Friday 19 December 2008

First USA Review of "The Daemon"

I am delighted to see that my latest book, "The Daemon" has been reviewed in the magazine "Alternate Perceptions". This magazine and website is well worth checking out. The editor, Brent Raynes has this to say about the book:

"He’s back! That’s mighty right, British author and researcher Anthony Peake is back with a second book exploring the mysterious hidden world lurking within the non-dominant right hemisphere of each human’s brain. This higher self, variously described as a “sensed presence,” a “hidden observer,” fits in quite well, Peake found, with the description of the immortal Daemon, a guardian spirit of the Stoics and the Platonists of ancient Greek and Roman pagan belief systems. Peake’s book, appropriately enough entitled The Daemon, is a virtual tour de force of thought-provoking and startling revelations in modern neuroscience and quantum physics, with a comprehensive and global exploration of the historical and religious background of a myriad of significant belief systems from the Hawaiian Kahuna philosophy to the Zoroastrians, Sufism, Judaism, Gnosticism, to name but a few isms.


This book is an absolutely mind-boggling and riveting analysis of many historical events and scientific discoveries that, while a lot of them are familiar to many of us, no one has delved into them with the same depth of probing and unique mindset that Peake has focused upon them.
This “higher self” psychologically equates with the unconscious part of the brain (right hemisphere) while the conscious ego-self is the awareness the majority of us are aware of the majority of the time (left hemisphere). To the early Greeks the “daemon” of course was the higher self and the lower conscious self was called the “eidolon.” Peake felt that this ancient concept of daulity identified pretty well the two separate components of consciousness that he came to refer to it as the Daemon-Eidolon Dyad, a concept that seems central to many global spiritual belief systems and isms (as just mentioned) that evolved around the world and have emerged within the field of today’s neuroscience. Peake cites the late psychologist Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind theory as making an important contribution of how this split in consciousness evolved. Furthermore, while Jaynes himself came to research this aspect (as a result of a mysterious voice speaking to him) should also fascinate the reader, as well as the stories of Joan of Arc, Carl Jung’s Philemon, Socrates’ “divine sign,” and a host of many others.
Peake finds connections and data emerging from everywhere. Visionaries, near-death experiencers (check out the Raymond Moody account at the beginning of chapter 8), people with déjà vu, temporal lobe epilepsy, schizophrenia, and even migraines. His Daemon-Eidolon Dyad overlaps and integrates so much material, from so many different backgrounds, that it appears to be a candidate for what scientists call TOE (Theory of Everything). Chapter 6 is entitled “Precognition,” and parapsychologists should want to take heed of its contents. How do these people so often get warnings and previews from their “daemons” about events in their future? And, while many of us are fond of saying that truth is stranger than fiction, you should want to read chapter 10 which reviews the uncanny real life of science fiction master writer Philip K. Dick, whose many writings became such well-known film adaptations as Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and more. Peake reveals how in real life Philip Dick was a prime example of all of the different elements of his Daemon-Eidolon Dyad, though many outside of his fan base are unaware of these matters. (Peake talked quite a bit with me about Dick in my interview with him posted in the December 2007 #119 issue of this magazine; plus you might well also want to read Brad Steiger’s Philip K. Dick’s Phylogenic Memory and the Divine Fire in the November ’07 #118 ish) Dick even experienced a doppelganger (double) of himself it seems. Peake cites various doppelganger accounts in his book, and on a separate but nonetheless, I suspect, significant note Ray Fowler’s book SynchroFile(just mentioned at the beginning of my Reality Checking column) describes a probable doppelganger account in chapter 8 of that book. (Hmmm there’s chapter 8 again!) So indeed the potential connections and data can be found everywhere!

This book is extremely challenging and thought-provoking, and no matter what your particular orientation or mindset, if you’re interested in mysteries and unexplained phenomena, or have any curiosity at all, then this book is an absolute must read! "
It is reviews such as this that makes writing so rewarding. I have written my books to make people think and debate my theories. This review implies that, at least as far as Brent is concerned, I have succeded.
Please do check out his website. It is well worth a few hours of your time. It deals with many itladian-related topics. -

www.mysterious-america.net

Monday 15 December 2008

Sunday Times Article - Have Your Say!

After doing a little research I am delighted to say that the writer of the Sunday Times article (see previous post), Bryan Appleyard, is also a member of "Blogger" and has his own site similar to this one. As with this site (and all open Blogger sites) other Bloggers can place comments. I am pleased to say that Bryan has placed a posting on his article and is keen to have some reader responses. May I suggest that if any of you keen itladians out there, after reading the article, feel motivated to put an itladian comment on Bryan's site it will do us no harm here. It may even stimulate some interest in the great British media (which to date seem to have rather missed out on "Cheating The Ferryman".

Mr. Appleyard is a highly respected journalist and one, I am sure, who may be fascinated with what we are attempting here and on the FORUM.

The link is https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=23400750&postID=2645784118939695819

Cheers

Tony

Sunday 14 December 2008

Sunday Times Magazine

In today's Sunday Times Magazine here in the UK the journalist Brian Appleyard has written an excellent article about the latest research regarding Near-Death Experience. Indeed he even discusses the quantum physics aspects so dear to our itladian hearts.

I think that this could be an opportunity to get itlad noticed by this highly influential newspaper. The article can be read at:


You will also notice that they are requesting reader-comments. It would be great if as many of us as possible could add our comments to this site while it is still new. Indeed with the World-wide membership of this blog this may be of even more interest to the journalists, particularly the much respected Mr. Appleyard

I will be adding something later this evening or early tomorrow .....

Thursday 11 December 2008

Latest Radio Interview - 11th/12th December 2008

Robert Larson will be interviewing me again on his show "OUT THE RABBIT HOLE" on Thursday 11th December at 5-6 PM, Pacific Time. For listeners in the UK this will be broadcast at 1 -2 AM on Friday 12th December. The show is broadcast from the studios of KUCI in Irvine, CA. For those of you in sunny Orange County this can be listened to at 88.9 FM. For the rest theshow is streamed worldwide at http://www.kuci.org/. Audio archives this interview can be found at http://www.kuci.org/talk/. If you are interested in Robert and his previous shows you can check him out at his MySpace site at:


Robert and I will be discussing my new book, The Daemon, particularly in relationship to the late, great Philip K Dick. This is curiously apposite because PKD lived in the same area of California as the KUCI studios.



Wednesday 10 December 2008

Graham Hancock

I received an email from Glen Kreisberg a few days ago. Glen is an associate of the writer Graham Hancock. At present Graham is working on a novel and has requested that Glen commission articles for Graham's website. I am delighted that not only are they interested in me writing an article for them but also they wish me to be their "Author of the Month" for March 2009. I am deeply honoured to receive this accolade and I have, of course, agreed to write the article.

It seems that Glen has checked out this Blogsite and its sister FORUM and has found it all very interesting. He is of the opinion that there is much "crossover" with what we are discussing here and the subjects discussed on Graham's forum (www.grahamhancock.com/forum). Graham's forum is where I would like us to be soon .... with over a million hits a month!

Graham and Glen plan to set up a series of links from their site to our FORUM and this site here. Clearly this will involve more visitors for us which is fantastic .... even more people will become aware of ITLAD and CTF and in doing so the message will be spread.

Glen has already set up a link from his website to mine. If you have a moment or two mayber check out his stuff at http://www.ashnews.org/


Tuesday 9 December 2008

Frumoşii adolecenţi

Elevii mei, frumoşi adolecenţi care – fără complexe şi fără ruşine – recunosc că n-au citit în viaţa lor nicio carte, sunt materialul uman cu care am de lucru, pe care – zice-se – trebuie să-l prelucrez. Mă uit la ei, la nervozitatea lor, la dificultatea cu care se concentrează la ore, la lenea şi la prematura lor blazare şi-mi spun că din unii ca ei vor răsări, mâine, oameni ce vor şti să fie răbdători şi-şi vor pune probleme pe care acum nu şi le pun sau, oameni care vor regreta anii pierduţi acum – toate acele „păcate ale tinereţelor”. La fel cum, din tineri promiţători şi studioşi, cu o curiozitate intelectuală uluitoare, vor ieşi – cum s-a întâmplat cu colegul meu de liceu, bunul OR – oameni şovăielnici în viaţă, deprimaţi, care se vor stinge înainte ca flacăra tinereţii şi maturităţii lor să se aprindă. Sunt posibile tot felul de combinaţii. Mă gândesc la toate astea şi simt că inhalez astfel doza necesară de oxigen pentru a supravieţui, ca dascăl, în România anului 2008, când învăţământul românesc e c-un picior în groapă. Unul dintre elevi (are 18 ani) îmi mărturiseşte că el s-a implicat în recenta campanie electorală şi a sprijinit – pentru bani, mă asigură el – partidul „democraţiei originale” auto-intitulat „de stânga”. E naiv, e tânăr şi poate că lui i se iartă neştiinţa, credulitatea, imaturitatea. Deşi – vezi pilda evanghelică a fecioarelor nebune - vine o vreme (următor căreia nu se mai poate face nimic şi regretele-s inutile, untdelemnul s-a consumat, uşile s-au închis, mirele a intrat în sala de ospăţ) când nu mai merge să o dregi şi zadarnic este a face cale întoarsă. Când le spun că nu am de un an televizor, nu le vine să mă creadă. „Şi nu vă e dor de el?” Pur şi simplu nu pot să priceapă. „Cum, nici măcar de emisiunile de pe Discovery Channel?” Am încercat atunci că le spun că nici chiar acele emisiuni (informate, e drept, întotdeauna frumos ambalate) nu pot suplini lipsa adevăratei hrane spirituale pe care doar lectura şi educaţia muzicală le-o poate oferi. Că nici măcar acele documentare nu îi pot face să stea locului, să se adune şi să se concentreze asupra unui subiect. În plus, câţi dintre tineri se rezumă la programele de pe Discovery? Majoritatea îşi otrăvesc sufletul cu ceea ce le oferă, deşănţat, canalele comerciale: movies, movies, movies (invariabil filme-conservă americane) şi pseudo-modele, aşa-zisele vedete TV – „personalităţi de tip mafiot”. Aşa cum (vezi cazul Teo) ajung de fapt să recunoască şi singure, când rămân fără slujbă: „Suntem toţi nişte măscărici, demni de scârbă, care venim şi ne schimonosim la televizor, tragem nişte filosofii în care nici măcar noi nu credem, plecăm acasă şi avem exact aceleaşi probleme ca şi oamenii obişnuiţi.” Am ajuns, en fin, la capitolul spontaneitate şi am dat exemplu pe Cârcotaşi – singurii care izbutesc o spontaneitate bazată (culmea!) pe rigoare (rigoarea meseriei pe care – se vede cale de-o poştă – o iubesc), pe documentare şi pe jocuri inepuizabile de conotaţii (desigur, vizând în principal lumea divertismentului). Asta îi face să pară (cel puţin în ochii mei) mult mai puţin diletanţi decât toţi ceilalţi colegi de-ai lor din branşă...Altfel, elevii mei sunt nişte copii nevinovaţi, cu un atu incomensurabil: acea curăţie a sufletului încă neperverit (în ciuda zburdălniciei vârstei lor).

Itladian Conference. Sri Lanka 2008


Above is a photograph of myself, Dr. Mahendra Perera (left) and his nephew Prasan at the wonderful Kandalama Resort and Hotel in central Sri Lanka. (Details and images on this amazing place can be found at http://www.heritancehotels.net/kandalama/).
This was the first meeting of the Sri Lankan-Australian-British Itladian Group. I would suggest this location for any future international Itladian meetings but it really is quite a difficult place to get to. It is right in the middle of the Sri Lankan jungle (the monkeys on our balcony every morning was something of a novelty ... the pythons, leopards, tarantulas, crocodiles and cobras we were warned about that could be encountered in the grounds of the hotel were less of a novelty, more of a concern!). Maybe Birmingham would be better ...
Dr. Perera is not only a member of the FORUM but also, like myself, a professional member of the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS). He is a consultant psychiatrist based at the Albert Road Clinic in Melbourne, Australia.
For an example of Dr. Perera's work on NDE check out this article from an Australian newspaper:
Dr. Perera and his associates have written a fascinating paper published in the Journal of Near-Death Studies (vol 26, Number 4, Summer 2008). This discusses the results of their research into Near-Death Experiences in Sri Lanka. Dr Perera was also responsible for the largest survey of the NDE phenomenon in Australia.
We all had a wonderful evening. The arak flowed as freely as the conversation. We discussed many things itladian including some fascinating "from the coal face" examples of the itladian elements of schizophrenia from Mahendra. and I am looking forward to reading more of Dr Perera's work and collaborating with him with regard to a specialist book on the NDE experience for the Australian medical market.