This Sunday, Oprah Winfrey sits down with Nobel laureate and New York Times best-selling author Elie Wiesel. As the voice of the internationally acclaimed Holocaust memoir Night, Elie was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

During his conversation with Oprah, he shares his thoughts on love, regret and abiding faith as he faced his own mortality when he had open-heart surgery at age 82. Detailing these experiences in his latest memoir, Open Heart, Elie opens up about his fears during this lifesaving operation and how going through it allowed him to re-examine his career and deepen his devotion to his family. Plus, find out what Elie hopes will be the destiny of his life's work.

Tune in Sunday, December 9, at 11 a.m. ET/PT. Watch on OWN or join our worldwide simulcast on Oprah.com or Facebook.com/supersoulsunday.

This Sunday, Oprah is sitting down with Dr. Eben Alexander to discuss the near-death experience he describes in his bestselling book, Proof of Heaven. The lessons this former skeptic learned from the experience can change how we all live. Today, Dr. Alexander is sharing his views on the holidays and how they have changed since his life-altering experience.

By Eben Alexander III, MD

December was a magical month for me as a boy—first came my birthday, followed two weeks later by Christmas! Many people get caught up in the Christmas spirit and all of the giving and loving of others that it engenders. This is so even if they do not fully believe in God and the divine linkage of humanity through the life of Jesus Christ. It is hard to avoid that magical feeling if one is at all open to the loving nature of the human spirit.

Looking back, I believe the joy I felt during the holiday season, focused on the miraculous event of Jesus' birth, had always depended, to some degree, on the extent to which I believed in the spiritual realm—in a divine, loving God. There was thus a lull in that lustrous magic, for I spent many years as an adult not enjoying such belief.

That all changed, dramatically and forever, after I returned from a week-long coma due to severe bacterial meningitis, from which I was not expected to recover. In the four years since my return, I have come to know that all-loving God as I never had before. Much of that awakening occurred immediately after I returned, for I was astonished by the power of my memories, much like others who have had similar near-death experiences. The real jolt came months later, though, as I was trying to explain how that realm (that was too real to be real) might have occurred in my brain. I finally concluded, based on all that we know about neuroscience, brain and mind, that it did not—and that it seemed that real because it was!

Such a radical shift in my worldview has changed my entire life, year-round. My every breath is so much richer for that experience, and for that knowing. Life has so much more purpose and meaning, for me and for those near and dear to me.

Overwhelming gratitude has dominated my mind ever since I returned from my coma. That gratitude comes into full bloom every holiday season through giving and love for others, when it is shared with so many who, at least for the holidays, can open more to the possibility of belief—in the Divine.

Clinging to life, neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander says he had a brush with death, went to heaven and met God. Once a skeptic, this man of science is now a believer. On Sunday, he opens up to Oprah about the near-death experience that changed his mind. Watch the first minute of this week's show.

Tune in Sunday at 11 a.m. ET/PT to watch the complete conversation on OWN.

 

Neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander was strictly a man of science, a skeptic of the existence of a soul or God, until a near-death experience changed his entire perspective on life and faith. In his best-selling book, Proof of Heaven, Dr. Alexander opens up about the rare form of meningitis that shut down part of his brain—and how he says he experienced heaven against all medical odds.

Now, Dr. Alexander is talking to Oprah. Their conversation, which Oprah says lasted for two hours, will air in a one-hour "Super Soul Sunday" on January 20. "I just talked to a man who saw God," Oprah says. "He talks about how that experience of heaven has now changed the way he lives here on earth and how it can change the way we all live."

Oprah says Dr. Alexander agrees with a belief she's always had: that newborns and young children are still attuned to a spiritual realm. Watch the video above for Oprah's thoughts and to see part of that discussion.