In memoriam: F. David Peat

One of the most inspiring and influential people in my life, F. David Peat, died on 6 June 2017, aged 79. I first encountered his writing in 1990 when a physicist colleague lent me Looking Glass Universe: The Emerging Science of Wholeness (which he co-authored with John P. Briggs). I subsequently read many of David’s books, and got to know him personally during week-long courses I attended in 2006 and 2010 at the Pari Center for New Learning which he had established in Tuscany. My awe of the “great man” melted into fondness, thanks to his friendly, warm, open, unpretentious and welcoming nature, but my admiration was undiminished.

Truly a Renaissance man, boldly and brilliantly crossing the artificial boundaries we have created between disciplines, even between work and play, David was endlessly creative and inquisitive. Our shared interest in holistic physics and Jungian psychology produced some rich interactions. He could be very funny too—his David Bohm impersonations, for example, were a treat! Somehow I hope that, wherever David has gone, he hasn’t had all his questions answered…    I miss him.