Thoughts on Eben Alexander?

[Kamil]

As many here probably have heard of Eben Alexander and his NDE (where he reunited with his sister he apparently never knew he had) and rode butterflies, whilst being a top American neurosurgeon, what do you guys think of his story? Esquire published an article claiming to debunk his experience, trying to frame him as a liar. The writer was Luke Dittrich, who according to a nurse present during the whole thing, twisted the words of the medical personnel, and made them fit into a way that would make the Alexander case look less convincing. Alexander has addressed this. He also says he couldn't have hallucinated this afterwards, as when hundreds of his patients in the past have come "back online" from comas, they have very weird and uncomfortable hallucinations. Yet, his was clear, joyful, etc. He said as he was regaining conciousness, he had a hallucination where his doctor and wife were trying to kill him.

Also, he states that it could not have been DMT on the brain, as people who are on DMT slowly and gradually feel their senses coming back, and he came back right after his experience, without anything.

If it is in fact true that Dittrich lied and the whole esquire article is a scam, would you believe his NDE?

Here we have proof the esquire article was wrong:

http://skeptiko.com/220-esquire-proof-o ... -debunked/

[scrmbldggs]

Bogus.

[Poodle]

I'm struggling with the concept of twisting the words of medical personnel to make the report of an NDE less convincing.

[scrmbldggs]

IIRC, the doc who treated him and very clearly refuted his story later declined to fully stick to what she said. Seemed she had been "contacted"...

Kamil, you might want to read what Sam Harris had to say.

[Shen1986]

As many here probably have heard of Eben Alexander and his NDE (where he reunited with his sister he apparently never knew he had) and rode butterflies, whilst being a top American neurosurgeon, what do you guys think of his story? Esquire published an article claiming to debunk his experience, trying to frame him as a liar. The writer was Luke Dittrich, who according to a nurse present during the whole thing, twisted the words of the medical personnel, and made them fit into a way that would make the Alexander case look less convincing. Alexander has addressed this. He also says he couldn't have hallucinated this afterwards, as when hundreds of his patients in the past have come "back online" from comas, they have very weird and uncomfortable hallucinations. Yet, his was clear, joyful, etc. He said as he was regaining conciousness, he had a hallucination where his doctor and wife were trying to kill him.

Also, he states that it could not have been DMT on the brain, as people who are on DMT slowly and gradually feel their senses coming back, and he came back right after his experience, without anything.

If it is in fact true that Dittrich lied and the whole esquire article is a scam, would you believe his NDE?

Here we have proof the esquire article was wrong:

http://skeptiko.com/220-esquire-proof-o ... -debunked/

Dittrich did not lie. First things first. If Ditrich would lie then he would face a lawsuit and it would end his career and nothing to my information happened.

The only thing that Skeptiko uncovered was that the weather was different ignoring the rest. Also again Skeptiko Kamil. Yes believe in Skeptiko and you can believe in everything there is - from NDEs, telepathy to even Deepak Chopra.

Second he uncovered that Eben Alexander was lying before and was out of money which is why a NDE came in handy:

The bestselling author who wrote a book claiming to see heaven after falling into a coma was in the middle of a $3million malpractice lawsuit.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -coma.html

Also this:

He started his medical career at the prestigious Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston in 1988, fresh out of his residency.
A patient sued him for failing to tell a patient that permanent facial paralysis was a potential side effect of her surgery.
That case settled for an undisclosed sum and he continued to practice at the hospital, but it is just one example of how he may have revised a version of events in order to help his case.
Another came at the third hospital where he worked- Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia.

It was there in June 2007 that Dr Alexander performed a spinal surgery on a tobacco farmer's fifth and sixth vertebrae.
Esquire reports that instead of fusing C5-6, he accidentally fused C4-5. He did not realize that he had made a mistake until months later when the patient came back in July for a check up, complaining of continued pain.
At that point, Dr Alexander went into his files and in the operation report, he changed all references to C5-6 that he originally made and edited them to read C4-5. In doing so, anyone looking at the report later would see that it matched the patient's physical condition.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -coma.html

Second take a look at google here is a full skeptical look on the book:

viewtopic.php?t=23418

Robert Mays skeptical look where he tried to debunk Ditrich:

viewtopic.php?t=21532

[Nikki Nyx]

whilst being a top American neurosurgeon

He was actually kicked out of multiple hospitals for questionable medical practices. If I'm not mistaken, his license to practice was revoked in Massachusetts, so he headed to some Southern state, where he also got into trouble.

[scrmbldggs]

No worries. He'll be heading the DoD soon...

[Nikki Nyx]