New Books and Media

[Occult Aesthetics: Unconscious Desire in the Work of Albert von Schrenck Notzing] From the publisher’s website: Die vorliegende Studie ist der erste umfassende Beitrag zu einer Neubewertung des Werkes von Albert von Schrenck-Notzing (1862–1929). Ausgehend von den frühen medizinischen Schriften des deutschen Suggestionstherapeuten, wird der Zusammenhang von Suggestion, Hypnotismus und Physikalischem Mediumismus unter bildwissenschaftlichen und sprachkritischen Aspekten untersucht. Kuff deckt den komplizierten semantischen Status des Bildes in seiner Doppelfunktion als wissenschaftliches Dokument und Abbild eines performativen Ausdruckstheaters auf. Dabei werden die biologischen, philosophischen und ästhetischen Bezüge, die Schrenck-Notzing herstellen wollte, sichtbar. In der Verknüpfung von intellektueller Biografie und historischer Diskursanalyse wird den ästhetischen Entgrenzungen der Bilder nachgespürt und eine exemplarische Analyse jener okkulten Ästhetik vorgenommen.

From the publisher’s website: Over 70 years ago there occurred in a mansion house in Fife, Scotland, terrifying phenomena which have fascinated those interested in the paranormal ever since. The occupants of Pitmilly House were subjected to spontaneous outbreaks of fires, airborne objects and other occurrences which indicated the activities of a malicious poltergeist.  The story of Pitmilly, which involves a gambler disgraced by royalty, and a connection with Harry Price, the flamboyant psychic investigator of Borley Rectory, ‘the most haunted house in England,’ is told for the first time in this booklet, using exclusive access to the recollections and photographs of the two families connected with the Fife mansion which was demolished in 1968 but whose sinister reputation endures locally and internationally, and was the subject of a Hollywood horror film.

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Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: The haunted history of England’s churches and chapels is brought vividly to life in this comprehensive and beautifully illustrated modern guide. Here you will encounter the compelling world of the unseen linked with a thousand years of worship — including the Tudor phantom of Rycote, the lonely monk of Minsden Chapel and the black-magic ghosts of Clophill, to name but a few.

From the authors of The Borley Rectory Companion comes this astonishing book, which covers seventy-five of the most notorious and lesser known of our haunted ecclesiastical buildings. Combining a wealth of historical and paranormal information with stunning original and atmospheric photographs, this volume is perfect for researchers and armchair ghost hunters alike.

Paranormal historian Paul Adams and writer and photographer Eddie Brazil join Peter Underwood, the UK’s most experienced ghost hunter and respected author of over fifty books on the supernatural, in another literary partnership that will chill all but the sturdiest of hearts.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: Religion, Science, Philosophy and the Paranormal - all between the same covers? Here, for a change, they complement each other and get along splendidly.  Newton Green's fascinating book probes some of the cloudier frontiers of knowledge, in a clear, no-nonsense light. Reader-friendly, but impeccably researched, he examines humanity's place in the universe, covering a wide range of interrelated themes - creation and evolution, the nature of God, the supernatural, notions of self and free will, the workings of the mind.

For centuries, extraordinary events have bedevilled philosophers, physiologists, and psychologists. God, Ghosts and Independent Minds puts established assumptions under the microscope, and surprising truths plus some astonishing new ideas result - it won't change your life, but it will show you possibilities for leading a fuller one, and it will certainly make you think...

From the publisher’s website: Ghosts and ghouls, demons, poltergeists, phantoms, haunted houses, and shadow people—why is America so captivated by the creepy and unexplained? Paranormal Obsession is the first book to explore why we have an insatiable interest in spirits, ghost hunting, and all things otherworldly.

Paranormal investigator and researcher Deonna Kelli Sayed reveals how and why our fascination with spirits started. She interviewed ghost hunters, religious figures, scientists, academics, and cast members of the popular TV shows Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State, and offers compelling insight into what our fixation on ghostly activity says about American culture. Paranormal Obsession also highlights the author's paranormal group's investigation of the USS North Carolina, the most haunted battleship in the United States.

Deonna Kelli Sayed is a Muslim-American paranormal investigator with Haunted North Carolina (HNC). She lectures on many issues, from women in Islam to the paranormal, and has lived and conducted studies throughout Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. She is the host of Think Tank, a forum on LiveParanormal.com, and is an editor and contributor to GhostVillage.com. 

From the publisher’s website: Given that consciousness is poorly understood and vaguely defined, Paul Feyerabend's advice to "keep our options open" seems sound, but is frequently ignored in favour of an insistence that a scientific theory of consciousness must be reducible to current monist physics and biology. This book argues that such an insistence is historically unsupportable, theoretically incoherent and unnecessary.

The author instead makes the case for emergent property pluralism. New concepts of emergent mental properties are needed because of the failure of mainstream approaches satisfactorily to address issues like subjective volition, autonomy and creativity. Personal consciousness is active and classifiable as a subset of the wider problem of biological causation.

The book is split into three sections. Part one builds an historical case for pluralism. Part two deconstructs insistent monism and mainstream models before addressing biological causation. Part three explores the consequences of such an alternative approach by examining specific phenomena like free will, the self and evolutionary emergence.

Matthew Colborn received an MSc in cognitive science from Birmingham University and a DPhil. in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex in 2001.

From the publisher’s website: When The Flying Cow was first published in 1975, it revealed a world of psychic wonders in Brazil hitherto barely explored by outsiders. Author Guy Lyon Playfair had spent two years as a member of the Brazilian Institute for Psychobiophysical Research (IBPP), the first group of its kind to investigate and document the wide range of inexplicable phenomena – from poltergeists and psychic surgeons to trance artists and children who recall previous lives.

He spent several days and nights in a poltergeist-haunted house, managing to record several inexplicable happenings on tape. He watched as a young man untrained in art dashed off a series of portraits in the styles of numerous deceased masters, some in a matter of seconds. He witnessed some of the country’s unorthodox healers at work, and saw them open bodies with their bare hands, eventually finding out for himself how it feels to be on the receiving end of this most bizarre form of alternative surgery.

He also looked into some of the best known cases from the past, collecting new eye-witness evidence for the mysterious abilities of such legendary figures as Arigó, the ‘surgeon of the rusty knife’, colourful and controversial mediums such as Carlos Mirabelli, Peixotinho and Otilia Diogo. He even obtained an account of the rarest of all psychic phenomena – materialisation – from a chief of police.

The Flying Cow was followed by its sequel The Indefinite Boundary in 1976. Material from the latter has been included in this edition, making it the most comprehensive survey available of the paranormal world of Brazil.

The author gave up a secure and lucrative career as freelance journalist and translator to explore that world, and in this book, fully revised and updated, he describes what he found there. Much of it is as surprising today as it was when it was first published.

GUY LYON PLAYFAIR was born in India and educated in England, obtaining a degree in modern languages from Cambridge University. He then spent many years in Brazil as a freelance journalist for The Economist, Time, and the Associated Press, also working for four years in the press section of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The first of his twelve books, The Flying Cow, in which he described his experiences investigating the psychic side of Brazil, was translated into six languages and became an international best seller. His most recent book is Telepathy – the Twin Connection. He now lives in London and is a council member of the Society for Psychical Research.

Haunted Wales: A Guide to Welsh Ghostlore, by Richard Holland

Haunted Wales, by Peter Underwood

More Anglesey Ghosts, by Bunty Austin

From the publishers’ websites:

Haunted Wales: A Guide to Welsh Ghostlore:  ‘More ghosts and goblins I think were prevalent in Wales than in England or any other country.’  So wrote researcher William Howells way back in 1831 – and the author of this compelling collection believes he was right. Wales is a fearfully haunted place. It abounds in castles and mansions, ancient churches, lonely lanes and crossroads, even bare mountainsides which can lay claim to a resident spook or two.  For the first time, this haunted heritage has been explored in depth. Richard Holland has carried out a careful study of original sources, delving into old books, journals, Eisteddfod transactions and unpublished essays. His research has revealed insights into Welsh folklore and resurrected ghost stories which have long been forgotten.  The ghosts of Wales are of great age, their manners and appearance hinting at beliefs older than the oldest books. They are bold and memorable, striking in appearance, forceful in character, often terrifying and sometimes even dangerous.  Prepare for a fascinating county-by-county tour of hundreds of ghostly encounters from one of the most haunted countries in the world.

Haunted Wales: A fascinating collection of ghost stories from all over Wales brought together by Peter Underwood, an acknowledged expert on the paranormal. This book covers not only more well-known hauntings but also some more recent, and highly surprising, sightings.  In his wide and varied experience Peter has handled objects which were alleged to have been moved by paranormal means and heard a recording of reportedly paranormal music. Rather more significantly he has met and talked with many, many people who have either seen or heard or even felt a ghostly presence.  Welsh folklore and daily life have long been visited by occult phenomenon. Told in chilling detail these stories will delight paranormal enthusiasts of all ages.

More Anglesey Ghosts: Bunty Austin has always been fascinated by ghosts. When she came to Anglesey (Mon) years ago, she was overwhelmed by the fund of such stories about people and places – and the matter of fact acceptance that there were such things. Being Celts, the islanders seemed to have strong psychic powers.  Collecting stories about haunted houses, lanes on which ghost sightings were a part of everyday life and old memories passed down from generation to generation, fragmented experiences became a wealth of folklore over the years.  More Anglesey Ghosts is a further selection from Bunty’s extensive collection of ghostly goings-on.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: In the silence of the night, in a remote room in a laboratory at the Institute of Physiology of the University of Naples, a small group of scientists meet to attend séances with Europe's most celebrated medium, Eusapia Palladino, a peasant woman whose mediumship has been dazzling Europe for decades. It is not the first time she has been subjected to tests, but it is the first time that she is being examined with the automated tools of orthodox scientific research, in an effort to produce an impartial and unbiased record of her activities.

As fascinating as a theatrical piece, this true life narrative has a riveting plot: scientists at the Institute of Physiology of the University of Naples, attempt to penetrate the troubling mysteries of the occult and come to grips with the phenomena of mediumship, its dynamics and possibilities.

Eight séances with the famous medium, Eusapia Palladino, are literally - sometimes humorously - described by the group's director, the distinguished Italian physiologist, Professor Filippo Bottazzi, one of the most authoritative researchers in Italy at the time.

And it is Bottazzi himself who, on the basis of the evidence obtained, proposes an explanation of the observed events based on his knowledge of physiology. All of this occurred more than a century ago, but the story remains fascinating - and relevant - to our own time.

Originally published in 1909 in Italian, this book has now been translated into English for the first time by Prof. Antonio Giuditta and Ms. Irmeli Routii.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: What are ghosts, spirits, and other apparitions? Why do they visit, and what do they want from us? Are OBEs, NDEs, and PDEs real?  Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified: Ghosts, Spirits, & Hauntings tackles these questions and more, as some of the world’s best-known paranormal experts come together in a tour de force of investigative journalism. Ghosts have been an integral part of the folklore of almost every culture; indeed, extant references to them stretch as far back as the ancient civilization of Babylon. And the evidence for their existence is mounting.

Professor of parapsychology Loyd Auerbach tells us what every ghost hunter should know about parapsychology. Noted expert on paranormal research Joshua P. Warren carefully examines some startling photographic evidence of ghosts.  Andrew Nichols, PhD, director of the American Institute of Parapsychology, discusses his theory of haunted houses, which posits hauntings as manifestations of ESP and/or psychological projection.  Raymond Buckland (Buckland’s Book of Spirit Communications) looks at ghosts as spirits and gives a take on how to talk to ghosts . . . and get a response.  Folklorist Dr. Bob Curran delves into the connection between poltergeists and human origins, and regales us with three classic cases of poltergeist activity. Journalist Nick Redfern examines cases of ancient animal ghost apparitions.  Noted folklorist Ursula Bielski gives a spooky and detailed account of the “Vanishing Hitchhiker” phenomenon.

Evidence of ghosts is everywhere—if you know what to look for. Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified: Ghosts, Spirits, & Hauntings is sure to entertain and educate.

From the publisher’s website: Ghosts Caught on Film 3 is an all-new compendium of more extraordinary phenomena caught on film. Featuring a selection of contemporary ghost pictures collected as part of a ground-breaking survey by popular psychologist, Richard Wiseman and leading Fortean, Gordon Rutter. Paranormal expert Gordon Rutter explores this intriguing collection which includes shadowy figures, strange mists and ghostly apparitions. It is a treat for all fans of ghosts and the paranormal and another opportunity to explore the unexplainable.

Gordon Rutter is a founder of the Edinburgh Fortean Society, and head of the Charles Fort Institute. He was a co-organiser of the highly successful Science of Ghosts conference in Edinburgh in 2009.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality presents a variety of perspectives by leading thinkers on contemporary research into the brain, the mind and the spirit. This volume aims at combining knowledge from neuroscience with approaches from the experiential perspective of the first person singular in order to arrive at an integrated understanding of consciousness.  Individual chapters discuss new areas of research, such as near death studies and neuroscience research into spiritual experiences, and report on significant new theoretical advances.

Contents: Neuroscience, Consciousness, Spirituality – Questions, Problems and Potential Solutions: An Introductory Essay, H. Walach; Mindfulness in East and West – is it the Same? S. Schmidt; Setting our own Terms: How we used Ritual to Become Human, M.J. Rossano; Neuroscience and Spirituality – Findings and Consequences, M. Beauregard; Consciousness: a Riddle and a Key in Neuroscience and Spirituality, D. Jeanmonod; Generalized Entanglement - A Nonreductive Option for a Phenomenologically Dualist and Ontologically Monist View, H. Walach, H. Römer; Complementarity of Phenomenal and Physiological Observables: A Primer on Generalised Quantum Theory and its Scope for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies, H. Römer, H. Walach; Hard problems in philosophy of mind and physics: Do they point to spirituality as a solution? N. von Stillfried; Brain Structure and Meditation. How Spiritual Practice Shapes the Brain, U. Ott, B.K. Hölzel & D. Vaitl; Neurophysiological correlates to psychological trait variables in experienced meditative practitioners, T. Hinterberger, et. al.; Reconsidering the Metaphysics of Science from the Inside Out, J.W. Schooler, J.N. Schooler; Mindfulness meditation: deconditioning & changing view, H. Barendregt; Endless Consciousness. A concept based on scientific studies on Near-Death Experience, P. van Lommel; The hard problem revisited: from cognitive neuroscience to Kabbalah and back again, B.L. Lancaster; Towards a Neuroscience of Spirituality, W.B. Jonas; Sufism and Rapid Wound Healing, H. Hall;  An Emerging New Model for Consciousness: The Consciousness Field Model, R.K.C. Forman