
The Courage to Speak: Doctors Near Waterfront, Redmond Share Their Secrets
The concept of a "thin place"—a term borrowed from Celtic spirituality to describe locations where the boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds seems especially permeable—finds unexpected application in the hospitals of Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon. Healthcare workers who have spent years in clinical settings often develop an intuitive sense that certain rooms, certain corridors, and certain times carry a different quality—a quality that influences both patient experience and staff perception. "Physicians' Untold Stories" by Dr. Scott Kolbaba documents this sense without dismissing it, presenting accounts from physicians who perceived these "thin places" within the otherwise rigidly controlled environment of the hospital. For readers in Waterfront, Redmond, the book suggests that the places where we heal may carry properties that our blueprints and building codes do not capture.
Medical Fact
Nerve impulses travel at speeds up to 268 miles per hour — faster than a Formula 1 race car.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Waterfront, Redmond
The medical community in Waterfront, Redmond 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.
Waterfront, Redmond's healthcare landscape reflects broader patterns in Oregon's medical system — the pressures of modern practice, the isolation that comes from witnessing extraordinary events without a framework to discuss them, and the gradual erosion of meaning that drives so many physicians toward burnout. Yet it is precisely in communities like Waterfront, Redmond that the unexplained tends to surface most vividly, in moments that practicing physicians remember for the rest of their careers.
Medical Fact
Your body has enough DNA to stretch from the Earth to the Sun and back over 600 times.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Waterfront, Redmond
The Pacific Northwest's rain—persistent, gentle, and seemingly eternal near Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon—creates conditions for a specific kind of NDE aftereffect. Experiencers in the region report a heightened sensitivity to weather that persists for years after their NDE: the ability to feel barometric pressure changes in their bodies, an emotional response to rain that goes beyond mood to something they describe as 'communion.' The rain speaks to them, and they understand.
Pacific Northwest physicians near Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon who practice in the shadow of the Cascades carry a geological awareness that influences their response to NDE research. These doctors know that the mountains beneath which they work are sleeping volcanoes capable of destroying everything in minutes. This proximity to impermanent geology produces a humility about human knowledge—including medical knowledge—that makes them more receptive to phenomena that defy current understanding.
Medical Fact
Fingernails grow about 3.5 millimeters per month — roughly twice as fast as toenails.
Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Waterfront, Redmond
The Pacific Northwest's maker culture near Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon—DIY electronics, artisanal food production, handmade clothing—produces patients who approach their own healthcare with a maker's mentality. They research, experiment, build, and iterate. The physician who treats these patients as collaborators rather than passive recipients taps into a healing energy that the Pacific Northwest generates in abundance: the energy of people who believe they can build their way to better.
The natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest near Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon—mountains, forests, rivers, and coastline within a single day's drive—provides a healing environment that no hospital can replicate. Physicians who prescribe time in nature aren't being romantic; they're prescribing the most evidence-based therapy in the Pacific Northwest's pharmacy: immersion in an ecosystem that recalibrates the nervous system through beauty.
Physician Burnout by Specialty
Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)
Did You Know?
Medical school students in the U.S. typically complete over 5,000 hours of clinical rotations before graduating.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon
Pacific Northwest physicians near Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon who meditate daily describe a quality of attention that their non-meditating colleagues lack. This attention—focused, nonjudgmental, present—is itself a form of healing. The patient who is truly seen by their physician receives something that no test, no medication, and no procedure can provide: the knowledge that another human being is fully present with them in their suffering.
Meditation and mindfulness culture near Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon has become so mainstream in the Pacific Northwest that hospitals routinely offer MBSR courses, meditation rooms are standard in new construction, and physicians receive training in mindful communication. This isn't the counterculture anymore—it's the culture, and its influence on healthcare is measurable in reduced burnout, improved patient satisfaction, and better clinical outcomes.
Did You Know?
Dr. Kolbaba's research suggests that extraordinary experiences are not limited to any single medical specialty — they span all fields.

About Dr. Scott Kolbaba
Internist at Northwestern Medicine. Mayo Clinic trained. Interviewed 200+ physicians for this Amazon bestseller.
Physicians' Untold Stories — an Amazon bestseller with a 4.5-star rating from over 1,000 readers.
Did You Know?
Approximately 1 in 4 deaths worldwide is caused by infectious diseases — a rate that has declined dramatically in the past century.
Watch the Stories
About the Book
Dr. Kolbaba has seven children, including two adopted from Romania, and frequently credits his family as his greatest inspiration.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Oregon
Oregon's supernatural folklore is steeped in the dark forests and rugged coastline of the Pacific Northwest. The Bandage Man of Cannon Beach is a local legend dating to at least the 1950s—a figure wrapped in bloody bandages reportedly attacks parked cars along U.S. Route 101 near the coast, pounding on vehicles and leaving behind the smell of rotting flesh. Some versions trace the origin to a logger who was mangled in a sawmill accident.
The Shanghai Tunnels beneath Portland's Old Town are a network of underground passages once used, according to legend, to kidnap ("shanghai") men into forced labor on ships in the late 1800s. Tours of the tunnels report encounters with shadowy figures, cold spots, and the sensation of being grabbed. The White Eagle Saloon in Portland, a former hotel and bar built in 1905 that catered to Polish and Eastern European immigrants, is considered one of Oregon's most haunted buildings—bartenders and patrons report hearing a woman's scream from the upper floors, attributed to a former prostitute named Rose who was murdered in the building.
About the Book
The book spans a range of unexplained phenomena — from the gentle (comforting visions) to the dramatic (full apparitions).
Death, Grief, and Cultural Traditions in Oregon
Oregon's death customs reflect its progressive culture and deep connections to the natural environment. The state's Death with Dignity Act, passed in 1994, created a legal framework for physician-assisted death that has influenced end-of-life law nationwide. Oregon was also the first state to legalize human composting (natural organic reduction) as a burial alternative in 2021, reflecting Oregonians' environmental values. In the state's fishing communities along the coast, maritime memorial traditions include scattering ashes at sea and placing memorial wreaths in harbors. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs maintain traditional burial practices that honor the deceased's connection to the land, including placing grave goods of salmon, roots, and berries alongside the body.
Physician Burnout by Specialty
Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)
Research Finding
Emotional support during medical procedures reduces cortisol levels by 25% and decreases perceived pain intensity.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Oregon
Oregon State Hospital (Salem): The Oregon State Hospital, immortalized in Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' has operated since 1883 and has a deeply troubled history. In 1913, over 3,500 copper urns containing the cremated remains of unclaimed patients were discovered in a storage area—later memorialized in a dedicated facility. Staff in the older buildings reported seeing apparitions of patients and hearing screams from wards that were empty, particularly near the electroshock therapy rooms.
Multnomah County Hospital (Portland): The old Multnomah County Hospital, which served Portland's indigent population for decades before being absorbed into OHSU, was known for its overcrowded wards and high mortality rates. Staff working night shifts reported seeing the ghost of a nurse in an antiquated uniform making rounds in the corridors of the old building, checking on patients who were no longer there.
Research Finding
Writing about emotional experiences (expressive writing) has been shown to improve immune function and reduce healthcare visits.
How This Book Can Help You
Oregon's pioneering Death with Dignity Act places the state at the forefront of the medical and ethical questions surrounding end-of-life care that Dr. Kolbaba explores from a different angle in Physicians' Untold Stories. Where Oregon's law empowers patients to choose the timing of their death, Dr. Kolbaba's accounts reveal phenomena that suggest the dying process itself may hold dimensions beyond medical control. The physicians at OHSU and throughout Oregon's healthcare system, trained in the state's progressive tradition of honest conversations about death, represent the kind of practitioners most likely to openly share the unexplainable experiences that Dr. Kolbaba, at Northwestern Medicine, has made it his mission to document.
Indie bookstores near Waterfront, Redmond, Oregon—Powell's, Elliott Bay, Village Books, Dudley's—will shelve this book in sections that reflect the Pacific Northwest's genre-resistant intellectual culture. It's medicine. It's spirituality. It's memoir. It's philosophy. The Pacific Northwest's bookstores, like its readers, resist categorization.

“Dr. Kolbaba, a Mayo Clinic-trained internist, spent three years interviewing physicians who came forward with experiences they had never told anyone.”
— Physicians' Untold Stories

Read the Stories That Changed Everything
Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 stories that will challenge what you believe about life, death, and everything in between.
Buy on Amazon — 4.5★ (1,018 ratings)Free Interactive Wellness Tools
Explore our physician-designed assessment tools — free, private, and educational.
Other Neighborhoods in Redmond
Nearby Cities
Explore Other Countries
Related Reading
Frequently Asked Questions

Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud
Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5 stars from 1018 readers.
Order on Amazon →This page contains approximately 1,347 words of unique content.
