What if dying feels less like a blackout and more like pressing restart? Stan welcomes author and researcher Anthony Peake for a mind-bending tour through near-death experiences, deja vu, and the possibility that consciousness is more fundamental than the matter that seems to produce it. We trace his early fascination with hallucinations to a rigorous, science-first approach that challenges the default “it’s just hypoxia” explanation and asks a deeper question: how does the brain generate a self that can witness anything at all?

We dive into veridical NDEs, EEG spikes after flatline, and why time can stretch into lifetimes in a single instant. Along the way, Anthony connects the panoramic life review to memory architecture and neurochemistry, showing surprising overlap with experiences triggered by ketamine, DMT, and psilocybin. His provocative daemon–eidolon model frames deja vu as a memory from previous “runs” of your life, while many‑worlds and simulation logic offer a physics‑literate way to imagine branching choices rendering new realities on demand. The conversation widens across cultures: from children encountering cartoon guides to shamanic initiations and New Britain accounts that mirror modern abduction narratives, the motifs of guidance, review, and transformation persist even as their costumes change.

Grounded in neuroscience yet alive to anthropology, information theory, and the holographic principle, this episode asks whether consciousness is a field we tune into, not a byproduct we produce. If entities on DMT remember you and virtual worlds can feel more real than real, how certain are we that everyday life isn’t a curated rendering? Come curious, leave challenged, and bring your best questions about what a self is, where it goes, and why our most private experiences look so strangely universal. If this conversation expands your sense of what’s possible, follow, and share with a friend.

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