Michael Egnor

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: An Interview with Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael

_{Robert J. Marks and Michael Egnor
May 22, 2025}

Is the mind more than the brain? Is there a scientific case for the existence of the soul? On this episode, host Dr. Robert J. Marks speaks with neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor about his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul. Dr. Egnor is an experienced brain surgeon who previously held materialist views but now believes the mind is distinct from the brain, a theory of mind known as dualism. Through his extensive surgical experience, Egnor has observed many cases that contradict the textbook understanding of the brain and consciousness. He points to patients who have survived with large portions of their brain missing or damaged, yet maintained normal cognitive function. Egnor also relates fascinating cases involving near-death …

The Immortal Mind: How Neuroscience Points Beyond Materialism

_{Michael Egnor
May 19, 2025}

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? On this ID The Future, renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor begins a conversation with host Andrew McDiarmid about his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon's Case for the Existence of the Soul. Egnor makes a powerful case that our capacity for thought, reason, and free will points to something beyond mere brain function. After defining important terms, Egnor begins exploring the compelling evidence he has gathered across four decades of practice in neurosurgery. Along the way, Dr. Egnor also boldly challenges the Darwinian view of the mind's evolution, arguing that abstract thought and free will are immaterial and could not have arisen through natural selection. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

What Epilepsy Can Teach About the Mind

_{Michael Egnor
May 7, 2025}

I have treated thousands of patients with epilepsy. Seizures can result in a variety of behaviors and emotions. But let me tell you what they don't do.

The Logical Basis of the Immaterial Mind

_{The Logical Basis of the Immaterial Mind}_{Michael Egnor
May 6, 2025}

The indeterminacy of matter precludes brain states from forming the basis of abstract thought. Simple logic points to this truth.

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…}_{Michael Egnor
May 5, 2025}

The fact that seizures never result in abstract reasoning implies our reason is not a material power of the body but an immaterial power of the spiritual soul.

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}_{Michael Egnor
May 4, 2025}

Consciousness is like contact lenses. It is the means by which we experience, not what we experience. Thus we can’t “find” it in the brain.

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}_{Michael Egnor
May 3, 2025}

In addition to the massive evidence from neuroscience that the intellect is an immaterial power of the mind, simple logic points to the same truth.

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}_{Michael Egnor
April 24, 2025}

While none of this research is decisive, the materialist paradigm is challenged by awareness in PVS. The dualist perspective better fits the evidence.

Materialist Versus Dualist Understandings of the Mind: Comparing Predictions

_{Michael Egnor
April 24, 2025}

Persistent vegetative state (PVS) is considered the most extreme state of brain injury, short of brain death.

Debating the Legacy of Neuroscientist Wilder Penfield

_{Michael Egnor
April 2, 2025}

How much more evidence is necessary to draw the scientific inference that activation of brain networks is insufficient to generate abstract thought?

We Can Learn About the Mind from Damaged Brains

_{Michael Egnor
April 1, 2025}

Now we have solid neuroscience to show that the theologians and philosophers were and are right.

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}_{Michael Egnor
March 30, 2025}

Of his 55,000 brain stimulations that “activated complex networks,” not one generated abstract thought — implying that it is not a “product” of the brain.

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}_{Michael Egnor
March 29, 2025}

A recent research paper looks at the way minds work with what’s available, something I often encounter in my practice as a neurosurgeon.

Looking for Consciousness in All the Wrong Places

_{Reductionism is nonsense, and “consciousness” is not nestled in clusters of neurons}_{Michael Egnor
March 9, 2025}

The higher human ability to think abstractly — to reason and will freely — are not physical abilities and do not come from the brain.

Looking for Consciousness in All the Wrong Places

_{Michael Egnor
March 9, 2025}

If concept cells nestled in the hippocampi were the seat of consciousness, bilateral hippocampal destruction would cause loss of consciousness. It doesn’t.

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

_{Michael Egnor
February 27, 2025}

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. They cover the problems with materialist and physicalist views, which seek to reduce the mind to the brain, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of dualist approaches such as Cartesian and Thomistic dualism. The discussion also touches on the insights from near-death experiences, the binding problem, and the importance of conceptual clarity in studying the mind. The conversation highlights the need for an open-minded exploration of alternative models that can better account for the …

“Multiple Minds” in Split-Brain Patients?

_{Michael Egnor
February 24, 2025}

The scientific obsession with “split minds” is an artifact of our materialist preconceptions about neuroscience.

How Can We Know If Patients With Split Brains Have a Single Mind?

_{Just ask them}_{Michael Egnor
February 22, 2025}

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: leads to a broad breakdown of functional integration ranging from perception to attention. However, the breakdown is not absolute as several processes, such as action control, seem to remain unified. Disagreement exists about the responsible mechanisms for this remaining unity. The main issue concerns the first-person perspective of a split-brain patient. Does a split-brain harbor a split consciousness or is consciousness unified? …

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}_{Michael Egnor
February 21, 2025}

I offer four reasons that we can know that free will is real, drawn from human behavior, law, ethics, and physics.

Does Surgically Splitting the Brain Make One Person Into Two?

_{A prominent neurosurgeon writes of his “amazement” at discovering that the patient with a split brain is still a single individual}_{Michael Egnor
February 20, 2025}

Unity of self after brain splitting is not surprising. Each of us is a physical creature with a single spiritual soul. It is immaterial and can’t be severed.