For centuries, human beings have reported awe-inspiring cases of out-of-body and near-death experiences. These stories include countless fantastical claims, from floating over one's own body to traveling to the pearly gates of heaven, that seem almost too good to be true-and maybe they are.

In Searching for Soul, neurosurgeon Dr. Vivekanand Palavali dissects mysticism, religiosity, spirituality, and twenty-first-century neuroscience on the nature of near-death and out-of-body experiences, taking the reader on a journey through history, heaven, and the heart of the human mystery. Through anecdotes, philosophical history, religious research, and modern-day neuroscience, Dr. Palavali aims to ask and answer the age-old question: What is soul?

Dr. Vivekanand Palavali is a brain surgeon by profession with thirty years' experience and an author and documentary filmmaker by passion. He is the author of A Mindful Life: A Brainsurgeon's Personal Experiences and Philosophical Reflections on Living Life Fully and Bitter Pill: America and Healthcare in America. He produced four documentary feature films pertaining to the neuroscience of mysticism, religiosity, and issues of healthcare disparity. Two of his documentary films have garnered best documentary awards in film festivals. He is a secular and scientific humanist and has given presentations at American Humanist Association conferences as well as Skeptics in the Pub and Center for Inquiry meetings. He enjoys oil painting, world travel, nature, philosophy, and science.