Welcome to Our Paranormal Afterlife.

This is Our Paranormal Afterlife, and I'm your host, Simon Bown.

This week I'm talking to Louisa Peck about her book, Die Hard Atheist,

from NDE Denier to Full-on woo-woo against my will. Louisa had a near-death experience after having an overdose

in a Manhattan nightclub, and you can enjoy the extended version of this episode ad-free,

along with over 100 hours of extended episodes on Patreon.

Hi, Louisa, thanks a lot for coming on the podcast.

Thanks for having me, Simon.

So we're going to be talking about your book.

It's called Die Hard Atheist, from NDE Denier to Full On Woo-W against My Will.

You say die-hard atheist, so just how much of an atheist were you?

I was so committed to being an atheist and so committed to materialism. First of all, my father

had been forced-fed Catholicism and he had had a huge resentment against religion that he started inculcating me with that resentment

before I can even remember. But I do remember being very young and him explaining that religion

was a crutch for people who were afraid of living and could not explain natural phenomenon. So I looked down on it from the

beginning and the older I got, the more I substantiated his view. I studied philosophy and I would

write these big long-winded papers about how there was no God. And I was also an alcoholic, as you know.

And a kind of an alcoholic creed is, you know, screw it, nothing matters. And that was my

view of life. You had this near-death experience. Before we talk about what happened with your near-death experience, was it that afterwards

and for a few years you kind of, not dismissed it, but kind of ignored it and carry it on as an atheist.

Yes.

So I had this moment that they following the near-death experience when I realized I had to decide

...