On Sunday 30 October 1938 many Americans reportedly panicked after listening to a realistic radio play depicting a Martian invasion in New Jersey. The play was based on H.G. Wells's science fiction classic The War of the Worlds, and was broadcast by Orson Welles. Why did the script get by CBS censors? How did Welles ingeniously 'snare' listeners to other programmes? Why did newspaper editors deliberately exaggerate the scare? This event is one of the most notoriou...

This book provides an accessible overview of one particular type of social panic: that of the phantom attacker. Such panics are characterised by outbreaks of sensational claims of attacks by mysterious figures that seem to emerge from nowhere, attack their innocent human and animal victims, only to vanish without a trace. Taking the recent wave of needle-spiking reports in Europe as a starting point, this book does more than just catalogue such outbreaks historically and geographically. It...

It is one of the most extraordinary cases in the history of science: the mating calls of insects were mistaken for a “sonic weapon” that led to a major diplomatic row. Since August 2017, the world media has been absorbed in the “attack” on diplomats from the American and Canadian Embassies in Cuba. While physicians treating victims have described it as a novel and perplexing condition that involves an array of complaints including brain damage, the authors present compelling evidence that ...

This book comprehensively surveys the colorful history of mass hysteria and kindred phenomena in schools, documenting outbreaks of demonic possession during witchcraft scares, to modern incidents of collapsing bands, itching frenzies, ghost panics and mystery illnesses.Strange behaviors and illnesses in students are examined through the centuries. Possessed children went into trance states and began to bark like dogs in 16th and 17th century Holland; an epidemic of twitching, tremb...

The definitive account of a Lake Champlain legend."The lake surface was glass. My girlfriend and I were fishing from our anchored rowboat in about fifteen feet of water, facing the New York shore. 'Ron, what's that?' I turned. About thirty feet away I saw three dark humps … protruding about two feet above the surface. The humps were perhaps two or three feet apart. They didn't move. We didn't either. We watched in disbelief for about ten seconds. The humps slowly s...

This work provides an accurate, in-depth examination and scientific evaluation of the most famous hauntings in American history as depicted in popular films and television programs.Neither a debunking book nor one written for the "true believer" in the paranormal, American Hauntings objectively scrutinizes the historic evidence behind such hugely popular films as The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, An American Haunting, The ...

A scientific detective story and a case study in the social construction of mass psychogenic illness.The authors provide dozens of examples of kindred episodes of mass hysteria throughout history, in addition to psychosomatic conditions and even the role of insects in triggering outbreaks.It is one of the most extraordinary cases in the history of science: the mating calls of insects were mistaken for a “sonic weapon” that led to a major diplomatic row. Sin...

'People are emotionally drawn to the supernatural. They actively want weird, spooky things to be true . . . Wiseman shows us a higher joy as he deftly skewers the paranormal charlatans, blows away the psychic fog and lets in the clear light of reason.' Richard DawkinsProfessor Richard Wiseman is clear about one thing: paranormal phenomena don't exist. But in the same way that the science of space travel transforms our everyday lives, so research into telepathy, fortune-tel...

The doctor – and bestselling author – who first demonstrated the healing effects of prayer now offers an unprecedented look at the science of premonitions. The Power of Premonitions takes readers through documented cases of premonitions, including a remarkable instance when an entire Nebraska community skipped church the very day it exploded; an examination of recent scientific study of 'presentiment'; a discussion of what it all means to daily life; and practical field-tested techniques f...

The acclaimed portrait of institutionalized patients whose abandoned possessions recall their forgotten lives“A deeply moving testament to the human side of mental illness.” —Oliver SacksWhen Willard State Hospital closed its doors in 1995, after operating as one of New York State’s largest mental institutions for over 120 years, a forgotten attic filled with suitcases belonging to former patients was discovered. Using the possessi...

Here are over 40 scary, hair-raising, and frightening stories of the supernatural and the paranormal. These are first-person narratives that are unexplained and possibly inexplicable. All of them have been reported to John Robert Colombo, Canada's Master Gatherer of the Arcane, by men and women from various parts of the country, and they're published here in the words of the informants themselves, the witnesses to these wonders.Here, you will have the opportunity to read about:...

The bestselling book revealing why Americans are so fearful, and why we fear the wrong things-now updated for the age of TrumpIn the age of Trump, our society is defined by fear. Indeed, three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today than they did only a couple decades ago. But are we living in exceptionally perilous times? In his bestselling book The Culture of Fear, sociologist Barry Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger...