“Papal Magic: Occult Practices Within the Catholic Church” by Simon

"It is acknowledged Church doctrine that sorcery is the specific domain of the Devil. Yet occult tales are liberally sprinkled throughout the Old and New Testaments, from the spirit-invoking Witch of Endor to the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Throughout its 2,000 year history, the Church has spawned numerous mystical religious orders, like the Knights Templar, that may have been engaged in supernatural pursuits, while no fewer than three popes were believed to be involved in occult practices. Christian scriptures tell us that the occult is real, while Catholic priests are thought to have spiritual power over ghosts and evil entities. But if a priest can cast out demons during the rites...>>

“Hallucinations” by Oliver Sacks

"Have you ever seen something that wasn’t really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing? Hallucinations don’t belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of animals and people. People with failing eyesight, paradoxically, may become immersed in a hallucinatory visual world. Hallucinations can be brought on by a simple fever or even the act of waking or falling asleep, when people have visions ranging from luminous blobs of color to beautifully detailed faces or terrifying ogres. Those who...>>

“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales” by Oliver Sacks

"THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT brings together twenty-four of Oliver Sacks’ most fascinating and beloved case studies. The patients in these pages are confronted with almost inconceivably strange neurological disorders; in Sacks’ telling, their stories are a profound testament to the adaptability of the human brain and the resilience of the human spirit. Dr. Sacks treats each of his subjects—the amnesic fifty-year-old man who believes himself to be a young sailor in the Navy, the “disembodied” woman whose limbs have become alien to her, and of course the famous man who mistook his wife for a hat—with a deep respect for the unique individual living beneath the disorder. These tales inspire...>>

“Alchemical Healing: A Guide to Spiritual, Physical, and Transformational Medicine” by Nicki Scully

"Combines shamanism, alchemy, and energy medicine to create a unique healing modality • Explores how to turn the base substance of who you are--the dark mystery of your subconscious--into the alchemical gold of knowledge and enlightenment • Includes techniques of distant healing and working with power animals and plant, mineral, and elemental spirits • Shows how to utilize the Universal Life Force to reawaken inherent healing abilities Alchemical Healing brings together innovative techniques of shamanism and energetic healing with the principles of alchemy, creating a practical form of physical healing, therapeutic counseling, and spiritual growth. The author provides ways to integrate spirit and matter, to develop communications between divinity and humanity, to retrieve knowledge, and to influence physical...>>

“The Devil in Manuscript and Other Tales of Forbidden Books” edited by Osie Turner

“The Green Book,” a small, unassuming diary of a young girl; an unheard of book of the Talmud known as the “Tractate Middoth”; “The King in Yellow,” a play that drives people to insanity; two mysterious grey stone plaques from the sands of Chaldea known as the “Tablets of The Gods”; “The Confessions of Constantine,” which drives its readers into a homicidal rage—these accursed books are the subject of this collection of olden tales. Table of Contents: The Tractate Middoth by M.R. James The White People by Arthur Machen The Devil in Manuscript by Nathaniel Hawthorne The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers The Man Who Found Out (A Nightmare) by Algernon Blackwood P.’s Correspondence by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Innmost Light...>>