Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife

Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, by Eben Alexander MD.  I am half way through this incredible story, moved to tears, and utterly astonished that the man is alive to share his journey to the centre of the universe.
I'd heard about this book from several colleagues and patients, so knew it was a "must read".  I remember the "Shack" was a book that came at me.  A bit like the Hound of Heaven. Eventually a friend gave me a copy as a gift of the Shack. Then Richard Rohr's book "Falling Upwards" was another that hounded me like this Eben Alexander masterpiece.
Reading Eben Alexander though is like reading the most extraordinary ER story set in the Holy.  He is a leading Harvard scientist, researcher, world renowned academic and surgeon.  I can read his celebrated technical and scientific papers in my foremost office journals.  Yet here is his story of not waking up because he hascontracted a rare and deadly meningitis.
The book is written on the outside and inside. On the outside it's all the doctors and nurses and family dealing with a patient and loved one in the Intensive Care Unit fighting to save a life long after it's known he's probably gone. The long tense days described are science, mystery, adventure and family love. 
On the inside it's Eben's story of his experience with spirituality.  It  is probably more than a Near Death Experience.
I'm reminded of Spiritual Brain by Mario de Beuregaard, the neuroscientists' book about his PET Scan research on Carmelite Nuns meditating.  He begins by laying out what is "science" and what is 'pseudoscience" describing how 'political and monetary' interests have worked to maintain the 'status quo' of luddite thinking about today's  Rennaissance in Science, where physics and spirituality are meeting full on.  What we think in the subatomic realm affects what we see. Creation is extremely creative indeed. 
Eben Alexander's timeless journey inward while his brain is  is a truly miraculous story.  I read it like I've been there with a deep sense of peace and hope and thanks.
Dr. Moody researched NDE's decades ago.  Nothing learned then has been disproven. Indeed there is even more substantial evidence of 'life after death', consciousness beyond the body. Since we've recorded brain waves stopping and heart stopping and patients reviving only to tell the people in the room what they were doing long after they were officially declared dead.
The limits of our science and understanding are what Kurt Vonnegut called "peepholes on reality'.
 Real science is humble and open minded, not so open minded that our brains fall out but a lot more mindful than the merely brainy ones would have us believe. The soul rejoices in the whole.

Kandinsky-Clerambault Syndrome: Differences in understanding a mental automatism syndrome

These are my rough notes from the Lecture. The presenter was remarkable, to say the least, understated, historical, and clinically astute. He made a very strong case for a syndrome, still relevant today, which seems to have been lost in the era of 'categorization' and "reductionism". In the end I couldn't help but wonder who to believe, Spitzer, or a number of psychiatrists as well as that great observer of human nature, William Shakespeare?(whose quotations animated the lecture) Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012

First Interdisciplinary Congress “Psychiatry and Related Sciences” Chairs; W. Gaebel (Germany) M. Mavreas (Greece)

 P.V Morozov (Russia) MD PHD Dr.SCi Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Advanced Medical Studies, Moscow
Kandinsky-Clerambault Syndrome: Differences in understanding a mental automatism syndrome

Set of interrelated symptons - pseudohallucinations, delusions of persecutions, First dx aftr Epstein in 1927 Spitzer - should be removed DSM4 - pseudohallucinatios Kaplan Sadock - consider it erotomania but not
Kandisky was psychiatrist and patient pseudohallucinations - as opposed to real hallucinations F.W. Hagen 1868 - “pseudohallucinatios “ auditory Baillarger - internal intellectual voices No a variety of sensory but belongs to thought
Kandisky described ‘internal ear’, ‘internal vision’ -pseudohallucination - when patient saw or listened to something in their mind as opposed to externally Kallbaum 1886 Kandinsky Pseudohallucinations of hearing vision “internal talk’ “pseudohallucinations in torrents - influx that is oniric (oneriod) in nature, the fabulousnes and tension of a plot with a patients active participation”
 This has been reported in epileptics as well. Brain imaging studies show that there are different areas of the brain involved in the experience of ‘pseudohallucinations’ as opposed to ‘hallucinations’

 Dr. Morozov shared this presentation as it is important in Russia and France but less well addressed by the DSM. He encouraged us to consider this as still an important distinction.

 (I commented that it was something we saw in addiction commonly and that interestingly it responded to treatment with antipsychotics suggesting an underlying brain disorder. )

Learning Dysfunction in Psychosis and Addiction, A. Heinz, Athens Conference

Dr. Heinz's presentation was excellent. The meat was in his slides. In my rough notes I included where he had published his imaging research but it really was interesting to see the graphs and images of the brain that were involved in each of the areas of research.  Fascinating cutting edge work. Remarkable privilege to be able to hear this man in person.  Great speaker.

(Note that Dr. Heinz has published in the world's most renown and adjudicated scientific, neurological and psychiatric journals - he presents his ideas so humbly and simply it's easy to be  lulled into not realizing what genius went into the original thought that has brought him such well earned respect in the  field of neuroscience research.)

Learning Dysfunction in Psychosis and Addiction

1. Heinz - Germany

Prof of Psychiatry Berlin

Valence and Arousal - charting underlying substrated

Boundary between neurology and psychiatry

Dopamine discharge - schizophrenia and addiction

Noted in Pavlov dog studies

Schultz et al, 1997

Brain is mathematically computing reward stimuli

Reward anticipation and Central Dopamine Release

-Cue, delay, target ‘

Knutsen et al J, of Neuroscience 2001

Shultz Science 1996

Ventral striatal activation during reard anticipation and motor reaction time

-Heinz and Schlagenhauf Sz Bull

Shows on scans

Alcohol dependent, depressed, adhd, mania- alteration impaired

If you are impaired in expectation of reward may not be motivated

Schizophrenia - dopamine dysfunction

Alcohol detoxification - downregulating 

impairs learning

heinz et al, Am j. Psych

Impaired reward associated learning in alcohol dependence and schizophrenia

Park, Heinz J. Neuroscience 2010

Lack of feedback related Prefrontal Cortex modulation, in alcoholics and reduced learning speed

Reduced VS (Ventral Striatum) activation during informative error processing in schizophrenia

Outcome in monetary reward task

Wrase et al, Neuroimage 2007

Bold response in mPFC and ventral striatum in schizophrenia

- sz brain activated for failure

• sz brain reacts to the negative

Severity of delusion negatively correlated with mPFC activent when successfuly versus non successfully avoiding loss

• feeling they don’t have control in environment
• Heiz - Biological Psychiatry 2009

Summary 

-Psychiatric disorder as alterations of basic learning mechanisms that interact with individual and social/cultural experience

-computation approaches to gentotype-phenotype interactions