Is the paranormal actually normal? #spirituality #occult #paranormal #giveaway

Blurb

Is the paranormal normal?

Many readers will be surprised when learning that reputable scientists, among them several Nobel laureates, have claimed that telepathy is a reality. Their curiosity will increase when reading that Cleopatra’s lost palace and Richard III’s burial place were recovered by means of clairvoyance. And some will think it to be science fiction when finding out about Stargate—the espionage program where the American military and CIA engaged in the development of psychic spies!

Simonsen, a Norwegian historian of ideas, introduces an array of entertaining paranormal tales from history, archaeology, anthropology and psychology, and presents scientific research that has provided fascinating results. He argues that the stories we hear about telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition ought not to be dismissed as superstition

In step with spiritual and occult traditions, the author suggests that consciousness is not limited to our own head. Rather he thinks that all humans (and perhaps all living beings) are linked together in a “Mental Internet.’ Via this network we may exchange ‘telepathic emails’ with friends and family and make clairvoyant ‘downloads’ of information.  Thus perhaps what we usually call ‘supernatural’ is completely natural but little understood communications via this Mental Internet?

Our Secret Powers gives us a engaged and entertaining analysis of a controversial subject and would make an excellent travel companion.

"Superb survey of the paranormal... Although serious in content, it is written in a light, often humorous, style which is a delight to read. As someone who has myself made a lifelong study of the paranormal, I cannot recommend it highly enough." ~ Fantasy author, Herbie Brennan

"Simonsen describes his book as 'A travelogue from the twilight zone',but he is far too modest. Our Secret Powers is a sprawling work, meticulously researched, in which the author deftly, and with engaging wit, pulls together the various strands of "psi"--telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition,telekinesis, and healing--and presents them for our consideration." ~ Pulitzer-prize winner, Teresa Carpenter

Excerpt

Based on this idea, we launch a quite simple model, called the “Mental Internet.” The basic metaphor here is that somewhat in the way our computers are linked together via the Internet, the ‘consciousnesses’ of all humans, and perhaps all living beings, are linked together via some sort of Mental Internet. Consciousness, like the Internet, is—on some level—something that we are all doing together; it is networking. And telepathy is the communication that drives this network.


I therefore invite the reader to engage in a little thought experiment throughout the book: namely that an Internet Model of consciousness may have some relevance. Galileo once invited the Inquisition to look through his telescope in order to see what he himself had seen. But, as we know, the inquisitors were not very keen on having their horizons expanded and instead muttered murkily of ‘the work of the Devil.’ However, I take it for granted that the reader has a radically more open attitude than those darkened souls, and I am therefore confident that my invitation will be well received.


I find it intriguing to think that our everyday perception of Space and Time may, in some respects, be merely a mental frame, a habit. And therefore it might be possible to think outside the box in a more radical way. The proposed thought experiment about a Mental Internet allows for this, and telepathy can then be considered as the ‘emails’ sent and the ‘downloads’ made via this mental network. Many phenomena that otherwise would appear inexplicable will in light of this model fall quite nicely into place. More (much more) about this later!



About the Author

Terje G. Simonsen is an author with a Ph.D. in the History of Ideas. He has increasingly focused his attention on the esoteric and occult traditions and on paranormal phenomena, as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, healing etc. Recently he published the highly acclaimed Our Secret Powers, based on his extraordinary knowledge within this field. Elegantly and with great personal wit and insight, he discusses parapsychological phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. 


Simonsen has had his work praised by several of the world’s most renowned experts on the paranormal: The bestselling parapsychologist, Dean Radin, chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, says: ‘As an encyclopedic introduction to the psychic side of the fascinating but puzzling domain known as the paranormal, there is no better choice than Our Secret Powers.” And Stanley Krippner, expert on hypnosis, shamanism and altered states of consciousness, former leader of two departments in the American Psychological Association, says: “This is an outstanding book and it deserves all the attention it can get. Not only is Our Secret Powers a book for all seasons, it is a book for all reasons!’”.





http://www.paripublishing.com/authors/terje-gerotti-simonsen/


Author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/terjesimonsen

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8895604334/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Amazon.UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Secret-Powers-Clairvoyance-Precognition/dp/8895604334 

Buy link Pari Publishing: 
http://www.paripublishing.com/books/our-secret-powers





Terje G. Simonsen will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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Sizzling Sunday: Necessary Madness - #paranormal #gayromance #SizzlingSunday

 

For today’s Sizzling Sunday, I have a long excerpt from my MM paranormal erotic romance Necessary Madness.

Leave me a comment and you could win a copy of this full length novel – perfect for Halloween!

Blurb

Nineteen year old Kyle sees visions of disasters, visions that tear his world apart. Everyone assumes that he is schizophrenic, but Rob, the cop who picks him up off the street, knows better. Rob's own experience has taught him that psychic powers are real, and potentially devastating.

Since his telepathic sister's brutal murder, Rob wants nothing to do with "gifted" individuals like Kyle. Yet he can't deny his attraction to the beautiful, tortured young man -- an attraction that appears to be mutual. When a brilliant, sadistic practitioner of the black arts lures Kyle into his clutches, Rob faces the possibility that once again he may lose the person he loves most to the forces of darkness.

Excerpt

Blackest night—no moon, no stars. A chill wind, rustling the piles of dead leaves and far away, the hoot of some bird swooping through the forest. Try to move, try to stand. Agony burns brighter than the sun, in the shattered leg crumpled underneath your body. Clutch at the steel rails, slippery with blood. Terrible, total weakness.

A single eye shines in the distance, diamond white, cutting through confusion. The steel sings underneath your body. The beast growls, hurtling closer. You scream, of course you scream. Your cry is drowned by the thunder of the engine, the wail of the whistle. The rails shake, grow hot as live coals. The eye bears down.

“No! Help!” Kyle dragged himself out of the horrible dream just as the train hit. The headlight dimmed behind his eyelids, then flickered out. The roar of the engine gradually faded. He sat up in the unfamiliar bed, gasping for breath, his bare chest dripping with sweat.

The maple tossed in the autumn breeze outside the window. He heard a bump outside his closed door.

“Kyle? Are you okay?” Even through the door, Kyle could hear the concern in Rob’s voice.

“Yeah. I guess.” A twinge hit his left leg, the faintest ghost of the pain from his dream. “Come on in.”

His host sat on the bed, wearing nothing but snug white briefs. Kyle let his eyes travel over Rob’s sculpted chest, following the trail of blond hair that ran along his breastbone down to his navel. An impressive bulk pouched inside the BVDs. Kyle felt his own cock stir and thicken under the blankets.

“So it happens while you’re sleeping, too?” Tousled and bleary-eyed from his sudden awakening, Rob looked younger. He smelt of mint toothpaste.

“Sometimes. It’s different, though. In the waking visions, I’m a spectator, watching helplessly as disaster strikes. In my nightmares, I feel as though it’s all happening to me.”

“Have you tried sleeping pills?”

Kyle laughed grimly. “They only make it worse. There was one night at Worcester State where I screamed for three hours straight without waking up.”

“God, I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do.” Rob shifted, turning more towards Kyle. The cop’s hands clutched compulsively at the bedspread. The lump in his shorts had grown.

Kyle remembered what he’d seen the day he’d awakened at St. Vincent’s. Himself, kneeling before Rob, sucking the cop’s dick. A wave of lust washed over him. He decided to be bold. After all, he had nothing to lose.

“There is. Hold me.”

“What?” Rob’s eyes widened.

“Climb under the covers with me. Put your arms around me.” Kyle flipped back the sheets, exposing his naked body to Rob’s hungry gaze. “Please, Rob. I’m so alone.”

“Are you sure?” Rob’s voice shook. The cop stared at Kyle’s rapidly hardening cock.

Kyle stroked himself. His cock swelled in his fist. “Do I look uncertain?”

Rob didn’t wait for a second invitation. Standing, he stripped off his briefs. His rigid, uncut rod sprang out from the stretchy cotton. Kyle’s mouth watered.

The older man stretched out beside Kyle and captured him in a brawny embrace. He was so warm. So strong. Kyle sighed, settling against Rob’s chest, his head on the cop’s shoulder. He tickled the fat nipples, flicking at them with his tongue. Rob shuddered with pleasure. He pressed his meaty thigh between Kyle’s legs.

Kyle’s cock slapped against his companion’s. Their erections rubbed together, the friction kindling delicious sparks. Kyle reached down and captured the other man’s iron dick, squeezing gently.

Rob gasped, then followed Kyle’s lead. He pumped Kyle’s cock in a firm, steady rhythm. The last vestiges of the nightmare melted away.

“Jesus, that feels so good!” Kyle lifted his chin to meet the cop’s gaze. Rob smiled as though he were in heaven.

“Yeah, it does…”

Kyle’s fingers just barely met as they encircled Rob’s shaft. He stroked thumb along the underside, then over the hood, already slick with pre-cum. He licked his lips, imagining the taste, then smeared the liquid along the stalk. The cock in his hand twitched and pulsed.

“Oh, yeah…Kyle…” Rob’s strokes grew faster and more erratic. Kyle followed suit, sliding his fist up and down, the cop’s foreskin stretching tighter with each moment as his cock continued to swell. Once more, Kyle remembered the vision, wondering if it would be possible to swallow such a huge organ. Or to take him inside—the notion was scary and incredibly exciting.

“Kyle, oh, fuck, uh…” Rob was reduced to grunts and moans. His eyes were screwed shut, his firm lips distorted in a grimace of pleasure. He arched against Kyle’s body, grinding himself into Kyle’s fist. Kyle squeezed harder, coaxing the cum up the shaft. Rob’s cock throbbed in his hand like a juicy heart. Kyle slid to the base and fondled the heavy balls, which were tightening by the instant. The cock jerked and trembled against his palm.

Kyle was close, too. For a moment, he allowed himself to really feel Rob’s talented fingers, pulling, massaging, every touch sending waves of delicious sensation surging through him. The man was so strong, so sure of himself, despite his earlier reticence. It has been so terribly long since anyone cared about Kyle’s pleasure.

Dizziness fluttered through him. The world lurched a little. No, not now, Kyle pleaded hopelessly. He felt the pressure build. He hung on the edge. Reality tilted, shimmered. No, no, no…

“Rob,” he moaned. “Look at me. Please…”

The cop heard, even through the fog of his lust. His eyes shot open and Kyle let himself go, falling into those luminous pools of blue. His cock exploded, his cum shooting out over both of their bellies. A train whistle wailed in Kyle’s head, but the world held, long enough for Kyle to feel Rob’s cock convulse and spew hot liquid all over Kyle’s fingers.

“Oh, baby,” Rob panted, fastening his mouth on Kyle’s. Kyle wallowed in the wonderful sensations. Heat and wetness, above and below. Rob’s tongue, Rob’s taste, Rob’s hard body pressed against him. 

Don't forget to leave a comment. And if you don't win - the book is only 99 cents at all outlets between now and the end of October, as part of my Month of Magic promotion! 

Review: One Too by Sherrie Cronin -- #scifi #politics #humanrights @cinnabar01

Blurb

Telepathy creates as many problems as it solves, as most of the members of the secret organization x0 would admit. When new member Lola discovers another group of telepaths with a completely different approach, those problems multiply at the speed of thought.

Soon, Lola’s family and friends are in danger. Lucky for her, she’s not your average budding psychic. Each person with whom she is close has a special gift of their own. That’s good, because it’s going to take every power they possess to keep this other group from succeeding with their plan to eradicate x0.

Excerpt

“The way your mom describes how you see the future, it is so cool. Please. Touch me first. I want to know what’s going to happen to me.” Xuha made one of his exaggerated comic faces, this time a look of amplified eagerness.

Ariel directed a fierce look of annoyance at her mother.

“We are in the middle of a crisis here,” her mom responded. “So we’ve now got a ‘no secrets’ policy in this house. I’ve told everyone everything I know because we have to work together.”

“That will not be possible,” the blind Irish man said from the place where he had settled in on the couch.

Lola looked at this man named Cillian more closely. He was a tall, unusually attractive man in his mid-forties, with a rich brogue and the demeanor of someone of wealth and importance. He spoke like he was accustomed to being listened to.

“I beg your pardon?” Lola said as politely as she could.

“Ariel will need to be selective about what she tells you. It’s a pity that you chose to share her feyness with this entire group, but she and I will find ways to manage that damage. She needs to check with me before she says anything.”

Lola reminded herself that she was tired. Hungry. Under a lot of stress. And not used to strangers in her own house telling her what to do. She tried to soften her voice before she spoke, but she didn’t do a very good job of it.

“Ariel is my daughter and she will do no such thing. Her entire family is in danger and needs her help. What she does or doesn’t do is not your concern. I’m not even sure why you are here, but you may stay if and only if you don’t think it is your prerogative to tell us what to do.”

The rest of the room went silent.

My Review

Lola Zeitman is geophysicist who works for an oil company in Texas. She is also a telepath. She can read the thoughts of others as well as shielding her own thoughts from being overheard.

Lola’s eldest daughter Ariel can see the future—well, actually, alternative futures. Her middle child, daughter Teddie, can travel in the astral plane, leaving her physical body behind while sending her energy body to distant locations. Zane, Lola’s teenage son, has a different talent; he can morph his face and overall appearance to mimic other people. Meanwhile, Lola’s beloved husband Alex can slow down or accelerate his personal experience of time. This makes him a dynamite athlete, as well as helping him get through boring or painful experiences.

A family of superheroes? Hardly. Each of these powers has serious limitations. Sherrie Cronin has succeeded in creating a normal, close knit family who just happen to have talents that just might save the world—but only if they work together, and reach out to other specially-abled individuals around the globe.

In One Too, Sherrie Cronin’s surprisingly believable science fiction novel, the focus is not so much on superhuman powers as on the moral power an individual can bring to bear to fight evil. The fact that Lola and her family have these varied talents is less important than the way they use them. Their opponent is an uncomfortably familiar international news organization, Reel News, dedicated to stirring up conflict for profit. Warren Moore, the CEO of this massively influential company, has assembled a group of male telepaths to help him in this mission. The monads, as he calls them, are well-paid to ferret out stories that can advance Warren’s agenda. They accurately sense and report the fears of the public so the Reel News can amplify and exploit those fears.

As the story opens, Warren tries to use Lola to do just that—to make her pacifism appear ridiculous. However, during the interview, one of his monads recognizes her powerful telepathic capabilities. Warren’s goals shift, becoming far more dangerous to Lola and her family. He will stop at nothing, not even murder, to either eradicate or control Lola and her loosely knit group of fellow telepaths, x^0.

I really enjoyed One Too. Although it has many characters, the author manages to make them distinct and sympathetic. Even Warren, the villain, has some positive qualities. The monads vary according to their personalities and the cultures to which they belong. I loved the fact that the heroine was a middle-aged mother of grown kids, not to mention a professional scientist. Both the concept and execution of this novel eschew the genre stereotypes that make many books so depressingly predictable.

I also appreciated the global scope of One Too. Though it begins in Texas, the book takes the reader all the way to South America, and ultimately, to Antarctica. Characters hail from Argentina, from Ireland, from Thailand, from Nigeria, from Turkey, even from Bhutan.

I have only two, relatively minor criticisms of the novel. First, I felt the pacing was too even. The book features a variety of crises, but somehow the narrative flow didn’t make those stand out for me. Though Lola and Alex have a terrifying brush with death near the end of the book, this didn’t seem any more urgent than their earlier, less perilous escapes from the clutches of Warren’s organization. This may be due to the fact that by the end of the book, the reader has become accustomed to the ingenious ways that different characters, with different abilities, pool their talents so that the strength of one offsets the weakness of another. I’d come to expect they’d succeed, so this reduced the tension.

My other concern is that perhaps the author makes her personal political and moral perspective too transparent in this tale. It’s clear from the preface and the afterward in this novel that One Too (which is part of the series 46 Ascending) has a particular agenda. I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Cronin’s views, but other readers might find the way she wears her political heart on her sleeve to be annoying. It might even be enough to make them put down the book.

I understand that in some sense, the author views this novel as a way of changing the world, if only in a small way. For instance, she is donating a percentage of all sales from the book to Amnesty International (an organization I also try to support). It’s difficult to be subtle about something you believe strongly. Still, from a reader’s perspective, it might be better to make the messages a bit less obvious.

Overall, though, I’m really happy I volunteered to read and review this novel. I hope that Ms. Cronin’s tour brings her many more readers.

About the Author

Sherrie grew up in Western Kansas thinking that there was no place in the universe more fascinating than outer space. After her mother vetoed astronaut as a career ambition, she went on to study journalism and physics in hopes of becoming a science writer.

She published her first science fiction short story long ago, and then waited a lot of tables while she looked for inspiration for the next story. When it finally came, it declared to her that it had to be whole book, nothing less. One night, while digesting this disturbing piece of news, she drank way too many shots of ouzo with her boyfriend. She woke up thirty-one years later demanding to know what was going on.

The boyfriend, who she had apparently long since married, asked her to calm down and explained that in a fit of practicality she had gone back to school and gotten a degree in geophysics and had spent the last 28 years interpreting seismic data in the oil industry. The good news, according to Mr. Cronin, was that she had found it at least mildly entertaining and ridiculously well-paying The bad news was that the two of them had still managed to spend almost all of the money.

Apparently she was now Mrs. Cronin, and the further good news was that they had produced three wonderful children whom they loved dearly, even though to be honest that is where a lot of the money had gone. Even better news was that Mr. Cronin turned out to be a warm-hearted, encouraging sort who was happy to see her awake and ready to write. "It's about time," were his exact words.

Sherrie Cronin discovered that over the ensuing decades Sally Ride had already managed to become the first woman in space and apparently had done a fine job of it. No one, however, had written the book that had been in Sherrie's head for decades. The only problem was, the book informed her sternly that it had now grown into a six book collection. Sherrie decided that she better start writing it before it got any longer. She's been wide awake ever since, and writing away.

Author Social Media Links

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cinnabar01

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Number46Ascending

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5805814.Sherrie_Cronin

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sherrie-Cronin/e/B007FRMO9Q

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077NYTNSJ

Blog: http://www.46ascending.org/

Sherrie will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway