On yesterday’s Super Soul Sunday, Oprah sat down with Dr. Eben Alexander to discuss his out-of-the-universe experience.

In November of 2008, the successful neurosurgeon’s luck ran out. In the middle of the night, he woke up with severe back pain that felt like he had been struck by a freight train. Within four hours, bacterial meningitis drove him into a coma that lasted seven days. The prognosis was not a good one. His survival rate was down to 2% and, if he woke up from the coma, the doctors predicted he would need chronic care for the rest of his life.

He defied the odds and when he woke up, calmly told his sister, “All will be well.”

After two months of rehabilitation, Dr. Alexander fully regained his language and memories. At first, he shared his remarkable story only with family, friends and colleagues. Later, he decided to write a scientific report that evolved into the New York Times best-selling book, Proof of Heaven.

Before his near-death experience, Dr. Alexander had been skeptical about God and heaven. In 2000, he experienced a crisis of faith when his birth mother rejected his invitation to meet. That rejection reminded him of a deep and powerful memory of being thrown away at birth. A memory, he claims many adopted children have within the core of their being.

Whenever he heard his patients talk about their own near-death experiences, he assumed there was a logical, brain-based explanation. Afterward, he found himself facing the same skepticism, especially from colleagues who gently reminded him that “his brain was soaking in pus.” Others suggested that the strong medication he was given could have caused vivid dreams and hallucinations. Dr. Alexander countered this argument by reminding people that these drugs work primarily in the neo-cortex, the part of the brain that shut down when he entered the coma state.

I was impressed by his beautiful and vivid descriptions of the other realm…

“I was rescued from the underground by a slow-moving, spinning white light and the most gorgeous melody. As it got closer, it exploded and was a portal into a beautiful, verdant valley.”

“Billowing clouds with different colors”

“Orbs and of light shooting through the sky”

Quotable quotes…

God does not have a face or gender.

We are conscious in spite of our brain.

The boundaries of self are fiction.

It’s a beautiful gift in knowing God, knowing that prayer does work, and just knowing that our lives means so much more.

Death is not an end of anything. It is a transition.

Newborns come in trailing the breath of angels. (Oprah)

Message for all of us…Each and every one of us is deeply loved.