Journey

A scientist walked into a valley and kept walking.

Soul Search: The Long Walk Home is part memoir, part field notebook, part quiet argument for a slower kind of attention.

I've spent most of my working life inside the science of sleep — laboratories, clinical trials, and the strange dark hours where the brain does its private work. I've also spent most of it looking for a way to think that isn't built from screens and schedules.

Waimanu Valley became the answer to a question I hadn't known how to ask. The book is what happened when I stopped separating the two lives.

The book

The Long Walk Home

Published Autumn 2026. Illustrated with field photographs from Waimanu. Accompanied by original music and a small library of guided experiences on this site.

Pre-orderRead an excerpt

Chapters

  1. The Approach01
  2. Waterfalls and the Weight of Silence02
  3. Sleep, and What It Is For03
  4. Small Songs, Long Nights04
  5. The Neurology of Being Alone05
  6. A Field Guide to Coming Back06
"On the third night the valley remembered me. I know how that sounds. It is still what happened."

About the author

Conor O'Reilly is a sleep scientist, musician, and long-time visitor to Waimanu. His research has focused on the architecture of consciousness — how the brain arranges itself for rest, and what it does with that time. He plays a blue electric guitar loud enough that the neighbours know his moods.