A Brief Guide to the Supernatural featured on The Ghost Club website. The perfect introduction to the world of all things eerie, inexplicable and otherworldly. http://www.ghostclub.org.uk/Books.html
Author: Leo Ruickbie
Good Ghost Guide
Magonia Review of Books: A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting With more than 300 pages of text and more than 50 of endnotes, this book is not really a ‘brief’ guide. Combining practical assistance on preparation, equipment and investigation techniques and protocol, including the all-important health and safety advice, with a brief history of ghost…
A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting on YouTube
A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting now has its own youtube video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svGNB4qNvhY It looks and sounds like a computer generated video for http://www.thebookwoods.com/book3/9780762450770.html
Approved by Egon Spengler
Egon Spengler Would Approve: A Review of Dr. Leo Ruickbie’s “A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting” Dr. Leo Ruickbie may be a specialist in the field of witchcraft, but if A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting is any indication, the man knows he way around a haunted house as well. […] Whether you believe in ghosts…
More Evil and Wickedness for 2014
[CFP] 15th Global Conference: Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness Saturday 22nd March – Monday 24th March 2014 Prague, Czech Republic Call for Presentations This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues surrounding evil and human wickedness. In wrestling with evil(s) we are confronted with a multi-layered phenomenon which invites people from…
Britain’s Spookiest Places
Just had my first article published in the Daily Express: THE UK is blessed – or cursed – with the greatest number of haunted places imaginable. From the crumbling battlements of ruined castles and grand royal palaces to cosy country pubs and individual houses, ghosts have been sighted, heard, felt and sometimes smelt the length…
Dave Evans
Just received this in the email this morning from Mandrake. Very sad news. Dear All In case you’ve not already heard, the founder(?) of this list [Society for the Academic Study of Magic] and the one time journal JSM just died after a long journey with illness, here’s a post from Al Cummings: “Today I…
Little Horrors
Call for Chapters Following on my work on witchcraft accusations against children, I’ve teamed up with Simon Bacon to work on an anthology exploring the many issues surrounding children/childhood and conceptualisations of monstrosity and evil. We’re particularly keen to open up a wide-ranging debate from cinema to the criminal courts. If you’ve got an idea,…
Universal Vampire Book Project
Here’s a description of the project from the editors: The Universal Vampire Series, 2 Vols. Vol. 1 – The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend Vol. 2 – The Hip and the Atavistic: Images of the Modern Vampire Editors Barbara Brodman, Nova Southeastern University James E. Doan, Nova Southeastern University Project Overview For…
Universal Vampire Update
Just heard from the editors that the forthcoming multi-volume blockbuster The Universal Vampire is scheduled for publication in April 2012. The publishers were ‘very impressed with the quality of the essays in the collection’. A brief description of my chapter can be found here http://www.academia.edu/1536481/Evidence_for_the_Undead
CFP: Esotericism and Health
Call for Papers ESSWE 4: Western Esotericism and Health Datum: June 26, 2013 -to- June 29, 2013 Call for Papers: ESSWE4 – The Fourth International Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism Western Esotericism and Health 26-29 June 2013, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Issues relating to health (understood in a broad…
Spiritualism Anthology Details Released
Just arrived in my inbox are the full(er) details of the forthcoming anthology on spiritualism: the anthology is to be published as: Christopher M. Moreman (Ed.), The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking withthe Dead in American and around the World (ABC-CLIO, 2013). It isscheduled for release in the summer. Sub-titles (and authors for each) are:Vol. 1: American…
Magonia Review of The Supernatural
Magonia Review of Books, review of Leo Ruickbie, A Brief Guide to the Supernatural: Ghosts, Vampires and the Paranormal (Constable and Robinson, 2012), dated 29 March 2012: The book is well referenced in the form of footnotes and makes a good general introduction. See the full review at http://pelicanist.blogspot.de/2012/04/shortreviews04.html
Wanted: Old Gods
Preternature Volume 3:2. Old Gods and Ancient Ones [Call for Papers] Call them pagan or ancient, earth-based or demonic, or by names like Hekate, Isis, Poseidon, Ereshkigal, Loki, and Anath, the Old Gods have been topics of energetic scholarly discussion, literary recreation, and artistic depiction for decades. As supplanted as they might seem to historians,…
‘Vampire’ Corpses Found In Bulgaria
Ancient ‘Vampire’ Bodies Found In Bulgaria Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed centuries-old skeletons with iron rods through their chests – believed to have been victims of an old anti-vampire ritual. According to Bozhidar Dimitrov, head of the National History Museum in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, two skeletons from the Middle Ages have been discovered near the…
Goth Tech Conference CFP
CFP: International Gothic Association Biennial Conference 2013 Gothic Technologies/Gothic Techniques Biennial Conference of the International Gothic AssociationAugust 5 – 8, 2013University of Surrey, United Kingdom Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck College, University of London), Professor Fred Botting (Kingston University), other Keynotes TBA Recent Gothic studies have foregrounded a plethora of technologies associated with…
The International Gothic Association
Yes, there is an International Gothic Association! It’s an academic society for the study of everything Gothic with a peer-reviewed journal Gothic Studies. According to their website: The International Gothic Association unites teachers, scholars, students, artists, writers and performers from around the world who are interested in any aspect of gothic culture: fiction, drama, poetry,…
Hekatean Curse Tablets
Black Magic Revealed in Two Ancient Curses Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor Date: 22 May 2012 At a time when black magic was relatively common, two curses involving snakes were cast, one targeting a senator and the other an animal doctor, says a Spanish researcher who has just deciphered the 1,600-year-old curses. Both curses feature a…