Drawing on modern field research among elderly women in England and historical research in supernatural traditions, Gillian Bennett offers a clear and thought-provoking discussion of the vigorous survival, nature, and patterns of belief in the supernatural. Focusing on contact with the dead, which was especially emphasized and recounted by her informants, Bennett discusses the role of bereavement in these occurrences, examines how and why narratives are employed to account for personal experiences, and looks at case studies in the history of ghosts and visitations. Book jacket.

On a September afternoon in Santa Barbara, a private jet carrying the members of Poor Ghost—one of America’s most storied rock bands—plunges into the backyard of Caleb Crane, a retired insurance salesman. Poor Ghost moves back and forth between the impact of the plane crash on Caleb’s life, and an oral history of Poor Ghost, from its beginnings as a working-class punk band to rock icons.

Ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are widely represented throughout modern culture. They can be found in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts, but popular media or commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from the beliefs people hold about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Personal belief and cultural tradition on the one hand, and popular and commercial representation on the other, nevertheless continually feed each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists seek to broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from a variety of angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously, as they draw on contemporary scholarship that emphasizes both the basis of belief in experience (rather than mere fantasy) and the usefulness of ghost stories. They look closely at the narrative role of such lore in matters such as socialization and gender. And they unravel the complex mix of mass media, commodification, and popular culture that today puts old spirits into new contexts.

Ghost-hunter Cas Lowood returns to find out what happened to Anna Dressed in Blood.

"In Ghosthunters, John Kachuba explores some of America's great haunts while he introduces us to the people who actually go searching for ghosts. His writing takes the reader on a haunted journey—it's like riding shotgun with him while he creeps through haunted asylums, abandoned farmhouses, and historic battlefields, and speaks with some of the biggest names in this field of study. If something goes bump in the night, have no fear—John Kachuba won't be far behind." —Jeff Belanger, founder of Ghostvillage.com and author of The World's Most Haunted Places Why do ghosts fascinate so many people? To answer that question, writer and paranormal researcher John Kachuba aka “The Ghosthunter” investigates haunted locations throughout the country and interviews scores of people who have had paranormal encounters. The author discovers a growing interest in ghosts today, which has spurred an American pop culture phenomenon based on the supernatural. Combining his case reports of actual hauntings, discussions with leading figures in the paranormal world, and stories about related subjects–buying ghosts on eBay, buying and selling haunted houses, ghost tourism–Ghosthunters presents an intriguing and witty look at America’s paranormal world. Set off down the trail of the paranormal and read about: A ghost hunt in a Connecticut coffee shop with lay religious demonologist David Considine. Spending the night with the ghost of Miss Lily at St. Augustine, Florida’s historic St. Francis Inn. Spiritualist minister Rev. Rose Vanden Eynden’s abilities to talk with the dead. The search for the headless inmate on a ghost hunt at West Virginia’s Moundsville State Penitentiary.

Today, genes are called upon to explain almost every aspect of our lives, from social inequalities to health, sexual preference and criminality. Based on Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection, Evolutionary Psychology with its claim that 'it's all in our genes' has become the most popular scientific theory of the late 20th century. Books such as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, Edward O.Wilson's Consilience and Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct have become bestsellers and frame the public debate on human life and development: we can see their influence as soon as we open a Sunday newspaper. In recent years, however, many biologists and social scientists have begun to contest this new biological determinism and shown that Evolutionary Psychology rests on shaky empirical evidence, flawed premises and unexamined political presuppositions. In this provocative and ground-breaking book, Hilary and Steven Rose have gathered together the most eminent and outspoken critics of this fashionable ideology, ranging from Stephen Jay Gould and Patrick Bateson to Mary Midgley, Tim Ingold and Annette Karmiloff-Smith. What emerges is a new perspective on human development which acknowledges the complexity of life by placing at its centre the living organism rather than the gene.