Ray Peat

Raymond Franklin Peat
Born	October 12, 1936, Santee, California, U.S.
Died	November 24, 2022, Eugene, Oregon (Aged 86)
Nationality	American
Education	B.S. General Studies (1956), Southern Oregon College; M.A. General Studies (1960), University of Oregon; Ph.D. Biology (1972), University of Oregon
Occupation	Biologist, nutritionist, author, painter
Known for	Hormone, aging and bioenergetic research.
Notable works	Papers in Physiological Chemistry and Physics (1971–1972) Dissertation: University of Oregon (1972)
Website	https://www.raypeat.com/

WikiPeatia editorial teamUpdated 7 Nov 2026Not medical advice: read our disclaimer

Raymond Franklin Peat (1936-2022) was a biologist, philosopher, and painter, with a primary interest in nutrition, aging, and hormones.

Early life

Raymond Franklin Peat was born on October 12, 1936, in Santee, California, to Sidney Howe Peat^[1] and Lou Ella Osborne. His parents had homesteaded a piece of desert in the Palm Springs area and he lived there until he was three. The family moved to Oregon right after World War II began, partly because his father wanted a job in the defense industry.^[2] His mother ran a photography portrait studio, and his father had studied portrait painting in Kansas City.^[3]

From third to fifth grade he attended a one-room country school with eight grades in one room, an unregimented setting that gave him the idea that children might learn better with more freedom.^[4] As a young child he read about the physicist J.C. Bose in a family encyclopedia, and Bose's experiments showing similar responses in living and nonliving matter set him searching encyclopedias and magazines for more.^[5] He became nearsighted around age nine, and the only other nearsighted children in his sixth grade class were girls who had also had migraines, which started him looking for a link between female hormones, nearsightedness, and migraine.^[6] As a teenager, he worked in the woods to help pay for college expenses.^[7]

Education and career

Ray attended Grants Pass High School from 1950 to 1954, where he played in the orchestra and was nicknamed "Half-Pint". He earned a Bachelor of Science in General Studies from Southern Oregon College in 1956. He studied at the University of Oregon in 1957 and 1958, moving among English, philosophy, psychology, and art history.^[8] He earned a Master of Arts in General Studies from the University of Oregon in 1960, with a thesis titled "William Blake and the Mysticisms of Sense and Non-Sense."^[9]^[10] He taught at Urbana College from 1959 to 1960 and at Emerson College in 1960. He later taught at the University of Oregon, Montana State University, National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Universidad Veracruzana, the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, and Blake College.^[11]

In 1968, Peat returned to the University of Oregon for graduate study in biology. He initially intended to study nerve biology, then switched to reproductive physiology. His thesis adviser was Arnold L. Soderwall, who studied vitamin E and reproductive aging.^[12] He completed a Ph.D. in biology in 1972 with a dissertation on age-related oxidative changes in the hamster uterus.^[13] The dissertation reported uterine oxygen tension of 0-2 mm Hg in senescent hamsters, 4-8 mm Hg in young hamsters, and 6-12 mm Hg in vitamin-E-treated senescent hamsters.^[14] In 1968, Peat traveled to Moscow in an effort to meet the biologist Trofim Lysenko, who, it turned out, had gone on vacation. Peat instead met with Lysenko's assistant, who provided him with numerous references and studies.

In the 1970s, Peat conducted research on hormones and aging, focusing on the roles of progesterone, thyroid, and cellular energy in health and disease. He later became known for his independent research and writings on nutrition, metabolism, and endocrinology, emphasizing the protective effects of sugar, saturated fats, aspirin, coffee, coconut oil, red light, and certain hormones such as pregnenolone, progesterone, thyroid, and DHEA against stress and degeneration. After completing his doctorate, he continued teaching, writing, and private nutritional counseling.^[11] He began a series of monthly newsletters in 1981. One of the first issues addressed the effects of the environment on the developing brain, and an early issue discussed radiation protection.^[15]^[16] Peat published dozens articles, authored five books, gave radio interviews, maintained a website sharing his ideas and answered thousands of emails until his death.

Blake College

Ray founded Blake College^[18] in 1962 in Valle De Bravo, Mexico, as an independent liberal arts school focused on student-directed learning and academic freedom. Peat traced the model to reading about Bertrand Russell and Dora Russell's Beacon Hill School in the 1920s, which led him to the University of Wisconsin's Experimental College under Alexander Meiklejohn and to Black Mountain College.^[19] The college emphasized "teaching how to invent knowledge and solve problems," reflecting a critique of rigid U.S. academic structures. Teachers and students became trustees after six months, and the college had no outside trustees.^[20] The college attracted highly gifted students, and according to a May 7, 1963 letter from Ray to Bertrand Russell, "the average IQ of students is now well over 145."^[21] In 1965, the college was shut down by the Mexican federales following accusations from activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who claimed the college was involved in drug trafficking. Authorities raided the school, citing items like a veterinary syringe and vitamin vials as evidence, though no charges were substantiated. Students were deported, and Peat moved to Montana to teach linguistics. Peat reopened Blake College in 1966 in Eugene, Oregon, near Skinner's Butte. The program centered on theoretical discussions of learning, creativity, and consciousness, with public lectures on topics including William Blake, biochemistry, nutrition, humanities, and existentialism. Despite efforts to gain accreditation, the college faced opposition from Oregon education officials and closed by 1975 when Peat left.

Death

Raymond Peat passed away peacefully at his home in Eugene, Oregon, on November 24, 2022, at the age of 86.^[22]

Landshark wrote an obituary for Peat in IM-1776, describing his synthesis of Soviet and American biology with classical and folk traditions, and citing Metchnikoff, Pauling, Gilbert Ling, Leibniz, and Heraclitus among his influences.^[23]

Danny Roddy devoted several episodes of his podcast to remembering Peat: a call-in show with Georgi Dinkov recorded shortly after his death,^[24] a same-titled episode released a year later,^[25] and a 2024 livestream retrospective with Nick Stumphauzer.^[26]

Published works

"William Blake and the Mysticisms of Sense and Non-Sense" (1960), Peat's University of Oregon master's thesis.
"Age-Related Oxidative Changes in the Hamster Uterus" (1972), Peat's University of Oregon doctoral dissertation.^[13]
Peat R, Soderwall AL. "Estrogen stimulated pathway changes and cold-inactivated enzymes" (1972), Physiol Chem Phys 4(3):295-300, in the journal where Peat published his early work on progesterone and related hormones.^[27]^[28]
"Mind and Tissue: Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain" (1976), a survey of Soviet brain research with introductions by psychologists Stanley Krippner and Peter Marin.^[29]
"Nutrition for Women" (1981), a practical nutrition guide built around salt, saturated fat, and avoiding polyunsaturated fats.^[30]
"Progesterone in Orthomolecular Medicine" (1993), arguing for progesterone's generality across steroid functions and its opposition to estrogen.^[31]
"Generative Energy: Restoring the Wholeness of Life" (1994), practical methods for solving health problems by increasing biological energy, framed through Vernadsky's biogeochemistry and self-ordering systems.^[32]
"From PMS to Menopause" (1997), a critique of hormone-replacement-therapy marketing that reframes estrogen, progesterone, and menopause management.^[33]

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Personal diet

Normally, I usually have around 400 grams of carbohydrate. I have about 3 quarts of milk, varying amounts of orange juice (probably over a quart on average), eggs, and about 200 grams of meat or fish, with other things such as coca cola, cheese, ice cream, cheese cakes, some coconut oil and butter, occasional tropical fruit.
— Ray Peat^[34]

Philosophy

Peat's technical work sits on top of an explicit holistic philosophy, developed most directly in Generative Energy and Mind and Tissue. See Ray Peat's philosophy for the underlying ideas: energy and structure, Vernadsky's biogeochemistry, self-ordering cells, and Pavlov's brain research.

Patents

“Treatment of progesterone deficiency and related conditions with a stable composition of progesterone and tocopherols.” (1984) ^[35]
“Pharmaceutical compositions containing dehydroepiandrosterone and other anesthetic steroids in the treatment of arthritis and other joint disabilities.” (1986)^[36]