Below are links to books that I’ve found particularly interesting. The Amazon link includes reader reviews. Instead of writing my own, I’ve created tag clouds that show the most common words in the book. They are presented in no particular order. As I find stuff I like I will append to the page.
Books
Breakthrough : An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead – Konstantin Raudive (1971-03-02)
Here’s the excerpt: “This book is the documented result of 6 years’ arduous research into an astounding scientific phenomenon, accidentally discovered in Sweden. In some ways, and for reasons not yet fully understood, voices of dead persons linked by affection or interest with the experimenter appear during playbacks of tape recordings on which no such voices were audible at the time of the original recording.”
This one is a great read but hard to find, if you’re lucky you might be able to grab a used hard cover edition from Thriftbooks or Amazon. The original version came with a vinyl that contained some of the actual recorded transcripts.
Konstantin Raudive is one of the fathers of “electronic voice phenomena” or EVP. He popularized the phrase ITC or “Instrumental Trans-Communication” to describe his method of “communications” with the spirit world. I built one of the diode detector devices that he details in his book. Check out this post for the results of my experiments.
Here’s the wordcloud of the book text:
Yes, that is Hitler in there. Raudive would like us to believe that Hitler spoke to him in Latvian. Also there are accounts of voice sessions that involve other political leaders. Personally, I’m less interested in the voice transcripts than the ideas behind his recording devices.
If you check out the book, leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Strange Frequencies: The extraordinary story of the technological quest for the supernatural – Peter Bebergal
Amazon overview excerpt: A journey through the attempts artists, scientists, and tinkerers have made to imagine and communicate with the otherworldly using various technologies, from cameras to radiowaves.
“Strange Frequencies takes listeners on an extraordinary narrative and historical journey to discover how people have used technology in an effort to search for our own immortality. Bebergal builds his own ghostly gadgets to reach the other side, too, and follows the path of famous inventors, engineers, seekers, and seers who attempted to answer life’s ultimate mysteries. He finds that not only are technological innovations potent metaphors keeping our spiritual explorations alive, but literal tools through which to experiment the boundaries of the physical world and our own psyches.”
As you could imagine this book was right up my alley. I actually built a few of the devices that were referenced before I read it. Precognition! Well, perhaps more mundanely just an interest in the same subject matter.
As you can see from my wordcloud that “golem” was frequently used term. Not surprising since Bebergal devoted more than a few pages describing the fascinating golem folklore and associated topic of automata. Who knew that the golem was really the first Terminator!
Berbergal also briefly touches on one of my favorites: the “Symbolic Hieronymus Machine“. I built this device, and if you want to follow me down this rabbit hole I suggest reading up on radionics.
See my wordcloud below for what this book is about. Leave a comment and let me know if like me, you enjoy this subject matter as well!
Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe – Dean Radin PhD
Amazon overview excerpt: According to noted scientist and bestselling author of The Conscious Universe, Dean Radin, magic is a natural aspect of reality, and each of us can tap into this power with diligent practice.
This is a fascinating book and in my opinion, the main idea can be best summarized like this:
There are three types of real magic: force of will, divination and theurgy. A century and a half of scientific literature relevant to the testing of the analogous psi topics (clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, and medium studies) make the case.
See my word cloud below for the most common words in the book.
