This week I'm talking to Jesses Bering about his book 'The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson: One Scientist's Epic Quest for Evidence of Reincarnation, Apparitions, Poltergeists, and Other Matters of the Soul'

The untold story of an iconoclastic scientist: a psychiatrist who dedicated his career to documenting consciousness after death.

While Ian Stevenson (1918–2007) was an academic psychiatrist with a serious demeanor, right down to his three-piece suits and wingtip shoes, he made his name researching an unusual topic for a behavioral scientist: the afterlife. For over four decades, Stevenson traveled the globe investigating cases of reincarnation, apparitions, possessions, and near-death experiences. At the time of his death, Stevenson was widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in parapsychology, a field devoted to psychic phenomena and paranormal experiences.

Set against the colorful backdrop of parapsychology’s rise and fall, from Victorian séances to modern media spectacles, The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson captures Stevenson’s relentless quest for evidence of consciousness beyond the grave. Jesse Bering, himself a psychologist, interweaves Stevenson’s research with vivid stories of the larger-than-life characters who shaped his path—from Eileen Garrett, the fearless medium, to Chester Carlson, the inventor of Xerox photocopying and Stevenson’s unlikely patron. Through never-before-seen letters and candid interviews with Stevenson’s surviving family members, readers glimpse the inner turmoil of a scientist struggling to balance his revolutionary ideas with the skepticism of his academic peers as well as those closest to him. Along the way, Bering, a researcher whose own trailblazing work on the psychology of afterlife beliefs had led him to believe it was all just an illusion, is forced to rethink his own worldview. Are psychic phenomena examples of our living brains giving credence to the absurd? Or tantalizing glimmers of life after death?

Equal parts scientific detective story and intimate biography, The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson shines a light on a significant figure whose life and work have not yet been fully explored. Bering boldly confronts readers with the complicated legacy of a man who many see as a Galileo-like rebel with groundbreaking ideas, ones that still have the power to upend everything we know about what it means to be human.

Bio

Jesse Bering is an experimental psychologist and a leading scholar in the cognitive science of religion. He is also an essayist and science writer specializing in evolution and human behavior. His first book, The Belief Instinct (W. W. Norton, 2011), was included in the American Library Association’s Top 25 Books of the Year and voted one of the “11 Best Psychology Books of 2011” by The Atlantic. This was followed by a collection of his Webby-award nominated essays, Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?, and Perv, a taboo-breaking work that received widespread critical acclaim and was named as a New York Times Editor’s Choice. His most recent book was A Very Human Ending.

Bering’s writings have been translated into many different languages and reviewed in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other outlets. He has also been featured in numerous documentaries and radio programs, including Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, Conan, Chelsea Lately, Q&A (Australia), and NPR’s All Things Considered.

Bering is Director of the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago. He lives in Dunedin, New Zealand with his partner, Juan, and their two cheeky border terriers, Hanno and Kora.

https://www.jessebering.com

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Incredible-Afterlives-Dr-Stevenson-Reincarnation-ebook/dp/B0GK2W68Z7

Zen AI bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_paranormal

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

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In this episode, I talk about the remarkable reincarnation case of William George Sr, one of the best-known cases from the Tlingit people of south-eastern Alaska.

William George Sr was a fisherman who, before his death, reportedly told his son and daughter-in-law that if reincarnation was real, he would return as their child. He also gave them signs by which he could be recognised. He pointed to distinctive marks on his left shoulder and left forearm and said that if he came back, the child would have similar marks in the same places. He also left behind a gold watch, asking that it be kept for him.

A few weeks later, William George Sr disappeared from his fishing boat. Soon afterwards, his daughter-in-law became pregnant and later gave birth to a boy, William George Jr. The child was found to have marks on his left shoulder and left forearm, in the places his grandfather had indicated. Around the time of the birth, the mother also reported a vivid dream or vision of William George Sr, an experience that fits the pattern of what are often called announcing dreams.

As William George Jr grew, relatives noticed further details that seemed to connect him with his grandfather. He showed an early familiarity with boats and fishing nets, yet also had a fear of water. He reportedly used family terms as if he were speaking from the position of William George Sr, and he later claimed the old man’s gold watch as his own.

This episode tells the story of the case. It considers the prediction, the birthmarks, the dream, the behaviour and the family context, asking whether the case points toward reincarnation, cultural expectation, inherited memory, or something that remains difficult to explain.

Zen AI bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_paranormal

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

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This week I'm talking to Tricia Barker about her book 'Angels in the OR: What Dying Taught Me About Healing, Survival, and Transformation'

Tricia Barker was a depressed, agnostic college student at The University of Texas in Austin...until a profound near-death experience (NDE) during surgery revolutionizes her entire world. As she learns to walk again, Tricia lets go of painful wounds from childhood and integrates some of the aftereffects of her spiritual journey into her daily life. She returns to college with renewed vigor, intending to embark on a new path by becoming an English teacher.

But after a year of teaching in the US, Tricia travels to South Korea, where she is the victim of a sexual assault. Now, she must use the wisdom she gained on the Other Side to heal herself; and later, guide countless junior high, high school, and college students to greater peace. Through teaching and mentoring others--many of whom are struggling with traumas of their own--Tricia decides to devote her life to bringing the "light" she experienced during her NDE to individuals who are seeking solace, inspiration, and overall well-being.

Bio

Tricia Barker experienced a profound near-death experience during her senior year of college, and this experience guided her to teach overseas, in public schools, and at the college level. Her near-death experience story has been featured on I Survived: Beyond and Back, Season 1, Life to Afterlife: Death and Back, National Geographic Magazine, Simple Grace Magazine, Women’s World Magazine, Coast to Coast AM, GAIA, WFAA, and The Doctor Oz Show.

Tricia’s memoir, Angels in the OR: What Dying Taught Me About Healing, Survival, and Transformation, is available as an e-book, paperback, and through Audible.

Tricia is a graduate of The University of Texas. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She is a professor, author, medium, and theta healer. Tricia also interviews other near-death experiencers, researchers, healers, spiritual teachers, and mediums on her YouTube Channel.

https://triciabarkernde.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angels-Taught-Healing-Survival-Transformation-ebook/dp/B07NGQZSHL

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyIstVbBhilo1gdUmazkReQ?view_as=subscriber

Zen AI bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_paranormal

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

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This week I'm talking to Crystal Cassidy about her Near Death Experience and other spiritual experiences.

Listeners' promo code for Soulpod: OURPARANORMAL

Bio

Crystal is a scientist-mystic exploring the frontier where consciousness meets technology. As founder and CEO of SoulPod, she is building a new framework for training consciousness like a technology—transforming daily ritual into a quantum mechanism for personal and collective evolution.

Formally trained as a Reiki Master, Kundalini Yoga Teacher, Transformational Breathwork Practitioner, and Meditation Facilitator, Crystal bridges the precision of science with the intelligence of spirit.

Before SoulPod, she spent nearly two decades in biotechnology and oncology research, helping bring the first blood-based diagnostic for solid-tumor cancers to market as Director of Clinical Operations.

Her work translates mystical experience into measurable change—teaching people to regulate their nervous systems, re-encode their inner signal, and access the deeper operating system of reality itself.

Through SoulPod, Crystal invites a new kind of spirituality: not escape from the world, but technology for awakening within it. From there, we can step into a new phase of possibility as a species.

https://www.soulpodapp.com/

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

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This episode I am reading from Michelle Brooks' book 'Proof Beyond the Grave: Real Accounts. Real Memories. Real Continuation.'

What if there is evidence that this is all real?

Proof Beyond the Grave brings the journey into reality through compelling true stories and documented accounts that challenge conventional beliefs about life and death.

From detailed past-life memories to unexplained knowledge and experiences, these cases present a powerful question: could consciousness continue beyond the physical body?

This book does not ask for blind belief—it presents information that invites you to decide for yourself.

The journey ends here…

Or perhaps, it begins again.

Bio

Michelle has spent much of her life drawn toward the questions that resist easy answers. Not the kind of questions that dissolve when you look at them directly, but the kind that grow larger the longer you sit with them. What is consciousness, and where does it go? What are we carrying that we did not pick up in this life? What does it mean that so many people, in so many places, have described the same impossible thing? She did not come to this subject through formal academic credentials or institutional affiliation. She came to it the way most honest inquiry begins: through personal experience, through encounters she could not explain, and through a refusal to dismiss what she could not yet understand. That refusal led her deeper. Into the documented research. Into the case files. Into the work of the researchers who spent careers looking at the evidence and telling the truth about what they found, including the parts that did not resolve. Proof Beyond the Grave is the result of years of gathering, reading, verifying, and reflecting. It is an attempt to bring the most rigorous and compelling evidence in this field to readers who deserve more than vague assurances and less than impossible promises. Every case cited in these pages is real. Every researcher named can be looked up. Every claim can be checked. Michelle lives with the open question, as all honest explorers of this territory must. She does not believe the evidence demands certainty. She believes it demands attention. Her hope is that this book gives you a reason to pay it. Proof Beyond the Grave is part of The Remembrance Series. You've Been Here Before · The Return · Living Record

https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Beyond-Grave-Continuation-Remembrance-ebook/dp/B0FJZW2DDQ

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-brooks-628536157/

https://www.revmichellebrooks.com/

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week I am talking to Robin Foy. Robin was one of the team who took part in The Scole Experiment looking into physical mediumship.

The Scole Experiment is now widely regarded as the most important scientific investigation of evidence for life after death in history. Highly-qualified and objective scientists, and a whole range of other people who attended the Scole Group's sessions, came away convinced that (mostly) invisible, discarnate intelligences were making direct contact with those present.

Robin and Sandra Foy both have 39 years intensive experience of witnessing physical mediumship and physical phenomena. As well as being involved in a series of their own home circles to develop phenomena over the years with varying results, they have also had the opportunity to sit with a number of physical mediums, many of whom are (or were) well known in this field.

Through their long involvement, they have gained extensive knowledge and experience of the different ways in which physical phenomena can be produced by the spirit teams attached to various circles, mediums and groups. This is knowledge they would like to share with other dedicated groups and serious researchers. The crowning glory of their experiences to date is their involvement in the now famous 'Scole Experiment' which took place at their home in Scole over a 5-year period in the 1990's. During this period, Robin and Sandra were able to witness no less than 1,000 hours of physical phenomena in their 'Scole Experimental Group', where their two physical medium friends, Diana and Alan Bennett remained in deep trance throughout their experimental sessions.

Robin Foy was the Co-Founder of the ISM Home Circle Link in the 1980's and the Founder of the Noah's Ark Society in 1990. He remained its chairman until September 1994. In 1992, he was Co-Founder of the Scole Experimental Group and, later, of the New Spiritual Science Foundation. The group demonstrated physical phenomena to the public (and to scientific investigators who were senior members of the SPR -Society for Psychical Research) in the UK, in Ibiza, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland (Eire) as well as in California (USA)

In 1996, Robin published his first book - In Pursuit of Physical Mediumship (Janus Publishing Co Ltd)

His Latest Book - Witnessing the Impossible - was published a while ago (Torcal Publications 2008), and is the only complete record of every sitting of the Scole Experimental Group.

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week I'm talking to Michelle Brooks about her book 'Proof Beyond the Grave: Real Accounts. Real Memories. Real Continuation.'

What if there is evidence that this is all real?

Proof Beyond the Grave brings the journey into reality through compelling true stories and documented accounts that challenge conventional beliefs about life and death.

From detailed past-life memories to unexplained knowledge and experiences, these cases present a powerful question: could consciousness continue beyond the physical body?

This book does not ask for blind belief—it presents information that invites you to decide for yourself.

The journey ends here…

Or perhaps, it begins again.

Bio

Michelle has spent much of her life drawn toward the questions that resist easy answers. Not the kind of questions that dissolve when you look at them directly, but the kind that grow larger the longer you sit with them. What is consciousness, and where does it go? What are we carrying that we did not pick up in this life? What does it mean that so many people, in so many places, have described the same impossible thing? She did not come to this subject through formal academic credentials or institutional affiliation. She came to it the way most honest inquiry begins: through personal experience, through encounters she could not explain, and through a refusal to dismiss what she could not yet understand. That refusal led her deeper. Into the documented research. Into the case files. Into the work of the researchers who spent careers looking at the evidence and telling the truth about what they found, including the parts that did not resolve. Proof Beyond the Grave is the result of years of gathering, reading, verifying, and reflecting. It is an attempt to bring the most rigorous and compelling evidence in this field to readers who deserve more than vague assurances and less than impossible promises. Every case cited in these pages is real. Every researcher named can be looked up. Every claim can be checked. Michelle lives with the open question, as all honest explorers of this territory must. She does not believe the evidence demands certainty. She believes it demands attention. Her hope is that this book gives you a reason to pay it. Proof Beyond the Grave is part of The Remembrance Series. You've Been Here Before · The Return · Living Record

https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Beyond-Grave-Continuation-Remembrance-ebook/dp/B0FJZW2DDQ

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-brooks-628536157/

https://www.revmichellebrooks.com/

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, I explore one of the most unusual and carefully investigated reincarnation cases of the twentieth century: the case of Uttara Huddar.

In 1974, Uttara, a thirty-two-year-old woman from Nagpur, Maharashtra, began to speak and behave as someone else. This second personality called herself Sharada. She spoke Bengali, dressed as a married Bengali woman, followed Bengali customs, and appeared confused by modern life. What made the case so striking was that Uttara came from a Marathi-speaking family and was not known to be fluent in Bengali.

Sharada described a previous life in Bengal during the early nineteenth century. She gave details of her family, her marriage, the places she had lived, and her death from a cobra bite while picking flowers. Her story included names of relatives, references to villages, religious customs, and family connections that investigators later attempted to verify.

The case involved responsive xenoglossy, the apparent ability to converse in a language not learned in the normal way. Sharada did not simply repeat phrases; Bengali-speaking witnesses reported that she could answer questions, hold conversations and use older forms of Bengali.

This episode looks closely at the investigation, the verifiable details, and why the Uttara Huddar case remains one of the strongest and most fascinating examples in the literature on reincarnation.

https://simonbown.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

My book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

My book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9Y

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.