The Dead Are Talking: Proof of an Afterlife?

by Ross Hemsworth

Reality Press • An Imprint of Reality Entertainment, Inc. • P.O. Box 91 • Foresthill, CA 95631

2007, 152 pages, $19.95 US • ISBN: 0-9791750-2-X

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Initially the author, Ross Hemsworth, started out as a skeptic. The co-founder of The Phantom or Fraud Project, he strived to bring science to paranormal studies. However, it was while this acclaimed radio talk show host of “Now THAT’S Weird” was involved in the filming of the hit TV series Ghost Detectives that the transformation from skeptic to believer occurred, and it did not come about because of one single event but instead it took many events over several years.

This book takes you into Hemsworth’s world. He carefully describes how that transformation occurred, takes you on his personal journey around the globe meeting many fascinating people and visiting many interesting places (some pictures are included, but more would have been better), and besides ghosts he delves into UFOs, parallel dimensions, EVP, dowsing, reincarnation, earth energies, ley lines, etc. I was interested to read of Hemsworth and his film team visiting a so-called “vortex” at Wannaque, New Jersey, and of the strange things happening there, in view of how this place was also the site of one of ufology’s best known UFO cases back in the 1960’s.

Hemsworth has had all sorts of experiences at this point. He once even saw an apparition of a person entering through a corridor door and walking inside an abandoned hospital building in England. He has come up against hardened skeptics like the magician James Randi, but sticks to his guns. These things are real!

The eighteenth chapter of Hemsworth’s book, “Parallel Dimensions-An Answer or a Confusion?” presents what I think are some thought-provoking ideas and insights. He speculates that some ghostly encounters are not with the non-living but rather living beings in other dimensions of reality. He even touches upon the “alien” aspect, and recounts how he was once in England’s Rendelsham Forest when he felt an entity not of this world hovering over his head. A nearby photographer went ahead and took a picture where Hemsworth had indicated, and then immediately downloaded the image to his laptop and indeed there was the image of a very alien looking entity!

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Pagan Prayer Beads: Magic and Meditation with Pagan Rosaries

by John Michael Greer and Clare Vaughn

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC • 500 Third Street, Suite 230 • San Francisco, CA 94107

2007, 190 pages, $16.95 US • ISBN: 1-57863-384-2

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

This book, written by Clare Vaughn, described as a beading expert, and John Michael Greer, a noted pagan scholar, is reportedly the first book written that specifically explains the design, creation, and use of Pagan rosaries. The authors begin by explaining how religions around the world, from Christianity, Islam, to Buddhism and Hinduism, have used prayer beads for prayer and meditation.

But this book adds a further personal dynamic to the equation by explaining and photographically illustrating the many different kinds of prayer beads that you can make yourself, how best to use them, and the desired effects of certain materials and arrangements.