Douglas James Cottrell Biography

Douglas James Cottrell (1949 – present) is an ordinary man who demonstrates extraordinary abilities. In 1975, his mind was opened to the possibilities of psychic phenomena when a co-worker at the Toronto Star newspaper handed him a book about Edgar Cayce. At that time, Douglas was quite a skeptic, but he was desperate to find help for his young daughter, Cheri-Anne, who had been living in a handicapped children’s institution for four years.

Cheri-Anne had been suffering with a number of seemingly unrelated medical conditions, and was prone to grand mal seizures. Douglas and his wife, Karen, were overwhelmed. They eventually relented to the medical opinion of the day and sent their daughter from their home in Toronto to Plainfield Children’s Home near Belleville, Ontario. They were told to get on with their lives. However, they refused to give up hope, despite the fact that the doctors at the time had given Cheri-Anne a life expectancy of twelve years. She was only two at the time.

The book that Douglas had been given, There Is A River: The Story of Edgar Cayce, recounted the history of an American man who lived at the turn of the Twentieth Century, famous for demonstrating the remarkable ability to describe someone’s health condition while he was in an altered state of consciousness. Though uneducated, in this hypnotic trance, Cayce gave recommendations to treat numerous health conditions which often baffled the greatest thinkers of the time. These “readings” were the subject of numerous books. Unfortunately for Douglas and Karen, Cayce had passed away in 1945.

By a cosmic coincidence, shortly after reading this book, Douglas was in his workshop when he had the urge to go upstairs and turn on the television. The program that was on was called “World of the Unexplained” with host Allen Spraggett. Spraggett was interviewing an American man named Ross Peterson, who had been called “the new Edgar Cayce.” Douglas knew that he and Karen had to see him. In short order, he had his first-ever psychic reading. Needless to say, it not only met his expectations, but it started Douglas on a path that changed his life and the life of his family forever.

In a deep meditative state similar to sleep, Ross was able to discuss Cheri-Anne’s condition from hundreds of miles away, as if he were reading her medical chart — albeit in a dry, steady sotto voce tone. Among other things, Peterson described neck trauma that Cheri-Anne endured at birth, which was causing the seizures. This was information he could not have known. In this meditative state, Peterson made numerous suggestions for treatment and assured the parents that Cheri-Anne, though unable to communicate through speech, was quite intelligent and aware of what was going on around her. On the strength of that single session, Douglas and Karen took Cheri-Anne out of the institution (against the advice of the doctors). They applied the remedies Peterson suggested and her life was spared. She never fully recovered from her four years in the institution, but she was happy and lived until the age of thirty-eight.

In that reading, Peterson told Douglas that he, too, could practice this meditative trance, if he wanted to. “Ye have been a prophet of old, and ye will be a prophet of new,” he said.

“I have to find out if I can do this too,” Douglas said. “If only one child is helped, it will be worth it!”

Inspired by this genuine experience, twenty-six-year-old Douglas began to study everything he could about the unseen spiritual world – from chakras and the aura to energy healing, dreams, and meditation. Aided by his family doctor and his chiropractor, he began conducting experiments in meditation and remote viewing. He was young, determined and driven to persist. He wanted to prove to the medical community that this phenomenon could help save lives.

Eventually Douglas learned to enter this deep state, or what he terms Quantum Meditation™. The medical professionals were able to verify that what he was seeing was not imagination or guessing, but real information about real subjects. As his confidence and trust in this ability grew, Douglas was able to learn to enter deeper and deeper levels of consciousness, and the quality of the information became even richer. Under Peterson’s mentorship, these experiments grew into psychic readings that Douglas gave to friends and acquaintances. In short time, he decided to devote his life full-time to giving Quantum Meditation™ readings, and he retired from the Toronto Star.

Since that time, Douglas has given over 35,000 Quantum Meditation™ readings, for individuals from all walks of life in countries all over the globe. During one “test” of Douglas, done in a hotel room in Toronto, Canada in the early 1990s, a medical doctor – head of the Juvenile Diabetes section at the time – read the names and addresses of five of his private patients who were not actually present in the room at the time. To the doctor’s satisfaction, Douglas described the symptoms of each. Independent testing and verification suggest that the health/medical information is accurate to approximate the 99 percentile; and may, in many cases, be contemplating a link between cause and effect (as it relates to particular conditions) of which even modern science is currently unaware. Speaking of modern practice, the number of medical professionals willing to stand up and vouch for Douglas’s readings is small (but significant). That is, of course a great pity. Most, unfortunately, are put off by bizarre connections between cause and effect the readings posit; the bulk of which are completely outside the ambit of anything taught in medical school. But just because an explanation is different, does not mean its value is less.

Although Douglas’s contribution to humankind from his talent is clearly within the health/medical field, it must be underscored that the questions capable of being fielded in the context of a Quantum Meditation™ session are not necessarily limited, as to scope or topic.

Honours and Distinctions

In 2009, the Open International University for Complementary Medicines granted Douglas a doctorate degree in recognition of his contribution to humankind.