The Enlightenment Project

By: Lynn Hightower

Narrated by: Danny Deferrari

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Have you ever known anyone who survived being possessed? You do now. You’ve met me.

Noah Archer is a renowned neurosurgeon with an impressive success record. He has a happy home with his beloved wife, Moira, their two adopted sons, and a dog who’s a very good girl. But Noah keeps a dark secret, shared only with his old friend Father Perry Cavanaugh. When he was just a boy, he was possessed by a demon - and it was only thanks to the exorcist priest that he survived.

Now, Noah works at the cutting edge of medical science and religion, researching the effects of spirituality on the brain. His current research study - The Enlightenment Project - promises breakthrough treatments for depression, addiction, and mental illness, and preliminary results are astounding.

But after a late-night emergency surgery, Noah returns to his office to find Father Perry waiting for him, with a terrible warning. The Enlightenment Project may not be closing the door to the darkness at all...but instead letting it in.

©2022 Lynn Hightower (P)2022 Recorded Books

A good Supernatural thriller

The Enlightenment Project has a great premise. Noah, a successful neurosurgeon, is researching the effects of spirituality on the brain. Unfortunately, his research opens the door to dark forces. The Enlightenment Project combines fiction with cutting-edge science. For some scientists, demonic possession is a psychiatric disorder that can be cured through the collaboration of psychiatrists and exorcists.

Noah has a good life, a loving wife, adopted sons, and a faithful dog. But he also has a dark secret that only Father Perry knows. As a child, Noah was possessed. The priest saved him through a precise ritual. The two became friends.

When Noah begins to work on the titular Enlightenment Project, strange phenomena occur. Shadows move around him, and patients know secrets from his past. There's also a man who begins to haunt his family. Noah must face the looming darkness and supernatural threats to protect his loved ones.

The Enlightment Project has an unsettling tone and it's tense. It doesn't lack quiet moments - at its core, it's the story about human connections. With its short chapters and focused narrative, it's a fast-paced and exciting book. I could imagine the book working well as a movie - the scene-setting, the very personal stakes, the drama, all would do well on the big screen.

While the story can easily be categorized as a supernatural thriller, it's also an insightful tale of childhood trauma and the secrets we all keep (and that keep our loved ones from knowing the real us). Noah's secrets nearly destroy his marriage, but he fights for it.

I enjoyed Huightower's writing style - it's simple, honest, and to the point. Because I've listened to the audiobook, and the narrator Danny Deferrari did a fabulous job. His narration pulls the reader in.

In all, I recommend The Enlightenment Project to fans of supernatural thrillers with personal stakes and interesting takes on demonic possession.

New & Brilliant

This book is anything but typical. If you're a fan of horror or psychological suspense, you will be a fan of this new novel. It's a fresh new take on the exorcism & posession trope that is well worth the credit.

An "Exorcist" with Many Unique Twists

I bought this book because I'd loved the audio version of Hightower's novel, "The Piper". I knew nothing of "The Enlightenment Project" going in. Quickly, we're introduced to brain surgeon Noah Archer, practicing in Lexington, Kentucky. He has a research project going, dubbed "The Enlightenment Project." As an eleven-year-old boy, he'd felt a strange presence inside him, something evil, and as he neared suicide, a Catholic priest had helped him get rid of this presence. After that, he'd wondered what had happened to him scientifically, none of this devil, mumbo-jumbo stuff. He became a brain specialist because he was curious how religious belief and the brain worked, much like a cover story in Time Magazine a dozen years ago. His project observes the brains of supposedly inhabited people.

When one of his patients with brain cancer shows up completely cured after he should have died within a week, Noah tries to figure out how his brain stimulation might have helped. He's starting to think maybe there is, indeed, a devil and it was involved in Noah's project.

Noah's wife, Moira, doesn't buy this at all. This novel, too, becomes an involving love story where two partners love each other, but one starts having beliefs outside the norm.

At first, the story revolves around deep science and how brains function, so I expected it would stay scientific. Then the story moves into "The Exorcist" territory and also becomes the kind of book Stephen King might write. I loved it. Hightower puts you on edge in every chapter. If this wasn't an audiobook, it'd be called a page-turner. Let's say I drove a lot more than normal just to listen to the book.

Narrator Danny Deferrari does a fabulous job. I happen to be a writer, too, and I'd consider using him for one of my books. He's friendly, reads well, and pulls you along.

Only 2 hours

I will, of course, finish this book, but I must say that it is a frustrating listen. Two reasons. First, the writing is such that there are long segments of dialogue in which the speaker is not identified. So there is a lot of back-and-forth between two parties, or sometimes three parties, and you are left to be uncertain as to who is speaking. This is made even worse, secondly, by the performer. The performer is often monotone, as well as fast in his presentation and/or the editing is such that there is very little pause at times between sentences so that everything just starts to meld together and without identifying what character is engaged in what dialogue it can be rather confusing, monotonous, and frustrating, taking away from what seems like it might be a fairly Interesting narrative