Rather than providing a dictionary of superstitions, of which there are already numerous excellent, exhaustive and, in many cases, academic works which list superstitions from A to Z, Bainton gives us an entertaining flight over the terrain, landing from time to time in more thought-provoking areas. He offers an overview of humanity's often illogical and irrational persistence in seeking good luck and avoiding misfortune. While Steve Roud's two excellent books - The Penguin Dictionary of Superstitions and his Pocket Guide - and Philippa Waring's 1970 Dictionary concentrate on the British Isles, Bainton casts his net much wider. There are many origins which warrant the full back story, such as Friday the thirteenth and the Knights Templar, or the demonisation of the domestic cat resulting in 'cat holocausts' throughout Europe led by the Popes and the Inquisition. The whole is presented as a comprehensive, entertaining narrative flow, though it is, of course, a book that could be dipped into, and includes a thorough bibliography. Schoenberg, who developed the twelve-tone technique in music, was a notorious triskaidekaphobe. When the title of his opera Moses und Aaron resulted in a title with thirteen letters, he renamed it Moses und Aron. He believed he would die in his seventy-sixth year (7 + 6 = 13) and he was correct; he also died on Friday the thirteenth at thirteen minutes before midnight. As Sigmund Freud wrote, 'Superstition is in large part the expectation of trouble; and a person who has harboured frequent evil wishes against others, but has been brought up to be good and has therefore repressed such wishes into the unconscious, will be especially ready to expect punishment for his unconscious wickedness in the form of trouble threatening him from without.'

Mullins presents some bare facts about the Federal Reserve System with subjects on: it IS NOT a U.S. government bank; it IS NOT controlled by Congress; it IS a privately owned Central Bank controlled by the elite financiers in their own interest. The Federal Reserve elite controls excessive interest rates, inflation, the printing of paper money, and have taken control of the depression of prosperity in the United States.

Zen Cat MindfulnessReaders of Start With Why, You Are Here and Whatever You Are, Be A Good One will love the quotes and teachings of Zen Cats Advice from Zen Leaders: Join some cuddly kittens for a collection of sayings from the Buddha in Zen Cats. Don't let the adorable cats fool you-they have plenty of mindfulness wisdom to share in the form of quotes and verses. These timeless verses, taken from the Dhammapada, will continue to be helpful and relevant to your life for years to come. Daily Mindfulness: Meditate along with these verses daily to gain a greater understanding of you, your life and your purpose. Learn from the clever cat to be true in body and mind. If you appreciated the mindfulness encouragement from Peace Is Every Step, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching and Together Is Better, you will love the quotes in Zen Cats. Let your inner Zen Cat guide you to enlightenment.

American society has changed dramatically since A Culture of Conspiracy was first published in 2001. In this revised and expanded edition, Michael Barkun delves deeper into America's conspiracy sub-culture, exploring the rise of 9/11 conspiracy theories, the "birther" controversy surrounding Barack Obama's American citizenship, and how the conspiracy landscape has changed with the rise of the Internet and other new media. What do UFO believers, Christian millennialists, and right-wing conspiracy theorists have in common? According to Michael Barkun in this fascinating yet disturbing book, quite a lot. It is well known that some Americans are obsessed with conspiracies. The Kennedy assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the 2001 terrorist attacks have all generated elaborate stories of hidden plots. What is far less known is the extent to which conspiracist worldviews have recently become linked in strange and unpredictable ways with other "fringe" notions such as a belief in UFOs, Nostradamus, and the Illuminati. Unraveling the extraordinary genealogies and permutations of these increasingly widespread ideas, Barkun shows how this web of urban legends has spread among subcultures on the Internet and through mass media, how a new style of conspiracy thinking has recently arisen, and how this phenomenon relates to larger changes in American culture. This book, written by a leading expert on the subject, is the most comprehensive and authoritative examination of contemporary American conspiracism to date. Barkun discusses a range of material-involving inner-earth caves, government black helicopters, alien abductions, secret New World Order cabals, and much more-that few realize exists in our culture. Looking closely at the manifestations of these ideas in a wide range of literature and source material from religious and political literature, to New Age and UFO publications, to popular culture phenomena such as The X-Files, and to websites, radio programs, and more, Barkun finds that America is in the throes of an unrivaled period of millenarian activity. His book underscores the importance of understanding why this phenomenon is now spreading into more mainstream segments of American culture.

They are tiny. They are tall. They are gray. They are green. They survey our world with enormous glowing eyes. To conduct their shocking experiments, they creep in at night to carry humans off to their spaceships. Yet there is no evidence that they exist at all. So how could anyone believe he or she was abducted by aliens? Or want to believe it? To answer these questions, psychologist Susan Clancy interviewed and evaluated "abductees"--old and young, male and female, religious and agnostic. She listened closely to their stories--how they struggled to explain something strange in their remembered experience, how abduction seemed plausible, and how, having suspected abduction, they began to recollect it, aided by suggestion and hypnosis. Clancy argues that abductees are sane and intelligent people who have unwittingly created vivid false memories from a toxic mix of nightmares, culturally available texts (abduction reports began only after stories of extraterrestrials appeared in films and on TV), and a powerful drive for meaning that science is unable to satisfy. For them, otherworldly terror can become a transforming, even inspiring experience. "Being abducted," writes Clancy, "may be a baptism in the new religion of this millennium." This book is not only a subtle exploration of the workings of memory, but a sensitive inquiry into the nature of belief.

The contributors to this volume argue that whilst there is a commonplace superstition conspiracy theories are examples of bad beliefs (and that the kind of people who believe conspiracy theories are typically irrational), many conspiracy theories are rational to believe: the members of the Dewey Commission were right to say that the Moscow Trials of the 1930s were a sham; Woodward and Bernstein were correct to think that Nixon was complicit in the conspiracy to deny any wrongdoing in the Watergate Hotel break in; and if we either accept the terrorist events of 9/11 were committed by Al-Qaeda, or that the Bush Administration was responsible, then it seems we are endorsing some theory about a conspiracy to commit an act of terror on American soil. As such, there is no reason to reject conspiracy theories sui generis. This volume challenges the prima facie that conspiracy theories are irrational beliefs, arguing that we should treat conspiracy theories and the phenomena of conspiracy theories seriously. It presents fresh perspectives from the wider philosophical, sociological and psychological community on what is becoming an issue of increasing relevance in our time.

From the author of Fake History, Otto English, comes a shocking yet hilarious look at ten of the greatest liars from our past, examining these previously unquestioned idols and exposing what they were trying to hide.

Was Che Guevara really a revolutionary hero? Should Mother Teresa be honoured as a saint? Is Henry V actually England's greatest king? And why does JFK's legend continue to grow?

Having exposed some of the greatest lies ever told in Fake History, journalist Otto English turns his attention to some of history's biggest (and most beloved) figures.

Whether it's virtuous leaders in just wars, martyrs sacrificing all for a cause, or innovators changing the world for the better, down the centuries supposedly great men and women have risen to become household names, saints and heroes. But just how deserving are they of their reputations?

Exploring everything from Captain Scott's reckless hunt for glory and Andy Warhol's flagrant thievery to Coco Chanel's murky Nazi past, Otto English dives into the hidden lives of some of history's most recognisable names. Scrutinising figures from the worlds of art, politics, business, religion and royalty, he brings to light the murkier truths they would rather have kept buried away, at the same time as celebrating the unsung heroes lost to time.

Fake Heroes exposes the truth of the past and helps us understand why that matters today.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE . . . Who was Jack the Ripper? Where did the Nazis stash their gold? Who are the real Men in Black? Did aliens send the 'WOW' signal? And how will the world end? 100 Things They Don't Want You to Know sets out to uncover the truth behind the world's most mysterious cover-ups and unexplained events that have been shrouded in secrecy for generations. From suspicious deaths and disappearances to enigmatic identities, from Cold War cover-ups to puzzling paranormal phenomena and from ancient artefacts to coded documents, 100 Things They Don't Want You to Know takes you on a quest to solve the greatest mysteries, strange disappearances, suspicious cover-ups and conspiracy theories. Including: Black Dahlia, the Marfa Lights, the Turin Shroud, Spontaneous Combustion, Lost Literature of the Mayan Civilisation, Disappearance of Jean Spangler, Shakespeare's True Identity, the Turin Shroud, the Easter Island Glyphs, the Death of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Mothman, The Flying Dutchman, the Secret Mission of Ruldolph Hess, the 'WOW" signal, Lewis Carroll's Lost Diaries, the Man in the Iron Mask and the Beast of Bodmin Moor.

"The enemy in washington is more to be feared than the enemy in Moscow" Communism did not destroy tariff protection created by George Washington. Communism did not force the United States to adopt graduated income tax. Communism did not create the Federal Reserve Board. Communism did not force the United Nations on America. Communism did not take away the Panama Canal away from the American people. Communism did not create the Global 2000 report mass genocide plan. It is socialism that has brought forth these evils upon the United States. "One World Order: Socialist Dictatorship" tells how this was, and is being accomplished.

Many Americans believe that their own government is guilty of shocking crimes. Government agents shot the president. They faked the moon landing. They stood by and allowed the murders of 2,400 servicemen in Hawaii. Although paranoia has been a feature of the American scene since the birth of the Republic, in Real Enemies Kathryn Olmsted shows that it was only in the twentieth century that strange and unlikely conspiracy theories became central to American politics. In particular, she posits World War I as a critical turning point and shows that as the federal bureaucracy expanded, Americans grew more fearful of the government itself-the military, the intelligence community, and even the President. Analyzing the wide-spread suspicions surrounding such events as Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, Watergate, and 9/11, Olmsted sheds light on why so many Americans believe that their government conspires against them, why more people believe these theories over time, and how real conspiracies-such as the infamous Northwoods plan-have fueled our paranoia about the governments we ourselves elect.

Zizek as comedian: jokes in the service of philosophy. "A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes."-Ludwig Wittgenstein The good news is that this book offers an entertaining but enlightening compilation of Zizekisms. Unlike any other book by Slavoj Zizek, this compact arrangement of jokes culled from his writings provides an index to certain philosophical, political, and sexual themes that preoccupy him. Zizek's Jokes contains the set-ups and punch lines-as well as the offenses and insults-that Zizek is famous for, all in less than 200 pages. So what's the bad news? There is no bad news. There's just the inimitable Slavoj Zizek, disguised as an impossibly erudite, politically incorrect uncle, beginning a sentence, "There is an old Jewish joke, loved by Derrida..." For Zizek, jokes are amusing stories that offer a shortcut to philosophical insight. He illustrates the logic of the Hegelian triad, for example, with three variations of the "Not tonight, dear, I have a headache" classic: first the wife claims a migraine; then the husband does; then the wife exclaims, "Darling, I have a terrible migraine, so let's have some sex to refresh me!" A punch line about a beer bottle provides a Lacanian lesson about one signifier. And a "truly obscene" version of the famous "aristocrats" joke has the family offering a short course in Hegelian thought rather than a display of unspeakables. Zizek's Jokes contains every joke cited, paraphrased, or narrated in Zizek's work in English (including some in unpublished manuscripts), including different versions of the same joke that make different points in different contexts. The larger point being that comedy is central to Zizek's seriousness.

A history so funny, so true, so scary, it's bound to be called a conspiracy.
"Meticulous in its research, forensic in its reasoning, robust in its argument, and often hilarious in its debunking, "Voodoo Histories" is a highly entertaining rumble with the century's major conspiracy theorists and their theories" (John Lahr).
From Pearl Harbor to 9/11 to the assassination of JFK to the Birther movement, David Aaronvitch probes and explores the major conspiracy theories (and theorists) of our time. This entertaining and enlightening conspiracy theory book-aimed to provide ammunition for those who have found themselves at the wrong end of a conversation about moon landings or the Twin Towers-examines why people believe these conspiracies, and makes an argument for a true skepticism: one based on a thorough knowledge of history and a strong dose of common sense.

Lifting The Veil Reveals the truth about Big Religion, Big Government, Big Broadcasting, Big Banks and Big Business - all run by an interlocking brotherhood. In this interview by Jon Rappoport, David Icke names names, organizations and gives detailed descriptions on the structures of control in today's world. "Most Controversial Speaker In The World" is the label frequently given David Icke as an international speaker, author and campaigner for freedom. David Icke tours the world addressing increasingly larger audiences. He is the author of nine books, including Children of the Matrix, The Biggest Secret; ."and the truth shall set you free"; Robots Rebellion; Truth Vibrations and I am Me, I Am Free. Jon Rappoport has been writing articles and books on politics and health for fifteen years. His books include The Secret Behind Secret Societies; Madalyn Murray-O'Hair; Oklahoma City Bombing: The Suppressed Truth and Aids Inc.: Scandal of the Century. Jon also hosts the contraversial interview program "The Truth About . . ." Book Size: 203 X 127

From the food we eat, the water we drink to the air we breathe, everything these days seems capable of killing us. Recently we have seen an unprecedented number of deaths due to medications for diseases that may not even exist, obscure cancers caused by our modern devices, and brutal police tactics. All a coincidence? Think again. In Population Control, acclaimed journalist Jim Marrs lays out a stunning case for his most audacious conspiracy yet: the scheme concocted by a handful of global elites to reduce the world's population to 500 million by whatever means necessary and make a profit from it. Marrs, the bestselling author of Rule by Secrecy and The Trillion Dollar Conspiracy, pulls no punches in exposing this evil and chillingly effective plan. He explains how a small group of tremendously wealthy and powerful people control virtually every important industry - guns, oil, pharmaceuticals, food, and of course the media - and how it uses this vast network of conglomerates to take actions that lead to the deaths of men and women all over the world. In the explosive Population Control, Marrs lays bare the damning truths corporate owners don't want you to discover: how they've spied on private citizens, intentionally spread disease, and destroyed the planet chasing profits, all to improve the lives of a privileged few while eliminating everyone else. Finally, he offers a citizen's blueprint for fighting back.