"True skepticism has nothing to do with disbelief," says Susan Blackmore. "It is about taking people's claims seriously and trying to understand them." As a starry-eyed student, Blackmore was convinced of the reality of astral planes, telepathy, and life after death. She was determined to devote her life to parapsychology, but what she found wasn't what she had bargained for. None of her cleverly devised experiments revealed a hint of the psi she was seeking. In a determined effort to find it somehow, she tested young children in play groups, trained students in imagery and altered states of consciousness, and even put Tarot cards to the test. She visited haunted houses and was regressed to a "past life." Finally, accused of being a "psi-inhibitory experimenter" with the power of abolishing paranormal effects, she visited other, more successful, experimenters. Here she found only errors in their experiments.
In this new and updated edition of The Adventures of a Parapsychologist, Blackmore is at last at liberty to explain just what she found in those ill-fated experiments at Cambridge. She brings her story up to date in a lively and personal account of one scientist's never-ending search for the paranormal.

Meet Loraine Rees, a respected medium trusted by law enforcement to help solve difficult cases. Coming from a long line of clairvoyants, she has seen spirits ever since she was a child. Her impressive abilities increased after her heart stopped during surgery. Is there LIFE AFTER DEATH? Find out from someone who has been there. Here she shares her gift to bring truth from beyond.

Do miracles really happen? What is the evidence for paranormal phenomena that demonstrate divine power, and what alternative explanations can be offered for such apparently miraculous occurrences? How does the earnest inquirer assess the conflicting evidence and reach a conclusion? These and related questions are answered in this illuminating examination of miracle claims by respected historical, paranormal, and forensic investigator Joe Nickell. Not a critique of religion but rather a careful examination of the evidence relating to specific claims of the miraculous, Looking for a Miracle investigates a panoply of strange events, powers, and objects that are at the center of the controversy between so-called miraculists and confirmed skeptics. Among the phenomena studied are "Miraculous Pictures", like the Shroud of Turin, the Edessan Image, and the Image of Guadalupe; seemingly "Magical Icons", such as weeping, bleeding, and otherwise animated paintings and statues; "Mystical Relics", including "burning handprints", the liquefying blood of St. Januarius, and ostensibly "incorruptible" corpses of saints; "Pentecostal Powers", such as speaking in tongues, the gift of prophecy, taking up serpents, and other powers and immunities; "Faith Healing", including the reported miracle cures at Lourdes and the practices of evangelists, Christian Scientists, and "psychic surgeons"; "Ecstatic Visions", like the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima and Medjugorje; and such "Sanctified Powers" as luminosity, levitation, bilocation, stigmata, inedia (the going without food); and the ability to produce objects out of thin air. Looking for a Miracle is a wide-ranging investigative study of acontroversial topic that has all too often been approached either with excessive credulity or a dismissive attitude. Religious believers and rationalist thinkers alike have much to learn from this revealing examination of the evidence for the miraculous.

Get to know healing crystals with this beginner-friendly deck. Learn about the 50 most popular healing crystals and how to use them to improve your life. Crystals have been used to improve our wellbeing through meditation, manifestation and crystal healing for millennia. The Crystals for Beginners deck is your introduction to exploring crystals and familiarizing yourself with their various properties in order to create lasting change in all areas of your life. This beautifully illustrated 50-card deck will introduce you to the most popular crystals, such as Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate and Jade. Each card features an image of a crystal along with the associated key words and properties so that you can start to identify and explore which crystals you are drawn to. Once you have learnt the basics, the cards can be turned over to delve further into the healing properties of the crystal, with a focus on either Body, Mind or Spirit. Along with the deck is a short introductory guide to essential crystal basics, how to meditate with crystals, using affirmations and exploring physical healing. Working with the Crystals for Beginners deck can help you to discover which crystals suit your needs and resonate with you most, before you start a physical crystal collection. Discover how crystals can help you focus, live a more mindful life, banish dis-ease, protect you from negativity and improve your wellbeing.

HUMANITY HAS REACHED A DANGEROUS TIPPING POINT of potential self-destruction because our technical and scientific achievements have out distanced our spiritual realization. We must develop a new understanding of who we are, centered on the realization of oneness with all of creation. This realization can only be achieved by the combination and integration of rational logical thinking and mystical internal awareness.

Humanity has now reached the point where the two separate understandings of reality must be combined into a holistic understanding of existence. "Peace Is Oneness" addresses the dangers of accepting the separation that results from our egos, along with the ways that separation can be healed. Both science and evolutionary religion define the same reality. We must awaken from our dream state of separate selves and realize the oneness that is our true self of unconditional love.

Western culture has largely lost most of its connection to myth because of the dominance of material science. We have what the ancient Greeks called logos, but we have lost what they called mythos. This is about to change, as science and religion begin to define reality in the same way. Will it happen quickly enough to save us from our own self destruction? Your individual consciousness is essential in determining the outcome.

The Hundredth Monkey takes its title from philosopher Ron Amundson's expose of the "Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon," a claim about collective consciousness. Forty-three essays by thirty-nine authors, including Isaac Asmov, Martin Gardner, Carl Sagan, Ray Hyman, Paul Kurtz, and James Randi, examine aspects of paranormal and fringe-science beliefs from an authoritative, scientific point of view. The penetrating and entertaining essays, many with timely postscripts, are grouped into nine categories: - Understanding Human Need - Examining Popular Claims - Encouraging Critical Thinking - Medical Controversies - Evaluating the Anomalous Experience - Astrology - Considering Parapsychology - Crashed Saucer Claims - Controversies Within Science Scientists and scholars discuss the burden of skepticism and the delicate balance between a creative openness to new ideas and the relentless scrutiny of new claims. A classic source book for scientifically responsible explanations of controversies, hoaxes, bizarre mysteries, and popular cultural myths.

Gerald A. Larue examines the scriptural underpinnings of occult and supernaturalistic notions that survive in contemporary society. The book is based on the author's thorough knowledge of the history of ancient Near-Eastern cultures and their mythology.

This book paints a clear picture of what hypnosis is and is not, what it can and cannot accomplish, and how it can be misused and abused. Baker describes its potential for preventing or arresting pain and outlines future directions for the role of suggestion in the clinic and the laboratory. This engrossing, factual book is a definitive study of hypnosis that illuminates this very unique aspect of creative human behaviour.

Is there more to our existence than modern science can measure? For more than a hundred years, parapsychology - the scientific study of paranormal phenomena - has tried to find the answer to this question. Psychologist James E Alcock presents a critical evaluation of parapsychological research and reviews the current status of the evidence.

For centuries both primitive and sophisticated societies have been spellbound by persons who claim to have 'psychic' power. Those who present a case for the existence of extrasensory perception (ESP) - mediums, spiritualists, telepaths, clairvoyants, psychokinetics, and others - insist that their unique abilities stand outside the realm of conventional scientific evaluation; that parapsychology offers new hope for understanding the richness and diversity of the human mind and its relationship to the world. In fact, much has been done in recent years in an attempt to convince the scientific community that such phenomena are legitimate and credible. What challenges do these parapsychological claims pose to science? What support is given for the existence of these phenomena? Have the advocates of ESP established their case? In this revised and updated edition of his powerful volume "ESP and Parapsychology: A Re-evaluation", C.E.M. Hansel, one of the first internationally known scholars to evaluate the evidence for ESP, returns once more to the trenches to reassess, rethink, and reconsider some of the major battlefields of this ongoing debate. Undaunted by persistent claims for newly discovered psychical energies and capacities, Hansel remains dedicated to the view that if ESP is to be scientifically established there must be demonstrable proof in the form of replicable experiments. This fascinating volume recounts the scientific community's efforts to provide, test, and analyze such evidence, while at the same time seeking to expose the confusion, trickery, and deception that has permeated the search for psychic power.

"In Karma, Mind, and Quest for Happiness," Dr. Susmit Kumar seeks to explain certain facts of Tantric philosophy, such as the constituent parts of the mind, the effect of mantra on the mind, and how karma may be scientifically defined and explained.

Until recently, people considered units of time and distance in terms of 100-200 years and 100-200 miles; astronomers now measure time and distance in billions of years and trillions of miles. Even so, science can study the scientific laws of only 4 percent of the materials in the universe, as it cannot "see" the remaining 96 percent, referred to as "dark matter" and "dark energy."

Great individuals-such as Christ, Buddha, Moses, Prophet Muhammad, and Krishna-knew something about the workings of the Universe that is not common knowledge; this is why we claim their actions to be miracles or religious dogma.

Furthermore, during the last 10,000 years, many saints in Asia have explored the human mind and its relationship with the Infinite. Most of them did it after first having established the limitations of physical pleasure and intellectual knowledge. When they started to explore the functioning of their minds and how everything around them was created, they developed a theory called Tantra.

"In Karma, Mind, and Quest for Happiness," Dr. Kumar will explore how Tantra is free from the distorting influences of time and place.