VERY HIGH STRANGENESS

Rev. Alyson Dunlop Shanes. Mystic Visions: Spontaneous Supernatural Visions, Flying Disk Press, 2024.

There is no denying that Rev. Shanes has had a very active life filled with experiences and encounters with angels, demons, aliens and the paranormal. She grew up in a family that had supernatural experiences; at age four she started doing yoga exercises and at fourteen she communicated with a guardian spirit she called Norman using a Ouija board. At about the same time she was given a copy of The Exorcist by her grandfather who probably did not realise it was not age appropriate.

🔽

DEVILS AND DEMONS

Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman. Demons, the Devil, and Fallen Angels. Visible Ink Press, 2018.

"The devil goes by many names, and his tribe is legion. Throughout human history, we have been obsessed with the dark opposites of God and angels, light and mercy. Whether it is our religious and sacred texts, folklore, and myths of old; legends, fairy tales, and novels; or the movies and television shows of today, the dark entities enthrall us, terrify us, and remind us of the the duality of good and evil."

🔻

HOLY GHOST

Robert Conner, Apparitions of Jesus: The Resurrection as Ghost Story, Tellectual Press, 2018

I plucked this one from our editor’s grasp as soon as he’d pulled it from his goodie bag of new books to review and before any fellow Magonians could get a look-in, having become something of a fan of Robert Conner’s writing after reviewing two of his previous works, Magic in Christianity and The Secret Gospel of Mark. I knew I was in for a treat, and I wasn’t disappointed.

🔻

THE SUPERNATURAL IN WARTIME

Leo Ruickbie. Angels in the Trenches: Spiritualism, Superstition and the Supernatural During the First World War. Robinson, 2018.

---

Owen Davies. A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination and Faith During the First World War. Oxford, 2018.

These two books cover similar topics; the manner in which people used religious, supernatural and 'magical' themes in dealing with the personal and social traumas of the First World War. What I found interesting was the difference in treatment between the two volumes, some of which is hinted at in their subtitles.

Leo Ruickbie is the editor of the Society for Psychical Research's magazine Paranormal Review, and has access to the Society's library and records, as well as the records of The Ghost Club, in its various manifestations. Despite its title Angels only has a fairly brief description of the legendary 'Angels of Mons' and other supernatural visions at the Front. 

🔻🔻🔻

SEEING THE LIGHT

Mark Fox. Lightforms: Spiritual Encounters with Unusual Light Forms. Spirit and Sage, 2016

First published in hardback with the title and subtitle reversed and at an exorbitant price in 2006, this work, now published in an affordable soft cover edition, examines anomalous experiences of light and illumination.
🔻

VIRGIN TERRITORY

Chris Maunder. Our Lady of the Nations: Apparitions of Mary in Twentieth Century Catholic Europe. Oxford University Press, 2016.

This book traces the development of Marian apparitions across Europe from Fatima to the end of the Cold War. Its concern is less the phenomenal experience of the apparitions but their historical and cultural context. The apparitions appear in times of rapid cultural, political and social change and can perhaps be seen as responses to and rejections of modernity.
🔻🔻🔻

COME FLY WITH ME

Michael Grosso. The Man who Could Fly: St Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation. Rowman and Littlefield, 2016.

Guiseppe Desa (1603-1663), known to history as St Joseph of Copertino (or Cupertino, sources differ on the spelling) was a most unusual person it seems. He was born into a family on the way down, his father fled the family to avoid debt collectors before Joseph was born, and he grew up emotionally at least abused by his mother.

🔻🔻🔻

VERONICA'S VISIONS

Joseph P Laycock. The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism. Oxford University Press, 2015.

While praying for the recovery of Senator Robert Kennedy after he was shot, Veronica Lueken (1923-1995) became aware of a strong smell of roses. This was to be the first of a series of anomalous experiences that included visions of St Therese of Lisieux, channelled messages from her, and eventually visions of the Virgin Mary and channelled messages from her.

🔽