Harvard doctor 'visited' heaven after near-death experience

Washington: In a bizarre claim, a Harvard neurosurgeon has said that he visited heaven when he slipped into a coma after contracting a rare disease. In his new book, 'Proof of Heaven', Dr Eben Alexander says he took a journey to the afterlife when he slipped into a coma in 2008 after suffering from a rare bacterial meningitis.

Alexander, who has taught at Harvard Medical School and other universities, spent his life dismissing claims of heavenly out-of-body experiences and refuting such talk with scientific logic, until he himself had a near-death experience, the Huffington Post reported.

Describing his 'visit' to heaven in an article for the Daily Beast, a Newsweek affiliate, he wrote: "Toward the beginning of my adventure, I was in a place of clouds – big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky". He wrote, "Higher than the clouds immeasurably higher flocks of transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamerlike lines behind them."

Dr Eben Alexander says he took a journey to the afterlife when he slipped into a coma in 2008.

"Birds? Angels? These words registered later, when I was writing down my recollections. But neither of these words do justice to the beings themselves, which were quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms," he wrote.

Alexander claimed that he travelled through this heaven, surrounded by "millions of butterflies", with a woman. This woman gave him three messages: "You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever", "You have nothing to fear" and "There is nothing you can do wrong". The book will be released on October 23.

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