Annalisa Ventola, who is author of the excellent blog Public Parasychology, recently reviewed two of D. Scott Rogo’s books in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, which by the way has the best book review section on topics of interest to us of any publication. The two books, A Casebook of Otherworldly Music and A Psychic Study of the Music of the Spheres, relate paranormal music experiences to out of body experiences, survival after death, and other psychic phenomena. Ventola writes that “Being both a musician and a student of psychical research, Rogo was in a unique position to provide an original contribution to the field, and did so by the age of twenty …” Ventola chose not to focus her criticism on Rogo’s “naivety about what constitutes proof of survival as well as the proper uses of certain statistical terms,” as she notes that Rogo’s subsequent books, some of which have been published by Anomalist Books, reveal a “developing maturity of the author both in the sense of his writing style and his methods of critical analysis.”

Ventola then summarized Rogo’s conclusions: “According to his content analysis, both experiences [transcendental music and out of body events] manifest during similar mental states, and the type of music heard (i.e. choral vs. instrumental or melodic music vs. music without a discernable melody) coincides with the type of OOBE (natural vs. enforced) reported. Rogo’s analysis also uncovers what he calls a ‘crescendo effect’ in the majority of the collected cases, in which the experients report the volume of mysterious music gradually being heard, rising to full power, and receding again.” Ventola ends her review with quite a compliment: “It is admirable that someone so young, without having yet completed a formal education, would not only have the initiative to collect reports about little understood or discussed phenomena, but also have something meaningful to say about them.”

John Fuller’s The Interrupted Journey is one of the two books (the other is The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward Ruppelt) that got us hooked on the UFO subject some 40 years ago. That book told the story the “first” UFO abduction, the Barney and Barney Hill encounter of September 1961. Fourteen years after the incident, NBC aired the story in a made-for-TV movie titled The UFO Incident with James Earl Jones as Barney Hill, and Estelle Parsons as Betty. Then in September of 2000, nearly 40 years after the original incident, a group of seasoned, independent UFO researchers got together at Indian Head, New Hampshire, to re-evaluate this classic UFO abduction case. Among the participants were Hilary Evans and Peter Brookesmith from the U.K., with Thomas ‘Ed’ Bullard, Karl Pflock, Dennis Stacy, and Robert Scheaffer from the U.S. Sociologist and veteran anomalist Marcello Truzzi chaired the meeting. And Betty Hill herself joined the group for an evening’s entertainment and a morning tour of the sites where, she says, she and Barney encountered aliens. What the participants concluded is recorded in our newest book, Encounters at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited, along with additional commentaries written especially for this book by the Hills’ first investigator, Walter N. Webb, and critical analyst Martin Kottmeyer. It was originally supposed to be published on the 40th anniversary of Betty and Barney Hill’s UFO abduction, but given trade publishing’s lack of interest in UFO books since the turn of the century, and other matters of both life and death, it hasn’t seen the light of day until now–thanks to Anomalist Books. Superbly edited by Karl Pflock and Peter Brookesmith, the book makes clear that the 2000 symposium at Indian Head was more than an exercise in diverse interpretations but a common quest to establish, as far as humanly possible, what actually happened to the Hills so many years ago.

Nick Redfern, author of On the Trail of the Saucer Spies, has three major speaking gigs already lined-up for the year. He’ll be at the Roswell UFO Festival in New Mexico on July 5-8, at the Dark 30 Tour in Asheville, North Carolina on September 29, and at Ryan Wood’s Crashed UFO Conference in Las Vegas on November 9-11. The British government spied on Nick’s UFO activities while he lived in the U.K. (Details in the book.) Now that he is living and speaking out on UFOs in the U.S., is he being spied on by the U.S. government?

Last month, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit used one of our books for a little political commentary. He wrote: “FROM BUSH AS HITLER TO BUSH AS DRACULA? The President’s Vampire: Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America. Okay, that’s not really what it’s about.” Not even close, Glenn. If you had noticed the possessive, “Cheney as Dracula” would have been closer to the mark. Next time, you should read the book. The President’s Vampire was our first title; you’ll be hearing a lot more about it soon.

Yes! Our reprint of Brad Steiger’s groundbreaking book, Worlds Before Our Own, is here. This edition features a new Foreword, which serves not only to explain just how controversial this book was when it first appeared but also updates it with some new evidence for the existence of a global prehistoric civilization. Brad will be making a tour of the airwaves to promote the book in the coming months, so don’t miss him!

We can’t ask for a better review than the one of The Yowie: In Search of Australia’s Bigfoot that appeared in the March issue of Fortean Times. Says reviewer Jay Rath: “…a masterful book…even naysayers must congratulate Healy and Cropper on performing anthropological field work, recording and preserving native traditions [of the creature]. Healy and Cropper avoid drawing conclusions and instead use a third of the book to present 282 reports, many of them recent, but also including Aboriginal legends and other incidents dating back to 1789…the book is very good indeed…They set out…to offer up a mass of primary research, and they succeed wildly.”

Guy Lyon Playfair gave The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof a terrific review in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Reserach. He notes that the author, Rosemarie Pilkington, has “a good track record as an observer of the parapsychology scene,” and ends his detailed review of the story Pilkington tells with these words: “There is much to be learned from this lively and informative book. For the absolute beginner, it is an ideal guide to the history of home sitter groups, with practical advice on how to start your own. For the more advanced, there is much to be learned here about how to get positive results.” Want to know how? Pick up a copy of this terrific book.

Brad Steiger’s Strange Guests received a welcome reception at Fortean Times, where Peter Hassall wrote: “[The book] is written in an involving style that gives the reader the feeling of being present during the action….This reprint edition…has bonuses…[including] a new afterword by Brad Steiger…a good introduction to the topic [of poltergeists].”

A quite interesting review of Steve Dewey and John Reie’s In Alien Heat: The Warminster Mystery Revisited finally appeared in The Warminster Journal in December. Though they manage to refer to Steve as “Clive” a few times in the course of the review, it does provide some insight into the Journal‘s coverage of the phenomenon back in the 1960. Here are a few choice morsels from the review: “Steve Dewey and John Ries grew up in Warminster, children in the time when Britain’s, if not the world’s, spotlight was on the town, looking for the answer to the question ‘Is there anyone out there?…Clive and John find it surprising how few of the sightings that fill Arthur Shuttlewood’s book The Warminster Mystery had found their way into the 52 editions of 1965’s Journal. The truth is that the owner and editor, Charlie Mills (my grandfather), thought this a whole load of rubbish and did not want the Journal to be the laughing stock of the town…With over 300 pages of text [In Alien Heat] must be considered a ‘good read’ for anyone interested in Warminster, UFOs, or human behaviour..there is plenty in there to think about.”

We are starting a blog for news and reviews about Anomalist Books so that people coming in late to the site can catch up on what’s been going on. The blog will also allow us to post regularly as reviews come in or books appear, rather than the once a month update we have been providing to date on the website. We’ll begin by posting some of the old items we still have on hand. We hope you enjoy the show.