A brain surgeon who slipped into a week-long coma says he visited heaven and it was full of “marshmallow clouds” and was “as vivid as the aroma of fried chicken”.
Docs came close to switching off Dr Eben Alexander’s life support as an E coli infection ate into his brain “like acid”.
He now claims to be the “only person to have travelled to a heavenly dimension with the cortex in complete shut-down” while under medical observation throughout.
He describes seeing “valleys of lush and fertile greenery, where waterfalls flowed into crystal pools” in his book A Map of Heaven.
He said: “I witnessed stunning blue-black velvety skies filled with swooping orbs of golden light, angelic choirs leaving sparkling trails against the billowing clouds.
“Those choirs produced hymns and anthems far beyond anything I had ever encountered on earth.
“The sound was colossal.
“Everything was connected to everything else, like the infinitely complex swirls on a Persian carpet or a butterfly’s wing. And I was flying on that carpet, riding on that wing.”
Dr Alexander, from Virginia, US, said he was sceptical of people who claimed to have seen heaven before his own bonkers experience.
He said: “My knowledge of the brain made me quite sure that out-of-body experiences, angelic encounters and the like were hallucinations, brought on when the brain suffered a trauma.
“And then, in the most dramatic circumstances possible, I discovered proof that I was wrong.”
He woke up one morning six years ago with a “searing” headache before falling into a coma hours later.
Scans showed he was brain dead.
Dr Alexander said: “The doctors ascertained that I had contracted meningitis — a rare bacterial strain of E coli was in my spinal fluid and eating into my brain like acid. My survival chances were near zero.
“I was in a deep coma, a vegetative state, and all the higher functions of my brain were offline.
“Scans showed no conscious activity whatsoever — my brain was not malfunctioning, it was completely unplugged.
“But my inner self still existed, in defiance of all the known laws of science.”
The brain expert says he was guided through heaven by an “extraordinarily beautiful woman” who he had never seen before.
When he finally awoke from his coma he made a full recovery within eight weeks.
He then received an astonishing letter four months later.
It was from a relative who was helping him trace his biological sister Betsy who he never knew and who died many years earlier.
He was stunned to see she was the woman who had guided him through heaven.
The American medic said: “The shock of recognition was total.”
