The best parapsychology books

While I didn’t set out to copy this novel, I have to admit that unconsciously this mashup of chick lit and horror with a vampire protagonist probably spawned my idea to write a romantic comedy/horror mashup with a protagonist who has just become a ghost. If you enjoyed Restless Spirits, this book has a similar vibe, albeit one that’s quite a bit more, ahem, spicy than you’ll typically find in my own writing. At turns hilarious, frightening, poignant, and steamy, this is probably the book that put paranormal chick-lit on the map.

This is the best book on magic for skeptics and modern, rationally-minded readers. The author, who has a Ph.D. in Psychology, argues that magic can be verified and explained scientifically without all of the “woo-woo” that often requires an extra leap of faith for beginning practitioners. Magic is a natural aspect of reality, and each of us can tap into it skills and techniques with practice and persistence. The book provides a brief history of magic and offers a guide with exercises that one can do to strengthen mental and practical abilities.

Adam Selzer writes as if you're listening to him tell ghost stories over a beer and a plate of nachos in a dark Chicago bar, with a summer night's breeze blowing in off Lake Michigan. Selzer is hands-down the expert on Chicago history, and he's no slouch at the paranormal aspect of the city's background either -- he's a tour guide for one of the Chicago ghost tour companies. He has a snarky, irreverent style that makes any of his books a sheer pleasure to read. In addition to his historical and paranormal nonfiction, he also writes YA fiction. 

Part researcher, part mad scientist, and complete magickal genius, Ivo consistently provides information and techniques that push boundaries in terms of innovation within witchcraft, occultism, and psychic development.  Ivo is another one of those witches with a highly unique approach to energy work. The Keys to Perception will deeply enrich your psychic skills and magickal skills. Blending elements from many different esoteric techniques such as Wicca, Ceremonial Magick, and Eastern Traditions along with his own insight and wisdom from years of practice and experience, Ivo presents time-tested, practical methods for the psychic witch. Ivo's work is groundbreaking and pioneering in many ways, and this is a must-have on every psychic witch's bookshelf. Every time I read Ivo's books, I'm incredibly inspired and influenced by them. This book, in particular, is probably his most influential upon my work.

While not explicitly written from a witchcraft point of view, The Psychic Energy Codex by Michelle Belanger is a highly approachable book for awakening your psychic ability and learning how to manipulate energy, which are very crucial skills for the psychic witch. Despite being a world-famous psychic and an occult researcher with encyclopedic knowledge, the way Belanger breaks everything down in this book makes the information easy to understand for even the absolute beginner. In addition, the book provides foundational techniques that are essential for any energy worker, witch or not. One of the brilliant aspects of this book is that Michelle emphasizes that everyone is wired differently energetically, perceiving and working with energy differently. As such, the author provides impressive guidance and insight to help you tailor practices to suit you so that you can effectively engage in psychic and energetic practices.

How could I not include the first-ever fantasy/paranormal book I ever read? It delivers on the promised suspense, death, and romance to die for. But I most loved the way the story focused on Evie, the main character, finding herself. She is thrust on this path where she literally has no choice but to find out who she really is, what it means, and how to deal with it. She has to face some hard things for a teenager all while trying to still just be a kid. The best part of YA books is the path of discovering one’s self the MCs go on. This one resonated with me on a personal level.

I have been praising this book for years and have no plans to stop anytime soon. Using investigatory skills and a keen sense of human pathos, journalist and NPR producer Horn tells the full-circle story of the parapsychology lab founded by the Rhines. She doggedly and accurately presents the “unbelievable” findings of the Duke lab and the struggle of its founders to swim against a tide of orthodox reaction. As a work of history, it is significant—and as a piece of dramatic historiography it is enthralling. 

If, after all this, you remain a skeptic—and skeptic, in its classical sense, is a noble term that any of us should gladly claim—scientist Radin sorts out the issues in a manner that reflects both his integrity as a researcher (something that most critics are not) and his humor and skills as a communicator. Radin is, in my estimation, the inheritor of JB Rhine and a tireless seeker after truth in a clinical setting. He is the generational voice of many contemporary parapsychologists and philosophers of consciousness. Radin has personally rescued me from more errors than I can enumerate and in this book he impeccably surveys some of parapsychology’s evidence-based insights—and the social reasons for resistance to them.  

A whole agency of supernaturally gifted investigators… oh, yes, please! This story focuses on Aidan, who is able to read people and objects through touch. He’s been disgraced after failing to find a missing child and has come to Savannah to nurse his wounds. The heroine, Lexie, is a reporter and believes a serial killer is hunting in their city, but no one believes her. She enlists Aidan’s reluctant help and the two of them develop a romance as they search for clues. This story has adventure, romance, psychic powers, and a ghost that is used for reconnaissance. It’s got everything! The characters’ powers are solidly researched and feel like they could be possible and the suspense plot will take your breath away.

Kelly takes apart paranormal phenomena case by case, debunking pretty much every episode of The X-Files in doing so. From spontaneous human combustion to ESP to The Bermuda Triangle and certain famous cryptids, Kelly provides background information, the holes in the story, and the most likely explanations. The strength of this book is simultaneously its weakness, and that’s its specificity. Readers won’t take away as much about the scientific method and concepts of zoology or archaeology that can be applied to other mysteries, but they will come away with the knowledge to debunk some of the most famous tabloid claims. They’ll also come away with some interesting cocktail party conversation topics.