ESP

Although published in 1972, this book is full of information, the kind you won't find in today's Scott Cunninghams'or Yasmine Galenorns', who pack their books with spells and superstitions, things that would sell basically.
Conway's book however, delighted me when he went on indepth discussing how the Magical Method ACTUALLY WORKS: for example, he explains the power certain words carry, as over the centuries their repeated use has charged them with this power, or how certain sounds are powefull through the same method, and by pronouncing them correctly, they are imprinted onto the astral atmosphere, ( he also includes appendices in which alphabets and scripts are displayed) and the magician thus becomes a proper conductor for the energies, which are then released to do their work, as the words themselves produce a change inside the human being, as well as outside in his surroundings. Not only that but Conway goes indepth explaining the Tree of Life, the different realms that surround us, intentions, days, hours and time and their respective intentions, correspondences, symbols, planetary relationships, elements...
I am only dissapointed that this book is out of print, and has not been followed up by more books, as obviously Mr. Conway really knows his trade, and I'm sure if a subsequent book is written with the same honesty, clarity and enthusiasm for the occult, it would definitely be in my collection, as well as those who are serious about their magic.

This book is a godsend for total beginners in the field of ritual magic. Written, by a magician, for the novice, David conway is a must for any inquiring mind.

Upton Sinclair took a considerable gamble by writing this book and had to withstand a good deal of criticism as a consequence of it. It was obvious, though, that he felt this was a story that needed to be told, and we should be glad he went through with his hunch.

The book is essentially a description of a large number of experiments done in the areas of mental telepathy and remote reviewing, broken down into sets or groups of sessions. The author tends to bend over backwards to convince the public of the sincere intentions of all involved in these tests - mostly his wife, himself, his secretary, brother-in-law and several friends and associates.

The information is presented in a very frank and accessible manner, without a lot of protocol and formality, because the tests were being carried out by non-scientists who were just trying to be as diligent as possible. This in turn makes for easy reading by the layman.

Chapter 21 is a verbatim account by Sinclair's wife (whom he calls by her middle name, Craig). It is both a handbook of her methodologies and a fascinating insight into the way she theorizes the workings of the mind. This is very useful information for anyone wanting a "how to" for remote viewing or telepathic research and is a very simple sequence of instructions. Of course a great deal of practice would be necessary to achieve the necessary level of concentration required. But at least one can have a distinct roadmap to follow as opposed to a lot of vague references.

Author Upton Sinclair is ledgend. What is more complementary to the great authors saga is his soul mate and life's companion, wife Mary. A certain risk in Sinclair's time was the issue of "the occult". Even polite discussion or any association to the subject labeled it's members as outsiders or worse. So is the bravery and love that Upton and Mary Sinclair bring to the reader in enlightenment and discovery. That the "subject" of telepathy and precognitive ability is based intimatly between man and wife, it unfolds in a love story, bringing us closer to the heart and our minds deepest of mystery's. "Mental Radio" is a book of wonderment and love. The reader takes a glimpse into a couples quest to bring understanding to our lives and their discoverys. The book is justly prefaced by none other than Albert Einstien, May 23, 1930.

Initially, I was doubtful of the existence of psi phenomena. My AP Psychology course gave me the impression that there was scant data to validate the field. However, knowing Dr. Harold Puthoff, both personally and professionally, I was willing to put my doubt aside and investigate the work that he and others have conducted in parapsychology.

Although a compilation of scientific reports first published in the IEEE Symposia On The Nature Of ESP from the 1970's, what I can say for certain after reading this book is that the studies compiled by Puthoff, Targ, and Tart, not only demonstrate that an anomalous statistical phenomena is occuring, but such works, especially the Targ-Puthoff remote viewing studies, such as "A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances...," clearly dispel the flawed criticisms put forth by Ray Hyman in the National Research Council (NRC) evaluation of the CIA's 24 years in remote viewing research.

The studies conducted at Stanford Research Institute are clearly displayed, with the entire methodology presented. Counter arguements are even given towards the critiques that the studies, amazingly, continue to face from CSICOP and James Randi. And though I am member of CSICOP, this criticism through ignorance is very troubling to me.

Replications of such studies are also presented in the work of Jahn and Dunne of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory (PEAR), a group that I have recently become affiliated with. Various theories of psi are also presented in the works of Michael Persinger, Charles Tart, Helmut Schmidt and many others. After reading this book, it will be impossible to deny the existence of an anomalous statistical and possibly cognitive phenomena, without betraying one's intellectual honesty.

This book is required reading for all who are interested and willing to evaluate parapsychology from a serious, scientific point of view.

A lot of loose talk circulates about various ESP phenomena with the consequence that many do not believe they even exist. But drowned in all the loose talk is a lot of serious scientific investigation that has demonstrated the reality of some of these phenomena under controlled scientific conditions, many done under double-blind protocols.

Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, at Stanford Research Institute, probably the #2 scientific "think tank" in the U.S.A., did many of these studies beginning in the early 1970s under the sponsorship of several three-letter agencies concerned with national defense. This book is basically a reprint of many of their scientific reports, first published in the IEEE Symposia On The Nature Of Extrasensory Perception.

I found the scientific study to be much more interesting than the shallow gee-whiz stuff often found in the popular press. To give a taste of the book, I list some of the chapter titles:

2.) A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances... by Puthoff and Targ.
3.) Direct Perception of Remote Geographical Locations.
4.) Multiple Subject and Long-Distance Precognitive Remote Viewing of Geographical Locations [replicates the work of Puthoff and Targ at SRI at another institution by other investigators, validating the earlier work]
5.) EEG Correlates to Remote Light Flashes Under COnditions of Sensory Shielding

11 Chapters and a lengthy Appendix gy Robert G. Jahn who was Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University at the time he wrote it.

I highly recommend this book to those interested in these things from a scientific point of view instead of a mystical one.

Once again, Loyd Auerbach, author of the classic work "ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists" comes up with a book that is not only extremely informative, but also fun to read. He includes topics such as mental healing, psychic attack, poltergeists, and how to do PK yourself, presenting the material in a sometimes humorous, but always interesting, common sense manner. Few people writing in the field today can do so with as deft a touch.

Loyd Auerbach is probably the most sensible and knowledgeable expert in the field of parapsychology today. Any book by him is worthy of your consideration. This just happens to be the one I recommend the most. I can't say enough good things about Loyd and have been a fan of his for many years. He always seems to be on the cutting edge of the latest paranormal research.

Fantastic book! A wonderful inquiry into the ways in which we perceive our world. The different ways in which we input information is truly amazing. The author has certainly explored this subject personally and writes of her experiences very well. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to expand their mind.

Amazing visual evidence of the multipotential nature of consciousness. We are able to do a lot more with "our mental equipment" than we have yet discovered. More than just a belief system, Dr. Millay documents a lifelong pursuit of the evidence for remote viewing and telepathy. Well done.

The honesty and sincerity with which this book was written is truly captivating. What I find most interesting are the facts that have come out about Marilyn's demise that these authors found out on their own years earlier.

I have heard these authors had a second book near publication but it got withheld because they were too close to revealing the truth about other questionable deaths.

This is one book that really surpasses all when the reader finishes it. It is written through the eyes of four psychics who were "allegedly" transported back in time to August 4th and 5th 1962, the scene of the Monroe murder. The book's Forward and Preface gives the reader an informative overview in the world
of the psychics. It delves into the world of the "occult" and explains the differences between those who practice the so-called "black arts" "channeling with the "demons" (devil),
as opposed to using the practice of "channeling" friendlier "spirits. The controversial use of the "ouja"
board and meditation through "seances" are used by the
authors in this book to summon the "spirit" of a woman
who lived much earlier than "Miss Monroe" in California
who inturn was in contact with her spirit as well as
Mr. Peter Lawfords' spirit. The reader will also come
in contact through the "psychics" Monroe's former vocal instructor while she was still a struggling starlet;
"Fred Karger". They ("psychics"), also come in contact
with Monroe's mother Grace, and the spirits of JFK and RFK. Again, this book is extremely different in its content
(subject matter) than any other book that I have read
on Monroe and should be viewed in an "objective" fashion.
I myself, while reading this book was surprised,
intrigued and saddened at the reinactment of the
Monroe murder as it was told by the "spirit" of
Marilyn Monroe. What I found most interesting was that
the psychics were instructed by the "spirit" and
supernatural visions to draw the would be ("suspects")
assasins and later show them to Marilyn Monroe's spirit
for her to identify and verify that they were the ones
who killed her. As I mentioned earlier, this is a very
unique book that anyone who reads this must have an
objective viewpoint on what the subject matter is;
that is the use of "channeling" spirits and the use of the "Ouja" board.
...
I don't know how many of these scenarios through the
eyes of these psychics were true, but, the reader will
make his/her conclusions as to its'credibility.
Interestingly, Monroe's spirit was satisfied as to how the "psychics" conducted its'investigative findings and
urged them to do what ever possible to "re-open" the
MM Murder Case. Monroe's spirit was extremely troubled
because people the world over believed she died of a "drug" overdose and not by a premeditated murder scheme contrived
by powerful people she was in contact with. In closing,
whether you will believe this book to contain the slightest amount of credibility is up to the reader. For those conspiratorialists of wrong doings such as crimes and
murders of famous celebrities may find this book
entertaining as well as thought provoking.
I for one thought so!

Very nice research, very well written. Funny, Honest, and Truth. I bought this book while I was in London for work. I didn't put it down since chapter one. Now I am buying a bunch for my friends and family to read for Christmas. Crystal Love - Great job and my spirit thanks you.

Ryan

The book is easy to read and understand and provides very interesting information for those who are interested in wicca. The book itself is NOT about witchcraft or wicca, but I found it most useful background material, putting matters into a broader perspective. I liked the whole book, except for the last chapter, which is a step too far and not substanciated with facts or convincing arguments.

I picked this book up and then set it back down without ever opening the cover, and it sat for a month. WHY?!

This is the first Brad Steiger book I have ever picked up, and I don't think I ever want to put it down again. He takes stories collected from the "Steiger Questionnaire of Mystical, Paranormal, and UFO Experiences" and bundles the most fabulous stories up into this book.

Here's an idea of what Brad Steiger dives into the depths upon:
Ghosts, burial grounds, ghostly echoes, apparitions, poltergeists, phantoms, bigfoot, sasquatch, the Patterson-Gimlin Film of Bigfoot, a bigfoot body cast, Florida's skunk ape, winged manimals (mothman, etc.), Nessie, a number of other lake and sea monsters, vampires, psychic vampires, Chupacabra, werewolves, werecats, wee people (fairies, sprites, elves, little vanishing people and trolls), Incubus, Succubus, human sacrificers, subterranean superhumans living in "abandoned" mines, Tommyknockers, aliens and Men in Black; and Steiger swears that they are all really here and really real! There is a photograph section that includes a couple of pictures of rods, but I did not see anything written up on them.

I have to say, overall, I think that the troll story was the worst; and makes it the #1 creature on my list to NOT run into! But, I did figure out that this book isn't all about "bad" entities, that some of them only are bad when you make them be. For example, give the elves a little portion of you lunch and dinner every day, and your house won't be infested by rats.

Deciding to be stupid, I finished this book at 3 o'clock in the morning while on my lunch break sitting in my car in the middle of a deserted parking lot. Don't do this! I was pretty okay with myself until I read the very last page, and that was enough for me. However, I know for a fact that this will not be the only time I read this book. It'll make a good reference for those scary stories on Halloween night 2002!

Well, to sum it up, you need this book if you're even *slightly* interested in weird stuff. It made a believer out of me, and I'm sure it will do it for you, as well.

A vicious Bigfoot creature who decapitates intruders in the mysterious Nahanni Valley! A real-life 19th-century Italian vampire who drank only the blood of beautiful women! A celebrated American clergyman who championed the concept of a hollow earth! A bizarre group of dedicated "shadow brothers" who do for occult phenomena what the MIBs do for UFO encounters!

These are among the intriguing subjects that I learned about for the first time reading Brad Steiger's latest excellent opus,"Out of the Dark." While I fancy myself an expert on subjects in the arenas of cryptozoology,parapsychology,and ufology, Steiger has compiled a veritable encyclopedia of weird entities,many of which I have never before encountered. As always,his writing is crisp,his entries concise,his topics fascinating!

Straddling the time frame from the historic to the modern,he has fashioned a comprehensive work that includes virtually every odd being that has ever existed in the past,the present,and,yes,even the future!

I guarantee that every reader will find nuggets of interesting material that he or she has not read elsewhere! This volume is going to the front of my bookshelf...I will be referring to it often!

I really loved Psagent and recommend it to everyone! This is not you typical and tired old retread of metaphysics and New Age and weird Fortean or anomalous phenomena! Wow is all I can say. It is good as Partain's fantastic first book, Psi in the Sky! This book will tell you things about the Age of Aquarius and old calendars (and Halloween and Friday the 13th) and mysterious telepathic beings in the star system of Sirius than you ever thought possible. There are sections on easy ways to develop your psychic abilities and lots of insights into avoiding phonies and sociopathic [con] artists. Partain is funny, witty, very scientific and pulls no punches against the "bad guys" while delivering his own documented cases. There is a great bibliography, too! Please, if you buy no other book this year, buy Psagent. What a Psagent is the author explains in his very insightful Introduction.

I love Psi in the Sky. It is not like any UFO book I have ever read. It really grabs you with its clever title and beautiful cover. It is one of those books you cannot put down. I have to give it five stars! The first part explains how psychic abilities (what the author calls psi) work and then ties
it into the mystery of UFOs in the second part. The author spent years researching this book and it is not some dumb re-hash of Communion-like books that flooded the market for so long. Everyone who wants real answers to an ages-old mystery should buy this book!

For anyone that might be interested in buying and try to read this book it is important to know the following:

This book is a collection of articles, scholarly articles, from the Journal of Consciousness Studies, a special issue of the year 2003. The 15 authors (including the 3 editors) wrote these articles specifically for this issue, and the idea of the editors were to have both sides present as fully and as clearly as possible their views. The "both sides" are: Psi researchers (that is, parapsychology researchers), and researchers skeptics about Psi phenomena (that is, Psi research critics). Some of the articles may be a little difficult for the lay reader (like myself) to fully understand.

I have bought this book because I wanted an update on the current status of the Psi research, as well as an update on the major criticism towards it. I myself have a skeptical site (in portuguese, Brazil) where I perform a deep scientific critical analysis of my own "faith", that is, spiritualism, mediumnistic abilities, and the like. I am a biologist with interests in mind-brain studies, physics, species evolution theories, artificial inteligence, and phylosophy of science (among other related interests). Parapsychology actually came as a "by-product" of my critical interest in life-after-life studies. For almost twenty years I had not paid much heed to parapsychology, precisely because it is mainly concerned with extrasensory perception and psychokinesis. I do not think (and I have never thought) that proving that ESP-PK exists can give any support to life-after-life hypotheses. To me, the current status of the scientific hipothesis of life-after-life is extremely weak (even though not negligible). On the other hand, I have come to know, during the last two years, that the current status of paranormal research (ESP-PK) is unimaginably strong.

This came to me as an enormous surprise, as the "interest" of mainstream science for parapsychology research (and "respect" too...) seems to be close to zero.

I have read many scientific Psi research papers (Dean Radin, Jessica Utts, Dick Bierman, Daryl Bem, Richard Shoup, etc), and I have also carefully analyzed the criticism of top skeptics like Susan Blackmore, Ray Hyman, James Alcock, Victor Stenger, Michael Shermer (and also of lesser skeptics like Robert Todd Carroll, Paul Edwards, Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker - I left out James Randi for want of a clear classification...). I don't mean to say that Psi exists. But "avowed skepticism", the way it has been practiced during the last twenty years or so, is clearly Bunk (to use the very same expression that Richard Dawkins used in his 1998 article What's Wrong with the Paranormal?: "The paranormal is bunk. Those who try to sell it to us are fakes and charlatans, and some of them have grown rich and fat by taking us for a ride." - Incidentally, this uncivilized utterance came right after Dean Radin's wonderful, even though not flawless, parapsychology book: The Conscious Universe - 1997).

Again, in this book, history repeats itself. I have found the skeptics' criticism in Psi Wars very weak (the articles by James Alcock, Stanley Jeffers, and Brugger & Taylor), even though respectful, respectable, and very much worth reading.

At this point I must ask: What the hell is happening in this World of ours? I mean, I don't really care if Psi exists or not. If it does exist, I find it something very exciting, a true scientific revolution. But if it does not, I am not going to cry or even be just a little bit sad because of that (By the way, the very opposite happens with the life-after-life hypothesis. If it is false, I am surely going to feel very depressed: a true existential breakdown...). But how can the mainstream scientific community, universities, and governments (especially the very very rich US government) not support and fund research on this issue given the extremely sophisticated corroborative level of the current Psi research?

The answer to me seems to be that we are not dealing with a scientific issue here. We are dealing with religous-like feelings, and also social-cultural-anthropological dispositions and unwillingness. In that, I must say that I am a little bit disappointed with Psi researchers. They are usually very bad at marketing strategies and at psychological-political strategies. They (and all of us too) do not understand why Psi research is being neglected. Therefore, it seems unlinkely that they can effectively alter this scenario. In a way, Adrian Parker Psi Wars article ("We Ask, Does Psi Exist? But Is This the Right Question and Do We Really Want an Answer Anyway?") deals with it. But even he does not seem to fully understand what is going on (and, again, all of us too).

Meanwhile, we are missing out on two priceless opportunies, which lie surely within our grasp: First, we could settle once and for all if Psi exists or not; and if the answer turns out to be "No", we could fight much more effectively the excesses of the so called "irrational beliefs". Second and foremost, if Psi exists, we could learn to control it and amplify its effect size, and by doing so harness a power that might bring enormous benefits for mankind (Sounds preposterous? But that is precisely what happened with electricity and antibiotics). Either way we would gain.

Adrian Parker kind of foresees that Psi research will be soon cast out of consciousness studies, in a repetition of what has happened many times before. I suspect that too. Until we can better understand why we hold this most strange blend of fear and apathy for Psi research, there may be not much hope that we will gain from it what we deserve: understanding and existential fulfillment.

Julio Siqueira - Biologist and editor of the site Criticando Kardec

It's difficult to write a book on this scientifically controversial subject that doesn't either dismiss the putative phenomena out of hand, or cross the line into stretching credibility. How can a book maintain a scientific tone while discussing things that so widely assumed to be incompatible with a scientific worldview, things like reading people's thoughts without using our five senses, or affecting physical matter with "mind power?"

There have been a small handful of treatments that have come close, such Ray Hyman's "The Elusive Quarry" on the mostly skeptical side, and Broughton's "Parapsychology: The Controversial Science" on the slightly less skeptical side.

When we pick up a book on science and the paranormal, the first thing we generally want to know is whether the author is arguing for the reality of anomalies or against them. When it comes to a true scientific controversy, many of the best treatments are neccessarily the ones where you don't quite know which side is being argued because the facts are being presented as far as practical for you to evaluate. That's a difficult posture to take in a book on scientific anomalies because the term itself is somewhat of an oxymoron to many people.

If it is an anomaly, how can it be scientific? Isn't science supposed to be about things we can measure and "prove?" Parapsychology relentlessly tests our attitude and philosophy toward how science works by presenting us with what are potentially very significant anomalies to the way we understand nature.

"Psi Wars" is a particularly good treatment of the general topic of the paranomal and its investigation by science. It begins by showing clearly why putative psi phenomena are so threatening to our understanding, by virtue of their sheer bizarreness. It then reviews the evidence for certain phenomena, such as telepathy, and shows it to be, (as parapsychologists have long contended, often against ridicule and accusations), remarkably strong.

A unique aspect of this book is that while reviewing the strength of the evidence for psi phenomena is an unusually balanced way, it also presents well-reasoned articles explaining why skepticism is still the most useful approach for scientists to take toward certain kinds of anomalies. Standard statistical methods can show intrinsic weaknesses when used to analyze highly unusual results. Scientific protocols have some unavoidable difficulties dealing with results that are so unreliably replicated in a laboratory.

This book stands out as an excellent case study of methdological issues of particularly difficult scientific investigations and a good way to examine tricky issues of philosophy of science. Could it be that the phenomena are real and our understanding of nature has some disturbing holes in it, or could it be that our methods of understanding nature have limits yet to be fully recognized?

Psi Wars stands out for me as an unusually serious and responsible treatment of anomalous science in a field all to easy to dismiss or pass off as a joke.