The embarrassing truth is that every cell in my body cringes at the idea of self-promotion. But it’s the introverted author’s lot in life, and it’s always this way when a new book comes out. What makes it a bit easier this time around is that my forthcoming book tells the story of a man I deeply admire: the late psychiatrist-turned-parapsychologist Dr. Ian Stevenson.
Writing this book felt like going on a handheld journey into the afterlife with the world’s leading scientific authority on the subject—a cross somewhere between Don Quixote and Galileo (I leave it to the reader to decide which is more accurate). Below are some anonymous expert reviews of THE INCREDIBLE AFTERLIVES OF DR. STEVENSON, which comes out April 22.
If you’re scientifically minded and have any interest in the fate of your (im?)mortal soul—or of those you love—I hope you’ll give it a read.
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“Bering [doesn’t] adopt the arch voice of the professional skeptic, quick to shut down conversation with a designation of pseudoscience. Rather, by returning to his own interest in the psychology of belief, he turns the funhouse mirror-feeling of a lot of Stevenson’s reasoning into a powerful lens. The result is a compelling, often intimate, and extremely accessible treatment of questions of major import for today.”
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“This is one of the best overviews of parapsychology I’ve yet to encounter. I can well imagine it being taught in undergraduate courses in psychology, history of science, and religious studies. I can also imagine it making best of lists for non-fiction and science writing. I was completely absorbed. . . I struggle to think of a comparable book that achieves what Bering has done.”
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“The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson is simply the best study we have of Ian Stevenson. Period.”
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“This is a fantastic book ... Impeccable and more than welcome ... As the evidence, that is, the stories, mount, the reader, and the writer on this particular journey are transformed. I really did appreciate, very much, Bering’s own journey here, and his hole of doubt in his own scientific certainty.”