New Books and Media

From the publisher’s website: For much of the twentieth century, unusual perceptions and sensations, radical alterations of consciousness, and other extraordinary subjective experiences were ignored as legitimate topics of study in mainstream psychology. Recent years, however, have witnessed a burgeoning interest in the scientific study of anomalous experiences, thanks in no small part to the impact of the first edition of this book, which was published in 2000. In this revised and thoroughly updated edition of their classic text, the editors have invited experts to provide definitive reviews and analyses of a wide range of anomalous experiences, from commonly documented sensations and perceptions like synesthesia, lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, and auditory and visual hallucinations, to rarer and more seemingly inexplicable experiences such as anomalous healing, past-lives, near-death, mystical experiences, and even alien abductions. While acknowledging the difficulty inherent in studying any subjective experience, the authors nonetheless provide, along with new research in neuroscience, comprehensive scientific coverage of each of these experiences, through its prevalence and etiology, phenomenology, aftereffects, any related psychopathology, theoretical explanations, and related clinical issues. An integrative summary chapter is a new feature of this edition. The book makes a compelling case for the inclusion of these marginalized and under-recognized experiences as not merely incidental, but essential to our understanding of human psychology.

From the publisher’s website: These essays are a glimpse of Breaking Convention: A Multidisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness, which in 2011 brought together over 80 speakers and 600 delegates from 30 countries to Canterbury, UK to discuss these substances and their effects. Psychedelic consciousness is a personally meaningful experience that can bring us into contact with the unknowable, help repair fragmented minds and increase our wellbeing. However, psychedelic plants and other substances have been globally prohibited for over half a century with little regard for their spiritual, therapeutic and recreational use throughout human history. The prohibition of psychedelic ‘drugs’ has limited the exploration of consciousness and the healing potential of psychedelics. Yet, in the last two decades, a door has opened allowing legal medical and therapeutic research on psychedelics to resume. This opening has allowed other scholars to become increasingly bold in stating their interest in psychedelic substances. The authors of this book represent the vanguard of the second golden age of psychedelic research. It is our hope that this volume will motivate a new generation of thinkers to stand up to the taboo that has been placed on psychedelics and bring these plants and chemicals into the light of reasoned discussion. This edition is unavailable in the USA. For further information visit: http://strangeattractor.co.uk/books/breaking-convention/

From the publisher’s website: Why understanding what we term ‘paranormal’ is of fundamental importance to comprehending the world we live in. Footsteps echoing from the past, objects moving of their own volition, near death experiences, displacements in time, memories from the future, UFO sightings, synchronicities ... this book is a collection of remarkable experiences from the Isle of Purbeck. It visits nearly 70 sites and has contributions from over a hundred local people. Most of the first-hand accounts have never been published before, suggesting that the ‘paranormal’ is more commonplace than we generally suppose and is perceived intuitively, depending on the right combination of circumstances. The author challenges fixed opinions and beliefs, offering detailed personal experiences from a small geographical area and arguing that we need a fundamental reappraisal of how we view the world. Anyone with a thirst for mysteries and a desire to extend the frontiers of human knowledge will be gripped. David Leadbetter has lived in Swanage most of his life, where he worked at a local school teaching English to foreign students and administering examinations. David’s fascination for the paranormal started as a boy when he learned about some of his family’s experiences and began to read books on the subject. He has been studying the paranormal for a number of years and is particularly interested in how it connects with certain aspects of science and the metaphysical core at the heart of some religious experience. David believes that by understanding the paranormal, our insights into this world and what may lie beyond will grow. Go here for more information on Paranormal Purbeck and Roving Press. 

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the project website: A mesmerizing CSI-calibre quest for proof of life after death. Four New York Times best-selling authors, three top science professors and three well-respected mediums make a leap into the unknown, investigating astonishing evidence in the case of apparent “After Death Communication” (ADC) from Sci-Fi luminary Forrest J Ackerman. We journey from spiritualists to skeptics, and from chem labs to ground-breaking computer software that may enable communication between the living and the deceased. Author Richard Matheson says Forry Ackerman was an atheist who did not believe in life after death, but Forry told close friends if it turned out he was wrong, he would drop them a line. He passed away on December 4, 2008. Here's "the line" we think he dropped to the director of this film, his long time friend Paul Davids: The ink has been scientifically tested by top chemists at Indiana University and the College of New Jersey. After 3 years of study, the chemists are convinced it's very strange and science has yet to explain it. The Life After Death Project 2 - Personal Encounters: Spellbinding accounts of personal encounters with life after death from archaeologists, physicists, a retired colonel, a librarian, clinical psychologist, sales executive, publisher and doctors and nurses who have worked with hundreds of dying patients. They have seen souls leaving the body at death, angelic beings, spirit entities, golden orbs, physical manifestations and more. Updates the continuing saga of the Forrest J Ackerman case. The DVDs are NTSC, Region 0. Go here for further details.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: Anthropologists, exorcists and psychiatrists all approach the enigmas of spirit possession from differing perspectives and unsurprisingly fail to arrive at a consensual explanation for the phenomena. This creates problems for therapeutic interventions for perceived spirit possession cases. However, the 19th century researcher F.W.H. Myers developed a conceptual framework using rigorous scientific methods that provides a unified theory to explain all forms of spirit possession across all cultures, religions and societies. Myers declared that all so-called paranormal and supernatural phenomena are natural and normal, and all such experiences exist on a continuum of human experience. Discarded, forgotten and denied by mainstream science until now, Myers is being re-discovered by 21st century psychology. Using Myers’ scientific framework, this book fills the gaps in knowledge left by the inadequate theories of anthropology and psychiatry, and gives religious exorcism and clinical practice an alternative approach to research and intervention that is grounded in pragmatic and proven clinical experience.

From the publisher: The idea that we live more than one life on Earth has been taught since philosophy and theology were invented. But not everyone accepts it. There are secular critics who find the idea unscientific, religious critics who feel it violates their unassailable doctrines, and just plain critics who attack it on pragmatic grounds. Not only does the author of this book demonstrate the faults in such criticisms, he presents conclusive evidence that reincarnation is a reality, at least for some of us, some of the time.

From the publisher’s website: Extra Sensory is a pop-science look at the untapped abilities of human beings, from ESP to Telekenesis and other real life sciences that are currently being studied today, from physicist Brian Clegg. We'd all love to have 'psi' abilities like telepathy, telekinesis, and remote viewing. But is there any solid evidence to back up these talents, or are they nothing more than fantasy? We still only understand a small percentage of the capabilities of the human brain—and we shouldn’t dismiss such potential powers out of hand. Although there is no doubt that many who claim these abilities are frauds, and no one has yet won James Randi’s $1M prize for demonstrating ESP under lab conditions, we still have a Nobel prize winner suggesting a mechanism for telepathy, serious scientists researching the field and university projects that produced potentially explosive results. What’s the verdict? By looking at possible physical mechanisms for ESP and taking in the best scientific evidence, the reader can discover if this is all wishful thinking and deception, or a fascinating reality. The truth is out there.

Review by Nemo C. Mörck

 

From the publisher’s website: This book contains 12 accounts of personal experiences from the world beyond. They come from deceased human beings who transmitted their individual story through the deep trance medium Beatrice Brunner during the years 1961 to 1969. In a vivid manner they describe their initial experiences and encounters in the next world. These reports are impressive testimonies of the continuation of life after death.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: Things You Can do When You’re Dead! by Tricia Robertson is the long awaited book from one of Scotland’s foremost psychical researchers. In this book the author shares some of her thirty-year research into mediumship, reincarnation, psychic healing, apparitions, poltergeists, and after death communications. Tricia’s refreshing no-nonsense approach to the subject makes for compelling reading and should interest sceptics, believers, and anyone who wants to know what you can do when you’re dead! A former teacher of mathematics and physics, Tricia is a long term council member, past Vice President and Immediate Past President of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research. She is a tutor for the Department of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE) at the University of Glasgow. In conjunction with Professor Archie Roy she provided a programme of lectures for DACE in a series entitled “An In Depth Study of Psychical Research.” This course has now been running for six years. In addition to 29 years of experience in investigating spontaneous cases Tricia has appeared on various radio and TV programmes and has been invited over many years to speak to varied organisations throughout the UK.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: There could be many reasons why you are interested this book. Perhaps you are just curious about the afterlife. Or perhaps you have experienced the death of a loved one. It may be that you have had an out of body experience or a near death experience or another mystical experience. Or you may be realizing that we all inevitably have to make the journey to the afterlife one day. If you have been trained to respect scientific method you will not just accept tradition or wishful thinking. You want something that can be supported by evidence. You want highly reliable information as to whether or not we continue to live in the afterlife. And you want to know whether it is possible to get a message from your loved ones. You want to know that the things people report about the afterlife are real and can be validated. You want hard, repeatable evidence that no one can rebut. You want witnesses, scientists, professionals and others with the highest credibility. You want to feel that the information you are receiving about the afterlife is the truth, the whole truth. And you may want something that you can share with friends and family members to show that there are good scientific reasons for accepting that there is more to life than the materialists claim.

This book presents highly convincing evidence amounting to proof for the existence of the afterlife. It shows that after investigating the evidence, some of the most brilliant men and women ⎯ scientists and others – came to the conclusion that we all survive death. The mediums and psychics studied by scientists were of course exceptional. They were the best of the best. People should be aware that not all psychics and mediums are developed to this degree and people take care in choosing a medium. This new and expanded version includes important new research and the latest discoveries. But once again it concentrates on evidence that is credible, repeatable and admissible in a court of law. The book gives an introduction to more than twenty different areas of evidence for the afterlife giving you the key facts and references Victor and Wendy Zammit, Since 2001 and Victor and Wendy have maintained a website www.victorzammit.com which makes available scientific and objective evidence on the afterlife free of charge and has been viewed by over a million visitors. Every Friday they send out a weekly Afterlife Report containing the latest research to many thousands of subscribers in more than 70 countries.

This book is freely available at the publisher's website: Editorial Antigua. 

From the publisher’s website: Spanning the years 1870–1881, Evenings at Home in Spiritual Séance documents the everyday, yet astonishing, experiences of spirit activity within the domestic space of the Victorian parlour. Through the intimacy of her diary-like prose, Houghton conjures cosy images of spirits laying the table for tea in what she called the “interblending of the heavenly and the mundane”. She is equally comfortable communicating with her beloved pet dove as she is with the archangel Gabriel, living an unassuming yet spiritually rich life, filled with people of this world and the next. Houghton narrates her experiences of séances and trance mediumship with close friends, discusses her own automatic spirit drawings, and offers an autobiographical glimpse into her day-to-day business. This critical edition, edited by Sara Williams, includes: Introduction; author biography; select bibliography; explanatory footnotes; appendices on ‘Houghton in the Spiritualist press’, ‘Automatic spirit drawings’ and ‘Houghton’s spirit photography’ Sara Williams is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of English, University of Hull, where she completed her PhD ‘The Maternal Gaze in the Gothic’. Her research focuses on Victorian spirit photography and memorial portraiture, epistemologies of hysteria, Christian mysticism and Mariology and the everyday Gothic. She has published on the novel and film versions of The Exorcist and the life and work of H.P. Lovecraft, and her next project considers motifs of cannibalism in Catholic female hagiography. Further details can be found at www.victoriansecrets.co.uk. The book is available in both paperback and Kindle editions.

Review by Tom Ruffles