Occult Memoirs

In a world where whispers become roars and rumors turn into accepted reality, Dexter Maxx delves deep into the labyrinth of modern myths, guiding listeners through a mesmerizing journey of the most tantalizing conspiracy theories of our age. From dark corners of the internet to the corridors of power, Conspiracies is a gripping exploration of humanity's age-old quest for answers in an increasingly complex world.

On February 2, 1963, a tanker with 39 men aboard departed Beaumont and never returned. In the mid-spring of 1882, Billy the Kid's friend, foe, and equal escaped Huntsville Penitentiary and vanished. On December 9, 1961, a young boy in Wichita Falls disappeared without a trace. On November 18, 1936, a father and son were swallowed by a Walled Kingdom. On December 23, 1974, three girls went to a Fort Worth mall and were never seen or heard from again. This collection explores 20 baffling disappearances that investigators have studied for decades, to no avail.

Night delivers a litter of eight puppies in a poor neighborhood in Springfield, Tennessee, the week before Melissa Armstrong first meets her. As a volunteer for a local nonprofit, Melissa has experience with strays and plans to rescue Night and her litter within days. But nothing goes as planned. For the next six months, Melissa and a ragtag cast of characters try to trap the mutt with nets, catchpoles, spring traps, cheeseburgers, hot dogs stuffed with Benadryl, and the dog’s crying puppies. They fail so many times that Melissa is on the brink of giving up.

In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A "spirit photographer", William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation. Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation.

An inspirational and heartrending memoir about Ben Breedlove, whose videos about his near-death experiences and visions of heaven went viral in 2012, written by his sister Ally Breedlove. On Christmas Day 2011, Ben Breedlove's soul went to heaven. But it wasn't his first time there. Ben suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a heart condition that posed a constant risk of sudden death. His condition, a thickening of the heart muscle, worsened over time, leaving him weak and fatigued.

On December 10, 2009, Crystal McVea was being treated in a hospital for pancreatitis. Her heart stopped pumping for nine minutes before doctors managed to revive her. In those nine minutes, she went to heaven, stood with God, and was forever changed.

Krishnanand catapulted to the other side when he was hit in the face by a full-size SUV. While he remained in a Stage 3 Glasgow coma for nine days, he remained fully conscious in a celestial dimension he now calls The Portal—what Tibetan Buddhists call The Bardo and what Vedic/Sanskrit philosophy calls The Akashic Records. Listeners will viscerally travel to the other side with him and learn how his lifelong commitment to spiritual studies and practices enhanced his NDE with unprecedented insights.

For four years, Markus Torgeby lived alone in a hut he built with his hands in the Jämtland forest on the northern tip of Sweden, reconnecting with nature, and healing from the stress and strain of urban life and an athletic career derailed by injury. In this moving elegy, Markus offers lessons both practical—how to make fire, how to craft an outdoor bed, how to tap trees for water—and profound—what it means to become one with the natural world, to live authentically, to reconnect with yourself and your surroundings.

Volume two is a continuation of the Murders, Mayhem, and Scandals series. As in volume one, it contains stories of people who have disappeared without a trace and are still missing.

Over the course of one ghostly week in September 1982, the bodies of four taxi drivers were found in Buenos Aires, each murder carried out with the same cold precision. The assailant was a 19-year-old boy, odd and taciturn, who gave the impression of being completely sane. But the crimes themselves were not: four murders, as exact as they were senseless. More than 30 years later, Argentine author Carlos Busqued began visiting Ricardo Melogno, the serial killer, in prison.

For one brief moment, facing death, Jane Moe stepped into eternity. This incredible true story will take you on an enthralling journey as Jane sees God's plan for families and is taught how to recognize his church when she encounters it later in life. Take more steps into eternity with Jane and come to know what heaven - and mortality - is really about.

In this meditative memoir - a compelling fusion of Barbarian Days and the journals of Thomas Merton - the author of Saltwater Buddha reflects on his "failing toward enlightenment," his continued search to find meaning and a greater understanding of grace in the world’s oceans as well as everyday life. Born to a family of seekers, Jaimal Yogis left home at 16 to surf in Hawaii and join a monastery - an adventure he chronicled in Saltwater Buddha. Now, in his early 20s, his heart is broken and he’s lost his way.

When food writer David Domine; buys a three-story Victorian house, little does he know it is located in an enchanted neighborhood, one full of gargoyles and gas lamps, hidden courtyards, towers, turrets, and gingerbread trim. The 1890s structure he will call home becomes known as La Casa Fabulosa--or the fabulous house in Spanish--because of its elaborate facade. His is just one of hundreds of striking dwellings in an area famous for its fanciful architecture and 19th-century charm, however. The neighborhood is also replete with colorful characters--an assortment of vagrants, cross-dressers, gypsies, and random misfits that make life interesting, to say the least.

For Jennifer Boylan, creaking stairs, fleeting images in the mirror, and the remote whisper of human voices were everyday events in the Pennsylvania house in which she grew up in the 1970s. But these weren't the only specters beneath the roof of the mansion known as the "Coffin House".

How much do we really know about the world that exists beyond the reach of our five senses? In the voice of an easy-going road-trip companion, Heather McCutcheon guides us through the intersection of science, spirituality, and energy healing via her own experiences.

Amanda always had a thirst for adventure. Perhaps it stemmed from growing up without electricity and running water, in the middle of a natural wonderland. Along came Cocoa, her family’s new dog, and the two became the best of friends as they shared a love of the wild surroundings. But Amanda felt like there was something missing, something “more” she had to discover, and gets the push necessary to find it in Australia.

14 Minutes is the memoir of Alberto Salazar, the most accomplished, charismatic, and controversial marathoner in history. The narrative follows Alberto's boyhood in New England, his rise to stardom at the University of Oregon, his dramatic victories in the New York City and Boston Marathons, his long malaise due to injuries, which resulted in a near-suicidal depression; his resurgence due to intense spiritual experiences and discipline; his close alliance with Phil Knight and the Nike corporation; and describes his numerous near-death experiences.

The Seventh Dead is, on the face of it, a memoir of paranormal experiences, particularly surrounding UFO encounters and anomalous phenomena. On a deeper level, it explores the implication—arising out of these phenomena themselves—to burrow through the shadow aspects of the author’s own psychology, approaching that of a more collective or archetypal nature.

In this dazzling memoir, Brown Giomblanco brings to life the devotion to God she learns from her beloved grandma Rosaria and lessons she gains from a gigolo, a psychic, guardian angels and saints, a US president, and a string of unsuitable boyfriends. From the Garment District to Venice to a yacht off sun-splashed Montauk, she hangs on to hope as she searches for her own Mr. Right.

THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO HAVE VANISHED ON KAUAI Experience the bizarre, unusual, and heartbreaking stories of those who have gone missing on Kaua’i, never to be seen again. In recent years, this Pacific paradise has been plagued by a series of disappearances and unexplained occurrences that have left families shattered, communities stunned, and authorities baffled. Through meticulous research and intimate storytelling, we'll explore the cases of those who have vanished from the island without a trace.