Dr Douglas Mackley Baker BA MRCP LCRP was born in London, England in 1922 and raised in South Africa. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War Two, he enlisted in the Natal Mounted Rifles, a regiment of the South African Army, and fought alongside the British Eighth Army in North Africa. He was badly wounded during the Battle of El Alamein and again in Italy, where his injuries put him on the critical list. The experience of war evoked in him doubts about traditional religious belief and led him to investigate the hidden facets of Man’s true nature as pondered by philosophers throughout the ages.