You want to talk about the afterlife? Have you gone completely mad?

Well – actually I don’t think so. In fact, I regard myself as a pretty normal person.

Oh, yes?

Oh, yes. Perhaps, because of my background and of my job, I might even be considered a touch more balanced and inclined to rational thinking than your average person....

So begins the “literary and scientific adventure” this book is all about. These are the first exchanges of a three week marathon dialogue between the author, Dr. Piero Calvi-Parisetti, and a smart, inquisitive, open-minded skeptic interlocutor.

Approaching one specific area of investigation each day, the author introduces his partner to striking scientific research and the most credible anecdotal evidence in support of two apparently outlandish hypotheses:

...now, back to the "things"...
 

The things you say you’ve been learning about.

Yes, what I would call now “the result of seeing one thousand white flies”. Fasten your seat belt, ‘cause I am likely to rock your world.

OK then, go ahead.

First: our mind is not entirely dependent on the physical brain. A part of the mind shows what physicists call nonlocal and nontemporal behaviour: it can be conscious of events happening at a different location and in the future. This part of the mind can also transmit thoughts at a distance and can influence inanimate matter.

Second: human personality survives physical death and is capable of interacting with the physical world it has left behind.

Fine - that’s exactly how I thought. All that is complete, utter, colossal nonsense.

Quite so. Like white flies. Only that, as I will be explaining to you, it’s true.