New Books and Media

From the publisher's website: In Charles Richet: A Nobel Prize Winning Scientist’s Explorations of Psychic Phenomena, author, Carlos Alvarado, presents a collection of previously published scholarly papers about Richet. Charles Richet (1850-1935), the distinguished French physiologist who won a Nobel Prize for his work on anaphylaxis, was a renaissance man. In addition to physiology he wrote poetry and plays and took an interest in many topics including pacifism, eugenics, philosophy, psychology and psychical research, which he referred to as metapsychics—the subject of this book. Richet, in his role of psychical researcher, investigated ESP, mental and physical mediumship, survival of death and hypnosis. While never publically accepting survival and communication with discarnate entities, he became fully immersed in the phenomena and wrote in a letter to British physicist, Oliver Lodge, who had accepted it, “Without being resolutely spiritist in the sense of Conan Doyle and Allan Kardec, I gradually get closer to your ideas. I say to you—which is absolutely true—that your deep and scientific conviction had great influence, a very great influence.”

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

Review by Nemo C. Mörck.

From the publisher's website: Dive into the ghostly world of the supernatural with America’s leading paranormal investigator Inside, paranormal investigator, star, and executive producer of The Travel Channel's hit series, Ghost Adventures and founder of the award-winning Haunted Museum (Las Vegas’ most popular attraction), Zak Bagans takes readers on an exciting journey into the supernatural world. With insider information on the history of ghost-hunting to learning about ghosts with all kinds of temperaments, Ghost-Hunting For Dummies is peppered with true accounts and stories from Bagans' famous cases and investigations.

Review by Steven Parsons

From the publisher's website:The New Prometheans traces the evolution of psychical research through the intertwining biographies of four men: chemist Sir William Crookes, depth psychologist Frederic Myers, ether physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, and anthropologist Andrew Lang. All past presidents of the society, these men brought psychical research beyond academic circles and into the public square, making it part of a shared, far-reaching examination of science and society. By layering their papers, textbooks, and lectures with more intimate texts like diaries, letters, and literary compositions, Courtenay Raia returns us to a critical juncture in the history of secularization, the last great gesture of reconciliation between science and sacred truths.

Further information on the publisher's website: University of Chicago Press.

From the back cover: Britain has long been regarded as a haunted land. Tales of apparitions, supernatural manifestations and earthbound spirits are commonplace. But are there such things as ghosts? John West firmly believes that they do exist. Within this book you will find some of the stranger and more terrifying cases from Britain's ghostly past. These tales of terror make for chilling reading and will give even the most hardened sceptic pause for thought. Here you will discover a phantom butterfly, Roman soldiers in a cellar, hooded monks, a murderer or two, haunted churches, a pair of hairy hands on a lonely road and an Egyptian curse. You'll meet a sinister half-wolf, half-man creature, a vampire and even an amorous spectral naked lady who once took a fancy to a country vicar! After reading this book, you may even find yourself agreeing with the author's belief that Britain is the most haunted place on earth.

Review by Chris Phillips.

From the back cover: If there is a heaven, as countless Near-Death Experiences suggest, shouldn’t modern science be able to identify its existence? This is the central question with which historian Dr. Jean-Pierre Isbouts embarked on an ambitious research project at Fielding Graduate University, drawing from quantum physics, neuroscience, astrophysics, electromagnetic energy, Asian health practices, faith traditions, and psychic observations. Written in the engaging style that made him a bestselling National Geographic author, Dr. Isbouts guides the reader step by step through the evidence while building an operational model of the afterlife. In the last chapter, he compares this model to Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhists concepts of heaven, concluding that our religious ideas have much more in common than we realize.Immersive, witty, and illustrated with astonishing observations by the renowned British psychic Sue Dunderdale Jones, 

Review by Robert A. Charman.