New Books and Media

From the publisher's website: Tapping into a growing interest in American culture with the occult and new spiritualism, this book is the first scholarly work devoted entirely to the unique place of Ouija in American culture. On the one hand, Ouija has at different moments in history pointed to a deep fascination and openness with the supernatural in the American psyche. On the other hand, Ouija resides squarely outside of orthodox religious belief, and, as we shall see, garners suspicion and even outright rejection from various Christian traditions especially. Thus this cardboard doorway to the supernatural continues to reflect some of the most interesting paradoxes in American life. Bringing together an international team of scholars, this book shows that what qualifies as religious remains an open question, and how Americans continue to grapple with what practices lie within and without the traditions they inherit and pass on.

Further information at the publisher's website: Routledge.

From the back cover: A gripping narrative that uses the case files of Tony Cornell and the Society for Physical Research to examine our interactions and obsessions with all things paranormal. Tony Cornell spent his life probing the very edges of reality. A member of the UK’s Society for Psychical Research (SPR), Cornell’s role as an investigator of so-called “spontaneous cases” saw him returning time and again to the unsettling spaces that exist just on the periphery of our ordered, tidy, and rational lives, and which we all do our best to ignore: Ghosts. Spirits. Premonitions. Psychic powers. Glimpses of other worlds that throw into question everything we take for granted about life, death, and material existence itself.

Review by Nemo C. Mörck.

From the publisher's website: During the 19th and early 20th centuries, ghost hoaxes (dressing in a white sheet or a more elaborate costume) and scaring people were rife but seldom studied or written about. These hoaxes frequently led to impromptu ghost hunts by hundreds, sometimes thousands of often drunk vigilantes (and hysterical panics) as rumours of the supposed ghosts would spread round the community. Many of these ghost scares occurred during the Christmas and New Year periods, and this book explores twelve little-known episodes.

Further information at the publisher's website: 6th Books.

From the publisher's website: Zahllose Legenden ranken sich um den berühmt-berüchtigten Wiener Illusionisten Erik Jan Hanussen, bürgerlich Hermann Steinschneider. In den 1920er Jahren erlangte er mit öffentlichen Vorführungen seiner „Experimente“ größte Popularität in Europa, Asien und den USA. Zu Beginn der 1930er Jahre unterhielt er dann in Berlin freundschaftliche Geschäftsbeziehungen zu hohen Naziführern und betrieb bei seinen Veranstaltungen begeistert Werbung für das aufkommende „Dritte Reich“, in dem er sich eine einflußreiche Position erhoffte. Durch die Aktivitäten seines ehemaligen Assistenten, des Zionisten Erich Juhn sowie Denunziationen seitens der kommunistischen Presse wurde die jüdische Abstammung Hanussens öffentlich und seine Person damit für die Nazis kompromittierend ...

Further information at the publisher's website: tredition.

From the publisher's website: Everything You Need to Conduct Professional and Science-Based Field Studies. Richard Palmisano and Peter J. Roe, the founder and the assistant director of The Searcher Group—Canada's oldest and most reputable paranormal research team—present a comprehensive and progressive guide to ghost investigation. Whether you're a novice or part of an established team, you'll be ready for the next level of serious research. Featuring groundbreaking theory and strategies to look at old problems in new ways, this book is essential to conducting professional paranormal investigations. Palmisano and Roe teach how to assemble your team; plan what to do before, during, and after your investigations; use the right equipment; and much more. The result of over four decades of trial, error, and firsthand encounters, this must-have manual is designed to unite the paranormal research community and resume true advancements in the field. We already know ghosts exist. Are you and your team ready to dig deeper?

Further information at the publisher's website: Llewellyn.

From the publisher's website: Telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and telekinesis: these attributes of the paranormal mind are widely dismissed as nonsense, but what can an exploration of such pseudoscientific phenomena tell us about accepted scientific and cultural thought? In Parascientific Revolutions, Derek Lee traces the evolution of psi epistemologies across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to uncover how these ideas have migrated into scientific fields such as quantum physics and neurology, as well as diverse literary genres including science fiction, ethnic literature, and even government training manuals.

Further information at the publisher's website: University of Minnesota Press.

From the publisher's website: ‘I know what I heard and saw’. It is 1650 and something is very wrong in your house. Pots and pans are flying through the air. Invisible hands are pelting your family with stones. Doors slam shut on their own, and strange knockings echo through the walls at all hours. Your neighbours whisper about demons, your servants flee in terror, and you don't know where to turn. Welcome to the world of the early modern poltergeist. While tales of witches and witchcraft have been closely scrutinized by scholars, the mischievous spirits that tormented ordinary households have remained largely overlooked. This groundbreaking study brings brings together and examines twenty-seven extraordinary cases from 1591 to 1718, drawn from contemporary accounts, and retold as vivid 'Relations' in the style of seventeenth-century demonologies.

Further information at the publisher's website: Hobnob Press.

From the publisher's website: The north-east of England – Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside – has witnessed many grisly and tragic events over the centuries and it is no surprise that it is one of the most haunted parts of the country. In Ghosts of the North East paranormal investigator Rob Kirkup examines some of the region’s most interesting ghostly stories. Newcastle’s Norman Castle Keep has many such tales, the best known of which is of the ‘Poppy Girl’ who haunts a condemned cell. Durham Castle has many ghostly legends and further afield in Northumberland, Chillingham Castle is infamous as the haunt of the torturer John Sage, who would maim, torture and kill Scottish prisoners within the twelfth-century fortress. These tales of hauntings and other paranormal experiences in the North East are accompanied by illustrations of places featured in the text. They will fascinate all those interested in the story of ghosts in this region of England as well as those who wish to know more about its history.

Further information at the publisher's website: Amberley Publishing,

From the publisher's website: A compendium of rare cross-cultural and historical accounts of extrasensory perception Taking readers on a cross-cultural voyage through extrasensory experiences, the author documents and contextualizes these mysterious phenomena. Daniel shares accounts from ancient Greek myth, traditional North and South American, African, and Polynesian stories. He considers unexplained ESP-related happenings, including bilocation, the ability to locate lost items, and early knowledge of one’s own death.

Further information at the publisher's website: Destiny Books.

From the back cover: What would you do if you had a world famous psychic trance medium as a grandmother while you concurrently administered the work of a scientifically based nonprofit investigating the paranormal never truly contemplating how your grandmother could be speaking with so called spirits from beyond the grave? Suddenly you start experiencing a flurry of psychic experiences yourself coupled with the discovery of transcripts from someone in the spirit world who states they have taken an interest in you and your soul as the one who comes after? Would you believe this prophecy or not? Of greater importance just what is it that you are supposed to be doing which would be of interest to one residing in unworldly spheres? Join me as I am personally deviated onto an unexpected path examining my own life experience while anonymously visiting mediums and sensitives attempting to seek answers and unravel the mystery of just what is expected of the one who comes after.

From the publisher's website: Highly commercial book on unexplained phenomena by expert investigator Andy Thomas, bringing this perennially appealing topic right up to date and making the case that paranormal experiences are everyday occurrences. Every day, very ordinary people are having extraordinarily strange experiences. In one of the most insightful investigations ever published, using the most up to date evidence and refreshingly open-minded approaches, Strange reveals previously unrecorded true-life tales like these …

Further information at  the publisher's website: Watkins Publishing.

From the publisher's website: Parmi toutes les disciplines scientifiques, la parapsychologie tient une place à part entre reconnaissance et désaveu. En France, à l'inverse d'autres pays (USA, GB, Allemagne), les représentations qui circulent à son égard sont majoritairement nourries par des informations erronées ou datées. C'est à partir de ce constat et dans le but de développer cette discipline en France qu'est né le projet de cet ouvrage, qui présente les différentes dimensions et champs d'application de la parapsychologie conçus sur une base transdisciplinaire, en faisant intervenir une quinzaine de chercheurs universitaires et experts internationaux.

Further information at the publisher's website: Dunod.