This book provides a detailed, state-of-the-art overview of key observational and theoretical aspects of the rapidly developing and highly interdisciplinary field of exoplanet science, as viewed through the lenses of eight world-class experts. It equips readers with a broad understanding of the complex processes driving the formation and the physical and dynamical evolution of planetary systems. It juxtaposes theoretical modeling with the host of techniques that are unveiling the exceptional variety of observed properties of close-in and wide-separation extrasolar planets. By effectively linking ingenious interpretative analyses to the main factors shaping planetary populations, the book ultimately provides the most coherent picture to date of the demographics of exoplanetary systems. It is an essential reference for Ph.D. students and early-stage career researchers, while the scope and depth of its source material also provide excellent cues for graduate-level courses.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a renowned expert on paranormal, visionary, and spiritual topics. She puts her expertise to use in this guide to the scariest sites in the Keystone State. Each destination includes a detailed description and photographs so readers may test their own ghosthunting skills or visit from the safety of their armchairs. Firsthand accounts of otherworldly encounters bring the spooks into view, while a Ghostly Resources section points ghosthunters to further information.

Nashville Haunted Handbook is the second book in the new Haunted Handbook line within the popular America's Haunted Road Trip series. The Haunted Handbooks are city-specific travel guides to nearly one hundred places within a major city. Each of the places in Nashville Haunted Handbook is presented in a two-page spread that includes directions, a brief history, details about how the place is haunted, and advice on visiting the place. Each spread also includes one or two photos. The places are organized into sections, including schoolhouses, roads and bridges, hotels and inns, and others. Nashville Haunted Handbook is written with the ghost enthusiast in mind. All 100 chapters contain information on the history as well as the haunting surrounding each location, as well as detailed directions on how to locate each site. Many of the chapters also contain insider information that only a local would know, making it easier for ghost hunters to investigate.

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.

The American Revolution is stained with blood and its ghosts are still lurking in the shadows seeking postmortem revenge. Come explore the haunts associated with the colonial rebel's fight for independence, from an aura of disaster lingering from the "shot heard round the world" in Concord, Massachusetts to the battle cries of our forefathers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Using a paranormal lens, Baltrusis breathes new life into the ghosts of the American Revolution that include both unknown patriots and familiar names.

As long as people have lived, they have longed for wisdom and comfort from those who have died. In The Book of Seances, artist, author, and witch Claire Goodchild takes readers on a journey through the historical landscape of spiritualism and guides questers through safe practices for cultivating a connection with the other side. The Book of Seances details the four types of spiritual encounters, teaches us how to protect ourselves, and breaks down the different tools -- from spirit boards and tarot to dominoes and charms -- that are essential for opening a bridge to the afterlife. Whether conducting solitary or group seances, this book offers a way to safely glimpse beyond the veil. Through her evocative writing and singular art, Claire provides a comprehensive history of the seance, alongside an immersive guide to accessing and communing with the spirit world. The Book of Seances provides hauntingly lovely signposts into our own personal mythology as revealed through our conscious and unconscious lives.

***A Best Book of the Year in HARPER'S BAZAAR, BBC, THE NEW YORKER, GLAMOUR, GAL-DEM and HUFFPOST*** 'Witty and thought-provoking' Stylist 'Blistering' Glamour 'Unusual, original and strikingly contemporary' Guardian 'Absolutely brilliant' Ruth Ozeki 'A gripping contemporary fable about embracing difference' The Times 'A wholly 21st century take on bloodsucking' Observer Lydia is hungry. She's always wanted to try sashimi and ramen, onigiri and udon - the food her Japanese father liked to eat - but the only thing she can digest is blood. Yet Lydia can't bring herself to prey on humans, and sourcing fresh pigs' blood in London - where she is living away from her Malaysian-British mother for the first time and trying to build a career as an artist - is much more difficult than she'd anticipated. If Lydia is to find a way to exist in the world, she must reconcile the conflicts within her - between her demon and human sides, her mixed ethnic heritage and her relationship with food, and, in turn, humans. Before any of this, however, she must eat. 'It's Kohda's exploration of Lydia's inner world, the pain and longing she feels as an outsider, that makes Woman, Eating such a delicious novel' New York Times Book Review 'A profound meditation on alienation and appetite, and what it means to be a young woman who experiences life at an acute level of intensity and awareness' LISA HARDING 'What Stoker did for the vampire at the end of the nineteenth century, Claire Kohda does for for it in our own era' TLS

Monsters are culturally meaningful across the world. Starting from this key premise, this book tackles monsters in the context of social change. Writing in a time of violent upheaval, when technological innovation brings forth new monsters while others perish as part of the widespread extinctions that signify the Anthropocene, contributors argue that putting monsters at the center of social analysis opens up new perspectives on change and social transformation. Through a series of ethnographically grounded analyses they capture monsters that herald, drive, experience, enjoy, and suffer the transformations of the worlds they beleaguer. Topics examined include the evil skulking new roads in Ancient Greece, terror in post-socialist Laos's territorial cults, a horrific flying head that augurs catastrophe in the rain forest of Borneo, benign spirits that accompany people through the mist in Iceland, flesh-eating giants marching through neo-colonial central Australia, and ghosts lingering in Pacific villages in the aftermath of environmental disasters. By taking the proposition that monsters and the humans they haunt are intricately and intimately entangled seriously, this book offers unique, cross-cultural perspectives on how people perceive the world and their place within it. It also shows how these experiences of belonging are mediated by our relationships with the other-than-human.

This is an intelligent and insightful journey into the shadowy world of the 'man-beast' and whether they truly exist...If legend, and eyewitness accounts are to be believed, since ancient times we have shared our planet with various 'man-beasts'. From the Abominable Snowman to Zombies, these creatures have managed to both terrify and enthrall us in equal measure. Does the enduring fascination in movies and literature with vampires and werewolves have any basis in reality? Does Bigfoot really exist as an endangered species? Are aliens really abducting people? Are they real creatures or only expressions of our very human hopes and fears? In "Tracking the Man-Beasts", veteran paranormal investigator Joe Nickell explores the historical, geographical, and cultural reaches of various 'manimals' and other humanoid entities, bringing folkloric and iconographic evidence to bear on a category of mystery as old as humanity.

Uncover thrilling paranormal tales of Gold Rush ghosts, haunted hotels, shipwrecks, giant squid attacks, disappeared Russian explorers, a vanished bear hunter, Sasquatch, Kushtaka, and so much more. A collection of twenty stories showcasing the supernatural legends and unsolved mysteries of Southeast Alaska, with a focus on the region between Yakutat and Petersburg, where the author has lived his entire life, writing, teaching, guiding, commercial fishing, and investigating ghost stories. Each chapter is rooted in Bjorn’s own adventures and will intertwine fascinating history, interviews, and his reflections. Bjorn’s writing, sometimes poignant and often wickedly funny, brings to mind Hunter S. Thompson and Patrick McManus. Chapters touch on legends such as Alexander Baranov, Soapy Smith, James Wickersham, and the Kóoshdaa Káa (Kushtaka) to lesser known but fascinating characters like “Naked” Joe Knowles and purported serial killer Ed Krause. From duplicitous if not downright diabolical humans to demons of the fjords and deep seas and cryptids of the forest, Bjorn Dihle presents a lively cross-section of the haunter and the haunted found in Alaska’s Inside Passage.

Uncover thrilling paranormal tales of Gold Rush ghosts, haunted hotels, shipwrecks, giant squid attacks, disappeared Russian explorers, a vanished bear hunter, Sasquatch, Kushtaka, and so much more. A collection of twenty stories showcasing the supernatural legends and unsolved mysteries of Southeast Alaska, with a focus on the region between Yakutat and Petersburg, where the author has lived his entire life, writing, teaching, guiding, commercial fishing, and investigating ghost stories. Each chapter is rooted in Bjorn’s own adventures and will intertwine fascinating history, interviews, and his reflections. Bjorn’s writing, sometimes poignant and often wickedly funny, brings to mind Hunter S. Thompson and Patrick McManus. Chapters touch on legends such as Alexander Baranov, Soapy Smith, James Wickersham, and the Kóoshdaa Káa (Kushtaka) to lesser known but fascinating characters like “Naked” Joe Knowles and purported serial killer Ed Krause. From duplicitous if not downright diabolical humans to demons of the fjords and deep seas and cryptids of the forest, Bjorn Dihle presents a lively cross-section of the haunter and the haunted found in Alaska’s Inside Passage.

This extraordinary collection of essays is the first to approach the phenomenon of spirit possession among Jews from a multidisciplinary perspective. What beliefs have Jews held about spirit possession? Have Jewish people believed themselves to be possessed by spirits? If so, what sorts of spirits were they? Have Jews' conceptions of possession been the same as those of their Christian and Muslim neighbors? These are some of the questions addressed in these thirteen essays, which together explore spirit possession in a wide range of temporal and geographic contexts.

The phenomena known as spirit possession are both very widespread and very difficult to explain. The late Raphael Patai initiated study of spirit possession as found in the Jewish world in the post-Talmudic period by taking a folkloric and anthropological approach to the subject. Other scholars have opened up new avenues of inquiry through discussions of the topic in connection with Jewish mystical and magical traditions. The essays in this collection expand the variety of approaches to the subject, addressing Jewish possession phenomena from the points of view of religion, mysticism, literature, anthropology, psychology, history, and folklore. Scholarly views and popular traditions, benevolent spirits and malevolent shades, exorcism, social control, messianic implications, madness, literary structure, and a host of other topics are brought into the discussion of spirit possession in Jewish culture. This juxtaposition of approaches among the essays in this volume, some of which analyze the same texts in different ways, creates a broad foundation on which to contemplate the meaning of spirit possession.

This book is about the varied life experiences of Geoffrey Ralph Wood born in rural Hertfordshire UK in 1926. Each chapter is complete in itself recounting a time period or theme. There is a rich mix of romance, grief, humour, hope and faith. He received no formal schooling from before the age of eleven but had the confidence to make life work whatever the obstacle. A simple quiet faith exploded into a vibrant spirituality by an out-of-this-world visionary experience at the age of sixty-six, which is the climax of Geoff's story. Geoff was the youngest child of four born into a farming community. Life was tragically disrupted aged four, when his parent's marriage ended. The family, of two boys and two girls, was divided and he moved with his mother and eldest sister to urban Newport S Wales. There were many changes of address. Farm life - horses - romance - employment situations - comic episodes - air-raids and three impressionable years in the army are remembered. In midlife his life totally collapsed; he lost his wife, home and employment. But he fought back with a natural faith and sense of optimism to rebuild his life in a brand new beginning. No children came but in 1993 aged sixty-six years old, after moving from N Wales to N Shropshire, he had a fantastic unsought for visionary experience that wonderfully and totally changed his life. Prior to this he had no religious background. He retired with his second wife Dorothy to Ellesmere Shropshire. This book is written to inspire hope and faith, with much human interest and a laugh or two

Este libro es el resultado de mas de dos d cadas de profunda investigaci n sobre el misterio que encierran esas naves no identificadas llamadas OVNIS que han surcado los cielos en todas partes del mundo, estando presentes desde tiempo inmemorial en la historia de la humanidad. Testimonios y experiencias con seres de otros planetas, muchas de ellas tr gicas y aterradoras, vividas por personas que han confiado en la seriedad, profesionalismo y discreci n del autor, las comparten aqu por primera vez sin importarles ser catalogados como personas fantasiosas o con alg n mal mental. Roswell, Nuevo M xico, La Zona del Silencio, Chichen-Itz, el rea 51 en Nevada, El Pinacate Zona Volc nica entre Arizona y Sonora, son algunos de los muchos lugares que el autor, Miembro Activo y Field Investigator de MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) a visitado para obtener informaci n de primera mano... Rafael Sanchez Navarro es el autor de una teor a expuesta y explicada en forma sencilla aqu en este libro, teor a que esta siendo muy bien acogida en el mundo cient fico. El Embudo de la Energ a Pulsante, teor a que de comprobarse, explicar a el misterio que rodea La Zona del Silencio, ubicada al Norte de M xico. En este trabajo posiblemente encuentres las respuestas a todo aquello que quiz?'s alguna vez te dijeron que era solo "fantas a."

Hardcover collector's editions of all 7 volumes of the Earth Chronicles Series in a display slipcase
- Includes "The 12th Planet," "The Stairway to Heaven," "The Wars of Gods and Men," "The Lost Realms," "When Time Began," "The Cosmic Code," and "The End of Days"
- The culmination of Sitchin's 30 years of intensive research offering indisputable documentary proof of humanity's extraterrestrial forefathers
The Earth Chronicles series, with millions of copies sold worldwide, represents the culmination of Zecharia Sitchin's 30 years of intensive research into the history and prehistory of Earth and humankind as recorded by the ancient civilizations of the Near East. Within these volumes, Sitchin--one of the few scholars able to read and interpret ancient Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets--presents indisputable millennia-old proof of humanity's extraterrestrial forefathers, the Anunnaki, who visited Earth every 3,600 years from their home planet Nibiru.
This boxed set of hardcover collector's editions with enhanced maps and diagrams includes all 7 volumes of the Earth Chronicles series: "The 12th Planet," "The Stairway to Heaven," "The Wars of Gods and Men," "The Lost Realms," "When Time Began," "The Cosmic Code," and "The End of Days."

The present book by Hu Baozhu explores the subject of ghosts and spirits and attempts to map the religious landscape of ancient China. The main focus of attention is the character gui , an essential key to the understanding of spiritual beings. The author analyses the character gui in various materials - lexicons and dictionaries, excavated manuscripts and inscriptions, and received classical texts. Gui is examined from the perspective of its linguistic root, literary interpretation, ritual practices, sociopolitical implication, and cosmological thinking. In the gradual process of coming to know the otherworld in terms of ghosts and spirits, Chinese people in ancient times attempted to identify and classify these spiritual entities. In their philosophical thinking, they connected the subject of gui with the movement of the universe. Thus the belief in ghosts and spirits in ancient China appeared to be a moral standard for all, not only providing a room for individual religiosity but also implementing the purpose of family-oriented social order, the legitimization of political operations, and the understanding of the way of Heaven and Earth.

A terrified child is locked in the wardrobe by her mother. She is gripped with fear and is too frightened to cry. Her mother is shouting profanities at her through the door and then suddenly everything becomes still and quiet and she hears a gentle voice telling her that everthing will be alright Colours start to fill the wardrobe and the child begins to smile as she begins to remember. Read the the compelling true story of a childs' survival of abuse at the hands of her mother, and how the spirit world stepped in to save her life.