New Books and Media

From the publisher's website: After a period of strong skepticism among writers and intellectuals regarding the reality of ghosts, the Victorian era (1837-1901) revitalized interest in seriously exploring houses and other locations alleged to be haunted. The paranormal investigators, including Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, chronicled their methods and discoveries. Equipped with little more than candles, patience, and perhaps a flask of brandy, these men and women laid a foundation for the ghost hunters of today.

The Victorian Ghost Hunter’s Casebook presents some of the most intriguing, most frightening, and most charming of the chronicles left behind. Ghostlore scholar Tim Prasil provides an Introduction about what motivated the Victorians to investigate spectral manifestations, along with the history of ghost hunters that preceded them. He also provides enlightening details on twelve ghostly cases located in Britain, and an Appendix with two more ghost hunts held in the United States during the Victorian era.

Further information on the publisher's website: Brom Bones Books.

Review by Ciaran Farrell.

From the publisher's website: A major 300 page photographic exploration of contemporary Spiritualism, documented over eighteen years. With a foreword by Dan Akyroyd, an introduction and stories by Shannon Taggart and supporting contextual essays from Andreas Fischer and Tony Oursler.

American artist Shannon Taggart became aware of Spiritualism as a teenager, when her cousin received a message from a medium that revealed details about her grandfather’s death. In 2001, while working as a photographer, she began taking pictures where that message was received – Lily Dale, New York, home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community – proceeding to other such communities as England’s Arthur Findlay College. Taggart expected to spend one summer figuring out the tricks of the Spiritualist trade. Instead, Spiritualism’s mysterious processes, earnest practitioners, and neglected photographic history became an inspiration. Her project evolved into an eighteen-year journey that has taken her around the world in search of ‘ectoplasm’ – the elusive substance that is said to be both spiritual and material.

With Séance – part documentary, part ghost story – Taggart offers us haunting images exploring Spiritualist practices in the US, England and Europe: 150 of her original photographs, many of which have never been published, as well as rare historical photographs. Supported with a commentary on her experiences, a foreword by Dan Aykroyd, creator of Ghostbusters (1984) and fourth-generation Spiritualist, and illustrated essays from curator Andreas Fischer and artist Tony Oursler, SÉANCE examines Spiritualism’s relationship with human celebrity, its connections to art, science, and technology, and its intrinsic bond with the medium of photography. The book concludes with the debate over ectoplasm and how Spiritualism can move forward in the twenty-first century.

Further information on the publisher's website: Fulgur Press.

From the publisher's website: Is death really the end? Do we each have a soul or spiritual essence that will journey on once the body has turned to dust? Will death appear as an oblivion or a nightmare? In recent decades – and thanks to sophisticated resuscitation techniques – research has grown into the number of people who have died and then returned to tell us of their experience. Doctors have noted that descriptions of near-death experiences (NDE), despite the people having very little in common, were remarkably consistent. All spoke of a sense of peace, of travelling through a tunnel towards light, of seeing cities of light and hearing celestial music. Some even overheard conversations that wouldn’t normally have been possible. Illustrated throughout with colour and black-&-white photographs and artworks, Near-Death Experiences examines in detail a wide range of NDE case studies, including children and adults, sceptics and deeply religious people, as well as those who were expecting death and others caught in sudden accidents. This thoughtful analysis offers a glimmering of what lies beyond.

This is a reprint of Beyond the Light: Files of Near-Death Experiences

Review by Robert A. Charman

From the publisher's website: In this major study of near-death experiences with the newly born, babies, toddlers, and children up to age five, NDE expert P. M. H. Atwater reveals how those who experience a near-death state or other worlds at a very young age are profoundly affected for the rest of their lives, including developing psychic and intuitive abilities, higher intelligence and “wisdom beyond their years,” and a pervasive feeling of being “homesick for heaven.”

Drawing on interviews with nearly 400 childhood experiencers, both fully matured and young, Atwater explores their accounts of what it is like to be alive on the other side of death as well as what makes them different from others, complemented by a deep analysis of statistical evidence from her more than 40 years of NDE research involving more than 5,000 people. She shows how, in contrast to adult experiencers, child and infant experiencers of near-death states cannot compare “before” with “after” as adults do, because they don’t have a “before.” The world of these “forever angels” is the life continuum, a stream of consciousness that has always existed and always will. Integrating “where they once were” with “where they now are” is a lifelong challenge. The author explores how those who have a near-death experience very early in life, or even in utero, grow up “different”--sometimes geniuses, sometimes lost, yet unusually psychic and smart, all at the same time. She reveals how these experiences and their knowledge of the afterlife affect the individual in many areas, including family life, dating, health, education, and spirituality, as well as increasing the experiencer’s potential for thoughts of suicide, out-of-body experiences, and PTSD symptoms.

Examining the forever angels’ memories of the womb, birth, early childhood, and the other world, Atwater investigates the wide-awake consciousness of babies being born, the vivid recall of mature childhood near-death experiencers, and how memory of the life-continuum never fades, nor does the desire to go back.

Part two of Keith Linder’s, best seller book The Bothell Hell House, has arrived. This true story picks up where the previous book left off. Keith Linder, an IT professional from Texas now living outside Seattle Washington, feels the time is right for him to exit the home many now say is haunted. The question everyone’s asking themselves right now is what happened here? Why is this house haunted? Now that the two independent paranormal teams have substantiated Keith and Tina claims of the house being haunted Keith feels the time is right for him to move out. That should be easy right? Not necessarily. Not only is the activity showing signs of resurfacing. But one question that haunts Keith more than any other. Will the spirits follow him? Attachments – Poltergeist of Washington State has more video evidence than its predecessor. More EVPs. More unexplained audio data. More pictures of what was chasing Keith and Tina. And yes the reason why this house was behaving the way it was and the true makeup of the black wall markings are revealed in great detail in this book. The truth emerges. But at what cost to Keith?

Review by Ashley Knibb.