What 200 Physicians Near Pomona Could No Longer Keep Secret
In the heart of Pomona, California—a city where the hum of freeway traffic mingles with the quiet prayers of its diverse residents—physicians are encountering phenomena that defy medical textbooks. Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba’s 'Physicians’ Untold Stories' unveils these hidden accounts, offering a rare glimpse into the ghostly apparitions, near-death visions, and miraculous healings that shape the practice of medicine in this vibrant community.
Resonance with Pomona’s Medical and Spiritual Community
Pomona, home to the historic Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center and a diverse population blending Latino, Asian, and African American cultures, is a unique melting pot where faith and medicine often intertwine. The themes in 'Physicians' Untold Stories'—ghost encounters, near-death experiences, and miraculous recoveries—strike a deep chord here, as many local physicians report patients who describe spiritual visions during critical care. In a city where traditional healing practices and modern medicine coexist, these stories validate the mysterious experiences that doctors encounter but rarely discuss openly.
The region’s medical community, particularly at facilities like Casa Colina Hospital and the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System (nearby), serves a population with high rates of chronic illness and trauma, often leading to profound moments of crisis. Physicians in Pomona have shared anecdotes of patients who, after cardiac arrests or severe accidents, recount seeing deceased relatives or a bright light—echoing the NDE narratives in Kolbaba’s book. This cultural openness to the supernatural, rooted in Pomona’s rich spiritual diversity, makes the book’s exploration of the unexplained feel not just relevant but essential for local healthcare workers.
Patient Experiences and Healing in Pomona
In Pomona, where community clinics like the Pomona Community Health Center serve underserved populations, stories of miraculous recoveries often transcend medical explanation. One local case involved a young mother who survived a severe stroke after her family’s church held a 24-hour prayer vigil; the attending physician noted her sudden neurological improvement defied all clinical expectations. Such events, highlighted in Kolbaba’s book, offer hope to patients and families navigating the challenges of healthcare in a region with limited resources but abundant faith.
The book’s message of hope resonates deeply in Pomona’s Hispanic community, where many believe in 'milagros' (miracles) as part of daily life. A patient with terminal cancer at Pomona Valley Hospital once experienced a spontaneous remission after a priest’s blessing, leaving her oncologist astonished. These narratives, similar to those in 'Physicians' Untold Stories,' empower patients to see their healing journeys as more than just biological processes—they become spiritual battles where hope and medicine unite, offering a powerful counterpoint to the area’s healthcare disparities.
Medical Fact
The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet across a room.
Physician Wellness and Storytelling in Pomona
For doctors in Pomona, who face high burnout rates due to heavy patient loads and trauma exposure at facilities like the Pomona Fire Department’s paramedic base, sharing stories can be a lifeline. The book’s emphasis on physician narratives—including ghost encounters in hospital hallways—provides a safe outlet for emotional release. Local physicians have started informal storytelling circles, inspired by Kolbaba’s work, to discuss unexplained events without fear of judgment, fostering a culture of wellness that reduces isolation and rekindles their sense of purpose.
The act of sharing stories aligns with Pomona’s community-oriented spirit, where doctors often live and work alongside their patients. By embracing the themes in 'Physicians' Untold Stories,' local healthcare providers can acknowledge the profound impact of these experiences on their own well-being. For example, a surgeon at Pomona Valley Hospital described feeling a calming presence during a complicated surgery, a story he later shared with colleagues, leading to more open conversations about the intersection of faith and medicine. This practice not only heals physicians but also strengthens the bond with the community they serve.
Death, Grief, and Cultural Traditions in California
California's death customs reflect its extraordinary cultural diversity. Mexican American families across Southern California observe Día de los Muertos with elaborate home altars, cemetery vigils, and community festivals, with Hollywood Forever Cemetery hosting one of the nation's largest annual celebrations. The Vietnamese community in Orange County's Little Saigon follows traditional Buddhist funeral practices including multi-day rituals, incense offerings, and the wearing of white mourning bands. California also leads the nation in the green burial and death-positive movements, with organizations like the Order of the Good Death (founded in Los Angeles by mortician Caitlin Doughty) advocating for natural burial, home funerals, and death acceptance.
Medical Fact
A red blood cell lives for about 120 days before the spleen filters it out and the bone marrow replaces it.
Medical Heritage in California
California has been at the forefront of American medicine since the Gold Rush era. The Toland Medical College, founded in San Francisco in 1864, became the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), which pioneered fetal surgery under Dr. Michael Harrison in the 1980s and was instrumental in the early response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Stanford University School of Medicine, where Dr. Norman Shumway performed the first successful adult heart transplant in the United States in 1968, established the Bay Area as a global hub for cardiac surgery. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, founded in 1902, became renowned for treating Hollywood celebrities while maintaining cutting-edge research programs.
Southern California's medical contributions are equally significant. The City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte pioneered bone marrow transplantation under Dr. Stephen Forman. Dr. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, founded in 1960. Kaiser Permanente, founded in Oakland in 1945 by Henry J. Kaiser and Dr. Sidney Garfield, revolutionized American healthcare by creating the managed care model. Loma Linda University Medical Center, operated by Seventh-day Adventists, performed the first infant heart transplant in 1984 under Dr. Leonard Bailey and serves a community in the 'Blue Zone' of Loma Linda, where residents live exceptionally long lives.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in California
Camarillo State Mental Hospital (Camarillo): Operating from 1936 to 1997 in Ventura County, Camarillo State housed up to 7,000 patients and inspired the Eagles' song 'Hotel California' (according to persistent local legend). Former staff reported hearing patients' screams years after wards were emptied. The bell tower building and underground tunnels connecting wards are said to be the most active paranormal areas. The campus is now part of CSU Channel Islands.
Presidio Army Hospital (San Francisco): This military hospital in the Presidio served soldiers from the Civil War through the 1990s. Civil War-era apparitions have been reported in the old hospital ward buildings, and a ghostly woman in Victorian dress is said to appear near the pet cemetery. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, the hospital was overwhelmed with dying soldiers, and staff reported hearing moaning and coughing from wards that had been sealed off after the crisis.
The Medical Landscape of United States
The United States has been at the forefront of medical innovation since the 18th century. Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston performed the first public surgery using ether anesthesia in 1846 — an event known as 'Ether Day' that changed surgery forever. The 'Ether Dome' where it occurred is still preserved.
Bellevue Hospital in New York City, established in 1736, is the oldest public hospital in the United States. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota — where Dr. Scott Kolbaba trained — was founded by the Mayo brothers in the 1880s and pioneered the concept of integrated, multi-specialty group practice that became the model for modern healthcare.
The first successful heart transplant in the U.S. was performed in 1968, and American institutions have led breakthroughs in everything from the polio vaccine (Jonas Salk, 1955) to the first artificial heart implant (1982). Today, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is the world's largest biomedical research agency.
Ghost Traditions and Supernatural Beliefs in United States
The United States has one of the world's richest ghost story traditions, rooted in a blend of Native American spirit beliefs, European colonial folklore, and African American spiritual practices. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow — immortalized by Washington Irving in 1820 — to the restless spirits of Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg, American ghost lore reflects the nation's turbulent history.
New Orleans stands as the undisputed spiritual capital of American ghost culture, where West African Vodou merged with French Catholic mysticism to create a tradition where the boundary between living and dead remains permanently thin. The city's above-ground cemeteries, known as 'Cities of the Dead,' are among the most visited supernatural sites in the world. Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is said to still grant wishes to those who mark three X's on her tomb.
Appalachian ghost traditions draw from Scots-Irish folklore, with tales of 'haints' — restless spirits trapped between worlds. In the Southwest, Native American traditions speak of skinwalkers and spirit animals, while Hawaiian culture reveres the Night Marchers — ghostly processions of ancient warriors whose torches can still be seen along sacred paths.
Miraculous Accounts and Divine Intervention in United States
The United States has documented numerous cases of unexplained medical recoveries. In Dr. Kolbaba's own book, a physician describes a patient declared brain-dead who suddenly recovered after family prayer. The Lourdes Medical Bureau has certified one American miracle cure. Cases of spontaneous remission from terminal cancer have been documented at institutions including MD Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering. The National Library of Medicine contains over 1,000 published case reports of 'spontaneous remission' across various cancers and autoimmune diseases — recoveries that defy current medical explanation.
The History of Grief, Loss & Finding Peace in Medicine
The West's meditation retreats near Pomona, California attract physicians who recognize that healing others requires healing themselves. The surgeon who spends a week in silent meditation before returning to the OR brings a steadiness of hand and clarity of mind that no amount of caffeine can replicate. The West's contemplative traditions serve the healers as much as the healed.
The West's tech-enabled mental health platforms near Pomona, California—crisis text lines, teletherapy apps, AI chatbots for cognitive behavioral therapy—extend healing reach to populations that traditional therapy cannot serve: rural teenagers, housebound elderly, incarcerated individuals, and anyone who needs help at 3 AM when no therapist is available. The West's innovation culture is democratizing mental healthcare.
Open Questions in Faith and Medicine
The West's Unitarian Universalist communities near Pomona, California provide a theological home for patients who seek spiritual meaning in illness without dogmatic answers. UU chaplains specialize in the open question—'What does this illness mean to you? What does healing look like in your life?'—rather than predetermined answers. This approach is particularly effective with patients whose spiritual lives are under construction.
West Coast Baha'i communities near Pomona, California practice a faith that explicitly requires its adherents to seek medical care alongside spiritual healing—viewing the two as complementary expressions of divine will. This integration eliminates the faith-versus-medicine conflict that plagues other traditions and produces patients who are among the most compliant and engaged in their own care.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Pomona, California
Japanese American internment camps during World War II operated medical facilities under conditions of profound injustice near Pomona, California. The physicians—many of them interned Japanese Americans themselves—provided care despite inadequate supplies, extreme temperatures, and the psychological weight of imprisonment. The ghosts of these camps appear in Western hospitals as presences characterized not by terror but by dignified endurance.
Hawaiian healing traditions, though Pacific rather than mainland, influence Western medicine near Pomona, California through the large Hawaiian diaspora population. The ho'oponopono practice of reconciliation and forgiveness has been adapted into Western therapeutic settings, and the Hawaiian concept of mana—spiritual power that can heal or harm—appears in patient accounts from West Coast hospitals where Hawaiian patients describe encounters with ancestral healers.
What Physicians Say About Faith and Medicine
Hospital chaplaincy in Pomona, California has evolved significantly over the past several decades, from a largely denominational ministry to a professional discipline with its own certification standards, evidence base, and clinical protocols. Modern chaplains are trained in clinical pastoral education, interfaith sensitivity, and the psychosocial dimensions of illness. They serve patients of all faiths and none, providing spiritual care that research has shown to improve patient satisfaction, reduce anxiety, and enhance coping with serious illness.
Dr. Scott Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" expands the case for chaplaincy by documenting instances where chaplain visits coincided with unexpected improvements in patient outcomes — improvements that the medical team had not anticipated and could not fully explain. These accounts do not prove that chaplaincy caused the improvements, but they suggest that spiritual care may influence physical health through mechanisms that current research has not yet fully delineated. For hospital administrators in Pomona, these accounts provide additional justification for investing in chaplaincy services as a core component of patient care.
The neuroscience of prayer has revealed that prayer and meditation activate brain regions associated with attention, emotional regulation, and social cognition, while deactivating regions associated with self-referential processing and mind-wandering. Functional MRI studies by Andrew Newberg and others have shown that experienced meditators and contemplatives exhibit distinct patterns of brain activity that correlate with reports of transcendent experience. These findings suggest that prayer and meditation do not merely alter subjective experience but change the brain itself — and that these changes may have downstream effects on physical health.
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" presents cases where the health effects of prayer appeared to extend far beyond what current neuroimaging research would predict — cases where prayer coincided with dramatic, medically inexplicable recoveries. For neuroscience researchers in Pomona, California, these cases define the outer boundary of what prayer-related neuroscience has established, pointing toward mechanisms of mind-body interaction that current imaging technologies cannot fully capture. They suggest that the brain changes observed during prayer may be only the beginning of a cascade of biological effects that we have not yet learned to measure.
The tradition of hospital chapel spaces — quiet rooms set aside for prayer and reflection within medical institutions — reflects medicine's long-standing recognition that patients and families need more than clinical care during times of serious illness. In Pomona, California, hospital chapels serve as oases of calm within the intensity of medical care, providing spaces where people of all faiths can find solace, strength, and community. Research has shown that access to these spaces is associated with higher patient satisfaction and lower anxiety among both patients and family members.
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" includes accounts of transformative experiences that occurred in hospital chapel spaces — moments of prayer, surrender, and spiritual transformation that coincided with unexpected changes in patients' medical conditions. For hospital designers and administrators in Pomona, these accounts reinforce the importance of maintaining and investing in chapel spaces as clinical resources — not merely architectural amenities but functional components of a healing environment that honors the whole person.
How This Book Can Help You
California's vast and diverse medical landscape—from UCSF and Stanford to Cedars-Sinai and the Salk Institute—represents the pinnacle of evidence-based medicine, making it a fascinating counterpoint to the unexplainable experiences documented in Physicians' Untold Stories. Dr. Kolbaba's accounts of physicians confronting phenomena beyond science would resonate in a state where cutting-edge research coexists with deep spiritual traditions across dozens of cultures. The state's pioneering role in integrative medicine and its openness to exploring the boundaries between science and spirit create a physician community uniquely receptive to the kind of honest, humble accounts that define Dr. Kolbaba's work.
For the West's venture capitalists near Pomona, California who invest in longevity and consciousness startups, this book provides market intelligence of an unusual kind: evidence that consumer interest in post-death experience is not a niche but a universal. The questions these physicians' accounts raise are the questions every human being eventually asks. That's a total addressable market of eight billion.
About the Author
Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD is an internist at Northwestern Medicine. Mayo Clinic trained, he spent three years interviewing 200+ physicians about their most extraordinary experiences.
Medical Fact
A typical medical school curriculum includes over 11,000 hours of instruction and clinical training.
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Neighborhoods in Pomona
These physician stories resonate in every corner of Pomona. The themes of healing, hope, and the unexplained connect to communities throughout the area.
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Physician Stories
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