PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2012
PAGE 35
Heaven is real, says neurosurgeon who claims to have visited the afterlife D
Dr. Eben Alexander
r. Eben Alexander has taught at Harvard Medical School and has earned a strong reputation as a neurosurgeon. And while Alexander says he's long called himself a Christian, he never held deeply religious beliefs or a pronounced faith in the afterlife. But after a week in a coma during the fall of 2008, during which his neocortex ceased to function, Alexander claims he experienced a life-changing visit to the afterlife, specifically heaven. "According to current medical understanding of the brain and mind, there is absolutely no way that I could have experienced even a dim and limited consciousness
during my time in the coma, much less the hyper-vivid and completely coherent odyssey I underwent," Alexander writes in the cover story of this week's edition of Newsweek. So what exactly does heaven look like? Alexander says he first found himself floating above clouds before witnessing, "transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamer like lines behind them." He claims to have been escorted by an unknown female companion and says he communicated with these beings through a method of correspondence that transcended language. Alexander says the messages he
received from those beings loosely translated as: "You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever." "You have nothing to fear." "There is nothing you can do wrong." From there, Alexander claims to have traveled to "an immense void, completely dark, infinite in size, yet also infinitely comforting." He believes this void was the home of God. After recovering from his meningitis-induced coma, Alexander says he was reluctant to share his experience with his colleagues but found comfort inside the walls of his church. He's chronicled his experience in a new book, "Proof of Heaven: A
‘He wouldn’t lay down or sleep’: Mother ‘murdered baby son in fit of rage when he wouldn’t stop crying’
T
he mother of the 13month-old baby whose body was found wrapped in a blanket and dumped in woods has been charged with his murder. Shelby Dasher, 20, was charged with second-degree murder after admitting to police she repeatedly struck her son Tyler in a rage because he was crying and 'wouldn't lay down, wouldn't go back to sleep'. She also admitted disposing of his body, which was found discarded near a cemetery about a mile from his home on Tuesday, hours after Dasher reported him missing. It followed a frantic four-hour emergency services search for the child. Dasher originally told police she overslept that morning and discovered him gone from his crib when she awoke after claiming she put her son to bed at 10.30pm on Monday night. Robert P. McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney, told reporters at a press conference today: 'At this point, there's no indication that we have that there's anyone else involved other than Miss Dasher.' He said that Dasher arrived home drunk at 2.30am on Tuesday. When her mother left for work at 7.30am, Tyler would not stop crying so she beat him to death.
What happened after that is 'a bit fuzzy', according to what she told prosecutors. Police and the FBI mounted a massive search while questioning the mother. They noted there was no forced entry to the home. Tyler's father, Joe Ellington, lives elsewhere in the St Louis area. McCulloch said the child died of blunt-force trauma to the head and body. He said that 'as far as we know' Dasher carried the body to the cemetery herself.
Tyler Dasher died from blunt force trauma to the head and body
TV host faints on-air, partner keeps pitching
A Shelby Dasher admitted beating her baby son to death when he wouldn't stop crying
Amanda Cradic (left) and Meagan Mayer (right) react as they learn the body of the son of their best friend had been found
guest host on QVC who fainted on the air in the middle of a product pitch says she's doing fine. Cassie Slane was selling a child-friendly computer tablet on the home shopping channel when she collapsed Sunday. The camera immediately cut away to a product shot as host Dan Hughes went on with the show and continued to talk about the item. On Facebook, Slane thanked
fans for their support and said she was feeling much better, while Hughes praised "the rapid response and immediate care that came to Cassie's side." Another QVC host, Carolyn Gracie, told her Facebook followers that low blood sugar was the culprit that caused Slane's fainting spell. QVC is based in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester.
Cassie Slane was selling a child-friendly computer tablet on the home shopping channel when she collapsed
neurosurgeon's journey into the afterlife," which will be published in late October. "I'm still a doctor, and still a man of science every bit as much as I was before I had my experience," Alexander writes. "But on a deep level I'm very different from the person I was before, because I've caught a glimpse of this emerging picture of reality. And you can believe me when I tell you that it will be worth every bit of the work it will take us, and those who come after us, to get it right."
Mother 'let her 9year-old son drive himself to school'
A
mother has been called 'irresponsible' after allowing her nine year old son drive himself to school. Tammy O'Neal said she allowed her son to take the wheel of her car 'because he wanted to'. Other parents at W. Reilly Brown Elementary School in Dover, Delaware, looked on in shock as the boy pulled up at the school at sitting behind the wheel of the Toyota Corolla car. O'Neal was in the passenger seat and took over control of the car after dropping her son off. Police called to the school were given a description of the car and arrested O'Neal a few hours later. During police interviews O'Neal, a single mum, said he son had pestered her to be allowed to drive and she gave in to his demands. O'Neal told officers she has allowed her son to drive since he was five years old in a field near their former home in Magnolia. Police chief Captain Tim Stamp said O'Neal had been irresponsible. 'It was an absolutely irresponsible decision made by the parent to allow her 9-year-old to drive,' Stump said. 'Not only is she putting her son at danger, but everyone else as well. Captain Stamp added: "He was apparently bugging his mother to let him drive to school.' O'Neal was charged with reckless endangering and endangering the welfare of a child. She was released on $1,000 bond.
Tammy O'Neal