well fury had scientists do open brain surgery on him until he came back to life. They had to keep him conscious during the experiments to monitor brain activity. Apparently they caused him so much pain that they mentally destroyed him, so they changed his memory to make him believe he went on a magical trip to Tahiti instead.
Thats it? That's fucking stupid. They couldn't have at least had some asgardian technology in it or something? Sorry joss whedon but "brain surgery" is lazy, stupid writing
They had an alien stored in a lab, they drained it and used its remains to create a serum that basically repaired coulson. The open brain surgery altered his memories, the secret project was called TAHITI and that's why he had memories of a tropical holiday.
The chitari, an alien race mentioned in the thor movies, have dead pool-esk healing properties, the down side is that the person who is healed by the serum goes insane with trying to create and make sense of a drawing. a carving. to prevent this, Shield alters memory structures in the brain, and create false memory. that said, the idea that coleson is more than human is not un founded. he is revered on the same level as hawkeye and Black Widow. he is capable and willing to lead missions against Super powered individuals, and he becomes the director of shield. can't wait for season 3
A year later and i had forgotten i said it was lazy stupid writing and thought it was pretty cool after watching the first season. XD. now i just need to finish the second season.
Experiments on his brain