Paul Perry

Paul Perry is the co-author of several New York Times bestsellers, including Evidence of the Afterlife, Closer to the Light, Transformed by the Light, and Saved by the Light, which was made into a popular movie by Fox. His books have been published in more than 30 languages worldwide, covering various subjects, from near-death experiences to biographies of authors Ken Kesey and Hunter S. Thompson.

Perry is also a documentary filmmaker and owns PAUL PERRY Productions, a production company in Paradise Valley, Arizona. His writing and filmmaking earned him a knighthood in the Royal Family of Portugal, where he is a Knight Commander in the Order of Saint Michael of the Wing and the official filmmaker of the Portuguese Royal House. Perry is an Arizona State University graduate with an MFA from Antioch University (Los Angeles). 

He was also a fellow at the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University in New York City. He taught magazine writing at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. He became Executive Editor at American Health magazine, a winner of the National Magazine Awards for General Excellence.

In 1981, Paul went to China with author Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel)) to cover the First International Beijing Marathon for Running Magazine, for which he was the editor. The two spent a month traveling on a bus through China. Upon their return, Kesey and Perry began discussing the possibility of compiling a book of photographs from Kesey's famous bus trip across the United States, known as The Kool-Aid Acid Trip. Kesey agreed to give Perry access to his photo archives. 

Perry joined forces with Ken Babbs, Kesey's sidekick, to produce On the Bus: The Complete Guide to the Legendary Bus Trip of Ken Kesey, Merry Pranksters, and Birth of the Counterculture. The book is a photo documentary of the Acid Trip that tells the story of the birth of the psychedelic era through interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, members of the Grateful Dead, and others.