Scan barcode
A review by diz_tn
The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife by Eben Alexander
3.0
Not what I expected based on the title and the author.
Since Alexander is a scientist, I expected him to lay out a logical argument for the afterlife and back it up with research, religious mythology stories, and anecdotes from ordinary people. That is what the title implies, after all.
Instead, the book felt more like a stream of consciousness writing, with no logical structure or order to the chapters or to the "evidential" anecdotes. There were no thesis statements at the beginning of chapters, no conclusions at the end of chapters, nothing. Far from a "map", I couldn't tell you where the book had been or was going at any point in it.
I recall 3 very short mentions of research specifically on the afterlife and a handful of tidbits about the brain and consciousness from the neuroscience perspective. Alexander mentions many religious views of the afterlife, that is true, but like the rest of the book, there was no rhyme or reason for when they appeared in the text. They were sprinkled like fairy dust throughout, as if throwing a religious reference into a section would make it more believable.
Throughout the entire book, Alexander references the details of his own experience without fully explaining it. I understand that was done in a previous book. However, nothing about the blurb or title suggested I needed to read the previous book in order to make sense of this one.
I'm not disagreeing with Alexander's premise. On the contrary, that's why I wanted to read this book. However, I feel he didn't have a clear view of what audience he wanted to target - religious folks, scientists, those who'd had NDEs? - and thus used a shotgun approach to scatter his ideas in the hopes to reach the most people and ended up failing at reaching any of them.
For a much better book on a similar topic read [b:Impossible Realities: The Science Behind Energy Healing, Telepathy, Reincarnation, Precognition, and Other Black Swan Phenomena|14343120|Impossible Realities The Science Behind Energy Healing, Telepathy, Reincarnation, Precognition, and Other Black Swan Phenomena|Maureen Caudill|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1340796241s/14343120.jpg|19985033] to see how I feel this type of writing should be done.
--------
I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.
Since Alexander is a scientist, I expected him to lay out a logical argument for the afterlife and back it up with research, religious mythology stories, and anecdotes from ordinary people. That is what the title implies, after all.
Instead, the book felt more like a stream of consciousness writing, with no logical structure or order to the chapters or to the "evidential" anecdotes. There were no thesis statements at the beginning of chapters, no conclusions at the end of chapters, nothing. Far from a "map", I couldn't tell you where the book had been or was going at any point in it.
I recall 3 very short mentions of research specifically on the afterlife and a handful of tidbits about the brain and consciousness from the neuroscience perspective. Alexander mentions many religious views of the afterlife, that is true, but like the rest of the book, there was no rhyme or reason for when they appeared in the text. They were sprinkled like fairy dust throughout, as if throwing a religious reference into a section would make it more believable.
Throughout the entire book, Alexander references the details of his own experience without fully explaining it. I understand that was done in a previous book. However, nothing about the blurb or title suggested I needed to read the previous book in order to make sense of this one.
I'm not disagreeing with Alexander's premise. On the contrary, that's why I wanted to read this book. However, I feel he didn't have a clear view of what audience he wanted to target - religious folks, scientists, those who'd had NDEs? - and thus used a shotgun approach to scatter his ideas in the hopes to reach the most people and ended up failing at reaching any of them.
For a much better book on a similar topic read [b:Impossible Realities: The Science Behind Energy Healing, Telepathy, Reincarnation, Precognition, and Other Black Swan Phenomena|14343120|Impossible Realities The Science Behind Energy Healing, Telepathy, Reincarnation, Precognition, and Other Black Swan Phenomena|Maureen Caudill|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1340796241s/14343120.jpg|19985033] to see how I feel this type of writing should be done.
--------
I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.