Michael Egnor

Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Michael R. Egnor, MD, is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, has served as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, and is an award-winning brain surgeon. He was named one of New York’s best doctors by the New York Magazine in 2005. His book, The Immortal Mind: A neurosurgeon’s case for the existence of the soul, co-authored by Denyse O’Leary, was published by Worthy on June 3, 2025.

He received his medical education at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital. His research on hydrocephalus has been published in journals including Journal of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Research. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hydrocephalus Association in the United States and has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Europe.

Archives

Beyond Materialism: Bruce Gordon on the Compelling Case for Idealism

Michael Egnor
August 28, 2025
Over the years, multiple explanations for the nature of reality have been proposed. Physicalists will claim that the only things that exist are physical matter. However, others in the dualist camp maintain that there are non-physical aspects of reality, such as immaterial concepts like numbers, logic, or a person’s mental state. Finally, we have idealists, who hold that the fundamental nature of reality is mental, rather than physical, and that our perception of physical reality is derived from those concepts. On today’s episode, host Michael Egnor talks with Dr. Bruce Gordon, who defends the idealist position and how he believes it best fits the evidence. Gordon has contributed a couple of chapters to the recent book Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, …

Dr. Michael Egnor Reads From His New Book The Immortal Mind

Michael Egnor
July 24, 2025
On today’s episode, Dr. Michael Egnor reads the Introduction to his new book, co-authored with Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, now available from Worthy Books. In this reading, Dr. Egnor shares his journey from being a medical student who believed science could explain everything, including how consciousness emerges from the brain and whether we have a soul, to a neurosurgeon who questioned the conventional materialist view. He discusses how years of operating on and examining patients with brain damage led him to wonder how large parts of the brain could be removed without affecting a person’s mind or their ability to think, reason, believe, and desire. His personal story, including a profound experience in a …

Why Do We Mourn the Deaths of Other People’s Children?

I share P. Z. Myers’s horror but the problem of innocent suffering is much deeper for the atheist than for the Christian
Michael Egnor
July 9, 2025
Whatever little contribution the theory of Darwinian evolution that Myers espouses makes to our understanding of bacteria, it tells us nothing of man.

Michael Shermer Disagrees With Me on the Ethics of IVF

He sees a contradiction between my respect for and embrace of children conceived via IVF and my ethical qualms about the process of IVF: “Another example of how religion clouds rationality”
Michael Egnor
July 8, 2025
It is quite possible to seek good ends (children) by bad means (their industrial manufacture). That’s why Christian ethics are needed.

A Neurosurgeon Weighs in On Near-Death Experiences

Robert J. Marks and Michael Egnor
June 19, 2025
On this episode of Mind Matters News, host Robert J. Marks concludes his four-part conversation with neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor about his new book The Immortal Mind. In this final segment, the evidence for the reality of near-death experiences (NDEs) is examined, including well-documented cases such as that of Pam Reynolds, whose NDE occurred during a highly-monitored neurosurgical procedure. Marks and Egnor discuss the implications of NDEs for understanding consciousness, the soul, and the afterlife. Their conclusion? That NDEs provide strong evidence for the existence of an immortal soul and the reality of an afterlife. With his new book, Dr. Egnor presents a compelling case that NDEs, along with other classes of evidence, challenge materialist explanations and point to the …

Immortality of the Soul Is a Reasonable Belief 

Some may think that immortality of the rational soul is not possible in the physical world in which we live. But they are mistaken
Michael Egnor and Denyse O'Leary
June 17, 2025
Nothing in this universe simply dissipates; it is always transformed. The immaterial world is similar.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and the Human Industrial Revolution

To stand against IVF is not easy, because it provides infertile couples the blessed opportunity to conceive children. But it is the door into new and hellish bioethics
Michael Egnor
June 15, 2025
In a world beset by a growing chasm between the strong and the weak, IVF offers technology to manufacture men and women on scale and on special order.

Neuroscience, Free Will, and the Soul

Michael Egnor and Robert J. Marks
June 12, 2025
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? And number three, what separates a human from a machine? Dr. Michael Egnor brings a neurosurgeon’s precision and a philosopher’s clarity to these issues. Here, he presents four key reasons for believing in free will. The discussion also explores the relationship between free will, predestination, and the timeless nature of God. Overall, the conversation provides a comprehensive case for the reality of human free …

Michael Egnor Reads From His New Book The Immortal Mind

Michael Egnor
June 11, 2025
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. In this reading, Dr. Egnor shares his journey from being a medical student who believed science could explain everything, including how consciousness emerges from the brain and whether we have a soul, to a neurosurgeon who questioned the conventional materialist view. He discusses how years of operating on and examining patients with brain damage led him to wonder how large parts of the brain could be removed without affecting a person's mind or their ability to think, reason, believe, and desire. His personal story, including a profound experience in a hospital chapel during a family crisis, became a turning point that challenged his atheism and led him to believe that the immaterial aspects of our minds are real and that nature is an open system, not a closed one.

From Operating Room to Chapel: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey to Faith

Michael Egnor and Robert J. Marks
June 5, 2025
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. In this segment, Dr. Egnor describes how a crisis involving his infant son’s potential autism led him to have a profound spiritual experience in a hospital chapel, causing him to embrace Christianity despite previously being a committed atheist. The discussion then explores how many of the founding scientists of the modern scientific method, such as Copernicus, Newton, and Kepler, were deeply religious, suggesting there is no inherent conflict between science and faith. Egnor and Marks also examine philosophical arguments for the existence of God made by Thomas Aquinas, as well as the …