New Books and Media

From the publisher's website: Uncover fascinating paranormal activity on this chilling, nerve-wracking global tour of over 50 paranormal locations, with a brilliant foreword from award-winning writer, Danny Robins. Set out on a uniquely dark armchair journey and witness the shocking supernatural events, ghosts and unexplained phenomena that have captivated humankind for as long as we have told stories to each other, looked to the skies, and wondered whether we really are alone…

Further information at the publisher's website: Quarto.

From the publisher's website: This is the first illustrated volume to gather the art and objects that made medium and magician performances iconic during the Spiritualism movement and beyond, a time when people actively debated and wondered, "can spirits return?" An international selection of paintings, photographs, posters, stage apparatuses, film, publications, and other objects reveal how audiences were entranced and mystified by these experiential performances, captivating willing believers and garnering skeptics as they navigated the intersecting realms of science and spirituality. From the origins of the iconic Oujia board to spirit photography, this book is a treasure trove.

Further information at the publisher's website: Rizzoli Electa.

From the back cover: This ground-breaking volume consists of essays by scientists and academics describing their own experiences of synchronicity and how these experiences transformed both their worldviews and the way they lived their lives. The essays consider possible interpretations/explanations and implications of these synchronistic events for a deeper understanding of consciousness and the interconnected nature of reality in terms of epistemology and ontology. A major theme of the volume is, "What kind of universe makes synchronicity possible?“ We anticipate you will be intrigued and perhaps feel a sense of participatory resonance and joy, at the answers you find in the essays. We truly believe this is a fundamentally benevolent, creative and playful universe in which we, as individual expressions of the one Universal Mind, co- create our reality.

From the publisher's website: Swansea has long been a place of magic and mystery. Ruined castles with ghostly inhabitants dot the landscape, while the golden sands of Gower are steeped in Arthurian mythology and seafaring tales of smugglers and pirates. Yet it has also seen much upheaval and destruction, from the early Viking invaders to the Luftwaffe’s devastating ‘three-nights’ blitz’ during the Second World War. Paranormal Swansea and Gower takes the reader on a spine-chilling journey to dozens of supposedly haunted locations, ranging from well-known tourist destinations to more secluded spots off the beaten track, each with its own eerie tale to tell. These include the spirits of ancient soldiers who wage war on the beaches at dusk, the Gothic ruins guarded by the most terrifying of apparitions, the family home where the wraith of a murderer returned to haunt his former neighbours, the Swansea Devil, a ‘cursed’ work of art which lurks in the museum, and the workaholic miller who refuses to down tools at an historic watermill long after shuffling off this mortal coil.

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

Review by Peter G. Maxwell-Stuart.

From the publisher's website: Today, for the first time in history, the scientific exploration of death and what happens when we die is real, active and ongoing. Contrary to popular perceptions, this subject is no longer the remit of philosophy, religion, or personal opinion. Truly remarkable scientific discoveries that will fundamentally affect everyone’s lives now and in the future are taking place, yet very few people are aware of them.  Most people—including scientists and doctors—maintain strong beliefs about death and its experience. Those beliefs are rooted in traditional, and often cultural, notions of death. But what if all that we have come to believe about death is fundamentally wrong? What if the paradigm we have been operating within no longer exists? What if death is not the end we thought?

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

From the publisher's website: This new edition of Parapsychology continues to challenge and provoke readers with some of psychology’s most puzzling phenomena. Whether believers or sceptics, the book provides readers with the opportunity to further their understanding of the paranormal, bridging the gap between traditional psychology and fringe areas.

With contributions from leading paranormal researchers, this edition has been thoroughly updated and includes new chapters on dreams, precognition and prediction of future events and anthropology. The book has been reorganised to help readers frame each phenomenon within the context of cognition, science and religion, and chapters are structured around science and experience, cognition and belief, religious belief and science, and further topics in parapsychology. The book covers a range of topics that can be considered parapsychological; including reincarnation, entity encounters, astrology, mediumship and near-death experiences.

Providing a balanced introduction to parapsychology that explores the strengths and limitations of scientific investigation, this is essential reading for students and professionals in the field, along with anyone interested in learning more about the science of the paranormal.

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

From the publisher's website: A mind-bending invitation to experience the impossible as fundamentally human. From precognitive dreams and telepathic visions to near-death experiences, UFO encounters, and beyond, so-called impossible phenomena are not supposed to happen. But they do happen—all the time. Jeffrey J. Kripal asserts that the impossible is a function not of reality but of our everchanging assumptions about what is real. How to Think Impossibly invites us to think about these fantastic (yet commonplace) experiences as an essential part of being human, expressive of a deeply shared reality that is neither mental nor material but gives rise to both. Thinking with specific individuals and their extraordinary experiences in vulnerable, open, and often humorous ways, Kripal interweaves humanistic and scientific inquiry to foster an awareness that the fantastic is real, the supernatural is super natural, and the impossible is possible.

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

From the publisher's website: The Spiritualist Prime Minister by historian Dr. Anton Wagner presents former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s quest for spirit communication within the historical and cultural context of British, Canadian, and American Spiritualism. Mackenzie King was Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister from 1922 to 1930 and from 1935 to 1948. Historians have ranked him as Canada’s greatest Prime Minister for his political leadership in winning Canada’s autonomy from the British Empire and for organizing Canada’s enormous war effort that enabled Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt to lead their countries to victory in World War II.

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

From the publisher's website: Volume 2 of The Spiritualist Prime Minister: Mackenzie King and His Mediums examines how prominent mediums in Canada, New York, and London such as Etta Wriedt, Eileen Garrett, and Gladys Osborne Leonard influenced King before, during and after the Second World War. The volume includes transcripts of seven of the Prime Minister’s séances with Hester Dowden, Florence Jane Sharplin, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Helen Hughes, and Geraldine Cummins in London during 1945-1947. The through-line of the biography is King’s search for means to communicate with the divine and to become a servant of God so that the material world could be transformed into the Kingdom of God on earth.

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

From the publisher's website: Do we survive our biological death? This is a most important question; many people are very interested to know the answer. This book provides a rational answer, combining empirical evidences and conceptual analysis. It also examines the implications of postmortem survival on science, personal morality, and the meaning of life. Empirical evidences used include those from the existing literatures in English and Chinese, and personal experience. Some photographical evidence is provided and a repeatable paranormal experience is suggested that any reader may try. A theory on the emergence of souls from minds is also advanced. If consciousness may emerge from mindless things by ‘brute force’ (natural random changes, including in Darwinian evolution) in our un-created universe of only 14 billion years old, as believed in simple materialism (apparently the position of most scholars, including scientists and philosophers), it should be easier for souls to emerge from minds if our universe was created for fast evolution.

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

From the publisher's website: Artists and writers very often predict future events in their work. Skeptics dismiss these anomalies, but what if they hold the key to the creative imagination? In this mind-bending book, the 40,000-year history of art is reconsidered as a literally prophetic enterprise. From Ice Age cave paintings to the novels of Virginia Woolf and Philip K. Dick, the films of Werner Herzog and David Lynch, and even the songs of The Beatles, Wargo makes a case for the inherently time-defying nature of inspiration. Creators often channel their own futures—and the future of their culture—in their art. It is an entirely new way of thinking about one of humanity’s oldest questions: Where do new ideas come from?

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

Review by Fred Andersson.

From the author's website: In these pages of exploration, Dr. Davis K. Brimberg takes the reader through the fascinating world of parapsychology and the paranormal. Grounded by serious academic research from major institutions and Nobel laureates, Dr. Brimberg translates the scholarship of the field into readable, page-turning prose for the general audience. By weaving in heartfelt personal anecdotes as teaching examples, Dr. Brimberg paints a moving picture of how the paranormal touches us all.

Further information at the author's website: Davis K Brimberg

Review by Gregory M. Westlake