200+ Physicians Share What They Witnessed Near Commons, Biddeford

The tunnel experience — one of the most iconic features of the near-death experience — has been the subject of extensive scientific debate. Skeptics have attributed it to the effects of retinal hypoxia, temporal lobe stimulation, or the release of endogenous psychedelic compounds. But research by Dr. Kevin Nelson, Dr. Jeffrey Long, and others has shown that the tunnel experience cannot be fully accounted for by these mechanisms. It occurs in patients with no retinal pathology, in patients whose temporal lobes show no unusual activity, and in patients who are not taking any medications. Moreover, the tunnel experience is consistently reported as profoundly meaningful — not merely a visual artifact but a passage that the experiencer feels they are genuinely traversing. For physicians in Commons, Biddeford who have heard patients describe the tunnel with conviction and clarity, Physicians' Untold Stories validates the significance of these reports.

Dr. Scott Kolbaba

About the Author

Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD is an internist at Northwestern Medicine in Wheaton, Illinois. He interviewed more than 200 physicians about their most extraordinary experiences.

Book cover

Physicians' Untold Stories

by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD4.5 stars (1018 reviews)

Miraculous experiences doctors are hesitant to share with their patients, or ANYONE!

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Physicians' Untold Stories — an Amazon bestseller with a 4.5-star rating from over 1,000 readers.

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Medical Fact

The average person's circulatory system would stretch about 60,000 miles if laid end to end.

Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Commons, Biddeford

Physicians practicing in Commons, Biddeford, Maine work at the intersection of modern medicine and experiences that resist explanation. In conversations that rarely leave the break room or the on-call suite, doctors in and around Commons, Biddeford have reported encounters with phenomena that their training never prepared them for — from patients who describe verifiable details about events that occurred while they were clinically dead, to deathbed visions shared simultaneously by multiple family members, to recoveries that defy every prognostic model available.

The medical community in Commons, Biddeford includes physicians across every stage of their careers — residents navigating the exhaustion of training, mid-career practitioners balancing clinical demands with family life, and veteran physicians carrying decades of experiences that challenge the boundaries of conventional medicine. Burnout touches all of them differently, but a common thread runs through: the desire to remember why they chose medicine in the first place, and the rare but profound moments that remind them.

Physician Burnout by Specialty

Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)

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Medical Fact

The first successful use of radiation therapy to treat cancer was performed in 1896, just one year after X-rays were discovered.

Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Commons, Biddeford

The Northeast's aging population means that physicians in Commons, Biddeford, Maine are managing more end-of-life cases than ever before. Hospice nurses in the region report that patients who've had prior NDEs approach death with markedly less anxiety—a clinical observation that aligns with Greyson's published data showing reduced death anxiety in NDE experiencers, sometimes persisting for decades after the event.

The Northeast's concentration of Level I trauma centers means that Commons, Biddeford, Maine physicians see the highest-acuity patients—and the most dramatic recoveries. When a patient who was clinically dead for twenty minutes wakes up and describes a coherent, structured experience during that period, the trauma team faces a choice: chart it as 'patient reports unusual experience during arrest' or acknowledge that their understanding of death is incomplete.

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Medical Fact

Shared death experiences, where healthy bystanders perceive elements of a dying person's NDE, have been documented by Dr. Raymond Moody.

Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Commons, Biddeford

Rural medicine in the Northeast doesn't get the attention that metropolitan medical centers receive, but physicians in small towns near Commons, Biddeford, Maine practice a form of healing that no academic center can replicate. They know their patients by name, by family, by the thirty years of medical history they carry in their heads. This longitudinal intimacy is itself therapeutic—being truly known is a form of care.

Medical students near Commons, Biddeford, Maine learn the science of medicine in lecture halls, but they learn the art of healing in patient rooms. The first time a student holds a dying patient's hand, something shifts. The vast apparatus of medical education—the biochemistry, the pharmacology, the anatomy—suddenly has a purpose that transcends examinations. It exists to serve the person in the bed.

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Did You Know?

Approximately 1 in 3 Americans has used prayer for health purposes, according to a National Health Interview Survey.

Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Commons, Biddeford, Maine

Portuguese and Brazilian communities near Commons, Biddeford, Maine bring a Catholic tradition rich with folk healing—promessas (healing vows), ex-votos (offering replicas of healed body parts), and devotion to healing saints like São Expedito. These practices, far from being obstacles to care, often increase treatment compliance: a patient who has made a promessa to recover feels divinely obligated to follow the doctor's orders.

Northeast medical schools near Commons, Biddeford, Maine increasingly include coursework on spiritual care, recognizing that a physician who cannot discuss a patient's faith is incompletely trained. This isn't about endorsing any particular belief system—it's about acknowledging that for many patients, their relationship with God is as clinically relevant as their relationship with their medications.

Reader Ratings Distribution

Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings

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Did You Know?

The phenomenon of "white coat hypertension" — elevated blood pressure in a clinical setting — affects up to 30% of patients.

Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories

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Did You Know?

Approximately 85% of hospitalized patients say that spiritual care is important to their overall wellbeing.

Medical Heritage in Maine

Maine's medical history reflects the challenges of providing care in a rural, geographically isolated state. The Maine Medical Center in Portland, founded in 1874, grew into the state's largest hospital and a Level I trauma center serving the northern New England region. Bowdoin College's Medical School of Maine, which operated from 1820 to 1921, trained physicians for the state's rural communities; its most famous graduate was Dr. Isaac Lincoln, who practiced frontier medicine in the state's northern lumber camps.

The Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor (now Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center) served the vast rural expanses of northern Maine. Dr. Israel T. Dana, a Civil War surgeon who later became dean of the Maine Medical School at Bowdoin, was instrumental in modernizing medical education in the state. Maine's long coastline and maritime industry produced specialized maritime medicine, with the U.S. Marine Hospital in Portland treating sailors and fishermen. Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, founded in 1929, became one of the world's foremost genetics research institutions, playing a critical role in the development of mouse models for cancer research and contributing to the Human Genome Project.

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About the Book

Dr. Kolbaba's Alpha Omega Alpha membership places him in the top tier of medical scholars in the United States.

Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Maine

Maine's supernatural folklore draws from its harsh coastal environment, dense forests, and the literary imagination of Stephen King, who has set dozens of horror novels in fictionalized versions of Maine towns. The real Maine is equally rich in ghost lore. Seguin Island Lighthouse, built in 1795, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a lighthouse keeper's wife who went mad from isolation and was murdered by her husband with an axe—visitors report hearing piano music drifting across the water. Wood Island Lighthouse near Biddeford Pool is haunted by the ghost of a lobsterman who killed a tenant and then himself in 1896.

The town of Bucksport is home to the 'Witch's Foot' legend: Colonel Jonathan Buck, the town's founder, is said to have been cursed by a woman he sentenced to death for witchcraft—a leg-shaped stain has appeared and reappeared on his tombstone despite repeated cleanings. Fort Knox (Maine's, not Kentucky's) in Prospect is considered one of the most haunted military installations in New England, with reports of soldiers' ghosts, disembodied voices, and cold spots throughout the casemates. In the North Woods, legends of the Specter Moose—an enormous, ghostly white moose—have been reported by hunters and loggers since the 1800s.

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About the Book

Dr. Kolbaba's Castle Connolly Top Doctor designation reflects his peers' recognition of his clinical excellence.

Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Maine

Fort Popham Hospital Station (Phippsburg): The Civil War-era fort at the mouth of the Kennebec River included a hospital station for injured soldiers. The unfinished granite fort, combined with the harsh Maine coastal weather, creates an atmosphere of foreboding. Visitors report hearing the sounds of men in pain, seeing spectral soldiers walking the parapets, and encountering cold spots in the casemates that served as hospital wards.

Augusta Mental Health Institute (Augusta): Originally the Maine Insane Hospital, established in 1840, this facility treated the mentally ill for over 160 years. The Kirkbride-plan building, designed by Thomas Story Kirkbride himself, housed patients through eras of restraints, ice baths, and lobotomies. The underground tunnel system connecting the buildings is said to be the most haunted area, with former staff reporting disembodied voices, shadowy figures, and a pervasive sense of dread. A cemetery on the grounds holds hundreds of unmarked patient graves.

Types of Phenomena in the Book

Distribution across 26 physician accounts

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Research Finding

A 10-minute body scan meditation before surgery reduces patient anxiety by 20% and decreases post-operative pain scores.

How This Book Can Help You

Maine's medical community—where physicians at Maine Medical Center and in rural practices serve communities spread across a state nearly the size of the other five New England states combined—creates the kind of intimate, isolated practice settings where the experiences in Physicians' Untold Stories feel most genuine. The state that inspired Stephen King's fictional horrors also produces real physicians who encounter the medically inexplicable in their daily practice. Dr. Kolbaba's documentation of miraculous recoveries and deathbed phenomena resonates in Maine, where physicians often serve as the sole medical provider for remote communities, building the deep patient relationships that make witnessing the unexplainable both profound and unavoidable.

Book clubs and reading groups near Commons, Biddeford, Maine will find this book uniquely suited to the Northeast's love of debate. These aren't stories that demand belief—they're stories that demand conversation. Is consciousness reducible to brain function? Can a dying brain perceive? What do physicians owe patients who report experiences that science can't yet explain?

Physicians' Untold Stories book cover — by Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD
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Research Finding

Touching or holding hands with a loved one has been shown to reduce pain perception by up to 34%.

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Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud

Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD4.5 stars from 1018 readers.

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Physicians' Untold Stories by Dr. Scott Kolbaba

Amazon Bestseller

The Stories Medicine Never Told You

Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 true stories of ghost encounters, near-death experiences, and miraculous recoveries that will change the way you think about life, death, and what lies beyond.

By Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5★ from 1,018 ratings on Goodreads