New Books and Media

The science behind the writers’ experience of characters developing their own will and taking objective forms. Many writers have the experience that their characters have evolved their own personalities. They start to tell their own stories, and sometimes they could even rebel against the author’s ideas for them and change the course of the whole plot. That is not all, though. Sometimes, literary characters assume objective appearances which are visible not just to the creators, but also to others and manifesting in the real world. These experiences raise several interesting philosophical and scientific questions. Have the writers unwittingly created quasi-conscious entities by the power of their minds? Can thoughts manifest as something tangible that can be seen, heard, or even touched? How genuine are the contents of the mind? Embodied Imaginations explores these questions, highlighting the results of an investigation on this fascinating topic, stemming from personal anecdotes of many writers. Providing scientific evidence for the existences of these mental constructs, the goal is to collect robust and reliable building blocks that may help to deconstruct perceptions and provide answers to this phenomenon. The book attempts to give modern science a place where spiritual, philosophical and mystical threads can be interwoven. Efforts have been made to corroborate theoretical claims with experimental evidence, contributing to research in cognitive psychology to determine the role of imagination in creating external reality. This book will introduce you to the mysterious and profound part of creative writing that you never knew existed before.

From the publisher's website: Friedel’s Conversations with the Dead is the story of the Swedish painter and opera singer Friedrich Jürgenson, who pioneered the discovery of Electronic Voice Phenomena, in which deceased people appear to be able to make contact with the physical world utilising electronic devices such as radios, tape recorders, computers and televisions.

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

Review by Edgar E Müller.

From the publisher's website: We’ve all had ‘that’ feeling: when our mood suddenly changes or we sense an ‘atmosphere’ on entering a room. There is a distinct quality that connects these experiences – it’s a shift in how we sense a person or a place, often referred to as a ‘vibe’. Vibes matter because they have the power to change the way we feel and behave. Garret Yount PhD has been researching the science of ‘energy vibes’ for over 20 years. In Why Vibes Matter he explains what can lead us to experience a ‘vibe’ or a shift in energy and how to harness their power. Looking at where vibes come from and how they affect us Garret reviews the research and explains the science behind our reactions. Practical tools and techniques will help you attune to your own vibes and learn how to influence them in the wisest possible way.

Review by Nemo C. Mörck.

From the publisher's website: In the spring of 1983, a thirteen-year-old Polish schoolgirl named Joasia Gajewski suddenly began to exhibit astounding paranormal abilities (often beyond her conscious control) that mystified and frightened the people around her. The inexplicable, often destructive psychokinetic effects she randomly generated (even in her sleep!) met with disbelief, exasperation, and superstitious fear. Attempts by local authorities to ascribe these puzzling events to physical causes (settling of walls, geopathic anomalies, etc.) proved superficial and unsatisfactory. Eventually Joasia's plight caught the attention of several courageous, open-minded Polish scientists. Over a period of forty months, they administered tests and conducted numerous experiments with her under controlled laboratory conditions. Their detailed studies, though ultimately inconclusive, did succeed in confirming the girl's remarkable powers, which she continued to manifest long after the end of puberty-a singular case in the annals of parapsychology.

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

From the back cover: Sitting back in a comfortable armchair.Eyes covered by goggles such that only a diffused red haze is visible. Ears covered by headphones playing static noise. In this audio-visual fog, is it possible that the faint telepathic signal from another person can be detected? Since the 1970s researchers around the world have been trying to answer that question. This is the story of their work. Their theories, their failings and their one-in-a-million successes.

Review by Nemo C. Mörck.

From the publisher's website: Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy explores how traumatic experience interacts with unconscious phantasy based in folklore, the supernatural, and the occult.

Drawing upon psychoanalysis, anthropology, the arts, and esoteric philosophy, Alex Monk presents examples from folklore and literature to enrich his case illustrations which offer therapists important clinical perspectives on ways of working with clients who feel cursed and repeatedly manifest self-sabotaging states. The book examines the challenges that can arise when working with this client population and illustrates how to work through them while navigating potent transferences and projective identifications. Monk illustrates the way in which clients with developmental trauma may experience the supernatural and its psychic representatives as persecutory and/or a source of empowerment and healing. Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy also considers the historically conflicted relationship between psychoanalysis and the supernatural and proposes treatment perspectives which are not implicitly dependent upon a materialist paradigm.

This book will be of great interest to psychotherapists and counsellors who have an interest in clinical work concerning the connection of relational trauma to unconscious forms of communication and uncanny phenomena arising between therapist and client.

Further information at the publisher's website Routledge. 

From the back cover: Discover the legacies of some of the most influential women in the paranormal field. If you’re looking for a celebration of women throughout the history of parapsychology, folklore, and psychical research, then look no further! This book is for you! Sharing the stories of over 35 groundbreaking women in a male-dominated field, paranormal researcher Alex Matsuo excavates the buried legacies of women in the paranormal who were often overshadowed and almost forgotten. From paranormal investigators to parapsychologists to psychic mediums to cryptozoologists, you’ll discover an incredible world where women not only inspired the paranormal world, but set the very foundation for modern-day investigation and psychic practices.

Review by Nemo C. Mörck.

From the publisher's website: During the past five decades, psychologist and parapsychologist Jeffrey Mishlove has been dialoguing with scientists, academics, experiencers, historians and mystics on the subject of life’s biggest questions, the mind beyond the brain and the nature of reality.

In 2022, Jeff was the winner of the “Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies” prize for an essay demonstrating the best evidence for survival of bodily death. He was no doubt aided by more than a thousand discussions he has hosted and hosts on his YouTube channel “New Thinking Allowed “which continues to expand in subscribers and relevance year on year.

This anthology titled “Is There Life After Death” includes luminaries in the genre such as Eben Alexander, Miranda Alcott, Stafford Betty, Michael Cremo, Alan Hugenot, Leslie Kean, Betty Kovács, Alexander Moreira-Almeida, Vernon Neppe, and a foreword by James Tunne

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

From the publisher's website: This volume reflects on the ghostly and its varied manifestations including the uncanny, the revenant, the echo, and other forms of artistic allusion. These unsettling presences of the spectral other occur in literature, history, film, and art. The ghostly (and its artistic, literary, filmic, and cultural representations) remains of burgeoning interest and debate to twenty-first century literary critics, cultural historians, art historians, and linguists. Our collection of essays considers the wider implications of these representations of the ghostly and notions of the spectral to define a series of different, but inter-related, cultural topics (concerned with questions of ageing, the uncanny, the spectral, spiritualism, eschatology), which imaginatively testify to our compulsion to search for evidence of the ghostly in our everyday encounters with the material world.

Further information at the publisher's website: Routledge.

Review by Tim Prasil.

From the back cover: Beyond the Physical: Ethical Considerations for Applied Psychic and Afterlife Science is a thought-provoking exploration of the ethical implications of applying psychic (psi) abilities and afterlife (survival) science in a speculative future where they are part of the mainstream scientific paradigm. In this book, author and parapsychologist Mark Boccuzzi examines issues ranging from consent and privacy in psychic communication to potential political, social, and economic impacts.

Review by Nemo C. Mörck-

From the publisher's website: In her many books examining NDEs and other extraordinary phenomena, P.M.H. Atwater has, thus far, only revealed bits and pieces about her own life. Now, in Edge Walker, she finally tells us the whole story. This book explores, in great detail, her journey as a near-death experiencer, prolific author, wife, mother, and spiritual human. A courageous trailblazer, P.M.H. has spent her entire life walking between worlds and trying to build bridges between them. Perhaps she sums it up best in her own words: “I’ll be almost eighty-six when this book is published. I leave you my laughter and my life and my books, and a host of questions still to be answered. No regrets. I did the best I could each step of the way.”

From the publisher's website: Parapsychology is a science made controversial by its subjects: extrasensory perception, psychokinesis (mind over matter) and disembodied minds, which imply life after death. Moreover, these parapsychological phenomena (called “psi”) challenge physicalism, the philosophy that everything can be completely understood in terms of physics. This book is a snapshot of the parapsychological field, with essays written by authors of diverse academic backgrounds and experiences. Essays examine parapsychological phenomena from prehistory, through the founding of the science by intellectuals distressed by physicalism, to the postmodern present. It includes both experimental and theoretical evaluations of the phenomena. Parapsychology is a science which may overturn the philosophy which has dominated science since Newton and may inspire curious readers who are disheartened by the consequent denial of the spirit.

Further information at the publisher's website: McFarland.