Heaven? Neurotransmitter Secretion?

We've all heard the stories. Someone in cardiac arrest experiences the sensation of leaving the body, of moving toward a bright light. Often there is a powerful sense of another personality, otherworldly and seemingly divine. Powerful emotions are often part of this experience. Eventually, there is a return to the world of the ordinary, with a sense that a profoundly important and life-changing event has happened, one that will shape the rest of the life of the person who has been through it. Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander had such an experience, and he considered it "proof of heaven." His book with this title has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 41 weeks.

Newly published research suggest a physiological explanation for these phenomena. Studies in rats show a spike in electrical activity in the oxygen-deprived brain. Researcher George A. Mashour told the Washington Post, “We saw a window of activity with certain signatures typically associated with conscious processing.”

Those signatures include heightened communication among the different parts of the brain, actively seen in an awake state. Mashour speculates this could be a marker of consciousness — in which the brain integrates disparate aspects of the world, like visual in one area and auditory in another.

“The brain kind of gets it all together so we have this unified, seamless experience,” he said.

In the rats, this connectivity went above and beyond the levels seen during the awake state — which could possibly explain the hypervivid, “realer-than-real” perceptions reported close to death.

So, which is it? Being in God's presence, or the firing of neurons in an oxygen-depleted brain?

Does it matter? Profound spiritual experiences are often rooted in the events of the real and physical world. What makes an experience spiritual is how we understand and process it, much more than what we actually live through. You and I might be standing next to each other on a hilltop, watching the sun rise. You may be thinking, "This is important. This is a truly New Day. There will be significant, beautiful things that will come of this sunrise." I, on the other hand, may be thinking, "Hmm. Must be about 6 AM." We had the same experience, but processed it differently.

I don't doubt that Eben Alexander truly believes that he had "proof of heaven" and that he had "journeyed into the afterlife." This is true for him, and has changed how he views himself, the world, and God. That the first step of his entry into the dimension of the divine may have been the firing of neurons in his brain does not reduce the importance of the experience.

The matter and phenomena of the physical world are all potentially sacramental--simple things that carry God's grace. We only need eyes to see them.