Foggy London is one of the most haunted cities in the world, with blood, death, intrigue, and many ghosts tainting its colorful history. Read about the tortured soul Margaret of Salisbury, a pawn of kings, who now wanders the Tower of London; voices of drowning Jews on the River Thames; and the She Wolf who clutches the silver casket of Edward II. Read how Anne Boleyn's ghost frightens those brave enough to frequent the room where she spent her last night. Consider the legend of the degenerate law student who may not have learned his lesson or the miserly ferryman who learned his very well. Reflect on Sir Francis Drake and his warning drum as you tour haunted buildings, parks, and churches with an artful storyteller.

The possibility that humans are not alone in the Universe and might in the future come in close contact with other intelligences is one of the most intriguing questions of human history and has deep implications for our understanding of the Universe and ourselves. In this book the subject is dealt with in an interdisciplinary way, giving the scientific and technological implications, discussing the philosophical and religious connotations and rebuffing the pseudo-scientific statements. Based on our current scientific understanding of the Universe, the possibility of extraterrestrial life is discussed, summarizing cosmic, chemical and biological evolution. What we now know of the Universe suggests that life is common and extraterrestrial intelligent life is a possibility. The problem of searching for extraterrestrial intelligent beings is often reduced to radio telescope technology or the possibility of decoding a possible message. In many cases the idea of ETIs is loaded with anthropomorphism. The author discusses problems such as: what is intelligence? What is consciousness? Should we expect ETIs to be conscious beings and other philosophical issues? also examined and the possibilities of true contact with other intelligent beings are considered. At the heart of this book is an examination of the viability of future astronautics which would enable closer human contact with ETI than through radio messages taking thousands of years to reach their destination. The possibility of faster-than-light space travel is considered. The book addresses readers with an interest in general science, but also those with a humanist background, interested in the great philosophical debate about human nature, in particular the question of whether there is other intelligent life in the Universe, and the author counterbalances recent theories such as 'rare earth'.

Drawing from social theory and the anthropology of religion, this book explores popular media’s fascination with dreams, vampires, demons, ghosts and spirits. Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts does so in the light of contemporary animist studies of societies in which other-than-human persons are not merely a source of entertainment, but a lived social reality. Films and television programs explored include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twin Peaks, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Truly Madly Deeply and the films of Hitchcock. Louise Child draws attention to how they both depict and challenge ideas and practices rooted in psychology, while quality television has also facilitated a wave of programming that can explore the interaction of characters in complex social worlds over time. In addition to drawing on theories of film from Freudian psychology and feminist theory, Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts uses approaches derived from a combination of Jungian film studies and anthropology that offer fresh insights for exploring film and television. This book draws attention to explicit and subtle ways in which cinematic narratives engage with myth and religion while at the same time exploring collective dimensions to social and personal life. It advances new developments in genre studies and gender as well as contributing to the growing field of implicit religion using in-depth analyses of communicative dreaming, the shadow, and mystical lovers in film and television.

This book describes the haunting of eighteenth-century England. It is the first in-depth study of the production, circulation and consumption of English ghost stories during the Age of Reason. This period saw the establishment of the ghost story as a literary genre. Handley combines close textual analysis with a broad conception of historical change. She examines a variety of mediums: ballads and chapbooks, newspapers, sermons, medical treatises and scientific journals, novels and plays. She relates the telling of ghost stories to wider changes associated with the Enlightenment, arguing that they played a key role in battles against atheism, republicanism, material excess and secularisation.

In this third book beckoning readers to search for historic lost loot, journey to New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania to learn about Native American villages, lost mines, pirate booty, ghosts, curses, monsters, dangers, and more. Learn about the connection between the infamous Jersey Devil monster and Captain Kidd - both are said to guard a pirate treasure! Discover precious and rare gems in New York, and look up to see what has been flying through the Pennsylvania skies, a sentry of a golden treasure since prehistoric times. There may be military artifacts to discover, but one may also see the soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice still roaming the battlefields. Take the journey to find the loot, but always walk into the adventure with both eyes wide open!

In June 2021, U.S. National Intelligence publicly admitted that UFOs are real physical objects and that they have been penetrating restricted military airspace since at least 2004. Despite this bombshell and further recent admissions by the Pentagon, the identity of these mysterious craft remains unknown. This book brings the full scientific method to bear on this enigmatic issue. Written by Daniel Coumbe, a former research scientist at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen with a PhD in theoretical particle physics, this book defines one of the first scientifically credible studies of UFOs in the modern era. Anomaly reveals new results derived from radar, optical sensors, and scientific instruments, rather than speculating on unreliable eyewitness testimony. This scientific approach provides the reader with clear and reliable answers, something that is desperately needed in the murky field of UFOs.

Tour of one of the most haunted landscapes in the United States. Walk the halls of the chilling Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, a place that gave even Stephen King the creeps. Explore legends of Doc Holiday at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs and visit his grave to see his ghost. Learn about "unsinkable" Molly Brown's haunted home in Denver, and read ghost stories that have haunted the Colorado Rockies for centuries. These places and more will chill you to the bone!

Nevada has been a UFO hotspot for more than 100 years. In this first book to ever present a comprehensive history of extraterrestrial encounters in the Silver State, you will find a dazzling array of sightings, landings, face-to-face encounters, abductions, and even UFO crash/retrievals arranged by decades. With eighty-four percent of the state owned by the Federal Government (more than any other state) Nevada s military bases have been deluged by sightings. UFOs hovering in the heart of Las Vegas, dramatic UFO-car chases in the remote Nevada deserts, cases of aliens walking among us they re all here, and more. Read about Truman Betherum, who had a series of encounters with friendly humanoids, and country singer Johnny Sands, who had a face-to-face visitation with strange ETs in the desert outside Las Vegas. Find out about the 1962 UFO crash over Las Vegas and what really is going on inside the super-secret Area 51. The truth is so strange, it will be difficult to accept."

Using occultism to understand the paranormal sounds like diluting water or burying earth, but in this thoughtful and unusual book Duncan Barford draws on a deep familiarity with modern magick to provide a valuable toolbox of concepts for exploring the relationship between consciousness and the paranormal. Writing in an accessible and humorous style, Barford examines intriguing first-hand accounts of poltergeists, telepathy, communication with the dead, religious phenomena and astral projection. The essence of his unique exploration is that the paranormal does not happen only to special people and on rare occasions. In fact, to experience the paranormal we need simply turn our attention to the nature of our consciousness itself.

2015 Best Book Award from the Communal Studies Association The captivating story of the people of Heaven's Gate, a religious group focused on transcending humanity and the Earth, and seeking salvation in the literal heavens on board a UFO In March 1997, thirty-nine people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, ritually terminated their lives. To outsiders, it was a mass suicide. To insiders, it was a graduation. This act was the culmination of over two decades of spiritual and social development for the members of Heaven's Gate. In this fascinating overview, Benjamin Zeller not only explores the question of why the members of Heaven's Gate committed ritual suicides, but interrogates the origin and evolution of the religion, its appeal, and its practices. By tracking the development of the history, social structure, and worldview of Heaven's Gate, Zeller draws out the ways in which the movement was both a reflection and a microcosm of larger American culture. The group emerged out of engagement with Evangelical Christianity, the New Age movement, science fiction and UFOs, and conspiracy theories, and it evolved in response to the religious quests of baby boomers, new religions of the counterculture, and the narcissistic pessimism of the 1990s. Thus, Heaven's Gate not only reflects the context of its environment, but also reveals how those forces interacted in the form of a single religious body. In the only book-length study of Heaven's Gate, Zeller traces the roots of the movement, examines its beliefs and practices, and tells the captivating story of its people.

A ghost's work is never done in Cleveland, Ohio. Within these pages abide tall tales and myths, documented reports, and weird stories of the unspeakable. Learn about Melonheads, Gore Orphanage, and the curse of the Franklin Castle. Visit a ghost that stops a train (repeatedly), a phantom black dog that sinks ships, and a bloody, clutching hand that terrorizes a family. For the skeptic, the seeker, the storyteller, and the weekend spook-hunter, learn why the Best things in death are right here in Cleveland.

Journey through New Englands darkest places and read 22 of its scariest stories and urban legends. Explore mysterious cryptids like the Dover Demon, Pigman, the Sea Serpent of Gloucester, the Dublin Lake Monster, and the Derry Fairy. Meet Champ, the legendary lake monster of Lake Champlain, and a fisherman who found himself thirty feet from the beast. See the grave of Midnight Mary and the Desert of Maine, and judge for yourself if their curses are real. Try to walk with the Leather Man and wonder why he chooses to walk alone. Visit The House of the Seven Gables and The Shunned House, both famous in literature, and learn of ghosts that still linger there. Cross Emilys Bridge in Vermont, creep over the alleged vampire Mercy Browns grave in Rhode Island, and more. New England promises to scare you!

Honourable mention for The American Folklore Society's Wayland D. Hand Prize for outstanding book combining historical and folkloristic methods and materials. Runner up for The Folklore Society's 2022 Katherine Briggs Award for most distinguished contribution to folklore studies. The little-studied and once much-feared boggart is a supernatural being from the north of England. Against the odds it survives today, both in place-names and in fantasy literature-not least the Harry Potter universe. This book pioneers two methods for collecting boggart folklore: first, the use of hundreds of thousands of words on the boggart from newly digitized ephemera; second, about 1,100 contemporary boggart memories from social media surveys and personal interviews relating to the interwar and postwar years. Combining this new data with an interdisciplinary approach involving dialectology, folklore, Victorian history, supernatural history, oral history, place-name studies and sociology, it is possible to reconstruct boggart beliefs, experiences and tales. The boggart was not, as we have been led to believe, a 'goblin'. Rather, 'boggart' was a much more general term encompassing all solitary supernatural beings, from killer mermaids to headless phantoms, from black dogs to shape-changing ghouls. The author shows how in the same period that such beliefs were dying out, folklorists continually misrepresented the boggart, and explores how the modern fantasy boggart was born of these misrepresentations. As well as offering a fresh reading of associated traditions, The Boggart demonstrates some of the ways in which recent advances in digitization can offer rich rewards.

On this leg of the journey, readers will explore the scariest spots in the Big Apple. Author L'Aura Hladik visits more than 30 legendary haunted places, all of which are open to the public so visitors can test their own ghosthunting skills, if they dare. Join L'Aura as she visits each site, snooping around eerie rooms and dark corners, talking to people who swear to their paranormal experiences, and providing a firsthand account. Readers may enjoy "Ghosthunting New York City" from the safety of an armchair or by hitting the road and using the maps to find 50 more spooky sites and "ghostly resources." Take the A(HRT) Train to the spookiest subway ride of your life.

Things that go bump in the night, disembodied voices, footsteps in an empty stairwell, an icy hand on your shoulder ... let your imagination run wild as you read about the Old West's most extraordinary apparitions, sinister spooks, and bizarre beasts. You may know of the famous and well-documented Alamo, but perhaps you haven't heard about: -The Mamie R. Mine, plagued by Tommyknockers who beckon miners into danger by mimicking the screams of children; -The Mizpah Hotel, where a murdered seductress whispers in the ears of male patrons and leaves pearls to those she visits; and -Yuma Territorial Prison, one of the most inhospitable prisons in US history where over a hundred inmates had perished--some by their own hand.

Long after the U of M football game is over and the last beer, latte, or veggie burger has been served at the local eatery or brewery, Ann Arbor is still lively. But by whom? Sightings of ghosts and the sounds of disembodied voices and phantom footsteps, have been reported by professors, storeowners, musicians, and more. Tour the fascinating, bizarre, and even the humorous side of ghost hunting in this unique and historic section of Michigan. For anyone who is a curious skeptic, a fan of true eerie encounters, or enjoys learning about the histories and mysteries of Washtenaw and Livingston counties. Prepare to be scared!

Since 1968's "Night of the Living Dead," zombie culture has steadily limped and clawed its way into the center of popular culture. Today, zombies and vampires have taken over TV shows, comic books, cartoons, video games, and movies. "Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy" drags the theories of famous philosophers like Socrates and Descartes into the territory of the undead, exploring questions like: Why do vampires and vegetarians share a similar worldview? Why is understanding zombies the key to health care reform? And what does "healthy in mind and body" mean for vampires and zombies? Answers to these questions and more await readers brave enough to make this fun, philosophical foray into the undead.

The spectre of the UFO, as popularised by shows such as The X-Files, has brought an astonishing slant to the face of modern religious practice. But what motivates the fantastical and sometimes sinister beliefs of UFO worshippers? UFO Religions critically examines some of the fascinating issues surrounding UFO worship - abduction narratives, UFO-based interpretations of other religions, the growth of pseudo-sciences purporting to explain UFOs, and the responses of the core scientific community to such claims. Focusing on contemporary global UFO groups including the Raelian Movement, Heaven's Gate, Unarius and the Ansaaru Allah Community, it gives a clear profile of modern UFO controversies and beliefs.

Based on fieldwork in the north Indian state of Rajasthan, this book focuses on supernatural affliction - illness and misfortune ascribed to demonic spirits or ghosts and to other mystical agents, such as sorcerers and witches. The study augments and extends the existing scholarship on a range of issues, including inter alia beliefs about spirit possession, sorcery, witchcraft and the evil eye. The themes of ritual practice, especially exorcism or healing ceremonies, Hindu priests and curers, popular Hinduism and pilgrimage are discussed, and the anthropology of South Asia is explored with an emphasis on medical anthropology and Indian ethnomedicine. At a theoretical level, the book sharply contrasts with much of the literature on spirit possession or on supernatural affliction and its treatment, as the author's phenomenological orientation involves movement away from psychological or psychiatric paradigms as well as from other forms of Western rationalism that have tended to dominate scholarly work. The book thus offers fresh insights, both in terms of understanding supernatural malaise and its treatment, and in terms of the application of the approach the author engages.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203222539

Join Dolores Cannon, and go exploring! Join Dolores on a voyage through time and space into the world of the strange and unusual and unfathomable, as hypnotherapist Dolores Cannon's "Convoluted Universe" series continues. Suspend belief as Dolores explores worlds and dimensions where dreams become reality and reality is only a dream. Readers should open their minds to a myriad of possibilities that have previously only dwelt in the imagination. The book includes more mind-bending concepts for those with open minds and eager curiosities.

Explore the Main Line in Pennsylvania where there are a multitude of haunted locations! Find out what lurks in the lagoon at Westminster Cemetery. Meet the ghosts of Harriton House and specters that haunt the General Wayne Inn. Walk the haunted halls of higher learning at Bryn Mawr College. And don't be surprised if you find a ghost as you travel from one place to another along the Main Line suburban area. From haunted mansions to apartment buildings, Philly's Main Line Haunts will chill you to the bone.

Real firsthand encounters of paranormal experiences are related straight from Minnesotas most haunted places. Visit the actively haunted Lakeview Cemetery where the Potter's Field for Shaw Hospital was born. Interact with a ghostly potato garden spirit who resides at Moon Lake. It makes rounds through the house that sits on its grave. Eavesdrop on a paranormal investigation at Union Depot, where a bodiless apparition moves between train cars. At the haunted Grand Marais home, singing star Barry Cowsill roams with other ghostly souls.Gather tips from a first-rate investigative team, the Northern Minnesota Paranormal Investigators, who will take you through some of the best ghostly hangouts in the country. Minnesota's ghosts will haunt you.

History melts into the present in the lovely Berkshire Hills OF western Massachusetts, but it is an uncomfortable present. Could it be the whispers of nearly 200 men who died in the Hoosic Tunnel or the legend of the Hessian soldier who roams the hills because he has no need to be in the grave? Could it be folklore telling of a gentlman burgular whose decision not to rob became more important than who he robbed? And will you choose truth or fiction as you encounter the killer lion instincts of Victoria and Sappho, the animal show lions?