Ep. 54: Dr. Eben Alexander — Exploring Consciousness, Heaven, and Unconditional Love
I found this to be a surprising and thought-provoking discussion about some rather controversial ideas—for example, that memories aren’t actually stored in the brain! We discuss his most recent book, Living in a Mindful Universe, which grew from his NDE. Ideas we explored together included:
- The illness and coma that led up to Eben’s NDE, and the main elements of it
- The shock of having an NDE after believing in a strictly material view of the universe
- The relation between formalized religion and the divine presence Eben experienced in his NDE
- How science undermined Eben’s sense of spirituality
- The connection between scientific materialism and the denial of free will
- The importance of quantum physics for the mind-brain question and the study of consciousness
- The possibility that our brains limit consciousness rather than create it
- The durability of NDE experiences
- Cultivating a deeper relationship with consciousness through meditation
- The shocking proposal that human memories are not stored in the brain
- The relation between reincarnation and theories of human memory storage
- Other forms of nonlocal consciousness
- The proposition that consciousness is fundamental to existence, and inexplicable in purely materialist terms
- How common NDEs are, yet how rarely they’re talked about
- Death as liberation of consciousness, rather than a diminution
- Comparisons among different ways of altering consciousness (meditation, binaural beats, psychedelic drugs)
- The role of personal experience in shaping our views about consciousness and the afterlife
Eben discussed the role of binaural beats in fostering certain wave patterns in the brain and their associated modes of consciousness. Here are links to some of the key people in the history of binaural beats: Heinrich Wilhelm Dove; Robert Monroe. If you’re interested in trying a free binaural beats recording, visit Sacred Acoustics.
The statistician who led the review of remote viewing was Jessica Utts.
Here’s the link to the free 33-Day Journey into the Heart of Consciousness that Eben talked about; he also mentioned the book Dark Night, Early Dawn by Christopher M. Bache (affiliate link).
Eben suggested that interested listeners check out the University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Division of Perceptual Studies. From the website: “The DOPS is exclusively devoted to the investigation of phenomena that challenge mainstream scientific paradigms regarding the nature of the mind/brain relationship. The researchers at DOPS are particularly interested in studying phenomena related to consciousness clearly functioning beyond the confines of the physical body, as well as phenomena that are directly suggestive of post-mortem survival of consciousness.”
Click this link for more about N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychedelic associated with intense spiritual experiences. It’s the active ingredient in ayahuasca.
Here are links to Eben’s three books (affiliate links):
- Proof of Heaven (New York Times #1 bestseller)
- The Map of Heaven
- Living in a Mindful Universe (co-written with Karen Newell)
Eben Alexander, MD, completed his medical degree at Duke University, and went on to perform over 4000 neurosurgical operations. He was an academic neurosurgeon for over 25 years, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He has a passionate interest in physics and cosmology, which you can tell from our discussion.
Eben has been a guest on Dr. Oz, Oprah, and many other media programs. He encourages people to be inspired by the power of unconditional love in their daily lives, in their work, and in their communities.
Find Eben online at his website and connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you so much for this conversation and also the links to help us develop our awareness of the power within us.
I’m glad to hear you found it helpful, Jean! I appreciate your feedback!
When “Quantum Physics” is known as the effect and “Qualia Physics” is realized as cause … humanity will finally wake up to their full conscious potentiality …
Fascinating thought, Lawrence. Thank you!
These ideas sound so fascinating. I don’t even know what Quantum Physics and Qualia Physics mean but the gist of these things that are probably the most important ideas we will have the good fortune to explore is wonderful.
Hello Seth, so i read on your Mental Rituals in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder something that stressed me out a little.
Other common types of mental compulsions include Reassuring oneself that “everything is OK” this confuses me because then i relate that with not being able to say everything is ok i cant say anything positive to myself
if i say to myself treatment is working then that is reassuring myself, then this makes me think i cant say anything positive to myself since saying everything is OK is a compulsion so how can i have a positive outlook on things if i cant say everything is ok
all the best
Michael
I can’t wrap my head around this. I’m as “there’s nothing once body dies” as they come, alyho open to idea if my energy joining the universe after… But reincarnation? Need to do more reading…
It’s very peace instilling though to think that death is liberation of consciousness.
It’s pretty wild, isn’t it, Audrey? Liberation of consciousness is such a fascinating idea….
We are mesmerised by the Universe we are in so much so that it does not occur to us that perhaps we are enveloped by the Universal Consciousness that is self-subsistent imparting existence to everything else, including us. We are like fish in the vast ocean jumping out of which will not provide a better view of the ocean to the fish. Quantum Physics itself is at a loss to explain the fundamentals of the micro-particles without having recourse to information and the immaterial. The physicist Max Planck expressed it duccinctly: “Mind is the matrix of matter”.
Can you make it possible to pause your podcast and restart in the place it stopped? And can you allow the podcast to fast forward. These both are unavailable on all podcast offerings of your podcast.
Sorry for the delay–this comment had gone to spam. I think the best solution is to listen on Apple Podcasts or something similar, which has that feature. The web-based listening modes that I know of have all seemed to have that annoying feature of restarting at the beginning if you close the tab or navigate away from the page! Thanks for listening.