Vail Symposium talk explores near-death experiences

What have physicians across various fields learned as patients recount near-death experiences? How have their near-death experiences challenged what they learned in medical school and how have they understood them and incorporated them into their practice?

On Thursday, join neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander, emergency physician Dr. Jeff O’Driscoll, and radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long at Vail Interfaith Chapel at 6 p.m. for a discussion sharing their decades of experience.

“This has been a popular topic at Vail Symposium for many years and Dr. Eben Alexander is one of our most requested presenters,” said Vail Symposium executive director James Kenly. “We are honored to welcome him back with his esteemed colleagues and look forward to an intriguing update on this elusive topic.”

Alexander is an academic neurosurgeon whose career includes decades as a physician and associate professor at Harvard Medical School and revered teaching hospitals. He staunchly believed that the material world was all that existed until a brain infection left him in a week-long coma and drove him to the brink of death. Upon experiencing a transcendental near-death experience, he now works to unite science and spirituality. He shares the story of his journey in his New York Times bestselling book “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.”

As an emergency physician, O’Driscoll saw souls leave their bodies at the time of death, and he communicated with them. O’Driscoll’s gifts began in childhood, after the death of his older brother in a farm accident, and continue to the present with his daughter, a neonatal flight nurse, visiting him shortly after her death. O’Driscoll speaks internationally on near-death phenomena and recounts his shared-death experiences in his award-winning memoir, “Not Yet.”

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Long is a full-time radiation oncology physician practicing in Kentucky and a leading researcher in near-death experiences. Over 25 years ago, he founded the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation at NDERF.org, which hosts the world’s largest collection of scientifically studied near-death experiences with over 4,000 accounts. Long’s groundbreaking findings were featured in his New York Times bestselling book, “Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences.”