From the publisher’s website: Hallucination was always the ghost story’s elephant in the room. Even before the vogue for psychical research and spiritualism began to influence writers at the end of the nineteenth century, tales of horror and the supernatural, of ghosts and demons, had been haunted by the possibility of some grand deception by the senses. But what is certainly true is that, during the nineteenth century, hallucination took on a new force and significance not just in ghost stories and horror fiction, but in other forms of writing. Authors began to encourage their readers to assess whether the ghostly had its origins in some supernatural phenomenon from beyond the grave, or from some deception within our own minds. This wide-ranging book explores the many factors which contributed to this rise in the interest in hallucination and visionary experience, during the nineteenth century and beyond. Through a series of close and often unusual readings of numerous writers including Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, and Arthur Machen, this original study explores what happened when hallucination appeared in fiction, and – even more importantly – why it happened at all.
New Books and Media
Bewilderments of Vision: Hallucination and Literature, 1880-1914, by Oliver Tearle
Publish Date: November, 2012
Hallucinations, by Oliver Sacks
Publish Date: November, 2012
From the publisher’s website: Hallucinations, for most people, imply madness. But there are many different types of non-psychotic hallucination caused by various illnesses or injuries, by intoxication – even, for many people, by falling sleep. From the elementary geometrical shapes that we see when we rub our eyes to the complex swirls and blind spots and zigzags of a visual migraine, hallucination takes many forms. At a higher level, hallucinations associated with the altered states of consciousness that may come with sensory deprivation or certain brain disorders can lead to religious epiphanies or conversions. Drawing on a wealth of clinical examples from his own patients as well as historical and literary descriptions, Oliver Sacks investigates the fundamental differences and similarities of these many sorts of hallucinations, what they say about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture’s folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all.
Mentoring the Near-Death Experience Survivor, by Carolyn M. Matthews
Publish Date: November, 2012
From the publisher’s website: This book is written for the general reader and for the health care and other support services for Near Death Experiencers. When I read that some experiencers felt driven to discover what their mission was, I immediately knew that I was going to be helping them to discover their purpose in life. I developed a course for NDErs, on finding the soul’s mission in life. I understood that they thought differently since the NDE, and I kept this in mind when designing the course. I gave the first course to volunteer participants who had had NDEs. Course participants were delighted to find their missions and discover how to carry them out. They urged me to get the course out into the field of support systems for NDErs. This book includes the full course. See www.ndemission.com for further information.
Ghosts of Neath, by Robert King
Publish Date: October, 2012
From the publisher’s website: his collection of chilling ghost stories tells of apparitions, manifestations and strange happenings in Neath's streets, cemeteries and alehouses. From tales of ghostly Arthurian Knights slumbering peacefully under a mountain to mysterious lights in the night skies, the author has collected these stories over a period of forty years, and many have never previously been published. Some of the spirits contained within are helpful and kindly, such as the mysterious fisherman who rescued a drowning man off Morfa Beach, whilst others are malicious and destructive, like the poltergeist that terrified a mother and a young son in their own home. Other tales are almost unbearably sad, including the apparition of a young woman who hanged herself after being jilted by her lover.
Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality, by Gary Lachman
Publish Date: October, 2012
Return Again: How to Do Your Own Past life Regression, by Georgina Cannon
Publish Date: October, 2012
From the publisher’s website: Discover your true purpose in this life, by exploring your past life in this do-it-yourself guide to past life regression. Award-winning hypnotherapist Dr. Georgina Cannon shows how we can consciously influence our future by better understanding our past in Return Again. Cannon offers a practical and accessible approach that anyone can use to discover: Body and soul agreements Planes of existence Levels of understanding Karma Soul Mates--you may have more than one! Past lives and your "interlife"--where you meet those with whom you have a soul contract to plan your next life Cannon offers a step-by-step process with simple explanations and pragmatic exercises that readers can use to answer questions about their past and current lives. Return Again is an easy-to-use tool that anyone can use to live life to the fullest. Dr. Georgina Cannon is an award-winning author, corporate speaker, international facilitator, and practicing consulting hypnotist who brilliantly and skillfully uncovers the powers of the subconscious mind-body connection. She is the founding director of the Ontario Hypnosis Centre, Canada's leading hypnosis training facility and clinic. She has produced numerous self-hypnosis CDs, DVDs, and videos and is a regular contributor to the Shirley MacLaine website. Dr. Cannon has appeared on REMFM, Talk Radio Europe, CBC-TV, REMFM/Talk Radio Europe, Slice TV and Vision TV, and has been featured in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star.
Tell My Mother I'm Not Dead: A Case Study in Mediumship Research, by Trevor Hamilton
Publish Date: October, 2012
From the publisher’s website: This book divides into two parts. The first is a personal narrative of the impact of the death of the author’s son Ralph on him and his family and his efforts to see if there was any evidence for his continued existence (generated largely through visits to mediums) that a thinking person could take seriously. The second is an attempt to evaluate that evidence objectively (based on an extensive survey of current and past scientific research in the UK and the USA). The title reflects the inevitable tension between emotion and intellect in such an enquiry. Trevor Hamilton retired from his post in higher education at the end of 2006 to write full time. He has degrees from Oxford, London and Sussex Universities. He is the author of a well-received biography of F.W.H. Myers, one of the founding figures of the Society for Psychical Research.
Exploring the Edge Realms of Consciousness: Liminal Zones, Psychic Science, and the Hidden Dimensions of the Mind, edited by Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan
Publish Date: September, 2012
From the publisher: There is a rising interest in regions of the mind often traveled solely by shamans, mystics, and visionary artists. In a recent survey by the National Science Foundation, a startling 60% of respondents agreed that “some people possess psychic powers or ESP.” People want to know—what exactly is at the farthest fringes of human consciousness? In the new anthology Exploring the Edge Realms of Consciousness a diverse group of authors set out to answer that question. This collection of mind-bending essays from the online magazine Reality Sandwich draws readers deep into regions of the mind. In this extraordinary anthology, a wide range of both well established and emerging writers speak out about their encounters with the fringes of the conscious mind, from demons in sleep paralysis visions to psychic research conducted by the CIA. Contributors include notable ESP researcher Russell Targ, parapsychologist Dean Radin, and anthropologist Alberto Villoldo. Organized into sections covering psychic phenomena, synchronicity, lucid dreaming, shamanism, and near death experiences, Exploring the Edge Realms of Consciousness is more than a series of snapshots of psychic experiences. It ties together its disparate topics to form a larger picture of what these non-ordinary states of consciousness might have to tell us about the nature of reality itself. DANIEL PINCHBECK is the editorial director of Reality Sandwich and cofounder of Evolver.net. He is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism, among other works. KEN JORDAN is the publisher and executive producer of Reality Sandwich and Evolver.net and has written for Wired, Index, and The Paris Review. Pinchbeck and Jordan have coedited two other anthologies, Toward 2012 and What Comes After Money? Both live in New York City. For more information, please visit www.realitysandwich.com and www.evolver.net. EVOLVER EDITIONS is a collaboration between North Atlantic Books and Evolver, LLC. EVOLVER EDITIONS presents leading voices of the transformational movement, the new spiritual counterculture that explores humanity's most visionary potential and the tangible, pragmatic steps we can take to access it.
The Blue Ghost Tunnel: Making of a Legend, by John Savoie
Publish Date: September, 2012
From the author’s website: In paranormal circles across Canada and the United States, the hauntings at The Blue Ghost Tunnel (BGT) frequent the conversation. Often referred to as "The Most Haunted Location" in Canada or a place where you are guaranteed activity, the tunnel is synonymous with historical haunted locations across North America. I've been investigation the tunnel as a possible haunt for the past 14 years as a solo investigator, with The Niagara Amateur Ghost Seekers and with members of The Shadows Project.
In the late 1990s the tunnel, previously known under various descriptions became popularized as The Blue Ghost Tunnel, the name coined by a young paranormal investigator who is said to have witnessed a "Blue Misty Ghost". A few years of intense interest on the Internet, multiple investigations and visits by paranormal enthusiasts prompted the once popular TV program Creepy Canada to film at the location. Together with Ghost Tour Group Haunted Hamilton, questionable psychics and an impromtu "historian" of the tunnel, they exposed the location to tens of thousands of viewers solidifying the legend and suspected haunt. The episode depicted the tunnel as "700 ft of Hell on Earth!"
As a result of their illegal trespassing and exposure of the location, the site became explosively popular and thousands of visitors each year come to visit the tunnel prompting the Seaway Authority to attempt to secure the location. Even with extensive security, people trek out to discover the BGT for themselves...
But who really discovered this long, lost tunnel? What is the truth behind the hauntings and experiences at the tunnel? Is the tunnel an Urban Legend, conjured-up by a young wannabe author? Are we simply developing our own experiences using our own minds? Or is the tunnel really haunted? And by whom?
I decided to write about the tunnel, because I am fascinated with legends and lore and how they develop and what truth is hidden within. The book includes interviews, photographs and documents from decades past including the first ever investigation in 1976. It includes historical accounts from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s with photographs and evidence supporting a number of theories.
All proceeds of The Blue Ghost Tunnel: Making of a Legend will go to Dare to Dream Horse Rescue. Further details are available from here
Science and the Afterlife Experience: Evidence for the Immortality of Consciousness, by Chris Carter
Publish Date: August, 2012
From the publisher’s website: Reveals the evidence of life beyond death; examines 125 years of scientific research into reincarnation, apparitions, and communication with the dead showing these phenomena are real; reveals the existence of higher planes of consciousness where the souls of the dead can choose to advance or manifest once again on Earth; explains how these findings have been ignored and denied because they are incompatible with materialist doctrines
In this book, Chris Carter shows that evidence of life beyond death exists and has been around for millennia, predating any organized religion. Focusing on three key phenomena--reincarnation, apparitions, and communications from the dead--Carter reveals 125 years of documented scientific studies by independent researchers and the British and American Societies for Psychical Research that rule out hoaxes, fraud, and hallucinations and prove these afterlife phenomena are real.
The author examines historic and modern accounts of detailed past-life memories, visits from the deceased, and communications with the dead via medium and automatic writing as well as the scientific methods used to confirm these experiences. He explains how these findings on the afterlife have been ignored and denied because they are incompatible with the prevailing doctrine of materialism. Sharing messages from the dead themselves describing the afterlife, Carter reveals how consciousness exists outside the parameters of biological evolution and emerges through the medium of the brain to use the physical world as a springboard for growth. After death, souls can advance to higher planes of consciousness or manifest once again on Earth. Carter’s rigorous argument proves--beyond any reasonable doubt--not only that consciousness survives death and continues in the afterlife, but that it precedes birth as well.
About the Author: Chris Carter received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Oxford. The author of Science and the Near-Death Experience and Science and Psychic Phenomena, he is originally from Canada and currently teaches internationally.
Aspects of Consciousness: Essays on Physics, Death and the Mind, edited by Ingrid Fredriksson
Publish Date: August, 2012
Ghosts of York, by Rob Kirkup
Publish Date: August, 2012
From the Publisher’s website: Regarded by many as the most haunted city in the world; York has over 500 individual spirits and is therefore the perfect destination for five paranormal investigators from Newcastle gathering evidence to answer a question as old as time: Do ghosts actually exist? Allow Rob Kirkup to be your guide on an epic ghost hunting adventure; a year-long quest which will see ten of York's most active venues investigated. Nothing could prepare the team for what they would encounter. From a very unwelcoming phantom at one of the city's premier tourist attractions who literally pushes the team out of 'its” lair, and an angry toilet-dwelling ghost at one of the country's top museums, to the tragic shade of a young girl who speaks to our team at the former site of York's gallows, where many hundreds were executed, including the infamous highwayman Dick Turpin. It's guaranteed to be one hell of an adventure, so utterly terrifying in fact that not all of the team will stay the distance. Illustrated with over 60 photographs, this book is the ultimate ghostly guide to the scariest city on Earth.