Immortal dreams

"Pragmatism,” G. K. Chesterton said, “is a matter of human needs; and one of the first of human needs is to be something more than a pragmatist.” So too, faith is a matter of human desires; and one of the first of human desires is to be in contact with genuine reality. People of faith don’t want to live—or die—in a fool’s paradise. They want the real paradise or nothing. If it should turn out that our belief in the life to come has been an illusion, most of us would rather sink into nonbeing than beguile our final hours with hallucinatory dreams.

We are in a curious and puzzling situation, therefore, in which the hope for immortality is criticized in some circles as unbiblical and sub-Christian, yet affirmed in others as a matter of established empirical fact. A recent, widely publicized case is that of neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, survivor of a harrowing brush with death.

Newsweek picked up Dr. Alexander’s story in advance of the publication of his best-selling book, Proof of Heaven. The cover story, “Heaven Is Real,” coincided with an announcement of the imminent demise of the print edition of Newsweek. (Is there a heaven for newsweeklies that have seen better days?) What we learn from the Newsweek story and the book is that Dr. Alexander, stricken by a rare form of bacterial meningitis, fell into a deep coma in which his cortex, as he tells us, shut down—and awoke seven days later with memories of a profound visionary experience. Immediately losing his sense of individual selfhood, he found himself immersed in a synesthetic, holographic vision in which millions of butterflies, heavenly sounds, soaring angels, and a young woman of transcendent beauty all entered into an intricate pattern whose meaning was unconditional love: “You are loved and cherished. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong.”