Category Archives: paranormal

Time travel book by Richard Bullivant is an intriguing collection of stories, highly entertaining

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Review by: KEN KORCZAK

I became a fan of author Richard Bullivant after I read his book ANTIQUES DON’T BOUNCE the story of a young man working his way up through the ranks of large, multifaceted British firm that specialized in the handling of antiques.

In that book he made an ordinary slice of life seem extraordinary. So I was curious to see how this writer would handle a topic that’s extraordinary to begin with– time travel. I was not disappointed.

There’s some intriguing stories here that I’m sure even those who already eagerly follow time travel have never heard about before. For example, there’s a story about a man from a small town in the American Midwest who is astonished when he is spontaneously transported back to ancient Alexandria.

Perhaps even more fascinating is the complex, true story of a Victorian-era conspiracy-like plot by a famous British architect and a brilliant inventor living on the edge of poverty. This unlikely duo teams up to place a series of “teleportation devices” throughout a number of locations in London — which may have ended up transporting a mysterious wealthy widow and her spinster daughters through time!

Yes, a couple of the stories presented here will strain the credulity of even the most open-minded New Ager, but there’s also plenty of “red meat” for the dyed-in-the-wool skeptic — such as the ambitious attempts of respected American physicist Dr. Ronald Mallett to build a real time machine based on the known scientific principles of quantum physics.

This book is called “More” True Time Travel Stories because it follows up a previous short book, TRUE TIME TRAVEL STORIES.

A fun and fascinating read from front to back. Find the book here: TIME TRAVEL

Ken Korczak is a former newspaper reporter, government information officer, served as an advocate for homeless people as a VISTA Volunteer, and taught journalism at the University of North Dakota for five years. He is the author of: MINNESOTA PARANORMALA

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A Scientific Yet Sensitive Examination of the Near Death Experience By A Seasoned Journalist With A Lucid Writing Style

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Review by KEN KORCZAK

I’ve long been interested in the NDE or Near Death Experience since I experienced one myself when I was nine years old. After being shot through the stomach in a hunting accident and nearly bleeding to death on a northern Minnesota farm site on 15-below-zero day, I experienced some of the standard NDE events reported by others – such as being sucked through a tunnel, meeting strange beings – although my experience involved many bizarre events I have never heard in other reports.

Over the years I have read voluminously on the subject, and so I wasn’t exactly expecting to learn something startling new in a Kindle short document of just 41 pages – which I didn’t.

However, I give DEAD OR ALIVE high marks, mostly because of the extraordinarily sensitive portrayal of the author’s uncle, and the penetrating way she handles the details of his death.

Hayasaki uses her sharp journalist’s eye and well-honed writing skill to show death as a strange mixture of lost personal dignity accompanied by a sacred aura of mystery. She makes us look directly into the face of death with the vivid portrait she paints of her uncle — both as a robust young man, and then as a withered cancer-ridden shadow of his former self.

Her uncle’s example, and the NDE he reported 20 years ago after a heart attack, serves as a launching point to survey the latest research on the NDE. Interest in the NDE seems to be catching on among mainstream science, according to Hayasaki.

Like the author, I am a journalist by trade, so I will say only very gently that I think Dead or Alive is just a tad less than objective than maybe the more skeptical-minded might demand – she seems eager to believe in a more spiritual explanation for the NDE, and so seems to tilt slightly away from the accepted rational, empirical and scientific point of view that “all of this can be explained away by science.” On the other hand, I could just as easily accuse the latter crowd of harboring their own biases, and perhaps in an even a more “unscientific” way than the author.

In the end, however, readers may learn something they didn’t know about the latest NDE research. Even better, anyone with a warm body and a beating heart should be moved by story of the author’s lawyer-turned-free-spirit uncle who comes alive in these pages through the story of his death.

Ken Korczak is the author of: MINNESOTA PARANORMALA

The Ghosts Of Varner Creek Is An Above Average Spooky Yarn, Maybe Even Way Above Average

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Review By KEN KORCZAK

Solomon Mayfield is 87 years old and running out the time clock on his life in a Texas small-town nursing home. Maybe it’s not surprising for a man so near the end of his life to see the occasional ghost come drifting through his room to float eerily over his bed. But for old Mr. Mayfield, seeing ghosts has been a regular occurrence since he was 12 years old.
The circumstances surrounding what triggered this special ability are at the heart of the plot of THE GHOSTS OF VARNER CREEK

This is a first novel for MICHAEL WEEMS, but he writes like a novelist with far more experience. His writing demonstrates the understanding that the best fiction is based on character. Yes, a truly great book needs more – plot, background, premise, conflict – all that stuff. But if you are able to create vivid characters and make the reader care about them, you’re more than halfway home to a great read.

Mr. Weems manages that and more. He wrangles all the elements of long-form fiction together sufficiently here to make for a fine novel.

So as the title implies, The Ghosts of Varner Creek has the restless undead as a central premise, but this is a very different kind of ghost story. It involves events that happened in a turn-of-the-century southern Texas, cotton-farming village that is still a few years off from getting electricity or them new-fangled “horseless carriages.”

Young Solomon’s father, Abram Mayfield, is a no good, violent drunk who only married Solomon’s mother, Annie, after he practically raped and impregnated her. Their subsequent life, as you can imagine, is not exactly one of marital bliss. To add heartache and pain to the whole situation, Abram and Annie’s first child is afflicted with Down Syndrome. Against this background, Solomon, a year younger than his mentally challenged sister, is doing the best he can to get along in a family that is isolated and dysfunctional, to say the least.

But how did all this ghost business get started? That’s what you have to read the book to find out — and few will be disappointed at the skillful way Weems cobbles, crafts and weaves together a story that is dark and gut-wrenching, but ultimately uplifting and hopeful.

This book has been recently available free as a Kindle selection, but as of this review, it is being offered for 99 cents – more than a fair price for a terrific read.

Join Ken For His Adventures In:THE STRANGE UNIVERSE OF DR. 58

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A Quest For Non-Human Sentient Intelligence: Magic, Mysticism & Molecule

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Review By Ken Korczak

In a strange, perhaps slightly counterintuitive sense, Micah Hanks is like the Carl Sagan of paranormal investigation. With this book, Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule, Hanks emerges as a keen observer and explainer of science on the edge, the occult, esoteric thought – everything that mainstream researchers consider to be “the fringe” of scientific investigation and philosophy.

Sagan was an accomplished astronomer in his own right, but by far his biggest contribution to science was in bringing the wonders of the universe to the masses in a way that was erudite, yet entertaining and awe inspiring. Likewise, Hanks has been in the trenches, so to speak, personally conducting paranormal investigations, but with this book, he shows the potential to be the “go to guy” to bring a broader understanding of paranormal phenomenon to the greater public.

In Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule, Hanks takes us from ancient times, through the Middle Ages and right on up to the present day, showing how paranormal experiences and phenomenon have been consistent and confounding across the centuries. It’s all in here — ghosts, demons, hauntings, angels, aliens, UFOs, mystical experience, meditation, psychedelic drug induced shamanism, studies of weird brain effects by drugs and EM (electromagnetism) – and we are shown clear and intriguing connections between all of it.

Certainly, Hanks flirts with writing a book that is highly derivative because he relies heavily on the works of some of the biggest names of the cutting edge – Terrence McKenna, Rick Strassman, John Keel and many others. Too many books on paranormal topics these days are basically rehashing all the ideas which have already long been out there. But in this case, it’s more like the author has chosen to stand on the shoulders of giants to that he can see further. Also, to be fair, this book is not entirely derivative because Hanks does include information from personal interviews he conducted, and he also relates some of his own real life experiences if when they help illuminate his topics.

I also like the way the book is conceived as referenced by its title. It welds together — “magic,” (rituals and archaic practices) “mysticism” (transcendent religious thought and practice) and “molecules” (hard science of transcendent brain perceptions and function) — in a way that delivers a fresh, overall perspective, enabling us to see a grander “whole” or process at work behind it all.

Also, on every page there is a vital “Just what the hell is really happening here!” kind of feeling. There’s a dogged almost urgent drive at getting to the bottom of the most confounding mysteries that keep popping up in all cultures across all times — no matter what the hardened, accepted official dogma of the day is telling us about what is supposed to be true and not true.

So this book scores a high recommendation from me … and I’ll be expecting great things from Mr. Hanks in the future.

See also: THE GRALIEN REPORT

Ken Korczak is the author of: THE MAN IN THE NOTHING CHAMBER