About

The focus of my research is parapsychology, which is the scientific investigation of apparent phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis, near death experiences, and reincarnation. If you’d like to know more about research in these areas and more, you could do worse than poke around here: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/categories.[1]

I’m interested in theories of consciousness. My first book – What is Your Mind? – explores the most promising ideas in this space and is based on the essay I wrote with my colleague Prof. Chris Roe that won first prize in the Institute of Noetic Science’s consciousness research competition. 

My current research involves investigating whether and how dietary practices – particularly fasting and vegetarianism – are associated with spiritual development and psychic experiences and abilities. I’ve conducted interviews with professional psychics about the role food plays in their abilities; surveys of vegetarians and people who fast to see whether there’s any association with spiritual and paranormal experiences; and an experiment to explore whether vegetarians perform better than meat eaters in a test of precognition – or ‘seeing the future’. You can see interviews and talks I’ve given about this research here.

Beyond parapsychology, I’ve been active in the environmental movement for over 30 years, including standing for parliament for the Green Party in 1992, and more recently as trustee of Climate Action Ilkley, and a founding member of Transition New Mills. I’m particularly passionate about restoring and enhancing nature, for example through Mossy Earth, and advocating for more plant-based diets: for reasons of the environment, personal health, and of course for the animals.

My professional roles have included working in university senior management and supporting academic research, most recently at the University of Leeds where I worked for the Bragg Centre. I’ve also been a software engineer and a high school mathematics teacher. I have a Masters in computation and a degree in social science.

I was brought up on the south coast near Brighton and spent most of my adult life in Manchester. I now live in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. I play the piano (just!) and chess (ditto). I like cooking, and making and eating cakes (vegan of course), and love walking in the countryside (the more natural the better).

I’m a member of scientific organisations the Galileo Commission, the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium, and the Vegan Researcher Network.

Photo by Ellis Brown

Note

1. Unfortunately, Wikipedia is a much worse and unreliable source of information about parapsychology for these reasons.