Granted, with the popularity surrounding books, films and television series like True Blood and Twilight, it may come as no surprise that there are people who claim to be so fascinated with the dark side that they take to living nocturnal lifestyles in order to fulfill their own grim fascination with today’s vampiric sub-culture. But these individuals are mere neophytes; initiates by choice that could be headed down a long, dark road to something far more sinister… something so horrifying that the existence of which, though shrouded in mystery, can’t be ignored.

Worst of all, it’s real.

In his new book Real Vampires, Night Stalkers, and Creatures from the Darkside, Brad Steiger yet again takes the psyche of the reader into a veritable neither realm of dark foreboding mystery surrounding one of mankind’s most ancient foes: the vampire.

Most of us who have been scholars of vampire lore are well acquainted with the likes of Vlad Tepes, King of Wallaschia, or Montague Summers, the self-proclaimed clergyman, witch-hunter and author of the 1928 thesis on vampire hunting, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin. Arguably, Dracula himself (though a fictional character, nonetheless a close cousin to King Tepes) dominates the majority of the twilight neither-studies of the vampire. Lesser known are the varieties of murderous vampiric stalkers who have haunted and ruthlessly killed right here in the United States within only the last few decades, and that in many instances, to become a “vampire” requires not a bite, nor a curse, but merely a choice.

Take for instance the story of Sean Sellers, a self-proclaimed “Devil Child” who made his own evil pact that began with storing a jar of his own blood in his refrigerator, used for ghastly purposes of ritual imbibing. His thirst for the life-liquid eventually led him to murder a 36 year old night clerk, and even his own parents who he claimed to love. Along these same lines, Santanic ritual murders carried out by the likes of the wayward Steven Hurd, who professed his right to “snuff people out” as justification for murdering a defenseless mother of two and using portions of her remains in a blood-sacrifice to the Darkside.

Better known for his devilish bloodlust is serial killer Jeffery Dahmer, who Steiger refers to as a “Vampire-Cannibal-Werewolf all in one.” The mysterious Zodiac killer–whose identity is still unknown more than 40 years after his reign of terror in San Francisco–is also taken into question. Steiger supposes “Perhaps the spirit parasite that had held him in thrall had grown weary of the hunt in San Francisco and moved on to possess another student of the occult in another city,” referencing Stanly Dean Baker, who infamously contacted an California FBI agent and told him, “I am a cannibal.” Baker, who seemed to take the name “Jesus” for himself, had used his misguided logic to determine that the Christian words “eat my flesh and drink my blood” were meant literally, prompting him to remove the heart from one of his victims and devour it. One witness at a “beer-and-pot party” even claimed they watched Baker drink an entire mug of human blood.

By intensively analyzing reports such as these, Steiger manages to unveil the sick, twisted, and startling reality of a vampiric element present among us today. This is nothing new; it has existed for longer than we can imagine, stemming from demonic rites and ritual sacrifice, to notions of possessive “demon-parasites” borrowed from his earlier books (namely the Shadow World trilogy). But demonic serial killers aren’t by any means the only strange parallels Steiger manages to weigh in with. Shadow People, Black-eyed Beings, Chupacabras and, yes, even UFOs are recounted with an insightful look at their various vampiric elements.

One relaxing camper, Gretchen, recounts a vivid encounter with “toad-like” beings that emerged from a spacecraft in the wooded mountains of Oregon. The creatures, which carried a large metallic box that seemed to detect her presence, approached Gretchen, and in a rather typical abduction scenario, took small samples of flesh and blood, as evidenced by the strange marks covering her body the next morning. How often do we question the consistency of reports occurring during UFO encounters like this, where contactees claim to have had blood removed? Strange conspiracy notions do exist, supported by the likes of former Air Force officers like John Lear, that suggest aliens actually bathe in human blood, much like several of history’s most notorious human-vampires including Elizabeth Bathory, the “Blood Countess.” Might there be a more sinister truth behind the UFO enigma than we realized?

Whether or not you buy the notion that vampires and flesh-consuming devils exist among us, Brad Steiger’s Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside will keep you awake at night, and makes for a chilling read this Halloween season. Rest assured, you’ll want to sleep with the lights on… though to be fare, I must warn you that this may be the only way you’ll rest at all.

Seldom are all the many and varied aspects of Forteana looked at closely and carefully with hope of drawing new bits of evidence together from areas where strings of thought might occasionally intersect. O’Brien, on the other hand, makes this his sole focus with Stalking the Tricksters. In essence, various strange elements of Forteana are incorporated into a single “unified theory” of the paranormal: O’Brien discusses hoaxes, evoking names like P.T. Barnum and Joseph Smith, in addition to famous romps like the Cardiff Giant and the multitude of religious relics alleged to exist throughout the Middle Ages. He also takes a discerning  look at secret societies, “Bohemian Grove”, and 911 terror conspiracies; ultimately, this subculture of hoaxes, paranormal and cryptozoological phenomenon, conspiracies, and secret government activity illustrates for us that an underlying, cosmic spirit of disunion pervades human culture in every way imaginable, and that it probably will continue to do so forever.

Enter the Trickster.

Native cultures across the globe have discussed this Trickster element for thousands of years, dating back to cave depictions of shape-shifting, animalistic humanoids that play various pivotal roles in the shaping of culture throughout history… but what are they? Are they secret societies that seek to control world order? Are they alien intelligences that observe humanity from the shadows, controlling very basic functions of our existence? Or, could they be members of a spirit race that can interact with–and in many cases–control humanity?

The answer is that these are all true, and that the notion of a cosmic “Trickster” element as it is variously called, sheds light on the seemingly inexplicable nature of the unexplained.

Horrific notions of cannibalistic Wendigo spirits capable of possessing humans receive an interesting separation from the typical modern interpretations, usually suggesting that Wendigos are one of the many cultural interpretations of Bigfoot. Cryptozoological creatures like Bigfoot are also separated from “nuts and bolts” theories of physical existence, instead perceived as a singular, interdimensional phenomenon which are inexplicable to humans living in a tangent, three-dimensional universe like ours. Similarly, UFOs and alien phenomenon are treated to a Trickster’s perspective. Casting a skeptical eye toward the Roswell Crash of 1947, O’Brien states that, “For the purposes of stalking tricksters, I remind you… it doesn’t particularly matter if the event was really an alien craft or not, it is the effect of belief in the event that is of interest to me, when looking at the Roswell crash. Think about it; if the event was a real alien craft, then the government is trying to trick us into believing that it was not real. If the crash wasn’t alien, or real, then the effect on millions of people who believe it was real is worthy of note.”In this thought exercise, O’Brien outlines a third possibility: the long-considered notion that the craft discovered at Roswell was, in fact, one of ours–a US craft of our very own make and design. “If this is the case then the trickster’s plot and the government’s role are more remarkable and worthy of intense examination.”

Indeed, to look at human meddling with world affairs, hoaxes, conspiracies and cover-ups; paired alongside truly inexplicable paranormal activities, is bold. However, it is such a bold view that may render the new perspectives, the new emerging trends in not only paranormal studies, but in scientific discovery as well, that O’Brien issues. Like it or not–agree or disagree, it cannot be ignored, and O’Brien successfully gets one’s mind thinking in terms of a new, all-inclusive perspective. Therefore, let it be said here that Stalking the Tricksters is one of those valuable, rusty keys that will ultimately unlock the next door to knowing the mysteries of this universe. However strange you may find them, they must be considered; however frightening they appear, they must be accepted as one piece to the larger cosmic pie.

Try to assure yourself it’s nothing. After all, shadows are merely outlines of solid objects; opaque, fleeting references to their ultimate source, rather than the objects themselves. So what if the shadow ahead looks like a creature leering at you from the darkness, or a strange freak with a top hat, peeking around a corner? Surely it’s only your eyes playing tricks, right?

Author Jason Offutt would beg to differ with such sound sentimentalities, opting to express instead the absolute fantastic. Though he does so bravely, he assures us that he approaches the subject of actual shadow entities or “shadow people” from a journalistic perspective, “allowing others—experts, victims, willing participants—to tell their stories”. Oh, and what stories they tell.

Offutt’s latest book, Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us, looks at the phenomenon collectively known for the last few decades as “shadow people” with new clarity, and perhaps even gives us the first complete work dedicated solely to the phenomenon. Referencing everything from classical works like those of Guy de Maupassant, to popular modern mediums like the late-night radio program Coast to Coast AM, Offutt illustrates vividly for us that darkness doesn’t just walk; it thrives in the absence of light and in virtually all walks of life, proliferated by entities we neither know well or understand, who seem to watch us with a fascination that mirrors the fear we inevitably show them.

Fortunately, Offutt doesn’t take a traditional “campfire” approach to his work, recounting listlessly report after report, as told to him in unverifiable stories. Instead, Offutt points out unique aspects of people’s encounters with shadow people that include “buzzing sounds” heard by witnesses, which mirror audible phenomenon associated with everything from UFO abductions to the kinds of high-powered psychoactive experiences described in the work of psychedelic researcher Rick Strassman; tying together for us unforeseen amounts of loose ends that seem to comprise the “high strangeness” associated with ghostly phenomenon. Similarly, Offutt devotes an entire chapter to the discussion of Ouija boards, and how this seemingly harmless object (erroneously—and perhaps foolishly—marketed as a child’s toy in recent years) can allow one to invite evil and potential danger into their lives.

One particular encounter that I found close-to-the-heart was what Offutt classifies under his categorization of a “hat man”—that is, a shadow who appears wearing a hat, in a bed and breakfast near Carthage, Missouri. The ghost in this locale appeared to the witnesses wearing a derby; similarly, when my own research into the paranormal was still in its infancy, I once spent all night in a haunted country club searching for a ghost who wore a derby. I would never have thought to liken my own long-sought specter to Offutt’s shadow people, although I must admit that reports detailing the horrific, empty eye sockets of the old country club’s ghost now have me considering otherwise.

Another unique element described in the book has to do with entities that have devilish-looking red eyes. Offutt even makes references to “shadow cats” which bear the same sort of glaring orifices, detailing a variety of reports in which frightening looking entities appear to torment their “victims”. Elsewhere, Offutt details physical abuses suffered by people who have been unfortunate enough to have crossed paths with a malevolent being. In some instances, victims report being choked, while others describe horrific circumstances where such frightening entities paralyze them, only to move in close, stare, and issue intimidating orders at them in deep, demonic voices. Some of the manifestations appear as silhouetted “orbs” that glide through the air, others demon-dogs, and still others appear as mischievous devils who mock their victims.

Needless to say, Darkness Walks makes for more than just an interesting read about a peculiar subject, which, until now, has been given less than ample focus for study. In fact, the book provides an eerie window into the lives of others like us who, under perhaps the most frightening circumstances imaginable, have managed to accept their fears, and even learn from them. Be that as it may, I have taken away from this reading one thing for certain; I may never glance down a darkened alleyway again with my usual careless disregard, having been made aware now of the shadows that could be watching. In fact, for all we know, they may not simply watch from the shadows… they could be lurking all around any of us at any time, even as we sleep. Sweet dreams…

To purchase this and other fine titles from ANOMALIST BOOKS, visit their website by clicking here.

My introduction to the trilogy was through the intial title Shadow World, for which I wrote a review that appeared at Amazon.com. After this, when the second installment, Otherworldly Affaires, was published, Brad contacted me directly and warned that “because of the controversial nature of the book,” dealing with touchy subjects like sexual relations with members of higher planes of existence, he had hoped I would be willing to review it for him also (today, it remains my favorite book in the series, as well as an over-all favorite as far as books dealing with spirit phenomenon go).

By the time Beyond Shadow World was released, I had expected a dark, brooding culmination of all the most frightening elements of the nether-realms; complete with horrific visions of specters and haunts that both frighten and intrigue us. This, as it turns out, was not the scope of the book at all, however. Instead, Beyond Shadow World was a complete surprise, in the sense that after trudging through shadow-people, demons, disembodied sexual molesters, and God-knows-what-else in previous books, this installment uniquely allows Steiger to illustrate for the reader a cumulative, educational element in the discovery of opening one’s psychic senses.

Many of the people Steiger discusses in Beyond Shadow World are folks just like you or I, having stumbled upon contact with those from realms beyond quite by accident. This seems to be a staple of Steiger’s work, in that rather than detailing the work of famous scientists and spiritualists or simply re-hashing ghost stories he has collected, Brad Steiger himself becomes a character, recounting his hundreds of investigations he has conducted over the years. From the exorcism of a small boy’s spirit left behind after a tragic murder, to the dangers of out-of-body projections and even the methodology behind contacting our “spirit teachers”, the entire experience of Beyond Shadow World involves the reader as an educational experience.

Another element I found particularly unique about this book was continuous mystical quality Steiger is able to bring to his work. Aside from almost literally entrancing the reader, Steiger smoothly conveys the essence of being “a spiritual warrior”, and various ways to contact and learn from higher powers, without endangering oneself in the process. Having studied mysticism and the supernatural for years, I found that early in the book Steiger gives perhaps one of the best descriptions of how this mystical element interplays with our perception of the supernatural, or more appropriately, the Shadow World:

“When an individual achieves a mystical sense of Oneness with All That Is, he or she truly perceives that the only eternal truths are the immaterial products of our soul, our imagination, and our inspirations–all of which have their most profound expression in our shared world of the supernatural.” 

Steiger also comments on the existence of what he refers to as “an as yet unidentified form of energy that is the source of all so-called magical or supernatural powers,” which mystics have used throughout the ages to communicate with “spirit intelligences on other levels of being.” The notion of such “intelligences” and their existence all around us is at once frightening and exhilarating; thus, having read Beyond Shadow World, one who chooses to continue questioning the existence of such entities has engaged an exercise in futility. After all, to deny the reality of inhabitants of the shadow realms seems as irrational as refusing to breathe air until it becomes visible. Whether they are visible or not, much like air, the spirit world and its inhabitants remain ever-present, and they linger all around us.

Brad Steiger has, again, illustrated for us the dark side, but this time with such an element of light, hope and discovery that our ultimate knowledge of the Shadow World can finally be faced without fear, regret, or repression. Every now and then, it is nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel; Steiger has given us perhaps the best perspective of it to-date.

http://www.dailygrail.com/PDF/DarkloreSampler.pdf

By making this free online version available, Greg hopes to sell more of the actual hard copies, and asserts that “the Darklore project aims to support good research and writing by passing profits back to the contributors on a royalty basis. So if you dig the sampler PDF, make sure you pick up a copy of our latest release from Amazon.” Via the link to Greg’s site below, you can access limited edition hardback and paperback editions at Amazon.com:

http://www.dailygrail.com/news/free-darklore-goodness

In addition to enjoying Greg’s writing, my pal Nick Redfern also contributed to this project. I encourage everyone to help support these fine authors!

In spite of the associations we make with alien visitors descending upon us from above, the alien abduction phenomenon seems to have remained in the political and social underground of our culture. Even today, it remains a topic that is seldom afforded thoughtful, discerning interest and thorough study. Therefore, things we had begun to understand about alien abduction phenomena as early as the 1960s, looking back at reports like those of Betty and Barney Hill or Betty Andreason, we nonetheless find ourselves questioning more and more as time goes on.

By the same token, looking back over the early reports of alien abduction from time to time also allows us to glimpse elements of the phenomenon with a degree of clarity and un-obfuscated detail. Such is the case with Ann Druffel and D. Scott Rogo’s modern classic, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts, reprinted by Anomalist Books. Following Druffel and Rogo’s investigation into a series of peculiar incidents that occurred in and around the quiet Tujunga Canyon beginning in 1953 (predating Betty and Barney Hill’s famous abduction by nearly a decade), the reader is taken along on a wild, probing encounter with what is arguably one of the earliest reported abduction encounters with the “gray aliens” of popular lore.

Originally published in 1980, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts managed to land in the midst of one of the most pivotal times in modern Ufology. The book details encounters that date back more than a half a century, prior to popular reports of alien abduction and extraterrestrials that didn’t resemble the human-like “Space Brothers” of the silver Sci-Fi era. At the same time, we have the benefit of reading a book co-authored by two individuals already well-acquainted with the most striking abduction scenarios to have occurred in the last forty years. What this gives us is a carefully organized scenario involving the reoccurring abductions of five California women throughout various periods of their lives, by authors capable of reasoning with the given facts and information, and who all the while exhibit discrimination when the various accounts and other information seem to conflict.

One particularly fascinating aspect of the book involves the repeated comparisons that the abductees make to their experiences being nearly indistinguishable from dreams, as well as their similarities to spirit/psychic phenomenon. Common themes discussed throughout the book include sleep paralysis, hypnotism, out of body experiences, spirit manifestations, and remote viewing; during one hypnosis session with abductee Jan Whitley, Druffel even makes references to John Keel’s notions of tulpa phenomena and invisible energy forms capable of taking on shapes and representations best suited for successful “contact” with humans. Probing this notion further, it is interesting to point out that many of the contactees in this book don’t describe their encounters with alien beings as frightening; one individual described the fascination her alien visitor had shown toward her small sleeping son in what she perceived to be an “accidental encounter”. Similarly, the optimistic Sara Shaw expresses early in the book her interest in her captors, as well as her desire to tell her abductors all about a scar on her back which, according to her account, “fascinated them”.

Altogether, the surreal, lucid-dreamlike quality that these encounters bring to the study of alien abduction make for an intense, sometimes frightening read, but not at all in a conventional way. If anything, the precedent set by Druffel and Rogo in this modern classic among abduction reports makes other literature regarding the phenomenon pale in comparison. Even three decades after its publication, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts raises the bar as to where and how proper scientific study of alien abduction can—and no doubt should—continue, and it stands alone as one of the finest texts to ever delve into the subject at length.

Have you ever been married to a ghost? Have you ever parented a “spirit child”? Or perhaps you’ve been visited in the dark of night by some strange presence—with whom shortly thereafter you may have found yourself in the throes of passion! Time and time again, average folks in their day-to-day lives have described such strange phenomena, and it certainly doesn’t always involve favorable circumstances; several individuals have even claimed to have been accosted by “spirit molesters” from the Shadow World. To date, no collection of such accounts better presents the argument that the powers of love and sexual desire can—and do—extend beyond the physical realm than Brad Steiger’s latest work, Otherworldly Affaires: Haunted Lovers, Phantom Spouses, and Sexual Molesters from the Shadow World.

Steiger vividly recounts case studies, as well as his own research and correspondences over the years, involving widows who have met their deceased spouses at the moment of their death, seductive temptresses from UFOs, psychics who have met their client’s deceased lovers and communicated important messages from beyond the grave, ghostly lovers who visit in the night to engage in otherworldly intercourse, and even married couples who have shared vivid psychic dreams where they battled against giant ugly rapists with the help of their spirit guides!

The latter which I mention, involving a psychic medium and his wife who shared a bizarre and frightening nightmare, not only stands out among the stories recounted in the book, but must also be one of the strangest instances of paranormal activity I have ever read. The wife of the medium Steiger describes awoke to find herself crouching in a dank cave with a large, ugly beast standing over her. At this moment, Steiger’s medium friend described entering his wife’s dream, where he began to batter the brute with his fists until they literally bled! Finally, the large creature summoned others like it to help fight off the protective husband, who by then had noticed that the creatures were “emphatically male, and there was little question as to their designs on Arlene.” Reacting quickly, he thought of summoning help of his own, the thought of which brought forth a spirit guide whom he calls “Brave Knife”, along with two other sturdy warriors who battled alongside him. In the struggle that ensued, Arlene’s pajama bottoms were ripped off, and her husband sustained a cut on his cheek. Perhaps not surprisingly, both of these facets remained as the couple awakened (otherwise unharmed) to find themselves in the middle of their bedroom, the lights on, staring at one another in disbelief while holding the same embrace they had last shared in their psychic dream!

Stories like this, along with the inclusion of everything from the sweet and sultry tales of spirit visitations, the astounding stories of deceased lovers returning from the grave to help their loving spouses, and frightening accounts of spirit molesters help deliver Otherworldly Affaires as nothing short of what the author warned me it would be before sending it my way: “controversial”. Indeed, reading this book will change one’s perspectives of love, sex, marriage, the afterlife, as well as the notion of spirit and ghostly activity. But above all, it is also a damned good read… though by now, I must say I would expect nothing less from Brad Steiger.

You may read more about Brad’s new book, or purchase your own copy by following this link:

http://www.anomalistbooks.com/steiger4.html