What's Heaven really like?

I'm not sure if this particular story belongs in this forum, so Mods please move if you see fit.

Now, I am not a religious person or indeed someone that believes in Heaven, but I am open minded about an afterlife. However, having just read this story, I am a little more open to the idea.

Dr Eben Alexander, a leading neurosurgeon believes he experienced a taste of Heaven whilst being in a coma. He claims to have woken one morning suffering with a severe headache and he lost consciousness. His neocortex, the part of the brain controlling all thought process had completely shut down and there were no signs of conscious activity whatsoever.

He stayed in this vegetative state for 7 days and just as Doctors were deciding on whether to continue with the life support, he woke up.

He didn't know who he was, where he was or how he got there. His only existing memories were what he experienced whilst being in a coma for the previous 7 days.

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. For thousands of years, ordinary people as well as shamans and mystics have described brief, wonderful glimpses of ethereal realms. I’m not the first person to have discovered that consciousness exists beyond the body. What is unique in my case is that I am, as far as scientific records show, the only person to have travelled to this heavenly dimension with the cortex in complete shut-down, while under minute observation throughout. There are medical records for every minute of my coma, and none of them show any indication of brain activity. In other words, as far as neuroscience can say, my journey was not something happening inside my head. Plenty of scientists have a lot of difficulty with this statement. My experience undermines their whole belief system. But the one place I have found ready acceptance is in church, where my story often tallies with people’s expectations.

I will not add anymore from the article, I will let you read this fascinating story yourself.

Of course, I will add that this Doctor already had a spiritual belief, so maybe it was a subconscious thought, buried so deep in his brain, that science is unaware of and therefore unable to explain. But, with his background as a neurosurgeon it is very, very interesting.


www.dailymail.co.uk... html

a reply to: Cobaltic1978
Thankyou Cobaltic. This is an uplifting article. True or not, it is uplifting.
What I like the most about it is that there is no mention of Jesus.
I have thought for a long time that a true Heaven would be wasted if it only had room for Christians.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

I agree it is an uplifting article, particularly with all the doom and gloom that is currently going on.

I also agree with your Christian comment. Just to have experienced that overwhelming feeling of pure love, must have been awesome.

I appreciate he has a book to sell, but it appears he is going to share more of the story and also other people's experiences.

Real life has nothing to do with religion. We aren't going to sit around on puffy clouds eating ice cream from golden plates.

Neither is heaven one long church service.

Heaven is all that there is, all thats 'out there'… the "Heavens" are everywhere.

Just out of sight. Just out of reach. We have to grow old, get sick and die first.

originally posted by: intrptr

Real life has nothing to do with religion. We aren't going to sit around on puffy clouds eating ice cream from golden plates.

Neither is heaven one long church service.

Heaven is all that there is, all thats 'out there'… the "Heavens" are everywhere.

Just out of sight. Just out of reach. We have to grow old, get sick and die first.

May I say Amen without a stereotype?
Amen.

I've never actually read anything in the bible that indicates Heaven is ever our destination. The Earth was and has always been made for man kind. There is a verse

"Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" - Ecclesiastes 3:21

I also have no reference for the transitional period between death and the resurrection other than as the bible says "sleep" or "in the grave". It could go by in a flash or considering we also dream as we sleep, could be the temporary account of Heaven or at least what it is before the establishment of the Kingdom.

Another question is what will the Eternal Kingdom be like? This is the ultimate destination of all believers alike where the Creator Himself will be with His children. This is the coming destination after the millennial kingdom and the beginning of the new Earth and the new Heavens, after Lucifer had once again deceived many and is ultimately cast into the lake of fire thereafter. Revelation 21 gives us an awesome description of the new Jerusalem and the embodiment of the coming Eternal Kingdom. While this is only a glimpse and we cannot possibly imagine the possibilities, enveloping love, bliss and splendor of the Eternal Kingdom, you'll see not only is it insanely massive but made of the finest elements and composites in the known universe.

"The New Jerusalem
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." - Revelation 21: 9-27

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: Cobaltic1978
Thankyou Cobaltic. This is an uplifting article. True or not, it is uplifting.
What I like the most about it is that there is no mention of Jesus.
...

And there comes Jesus into the thread.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

The guy wasn't dead.
Even though the monitors couldn't pick up brain activity,that does not mean there was activity on some as yet undetectable level.

I would call what he experienced a kind of out of body connection to the super consciousness that we all share.
Thats how he saw his dead sister.

Do we go go there to stay when we really die?

Heck,I hope so-it sounds sweet.
But I have my doubts.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978


Interesting thread, I'm not a religious person myself but really curious as to how this man saw those things with a disabled cortex. I personally do not believe in an afterlife but I guess none of us will know for sure until our time is done.

how do we know that he didn,t experience this as soon as he lost consciousness and before the conscious part of his brain stopped working?

mean he didn,t collapse and was instantly wired up,was he?

think people just want to believe so much that they don,t want to see what actually could have happened.

sorry to burst the bubble.

a reply to: sparky31

Yes, that could have happened, that's a reasonable explanation.

No bubble burst, as it's a possibility.

It's all about exploring the possibilities isn't it? Was this his preconceived idea of what Heaven would be like? I find it difficult to come up with an explanation on how he met the sister he had never previously met there, but maybe he is lying about that part?

Heaven is like being able to travel and explore the endless sea of galaxies. To be able to go down to each object and literally interact with it. See those stars out there? It's not some hologram to give the impression there is something there.

Each of those lights in the sky are stars and galaxies. Holding it's own planets as well as possibly life.
Our technology hasn't reached the stage where we can effenciently study these planets from a distance. But eventually we will be able to finally intereact with them in person. What wonders could be found out there in space?

We could just as easily run into planets with ruins of a species that was exterminated. Rediscovering lost pasts. We could find primative alien species and study how they react to the presence of advanced technology. Finding new organisms that may be different from different ginus. Heaven is having an infinite ammount of round at life even if we fail ultimately and are destroyed. The mass and energy that made up who you are will eventually be cast into a black hole, just like the sun and all these planets will eventually find their way to the abyss of compression. Life isn't however destined to be cast away because life can find methods of escaping such cosmic events. That's why spaceships exist and why they are even possible.

Without the existance of such things it makes life in the universe obsolete to a degree. Advanced organisms like us don't have a chance of surviving if the planet were to explode, But bacteria, viruses spores and seeds would as they fly across the solar system in what would be hydrogen comets and asteroids since we have a lot of water here.

I'm sure you are probably scratching your head as to why i am giving this reply, traditional belief of heaven is somewhat different and is rather 'personal' as if only including humans and excluding everything else.
What ever can experience oblivion experiences it together with us; animate and non-animate alike, living and non living mass anything in existance is subject to death and rebirth. Death is always a tragic thing, with beliefs in a 'personal' universe after death. It adds comfort to people for something they have absolutely no control over, Death takes from us but we can't take from Death. Once we reach a kingdom of advanced technology and spiritual evolution these concepts of an unprevileged society unable to leave our planet will be lifted. And what is known as Heaven will become available to us. In the mean time, heaven will continue to be portrayed as some personal universe per individual in order for the mourning process to take effect. if they believe they are going to a better place * I'm not sure where this place is, can anyone point to it in the sky? *
and it adds comfort to their loss then let it be. We only talk about death in order to cope with the change it has on the universe and thus our planet.

Death will never be conquered in the universe, not on a collective level. Sure there are some loopholes but you can never cheat Death. Cloning isn't even cheating Death. It's creating a whole new lifeform, a copy of another life form. it does not mean that new lifeform is the old lifeform now. It just means this new lifeform is identical to the old one, Like a perfect twin. Can one twin control another twin? (excluding conjoined twins)


I'm not saying that being out of body isn't possible. I'm just wondering where this heaven is if they can point to it on a sky map or if its the underworld in that case it would be deep in the Earth. There's always a place, Can't be anywhere and nowhere at the same time.

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978
...maybe it was a subconscious thought, buried so deep in his brain...

This doesn't explain all the cases that return with undeniable proof...

Colton Burpo's case for example, he died and met his own unborn sister that he had never even been told about.

George Rodonaia's case is another example.

While outside of his body, he diagnosed a child's illness that had the doctors stumped.

These are not isolated incidents either, there are quite a few that I know about.

"Colton, still 4 years old, told his mother “you had a baby die in your tummy didn’t you”, which completely shocked them both because they had never told him about their miscarriage. They asked him how he knew and he said that he met his sister in Heaven and she told him what happened."

"Well he’s 7 years old now and it took a couple of years for his parents to really understand what happened, but when Colton Burpo was four years he was having surgery in the hospital for a burst appendix. While he was in surgery he apparently had some sort of out of body experience and could see what his parents were doing. He witnessed that his dad was praying and his mom on her cellphone. Both parents say they have no clue how he knew that, but that it’s absolutely true. And the story just gets more interesting from there.

Apparently during the same surgery Colton went to Heaven where he recounts how he met his grandfather who he had never known, who he later recognized in photos. The interesting thing is that he didn’t recognize photos of his grandfather as an old man with glasses, which is how everyone knew him, but rather as a young man. Colton’s father literally had go find a photo of ‘Pop’ as a young man before Colton was able to recognize him. Now that’s pretty wild.

Four year old met his mother’s miscarried child in Heaven

Such reports are very common among people who are comatose or who have near-death experiences (NDE). I know of several reports by patients in my practice, and I have spoken to neurosurgeons who have had patients with experiences that can be confirmed.

Indeed, about 20 percent of NDE's are corroborated, which means that there are independent ways of checking about the veracity of the experience. The patients knew of things that they could not have known except by extraordinary perception -- such as describing details of surgery that they watched while their heart was stopped, etc. Additionally, many NDE's have a vividness and a sense of intense reality that one does not generally encounter in dreams or hallucinations.

From a scientific standpoint, I think that we need to consider these personal reports as real evidence, of varying credibility. Materialists hate these accounts, because they (especially the corroborated ones) are very difficult to square with a materialist picture of reality. The materialist explanations, on the other hand, are generally baloney -- vaguely gesturing to endorphins and the like. Another thing that materialists hate is that the public loves this stuff and believes it -- it resonates in a way that abstract critiques of materialism fail to do.

Near-Death Experiences

"Dr. Rodonaia was killed by the KGB, pronounced dead, taken to the morgue for three days and returned to life during his own autopsy. Dr. Rodonaia was a psychiatric researcher who worked for the KGB and later became a dissident. He was a scientist trained in historical materialism and did not believe in God."

"George Rodonaia underwent one of the most extended cases of a near-death experience ever recorded. Pronounced dead immediately after he was hit by a car in 1976, he was left for three days in the morgue. He did not "return to life" until a doctor began to make an incision in his abdomen as part of an autopsy procedure. Prior to his NDE he worked as a neuropathologist. He was also an avowed atheist.

LINK

a reply to: Murgatroid

Thanks for sharing that, this is a subject I know little of, but the story I read today has intrigued me. I will definitely take a look at the links you have provided.

Some believe, heaven is a intermediate state, in which you are confronted by your conception of God, If you are afraid, due to guilt, you will descend into a daemonic realm.
Upon realisation that the daemons are you're daemons, and are illusions,
you are reborn to have another go.

If you can get passed your own judgment , you can progress toward non-existence.

Apparently Deities are somewhat narcissistic by nature, and the end goal for humans has higher purpose than that of the Deities, who remain entities forever.They eventually go mad with boredom.

Heaven is the releasing of the self in death.

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978


His neocortex, the part of the brain controlling all thought process had completely shut down and there were no signs of conscious activity whatsoever.

Interesting as im sure Jesus said to enter the kingdom take no thought...

www.biblegateway.com...:22-34&version=KJV

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.

I am sure I have been there before. Not dead... Well I was but not really. No illness, injury or death bed. Just a total blackout really.



You only live once, death is a illusion.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I think in heaven we would be more like free spirits, dont have any serious problems to worry about and have a lot of fun traveling around heaven visiting friends family and seeing lots of new stuff

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the mind of mortal man, the things which the Universal Father has prepared for those who survive the life in the flesh on the worlds of time and space.

All I can say is that its a hell of a lot better than here.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I'm sorry, Cobaltic, bur Dr. Alexander is not a man to be trusted.... for example, he was in a medically induced coma which means his brain could not have been dead. He also knew about his biological sister who have died as a baby and seen a picture. Right before his 'experience' he was about to be sued for malpractice again, in fact he had lost a couple of jobs due to malpractice .... etc.... all the details here: whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com...