A doctor who claims to have visited 'heaven' while he was in a coma has shared his remarkable experience.
Dr. Eben Alexander, an American neurosurgeon and author, felt 'reborn' after waking up when doctors were considering ending his life support.
In November 2008, Dr. Alexander's life changed when he began suffering from a 'searing headache' while working at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia.
"Within a few hours, I went into a coma: my neocortex, the part of the brain that handles all the thought processes making us human, had shut down completely," he explained.
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It was determined by his doctors that bacterial meningitis was severely damaging his brain so they induced a coma to help his recovery.
His chances of survival were little to none.
"Scans showed no conscious activity whatever - my brain was not malfunctioning, it was completely unplugged. But my inner self still existed, in defiance of all the known laws of science," Dr. Alexander later wrote.
He soon had proof that most things he believed about the physical realm were 'wrong.'
He said: "For seven days, as I lay in that unresponsive coma, my consciousness went on a voyage through a series of realms, each one more extraordinary than the last - a journey beyond the physical world and one that, until then, I would certainly have dismissed as impossible."
The doctor recalled feeling like he was in a 'primitive, primordial state that felt like being buried in Earth' but he was aware of this despite hearing and seeing other 'entities'.
Alexander described: "After an expanse of time had passed, though I can't begin to guess how long, a light came slowly down from above, throwing off marvellous filaments of living silver and golden effulgence.
"It was a circular entity, emitting a beautiful, heavenly music that I called the Spinning Melody.
"The light opened up like a rip in the fabric of that coarse realm, and I felt myself going through the rip, up into a valley full of lush and fertile greenery, where waterfalls flowed into crystal pools.
"There were clouds, like marshmallow puffs of pink and white. Behind them, the sky was a rich blue-black.
"This world was not vague," he said. "It was deeply, piercingly alive, and as vivid as the aroma of fried chicken, as dazzling as the glint of sunlight off the metalwork of a car, and as startling as the impact of first love."
He found paradise, wanting to explore it further.
Dr. Alexander describes heaven as being as 'vast, various and populated as Earth', but 'nothing is isolated, alienated or disconnected' there, stating: "Everything is one."
In this paradise, he encountered a powerful deity, referred to as Om, who provided comfort and love beyond earthly understanding.
"I'd never seen this woman before. I didn't know who she was," he said.
"Yet her presence was enough to heal my heart, to make me whole in a way I'd never known was possible. Her face was unforgettable."
He described feeling an 'abundance of emotion that, if nothing good had ever happened to me before, the whole of my life would have been worth living for that expression in her eyes alone.'
Although he reported it not being romantic nor platonic love, their connection was 'far beyond all the different compartments of love we have on Earth.'
She reassured Alexander that he was loved, cherished and had nothing to fear, making his experience feel 'utterly wonderful.'
Meanwhile, back on Earth, he'd been in a coma for a week and showed no signs of improvement. It wasn't until the doctors considered turning off Dr. Alexander's life support that he suddenly regained consciousness.
"My eyes just popped open, and I was back. I had no memories of my earthly life but knew full well where I had been," he explained. "I had to relearn everything: who, what, and where I was.
"[...] That full recovery remains a miracle without any explanation from modern medicine."