
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 forthcoming book, The Immortal Mind: A neurosurgeon’s case for the existence of the soul, co-authored by Denyse O’Leary, will be 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


The Immortal Mind: How Neuroscience Points Beyond Materialism

What Epilepsy Can Teach About the Mind

The Logical Basis of the Immaterial Mind
The Logical Basis of the Immaterial Mind
Brain vs. Mind: A Very Revealing Fact About Epileptic Seizures
I have treated thousands of patients with epilepsy. Seizures can result in a variety of unexpected behaviors and emotions. But let me tell you what they DON’T do…
Why Much Current Consciousness Research Is a Fool’s Errand
The inability to even define consciousness with clarity is emblematic of the conceptual mess that modern neuroscience has become
How Logic Can Show That Your Mind Is Not Just Your Brain
A principle of physics — the indeterminacy of matter — precludes brain states from forming the basis of abstract thought
Are People in a Persistent Vegetative State Mindless? Maybe Not
They often can and do think. Research in the area helps us understand the relationship between the mind and the brain better
Materialist Versus Dualist Understandings of the Mind: Comparing Predictions

Debating the Legacy of Neuroscientist Wilder Penfield

We Can Learn About the Mind from Damaged Brains

How a Neurosurgeon Showed That Abstract Thought Is Immaterial
Wilder Penfield, one of the first neurosurgeons to split human brains in half to relieve epilepsy, found much more than a treatment
What Damaged Brains Tell Us About the Mind
They often provide mute evidence that the human mind is not simply the output of the brain
Looking for Consciousness in All the Wrong Places
Reductionism is nonsense, and “consciousness” is not nestled in clusters of neurons
Looking for Consciousness in All the Wrong Places

Rethinking the Relationship Between Mind and Brain: Dr. Angus Menuge

“Multiple Minds” in Split-Brain Patients?

How Can We Know If Patients With Split Brains Have a Single Mind?
Just ask them
Does Brain Surgery Prove That Free Will Isn’t Real?
My fellow neurosurgeon Theodore Schwartz is mistaken in thinking that free will is an illusion. It is quite real