A brilliant account of an unbelievable tale

One of my favourite stories, The Cottingley Fairies, based in the village of Cottingley near Bradford. Two young girls fooled so many with their fairy pictures. Simple cut outs of fairies, photographed with a simple, box camera. Arthur Conan Doyle was their greatest believer, author of Sherlock Holmes,and an intelligent man, who went to his grave still believing the photographs to be genuine. He even wrote a book"The Coming of the Fairies" which is still in print today. The two girls still kept their secret until old age. In 1982 the girls (then old women) admitted to the trickery of four of the photographs, claiming that the fifth was not a fake. So do Fairies really exsist? This book is a brilliant portrayal of the events that took place many years ago in that village. How did two young girls manage to fool so many? The answer is clear, we all want to believe in something. This book is a must for all fairy lovers out there, a sheer delight.

A good read on a wet afternoon

An interesting read from a punchy controversialist. There seem to be some very odd reviews of this book on Amazon, but there's an obvious reason, in the targets Shermer takes on. First, this book is an enjoyable and very easy read, and I finished it in an afternoon.
The book sets out to question some of the odd urban legends and moral panics of our time. Shermer tackles New Age"medicine", creationism as a pseudo-science, witch crazes and mass delusions, holocaust denial as pseudo history and a number of other controversial topics by applying Humean scepticism albeit in a chatty, and very American style.
At this point I was going to point out Hume's role in awakening Kant from his dogmatic slumbers, and what scepticism has done for the developnment of Protestant theological thinking and philosophy in general, but then, I'm not sure what use that would be to you as a potential purchaser. Either you already know this, or don't care, or just enjoy dogmatic slumbers. Nevertheless the point of Hume, and of this book is to challenge the way in which we take things for granted, what we can actually know and how we can evaluate evidence in a reasonable way.
From a Critical Thinking point of view, Shermer does let himself down at times, principally by engaging in"guilt by association", tracing links between different people and groups of dubiuos merit in a way that could be seen to teeter on ad hominem attacks, but, to his credit, he is generally very clear when he is doing so.
This would be a useful book for Critical Thinking courses although mainly as a supplementary read - that's always assuming we're not talking about within a creationist educational establishment (where no doubt they'll be glueing the pages together as in one of the anecdotes in the book - there's lots more of this with chapter and verse).

Warmed left-overs

This book will present nothing new to anyone who has ever read a book on this subject before. I was dissappointed, because I had hoped to get an update. Sometimes good old Colin Wilson seems to write another book to make another buck.

Technical essence of Sauberger's inventions

This book is full of sketches, drawings and graphs related to Sauberger's inventions. A very patient reader will be able to reconstruct working principles of Sauberger's machines. Only problem is Sauberger himself, because he mixed his phylosophy with his engineering, so it is extremelly difficult to follow text to an practical conclusion. His understanding of nature was intuitive and included some forces we actually do not have a knowledge off. Although I believe that his machines work, those forces he mentions might be only his interpretation, but not something that actually exists. Anyway, book is a brilliant example of engineering romanticism.

This author is a complete moron

For heaven's sake, if you are interested in the subject of Atlantis I sincerely recommend you put your card back in your wallet. This book is written by someone who is barely literate, absurdly annoying and utterly ignorant of her chosen field.

There are hundreds of books on this subject and so many people flock to it because it is virtually impossible to say something which anyone can contradict with any evidence.

If you want a very sound and plausible read about this subject by an amateur enthusiast you could do a lot worse than read Frank Joseph's The Destruction of Atlantis. Despite having no formal qualifications other than enthusiasm, he pulls together the various arguments and collates a highly respectable and credible vision of Atlantis.

Messengers and Guardians

Written from a Christian standpoint this is an excellent collection of first hand accounts of encounters with Angels. If your'e feeling a bit low and that God doesn't care about you this is a comforting read.<br />You wont find Angels in this book giving long theological prognostications though, the closest thing they give to teaching is one story of a man being told its good to pray and try to get close to God. Mostly they seem to appear to individuals as a reasurring presence and occassionally to offer practical help.

'Themselves'

An interesting collection of supernatural legends and folklore from the far past to quite recent. The writer draws on her knowledge of other supernatural 'hotspots' (such as the Pennines) to point out parallels elsewhere. Set out as day drives from the capital, Douglas, it is of interest for anyone to explore them at their leisure - but especially if on a week's holiday to the Isle of Man. if you want to know who 'Themselves' are, you'll probably need to buy the book.

It really works!

I found this book a fascinating read, and felt that I 'resonated' with much of what the author said. I tried out one of the 'practical' methods of contacting a Deva recommended by the author, and to my complete surprise, it actually worked!

Valuable Re-construction of Psychological and Cultural DNA

Regarded as a pioneer within the field of Runic Studies and semiotic analyses of the Northern Mysteries (Northern European and German proxemic regions), Stephen Edred Flowers has delivered a powerful holistic view of magical practices in the Eastern Mediterranean region. His research is based on over twenty years of academic study, including a PhD from the University of Austin, Texas. Flowers has singularly defined the cultural trajectory of Runic studies through a vast output of books, pamphlets, and research papers, as well as developing several institutions for praxis and cultural/memetic propagation.

The book is far more authoritative than many 'New Age' volumes by jettisoning the usual simplistic studies of runes by other authors, and being extensively cross-referenced to other literature.

By referring extensively to source texts and adopting a creative postmodern worldview (which is compared to Traditional and Modernist approaches), Flowers is able to outline the complex Hermetic theories, cosmologies, and symbolic systems (notably the Greek alphabet and Egyptian hieroglyphics).

The value of this work for the contemporary magician, memetic engineer, and Spiral Wizard, is that Flowers has re-constructed psychological and cultural DNA, devising conceptual tools and rituals that can be used for Self-change within everyday life.

Interesting...

You are doubtless here because you are interested in the unknown... the mysterious... the unexplainable...

In the early 30s Tibet was closed to foreigners. The most famous foreigner to penetrate Tibets closed border was an Austrian climber called Heinrich Harrer, who later wrote"7 years in Tibet". This prolific book illustrated a somewhat backward culture in desperate need of reform...

But unknown to Harrer was a German by the name of Theodore Illion who penetrated the Tibetan border several years previously. Illion was an occultist, and had gone to tibet to learn of its secrets. He disguised himself, learned the language and passed himself off as a genuine Tibetan and the account of this can be found"In secret Tibet" and at the beginning of"Darkness over Tibet." I would recommend the second of the two books. In this one he finds an underground city, a city of"initiates". In this most secret of secret places, he uncovers the darkest secret yet...

I gave the book 4 stars because although the subject material fascinated me, the style isn't top notch. That is not to say however that Illion is no good at story-telling. This book hardly left my hand whilst I was reading it. If you are interested in finding what that darkness is, then read this book.

A Great Spooky Read

This book is a great read. Its written in a very atmospheric way which really brings the characters to life (so to speak!). A lot of time and effort has gone into putting this book together. Some of the tales go way back into the mists of time and many of the locations have changed beyond recognition so its great that these tales have been brought together and documented. Many witness accounts are also given. I've never been to America but books like this make me want to visit! The only thing that would have made this a five star book for me is if pictures/photos had been included. If you like history and ghosts this is a book for you!

A Manual For New Sceptics

This is a good book. Lynn writes with humour and a dry wit. She covers most of the normal topics from crop circles to psychic detectives, from alien abduction to ghost photos (there's a picture of her and her dog as ghosts).
The temptation on this sort of book is to get lost in the detail and become too complex. This is not a text book, but a common sense look at the supernatural. I have a nephew who is becoming interested in the"paranormal" (shudder - Von Daniken - shudder). He's twenty-one, fairly intelligent, but naive. Lynne's book is the perfect antidote to this stuff. It's immensely readable without being patronising. She clearly wants it to be true, but she's too much of a scientist to just accept it on face value.
So if you want a first class introduction to the Sceptic Viewpoint, whether it's for yourself of friends or family, it's a book well worth investing in.
Highly Recommended!

Utterly silly...but fun

Mildly entertaining, lightweight hokum. A tubby barman self-dramatises by donning a leather coat, matching fedora and an odd slangy patois (half mockney-half Sam Spade) and takes us into a world of silly make-believe and faux paranormal investigation. He drinks a lot; claims to see off demonic entities, water pixies ('undines') and other revenants with the help of his toy pistol ('Zozo gun'), streetwise 'tude ("the night of the exorcism, I kicked some serious ass" etc.) and coterie of odd mates (eg: 'Nick the Witch'); and generally indulges his fantasy of being an amalgam of Aleister Crowley, Bruce Willis and Gandalf.<br /><br />It's daft beyond belief, but not without its charm. For all his self-regarding silliness, the author seems quite a nice chap and I wish him well with this book's sales!