A high-tech mystery and action/adventure yarn about the light at the end of the tunnel. Can the mind exist away from body? As a scientist, Dr. Blaine Mitchell did not think so. Although he once had a near-death experience in which he mentally left his body for the astral plane and "saw the light," he did not believe that the event was other than imaginary. Mitchell is a medical doctor and research scientist who is studying the effects of electrical nerve stimulation on the control of pain in patients who have terminal diseases or who are suffering chronic pain. The device he is developing trains his patients to employ biofeedback mechanisms in order to block erroneous pain signals from reaching the brain, by forcing the release of naturally occurring endorphins: pain inhibitors that are natural analogues to morphine, and that are chemically similar to the artificial drug but which are not addictive. He knows that over-stimulation of the brain has side effects, such as simulating...