As the bestselling author of Is There Life After Death? and Cheating the Ferryman, Anthony Peake has studied the phenomena surrounding what happens when we die. In Near-Death Experiences, he takes a look at a phenomenon that has garnered great attention from both academics and scientists who study the workings of the brain and the physiological events that are associated with this seemingly inexplicable state.

By marrying up anecdotal evidence with empirical scientific evidence, Peake proffers the latest theories behind what we call 'near-death experiences' and how those investigating them are trying to reconcile an apparent state of awareness on the part of the person concerned with the fact that clinically they are considered by physicians to be in a state of clinical death with no signs of bodily functions.

It makes for a fascinating read that takes us into an area of neuroscientific research that is continually evolving.

Bio

Anthony Peake was a curious child. While his friends were reading Batman and Superman comics Anthony was immersing himself in learning of the most arcane nature (whilst still keeping an eye on the X-Men and Dr. Strange). It was in 1966, at the age of twelve that he, quite by accident, came across a copy of The Sky People by Brinsley Le Poer Trench and from then on there was no stopping him. The British part-series Man Myth and Magic was read with intense interest followed by the discovery of John Keel’s Project Trojan Horse and Jacques Vallee’s Passport to Magonia. What followed was a voracious, and unquenchable, need to know everything about everything.

At university he chose courses that would accommodate his wide interests, specialising in the sociology of religion, the theory of language development and the art of the Italian Renaissance. A post-graduate course in management lead Anthony away from his calling as a writer and into a career as a manager in various UK businesses. His interest in the esoteric continued with a growing fascination for quantum physics and neurology developing over the years.

It was in the year 2000 that his life was to change. A fortuitous set of circumstances allowed him to take a year sabbatical from his business career and he decided that he would focus the fruits of all his reading and research in writing a book. Exactly one year later he surfaced with the manuscript of his first book, then entitled Cheating the Ferryman. This book was a distillation of all his areas of interest, quantum physics, neurology, ancient myths, altered-states of consciousness and the mystery of death.

However, it was to take five years before this work appeared in print. Thanks to the help of Professor Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia, an article based upon Anthony’s Cheating the Ferryman hypothesis was to appear in the Winter 2004 edition of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, the academic periodical of the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS). A few months later, in early 2005, British publishing house Arcturus bought the rights to the book and, a year later, and after a substantial re-write, Anthony’s first book, with the new title Is There Life After Death – The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When We Die was published. The rest, as they say, is history. This book has now sold over 60,000 copies world-wide and has been translated into various foreign language editions including Spanish, Russian and Polish. Indeed, Anthony has now had books published in every major European language.

Anthony has now written twelve books. All of them develop his Cheating the Ferryman hypothesis into ever-wider areas of application. His approach has always been to apply science to the mysterious and the enigmatic.

His thirteenth book, an exhaustive review of the history, anthropology and science of the much-discussed Near-Death Experience (NDE) will be published in November 2024.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D6TGHXR8/

https://www.anthonypeake.com/

https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

In this prize-winning essay for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest, Dr. Ruickbie examines the evidence for the survival of consciousness after death (“life after death”). Initially skeptical, he found that there was sufficient evidence from a wide variety of sources, including apparitions, reincarnation, near-death experiences, after-death communication, and premonitions, that met the contest’s criteria of being “beyond reasonable doubt.”

Such claims are often dismissed as contravening the laws of physics; however, Ruickbie takes the ground-breaking approach of organizing the evidence as eye-witness testimony to the "block" universe (in which past, present and future exist at the same time) described by Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski; and finds further support in the latest theories and findings of Quantum Physics for what Ruickbie calls “timetanglement” and “cloud consciousness.” Using a novel framework inspired by Charles Dickens, this is a readable and convincing account of a complex and highly debated subject.

Bio

Dr Leo Ruickbie, FRHistS, FRAI, ARPS, PhD (Lond), MA, BA (Hons), ACIQ, Associate of King’s College London, is a Visiting Fellow in Psychology at the University of Northampton, where he is a member of the Exceptional Experiences and Consciousness Studies research group.

Described as a ‘leading historian and sociologist of the paranormal’ by the Daily Express newspaper (print) and ‘a leading expert on the paranormal‘ (express.co.uk online), Dr Ruickbie specialises in controversial areas of human belief and experience, sometimes called ‘exceptional human experiences’. A phrase coined by Rhea White in 1990, exceptional human experience is ‘an umbrella term for many types of experience generally considered to be psychic, mystical, encounter-type experiences, death-related experiences, and experiences at the upper end of the normal range, such as creative inspiration, exceptional human performance’ (White, 1994:5).

Dr Ruickbie is closely involved in the work of the Society for Psychical Research as a member of Council, former Editor of its Magazine and a member of its Spontaneous Cases Committee. Established in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research is the world’s largest, oldest and most reputable organisation for the scientific study of what we now call ‘the paranormal’.

He is also a Professional Member of the Parapsychological Association. Established in 1957, the Parapsychological Association is affiliated to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In recognition of his contribution to scholarship sustained over the course of his career, Dr Ruickbie has been elected a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Dr Ruickbie’s PhD is from King’s College, London, for his thesis on contemporary witchcraft and magic use, building on research that won him an MA with distinction from Lancaster University. He is the author of several books, all based on rigorous research: Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (2004 and 2011), Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician (2009), A Brief Guide to the Supernatural (2012), A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting (2013), The Impossible Zoo (2016) and Angels in the Trenches (2018); as well as numerous articles and chapters in scholarly publications.

https://ruickbie.com/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRMN4D41/

https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

In this prize-winning essay for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest, Dr. Ruickbie examines the evidence for the survival of consciousness after death (“life after death”). Initially skeptical, he found that there was sufficient evidence from a wide variety of sources, including apparitions, reincarnation, near-death experiences, after-death communication, and premonitions, that met the contest’s criteria of being “beyond reasonable doubt.”

Such claims are often dismissed as contravening the laws of physics; however, Ruickbie takes the ground-breaking approach of organizing the evidence as eye-witness testimony to the "block" universe (in which past, present and future exist at the same time) described by Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski; and finds further support in the latest theories and findings of Quantum Physics for what Ruickbie calls “timetanglement” and “cloud consciousness.” Using a novel framework inspired by Charles Dickens, this is a readable and convincing account of a complex and highly debated subject.

Bio

Dr Leo Ruickbie, FRHistS, FRAI, ARPS, PhD (Lond), MA, BA (Hons), ACIQ, Associate of King’s College London, is a Visiting Fellow in Psychology at the University of Northampton, where he is a member of the Exceptional Experiences and Consciousness Studies research group.

Described as a ‘leading historian and sociologist of the paranormal’ by the Daily Express newspaper (print) and ‘a leading expert on the paranormal‘ (express.co.uk online), Dr Ruickbie specialises in controversial areas of human belief and experience, sometimes called ‘exceptional human experiences’. A phrase coined by Rhea White in 1990, exceptional human experience is ‘an umbrella term for many types of experience generally considered to be psychic, mystical, encounter-type experiences, death-related experiences, and experiences at the upper end of the normal range, such as creative inspiration, exceptional human performance’ (White, 1994:5).

Dr Ruickbie is closely involved in the work of the Society for Psychical Research as a member of Council, former Editor of its Magazine and a member of its Spontaneous Cases Committee. Established in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research is the world’s largest, oldest and most reputable organisation for the scientific study of what we now call ‘the paranormal’.

He is also a Professional Member of the Parapsychological Association. Established in 1957, the Parapsychological Association is affiliated to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In recognition of his contribution to scholarship sustained over the course of his career, Dr Ruickbie has been elected a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Dr Ruickbie’s PhD is from King’s College, London, for his thesis on contemporary witchcraft and magic use, building on research that won him an MA with distinction from Lancaster University. He is the author of several books, all based on rigorous research: Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (2004 and 2011), Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician (2009), A Brief Guide to the Supernatural (2012), A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting (2013), The Impossible Zoo (2016) and Angels in the Trenches (2018); as well as numerous articles and chapters in scholarly publications.

https://ruickbie.com/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRMN4D41/

https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife