Pim van Lommel, M.D., worked from 1977-2003 as a cardiologist in Hospital Rijnstate, an 800-bed teaching hospital in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He is the author of Consciousness Beyond Life, a best-seller in Holland that was nominated for the Book of the Year. In 2006, the president of India awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Congress on Clinical and Preventive Cardiology in New Dehli.