Publisher's Synopsis
Throughout history there have been reports of contacts with an extraordinary variety of non-human entities. They tell us of meetings with demons, angels, long-dead saints, the Virgin Mary, fairies, spirits of the dead and apparitions of the living.
What can we make of such claims? This fascinating and meticulously researched book describes the nature and extent of the enigma and explains why a comparative study offers our best hope of understanding it.
Hilary Evans reviews the enormous diversity of sightings, beginning with entities such as dream figures, dopplegangers and UFO occupants. He then considers the ways in which entities have been deliberately induced, ranging from magical rituals and seances to laboratory experiments and the use of hallucinogens.
The third part of the book describes the various theoretical approaches to the problem, including Jung's concept of the collective unconscious, the induced dream hypothesis, the psi-substance hypothesis, and the idea of the divided self. Finally, a model is presented that demonstrates how entity sightings may occur.
