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Book Reviews Perceptions Magazine, December 2017





Life After Death:
An Analysis of the Evidence
by Robert Davis, PhD

Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
4880 Lower Valley Road
Atglen, PA 19310
Web: www.schifferbooks.com
2017, 208 pages, Trade Paperback, US $19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7643-5438-0

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

While I've learned that this book is being marketed as a textbook for appropriate college programs, the author, a sensory neuroscientist who has been writing papers for several decades for scientific journals, admits his book Life After Death may be too left brained for many in its style of presentation. However, I personally assured this author that there are those of us who strive to be whole-brain thinkers and will see his book for what it truly is: a scholarly, comprehensive exploration and critical analysis of all available evidence relevant to the complex, compelling, and controversial life after death issue.

Dr. Davis leaves virtually no stone unturned as he delves headlong into an impressive mountain of accumulated evidence on this fascinating subject, fleshing out innumerable details and references, a genuine tour de force of intriguing and thought-provoking material. Everything from near-death cases and studies, out-of-body accounts, experimental evidence, mediumship, apparitions, parapsychological explanations, reincarnation, and theories that tap into quantum physics, the multiverse, the consciousness-brain connection – all of this and more is a part of the scientific journey and enigmatic landscape that Dr. Davis ponders and probes in comprehensive depth and detail. His exhaustively prepared endnotes and bibliography contribute even further extensive background information and coverage for the curious and serious minded reader.

Dr. Davis certainly throws a lot of information at his readers, much of it of a scientific, complex theoretical nature, and while parts of it you (and me) might have to re-read over once or twice to absorb the overall gist of certain of these details and concepts, trust me when I say that this is a very significant, insightful and highly informative contribution to such extremely noteworthy and potentially life-changing subject matter. Within its pages you'll be introduced to the terms and concepts of the double-slit experiment, particle entanglement, non-local events, veridical perception, super-psi, psychokinesis, the neurological theory, along with the descriptions of reported transformative NDE episodes, the very high incidence of healing abilities among such experiencers, and so ver-r-r-y much, much more. To me, this book is on a resonant par with Lynne McTaggart's landmark classic The Field, which I have consulted often over the years because of it's impressive range of data and speculation as well dealing with theoretical quantum physics, and also parapsychological data, theory, and experimentation.

I highly recommend this book for all who wish to thoroughly and thoughtfully explore the life after death issue in combination with a full range of data from underneath the broad umbrella of the paranormal with the latest information and theories available from various scientific disciplines and backgrounds, supported by relevant research, investigations, case studies, and experimentation.

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Earth is Our Planet, Too! Volume 1
We are not alone
by Steve Pearse
BookLocker.com, Inc.
St. Petersburg, Florida
2017, 365 pages, Trade Paperback, US $
ISBN: 978-1-63492-632-4

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Steve Pearse, the previous author of Set your Phaser to Stun, a book that explores the extraterrestrial question of ufology, in this book, dedicated to the legendary John Keel, delves into the legends of various monsters, dragons, and demons, comparing them to the modern cryptozoological reports of the Jersey Devil, Mothman, The Snallygaster, the legendary Thunderbird of Native American legend and lore, and much more. Pearse makes a serious comparative study of this cryptozoological evidence with the accumulated mythologies of the ancient past, citing the 17th Century German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher's writings (who authored Natural History of Dragons) as an author whose writing opened the door for him to the real history of earth.

At the very beginning, Pearse states his belief that we're not dealing with a sandhill crane, an escaped kangaroo, or that hoax explains all reports either (although he admits it explains some, of course). He boldly claims that a real living Pterosaur (that science tells us went extinct 65 million years ago) still likely exists and is responsible for many of these puzzling reports! Packed with detailed information, illustrations and photographs, indexed with references and bibliographic information, this book is quite interesting and thought-provoking whether you agree or disagree or remain uncertain with regard to the Pterosaur explanation. As Keel said that his friend the noted zoologist and cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderon had told him at the beginning of his ufological/Mothman journey, regard it as an “intellectual exercise.”

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First Templar Nation:
How Eleven Knights Created a New Country and a Refuge for the Grail by Freddy Silva
Destiny Books
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
2017, 448 pages, Paperback, US $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-62055-654-2

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Author Freddy Silva contradicts the mainstream historical perspective on how in Jerusalem, in 1118 A.D., a brotherhood, the famous Knights Templar, was formed by nine men to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. In Silva's research he discovered that a different version of events occurred, that the famous Order of the Temple actually existed a decade earlier, and that another organization was given the responsibility of protecting the pilgrims, while the Templars busily created Europe's first nation-state, Portugal, placing one of their very own in the position of king.

Silva cites over 700 references to prove his point, many said to be from new and rare sources. He reveals that the first Templar stronghold was not Jerusalem but Portugal instead, and how it was done so that they could practice what Silva describes as their living resurrection initiations in a land far from Rome's grasp, practices that the Church did not approve of.


Thursday, March 28, 2024