Consciousness & The Afterlife

This week I'm talking to Brendan Murphy about his book 'Reverse Engineering the Afterlife' Thousands of near-death experience accounts have been documented across five decades of clinical research. Esoteric traditions have described post-mortem states for millennia. Depth psychology mapped archetypal transition imagery throughout the twentieth century. None of these bodies of work talk to each other. The result is a field fragmented by disciplinary silos, ideological commitments, and the assumption that symbolic content is equivalent to literal description. Materialists dismiss the data. Religionists literalise the imagery. New Age frameworks conflate symbol with destination. Reverse Engineering the Afterlife operates at the structural level, extracts the cross-tradition pattern, and builds a named explanatory model— the Consciousness Transition Model—that accounts for the data without requiring faith in any tradition's myth-language. Bio Brendan D. Murphy is an independent consciousness researcher and author working at the fault line between empirical science and the world's esoteric traditions—testing both against evidence rather than taking either on faith. His new book, Reverse Engineering the Afterlife (2026), introduces the Consciousness Transition Model (CTM)—a structured, cross-disciplinary framework for understanding what consciousness encounters during and after death. Built from over two decades of research across near-death studies, reincarnation data, systems thinking, depth psychology, and esoteric philosophy, the CTM is not a belief system, but an operational map. His first book, The Grand Illusion: A Synthesis of Science and Spirituality (2012)—drawing from quantum physics, consciousness research, psi phenomena, and comparative philosophy—established him as one of the most thorough independent researchers in the field. Professional Member — IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies) Professional Affiliate — Galileo Commission Full Member — Scientific and Medical Network (SMN) https://brendandmurphy.com/ https://simonbown.com/https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlifeMy book 'Verified Near Death Experiences'  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFPMy book 'Aspects of Alien Abduction' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRRPCT9YZen AI bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_paranormal Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.