This text provides a cross-cultural comparison of so-called 'imaginary childhood friends'.

From aliens or ghosts to the djinn, electric-voice phenomenon and UFO abductions, this book is the most comprehensive and enlightening survey ever made of encounters with the Others. Since our very beginnings, human beings from all civilisations across the globe have encountered the Others - intelligent, self-motivated beings that are clearly not human in their origins. This book offers the most comprehensive survey ever made of such otherworldly visitors, from gods, angels, demons and djinns to hobgoblins, poltergeists and ghosts to UFOs and aliens. In addition to fully detailing the history of these encounters, the book attempts a bold explanation (never before undertaken) of the true nature of these beings. The book will explore the increasingly frequent "entheogen" encounters facilitated by substances such as dimethyltryptamine, ayahuasca, 5-Meo-DMT and LSD, as well as the beings encountered by individuals suffering from Alzheimer's-related Charles Bonnet Syndrome, young children's non-corporeal companions, and the seemingly independent beings met during lucid dreaming and near-death and out-of-body experiences. This book continues Anthony Peake's work in developing a completely original model of reality based upon an amalgamation of ancient belief systems, subjective human experiences of the extraordinary, and the latest discoveries of neurology, neurochemistry, quantum mechanics and cosmology. This model proposes that consciousness, far from being simply an accident of evolution, is the actual root source of the material universe. It suggests that at its most basic level everything that is seemingly physical is rendered into existence by consciousness.

This is a fantastic book. It is about the imaginary friends which so many children have. I had one when I was a child, and probably so did you. Writing in 2015, eight years after this book was first published Lawrence Kutner, Ph.D. says: "Imaginary friends are an integral part of many children's lives. They provide comfort in times of stress, companionship when they're lonely, someone to boss around when they feel powerless, and someone to blame for the broken lamp in the living room. Most important, an imaginary companion is a tool young children use to help them make sense of the adult world." These friendships take place in a weird sort of ur-space that is neither pure imagination or actual reality (whatever that is) and are important not just because they are practically universal, but because of their implications for those of us who study the noosphere. I have known Mike Hallowell for well over 20 years, and have always been impressed by his books and articles. He has the sort of enquiring polymathematical mind which I admire, as he sets his talents into investigating a wide range of different arcane subjects. But this enquiry into the true nature of childhood imaginary friends may well prove to be the most important thing he has ever written. Jon Downes Director, CFZ

An eye-opening response to Aldous Huxley’s widely influential work on psychedelics, physical reality, and consciousness What exactly are hallucinations? Are they actually doors to another reality? Anthony Peake thinks so. In this stunning book, he takes Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception and updates it using the latest information from quantum mechanics, neurochemistry, and consciousness studies. Most human beings perceive the doors of perception as being securely closed. But here, Peake analyzes the concept of ‘the scale of transcendence’ and suggests there is a scale of perceptions whereby the doors are slowly opened, bit by bit, to reveal the true nature of reality. For ‘normal’ people, glimpses of this reality—what the Gnostics called ‘The Pleroma’—are experienced during ‘noetic’ experiences. However, for others, the doors are prized open by certain neurological processes starting with migraine and progressing through various altered states such as temporal lobe epilepsy, bipolar syndrome, autism, and schizophrenia. A pioneering work on the relationship between physical reality and consciousness, Opening the Doors of Perception suggests that man can, indeed, perceive reality in its true glory.

An exhaustive investigation of the case of Gef, a “talking mongoose” or “man-weasel,” who appeared to a family living on the Isle of Man. “I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!” During the mid-1930s, British and overseas newspapers were full of incredible stories about Gef, a “talking mongoose” or “man-weasel” who had allegedly appeared in the home of the Irvings, a farming family in a remote district of the Isle of Man. The creature was said to speak in several languages, to sing, to steal objects from nearby farms, and to eavesdrop on local people. Despite written reports, magazine articles and books, several photographs, fur samples and paw prints, voluminous correspondence, and signed eyewitness statements, there is still no consensus as to what was really happening to the Irving family. Was it a hoax? An extreme case of folie à plusieurs? A poltergeist? The possession of an animal by an evil spirit? Now you can read all the evidence and decide for yourself. Seven years' research and interviews, photographs (many previously unseen), interviews with surviving witnesses, visits to the site—all are presented in this book, the first examination of the case for seventy years. In the words of its mischievous, enigmatic subject, “If you knew what I know, you'd know a hell of a lot!"

The first book to explore, in depth, the complete range of paranormal phenomena reported throughout England's North East in modern times.