Robbie Williams, the pop singer, believes Britain will shortly be invaded by aliens. He is a total paranormal freak, according to reports.

He claims to be convinced that Earth is about to be overrun by extra-terrestrial invaders and warned his fans to look out for close encounters of the third kind. He told the BBC’s Radio 2: “I’ve been dreaming every night about UFO’s, every night. I can’t wait to go to sleep at night because those dreams have been so brilliant. I think they are definitely on the way, seriously. Mark my words. From now until 2012 ~ watch out kids.”

Whether you take this seriously or not, the former Take That star is also fascinated by ghosts. According to 999 Today, “Robbie Williams is so obsessed with the paranormal he begged to be introduced to a ghost-hunter.”

[Source: 999Today]

The Nightmare Encyclopedia is a new book, published by NewPageBooks.com at $19.99. It doesn’t need much explanation, so I’ll just quote a bit of the press release. If you really want more, there’s a link below.

BELLINGHAM, MA, (PRWEB) November 17, 2005 - Everyone dreams, and everyone can recall a nightmare that shook them to their core. The Nightmare Encyclopedia: Your Darkest Dreams Interpreted explores the influence nightmares have had in literature, art, music, and film; the psychological and physiological theories behind sleep and dreaming; and hundreds of interpretations to common nightmare images such as fire, battles, drowning, being chased, and many others.

“Though not everyone remembers their dreams, nightmares we don’t forget so easily,” said Jeff Belanger, co-author of The Nightmare Encyclopedia. “All dreams have a message we can use to better understand our lives, but nightmares have a message that demands immediate attention. Nightmares have influenced us all, from artists to politicians, athletes to military leaders, and each of us can learn to better understand and interpret our own dreams.”

Many of the world’s traditional societies are taught that our souls leave our bodies and travel to other realms when we dream, so nightmares could be the result of getting lost in one of dreamland’s bad neighborhoods. Some cultures believe that demons can attack and rape human beings in their sleep. Modern psychologists tend to view nightmares as repressed conflicts that return from our unconscious to haunt us in our dreams. We all have questions, and oftentimes our own dreams can give some answers.

Read more …

Check out the best price for The Nightmare Encyclopedia.

Continuing the story of Katie King (see photogtaph in previous post) : when Florence Cook, the medium present, was accused of being a fraud, Sir William Crookes immediately came to her defence. He pointed out that in 1873, a man called Volckman has suddenly grabbed the “spirit” as it walked around the room ~ this was Katie King. One person present claimed that “Katie’s legs and feet had dissolved away and that she had escaped from Volckman’s clutch with an upward movement like a seal.” The audience rushed to the cabinet and found Florence still there, dressed in black, her knots and seals still intact. No trace of the white gown in which “Katie” had been dressed was found in the cabinet.

Crookes also described how he had once been allowed to hold “Katie” in his arms at a seance, and found her to be quite solid, like a normal woman. Naturally suspicious, he asked her if he could see Florence in her cabinet. “Katie” agreed, and Crookes entered the cabinet and found Florence in a trance. As far as Crookes was concerned, that was conclusive.

From “Afterlife” by Colin Wilson. Check out the best price.

The alleged manifestation of Katie King

William Crookes* was a remarkable man by any standards. The list of his achievements is a long one (see below). In an appendix to his work Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism, an unknown author describes the furore that followed his investigations into the “materialization” of Katie King in the presence of the medium, Florence Cook.

The reader may have gotten the impression from the earlier experiments entered in this journal that Victorian Britain took these reports from its leading physicist in stride. It is a tribute to Crookes that he makes small reference to the religious and scientific storm that swirled around him because of his investigations. He was regarded by many as a sort of Jekyll and Hyde, contributing monumental scientific discoveries on the one hand, and on the other, plunging into the depths of irrationalism. But nothing was comparable to the furious response that followed the first reports of his investigations with Florence Cook and the Katie King materialization. He and Florence Cook were bitterly attacked.

A photograph of the materialization appears above, so readers can make up their own minds. The full text of Crookes’s journal can be read online : Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism.

*Highly distinguished physicist and chemist. Discovered the element thallium. Elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1863, Royal Gold Medal 1875, Davy Medal 1888, Sir Joseph Copley Medal 1904, knighted in 1897 and the Order of Merit in 1910. Invented the radiometer, developed the Crookes tube, invented the cathode-ray tube, pioneered research into radiation effects, contributed to photography, wireless telegraphy, electricity and spectroscopy. President at different times of the Royal Society, the Chemical Society, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Society of Chemical Industry, the Society for Psychical Research (from 1896-1899) and the British Association. Founder of the Chemical News, editor of Quarterly Journal of Science.