New Books and Media

From the back cover: As a high achiever in the financial sector Ann Treherne seems amongst the least likely to believe in paranormal phenomena. But then as she describes frankly in this book, she was confronted by a profound personal experience - a traumatic premonition of a national tragedy.Her struggle to make sense of that experience and her sense of guilt for not having attempted to act on the information received, leads her on a journey of investigation and exploration into the strange world of the paranormal. Ann had the good fortune to meet an academic with a sympathetic interest in parapsychology and this gave her space to take her experiences seriously and to acquire skills in research and investigation methods. Part of her education involved participating in vigils in haunted locations, evaluating mental mediumship and sitting for physical phenomena. Even under these controlled conditions, she had some remarkable experiences ...

Further information at: The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre.

The Trickster-god is a strange and rather wonderful mythological figure who is found in folklore and legend right across the world, from the Norse Loki to the Greek Hermes to the Raven and Coyote of the Native American peoples. The ultimate ‘cunning fool’, he and the many subversive tales told about him have been studied down the years by anthropologists, historians, literary theorists and psychologists from Ted Hughes to C. G. Jung. But in the twenty-first century, should the Trickster also be studied by parapsychologists and ghost hunters? Nobody believes in gods like Hermes or Loki anymore, but that does not mean that people do not still tell one another tales about such Tricksters and their mischievous ways. They do, but in disguised form - the disguised form of the poltergeist.

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

Review by Ted Dixon.

From the publisher's website: Wales is said to be the most haunted country in the world. Restless spirits roam the ancient land, from the lofty peaks of Snowdonia to the dark depths of the abandoned mines. In Paranormal Wales author Mark Rees takes the reader on a spine-chilling journey to dozens of these locations, which include well-known tourist landmarks and more secluded spots well off the beaten track. These accounts of disembodied voices, supernatural mists and pesky poltergeists range from centuries-old legends to modern-day sightings. Visit the ‘oldest pub’ in Wales, where more than 180 people are claimed to have been sentenced to death by hanging. Explore the majestic opera house built by a world-famous soprano, who some say continues to perform on her beloved stage from beyond the grave. Spend the night in a seemingly idyllic manor house, where the presence of a Victorian housekeeper is said to reduce unsuspecting guests to tears. Or step back in time at one of the many ivy-strewn castles, where ladies in white patrol the Gothic battlements as tortured screams ring out from the dungeons below. Some of these stories might be familiar, others less so, but they all have one thing in common – they will make you think twice about turning off the light at night. Illustrated throughout, Paranormal Wales will be of spine-tingling interest to those wanting to discover more about the country’s haunted and hidden heritage.

Review by Tim Prasil,

Readers interested in out of body experiences, lucid dreaming, remote viewing, psychokinesis, energy healing, mediumship and contact with UFOs will gain tremendous insights and practice tips by reading this book. Paranormal researchers and parapsychologists will find ample anecdotes to enrich their fields of inquiry. The intersection of modern physics and ancient mysticism becomes apparent inside these pages.This is the spiritual memoir of Sean McNamara, meditation teacher and consciousness explorer. In this groundbreaking work, he reveals his core psychological drives and the events of his life which caused him to question everything and look into the deeper nature of reality. Follow him on his travels around the world, and learn about his experiences, good and bad, while under the tutelage of various teachers.By the end, he shares experiences he’s never revealed publicly ...

The psychic child is one who is sensitive to nonphysical phenomena, energies and influences. The psychic child is sensitive to emotions and thoughts and to many other invisible happenings in the world around the child. The child's psychic nature is innate – born with the child, already functioning in a raw and preverbal form. To some degree, we have all been psychic children.

Review by Athena A, Drewes.

The Selection Effect explores a personal training process that allows one's consciousness to influence real-world physical events in ways that cannot be attributed to brain activity alone. Backed by rigorous data, it describes findings that challenge our current thinking about consciousness, the mind, and the nature of reality. The more we come to understand ourselves, the more we can change our fundamental relationship to the world in ways beneficial to our species.

Review by Joseph Gallenberger.

From the book cover: Looking for the paranormal is so much more than standing in a dark room asking for spirits to make a noise. Author Penny Griffiths Morgan discovered this whilst listening to other investigators talk about experiments, and decided to research into the various ideas and look to replicate them. Delve into this book and be ready to ask questions...

From the publisher's website: Supernatural elements are of central significance in many of Shakespeare's plays, contributing to their dramatic power and intrigue. Ghosts haunt political spaces and internal psyches, witches foresee the future and disturb the present, fairies meddle with love and a magus conjures a tempest from the elements. Although written and performed for early modern audiences, for whom the supernatural, whether sacred, demonic or folkloric, was part of the fabric of everyday life, the supernatural in Shakespeare continues to enthrall audiences and readers, and maintains its power to raise a range of questions in contemporary contexts.This edited collection of twelve essays from an international range of contemporary Shakespeare scholars explores the supernatural in Shakespeare from a variety of perspectives and approaches, generating new knowledge and presenting hitherto unexplored avenues of enquiry across the Shakespearean canon.

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

From the publisher's website: A new history which overturns the received wisdom that science displaced magic in Enlightenment Britain. In early modern Britain, belief in prophecies, omens, ghosts, apparitions and fairies was commonplace. Among both educated and ordinary people the absolute existence of a spiritual world was taken for granted. Yet in the eighteenth century such certainties were swept away. Credit for this great change is usually given to science – and in particular to the scientists of the Royal Society. But is this justified? Michael Hunter argues that those pioneering the change in attitude were not scientists but freethinkers. While some scientists defended the reality of supernatural phenomena, these sceptical humanists drew on ancient authors to mount a critique both of orthodox religion and, by extension, of magic and other forms of superstition. Even if the religious heterodoxy of such men tarnished their reputation and postponed the general acceptance of anti-magical views, slowly change did come about. When it did, this owed less to the testing of magic than to the growth of confidence in a stable world in which magic no longer had a place.

Further information on the publisher's website: Yale University Press 

From the publisher's website: What is life? Why are we here? What are we supposed to do in this physical existence? The Wonder of You, takes the reader on an in-depth exploration of the NDE (Near Death Experience) and the amazing life lessons being brought back. Through examining thousands of accounts, Lynn K. Russell offers a step-by-step explanation of the astonishing messages and beyond to the incredible wonder you are. This book is filled with research that stretches from man’s beginnings and onwards to the future through the exciting discoveries of physics.

Review by Robet A. Charman.

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: This book takes you on a personal journey to both outer space and inner space. As your guide, the author, introduces you to astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon. You will gain personal insights into Mitchell's life, work, and personality and you will witness the 40 year friendship that formed between a moonwalker and a cleric from 1972 until Mitchell's death in 2016.