AP Photo

Eben Alexander, author of the bestseller Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, is only the latest in a long line of historical figures who has argued for the possibility of a disembodied state—that the human ‘soul’ or some such ineffable agent has the ability to leave the physical body, journey around the ethers, and return with a story, mythology or, in this particular case, confirmation that no matter what we do on this plane, we are loved and a better world awaits.