I grew up in Boston, moved to Ann Arbor, where I received my Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Michigan, then moved again to San Antonio, where I taught Sociology at the University of Texas. I am the author of seven books: ""Violence and Religious Commitment"" (Penn State Press), about the suicide and murder of over 900 members of the People's Temple Church in the Jonestown massacre; ""Proving God Exists: Physics, Cosmology, and the Universal Mind,"" about scientific proof for God's existence; ""The Moral Symmetry of Good and Evil,"" about the scientific derivation of morality; ""Knowing: Consciousness and the Universal Mind,"" a composite theory for solving the ""hard problem"" of consciousness; ""Mind of God,"" addressing the question, ""Does the Universe think?"" ""Scandal in the American Orchid Society,"" about treachery and betrayaI in a volunteer organization; and ""American Hitler,"" about Trump and his fanatical followers. I have also published a series of six articles on human consciousness in ""The Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research,"" in addition to several other articles on violence, crime, and delinquency, including ""Becoming a Hit Man"" (Sage Publications), which has since been cited in over 110 other books and articles.