In 2017, Michael completed the first book in his planned trilogy, From Physical to Metaphysical in Four Steps and One Giant Leap where he explored how we can separate from our materialistic attachment by seeing past our bodies, our emotions, and our thoughts. After these three "steps," Michael illustrated how by enhancing and refining our life energy, we can take "one giant leap" into metaphysical consciousness. In Places Beyond Belief, he expands on the concepts raised in the first book and also details some of his out-of-body experiences (OBE) that offer direct evidence of how the non-physical envelops our material reality. Michael also tells the story of how encounters in material reality with ghosts, qigong masters, psychics, a "living Buddha," and extraterrestrials prepared him for having OBEs. Building on the events covered in the first book, Michael recounts how in trying to uncover the true nature of his UFO experiences, he turned to using OBEs as a way to find answers about the reality of the beings he encountered. What he found was not what he expected and lead to his discovery of the field of spirit-release therapy and the large body of psychological literature that the subject has produced since William Baldwin's Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual was published in 1995. While disclosing intimately personal experiences to illustrate his points, Michael also takes time to discuss the big issues of the day, highlighting how personal and spiritual development is intricately linked to how well we live in the material world. Coming three years after his first book, Places Beyond Belief follows Michael's journey deeper into the metaphysical world that he was only first discovering when he wrote One Giant Leap. By daring to let direct experience be the guide, Michael went to places beyond belief, and came back to write about it.