Filming in the Ancient Knowledge Academy studio in 2025

Today the Wallis Family lives on the eastern shores of the beautiful island-continent of Australia. An Australian by choice, my heritage is English, Welsh and Ghanaian – with deep ancestry in Switzerland, France and Denmark. My amazing wife, Ruth, is the creator of SeeMyCurls.  Ruth’s heritage is  Ghanaian. Together, we are the parents of three awesome kids, Evie, Ben and Caleb, and our two cats Hugo and Skye.

From a young age I was always fascinated by questions about our place in the universe.

• My discovery of Erich von Däniken at the age of eleven led to a life-changing spiritual encounter when I was seventeen at St Andrew’s Chroleywood, a church at the hub of charismatic renewal in the UK. Theological education in North-east Brazil and Amazonia, via northern England, sent me on a global learning journey, from the UK to Australia, and propelled me into the world of Christian ministry.
• Thirty-three years as a Church Doctor, Theological Educator and Archdeacon for the Anglican church in Australia kept me engaged with the spiritual and mystical layer of life, and continually stretched by the paranormal themes of our ancient texts and by anomalous experiences in church doctoring assignments. At the same time the pastoral and goverrnance aspects of those assignments always kept my feet firmly on the ground.
• Since the 1990’s my books and broadcasts have sought to bring worlds of mysticism and spirituality to a mainstream audience.
• Today my work focuses on the world of ancestral narratives, our origins as a species, our potential as human beings and our place in the cosmos. 

Recording a module for the DINNER WITH PLATO academy course  in 2025

On this journey I have drawn deeply from the world of our spiritual ancestors, being continually inspired by the “great cloud of witnesses.” In particular I owe a great debt to:

• the empowering holism of educators like Paolo Freire 
• contemporary investigators  like Erich von Däniken, Mauro Biglino and Avi Loeb, who teach me to  pursue truth and to share the  journey publicly 
• courageous campaigners like the late Tony Benn whose logic, oratory and personal involvement inspires and persuades
• passionate curators of history like Shelby Foote and Credo Mutwa whose storytelling embodies cultural memory
• Vladimir Lossky, and other greats of the “Apophatic Way” (the way of unknowing – I Cor 8:1)
• the community of soul friendship modelled by cenobites like Francis and Clare of Assisi, Aidan of Lindisfarne, Hilda of Whitby and Benedict of Norcia
• The Hesychast prayer-people of Eastern Orthodoxy – Seraphim of Sarov, Theophan the Recluse, and Dmitri of Rostov – alongisde Western mystics like John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart. All teach me to breathe and to develop a peaceful spirit.

Click here to read about twenty-two People who have influenced me…for the better

At leisure with my kids in NSW, 2021 (photo by Evie)

AFTERWORD

“If you browse this website, thinking, ‘Crikey! Paul was no fount of grace and wisdom when I met him!’ then please allow me to ask sincerely for your grace and forgiveness. In my youth I was often clumsy and insensitive. In my adulthood too! I cringe at the immaturity and poor social skills of my early years in life and ministry. I am grateful for the grace of so many friends and colleagues over the years who, patiently, gave me the space to find my feet, grow and mature. Joyfully, for every one of us, life is a process of change and transformation. I am still evolving and, hopefully, improving. Indeed, I still aspire to being a late bloomer!! Wishing You Health and Peace, Paul”

For some visual glimpses of my journey click here for my 3 Photo Galleries…