New Books and Media

From the publisher's website: Regarded worldwide as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the Black Country has a long and diverse history, where countless ghostly tales are born. From the blistering heat of the blast furnaces and the deafening din of the steelworks, the spectres of industry emerge. Yet, the region’s history spans over a thousand years, with sightings of ghostly monks and Civil War soldiers still reported today. In this book, author Richard O’Connor travels the breadth and depth of the Black Country to uncover the region’s darkest and most mysterious ghost stories. From murderous villains who lurked along the many canals to hooded riders fleeing musket battles with the sheriff, Paranormal Black Country offers spine-chilling stories for both history buffs and paranormal enthusiasts alike. Spend a night with Richard at one of the most haunted hotels in the country before venturing into the crypt at Dudley’s famous castle and zoo, where exotic animals aren’t the only unusual inhabitants of the ancient battlements. Uncover the region’s explosive connection to the infamous Gunpowder Plot, before enjoying one last drink at the legendary Crooked House pub. Though the collieries and foundries that once illuminated the night sky with a fiery hue have long since closed, the landscape of this vast region still bears the scars of its past – along with the whispers of those who haunt its shadows.

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

Review by John Tate.

From the back cover: Dive into the mysterious intersections of ghostly phenomena, Gothic fiction, and the rise of spiritualism during the 19th century—a time when séances, spirits, and mysticism captivated public and private imaginations alike. As scientific progress and industrialization upended traditional beliefs, Victorian writers turned to the otherworldly to make sense of a rapidly transforming world. This book traces how their engagement with death, the afterlife, and the metaphysical infused literature with haunting beauty and psychological depth. Blending biography, cultural history, and literary analysis, The Pen and the Planchette explores the spectral threads running through the works of Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Edgar Allan Poe, Christina Rossetti, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, and many more. From the ghostly redemptions in A Christmas Carol to the metaphysical terror of The Turn of the Screw and the esoteric vision of W.B. Yeats, this book reveals how the paranormal became a powerful vehicle for expressing grief, doubt, morality, and the fragility of human certainty.

Review by Tim Prasil.

From the back cover: An experiencer of OBEs herself, Samantha Lee Treasure has dedicated over a decade to better understanding these extraordinary events. This illuminating guide is the culmination of this research, taking a holistic approach which draws together neurology, psychology, anthropology, parapsychology and religion. Her research has taken her from interviewing Korean and Siberian shamans, to participation in neuroscience experiments, fieldwork with the religious movement Eckankar, a year interviewing alien contactees and attendance at various workshops and retreats marketed within the growing spiritual marketplace. Based on experiencer interviews the author has conducted since 2015, the book will also explore how astral projection changes over the course of an episode or lifetime, taking into consideration generational, cultural, and biological differences.

Review by Will Kuberski.

From the publisher's website: A neuroscientist and surgeon makes an argument for the existence of a spiritual human soul in this eye-opening book.Many scientists and doctors believe that there is no such thing as the soul. That there is no part of us that persists beyond death. We are not spiritual in any respect. We are made up of cells and tissue, and completely controlled by a material organ in our heads: the brain. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Michael Egnor makes the case—based on 40 years of practice and over 7,000 brain surgeries—that science has gotten it all wrong. 

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

Review by Gregory M. Westlake.

From the publisher's website: What Lies Beyond answers two questions: What's beyond the functional, mechanistic, and materialistic conceptions of life and consciousness? And why does that matter today? From an overview of paranormal and mystical experiences - in the context of the prevailing mechanistic, materialist view of mind and life - to exploring why the mystery of consciousness remains ‘hard’ and the reasons for doubting that this mystery will be resolved in mechanistic terms, this book aims to encourage open enquiry.

Further information at the publisher's website: Essentia Books,

Review by Nemo C. Mörck.

From the publisher's website: In 2010, a sleepy small-town business plaza in rural New Hampshire rented space to an unusual tenant: a ghost laboratory. The Kitt Research Initiative’s mission was to use the scientific method to document the existence of spirits. Founder Andy Kitt was known as a straight-shooter; and was unafraid — perhaps eager — to offend other paranormal investigators by exposing the fraudulence of their less advanced techniques. Kitt’s efforts attracted flocks of psychics, alien abductees, witches, mediums, ghost hunters, UFOlogists, cryptozoologists and warlocks from all over New England, and the world. And there were plenty of them around.

Further information at the publisher's website: PublicAffairs.

Review by Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl.

From the publisher's website: In recent years, near-death experience (NDE) researchers have dared to suggest that this “out-of-body,” or dualistic, phenomenon is evidence that consciousness survives death, thereby validating the words of St. Paul that we have two bodies—physical and spiritual—the spirit body separating from the physical body at the time of physical death, or within minutes of it. This “spirit” body has also been referred to as an etheric body, astral body, vehicle of vitality, double, doppelganger, and mental body. Some mystics and psychics claim there are more than two bodies, the so-called “second death” which involves a transition from one spirit body to a higher spirit body.

Further information at the publisher's website: White Crow Books.

From the back cover: Science does not accept things unseen, so ESP must be fantasy. Similarly, DNA is said to be a book of instructions while biologists know it is not. This book gives the evidence showing how DNA works; it's by ESP from our parents. Our DNA code works like a phone code making connections for the child to copy and grow like its parents. This amazing idea, resulting from an examination of the evidence, details how all life works. A bold and thought-provoking book that challenges scientific dogma by correcting known flaws and dozens of anomalies.

Review by Gregory M. Westlake.

From the publisher's website: You can sense what is in your future. This book shows you how to harness your precognitive abilities while you sleep, which will give you a heads-up for tomorrow. Leading dream decoder Theresa Cheung offers simple precognition-boosting methods you can easily incorporate into your daily routine. Featuring numerous exercises and a detailed directory of symbols divided into twenty themes, Dreaming of Your Future is far beyond a standard dream dictionary. It provides practices for mental time travel, memory games, making predictions, staying motivated, and much more. From learning how to trust your gut instinct when you are awake to understanding what it means for your future when you dream of animals, food, or feelings, this book helps you confidently plan for a bright future.

Further information at the publisher's website: Llewellyn.

Review by Ciaran Farrell.

From the publisher's website: A captivating and insightful deep dive into the world of human intuition, exploring the power of this elusive phenomenon and how it can be harnessed to better know and trust ourselves. We rely on our intuition, even though we don’t fully understand what it is, how it works, or if we can even trust it. In this fresh, mind-opening book, Elizabeth Greenwood takes us on a sweeping investigation into the subject, exploring how, in our data-driven world, we can harness intuition in our day-to-day lives.

Further information at the publisher's website: Harper.

From the publisher's website: In Life-Changing Synchronicities, pioneering psychiatrist Bernard Beitman, M.D., explores the experience and ramifications of meaningful coincidences, including how synchronistic happenings came to define his own life. Building on Carl Jung’s groundbreaking work on this phenomenon, Beitman applies new insights on coincidence, synchronicity, serendipity, and related phenomena to the contemporary age, ultimately helping readers begin to better identify patterns of synchronicity in their own lives, find deeper meaning, and more consciously align with their personal life path and goals.

Further information at the publisher's website: Park Street Press.

Review by Peter A. McCue.

From the publisher's website: Integrating Brain, Mind, Soul, and Spirit presents neuropsychological research on psychedelics, with reference to mystical experience, and Psi/extrasensory perception as an extension of cognitively controlled brain-based homeostasis. The book equates concepts from modern physics with perennial metaphysics concerning intelligent consciousness, evolution, and the transfer of energy and information. It also compares spiritual literature regarding consciousness, spirit-soul, and brain-mind personality, to neuropsychological and psychological literature concerning emotion, cognition, and altered states of consciousness. Finally, a nested neuro-psycho-spiritual control hierarchy is presented as an architecture for systematically integrating; describing; and understanding brain, mind, soul, and spirit, and neuro-psycho-spiritual development.

Further information at the publisher's website: Routledge.