“Nothing sacred is spared in Jesse Bering’s deft, rivetingly informative, and relentlessly hilarious new book. Bering’s addictive curiosity and wry, dexterous humor make this a collection that’s as funny as it is impossible to put down.”

Violet Blue, award-winning author and sex educator

“Bravo! This deeply researched and engagingly written biography does much more than tell the story of Ian Stevenson’s life and work on children with past-life memories, mediumship, apparitions, and extrasensory perception—it is a meditation on the implications of Stevenson’s findings for the relation of mind to body and the survival of consciousness after bodily death. Bering’s account is especially powerful because he comes to Stevenson from the perspective of cognitive psychology. It should inspire others who think they know what Stevenson was about, but have not read anything he wrote, to take up his extensive writings and form their own opinions about them.”

James G. Matlock, author of “Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory”

“Through Ian Stevenson’s life, Bering deftly examines the ignored and mocked corners of the behavioral sciences. Never dismissive and never credulous, Bering shows how parapsychology—ESP, survival, reincarnation—walked the same academic corridors as psychology and psychiatry. Bering’s clever biography shows that what’s been marginalized deserves a place in the light. A revealing tale, and a fun one.” 

Joshua Blu Buhs, author of “Think to New Worlds: The Cultural History of Charles Fort and His Followers”