The Map of Heaven
By Eben Alexander MD

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Proof of Heaven teams up with the sages of times past, modern scientists, and with ordinary people who have had profound spiritual experiences to show the reality of heaven and our true identities as spiritual beings.

When Proof of Heaven was published, some readers contacted Dr. Eben Alexander to argue that his near death experience was impossible. But many more have written to say his story resonated with them in profound ways. Because of what these people have told him, Dr. Alexander has come to realize that sharing his story has allowed people to believe what so many in ancient times knew: there is more to life, and to the universe, than this single earthly life.

Dr. Alexander met and heard from thousands of individuals whom his story has affected. He also studied what the world’s religious traditions, and its philosophers, have had to say about the soul’s survival of death, and he has been deeply surprised at how often those voices from the past synch up with what he heard from people today. In The Map of Heaven, he shares some of the stories that the people have told him and links them up with what the world’s spiritual traditions have to say about the journey of the soul.

Part metaphysical detective story, part manual for living, The Map of Heaven explores humankind’s spiritual history and the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century, showing how we forgot, and are now at last remembering, who we really are and what our true destiny really is.

PRAISE FOR
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Near Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife
By Eben Alexander MD

“Dr Eben Alexander's near-death experience is the most astounding I have heard in more than four decades of studying this phenomenon. In my opinion, Dr Alexander is living proof of an afterlife. The extraordinary circumstances of his illness and his impeccable credentials make it very hard to formulate a mundane explanation for his case. For me, it is difficult to shake the feeling that his experience was somehow divinely ordained. Dr. Alexander's book Proof of Heaven deserves to be a major international bestseller, and I believe it will be."
--- Raymond Moody, MD, PhD, , author of Life Beyond Life, 1975, and "father of the field" of Near-Death Experience studies (for Dr. Moody's complete review click here)

“Proof of Heaven is more than just an awe-inspiring account of a profound encounter with spiritual reality. Dr. Alexander’s neuro-science career taught him that near-death experiences are brain-based illusions, and yet his personal experience left him dumbstruck. His honest struggle to make sense of this unforgettable journey is a gripping story, unique in the literature of spiritual experiences, that may well change how we understand our role in the universe.”
--- Bruce Greyson, MD, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine; co-editor, The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation

“If ‘Central Casting’ was given an assignment to locate the most highly qualified person, who has had a near-death experience (NDE), to have him write one or more books about it, lecture about it, and appear in the media to promote it around the world, no one could find a more perfect candidate than neurosurgeon Eben Alexander III, M.D. He has all the necessary academic credentials for this assignment, is warm emotionally, very articulate, has undergone a profound spiritual transformation, and is highly motivated to unify science with spirituality…

I firmly believe Proof of Heaven will be one of the three top selling books of all time on the subject of near-death experiences – and that it will authenticate and validate NDEs more than any other book that has been written on this topic, with the exception of Dr. Moody’s first book. In my opinion, Proof of Heaven will sell millions of copies that will create much wider acceptance of near-death experiences and the many spiritual lessons they contain.”
--- Bill Guggenheim, Coauthor of Hello From Heaven!, 1995

"An NDE is both an existential crisis and an intense learning experience. In the last thirty years a lot has been written about NDE and its aftereffects: a new life insight, a loss of the fear of death, and a new idea about the relationship between consciousness and brain-function. But it becomes far more convincing when a well-respected neurosurgeon writes about his own NDE and about his own new insight about the mind-brain relationship. Because, as he states in his book, as a practicing academic neurosurgeon with a penchant for research, he respected the scientific method as the gatekeeper for accepted views of reality. His neuro-scientific worldview consisted of a practical “reductive materialism” – that a complete understanding of cognitive neuroscience, and specifically, consciousness, could be obtained by understanding the vast interrelationships of the brain’s material reduced to its most basic elements (neuronal networks, individual molecular and atomic properties and interactions of nerve cells). Anything defined as “mind,” “spirit” or “soul” would ultimately depend upon the functional integrity of those physical brain constituents. So the overwhelming NDE that is described by Eben Alexander in this intriguing book was a special state of consciousness that according to current medical science should not occur during an actual period of deep coma.

"In his wonderful and fascinating book, Proof of Heaven, he asks himself: how and why did my NDE occur? How did the content of my NDE come about? Why did my life change so radically after my NDE? Many of these, and additional questions, will be answered by Eben Alexander in this book, that touched my heart by his honesty and by his obvious acceptance of the many consequences for his personal and professional life. In his book he describes in detail what happened in his consciousness, he writes about his search to understand what happened to him as a human being, and also to explain what happened to him as an academic neurosurgeon. He concludes that enhanced consciousness was experienced beyond the body and the brain, and that the brain inevitably and convincingly cannot be the producer of consciousness. I can highly recommend this important book that has the potential to break many scientific taboos. But we should also realize that the acceptance of new scientific ideas in general and ideas about the experience of enhanced consciousness independent of a normal functioning brain in particular requires us to have an open mind and to abandon dogma."
--- Pim van Lommel, MD, Cardiologist, author of ‘Consciousness beyond Life’. ‘The science of the Near-Death Experience’

"Eben Alexander brings a unique perspective to the sacred world combining a glorious, personal vision of spiritual consciousness with patient, insightful scientific inquiry. This is a compelling story of what may lie ahead for all of us in the life beyond this one. We have nothing to fear."
--- Allan J. Hamilton, MD, FACS, Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA - Author of The Scalpel and the Soul, and Zen Horse, Zen Mind