Academic neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander III has had a great impact on the world's appreciation of NDEs. A physician who served as an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Alexander was once staunchly committed to the materialist belief that the physical world is all that exists. That view was forever altered by his amazing near-death experience in 2008, when a bacterial infection severely damaged his brain and plunged him into a week-long coma. Though not expected to live, Dr. Alexander awoke to make an inexplicable return to full health. Since his NDE, Dr. Alexander has been reconciling his rich spiritual experience with quantum physics, cosmology, the philosophy of mind, and the proposition that consciousness is primordial and the physical brain its filter. His most recent book, Living in a Mindful Universe: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Heart of Consciousness, co-authored with Karen Newell, explores the nature of consciousness. www.ebenalexander.com.