Dr. Rajiv Parti, founder of the Pain Management Institute of California and Chief of Anesthesiology at Bakersfield’s Heart Hospital, specialized in cardiac anesthesiology. On Christmas Eve of 2010, after two years of battling chronic pelvic pain, incontinence, and impotency due to surgical complications from prostate cancer, Dr. Parti was taken to the Emergency Room at UCLA. Suffering from sepsis (a life-threatening infection) and in excruciating pain, Dr. Parti had an out-of-body experience. Floating ten feet above his body, Dr. Parti watched his medical team as they struggled to save him. While part of his consciousness remained in the operating room in Los Angeles, another part of his consciousness journeyed to India where he watched family members prepare a meal. From there he visited hell, experienced a life review, met deceased loved ones, travelled through a “time tunnel,” and visited Heaven where he met a Being of Light (whom he regarded as God) and two guardian angels. During the experience, Rajiv was told that he was going to be alright, but that when he returned to his body, his life purpose would be changed forever: he would leave behind his materialistic lifestyle, stop practicing anesthesiology, and become a healer.
When Dr. Parti’s consciousness returned to his body, his mental, behavioral and psychological priorities changed dramatically. In the weeks that followed, Dr. Parti abandoned his career, and with the support of his wife and children, downsized his family home from a 10,000 square foot mansion to a modest home. He traded in his Hummer and Mercedes for a Toyota hybrid and now spends his time volunteering for community projects and teaching that chronic pain, addiction, and depression are “diseases of the soul.” In a radical departure from his conventional medical training, Dr. Parti now advocates a consciousness-based approach to healing.