about the author
I explore the mysteries of altered states of consciousness, anomalous experience, high strangeness, esoteric wisdom traditions, and symbolism using a consciousness-first holographic universe framework as a guide.
Hi there, I’m Lieze Boshoff.
I’ve always been fascinated by anomalous experiences reported by credible people — the paranormal, psi, near-death experiences, out-of-body states, time slips, terminal lucidity, UFOs, and other forms of non-ordinary perception. To me, these weren’t curiosities at the edges of reality, but clues pointing toward something central: the nature of consciousness itself.
Early on, I suspected the mind was not merely an epiphenomenon of the brain, but an integral feature of reality. I was drawn to systems-based and holographic models as ways of thinking about this, alongside phenomenological accounts of consciousness that suggest experience may not be fully reducible to physical processes. From there, my interests naturally expanded into metaphysics, esoteric traditions, and ancient wisdom systems that seemed to preserve alternative ways of describing mind and world — often outside the constraints of modern scientific orthodoxy.
Over time, I began to notice a recurring thread across these diverse sources: they appear to describe a consciousness-first reality that is participatory in nature. Not a passive universe “out there,” but a field of experience in which perception, attention, and meaning play an active role in how reality unfolds.
Today, this perspective shapes how I think about reality, life, and death. It also forms the foundation of my work: exploring the intersections of consciousness, anomalous experience, myth, symbolism, and esoteric traditions for modern readers who are curious about reality beyond the standard materialist story.
Academic Background & Research
I hold a B.Psych (Hons) from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and an M.Sc. in Human Cognitive Neuropsychology from the University of Edinburgh. I later pursued doctoral research at the University of Groningen, focusing on consciousness, anomalous perception, and the relationship between subjective experience and physical reality. My academic work explored these questions through a dual lens: one grounded in neuroscience and cognitive science, and another informed by emerging ideas from consciousness studies and the interpretive frameworks of modern physics.
Alongside my academic training, I also qualified as a Clinical Hypnotherapist (CHt), an aromatherapist and reflexologist, as well as a Reiki healer. While very different disciplines, each contributed to my understanding of the symbolic, experiential, and phenomenological dimensions of human perceptions and experiences.
After more than a decade working in academia as both researcher and lecturer, I moved into the commercial world, variably running my own company as well as working in corporate settings, before eventually returning to the questions that had fascinated me from the beginning.
Presentations
2013 – ‘Involuntary versus voluntary attentional orienting: How we attend in space and time’, 55th Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP), University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
2015 – ‘Measuring mind-matter interactions using single-trial EEG classification’, Toward a Science of Consciousness 2015, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
2017 – ‘Synchronicities: More than just coincidence?’, Spirituality in Mental Health, Association for Transpersonal Psychiatry, Naarden, Netherlands
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◦ essays exploring the nature of reality and consciousness through altered states, anomalous experience, high strangeness + mind-matter edge cases || drawing on insights from a holographic universe model, psychology + ancient esoteric traditions ◦
In my work I explore consciousness, anomalous experience, and high strangeness using modern science, psychology, and esoteric traditions to bring these perspectives into dialogue for better understanding the world we inhabit.
My aim to answer three questions:
- Who are we?
- What kind of world do we inhabit?
- And how can we participate in it more consciously and effectively?