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Articles by Michael Egnor
The Immortal Mind with Michael Egnor
Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print Secrets of the Human Body Episode 6 View at YouTube Can your mind survive if your brain is severely damaged? Acclaimed neurosurgeon Michael Egnor delves into what the science shows, drawing on research of near death experiences and minimally conscious individuals. He argues: “There is a disconnect between at least the conceptual powers of the human soul and the functioning of the brain.
Can the Mind Be Explained by the Brain?
Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print Secrets of the Human Body Episode 5 View at YouTube Is the human mind fully explained by the physical brain? Acclaimed neurosurgeon Michael Egnor explores why there may be a lot more going on with our minds than we think in this episode of Secrets of the Human Body. Watch more episodes at Secrets of the Human Body.
Morality Is Unintelligible Without Free Will: A Reply to Jerry Coyne
University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne has now posted, at his blog, Why Evolution Is True, a reply to a talk I gave in March at the 2026 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. In the talk, presented by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, I discussed the reality of free will, and criticized the coterie of scientists, specifically neuroscientist Sam Harris, primatologist Robert Sapolsky, and Coyne himself, who deny it.
Free Will Won’t Be Vanquished — Michael Egnor
Despite rumors of its death from the likes of Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne, and Robert Sapolsky, free will is alive and … willful. Against the naysayers, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor offers a multi pronged defense of free will, which he defines as the genuine ability to choose among alternatives.
Boek | Het onsterfelijke bewustzijn - Michael Egnor
In dit baanbrekende boek levert neurochirurg Michael Egnor op basis van 40 jaar ervaring en meer dan 7000 hersenoperaties het bewijs voor het bestaan van de ziel. Veel wetenschappers en artsen geloven hier niet in en gaan ervan uit dat de mens alleen uit cellen en weefsel bestaat en volledig wordt gecontroleerd door een fysiek orgaan in het hoofd: de hersenen. Egnor laat echter zien dat zij het bij het verkeerde eind hebben en dat het brein alleen niet voldoende is om de geest te verklaren.
How Changing Your Mind Can Physically Alter Your Brain
Watch Episode Episode 2209 With Michael Egnor Guest(s) Dr. Lee Warren Duration 00:52:10 Download Audio File (71.6 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43726/2209.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:52:10 | ID The Future listeners now get to enjoy two episodes each month from our sister podcast Mind Matters News, a production of the Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial...
Science, God, and Truth: Michael Shermer and Michael Egnor
Watch Episode Duration 01:10:25 Download Audio File (101.6MB) https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/40634/ep385.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 01:10:25 | Before we get to today’s episode, a quick reminder: In the past, we’ve released interviews in segments over multiple episodes, but we’ve found that this can fragment attention.
Egnor vs. Shermer: God, Science, and the Search for Truth
Episode 2194 With Michael Egnor Guest(s) Michael Shermer Duration 01:10:56 Download Audio File (97.4 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43657/2194.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 01:10:56 | ID The Future listeners now get to enjoy two episode a month from our sister podcast Mind Matters News, a production of the Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.
Mind and Soul at the Threshold of Death
Episode 2170 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Michael Egnor, Alexander Batthyany Duration 00:54:39 Download Audio File (75.1 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43566/2170.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:54:39 | Does the brain explain the mind completely? And what can phenomena like terminal lucidity and near-death experiences reveal about the relationship between mind and brain?
Terminal Lucidity: When the Mind Outlasts the Brain
Episode 2169 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Michael Egnor, Alexander Batthyany Duration 00:56:01 Download Audio File (77 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43562/2169.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:56:01 | Why would the human mind sometimes appear strongest when the brain is weakest?
Live Not By Lies: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Intelligent Design
Episode 2126 With Robert Crowther Guest(s) Michael Egnor Duration 00:20:13 Download Audio File (12.3 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43373/2126.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:20:13 | When one person stands up to lies or oppression, others can become emboldened to do the same. On this ID the Future out of the vault, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor discusses his article about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Recognizing the Divine in Others: More with Dr. Stephen Post
Duration 24 minutes, 18 seconds Download Audio File (33 MB) https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/39459/ep366.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 24 minutes, 18 seconds | If many of us began to practice honoring others in our interactions with them, what change would we see in society? Is it possible to recognize the divine in everyone we meet?
Restoring Love and Community in a Divided World: A Conversation with Dr. Stephen Post
Duration 25 minutes, 47 seconds Download Audio File (35 MB) https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/39335/ep365.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 25 minutes, 47 seconds | Most of us would agree that in recent years, our society has grown more acrimonious, reactive, and violent. What role does technology play in this trajectory? And what can be done about it?
2025 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith
The-Common-Woodpecker--Chance-or-Design-2025-Dallas-Confer Intelligent Design 1 The Common Woodpecker: Chance or Design? Intelligent Design 1 Biologist Ray Bohlin explores the incredible intelligent design of the common woodpecker. Dr. Bohlin is a Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute. This talk was presented at the 2025 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Is-The-Soul-Real-A-Neurosurgeon-Explores-The-Evidence-2025 Intelligent Design 1 Is The Soul Real?
Dr. Michael Egnor Reads From His New Book The Immortal Mind
Duration 22 minutes Download Audio File (30 MB) https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/38155/ep353.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 22 minutes | On today’s episode, Dr. Michael Egnor reads the Introduction to his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, now available from Worthy Books.
Evolution News and Science Today
One of the most tragic events I can remember happened this July 4th— a flash flood in Texas killed nearly 200 people (as of the count today), 27 of whom were children and staff at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls. P.Z. Myers, who blogs at Pharyngula, tried to turn it into a political statement.
Evolution News and Science Today
I recently had the privilege to appear on Michael Shermer’s show Skeptic with neuroscientist Christof Koch. We were discussing the new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, which I co-authored with Denyse O’Leary. I also discussed near-death experiences with Michael on Piers Morgan’s show. Michael is an excellent host, and we have had great discussions.
Terminal Lucidity and the Soul
Modern palliative care furnishes many accounts that sound like the vast traditional literature on last words—a final communication at the point of death. The mind, sensing that the body is failing, rallies briefly for a purpose. Needless to say, such lucid episodes imply that the mind is more than the disjointed activities of a failing brain. When a loved one journeys toward death and bodily resources fail, the lights may seem to be going out, one by one.
Neuroscience, Free Will, and the Soul
https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/37646/ep347.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 34 minutes, 41 seconds | Join host Dr. Robert J. Marks for the third segment of his conversation with neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor about evidence he presents in his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul. Today’s discussion tackles three profound questions. Number one, do I have free will? Number two, can consciousness be duplicated?
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: The new book The Immortal Mind, by Dr. Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, is now out. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7. We can defend the immortality of the human soul by pointing to verifiable accounts of near-death experiences. But in themselves, such experiences only tell us that the mind can continue to function when the brain is clinically dead. That could mean one of two things: Perhaps it means that the mind can survive without the brain but only for a period of time.
Michael Egnor Reads From His New Book The Immortal Mind
Episode 2068 Guest(s) Michael Egnor Duration 00:21:57 Download Audio File (30.2 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43078/2068.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:21:57 | On this ID The Future, Dr. Michael Egnor reads the Introduction to his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, now available from Worthy Books.
Evolution News and Science Today
Behaviorism, as a scientific explanation for the mind, attempts to explain human behavior as caused by innumerable iterations of simple physical events. B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), a key behaviorist thinker, put it like this: The simplest and most satisfactory view is that thought is simply behavior — verbal or nonverbal, covert or overt. It is not some mysterious process responsible for behavior but the very behavior itself in all the complexity of its controlling relations.
Logic Shows Abstract Though Is an Immaterial Power
In The Immortal Mind that I have co-authored with Denyse O’Leary, we provide detailed neuroscientific reasons why the human capacity for abstract thought — which is the intellect — is an immaterial power of the human mind. But there are also logical reasons for thinking that the intellect is immaterial, which means spiritual. Consider, for example, our capacity to think abstractly, without finite bounds.
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: The new book The Immortal Mind, by Dr. Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, is now out. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3. Even though the brain may be failing in the last days of life, some people become quite lucid, talk to visitors, and then die a few hours later. This terminal lucidity presents another challenge to the idea that the mind is simply what the brain does.
Evolution News and Science Today
In The Immortal Mind, coauthored with Denyse O’Leary, we detail both neuroscientific and logical reasons why human abstract thought — the intellect — is an immaterial, spiritual power of the human soul. Consider as an example our ability to think about “perfect” concepts. There are two ways we can think of a triangle. One way is to form a mental image, likely based on a triangle we have seen on a piece of paper.
From Operating Room to Chapel: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey to Faith
https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/37523/ep346.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 42 minutes, 58 seconds | Today, host Dr. Robert J. Marks continues his conversation with neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor about his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul.
Evolution News and Science Today
Author’s note: My co-author Denyse O’Leary and I discuss the science of our mind, soul, and our immortality in our new book, The Immortal Mind, out now. About 20 years ago, I cared for a little boy I’ll call Joey. Joey was born with a severe handicap — hydranencephaly. It happens when a baby in the womb has massive strokes that lead to the death of both hemispheres of the brain, including the cerebral cortex. Some kids with hydranencephaly have tiny remnants of cerebral cortex.
A Neurosurgeon Pulls Back the Curtain on the Soul
Episode 2064 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Michael Egnor Duration 00:37:10 Download Audio File (51.1 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43052/2064.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:37:10 | On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid is thrilled to welcome back renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor to continue discussing his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul.
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: The new book The Immortal Mind, by Dr. Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, is out today. In the late 1980s, early in his neurosurgical career, Dr. Egnor had to split the brain of a young adult patient, Sam, in half (corpus callosotomy). This is a last resort treatment for intractable epilepsy — Sam was having hundreds of seizures per day and splitting his brain would reduce their frequency and severity. But what would it do to him as a person?
The Boy Who Proved Most Theories of Consciousness Wrong
About 20 years ago, I cared for a little boy I’ll call Joey. Joey was born with a severe handicap — hydranencephaly. It happens when a baby in the womb has massive strokes that lead to the death of both hemispheres of the brain, including the cerebral cortex. Some kids with hydranencephaly have tiny remnants of cerebral cortex.
Is The Soul Real? A Neurosurgeon Explores The Evidence (2025 Dallas Conference on Science & Faith)
Does science prove the existence of the soul? Here award-winning neurosurgeon Michael Egnor explores the evidence. Many scientists and doctors believe that there is no such thing as the soul. That there is no part of us that persists beyond death. We are not spiritual in any respect. We are made up of cells and tissue, and completely controlled by a material organ in our heads: the brain.
The Immortal Mind: How Neuroscience Points Beyond Materialism
Episode 2058 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Michael Egnor Duration 00:28:45 Download Audio File (39.5 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43025/2058.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:28:45 | Is your mind more than just your brain? Does the soul actually exist? These questions have been pondered for millennia. What does the latest scientific research suggest?
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: Pre-order The Immortal Mind, by Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, and get a sneak peek exclusive excerpt from the book as well as the full digital book anthology Minding the Brain. Epilepsy is a common and potentially dangerous disorder of the brain, so it has been the object of extensive scientific study over the past couple of centuries. It has many aspects but the main one is that people with epilepsy have seizures. Different types, causes, and treatments can be effective.
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: Pre-order The Immortal Mind, by Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, and get a sneak peek exclusive excerpt from the book as well as the full digital book anthology Minding the Brain. The most pervasive myth in neuroscience and philosophy of mind is that the mind is wholly generated by the brain. No question, many of the things we experience are closely linked to brain function.
Brain vs. Mind: A Very Revealing Fact About Epileptic Seizures
Epilepsy is a common and potentially dangerous disorder of the brain, so it has been the object of extensive scientific study over the past couple of centuries. It has many aspects but the main one is that people with epilepsy have seizures. Different types, causes, and treatments can be effective. But one thing that is fascinating — even astonishing — about the seizures is what they don’t do to a person. And that tells us something very important about the mind and the brain.
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: Pre-order The Immortal Mindby Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary and get a sneak peek exclusive excerpt from the book as well as the full digital book anthology Minding the Brain. Persistent vegetative state (PVS) is considered the most extreme state of brain injury, short of brain death. The conventional thinking in the medical community has been that people in PVS were mindless shells — a body without a mind. That’s what “vegetative” means.
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: Pre-order your copy of The Immortal Mind, by Dr. Egnor and science journalist Denyse O’Leary, now and get free extras. See here for more information! Author’s note: Robert J. Marks and I submitted a paper to a philosophy journal in which we made two key points: Christof Koch’s Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is not an adequate theory of consciousness. Secondly, the human intellect and will are immaterial.
Evolution News and Science Today
Editor’s note: Pre-order your copy of The Immortal Mind now and get free extras. See here for more information! The central point that science journalist Denyse O’Leary and I make in our new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul (June 3, 2025), is that the mind is more than just the brain. We have spiritual souls, and we have mental abilities that transcend brain activity. Of course, theologians and philosophers have made this case for thousands of years.
Evolution News and Science Today
Over centuries, neuroscience folly repeats itself. Philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596–1650) broke from the classical (and quite satisfactory) traditional understanding of the soul. He proposed that the immaterial soul and the material body were separate substances, and he speculated that the soul and body meet in the pineal gland, a tiny gland in the center of the brain.
Looking for Consciousness in All the Wrong Places
11 hours ago Scientists Kept People’s Eyes Open While They Slept, Revealing Surprising Brain Activity A recent study observed sleeping participants' pupils during sleep, using a new method that could have implications for studying sleep … 4 hours ago 15 Mind Blowing Facts About Animal Intelligence Animals have long fascinated scientists and enthusiasts alike, not only for their diverse behaviors and vibrant interactions with the natural world … 5 hours ago Why Do People Distrust Science?
Rethinking the Relationship Between Mind and Brain: Dr. Angus Menuge
https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/35897/ep332.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 1 hour, 29 minutes, 41 seconds | | Speakers: Angus Menuge, Michael Egnor On this episode of Mind Matters News, host Dr. Michael Egnor speaks with Dr. Angus Menuge to discuss the mind-brain problem and his work on the recent volume exploring this topic, Minding the Brain. Egnor and Menuge explore various perspectives on the relationship between the mental and the physical.
“Multiple Minds” in Split-Brain Patients?
Readers have brought to my attention a review article on the effect of split-brain surgery on consciousness. “Split-Brain: What We Know Now and Why This is Important for Understanding Consciousness”(2020),by Yair Pinto and his colleagues, is an interesting open-access article, well worth reading for anyone interested in the topic. From the abstract: [Split-brain surgery] leads to a broad breakdown of functional integration ranging from perception to attention.
Split-Brain Surgeries Reveal Reality of the Soul
Dr. Theodore Schwartz is a prominent Cornell University neurosurgeon. In addition to publishing many scholarly articles, he is the author of Gray Matters: a Biography of Brain Surgery (2024). He’s a very thoughtful guy and his recent essay at Psyche, “What removing large chunks of brain taught me about selfhood”, caught my attention.
Michael Egnor: Don’t Confuse Scientific Consensus with Science
Episode 2015 With Emily Kurlinski Guest(s) Michael Egnor Duration 00:13:50 Download Audio File (8.8 mb) Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/42812/2015.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:13:50 | On this episode of ID the Future out of the vault, host Emily Kurlinski talks with Michael Egnor, professor of neurosurgery at Stony Brook University, about the dire warnings, stretching back at least to Thomas Malthus near...
The Immortal Mind
Is there scientific proof of the soul? Many scientists and doctors believe that there is no such thing as the soul. That there is no part of us that persists beyond death. We are not spiritual in any respect. We are made up of cells and tissue, and completely controlled by a material organ in our heads: the brain.
What Does Your Brain Do? And What Can It Not Do?
Your organs have jobs to do. Your heart pumps blood. Your lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. Your kidneys make urine. Your skin keeps you inside and your environment outside. So what does your brain do? We naturally answer: “It makes me think, use my mind, stuff like that.” But that’s not exactly true. The brain does have a job, of course, but it’s a more limited job than producing all that is in our mind. Neuroscience tells a very different story about what the brain does.
The Real Issues in the Transgender Debate
In light of the U.S. v. Skrmetti Supreme Court case, about the Tennessee law that protects children with gender dysphoria from destructive hormone treatments and surgery, it is helpful to consider the actual issues involved. The transgender debate is not a single issue, but three issues, which to some degree bear on one another but are logically separate questions. The first issue is the broad logical, philosophical, and biological questions at the root of transgender ideology. What is a woman?
Transgender SCOTUS case: ‘Do no harm’ on trial
The issue in the transgender “care” case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, before the Supreme Court is whether the State of Tennessee may prohibit the use of puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical mutilation and castration on mentally ill children with gender dysphoria. The most widely used puberty-blocker for children with gender dysphoria is Lupron, which is a powerful drug developed to treat certain kinds of cancer and to suppress sex drive in convicted sex offenders.
A Case for the Soul: An Interview with Joshua Farris
https://op3.dev/e/mindmatters.ai/podcast-player/34547/ep319.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 1 hour, 24 minutes, 59 seconds | | Speakers: Joshua Farris, Michael Egnor Is the mind the same thing as the brain? Recently, we’ve been tackling this question known as the mind-brain problem with several of the contributing authors to our recent book Minding the Brain. In a similar fashion, we can also ask if there’s more to the human person than just our bodies.
Mind Matters
image-that-represents-the-concept-of-expanded-psychedelic-co-796097764-stockpack-adobe_stock The Unique Relationship Between Consciousness and Its Bearer glowing-human-soul-is-illuminated-with-warm-ethereal-light-a-763882206-stockpack-adobe_stock In What Sense is Consciousness a Property?
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