
When Doctors Near Landing, Alamogordo Witness the Impossible
Dr. Sam Parnia's research at NYU Langone Health and previously at Stony Brook University has pushed the boundaries of resuscitation science while simultaneously gathering data on consciousness during cardiac arrest. Parnia's AWARE II study, the largest of its kind, placed visual targets in hospital rooms that could only be seen from a vantage point above the bed — testing whether out-of-body perceptions during cardiac arrest are veridical. While the study's results have been preliminary due to the low survival rate of cardiac arrest patients, the methodology represents a rigorous scientific approach to testing the central claim of NDEs: that consciousness can separate from the body. For physicians in Landing, Alamogordo who have encountered patients with out-of-body perceptions during cardiac arrest, Parnia's work demonstrates that mainstream science is taking these experiences seriously. Physicians' Untold Stories complements this research by providing the human dimension — the stories of individual patients and the physicians who cared for them.

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.

Physicians' Untold Stories
by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD • 4.5 stars (1018 reviews)
Miraculous experiences doctors are hesitant to share with their patients, or ANYONE!
Order on Amazon →Meant to awe, instruct, and inspire — stories that will convince even the harshest skeptic. — From the introduction to Physicians' Untold Stories
Medical Fact
Dr. Jeffrey Long's Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) has collected over 5,000 NDE accounts in more than 25 languages.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Landing, Alamogordo
Physicians practicing in Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico 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 Landing, Alamogordo 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 Landing, Alamogordo 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)
Medical Fact
The human heart beats approximately 100,000 times per day — about 2.5 billion times over a 70-year lifetime.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico
Mormon health practices near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico—including the Word of Wisdom's prohibitions on alcohol, tobacco, and coffee—produce measurable health benefits that epidemiological studies have documented. LDS communities show lower rates of cancer, heart disease, and substance abuse than demographically matched populations, suggesting that religiously motivated lifestyle restrictions can function as effective preventive medicine.
Our Lady of Guadalupe's influence on healthcare near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico extends far beyond the devotional candles in hospital chapels. For many Mexican-American patients, Guadalupe is the primary intercessor for healing—more trusted than any physician, more powerful than any medication. Doctors who display Guadalupe's image in their offices report higher trust levels with Hispanic patients, not because the image has power but because its presence signals cultural respect.
Medical Fact
The world's oldest known medical text is the Edwin Smith Papyrus from Egypt, dating to approximately 1600 BCE.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico
Petrified Forest and Painted Desert near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico have inspired ghost stories rooted in geological time—spirits so ancient they predate human habitation. Hospitals near these formations report a uniquely non-human quality to their hauntings: not the ghost of a person, but the ghost of a landscape, a prehistoric presence that watches modern medicine with the patience of something that has witnessed the rise and fall of species.
Native American spirit beliefs in the Southwest predate European medicine by millennia, and hospitals near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico exist on land where these beliefs remain potent. Navajo patients may refuse rooms where someone has recently died, not out of superstition but out of a deeply held understanding that the chindi—the ghost left behind after death—can cause illness in the living. Wise physicians accommodate this belief because the stress of violating it measurably impedes healing.
Did You Know?
The WHO estimates that depression will be the leading cause of disability worldwide by 2030.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Landing, Alamogordo
The Southwest's tradition of stargazing near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico—from the ancient Puebloan observatory at Chaco Canyon to modern astronomical research at Kitt Peak—creates a cultural context where questions about consciousness, the cosmos, and humanity's place in the universe are taken seriously. NDE research in the Southwest benefits from this cosmological orientation: the question 'where do we go when we die?' is a natural extension of 'where are we in the universe?'
Native American vision quests share structural features with NDEs that researchers near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico are beginning to explore systematically. Both involve a period of physical extremity, a departure from ordinary consciousness, an encounter with spiritual beings, the reception of a message, and a return to the body with new knowledge. Whether the vision quest induces a genuine NDE or merely mimics one is a question with profound implications for consciousness research.
Near-Death Experience Features
Percentage reporting each feature (van Lommel et al., 2001)
Did You Know?
Approximately 70% of medical decisions are based on laboratory test results, making pathology a cornerstone of diagnosis.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
The first blood bank was established in 1937 by Dr. Bernard Fantus at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
Medical Heritage in New Mexico
New Mexico's medical history is shaped by its tricultural heritage of Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo traditions. The state became a destination for tuberculosis patients in the late 19th century; the dry desert air was believed to be curative, and sanatoriums like the Valmora Industrial Sanatorium near Watrous (opened 1909) and St. Joseph Sanatorium in Albuquerque drew patients from across the country. The University of New Mexico School of Medicine, established in 1964, became a national leader in rural and Native American health, developing the Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) telehealth model in 2003 under Dr. Sanjeev Arora to bring specialist care to remote communities.
The Indian Health Service operates major facilities across New Mexico, including the Gallup Indian Medical Center and the Santa Fe Indian Hospital, serving Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache nations. Los Alamos National Laboratory, while primarily known for nuclear weapons development, has contributed significantly to radiation biology and medical physics research. Presbyterian Healthcare Services, founded in 1908 by the Presbyterian Church to serve Hispanic and Native American communities in remote areas, grew into the state's largest healthcare system. The state's curanderismo tradition—folk healing practiced by curanderos and curanderas—remains a vital complement to Western medicine in many New Mexican communities.
About the Book
Dr. Kolbaba has described the book as a bridge between medicine and spirituality — two worlds that rarely communicate.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in New Mexico
New Mexico's supernatural folklore is among the richest in the nation, blending Native American, Spanish colonial, and frontier traditions. La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, is perhaps the most pervasive legend in the state. In New Mexico's version, she is said to be a woman named Maria who drowned her children in the Rio Grande near Albuquerque or Santa Fe after being abandoned by her husband. Her wailing ghost is said to wander the acequias and riverbanks at night, searching for her children, and parents warn children to stay away from ditches after dark.
The KiMo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque, built in 1927 in Pueblo Deco style, is haunted by the ghost of Bobby Darnall, a six-year-old boy who was killed in 1951 when a water heater exploded in the theater's lobby. Performers and staff leave doughnuts on a shelf backstage as an offering to Bobby's spirit, believing that failing to do so will cause technical problems during shows. The Santuario de Chimayó in northern New Mexico, called the "Lourdes of America," is a pilgrimage site where the dirt from a small pit is believed to have miraculous healing powers—the church walls are lined with thousands of crutches, braces, and photographs left by those who claim to have been cured.
About the Book
Dr. Scott Kolbaba spent three years interviewing over 200 physicians for this book.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in New Mexico
Fort Bayard Medical Center (Grant County): Fort Bayard began as a military fort in 1866 and became a tuberculosis sanatorium for soldiers in 1899, later serving as a VA hospital. Thousands of patients died of TB on the grounds, and the large military cemetery adjacent to the facility holds over 400 graves. Staff and visitors report apparitions of soldiers in outdated uniforms walking the grounds, particularly near the cemetery and the old TB wards.
Lovelace-Bataan Memorial Hospital (Albuquerque): Originally built as Bataan Memorial Methodist Hospital in honor of the New Mexican soldiers who survived the Bataan Death March, this facility carries deep emotional weight. Staff have reported the apparition of a man in a World War II military uniform seen in the corridors at night, believed to be one of the Bataan veterans who died at the hospital. Lights flicker unexplainably in the older wings.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Research Finding
Sunlight exposure for 10-15 minutes per day promotes vitamin D synthesis, which supports immune function and bone health.
How This Book Can Help You
New Mexico, where curanderismo healing traditions coexist alongside modern medicine at institutions like UNM Hospital, provides a cultural framework where the unexplained phenomena Dr. Kolbaba documents in Physicians' Untold Stories are viewed not as anomalies but as part of a broader understanding of the boundary between life and death. The state's Project ECHO telemedicine model connects physicians across vast distances, creating a network where doctors in remote clinics can share extraordinary clinical experiences much as Dr. Kolbaba, at Northwestern Medicine, gathered accounts from colleagues who had witnessed events that transcended conventional medical explanation.
For curanderos and traditional healers near Landing, Alamogordo, New Mexico who've spent careers treating the spiritual dimensions of illness, this book represents a long-overdue acknowledgment from Western medicine. Every account of a physician encountering something inexplicable is, for the traditional healer, confirmation of what their tradition has always taught. This book is a bridge, and the traffic it carries flows in both directions.

Research Finding
Box breathing (4 counts in, 4 hold, 4 out, 4 hold) activates the parasympathetic nervous system within 3-4 cycles.
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Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud
Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5 stars from 1018 readers.
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