Book/Event Review : The Daemon (Arcturus Publishing) by Anthony Peake

Synopsis: British binary mind theorist and author, Anthony Peake, is expanding his considerable technique and influence into an increasingly American audience and readership. With the publication of his second book, The Daemon, and a third pending publication in Great Britain, Peake was in command of an audience of some 320 members of the metro New York press and public this August 3, at the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue. His blend of quantum physics, cognitive philosophy, and phenomenology, among other domains and disciplines, may be just what the doctor ordered for a postmodern readership. Peake's proposal of a second self preceding and directing human consciousness in life and at the point of death, is timely and empirically sound, as is his scholarship and writing method.

Book and Event Review:
Anthony Peake
The Daemon: A Guide to Your Extraordinary Secret Self
Arcturus Publishing, 2008
(available at Amazon.com)

Having read Anthony Peake's first book, (Is There Life After Death?: The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When We Die; Chartwell Books, 2006) I was equally pleased to read his second book, The Daemon, which is an expansion of the same consciousness theory which is the theme of his first. Peake is most definitely an eclectic binary mind theorist; he draws from quantum physics, atypical neurology, cognitive psychology, phenomenology, epistemology, classical philosophy and literature, to weave together his "daemon/eidolon dyad". Of course, what is most fascinating to me, as a philosopher, is his spin on Nietzsche's (German philosopher and philologist, 1844-1900) eternal recurrence theory.

Personal immortality divorced from traditional religious or mystical dogma, and joined with empirical science and solid philosophy, may be just what the doctor ordered for a 21 st century readership. Indeed, Peake is one to place confidence in: He is a professional member of the International Scientific and Medical Network. This past July, he was platform lecturer with particle physicist Jeff Farshawe before the National Theatre of London, expounding on the classic play of J.B. Priestley on time and mind, "Time and the Conways". In our postmodern culture, hungry for the transcendent, it would appear that mysticism must be grounded in solid empircal science for anyone to put true stock in it. And how could it be otherwise?: Our culture is increasingly grounded in brain science and neurology, quantum physics and high technology. And Peake makes liberal and meticulous use of these disciplines.

In the opening chapters of The Daemon, Peake gives us to understand that the brain science of neurotransmitters, glutamate, and endorphins are interwoven with the quasi-mystical expereinces of Near Death and OBE. He cites the famous split-brain experiments of Sperry, and makes use of the hypothesis of the evolution of homo sapiens binary mind, proclaimed by Julian Jaynes. Indeed, throughout the entire text, Peake is careful to blend the visionary and precognitive powers of this second self, which precedes and directs human consciousness in life, and acts as a granter of personal immortality at death, with scientific findings and supporting data. Peake has called this immortality-mechanism, "Cheating the Ferryman", in reference to the myth of antiquity, in which the boatman, Charon, takes us to the realm of the dead. But deep within the brain's own structures, Peake reveals, Charon has been robbed, for we never reach the land of the dead. How Nietzsche would sing Peake's praises! For eternal recurrence was Nietzsche's own solution to the static Platonic heaven which Christianity gave to the masses.

The book is complex, yet the tone is light, and facts and data are set forth simply for the reader. Chapter 10, which closes the book , is a beautiful laudatory prose piece regarding the experience of the science fiction writer, Phillip K Dick. And Dick, in his Counter Clock World (1967), had envisioned a discoverer of a new immortality, and named him, 'Anarch Peak.' The eerie similarity to Anthony Peake's own name and mission will certainly strike those who are fond of Jungian synchronicity as auspicious and portentous, both. Peake recently stood in front of an audience of some 320 Metro New Yorkers; members of the press and public. It was an event hosted by Gnosis Arts Multimedia, and took place in the famous historic Grand Ballroom of the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue, in midtown east, Manhattan. Peake spoke for over two hours to the Manhattan intelligensia, and did so with a grace and ease coupled with an exuberance and rapidity which was inspiring and charming. Might his theory be a healing agent, for our age of reason and over-science, brain studies and cognitive psychology? Without a doubt, Peake has blended classical literature, art, poetry, and Socratic philosophy, with these new engines of discourse. And has thereby sounded a note which is transcendent and dreamy, without taking flight from the solid and real.

For more on Anthony Peake and his works, visit:
http://www.anthonypeake.com/

SM Kovalinsky: Writer, press agent, editor for Gnosis Arts Multimedia Communications, Bedminster, NJ. Global Moderator for Anthony Peake's international forum, Philosophy section, and webmaster of Musing in Obama's America ; (http://musingsinobamasamerica.blogspot.com/). Also a writer for the New York Examiner (Morris County Political Buzz). Worked in the 1990s as a feature article writer and reporter for Tucker Publishing Company, Flemington, NJ (Today in Hunterdon), and received Presidential press passes to cover major political events under the Clinton Administration.

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