Eben Alexander Quotes

“I finally chalked it up to the fact that the brain is truly an extraordinary device: more extraordinary than we can even guess.”

“The part of my brain that was responsible for creating the world I lived and moved in and for taking the raw data that came in through my senses and fashioning it into a meaningful universe: that part of my brain was down, and out.

And yet despite all of this, I had been alive, and aware, truly aware, in a universe characterized above all by love, consciousness, and reality. There was, for me, simply no arguing this fact. I knew it so completely that I ached.”

“To experience thinking outside the brain is to enter a world of instantaneous connections that make ordinary thinking (i.e those aspects limited by the physical brain and the speed of light) seem like some hopelessly sleepy and plodding event.

Our truest, deepest self is completely free. It is not crippled or compromised by past actions or concerned with identity or status. It comprehends that it has no need to fear the earthly world, and therefore, it has no need to build itself up through fame or wealth or conquest.”

“We — each of us — are intricately, irremovably connected to the larger universe. It is our true home, and thinking that this physical world is all that matters is like shutting oneself up in a small closet and imagining that there is nothing else out beyond it.”

“Among other things, HeartMath research tests theories about the electromagnetic field of the human heart using machines that measure faint magnetic fields, such as those that are often used in MRIs and cardiologic tests. Remarkably, the heart’s toroidally shaped electrical field is sixty times greater than that of the brain, and its magnetic field is 5,000 times greater than that of the brain.

The heart generates the strongest electromagnetic field in the body, and its pumping action transmits powerful rhythmic information patterns containing neurological, hormonal, and electromagnetic data to the brain and throughout the rest of the body.

The heart actually sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. In other words, the heart has a mind of its own.

Studies reveal this electromagnetic field seems to pick up information in the surrounding environment and also broadcasts one’s emotional state out from the body. Their measurements reveal that the field is large enough to extend several feet (or more) outside our bodies.

Positive moods such as gratitude, joy, and happiness correlate to a larger, more expanded heart field, while emotions such as greed, anger, or sadness correlate to a constricted heart field.”

“Fascinating research results point to the realization that our hearts interconnect and exchange information with others. In studies, subjects are trained to enact specific heart coherence techniques such as focusing awareness in the area surrounding the heart and generating a feeling of appreciation.

Coherence reflects a higher state of balance and synchronization in the body’s cognitive, emotional, and physiological processes, leading to lowering of stress reactions and more efficient function.

Positive emotions are correlated with higher degrees of coherence, thus generating appreciation in the heart alone can beneficially affect the person’s physiological functions, including the autonomic and parasympathetic nervous systems.”

“To become more aware of your observer, practice being in a completely neutral state, with no attachment to specific outcomes, and offer a wide-open acceptance to whatever shows up.

If thoughts arise, simply note them in your mind with no judgment, and no analysis. Watching your thoughts like this on a regular basis brings you more in touch with the inner observer.”

“A story – a true story – can heal as much as medicine can.”

“Angels? These words registered 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.”

“Communicating with God is the most extraordinary experience imaginable, yet at the same time it's the most natural one of all, because God is present in us at all times.

Omniscient, omnipotent, personal-and loving us without conditions. We are connected as One through our divine link with God.”

“Everything — the uncanny clarity of my vision, the clearness of my thoughts as pure conceptual flow — suggested higher, not lower, brain functioning.”

“Evil was necessary because without it free will was impossible, and without free will there could be no growth — no forward movement, no chance for us to become what God longed for us to be.

Horrible and all-powerful as evil sometimes seemed to be in a world like ours, in the larger picture love was overwhelmingly dominant, and it would ultimately be triumphant.”

“For all the successes of Western civilization, the world paid a dear price in terms of the most crucial component of existence – the human spirit.

The shadow side of high technology – modern warfare and thoughtless homicide and suicide, urban blight, ecological mayhem, cataclysmic climate change, polarization of economic resources – is bad enough.

Much worse, our focus on exponential progress in science and technology has left many of us relatively bereft in the realm of meaning and joy, and of knowing how our lives fit into the grand scheme of existence for all eternity.”

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

“Hallucinogens affect the neocortex, and my neocortex wasn’t available to be affected.”

“How did I gain from not remembering my earthly self? It allowed me to go deep into realms beyond the worldly without having to worry about what I was leaving behind.

Throughout my entire time in those worlds, I was a soul with nothing to lose. No places to miss, no people to mourn. I had come from nowhere and had no history, so I fully accepted my circumstances — even the initial murk and mess of the Realm of the Earthworm’s-Eye View — with equanimity.”

“Humans are built to adapt.”

“I didn’t just believe in God; I knew God.”

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

“Laughter and irony are at heart reminders that we are not prisoners in this world, but voyagers through it.”

“Love is, without a doubt, the basis of everything. Not some abstract, hard-to-fathom kind of love but the day-to-day kind that everyone knows – the kind of love we feel when we look at our spouse and our children, or even our animals. In its purest and most powerful form, this love is not jealous or selfish, but unconditional.

This is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists or will ever exist, and no remotely accurate understanding of who and what we are can be achieved by anyone who does not know it, and embody it in all of their actions.”

“Most skeptics aren’t really skeptics at all. To be truly skeptical, one must actually examine something, and take it seriously.”

“My experience showed me that the death of the body and the brain are not the end of consciousness, that human experience continues beyond the grave.

More important, it continues under the gaze of a God who loves and cares about each one of us and about where the Universe itself and all the beings within it are ultimately going.”

“My journey deep into coma, outside this lowly physical realm and into the loftiest dwelling place of the almighty Creator, revealed the indescribably immense chasm between our human knowledge and the awe-inspiring realm of God.”

“None of us are ever unloved. Each and every one of us is deeply known and cared for by a Creator who cherishes us beyond any ability we have to comprehend.”

“Observation comes first, then interpretation.”

“On the subatomic level, however, this universe of separate objects turns out to be a complete illusion. In the realm of the super-super-small, every object in the physical universe is intimately connected with every other object.”

“Our eternal spiritual self is more real than anything we perceive in this physical realm, and has a divine connection to the infinite love of the Creator.”

“Paradoxically — 'Om' is 'human' as well — even more human than you and I are. 'Om' understands and sympathizes with our human situation more profoundly and personally than we can even imagine because 'Om' knows what we have forgotten, and understands the terrible burden it is to live with amnesia of the Divine for even a moment.”

“Physical life is characterized by defensiveness, whereas spiritual life is just the opposite.”