A letter from BrendanOct 2026

A 600-page synthesis is not something you finish. It is something you argue with.

Dear reader,

Most readers close a book like The Grand Illusion with more questions than they opened it with. The Book Club is where those questions go.

Each month we take one section of the book. You send your questions in ahead of the call and vote on each other’s, and I take them live, most-voted first. I don’t prepare a talk. The call runs on what you bring, and I follow the conversation past the text—into the research that didn’t make the page, the objections worth taking seriously, and the places where the ideas are still being refined.

It’s for new readers as much as returning ones: whether you’re opening the book for the first time, stalled halfway, still have it on your shelf, or take things in better by ear than on the page. Read the section if you can, and bring what you’ve been wondering.

Brendan D. Murphy
Brendan D. Murphy
P.S.

Session 01, Consciousness Before the Brain, is in November. Join before Thursday 5 November and you get a say in the day and time we meet.

Join the Book Club →
The Grand Illusion
Monthly · Live · RecordedSession 01 · November 2026
Members vote on the day and time · Confirmed Thu 5 Nov
01—How a month works

Bring your questions to the person who wrote the book.

Ask him what the book left open.

  1. 01
    The letter
    Three weeks out

    The section to read, a short note on what to watch for, and a question for the month.

  2. 02
    Check in
    Where you’re up to

    Not started, partway, finished or rereading. Add a line for Brendan if you like.

  3. 03
    Questions
    Posted and voted on

    Open from the letter until the call starts. The most-voted are taken first.

  4. 04
    The call
    90 minutes, live

    On Proton Meet. Private and encrypted, with no account or download needed.

  5. 05
    The replay
    Every call recorded

    Watch it again any time, and skip straight to each question Brendan answered.

02—The sessions

Seven sessions taking apart The Grand Illusion.

One section a month. Finally finish it, and argue with it.

The Grand Illusion
Book One · 7 sessions
The Grand Illusion
01Next
Consciousness Before the Brain
The book's opening argument—that consciousness may be primary, not brain-generated—and why mainstream science resists saying so.
02Dec
Entanglement and Mystical Oneness
From the double-slit experiment to Bell's theorem to a direct mystical experience of oneness—where the physics case for an interconnected universe meets the thing itself.
03Jan
The Occult Aether
Occult Chemistry, the aether, sacred geometry and torsion fields—the hidden architecture the book says underlies matter itself.
04Feb
The Map Behind the Mirage
How a holographic universe generates experience, and the occultist's seven-plane map of what's doing the perceiving.
05Mar
The Aura Under Scrutiny
Kirlian photography, the health aura, Harry Oldfield's imaging, and inedia: what the evidence for an energy body actually shows.
06Apr
Thought-Forms and Mind Reaching Mind
How thought itself takes shape, and the evidence that one mind can reach another across distance.
07May
Seeing Far, Moving Matter
Clairvoyance and psychokinesis test the mind's reach beyond the senses, closing Book One's case before it opens onto consciousness itself.

Calls are monthly. Members vote on the day and time, confirmed Thu 5 Nov. Times are in Mexico City (CDMX). See it in your time ↗

Brendan D. Murphy
03—Your host
Brendan D. Murphy
Consciousness Researcher · Author · CTM Architect

A systems thinker working at the intersection of consciousness research, comparative metaphysics and modern explanatory frameworks. Most of what sits behind each session never made it onto the page.

23 years
of independent research into consciousness, across the sciences and the world’s traditions.
1,000+
citations in The Grand Illusion: 600 pages synthesising science and spirituality.
The CTM
Reverse Engineering the Afterlife introduces the Consciousness Transition Model, the first structured, cross-tradition map of how consciousness moves through post-mortem states.
04—Readers on The Grand Illusion
“The depth and breadth of his bibliography is mind-boggling, and he explains how and why it all hangs together.”
Eileen McKusick
Eileen McKusick
Author of Tuning the Human Biofield
“Brendan’s ability to clearly articulate and integrate a wide range of esoteric and scientific concepts is like nothing I have ever seen or read before.”
Lisa Schwarz
Lisa Schwarz
Founder, Comprehensive Resource Model®
“A synthesis of science and spirituality I have not seen matched by any other author.”
Dawn Lester
Dawn Lester
Author of What Really Makes You Ill?
05—Join

Join for The Grand Illusion.

Pay in full, or in instalments with Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm or Zip at checkout, where available. Same price either way.

The Grand Illusion
Book One club · 7 sessions
The Grand Illusion
$149
KlarnaAfterpayAffirmZip
7 live monthly sessions on The Grand Illusion
A digital copy of The Grand Illusion
The members’ room: letters, check-ins and questions
Post and vote on questions before each call
Every call recorded, so you can skip to any question
Or, join both book clubs

Keep going into Book Two, for a lot less per session.

Pre-order Reverse Engineering the Afterlife and both book clubs are included: the seven Book One sessions above, then a full season on Book Two. You don’t need a copy of Book Two to join. Your copies ship when it’s printed.

Best value
Reverse Engineering the Afterlife
Five Copies · Both book clubs included
Five Copies$229
Both book clubs: 7 sessions on The Grand Illusion, then a full season on Book Two
A digital copy of The Grand Illusion
Your jacketed hardcover, 4 paperbacks to give away, the ebook and audiobook
Inside the Consciousness Transition Model, Brendan’s recorded walkthrough
KlarnaAfterpayAffirmZip
06—Questions

Brendan works through the questions members posted and voted on, most-voted first, and follows the conversation from there. There is no prepared talk. Calls run for 90 minutes.

Session 01 · November 2026

We meet in November.
Understand it properly, with the person who wrote it.

Seven live sessions on The Grand Illusion, with a digital copy of the book included. Nothing to finish first.

Join the Book Club →
Brendan D. Murphy
See you in the Book Club
← brendandmurphy.com
Already a member? Sign in →
© 2026 Brendan D. Murphy