Haunted Closets

Many children, indeed, many of us as children, slept with the light on. Real or imagined, we often feared the monster in our closets or the invisible hand reaching out from under our beds (and who hasn't made the leap from the light-switch to the bed, a la Superman style?). For Katie Boyd, her fears were more than just fears. Her fears were actual experiences she endured as a child. 

"Haunted Closets" takes the reader on a journey, neatly segmented into three legs. The first leg discusses the history of various "boogeyman" personae. We learn why parents of different cultures often scare their children into submission with threats of "The Bag Man" or "Tommy Rawhead" coming to take them away if they don't behave. I found this to be quite informative as well as entertaining. Ms. Boyd has obviously done her homework, and she truly makes the history come alive. She also does a wonderful job of balancing the supernatural with the natural, an effort which is not lost on this reader.

The second section of the book deals with personal experiences, and is by far, my favorite section. Katie delves into her past, her fear, and how she finally escaped the torment. She also discusses various paranormal cases she has been a part of in the past and again, who doesn't like a good ghost story? Each of these are, indeed, good ghost stories.

The final section of the book covers "Flesh and Bone Boogeymen." This is where the book becomes a bit disjointed for me. We learn about real-life serial killers as well as various movie "monsters" (such as Freddie Kruger and Michael Myers). While the stories, in and of themselves, are interesting, it was a bit of an emotional lurch and leap for me to go from personal experiences to movie characters. That said, I did especially enjoy the "history" of Sweeney Todd, and could only picture Johnny Depp as I read that segment. As twisted and messed up as the story is, I caught myself swooning a bit on the inside.

All in all, I do recommend this book. It is well-worth your time and energy. Just make certain that if you are at all timid, you read it with the lights on.

I give the first two-thirds of the book four stars; the final third, three stars.

Author: Katie Boyd
Publisher: Schiffer (schifferbooks.com)
ISBN: 978-0-7643-3474-0

The Déjà vu Enigma

If you are expecting a light, fluffy, “ching-a-lingy” read in the book, “The Deja Vu Enigma” by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman, think again. This book is anything but an easy read and not meant for the casual, passing interest in matters of the mind. The subtitle reads, “A Journey Through the Anomalies of Mind, Memory, and Time” and this is very true. The book itself would probably be better titled, “The Mind Enigma.” It does begin and end with déjà vu, however the entire middle portion is a smorgassboard of learning about the various anomalies of our minds.

Ms. Jones and Mr. Flaxman get to the meat of our brains (pun intended) in this book. While not comprehensive, it is nothing if not thorough. After reading only the introduction, I was deeply impressed, and held high hopes that the remainder of my read would be a perfect marriage of the scientific and the paranormal. And it was, almost.

I’m sure we all have our own déjà vu stories to tell. The most significant one for me was when I watched the movie, “Red October” for the first time. I knew what was going to happen, what lines were about to be spoken, and anticipated the actors’ entrances and exits before they happened. The problem was, I was completely freaked out the entire movie, as I had never seen it before. Never have I had a déjà vu experience last for so long or be so strong, though they do happen quite frequently, hence my deep interest in reading this particular book and my high hopes for getting some answers.

As far as déjà vu itself goes, the authors offer several theories and hypothoses on what may cause it; everything from a sort of optical illusion to quantum physics and parallel universes. The book also covers a very large gamut of other unexplained phenomenon. We learn possible scientific explanations for such things as ghosts and UFOs, as well as deep discussions on various brain/mind topics such as amnesia, dreams, mass hysteria and the like.

The book is definitely written from a skeptic’s point of view, however they still manage to tantalize and tease the reader with the possibilities that “it may be true.” Even so, I feel it could be a bit more balanced toward the supernatural end, while still maintaining their scientific heart. For example, there was a double-blind study done in 1968 wherein some plants were watered with distilled water that had been given “healing thoughts,” while others only had ordinary distilled water. All other factors were identical. The plants given the “healing” water grew larger and stronger than the plants who received only the regular distilled water. It would be interesting to hear the authors’ interpretation of this and similar experiments.

“The Déjà vu Enigma” is a solid, studied and well-thought out read for the person who seriously wants to learn about various mind anomalies. It would make an excellent college-level book for the average lay-person, and I can easily visualize a professor making it required reading for his psychology or para-psychology class. Overall, Ms. Jones and Mr. Flaxman did an excellent job of objectively delving into a very subjective subject. 

I give the book four out of five stars.

Authors: Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman
Publisher: Career Press (careerpress.com) and New Page Books (newpagebooks.com)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60163-104-6