Weird Encounters: True Tales of Haunted Places


Joanne Austin - 2010
    Compiled by Joanne M. Austin, editor of the hugely successful Weird Hauntings, this chilling anthology tells of “Historic Haunts,” and “Hostel Environments” and conjures up a host of phantasms, paranormal pranksters, and devilishly destructive spirits-like the deceased owner of an Illinois inn whose ghost gets fresh with his female patrons and the bridge in Mississippi that's haunted by a serial murderer and his victims.

Disclosure: Military & Government Witnesses Reveal the Greatest Secrets in Modern History


Steven M. Greer - 2001
    The classic Disclosure book - full info re aliens taken directly from government official documents...

Critique of Judgment


Immanuel Kant - 1790
    The first part deals with the subject of our aesthetic sensibility; we respond to certain natural phenomena as beautiful, says Kant, when we recognize in nature a harmonious order that satisfies the mind's own need for order. The second half of the critique concentrates on the apparent teleology in nature's design of organisms. Kant argues that our minds are inclined to see purpose and order in nature and this is the main principle underlying all of our judgments. Although this might imply a super sensible Designer, Kant insists that we cannot prove a supernatural dimension or the existence of God. Such considerations are beyond reason and are solely the province of faith.

Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras & Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature


Loren L. Coleman - 1999
    Recently, tales of these "monsters" have been corroborated by an increase in sightings, and out of these legends a new science has been born: cryptozoology -- the study of hidden animals.Cryptozoology A to Z, the first encyclopedia of its kind, contains nearly two hundred entries, including cryptids (the name given to these unusual beasts), new animal finds, and the explorers and scientists who search for them. Loren Coleman, one of the world's leading cryptozoologists, teams up with Jerome Clark, editor and author of several encyclopedias, to provide these definitive descriptions and many never-before-published drawings and photographs from eyewitnesses' detailed accounts. Full of insights into the methods of these scientists, exciting tales of discovery, and the history and evolution of this field, Cryptozoology A to Z is the most complete reference ever of the newest zoological science.

Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Last Neanderthal: A Geneticist's Search for Modern Apemen


Bryan Sykes - 2014
    Is the yeti just a phantasm of our imagination, or is it a real creature? A survivor from our own savage ancestry? This is the mystery that Bryan Sykes set out to unlock.Three hair samples from the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan are the cause of the investigation. The hair samples were from the miogi, the Bhutanese yeti, that legendary creature of the high snows that has haunted the imagination of travellers for centuries. Professor Sykes was asked to identify the hairs using DNA analysis. The miogi hairs did not surrender their secrets easily, but eventually two were identified as known species of bear. The third remained a mystery. Ten years later two scientific developments caused the migoi to enter Professor Sykes' thoughts again. The first, a purely technical improvement, meant that it was now possible to get a very good DNA signal from a single hair. The second development came from the surprising conclusion of an article published in 2010. This paper contained the details of the DNA sequence from another human species, Homo neanderthalensis, the Neanderthals, widely thought to be extinct. One of the many theories to account for the yeti legend is that there were small groups of Neanderthals that had managed to survive until recent times, or maybe even until the present day. If so, would it be possible to detect recent interbreeding between our own species and Neanderthals in the genomes of indigenous people living in remote regions. Locations where the yeti legends are strongest and the sightings most numerous?Professor Sykes set a goal to locate and analyse as many hair samples as possible, with links the yeti. In doing so Professor Sykes found himself entering a strange world of mystery and sensationalism, fraud and obsession and even the supernatural. Protected by the ruthless vigour of genetic analysis he was able to listen to the stories of the yeti without having to form an opinion. The only opinion that mattered was the DNA.Two years on the project is almost complete, and there have been some surprising and significant discoveries. The yeti remains an enigma. There is something out there. But what?

Stranger Than Science


Frank Edwards - 1959
    Reprint.

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste


Pierre Bourdieu - 1979
    Bourdieu's subject is the study of culture, and his objective is most ambitious: to provide an answer to the problems raised by Kant's Critique of Judgment by showing why no judgment of taste is innocent."A complex, rich, intelligent book. It will provide the historian of the future with priceless materials and it will bring an essential contribution to sociological theory."— Fernand Braudel "One of the more distinguished contributions to social theory and research in recent years . . . There is in this book an account of culture, and a methodology of its study, rich in implication for a diversity of fields of social research. The work in some ways redefines the whole scope of cultural studies."— Anthony Giddens, Partisan Review"A book of extraordinary intelligence." — Irving Louis Horowitz, Commonweal“Bourdieu’s analysis transcends the usual analysis of conspicuous consumption in two ways: by showing that specific judgments and choices matter less than an esthetic outlook in general and by showing, moreover, that the acquisition of an esthetic outlook not only advertises upper-class prestige but helps to keep the lower orders in line. In other words, the esthetic world view serves as an instrument of domination. It serves the interests not merely of status but of power. It does this, according to Bourdieu, by emphasizing individuality, rivalry, and ‘distinction’ and by devaluing the well-being of society as a whole.”— Christopher Lasch, Vogue

Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions


Budd Hopkins - 1996
    Tho Intruders greatly expanded readers' knowledge of the UFO abduction phenomenon, Hopkins subsequently learned of an extraordinary witnessed abduction--an abduction sighted by independent 3rd party witnesses. This book reveals this unprecedented & amazingly complex case for the 1st time in its entirety.

50 Art Ideas You Really Need to Know


Susie Hodge - 2011
    50 Art Ideas you Really Need to Know is here to help. For all those who don't know their Degas from Dali or their Monet from their Mondrian, this informative and insightful guide discusses 50 of the most important and influential concepts in art from the Ancient Greeks to the present. Taking in the defining artistic moments in history, including the Baroque, the Renaissance and the Modern, this book also explores influential movements such as Romanticism, Cubism and Minimalism. Susie Hodge's concise and insightful text is accompanied by a glossary explaining key terms, as well as brief mini-essays and informative biographies on major artists of the period. Featuring an informative array of images to illustrate key concepts and comprehensive timelines to place each movement in its context, this book provides a broad-ranging survey of the most significant developments in the world of art and design. It will delight anyone who has ever been mystified by artistic jargon and wants to gain a deeper, more thorough enjoyment of art.

Messages: The World's Most Documented Extraterrestrial Contact Story


Stan Romanek - 2009
    And Stan Romanek can prove it.Romanek's gripping tale-augmented by video footage, photographs, and physical evidence-is the world's most documented extraterrestrial contact case.In print for the first time, Romanek relives his personal experiences, from his first sighting of a UFO to terrifying alien abductions. Romanek tells how he captured an extraterrestrial on film--the famous "alien in the window" video footage featured on Larry King Live. Messages includes photos, witness statements, lab reports, and other evidence supporting the validity of Romanek's fascinating story.But what's most shocking are the strange messages these unearthly visitors communicate to Romanek--authentic equations relating to space travel and planetary diagrams pinpointing what could be an auspicious date for the human race.

Bigfoot Terror in the Woods: Sightings and Encounters, Volume 2


W.J. Sheehan - 2018
    Some of these accounts may be quite terrifying, reader discretion is advised.

'Pataphysics: A Useless Guide


Andrew Hugill - 2005
    Originating in the wild imagination of French poet and playwright Alfred Jarry and his schoolmates, resisting clear definition, purposefully useless, and almost impossible to understand, 'pataphysics nevertheless lies around the roots of Absurdism, Dada, futurism, surrealism, situationism, and other key cultural developments of the twentieth century. In this account of the evolution and influence of 'pataphysics, Andrew Hugill offers an informed exposition of a rich and difficult territory, staying aloft on a tightrope stretched between the twin dangers of oversimplifying a serious subject and taking a joke too seriously. Drawing on more than twenty-five years' research, Hugill maps the 'pataphysical presence (partly conscious and acknowledged but largely unconscious and unacknowledged) in literature, theater, music, the visual arts, and the culture at large, and even detects 'pataphysical influence in the social sciences and the sciences. He offers many substantial excerpts (in English translation) from primary sources, intercalated with a thorough explication of key themes and events of 'pataphysical history. In a Jarryesque touch, he provides these in reverse chronological order, beginning with a survey of 'pataphysics in the digital age and working backward to Jarry and beyond. He looks specifically at the work of Jean Baudrillard, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, J. G. Ballard, Asger Jorn, Gilles Deleuze, Roger Shattuck, Jacques Pr?vert, Antonin Artaud, Ren? Clair, the Marx Brothers, Joan Mir?, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Raymond Roussel, Jean-Pierre Brisset, and many others.

Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural


Jim Steinmeyer - 2007
    By the early 1920s, Americans were discovering that the world was a strange place. Charles Fort could demonstrate that it was even stranger than anyone suspected. Frogs fell from the sky. Blood rained from the heavens. Mysterious airships visited the Earth. Dogs talked. People disappeared. Fort asked why, but, even more vexing, he also asked why we weren’t paying attention. Here is the first fully rendered literary biography of the man who, more than any other figure, would define our idea of the anomalous and paranormal. In Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, the acclaimed historian of stage magic Jim Steinmeyer goes deeply into the life of Charles Fort as he saw himself: first and foremost, a writer. At the same time, Steinmeyer tells the story of an era in which the certainties of religion and science were being turned on their heads. And of how Fort—significantly—was the first man who challenged those orthodoxies not on the grounds of some counter-fundamentalism of his own but simply for the plainest of reasons: they didn’t work. In so doing, Fort gave voice to a generation of doubters who would neither accept the “straight story” of scholastic science nor credulously embrace fantastical visions. Instead, Charles Fort demanded of his readers and admirers the most radical of human acts: Thinking.

Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind


C.D.B. Bryan - 1995
    At the center of this serious, richly explicit, riveting work is a five-day UFO conference held at MIT, which the author attended, & from which he has recreated the accounts of close encounter experiences of many abductees, telling their stories in chilling detail. Bryan is the author of the bestselling Friendly Fire.

Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History


Paul A. Johnsgard - 1982
    From the evolution and anatomy of dragons and unicorns to their own special skills (fire-breathing in dragons, reliable virgin detection in unicorns), this unique book of whimsical zoology, complete with drawings, will delight and enchant any modern reader.