0:00

Welcome to Nobody Told

0:02

Me. I'm Laura Owens.

0:04

And I'm Jan Black.

0:06

And we are extremely

0:08

honored to

0:18

welcome neurosurgeon Dr. Evan Alexander as

0:20

our guest on this episode. Dr.

0:22

Alexander is the author of several

0:25

books stemming from his own miraculous

0:27

near-death experience, including the

0:29

number one New York Times bestseller, Proof

0:31

of Heaven, a Neurosurgeon's Journey into

0:34

the Afterlife. Dr. we thank you

0:36

so very much for joining us. Well,

0:39

it's a great pleasure to be here, Laura and Jan.

0:41

Thank you so much for having me on. You

0:44

have said that in some

0:46

ways you experienced the perfect

0:49

storm of near-death experiences. Tell

0:51

us about that. I

0:53

think it's important to point out

0:55

that certainly as a neuroscientist and

0:57

from a scientific perspective, my

1:00

case brings a tremendous amount to the

1:02

table. And that really came to the

1:04

fore, not only with my

1:07

reviewing the medical records and putting them out

1:09

there in the booklet of,

1:11

you know, Proof of Heaven, but also a

1:14

recent case report on my medical records that

1:16

came out in the Journal of Nervous and

1:18

Mental Diseases in September of 2018. And that

1:20

was written by

1:23

three physicians who were

1:25

astonished by my recovery, which really

1:27

has no explanation in Western medicine.

1:29

And that's why they reviewed the

1:31

medical records. In fact, when the

1:33

peer reviewers of that medical

1:36

journal asked them, well, how do you

1:38

explain this miraculous recovery? They basically said,

1:40

based on their own experience, that there

1:42

were other cases of profound, inexplicable

1:45

healing after a near-death

1:48

experience where people had tremendous

1:50

physical healing from whatever ailed

1:52

them. And that's, I

1:54

think, why it is such a gift. I mean,

1:57

there's so many other cases

1:59

that have been had near-death experiences but

2:01

without quite the same documentation

2:03

of all the damage to the

2:06

brain and the impossibility that

2:08

that brain could harbor any

2:10

kind of dream or hallucination

2:13

or confabulation. And that

2:15

really was the evidence they had in my case. And

2:17

this is something I surmised early

2:19

on. And that's

2:21

why it's such a shocker

2:23

because it's just a step

2:25

is very hard to refute

2:27

with the typical pseudo-explanations

2:30

that come out of medical science,

2:32

trying to refute such cases

2:35

and just pretend that they're vast

2:37

hallucinations. The hard evidence

2:39

in my case makes it very difficult to

2:41

make those kind of claims. And I think

2:43

that's why it's so valuable to

2:46

the scientific community. What

2:49

exactly happened to you on November 10th,

2:51

2008, for people who aren't familiar with

2:53

your story? Because it's just, it's

2:55

insane. Well,

2:58

looking back on it, it actually was

3:00

a tremendous gift. I mean, astonishing.

3:03

But you're right. When I was going through

3:05

it, it was absolutely insane and very,

3:08

very frightening for my family. I think

3:10

it's important to point out that before

3:12

that time, I'd spent 54 years of

3:15

my life owning a very kind of

3:17

conventional scientific worldview. I had been a

3:20

professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical

3:22

School and other institutions. Thought I

3:24

understood brain mind consciousness. And

3:27

that's when everything shifted. I woke up

3:29

early the morning of November 10th,

3:32

2008 with horrific back pain. Soon

3:34

realized I had a terrible headache.

3:37

And it was soon after that that I

3:39

was having grand mal seizures that were unbreakable

3:41

and we couldn't come. And that's when my

3:43

family called the EMTs

3:46

to come pick, you know,

3:48

take me off to the emergency room and very

3:52

fortunate there that the doctors took very good

3:54

care of me, realized quickly I might have

3:56

meningitis, did a lumbar puncture, alkane thick white

3:59

plus under pressure. And then

4:01

they put me on three powerful, intravenous antibiotics

4:03

on a ventilator, up on

4:05

medical ICU, where I languished for the

4:07

next seven days. Now, languished

4:10

is what my body was doing. That's

4:12

not what my spiritual

4:14

essence and mind were doing. In fact,

4:16

I was liberated from the shackles of

4:18

the physical brain and body into

4:21

this robust, ultra-real world,

4:24

again, in what I call the earthworm's

4:26

eye view, very primitive, coarse, unresponsive, kind

4:28

of subterranean realm. But I

4:30

was rescued from that slowly spinning

4:32

white light that came with a

4:34

perfect musical melody and ushered me

4:37

up into a brilliant, ultra-real gateway

4:39

valley that had many earth-like features,

4:42

like I was a speck of awareness

4:44

on a butterfly wing. There was beautiful,

4:46

lush plant life in this meadow down

4:49

below, and thousands of beings were dancing

4:51

in that meadow, all fueled because up

4:53

above were the swooping orbs of angelic

4:55

choirs that were emanating chants and anthems

4:58

and hymns that just thundered

5:00

through my awareness. There

5:02

was a beautiful guardian angel there on

5:04

the butterfly wing. Those who read proof

5:06

of heaven will remember her, extreme importance

5:08

in this whole journey. Even though she

5:10

was very mystifying to me in the

5:13

weeks after my coma, trying to make

5:15

sense of it all. But

5:17

then months later, when I

5:19

received a certain picture in the mail, I

5:21

realized exactly who that beautiful girl on

5:24

the butterfly wing was. Now, deep in

5:26

the middle of the journey, her

5:28

appearance to me was very comforting, and she gave

5:30

me the message that I think was fundamental message

5:33

I was to bring back to this world. You

5:35

were deeply loved and cherished forever. You

5:37

have nothing to fear. You

5:39

will be taken care of. This is a universal

5:41

message for all of us. And

5:44

it turns out that in my

5:46

coma journey, that was just

5:48

a stepping stone, because then those

5:50

angelic choirs provided yet another musical

5:52

portal to higher and higher levels.

5:55

Until all of four dimensional space time and

5:57

collapsed down the entire multiverse, about all of

5:59

us. of eternity was there as

6:01

this simple teaching tool, but I

6:03

was in an ocean of pure

6:06

love of that God force. So

6:08

that so many near-death experiences, going

6:10

back thousands of years have described.

6:12

And it's really that beautiful kind

6:15

of spiritual home that

6:17

attracts us so well in spite of

6:19

our addictions to kind of materialist thinking

6:22

in this life. It's amazing how many

6:24

near-death experiences would prefer to stay in

6:27

that realm. And yet,

6:30

I chose to come back out of love and

6:34

towards the end of my journey when I could no

6:36

longer conjure up journeys into those

6:39

higher levels of the spiritual world.

6:41

I chose to come back to this world

6:44

because I witnessed six phases at the very

6:46

end. And one of them was of my

6:48

10-year-old son, Bond. Important to point out

6:50

that my entire near-death experience was in

6:52

a condition of complete amnesia for the

6:55

life of Evan Alexander. I

6:57

didn't remember any words, language, knowledge

6:59

of Earth or humans. I had

7:01

a completely empty slate. And

7:04

I believe in retrospect that that was very crucial

7:06

for some of the lessons that I

7:08

was to learn from this journey. What

7:11

was it like when you awakened

7:13

and realized you'd had this experience?

7:15

How did your mind process this

7:18

and come to terms with what

7:20

happened? It's important

7:22

to point out that amnesia

7:25

was still very much alive when I came back

7:27

to this world so that when I

7:29

first opened my eyes in the ICU room, still

7:33

on the ventilator and just barely

7:36

coming into weightfulness in this world, all

7:38

I knew was where I'd just been. My memories

7:41

of Evan Alexander's life and even

7:43

my words and language had been

7:45

dismantled at the very beginning of the

7:48

journey. And so my

7:50

mother, my sisters, my sons standing

7:52

around the bedside, I had no

7:54

idea who these beings were. That's

7:56

how shocking this whole experience was.

7:58

And of course, that was... It's

8:00

very frightening for them because the

8:02

doctors had said I went from

8:04

a 10% chance of survival at the

8:06

beginning of the week down to a 2% chance

8:08

of survival with no chance of recovery. That's

8:11

why on that Sunday morning, day seven

8:13

of coma, they had recommended stopping the

8:15

antibiotics. Yes, people were quite

8:17

surprised when I came back to this

8:20

world, but believe me, my brain was

8:22

very savaged by the experience. When

8:24

I first woke up, I was just a

8:27

disaster, completely

8:29

befuddled. All I

8:31

knew was where I'd been, and then slowly I

8:33

put the pieces back together. In fact, my words

8:35

and language returned very quickly, literally

8:38

over hours and a day or two.

8:41

Childhood memories came back over a few

8:43

weeks, and then my entire lifetime of

8:45

memories came back over about two months.

8:47

That included all my semantic knowledge of

8:49

neuroscience and cosmology and physics,

8:51

every bit of that. It was

8:54

this insane wrestling match because when I

8:56

first woke up from coma, I had

8:58

none of that neuroscientific knowledge. When

9:00

I told my doctors about what

9:03

I'd experienced, they would just pat me on the

9:05

back and say, well, you were very, very sick.

9:07

Your brain was soaking in pus. In fact, we

9:09

have no idea how you're coming back to us

9:11

now. Then

9:13

over the next few weeks, I would

9:16

go back for follow-up visits, talk it

9:18

over with my doctors, look at my

9:20

scans, CT, MR, all the lab results,

9:22

and neurologic exams, and it just didn't

9:24

line up. I was reviewing the medical

9:27

records of someone who would obviously go

9:29

on to die, never recover from illness.

9:32

That again is why the scientific world

9:34

takes this case so seriously because you

9:37

have to start with this miraculous

9:39

recovery that really has no explanation in

9:41

Western medicine. We

9:43

love having you as part of our,

9:46

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next level today. You

12:02

know, I've often wondered since I read the

12:04

book, if you feel now like

12:07

it was a blessing to wake up again,

12:09

or if you were experiencing such bliss when

12:11

you were there that you kind of

12:15

wish you'd stayed. You've come back to

12:17

so many people who've doubted you and

12:19

doubted your experience, and I would just

12:21

think that would seem like such negative

12:23

energy when you experience such beauty in

12:26

another place. Well, again,

12:28

the reality is the miracle of the recovery,

12:30

and you just cannot deny that. Once

12:33

people acknowledge the power of

12:35

that recovery in the face

12:37

of this illness that should have devastated me, then

12:40

the rest of it starts to flow. And

12:42

that's why I think that case report is

12:44

so important. And anybody who wants to look

12:46

at that case report can go to ebanalexander.com,

12:48

look at my blog postings, and specifically look

12:50

at the one from September of 2018 about

12:52

a new scientific

12:55

report that validates the medical facts of

12:57

my case. And you'll see, in

12:59

the third paragraph there, you can link directly

13:01

to that case report. But

13:03

it really is astonishing. I

13:06

think the other point to make here

13:08

is I realized when I came back

13:10

from this journey that reincarnation is absolutely

13:12

real. And yet I'd never

13:14

studied reincarnation as a scientist. I

13:16

didn't realize that there's a huge

13:18

scientific data for it. But

13:20

in my mind, I knew that

13:22

we go through many lifetimes, and

13:24

that to accomplish our soul journey

13:26

of becoming one with that divine

13:29

force at the core of the

13:31

universe takes many lifetimes. You

13:33

can't do it in just one lifetime. And

13:35

so, in other words, this issue of

13:37

coming back is

13:39

that all in the ears end

13:41

up coming back, usually out of a sense

13:44

of responsibility to those that they've left here.

13:47

But some of the deeper journeys obviously show us

13:50

that we come back again and again. That's part

13:52

of the natural order. And

13:54

for your listeners, I would steer them to

13:57

uvadops.org.

14:00

That's university of Virginia division or

14:02

perceptual studies org, but you just

14:04

need those letters UVA do PS Upward

14:06

and you'll find a tremendous wealth of

14:09

information there. That's a scientific group That's

14:11

worked out of University of Virginia for more

14:13

than six decades a tremendous

14:15

amount of work Supporting not just

14:17

non-local consciousness. That is the reality

14:20

of things like telepathy precognition

14:23

psychokinesis um Past

14:27

life memories and children indicative of reincarnation

14:30

in fact that group currently headed by

14:32

Jim Tucker originally by dr. Ian Stevenson

14:34

has basically

14:37

studied more than 2500

14:39

cases of past life memories in children where

14:42

the best explanation is of reincarnation And

14:45

you know people who haven't read that literature will

14:47

say that's crazy Reincarnation can't

14:49

be real. I don't remember past lives

14:52

and yet there's also a whole world

14:54

of transpersonal psychology That

14:56

has opened up over the last few

14:58

decades. Thanks to the work of brilliant

15:00

clinical scientists like dr. Michael Newton dr.

15:02

Brian Weiss and Dr.

15:06

Stan Groff And basically

15:08

they came to realize in doing

15:10

psychological work with their patients that

15:12

the best Explanation and understanding of

15:14

the challenges in a current lifetime

15:16

has to do with realizing that

15:19

souls have been here before and

15:21

this is a Tremendous kind of bigger

15:23

model of consciousness that's rising up

15:26

in this world today scientifically studied

15:28

and and very much supported even

15:31

At the far edges of things like quantum physics,

15:33

which is the most proven field

15:36

in the history of science all

15:38

of it pointing to the primacy of

15:40

consciousness that our brain doesn't create Consciousness

15:42

but is simply a filter

15:45

a transceiver that allows primordial

15:47

consciousness To manifest

15:49

into this physical world through these physical

15:51

bodies, but in many ways we're all

15:53

connected through that one mind And

15:56

that's an important thing to remember. This is why

15:58

the scientific evidence is so powerful

16:00

that will change this world and reinforce

16:02

this notion that we're all connected, we

16:05

all depend on each other, just like

16:07

the life review in a near-death experience

16:09

shows us that the boundaries of self

16:11

in many ways are artificial, that we're

16:13

all sharing the dream of the one

16:15

mind. And that is

16:18

where I think the modern

16:20

science, and this is something that

16:22

we discussed in great detail, not

16:24

just in Proof of Heaven in my second

16:26

book, The Map of Heaven, but especially with

16:28

my life partner and co-author of the third

16:30

book, Living in a Mindful Universe, we

16:33

talk a lot about this entire

16:35

scientific revolution that is well

16:37

on its pathway towards changing this world,

16:39

and it'll change it for the better,

16:42

because we've treated each other poorly by thinking

16:44

that we're separate. That was a teaching in

16:47

materialist science, whereas in fact,

16:49

the more quantum-informed version

16:52

of the science of consciousness shows that

16:54

we're truly all connected, and just like

16:56

in that life review, you experience

16:59

it as the emotional impact of your

17:01

actions on other people around you during

17:03

your lifetime. You don't experience it from

17:06

your perspective. That's a very

17:08

interesting feature, which really shows us that

17:10

the golden rule, treat others as you

17:12

would like to be treated, is actually

17:14

written into the very fabric of the

17:16

universe. You

17:18

said that what happened to

17:20

you while you were in that coma

17:22

is hands down the most important story

17:24

you will ever tell. I'm

17:26

wondering if you feel it's especially important for

17:29

you to share that story now when we're

17:31

in the midst of a frightening pandemic, and

17:33

people have had to say goodbye to their

17:35

dying loved ones from a distance. Absolutely.

17:39

That, in fact, is why Karen Newell

17:41

and I, again, my life

17:44

partner and founder of Sacred Acoustics,

17:46

which is a form of binaural

17:48

beat brain training for deep meditative

17:51

states, That's why we've

17:53

started an entire program that

17:55

people can access at unitedinhopeandhealing.com,

17:58

and that is to help people through this

18:01

challenge of

18:04

the COVID pandemic and a

18:06

lot of what it is teaching us. It's

18:08

the biggest challenge most of us have faced

18:10

in our lifetimes. It's probably the biggest health

18:12

challenge that the world has faced in more

18:15

than a century. And I am

18:17

very optimistic about where it's going to lead

18:19

us. People tend to get

18:21

very depressed and anxious about the destruction

18:23

of our economy and that kind of

18:25

thing, but you're exactly right. This

18:28

is just the time to remind

18:31

people of this bigger lesson. And

18:33

that's why unitedinhopeandhealing.com is

18:35

a project that involves every other

18:38

Thursday webinars that Karen and I

18:40

broadcast often with special guests to

18:42

help people deal with this COVID

18:44

pandemic. And in fact, come to

18:46

ways of seeing the silver lining

18:48

on that dark cloud, because I

18:51

fully believe that this pandemic will

18:53

help us to become much smarter,

18:55

stronger, and more connected with each

18:57

other in how we face

18:59

future pandemics and other big challenges like climate

19:02

change. This is a perfect

19:04

time to making up to this bigger role

19:06

of our souls and not get lost in

19:08

fear, especially fear that's falsely

19:10

put out there by a materialist

19:13

model, you know, of

19:15

separateness and a brain creating consciousness that

19:17

essentially was proven more than 80 years

19:19

ago through the advent

19:21

of quantum physics. So yes, you're right.

19:23

It's a tremendous time to come to

19:26

this awakening. In fact, I'm convinced that

19:28

in many ways, this COVID

19:30

pandemic is like a gift

19:32

of desperation that is collective and that

19:34

is part of our destiny. It's all

19:37

meant to be here to help us

19:39

grow into this higher soul and this

19:41

grander awareness of our existence and of

19:43

our power to influence our emerging reality.

19:46

That's what this awakening is really all

19:48

about. Like my mom said, so many

19:50

people are forced to say goodbye from

19:52

a distance to their loved ones. And

19:55

I've always really wondered, and hopefully you're

19:57

the guy to answer this, could you

19:59

feel? beloved support from the

20:01

people who were still on earth

20:03

and You know

20:06

trying to let you know they cared about you and they

20:08

loved you and were you trying to give them comfort While

20:11

you were on the other side Well

20:13

again my amnesia kind of figures

20:15

into that because the entire near-death

20:17

experience journey I had was one

20:19

where I really didn't remember my

20:21

connections of To Evan

20:23

Alexander's life and and I go into in

20:26

the three books. I talk a lot about

20:28

why that was Why in

20:31

in my mind I can make tremendous sense of it,

20:33

but I think the more important part Is

20:36

is what you were getting at earlier?

20:38

That is it is tragic that so

20:40

many souls today are having to die

20:42

alone But that is physically

20:44

alone even though of course We

20:47

have our technical adjuncts like iPads and

20:49

FaceTime and all that to connect people

20:51

It's nowhere near the same thing is

20:53

being there to hold one's hand and

20:55

to be with them physically But the

20:57

other side of the coin that I

20:59

recognize very strongly from my journey and

21:02

from talking You know with thousands

21:04

of other people who've had similar near-death

21:07

experiences shared death experiences, etc is

21:10

I can promise you no one truly

21:12

dies alone because as soon as you

21:14

start to Move from

21:16

one foot in this world and have

21:18

another foot in that other world in

21:20

that spiritual realm You're starting to be

21:23

surrounded by loved souls who have passed

21:25

to the other side and other supporting

21:27

souls and angels that are always there

21:29

for us and so no one truly

21:31

dies alone even though It

21:34

is tragic that because it's tragic I

21:36

say because of the people left behind

21:39

It's not tragic for the ones who

21:41

depart this world because they very rapidly

21:43

realize that they are surrounded by loving

21:45

souls and are bathing In an

21:47

ocean of pure love that's what near-death

21:49

Experiences have been telling us for thousands

21:51

of years about how comforting and how

21:54

much a home that spiritual realm is

21:56

But again, it's not a permanent home

21:59

It's only kind of that resting

22:01

station between lives where we reunite with

22:03

our higher soul, go through our life

22:05

review, bathe in the

22:07

loving light of that God force

22:09

of pure healing, infinitely

22:11

loving, unconditionally loving love,

22:13

and then plan for

22:16

those next incarnations, all in

22:18

this process of evolving consciousness

22:20

and growing more towards oneness

22:22

with the divine. But

22:25

it is tough on those left behind,

22:27

especially, to say goodbye to their parent

22:30

or loved one in this tragic COVID

22:32

pandemic without being there to hold their

22:34

hand and kiss them and be with

22:36

them in those final moments. But

22:38

I also promise you, we connect with

22:40

them very strongly in that mental space.

22:43

And in fact, often, loved ones

22:45

will do that on their way out. That's called a

22:47

shared death experience, where when a loved one

22:49

leaves this world, they can come

22:51

right through a soul

22:54

that is still left in a physical body

22:56

here and show them, take them along

22:59

on the journey, even to the point of witnessing

23:01

a full blown life review of that departing soul.

23:04

And then the bystander soul can come back to

23:06

this world. So in other

23:08

words, from that realm and from that perspective,

23:12

there really are not the limitations of

23:14

communication. And that's why you often hear about

23:16

these shared death experiences, or even where

23:18

people just know that their their loved one

23:21

has passed in the middle of the

23:23

night or what have you, because they

23:25

feel they come through and they know that

23:27

they have a psychic connection. And

23:29

it's not imaginary. That's

23:31

the thing. These, there are so many stories

23:33

out there. And if people who want more

23:35

proof of that, I would steer

23:37

you to the book Hello from Heaven by

23:41

Judy and Bill Guggenheim, friends of ours,

23:43

more than 3000 cases

23:45

of well documented after communications,

23:48

which is exactly the same

23:50

concept. From that spiritual realm,

23:52

we don't have to be physically in contact

23:55

to communicate. I

23:57

encountered a very similar. situation

24:00

to what you're describing when my father passed away.

24:02

So I'm a total believer

24:04

in that from a personal. Oh, it's

24:07

absolutely real. I've seen stories thousands of

24:09

times in my journeys,

24:11

traveling and talking about this. Do

24:14

you feel that you were specifically

24:16

chosen to have this experience, to

24:19

beat the odds and to be able to

24:21

share the experience in a way that those

24:23

of us who aren't neurosurgeons could never do?

24:27

No, I think near-death experiences are

24:29

always tailored to the individual. And,

24:32

you know, I was a neurosurgeon. I

24:34

was fascinated by consciousness and physics and

24:36

the nature of reality. So from

24:38

my point of view, this was simply the

24:40

journey that my soul was to go through.

24:43

And it just so happens that

24:45

occasionally, you know, once individual lessons

24:47

happen to parallel some of the

24:49

deep societal and cultural lessons that

24:51

are important in that time epic.

24:54

And so I would say that

24:56

it just so happens that it was important

24:58

that I was a

25:01

neurosurgeon to understand

25:03

this. If I'd been a truck driver and didn't

25:05

know the relevant neuroanatomy, I

25:07

could have come back for this

25:09

profound experience, tried to explain to

25:11

my doctors, they would have told me, oh, the

25:13

dying brain plays all kinds of tricks. And

25:16

I would have been tempted to let it go. But by

25:20

knowing enough to review my medical records, talk

25:22

it over with my doctors, go through all

25:24

those neurologic exams that showed my Glasgow coma

25:27

scale, which for you or me right now

25:29

would be a 15 for

25:31

a corpse, that scale would be three,

25:33

anything below nine is deep coma. And

25:35

as that case report on my medical

25:38

records points out of once

25:40

I had gotten to the ER from

25:42

that point forward, my Glasgow coma scale

25:45

was between six and seven, sometimes probably

25:47

as low as five. And

25:49

that was and especially given the CT and

25:52

MRI data showing all eight

25:54

lobes of my brain impacted by this, there's

25:56

no way you could just postulate. you

26:00

know, some kind of conscious experience, but

26:03

it took having neuroscientific knowledge to

26:05

review those medical records to realize

26:08

that the experience that I subjectively

26:10

witnessed could not be possible given

26:12

all of the tenets of our

26:15

modern neuroscientific thinking about the role

26:17

of the neocortex in constructing detailed

26:19

conscious awareness. So, no,

26:22

I wasn't chosen, but it's, you know, it

26:24

just so happens to be a lucky fact

26:26

that I understood the neuroscience

26:28

enough to realize, no, this is not,

26:30

this doesn't fit into anything that our,

26:33

you know, modern neuroscience

26:35

would claim as possible. And that's why

26:37

that case report is so important because

26:39

the only way they could

26:41

even explain it was to say that the

26:43

spiritual power of NDE played a crucial role

26:45

in helping me to survive this and come

26:47

back to this world and then recover fully.

26:50

I know, like you said, you had an

26:52

amnesia of sorts up there where

26:54

you didn't know people, but what's so crazy

26:57

in a moment in the book that really

26:59

gave me goosebumps was your guide in

27:01

heaven was your birth sister Betsy,

27:03

who you didn't even know existed

27:05

before your near-death experience. How did

27:07

you learn it was her afterwards

27:10

and what did that make you feel? That

27:13

was the really

27:15

the biggest, most heart-pounding, spine- tingling

27:19

shock I've gotten in this entire existence

27:22

is F. Ben Alexander. That was a real shocker

27:24

and of course that's how, it's

27:26

a spoiler alert here for people who

27:28

haven't read proof of heaven because that's really how that

27:31

book comes together in the end. But you

27:33

know, I had spent the four months after

27:35

my coma really deeply mystified by this. I

27:37

knew if I had scripted the whole thing

27:39

because after I wrote down all

27:42

my memories of my experience, which is roughly 20,000 words,

27:45

it took me about six weeks to write

27:47

all that, that's when I dove deeply into

27:50

the near-death experience literature and

27:52

I was shocked at all the similarities

27:54

between my journey and so many others.

27:56

To me it's crystal clear that they're

27:59

referring to very similar

28:01

journeys and realms. I mean this is

28:03

not just chaotic, hallucinatory

28:06

imagination. There's a lot more to this.

28:09

And so I was

28:11

very mystified. In many

28:13

ways I felt so cheated because all

28:16

I read about NDEs was confirming

28:18

the reality of my own. And

28:20

yet if I'd scripted it, my

28:22

father would have been the spiritual

28:24

guide and not some beautiful angel

28:27

woman who in fact, I came to

28:29

realize after all my NDE reading, had

28:31

to be somebody important to me in

28:33

my life. And I knew I remembered

28:35

her so perfectly. She had come into

28:37

my mind her very awareness. So it's

28:39

almost like we became one soul in

28:41

our empathic and emotional understanding of reality.

28:44

And yet I didn't know who

28:46

she was from the life of Evan Alexander.

28:49

And that's why it was so shocking. And I tell

28:51

the whole story in proof of heaven, but it has

28:53

to do with the fact that I was adopted. I

28:56

had been put up for adoption when I was 11 days

28:58

old. I couldn't have been more

29:00

fortunate. I was adopted into a loving family,

29:02

honored all my hopes and dreams. My neurosurgeon

29:04

father who was my mentor

29:07

and role model. And

29:09

yet like many adoptees, I reached out to the

29:11

children's home looking for that birth mother and always

29:13

getting the same answer. She's not looking for you.

29:16

So forget about it. And so I did forget

29:18

about it until 2000. That's

29:20

when I was doing, when my

29:22

son Evan the fourth was doing a family

29:24

project in sixth grade and he needed more

29:26

data on our birth family. So he encouraged

29:29

me to write another letter to the children's

29:31

home, which I did. And that's when I

29:33

got the answer back to my birth parents.

29:35

He got married. I had that out in

29:37

February 2000. That was a giant shock.

29:39

I never thought they'd gotten married. And not

29:42

only that, they had three children. So

29:44

I had a real biological family out there.

29:46

I'd never known about it. But because my

29:48

youngest sister had passed two years earlier, they

29:51

were still grieving her loss. And the way the

29:53

social worker interpreted for me, it was that it

29:56

was not a good time to come back in

29:58

their lives. And so that perceived rejection. from

30:00

my birth mother in February 2000 led

30:04

me into a dark night of the soul. I

30:06

actually stopped taking my sons to church. I stopped

30:08

saying prayers of them at night and I didn't

30:10

realize it too much later but I

30:13

ended up going into eight years

30:15

of a dark night of the soul, a

30:17

very powerful agnosticism. Whereas before

30:19

in my life I tried to believe in a

30:21

loving person of God in power of prayer. But

30:25

then of course a year before my coma is

30:27

when I met my birth family and

30:29

that story is fully told in proof of heaven.

30:32

And then of course all that really

30:34

had to happen in retrospect for this

30:36

extraordinary journey to unfold in which he

30:38

was actually my guardian angel. But

30:41

it's a fascinating story of love

30:43

and connection. It points

30:46

out the tremendous soul connection

30:48

we have not just with

30:50

our hereditary family but also

30:52

with our you know

30:54

the people that we live with and grow up

30:56

with because my adoptive family is

30:59

easily as important if not much more so

31:01

in my journey but the birth family played

31:03

absolutely cruel

31:06

in a kind of understanding of

31:08

that beautiful guardian angel that I

31:10

first encountered during my near-death experience.

31:12

Doctor you know our show is called

31:14

Nobody Told Me and we always ask

31:17

our guests what is your Nobody Told

31:19

Me lesson. So what is

31:21

it that you had

31:23

to learn the hard way or were surprised

31:26

about in this entire journey of

31:28

yours? I would say

31:30

no one told me that consciousness is fundamental

31:32

and not only that no one told me

31:35

that truly at the fundamental level

31:37

of the fabric of

31:39

the universe we are all

31:41

connected through this indescribably

31:43

strong force of love. That

31:45

is at the basis of

31:48

all understanding of this universe

31:50

and that I'm most grateful

31:52

for this lesson to

31:55

bring it back to this world because not

31:57

only has it healed my soul in so

31:59

many ways and connected me with

32:01

the world, with God,

32:03

and with all other sentient beings

32:06

in our journey together. But

32:08

in so many ways, it has kind

32:12

of laid out the rest of my

32:14

kind of pathway in this lifetime. Even

32:17

though I don't claim to be at

32:19

any final understanding of my life and

32:21

what purpose it is to serve, I

32:23

feel like I've made tremendous progress in

32:25

the last decade since my NDE and

32:27

making sense of this. And

32:29

if I can do nothing else in my life

32:31

but convey that important lesson of what nobody told

32:33

me before, it would be to

32:36

do exactly that. That we

32:38

are truly sharing one mind, it's

32:40

in many ways a heart consciousness,

32:42

and that the most important ingredient

32:45

in how we choose to deal

32:47

with ourselves and to deal with

32:49

other souls, other people, other animals,

32:52

and everything that we deal with in this world

32:54

is through kindness, compassion,

32:57

acceptance, and mercy, and when

32:59

necessary, forgiveness. This is all

33:02

part of one gigantic lesson,

33:05

which is what I learned and tried to convey in

33:07

proof of heaven, a map of heaven,

33:09

and especially in living in

33:12

a mindful universe where it all starts to

33:14

come together, where the scientific

33:16

evidence supporting all this is

33:19

very strong, and we start to realize

33:21

this is the new worldview. In

33:24

many ways, it's a worldview that's been

33:26

with us for thousands of years because

33:28

some spiritual traditions were all over this

33:30

notion of oneness and love going way

33:33

back. And yet it's time for

33:35

our culture to bring this lesson to

33:37

the floor because it's the most important

33:39

lesson of our time and of our

33:42

nature as human beings is to

33:44

recover this beautiful sense of connectedness and love and

33:46

that we're here to take care of each other.

33:49

Oh my gosh, that's so beautiful. Really, everything that

33:51

you say is so filled with hope, and I

33:54

don't know, it's just your work is very

33:56

feel-good for me, and I'm

33:58

so appreciative of you for writing. How

34:01

can people connect with you and find out what you have

34:03

going on and learn more about the books? Several

34:07

ways. E We

34:56

certainly encourage you to openn with us today G ele

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