The Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud in Foxborough, Burlington

The transformation that occurs in people who have had near-death experiences is one of the most well-documented and least-disputed findings in NDE research. Studies by Dr. Bruce Greyson, Dr. Kenneth Ring, and Dr. Jeffrey Long have consistently shown that NDE experiencers become more compassionate, less materialistic, more spiritually oriented, and less fearful of death after their experiences. These transformations are often dramatic and permanent, persisting for decades after the NDE. Physicians' Untold Stories documents several such transformations, as witnessed by the patients' treating physicians in Foxborough, Burlington and elsewhere. For Foxborough, Burlington readers, these transformation stories carry a message that extends beyond the question of what NDEs are: they suggest that contact with whatever lies beyond death makes us more fully human.

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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"Amazing Tales. Doctor's book details unexplainable outcomes." — Wheaton Suburban Life

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Medical Fact

Many NDE experiencers report that earthly time felt meaningless during the experience — minutes felt like hours or eternity.

Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Foxborough, Burlington

Physicians practicing in Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont 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 Foxborough, Burlington 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 Foxborough, Burlington 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

Researchers have proposed quantum coherence in microtubules (Penrose-Hameroff Orch-OR theory) as a possible mechanism for consciousness surviving clinical death.

Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont

The Northeast's concentration of medical schools means that Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont has an unusually high population of people trained to observe, document, and analyze. When these trained observers report ghostly encounters in hospitals, the accounts tend to be precise, detailed, and maddeningly resistant to conventional explanation. A hallucination doesn't leave EMF readings. A draft doesn't turn on a cardiac monitor.

Ivy League medical schools have their own quiet folklore, rarely published but widely whispered. At teaching hospitals near Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont, anatomy lab cadavers have been the subject of unexplained events for generations. Doors lock and unlock themselves, dissection tools rearrange overnight, and more than one medical student has reported hearing a whispered 'thank you' while studying alone.

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Medical Fact

NDE researchers distinguish between "pleasurable" NDEs (80-85%) and "distressing" NDEs (15-20%), both of which produce lasting personality changes.

Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Foxborough, Burlington

The Northeast's harsh winters create conditions that occasionally produce accidental hypothermia cases near Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont—patients whose core temperatures drop below 80°F, whose hearts stop, and who are rewarmed and resuscitated hours later. These cases produce some of the most detailed NDE reports in the medical literature because the brain's reduced metabolic demand during hypothermia creates a wider window of potential consciousness.

The concentration of medical research institutions in the Northeast means that Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont physicians have access to an unusually rich body of consciousness research. From Columbia's neuroscience labs to Harvard's Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative, the intellectual infrastructure for studying NDEs exists—what's been lacking is the institutional courage to use it.

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Did You Know?

The NIH has funded research into meditation, prayer, and mind-body interventions totaling over $500 million in the past two decades.

Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Foxborough, Burlington

Emergency departments near Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont are places where the full spectrum of human suffering arrives without appointment. A heart attack at 2 AM, a child's broken arm on Christmas morning, an overdose on a Sunday afternoon. The ED physicians who staff these departments are the last safety net, and their willingness to care for whoever walks through the door—regardless of insurance, identity, or hour—is healing in its most democratic form.

Teaching hospitals near Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont are places where hope is manufactured daily through the unglamorous work of clinical trials. Each patient who enrolls in a study is placing their hope not just in their own recovery but in the possibility that their experience—good or bad—will help someone they'll never meet. The Northeast's research infrastructure turns individual suffering into collective progress.

Physician Burnout by Specialty

Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)

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Did You Know?

Dr. Kolbaba's book has helped readers in over 40 countries find comfort, hope, and a new perspective on what happens when we die.

Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories

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Did You Know?

An estimated 50% of physicians believe in some form of afterlife, according to surveys conducted by medical journals.

Medical Heritage in Vermont

Vermont's medical history is anchored by the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, established in 1822, making it the seventh-oldest medical school in the nation. The medical school's early faculty included Dr. John Pomeroy, who championed anatomical dissection at a time when it was controversial and illegal in many states. The University of Vermont Medical Center (formerly Fletcher Allen Health Care) in Burlington serves as the state's only academic medical center and tertiary referral hospital, treating patients from Vermont and northern New York. Vermont was a pioneer in establishing community health centers; the state's network of federally qualified health centers ensures access in isolated rural communities.

Vermont holds a dark chapter in American eugenics history. The Vermont Eugenics Survey, conducted from 1925 to 1936 under the direction of Henry Perkins at UVM, targeted the Abenaki people and French-Canadian families deemed "unfit" for forced sterilization. This program contributed to the near-erasure of Abenaki identity in the state. Brattleboro Retreat, established in 1834, was one of New England's first private psychiatric hospitals and initially embraced the progressive "moral treatment" philosophy of care. The state's commitment to mental health reform continued when Vermont became an early adopter of community-based mental health services, largely dismantling its institutional system.

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About the Book

The book has been used as assigned reading in courses on medical humanities at several universities.

Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Vermont

Vermont's supernatural folklore reflects its remote Green Mountain landscape and tight-knit communities. The ghost of Emily's Bridge in Stowe—Gold Brook Covered Bridge—is one of the state's most famous haunted locations. According to legend, a young woman named Emily hanged herself from the bridge in the 19th century after being jilted by her lover, and her ghost scratches cars that pass through at night, leaving claw marks on roofs and doors. Visitors report hearing a woman's screams and the sound of a rope creaking.

The Green Mountain State also has a rich tradition of phantom hitchhiker stories, particularly along Route 100 through the mountain passes. Drivers report picking up a young woman who directs them to a house and then vanishes from the back seat; upon reaching the house, they are told the woman has been dead for years. Eddy House in Chittenden was the 19th-century home of the Eddy Brothers, William and Horatio, who conducted séances that attracted national attention—journalist Henry Steel Olcott investigated in 1874 and documented materializations that he claimed to have witnessed, later publishing them in "People from the Other World," which helped launch the Spiritualist movement in America.

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About the Book

The book includes a chapter about a physician who was an avowed atheist and whose experience fundamentally changed his worldview.

Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Vermont

Brattleboro Retreat (Brattleboro): Founded in 1834 as the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, the Brattleboro Retreat is one of the oldest psychiatric facilities in New England. The historic campus, with buildings dating to the Civil War era, is associated with reports of apparitions in the older dormitory wings, particularly a woman in Victorian dress seen in the former women's ward. Staff have described hearing whispered conversations and footsteps in corridors that are empty and locked.

Vermont State Hospital (Waterbury): The Vermont State Hospital for the Insane in Waterbury operated from 1891 until it was severely damaged by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Before its destruction, staff reported numerous paranormal experiences including doors that opened on their own, cold spots in patient rooms, and the silhouette of a man seen standing in windows of unoccupied wards. The hospital's patient cemetery, with over 400 burials, was said to be particularly unsettling after dark.

Types of Phenomena in the Book

Distribution across 26 physician accounts

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Research Finding

Patients who laugh regularly have 40% lower levels of stress hormones compared to those who rarely laugh.

How This Book Can Help You

Vermont, where the Larner College of Medicine trains physicians for rural New England communities and the state's progressive approach to death includes both green burials and home funerals, offers a setting where the natural dying process is more visible and intimate than in any urban medical center. Dr. Kolbaba's Physicians' Untold Stories speaks to the experiences of doctors who are present for the full, unhurried arc of dying—the kind of presence that Vermont's rural physicians, serving small communities where doctor and patient are often neighbors, embody. This mirrors Dr. Kolbaba's own philosophy, developed through Mayo Clinic training and Northwestern Medicine practice, that physicians must be willing to witness and acknowledge what happens at the threshold of death.

Dr. Kolbaba's accounts of physicians encountering the unexplainable resonate with particular force in Foxborough, Burlington, Vermont, where the Northeast's rigorous medical culture makes such admissions professionally risky. The physicians in this book aren't mystics—they're trained scientists who saw something that didn't fit their training, and had the courage to say so.

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

Walking 30 minutes per day reduces the risk of heart disease by 19% and the risk of stroke by 27%.

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Physicians' Untold Stories by Dr. Scott Kolbaba

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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