{"id":3448,"date":"2012-10-10T07:29:49","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T11:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/?p=3448"},"modified":"2012-10-10T07:29:49","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T11:29:49","slug":"why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html","title":{"rendered":"Why a Neurosurgeon Believes Heaven is Real"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/agree-terms.php?id=10037028\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3451\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2012\/10\/heaven.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"266\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a>Imagine\u00a0floating above clouds,witnessing transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky&#8230;leaving long, streamer like lines behind them.<\/p>\n<p>That was the experience of a reputable neurosurgeon, who taught at Harvard Medical School, while in a coma. He believes he visited heaven.\u00a0Dr. Alexander\u2019s neuroscience career taught him that near-death experiences are brain-based illusions, but his own journey changed his beliefs. A Christian by name, but not a person who held deep faith, his near death experience opened his eyes to a new reality&#8211;the home of God.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, Dr. Eben Alexander, fell in to a meningitis-induced coma for seven days. From a scientific point of view, the coma made it impossible for him to experience even limited consciousness. But something happened that took him beyond scientific understanding. He experienced the afterlife and chronicled that experience in a new book, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Proof-of-Heaven-ebook\/dp\/B008AK8FHM\" target=\"_blank\">Proof of Heaven<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This story caught my eye because it speaks to the possibility of holding deeply religious beliefs as a scientist. \u00a0If one truly believes that God created all things, then scientific discovery becomes man&#8217;s way of learning what God designed. In other words,\u00a0science will only discover what God has created. A lack of scientific explanation may indicate our limited ability to completely understand the complexity of our Creator.<\/p>\n<p>I am reminded of the story of Job. God shows up during Job&#8217;s troubles. He doesn&#8217;t enlighten Job but allows Job to know how little he really knows. He reminds Job that his view of the universe is very limited. As author, Philip Yancey notes, we need faith most at the precise moment it seems impossible. Job, through his suffering, learned that God cared about him intimately, and that God rules the world&#8211;a message that perhaps Dr. Alexander learned as well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine\u00a0floating above clouds,witnessing transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky&#8230;leaving long, streamer like lines behind them. That was the experience of a reputable neurosurgeon, who taught at Harvard Medical School, while in a coma. He believes he visited heaven.\u00a0Dr. Alexander\u2019s neuroscience career taught him that near-death experiences are brain-based illusions, but his own journey changed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[916],"tags":[527,1730,1727,729,235,1728,444,860,1732,1731,1729],"class_list":["post-3448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god-relationship","tag-afterlife","tag-coma","tag-dr-eben-alexander","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-harvard-medical-school","tag-heaven","tag-job","tag-limited-view-of-god","tag-near-death-experience","tag-neurosurgeon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why a Neurosurgeon Believes Heaven is Real<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why a Neurosurgeon Believes Heaven is Real\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imagine\u00a0floating above clouds,witnessing transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky&#8230;leaving long, streamer like lines behind them. That was the experience of a reputable neurosurgeon, who taught at Harvard Medical School, while in a coma. He believes he visited heaven.\u00a0Dr. Alexander\u2019s neuroscience career taught him that near-death experiences are brain-based illusions, but his own journey changed&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-10T11:29:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2012\/10\/heaven.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why a Neurosurgeon Believes Heaven is Real","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why a Neurosurgeon Believes Heaven is Real","og_description":"Imagine\u00a0floating above clouds,witnessing transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky&#8230;leaving long, streamer like lines behind them. That was the experience of a reputable neurosurgeon, who taught at Harvard Medical School, while in a coma. He believes he visited heaven.\u00a0Dr. Alexander\u2019s neuroscience career taught him that near-death experiences are brain-based illusions, but his own journey changed&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2012-10-10T11:29:49+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2012\/10\/heaven.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html","name":"Why a Neurosurgeon Believes Heaven is Real","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2012\/10\/heaven.jpg","datePublished":"2012-10-10T11:29:49+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-10T11:29:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2012\/10\/heaven.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2012\/10\/heaven.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/10\/why-a-neurosurgeon-believes-heaven-is-real.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why a Neurosurgeon Believes Heaven is Real"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice &amp; Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3448"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3455,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions\/3455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}