like Dr. Alexander's experience vs. any worldview that runs contrary to Dr. Alexander's experience.
Finally, what if Dr. Alexander is just full of shit? Like I said, I tend to believe people's personal experiences, but there's a chance that the dude is just plain lying.
Check out this interesting passage from Chapter 30:
I'd always believed that when you're under the burden of a potentially fatal illness, softening the truth is fine. To prevent a terminal patient from trying to grab on to a little fantasy to help them deal with the possibility of death is like withholding painkilling medication.Maybe he's doing the same thing here. Every human being is under the burden of certain death. Could Dr. Alexander be purposely "softening the truth" and giving us a little fantasy to hold onto?
Another NDE author, the young Alex Malarkey who co-authored the book The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, recently made an official statement saying,
I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.Alex wrote this in an open letter after his book had already sold over a million copies. He was six years old when he was hit by a car and slipped into a coma, he was nine when the book was published, and he's now a teenager, paralyzed from the neck down. And he admits that his story was a lie.**
Look at NDE stories from a fraud triangle perspective. The fraud triangle suggests that three things need to be present for a normal person to commit fraud: opportunity, incentive, and rationalization.
The opportunity to lie about an NDE exists for anyone who almost died. No one can fact-check their statements. At best people could look for inconsistencies, and inconsistencies can be explained by saying that we are limited to human language to express things that are beyond our ability to communicate.
There's incentive to lie about having an NDE. The NDE book market is hot, and your book could be made into a feature film. Fame and fortune are available to people with near-death experiences; fame and fortune came to Dr. Alexander.
Lying about NDEs can be rationalized pretty easily, too. Dr. Alexander expressed a wonderful, even charitable, rationalization above. His lie could soften the bunt-force trauma of inevitable death.
I'm not saying that Dr. Alexander's story is a fraud. But I am saying that it could be.
One last thing. Dr. Alexander explains that his experience occurred while his noecortex was shut down. This is the closest he comes to proof. His reasoning goes something like this:
- As a neurosurgeon, I am certain that my neocortex was completely shut down.
- If consciousness comes from the physical processes of the neocortex, it would have been impossible for me to experience consciousness while my neocortex was shut down.
- I did experience consciousness while my neocortex was shut down.
- Therefore, consciousness emanates from somewhere other than the physical brain.
- Therefore, we are not merely physical creatures.
NDEs are extremely interesting. However, they aren't proof of heaven. But they don't disprove heaven, either. They're just fascinating experiences. Like seeing Russian email messages on the ceiling or hallucinating about jaguars and snakes.
*Immediately before coming out of his coma, his wife and his doctor were discussing pulling the plug on him. So although they were no longer considering killing him, his paranoia may have been the best substantiated of all his strange experiences.
**Upon closer inspection, it's hard to tell from his letter whether he's saying that he lied about his experience, or if he's saying that he now rejects his NDE because it doesn't fit comfortably with his current conception of Christianity.
