Have you ever felt like you were “called” to a certain activity or profession? This is often the case, with little doubt, among many care workers and those in the medical profession. In midst of the nice paycheck, which is balanced by tremendous pressures associated with administering to those in poor health, there is the fundamental desire to help others that serves as an impetus to enter the field.

Another area many describe receiving a sort of “cosmic calling” toward is that of mediumship. Some will claim to have been able to interact with “spirit” (yes, that’s intentionally in the singular, in reference to the opening chapter of the book we’ll soon be discussing). Others may not have claimed to feel anything during their early life’s experiences, only to “awaken” to a new way of seeing and interacting with the world later on.

This is one reason I must say I have grown to enjoy books like Consulting Spirit: A Doctor’s Experience with Practical Mediumship, so much: they not only tell the stories of everyday people like you or I who “heed the call,” so to speak, and embrace their inner psychic potential, but books of this sort will also tend to serve as a sort of primer for how others may learn to do so just as well.

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So far as my own involvement with researching the unexplained, I’ve always tended to be multidisciplinary. While writing articles for magazines about cryptozoology, I would be spending my weekends enthralled with psychic research. Or while studying UFO eyewitness reports, the somewhat more predictable allure of haunted houses was where I often spent time doing “field work.” I say this was “predictable” because, at very least, when a house or other building is purportedly haunted, there is some rationale for use of this environment as a sort of laboratory, in the sense that a repeatable phenomenon is said to occur there, contained within the environment. The same cannot be said for the study of UFOs or creatures like Bigfoot, for if either of these exist, it will be harder to predict their appearances by virtue of the random chances involved with encountering them.

Therefore, for a number of years, I spent time joining various researchers in the field studying what, again, I prefer to call “psychic phenomenon.” I say this because, thanks in part to the highly-entertaining Ghost Busters films from back in the 1980s and 90s, the public began to take elements of actual psychic research and parapsychology, some of which involved ghosts and purported haunted locations, and began to steer them towards “ghost hunting” escapades with very little–if any–potential for scientific merit. Though I’ve often had the pleasure of working with individuals who were very scientific in their approaches to psychic research and paranormal phenomenon in the past, I’ve worked with far more who were content to cut corners, and leave themselves open to high-credulity, for the sake of gathering “data” that was conducive to what they were trying to express, rather than what the details actually warranted. This particular human trait can be found within many fields whether it’s psychic research or your bank and their CD rates. An individual may want to take great care as to the source of the information they make decisions with.

This eventually led to a bit of disenchantement on my part, at least so far as studying parapsychology and related areas, and I began to notice that my own interests–as well as what my audiences seemed to anticipate from me–began to gravitate heavily toward the subject of ufology and unexplained aerial phenomenon. Nonetheless, I still enjoy books on psychic research, and even ghosts, when they are presented well, and when the details warrant some factual merit that can be substantiated, rather than merely being wild claims of the extraordinary. It’s no wonder, then, why I became so excited upon hearing about the release of a new book by audio technician and paranormal investigator Mark L. Cowden, called Spirit Voices: The First Live Conversation Between Worlds by Anomalist Books.

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The kith and kin of the UFO are a strange and varied bunch. In addition to the wonder and curiosity associated with flying saucers and supposed visitations by beings from space, there are also a few rather terrifying elements that are present throughout various UFO lore. These might involve claims of victims who describe otherworldly encounters with beings, where they are abducted and subjected to bizarre examinations aboard the advanced airships of the UFO occupants. But some reports of UFOs have even more strange and frightening occurrences that follow the initial sighting: these involve the infamous “men in black suits” who have so often appeared to taunt and terrorize those claiming to have had such encounters. For those who have met the alleged MIBs, this experience can often be far more terrifying than coming face-to-face with any actual extraterrestrial.

And yet, this area of the UFO mystery, save the references usually given within books devoted to the greater body of UFO lore in general, have hardly seen any introspective and focused treatment of their own. Thus, much like the Contactees of past decades were finally treated to a showcase of their own inherently bizarre nature, the astute Mr. Nick Redfern (probably an MIB himself, all things considered) has returned to provide such a narrative for these vile and nefarious plainclothes men who harass the UFO witnesses in his latest offering from New Page Books, The Real Men in Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, ad True Stories of these Mysterious Men and their Connection to UFO Phenomena.

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If you’ve followed my posts here and at Mysterious Universe, or if you’ve heard any recent interviews with me on shows like Bill and Nancy Birnes’ Future Theater, you may already know that I’m very excited about the release of a new UFO anthology by New Page Books called Exposed, Uncovered and Declassified: UFOs and Aliens. This will be one of three in a series of such anthologies that New Page Books will be releasing over the coming months, and for which I’m very proud to be contributing a series of essays that range from topics like UFO invisibility to potential links between psychosis and psychic phenomenon.

I’ve just received word, however, that it looks like there may also be an opportunity for budding writers out there who’d like their own research to be highlighted alongside the likes of Erich Von Daniken, Nick Redfern, Marie D. Jones, Larry Flaxman, and even yours truly. The third installment of this trifecta of awesomeness will be open to submissions from one (or possibly more) “slush contributors.”

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