Poul Blak is an island of culture and literary art in a sea of mediocrities. Read him!

Blak concludes his collection of far-ranging, thought-provoking essays with a potpourri of ideas, reports, encounters, memories, and life experiences and with an intriguing essay on what wee do not know of the universe, the world and ourselves (Virkeligheden: 99 procent af alting - Reality: 99 percent of everything).

In the latter section, Blak seaches far afield - into the academic worlds of astrophysics and the history of religion and among leading representatives of those worlds - for information of the voids in outer and inner space, in our knowledge of the natural world, ultima-tely of ourselves and where we might fit into a vast picture - or several such mysterious, interconnecting pictures. Blak also encourages informed philosophi-cal inquiry and a rejection of the lack of substance, value, and meaning with witch the media now curries our favor and attention.

Blak's essays and interviews do seem to touch many bases and to cover considerable ground or to expand, as the subtitle of En ø i galaksen suggests. Blak's series on Rarotonga is particularly thought-provoking while also engaging and enjoyable to read.

"Meetings of the Mind"

In his recent collection of previously published and new interviews, essays, travel reports, articles, and causeries, En ø i galaksen - ekspanderende essays (An island in the galaxy - expanding essays), journa-list Poul Blak covers considerable literal, intellectual, and philosophical ground.

Blak's interviews and meetings with such contem-porary cultural luminaries and literary lions as musi-cian Kim Larsen, novelist Peter Høeg, songwriter Erik Leth, poet Henrik Nordbrandt, and screenwriter/direc-tor Erik Balling provides insights into cultural trends and history in Denmark past and present. Such "meetings of the mind" also offer the reader a fasci-nating, sometimes critical, glance into the métier of Blak, long a journalist and the author of articles and books on nature at home and abroad, Greenland, sport-fishing off Key West and Cuba, bear hunting in Canada and wildlife safaris in Africa.

In his interviews Blak paints fascinating portraits of his interviewees and offer insights into his own thoughts and reflections on artistic and cultural life in today's Denmark.

The book deals with the process of leaving the firmly entrenched lessons on life that the Church and science have taught aside and allowing room for new ways of thinking. - The author is a professional journalist and, in his métier, he frequently asks critical questions about things of impor-tance. So it was that his investigations into the supernatural began with curiosity and a healthy dose of skepticism. The book contains many observations and ideas for the general reader who believes that there is more between heaven and earth than his childhood teaching provided, for the individual who needs spiritual teaching at eye level.

Lars Thur, bookseller, Badstuegade, Århus

This is a book - a real book! Fantastically good! And most definitely a book that was missing and needed!

Lift the Lid is not a textbook, it is instead a book encouraging debate and discussion. And first and foremost it is a source of inspiration for all those who believe that life deserves rethinking and that there's more be-tween heaven and earth….Poul Blak's background in journalism cannot be ignored. He tells his tales - and presents his views - so that his sub-ject piques the interest of general readers. And in the middle of every-thing he asks questions that call for answers from leaders in the Danish Church, from an institution that occasionally seems to welcome all sorts of questions so long as no one in charge has to answer them!

It is interesting that we run across the following sort of questions in a book on parapsychology and spiritualism:
How can so many people express firm belief in the Bible, in all its stories and miracles, and still deny the existence of psychic phenomena?
Is there a difference in miracles? Are the miracles in the Bible somehow easier to explain than those we encounter here and now?
Or this question: How can so many church leaders in Denmark choose to present the miracles in the Bible as symbols and not as real events?
An astute observation from Poul Blak since the increasingly vague inter-pretations of certain passages from the Bible in recent years give the impression that many members of the clergy are either having a hard time accepting the stories as true or imagining that many of us in the laity accept them that way.

Dear Poul,
Your new book, Lift the Lid - And Re-think Life, is simply fantastic. The first thing that struck me when I reached the end of the book was how many things it had given me to think about. Even though you have been kind enough to acknowledge in your book the role I played in leading you on your way into the metaphysical world, I have to admit to being astonished by everything I managed to learn from your informative book.
Lift the Lid will open the eyes of most readers to much that has been hidden - for one reason or another - till now. It is worth reading, not just one time but over and over again. As I'm sure it will be.

Poul Blak, a journalist with Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, author, writer, and course leader, has written a very personal account of the 'super-natural,' a book with the possibility of reaching a very diverse group of readers. He is quite simply a writer who has dared to challenge accepted opinions. His strength lies in part in his very open approach to his sub-ject - and in part in his skill as a writer.
With his point of departure in his own metaphysical experiences, Blak posits that 'so-called sound common sense is nothing but an aggregate of biases' (Albert Einstein). Using quotes from many works, especially from the Bible, Poul Blak suggests that the image of the world that we have created in the guise of science is too limited. The world is much greater. His errand is to enable us to 'believe again,' to escape accepted ways of thinking, lift the lid and see the world in new, more exciting ways. And the book is an honest one, presenting its subject openly and frankly.

The journalist and author Poul Blak has accomplished something most of us only dream about. He has lived with curiosity as his guide. And that has brought him around the entire world and into all kinds of homes in order to conduct interviews and write reports.
For many years he has written the sort of stories that most men but only a few women revel in. Tales of big game hunting. Of the perils in living. And of survival in the wild.
He has now written something of far greater interest to women than men, namely a book about spirits, miracles - and also a little about love.

Dear Poul Blak,
You should have some guilt on your conscience - namely, guilt over my nightly sleep! And also over a Friday when I had to take time off from work to finish reading your book. It is no less than a miracle and will also be 'the gift to give' to all my friends who deserve a Christmas gift this year. Life is wonderful - and not in the least because we have the oppor-tunity of reading such a book!

Strange that a book on such a difficult subject can leave its reader so excited! Excited because someone has finally decided to focus on the most important thing in life, on something all thoughtful individuals have pondered for thousands of years. And readers are grateful that someone has dedicated body and - let's not forget by any means - soul to such a thought-provoking work. This is a book that eggs us on, that shakes, irritates, provokes us - and enchants us too! A book that truly touches the reader. It has a purpose! A fantastic book I will often refer to!

The book is a good source of material for those interested in studying contemporary religious phenomena.

Dear Poul!
It's only when people try to tell the truth that they find out I am not exaggerating about the powerful thought-police force that is in operation throughout the world. The proof of survival brings down the religious and scientific establishment with an almighty crash.
"In time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!"
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmiiGeorge Orwell

Lift the Lid - And Rethink Life led me to open my eyes and my mind. And one thing is certain. My mind will never again be as completely closed as it was before I read your book. This is a fantastic, deeply thoughtful and well-researched book on the truly fundamental questions about life. Time and again, one has the feeling of experiencing the same events as you have. It's liberating to realize that a professional journalist will dare to question the self-assured assumptions concerning heaven and earth that the Christian Church persists in clinging onto.

Many thanks for one of the greatest reading experiences a reader can have. You offer so many ideas and so much to reflect on. And I admire your thoroughness, your versatility - and your honesty!

This is a book with a great purpose. The message hits the mark: Think for yourself! And Lift the Lid is a book with great power: To make us do it! And we need to follow through. We will not remain - as the book puts it: 'deaf and dumb occupants left behind in a long-forsaken school'. Blak has a hold of something because, if we do as he suggests and start on the simplest research possible and just look around a bit - or in the mir-ror - we will discover dogma and inherited, unreflective drivel with claims on sound wisdom and clear truth. Lift the Lid is a well-written work that shines a light on things that we have convinced ourselves are already obvious.

Whether we go along with superstition or not, Poul Blak has written very engagingly on the subject, and he shows us that beyond doubt super-stition fills every single page of the Bible. He also offers exciting pas-sages on belief in the supernatural written by many people, among them Arthur Koestler, Carl Nielsen, Carl Th. Dreyer, and Kim Larsen. The last-named individual is absolutely convinced that the songs he composes come to him from a higher plane of existence.

At first I thought well…what is this really about? Then, all at once, I was captured by the book…one thing or another suddenly caught me and made me read on and on. You are someone who shows his feelings, his unbelievable sensitivity, and to such an extent that you quickly and easi-ly senses what everyone else is looking for!

The book is exceptionally well-written and very exciting. I had not expected anything less. But when you discuss demons I do not really know what to say. Of course you may be right. I don't deny that. However I do not think we can use quotes from the New Te-stament as evidence because such quotes have been used and can be used for nearly every purpose imagin-able. I would still not deny the possi-bility that you are closer to the truth than I am when you assert that demo-nic possessions cannot be dismissed as mental illness. But it all comes down to a matter of interpretation.

Your intent in writing the book is extremely relevant. The ideas you pre-sent in your work are essential ones, and you have shown such an ad-mirable involvement with your subject that you can only inspire and per-suade us…Your book is essential to the work of awakening our sleeping consciousness, not only because it is so undeniably well-written that people will want to read it, but also because you don't deny yourself the pleasure of provoking those in charge and "putting the powers-that-be in their place".

We have to search a very long time to find something as well-written.
- This is a personal account of the author's discovery that there is more between heaven and earth than is immediately apparent and that so-called sound common sense is an exceptionally shaky post to lean on. Lift the Lid is unbelievably easy to read, not because it is written in banal or simplified language but because the ideas expressed are clear and precise. The language simply floats on in such a way that reading is not only simply a pleasure but pure pleasure. The book is particularly well-designed to provide subjects for anyone to ponder. Subjects for rethink-ing life.

Poul Blak has written a very courageous, honest, and contemporary book inspiring debate, a work in which he seriously takes the embarras-singly narrow views and arrogant assumptions of material rationalism to the elemental task of a lifetime. He calls into question a stance that no longer has a basis in science, if indeed it ever did.