Beyond the Body
Blackmore
1986, c1982.
Submitter: I confess I just weeded this book from our HS library. I love the whirling astral projections! There are lots of holdings according to WorldCat. Hey, folks, at least update with the 1992 edition! The author has very eclectic interests, and no longer studies the paranormal.
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/whoami.htm
Illustrations:
Front Cover (self-explanatory)
Phantoms exteriorizing and interiorizing (ditto)
The Phantom Frog (not so much)
Holly: Maybe there’s something to this title that we aren’t aware of. Please, weigh in if you know what that something is! On the surface, it looks old. If your library has patrons interested in this topic, give them something more current. They will want to know who the current experts are in the field, for one thing, and this author isn’t. I don’t see the frog in the second picture (below) either. Do you?
DUH! It’s not a frog, it’s a PHANTOM frog. If you look closely, you’ll notice that it’s sitting on a phantom lily pad by a stand of phantom pussy willows, and is tracking a phantom fly.
As it happens, twenty minutes after that photograph was taken, the phantom frog in question was captured by a phantom phantom frog gigger, then made into part of a phantom lacquered phantom frog band.
i’ve actually experienced astral projections, so would love this book to add to my collection on the topic
I know one person who had a verified out-of-body experience. My ex-husband had one when he took valium and a sleeping pill. It sounded interesting, but I’m anti-drugs, so I never tried it.
Yeah, when the author herself has since gone on record and admitted that her conclusion, after 30 years of paranormal research, is that none of it is valid?
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/journalism/NS2000.html
Probably need a better title on the subject.
I think the frog is under the man’s towel and hopped out when when the man left his body. (Notice the towel did not exteriorise with him)
I see a horse with a bull’s head resting in a meadow.
Obviously I do believe in the soul and such from what I’ve said before. I take these sorts of things with a grain of salt, however. I believe the true experiencers probably never talk about it while those whom desperately want attention make it up. Just like alien abductions.
And there are a lot more modern books out there by different authors on this and other paranormal subjects. I know our librarian has added a bunch of this sort of stuff because during October he made a special display for it. (After taking some of them from the display I made for Halloween, mind you! LOL He does that all the time. He just took all the Christmas recipe books from my December Holiday display to put in his. Oh well, I still have the kosher cook books, plus the books on Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa.)
Frog looks like a sockpuppet.
Probably stating the obvious, but couldn’t it just be a plain typo? Phantom FOG, rather than frog? It would make more sense, but I haven’t seen the rest of the book and for all I know there’s pages on phantom frogs and where to find ‘m in natural habitats.
Susan Blackmore went from being a believer in psychic phenomena to a ferocious sceptic, with all the evangelism that sort of switch implies. Brian Inglis died in the ealry ’90s and, as far as I’m aware, has yet to file any despatches from the Great Beyond…
Looks more like a phantom dog-lying-on-its-side to me…
Back when I was in college and had a pony tail and combat boots, I read this title. It was actually a good “nuts and bolts” book on the subject.
When it come to “paranormal” books, age doesn’t really matter. Either the title is well written or it isn’t. It’s not like there have been advances in the field of “woo woo” science.
I hate to judge a book by its cover, but an author who, at 50 years old and so, dyes her hair in so many colours can’t really be taken seriously…
I think a newer book would be in order and maybe one more medically focused. I started to bleedout after the birth of my second child and did have an out of body experience. Being a librarian though it was very boring, I just remember thinking, “oh bloody hell this isn’t right.” Then I made an absolutely herculean effort to make enough noise to get my husband to understand that I wasn’t asleep. I have no interest in the supposed supernatural aspects, but a book for laypeople on the theories about what caused that bizarre floating sensation and why the mind does what it does would be very welcome.