Michael Schmicker is an investigative journalist, Amazon Top 100 best-selling author, and science writer focused on consciousness research. Michael began his writing career as a crime reporter for a suburban Dow-Jones newspaper in Connecticut, and worked as a freelance reporter in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, where his work appeared in the Wall Street Journal Asia, and in Forbes business magazine. A nationally known writer on frontier science, Michael is the co-author of "The Gift, ESP: The Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People" (St. Martin's Press (USA)/Penguin Random House (UK). His first book, "Best Evidence," has emerged as a classic in the field of scientific anomalies reporting since its first publication in 2000. BBC radio/documentary producer Keith Parsons named it one of the 10 most influential books dealing with the survival of consciousness question. Michael is a member of The Society for Scientific Exploration, where he has reviewed books for the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and contributed to EdgeScience magazine. His latest book "What Comes Next? An Investigative Reporter Uncovers Quantum Physics' Hidden Afterlifde Hypothesis" is scheduled for publication in April 2024. Michael is also author of "The Witch of Napoli,” historical fiction with a paranormal twist, set in Italy and England in 1899. On March 6, 2015, it made the Amazon Top 100, ranking #41 in paid books out of 3.3 million books available in the Kindle Bookstore. That same day, it hit #1 in both the Historical Fantasy and Victorian Historical Romance categories in three countries simultaneously - the U.S., Canada and England. It spent 68 consecutive weeks as a Top 20 Best Seller in the "Italian Historical Fiction" category, with an Audible audiobook debuting on Amazon in July 2016. Amazon subsequently selected "The Witch of Napoli" as one of 25 Historical Romance Bestsellers to be featured by Amazon's new "Prime Reading" program. Michael’s interest in investigating the paranormal began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand where he first encountered a non-Western culture and people who readily accept the reality of ghosts and spirits, reincarnation, mediumship, divination and other persistently reported phenomena unexplainable by current Science. He spent his first year in Bangkok teaching English to middle school students at the royal Buddhist monastery of Wat Bowonniwet, and the subsequent two years writing and producing with Thai colleagues a Sesame Street-inspired educational television series for the Thai Ministry of Education. Before joining Peace Corps, he studied documentary film production at New York University and the British Film Institute. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy; and earned his Master's in Educational Communications (Television) from the University of Hawaii. He lives and writes in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a mountaintop overlooking Waikiki and Diamond Head crater.