Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Believing in the afterlife is one thing… proving it is another.
This year, people from around the world competed in an essay contest providing their rationale for life after death. Nearly $2 million in prize money was awarded with Las Vegas entrepreneur Robert Bigelow putting up the prize money. Jeffrey Mishlove took home half a million dollars for the winning essay.
Dr. Eben Alexander, author of “Proof of Heaven,” does not need to be convinced–he lived it. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander was taught that although NDEs feel real, they are nothing more than fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.
Then, Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness and shut down completely. Alexander spent a week in a coma. As his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back. Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.
Mishlove and Alexander come together to tackle big questions such as, what is the best evidence for postmortem survival of human consciousness? How can we accommodate this evidence within a contemporary scientific and philosophical framework? Where is research on postmortem survival leading? Join the Vail Symposium for a program that will plumb the depths of belief on this consequential topic.
Believing in the afterlife is one thing… proving it is another.
This year, people from around the world competed in an essay contest providing their rationale for life after death. Nearly $2 million in prize money was awarded with Las Vegas entrepreneur Robert Bigelow putting up the prize money. Jeffrey Mishlove took home half a million dollars for the winning essay.
Dr. Eben Alexander, author of “Proof of Heaven,” does not need to be convinced–he lived it. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander was taught that although NDEs feel real, they are nothing more than fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.
Then, Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness and shut down completely. Alexander spent a week in a coma. As his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back. Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.
Mishlove and Alexander come together to tackle big questions such as, what is the best evidence for postmortem survival of human consciousness? How can we accommodate this evidence within a contemporary scientific and philosophical framework? Where is research on postmortem survival leading? Join the Vail Symposium for a program that will plumb the depths of belief on this consequential topic.
