A near-death experience (NDE) while in a seven-day coma turned Dr. Eben Alexander’s world of academics and neurosurgery upside-down. Only weeks after awakening from the coma and getting his brain back on line, the author of Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife was comfortable acknowledging beyond any doubt that he had transcended his belief in scientific materialism, which alleges how from subatomic particles, atoms, molecules and brain cells, consciousness is mysteriously produced. “My experience left me with a deep knowing that the physical world is not all that exists, and that the brain doesn’t create consciousness, but merely allows a primordial trickle of it now and then,” says Alexander, who will join his partner, Karen Newell, co-founder of Sacred Acoustics, to a present an experiential discussion and workshop at Unity of Naples on February 19.

Newell, an innovator in the emerging field of binaural brainwave entrainment audio meditation, listened to monotonal sound—not music and singing melodies, but the simple tones produced by crystal bowls, tuning forks, gongs, chimes and human chanting—as a way to shut off her monkey mind chatter. Using novel techniques to create brainwave entrainment technology and that blends frequencies, Newell and her business partner Kevin Kossi created Sacred Acoustics as a powerful way of getting past who we are not and reaching who we are.

To reach deep states of transcendental conscious awareness, including the realms Alexander experienced in his NDE, he listens regularly to Sacred Acoustics recordings. He works closely with Newell and Kossi to develop the most powerful sounds available to access such expansive states. “I meditate daily for two to three hours to regularly explore many facets of consciousness, including the love I experienced during my coma journey. Karen taught me that consciousness is better associated with love and the heart, rather than trying to isolate it in the brain and mind. Love is the basis of everything.  The fundamental fabric and energy of the universe, it is in many ways the proof of heaven. For thousands of years and across all cultures, psychics, mystics and prophets have brought us messages of this unconditional love at our very core,” enthuses Alexander.

Reader response from around the world to Proof of Heaven has proved to Alexander that there is tremendous interest in NDEs, consciousness and sound meditation. Since the book’s release, he has been speaking on the nature of consciousness and reality to a wide variety of audiences, from nurses and surgeons to corporations, interfaith groups and religious groups that include Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.

“I’m not some lone wolf working at waking up medical science and doctors. All types of individuals are hungry to hear about the evidence supporting our world as a universe where spirit and consciousness drive causality. They are also happy to let go of the simplistic notion of scientific materialism, which says that we humans are some random accident in the cosmos, that consciousness is a mere electrochemical process in the brain and that spiritual experiences are hallucinations of the brain,” advises Alexander.

As far as Alexander is concerned, the only concrete and real thing in existence is our consciousness, soul or spirit. “Consciousness, spirit, soul and our connectedness to one another, and all things are actually rock-solid real. The material realm, which is a cleverly wrought illusion, is now being dismantled by some materialists who are in a headlong rush to prove that we are all vibrating strings of energy in higher dimensional space-time,” he says

“We can all experience this journey by going within to find the truth of all existence. It is our birthright to know that we are deeply loved by an infinite power known by many names; Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, Krishna, Jehovah and others. In my NDE, this infinite power was experienced as a paradoxically dazzling darkness of brilliant light and the resonance of infinite and eternal Aum,” explains Alexander.

Cost for 7 p.m. workshop is $50. Presentation and VIP reception $125. For more information on Proof of Heaven: Journey of Science, Spirit and Sound on Feb. 19 at Unity, 2000 Unity Way, Naples, call 239-775-3009 or visit NaplesUnity.org.