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A Good Read: Book Suggestions & Recommendations

Not one I would recommend based on previous books by this author which have been discussed on this forum:

SKINWALKERS: Real encounters with shapeshifters, UFOs and interdimensional beings - Featuring new reports from the Skinwalker Ranch and beyond! (Lee Brickley's Paranormal X-Files)​


https://www.amazon.co.uk/SKINWALKER...0B28868YH/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

From the contents on the Amazon 'look inside' it would seem Mr Brickley has travelled around the World collecting first hand Skinwalker etc reports from places such as Chile, The Gobi, Moscow, Poland and then finally the infamous Skinwalker ranch in Utah. Apparently this quest started when he met a Hopi Native American called "Mat" on Westminter Bridge.

Now I might be doing Mr Brickley a disservice here, and I will apologise in advance I am, but when I search through his social media feeds, including his Facebook (pictured) and Twitter, I find no photos or other material from this global trek whatsoever. In fact, it is mostly Mr Brickley singing.

So Mr Brickley, before I part with my £4.99 I feel it is only fair if you perhaps pay us a visit on this forum with a few photos of you in Utah, up for the challenge...?


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Lol at the above post.

yes I've recent read some of his stuff. Ok as entertainment, I would not take it seriously though.

I'm currently reading "Cunning folk" by Adam Neville.



British set folk horror affair according to Goodreads. It's my first book of his , only a few chapters in and I'm gripped.
 
Lol at the above post.

yes I've recent read some of his stuff. Ok as entertainment, I would not take it seriously though.

I'm currently reading "Cunning folk" by Adam Neville.



British set folk horror affair according to Goodreads. It's my first book of his , only a few chapters in and I'm gripped.
I saw this on your Goodreads profile (sorry not stalking honest) and it sounded very interesting so grabbed a copy to have a go at.
I dont think I'd be a very good "friend" on goodreads unless you like cosy mysteries and urban fantasy (hate that term), and I never review anything. Im basically useless on there. But let me know if you think otherwise...

Me goodreads package
 
For those interested in perception, conscious and otherwise, I recommend the very readable "Consciousness and the Brain" by Stanislas Dehaene. There’s much of interest to those Forteans who ponder how we perceive what we think we perceive and how the brain can be misled.
 
For those interested in perception, conscious and otherwise, I recommend the very readable "Consciousness and the Brain" by Stanislas Dehaene. There’s much of interest to those Forteans who ponder how we perceive what we think we perceive and how the brain can be misled.
This is a great book
 
Looking for my copy of 'Time Storms' by Jenny Randles, some great reports included, love anything by Jenny Randles!
Read this once, ages ago and loved it. Now think it's time I got myself a new copy (can't for the life of me remember what I did with my original one, unless it fell through a wormhole into your collection, @Ronnie Jersey).
 
Colette shires who’s there a true story of a leeds haunting very good and scary
Yes, I have that, it is narrated in a fairly matter-of-fact style and comes across as genuine, really quite creepy. I also recommend it if you are interested in real-life hauntings. Don't expect it to be all neatly wrapped-up at the end though, there's no real explanation for why the events occurred (which makes it more believable in a way), although it may have been down to a haunted object that came into the family's possession. A good read.
 
I am currently reading (in French) "Voyager dans l'Invisible", by Charles Stepanoff, and it's really good ! I hope they'll publish an English translation soon enough. Translated into English, the title would be "Travelling into the Invisible : shamanistic techniques of the imagination".

Charles Stepanoff is a French ethnologist who spent years among Siberian and Mongolian tribes, studying shamanism. His book attempts to reconsider our western perspectives on shamanism, providing new theories about the phenomenon.

Stepanoff's work is dense and exciting. It starts with an almost philosophical reflexion, questioning our definition of "imagination" as the antagonist of "reality", showing how this now prevailing dichotomy was actually an exception in history (we owe the Greeks for that long lived bias), and how steppic and siberian cultures used to envision what we call "imagination" as an essential part of reality.

Hunter gatherers had to rely on imagination to survive in the real world : they had to imagine what their preys thought or hoped in order to catch them. So in a way, for these traditional cultures, it was a kind of 6th sense on par with the others. And case in point : if imagination was simply a kind of (harmful) irrealistic delusion, the evolutionary process would have got rid of it long ago. It didn't, although we evolved towards more "guided" imaginative processes (such as books and movies instead of dreams, meditative contemplation and childhood "imaginary friends" [by the way, the author describes the case of a shaman who started his career because he was seeing a purple "imaginary friend" coming out of the walls of his school !]).

Shamanism probably grew out of this pragmatic view of "imagination" (which includes empathy, planning, and strategy, e.g. seeing the possible futures) our Western rationalism did depreciate. In contrast with our modern despise towards imagination, Shamans may have been valued members of human societies from Prehistory onwards, which may explain why lots of the earliest prehistoric burials seem to focus on abnormal individuals (people with various malformations) who may have been shamans, or considered to be shamans [current shamans are often "recognized" through their unusual features].

Stepanoff distantiates himself from the 20th century interpretations of shamanism. Although aknowledging Mircea Eliades groundbreaking work in the area, he utterly destroys his association of shamanism with the search of transe and extatic experiences. Actual groundwork shows that shaman rarely reach truly extatic states. What they do is more involved with an active (and somewhat trained) use of imagination and visualisation, with an element of unpredictability and randomness.

The books then proceeds delving into case studies and developing the author's approach of shamanism as seen through the eyes of the shamans themselves.

I haven't finished it yet, but it seems to be an excellent piece of work, overall. The pace of the author is a bit fast. He launches tons of ideas without always taking time to develop them fully, which is sometimes terribly frustrating. If you want to go deeper, you're left with his sources, which I find a bit dry.


Some insights of this book may proove handy on "fortean" topics. In terms of religious studies, for instance, I can already see some interesting links to explore between shamanism and various "techniques" common in Asian religions such as Taoism, Vajrayana Buddhism, or Pure Land Buddhism. Some anecdotic facts seem to point out at common roots between shamanism and these systems. Nothing new, you may say, as plenty of researchers have already claimed that taoism had shamanistic roots. But this books provides with additional elements strengthening this case.

An exemple which especially struck me was that Stepanoff has collected lots of testimonies saying that Siberian animists believe that the Shamans have a different skeleton : they either have additional bones, or bones who have a different colour than ordinary bones.

If you have read the 4th century Baopuzi Neipian, Ge Hong's treatise on taoist immortals, you'll immediately notice the similarity with the Chinese claim that you must have "immortal bones" to become an immortal / fairy ("xianren", in Chinese).

Other fortean topics with possibe indirect links with the topic of this book (shamanism & imagination) : fairies, ghosts and spirits, mediumnism.

So if you read French, go for it. If you don't, hope for an English translation in the coming years.
 
Any thing by Jim Butcher. Also, I like the Jaques Vallee writes.
 
If you ladies are looking for a good mystery, Mabel Seeley's 'The Listening House' is incomparable!
A young woman finds a small apartment in an old mansion that has been turned into a rooming house.
Complete with a strange older woman who owns the mansion, and some questionable tenants.
It's from 1938, but they have recent paperbacks.
One of the best, even has a surprise ending!

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I saw this on your Goodreads profile (sorry not stalking honest) and it sounded very interesting so grabbed a copy to have a go at.
I dont think I'd be a very good "friend" on goodreads unless you like cosy mysteries and urban fantasy (hate that term), and I never review anything. Im basically useless on there. But let me know if you think otherwise...

Me goodreads package


I've added you, I read allsorts of genres. The surgeon sounds interesting, I have heard it talked about on there before. My own past couple of reviews on there have been woeful, just a quick " this is good", as there's nothing to add that's not already been said by the Pro reviewer types. It is a great place for good recs , as is here. Id of never heard of any of these new school folk horror writers of it wasn't for Goodreads.

I finished Cunning Folk , a real page turner! I was suggested "Winterset Hollow" which happened to be free on my kindle subscription , will be starting that one this eve.

Sounds a wild ride.... Like a trippy murderous wind in the willows. It's got many 5* rave reviews.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58934632-winterset-hollow
 
I've added you, I reabut I willd allsorts of genres. The surgeon sounds interesting, I have heard it talked about on there before. My own past couple of reviews on there have been woeful, just a quick " this is good", as there's nothing to add that's not already been said by the Pro reviewer types. It is a great place for good recs , as is here. Id of never heard of any of these new school folk horror writers of it wasn't for Goodreads.

I finished Cunning Folk , a real page turner! I was suggested "Winterset Hollow" which happened to be free on my kindle subscription , will be starting that one this eve.

Sounds a wild ride.... Like a trippy murderous wind in the willows. It's got many 5* rave reviews.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58934632-winterset-hollow
Yeah i confess i started the Surgeon because of the tv show based on the series. However it has a much grittier feel and the characters are totally different - the coroner Isles doesn't feature in book 1. Afraid its heading into DNF territory which I always hate to do,but I will push on.
 
I said on another thread that I have been signed off for a month, as I've apparently got an acute rupture of the anterior cruciate ligaments of the right knee.

So lots of reading with cups of tea it is. The first photo is 2 books I've just finished. The Amy Jeffs book I really enjoyed and found myself getting emotionally involved with the stories despite them being myth. The conspiracy book is a lightweight read, 2 books for £8 at Asda. I'm not massively well read on a lot of conspiracy stuff so it was an entertaining read for me. There were quite a few I knew nothing of.

I've just opened the Japanese ghost book, I didn't realise that it has some beautiful illustrations in it as well as plenty of reading:

Book1.jpg
 
I check Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page everyday.

I have loads of free e books in related folders.Id be happy to send then to you if some techobod could explhow I could do it.
 
I check Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page everyday.

I have loads of free e books in related folders.Id be happy to send then to you if some techobod could explhow I could do it.
Thank You so much for the kind offer, I am so backed up in my reading as it is, I seem to come on here and other places and get absorbed in all the links that are posted, everything is so interesting, before I know it a few hours have gone by! :)
 
Just bought mary rose barringtons book called JOTT (just one of those things) fascinating stories just wondering how many of us lot have had them
I've long thought of buying that and never got around to it.
 
Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy, by Ben Macintyre. The story of another great spy, Ursula Kuczynski, the tale ranges from Weimar Berlin when 16 year old Ursula was batoned by a cop to spying in China, Poland, Switzerland and the UK. As always MacIntyre makes the most of the many eccentric characters she met and worked with. He excuses Sir Roger Hollis DG of MI5 as being incompetent and rather thick than being a KGB mole. Well worth a read. Review below.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...yre-review-housewife-mother-and-communist-spy
 
I have this one saved in my Amazon basket, I'd be interested on your thoughts.

I have read it and personally I really enjoyed it. I'm no book reviewer but I am happy to share my thoughts.

I have read some Lafcadio Hearn a good number of years ago but my knowledge of Japanese culture is seriously lacking. The book describes the origins of ghostlore from Japan via theatre and ghost stories. It also relates how Japanese people think about the dead. It says to understand Japanese culture you need to understand this.

It follows a timeline of ghost lore development through literature and theatre and has a chapter on each type of ghost. It gave me a good insight and explains how the films Ringu and The Grudge carry on the mythology of Kwaidan (ghost stories).

It has made me want to watch Ringu again to see what I can pick up that I hadn't previously.
 
I have read it and personally I really enjoyed it. I'm no book reviewer but I am happy to share my thoughts.

I have read some Lafcadio Hearn a good number of years ago but my knowledge of Japanese culture is seriously lacking. The book describes the origins of ghostlore from Japan via theatre and ghost stories. It also relates how Japanese people think about the dead. It says to understand Japanese culture you need to understand this.

It follows a timeline of ghost lore development through literature and theatre and has a chapter on each type of ghost. It gave me a good insight and explains how the films Ringu and The Grudge carry on the mythology of Kwaidan (ghost stories).

It has made me want to watch Ringu again to see what I can pick up that I hadn't previously.
Thanks.
 
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