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Explaining the Unexplained
Stephen Ellis search for answers to unexplained things began in 1979. While visiting San Francisco, one night an image of a girl appeared before him in his rooma girl he later found out had been murdered in that room one month earlier.
Shaking-off the natural tendency to disbelieve what he saw, Ellis began to research material on ghosts. He found that many people had ghostly experiences, but none had logical explanations for them. Ellis began to find that valid explanations existed, but had often been concealed by those seeking personal gain or distorted by some religious dogma.
Explaining the Unexplained offers a no nonsense look at questions concerning reincarnation to ESP to ghosts. Ellis offers realistic answers to questions and events that, until now, have lacked rational explanation. Explaining the Unexplained investigates the worlds most captivating mysteries and supports its views with strong, empirical and circumstantial evidence.
If youre looking for answers, this book is a must read.
Shaking-off the natural tendency to disbelieve what he saw, Ellis began to research material on ghosts. He found that many people had ghostly experiences, but none had logical explanations for them. Ellis began to find that valid explanations existed, but had often been concealed by those seeking personal gain or distorted by some religious dogma.
Explaining the Unexplained offers a no nonsense look at questions concerning reincarnation to ESP to ghosts. Ellis offers realistic answers to questions and events that, until now, have lacked rational explanation. Explaining the Unexplained investigates the worlds most captivating mysteries and supports its views with strong, empirical and circumstantial evidence.
If youre looking for answers, this book is a must read.
284 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 11, 2011
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8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 12, 2018
I must say, as a published author in the paranormal field myself, my hat (or is it a cheap Halloween-store wizard cap?) is off to first-time author Ellis. If all the writing in the ESP/UFO/Yeti/Coast-t0-Coast AM shelves were up to his caliber, the field wouldn't be so full of cartoon charlatans (what, why you'all looking at me now?).
Ellis, trained in the legal field, writes that he only took a keen interest in the "occult" after waking to a beautiful female phantom in his new San Francisco apartment - the image of the previous tenant, recently murdered. This was a new experience for him indeed! Perusing extant paranormal books and authors he found their scholarship abysmal or their conclusions compromised by biased philosophies and agendas.
Thus this, his own delving into everything from UFOs to Creationism (and religion), and claiming to bring no preconceptions (or cheesy cable-TV Discovery Channel camera crews) to the circus of the supernatural.
Ellis commits some gaffes in names and lay science (such as calling the speed of thought instantaneous; neurologists have measured it), but believers and skeptics alike may find his opinions provocative, if backed up only by the minimum of witness testimony and amazing!but!true! anecdotes (though a section on reincarnation goes into fascinating, detailed cases).
Ellis discounts TV spirit-mediums (sorry, Tyler Henry) and "alien abductions." He warns that precognition/prophecy carries an unacceptable implication that there is no free will (dude should have had the bad experiences in trying to get published that I have; no free will works for me!).
Ellis also reasons that if UFO craft (which have indeed crashed, he says, but Roswell is invalidated by all its hoaxes and showbiz hype) hail from nonhuman civilizations, they more likely dwell on the moon or in Earth's oceans than travel from any star light years away.
And, applying Occam's razor, he finds the Bible, Talmud and Koran to be ragtag, committee-written lore, untenable as historical fact.
A recurring key ingredient of paranormality, in Ellis' opinion, is the human "aura," his concept of an immutable spirit/soul. Able to be sensed by instruments, function and gather input independent of the body and brain, this electromagnetic field could account for ghosts, "past lives," faith healing, out-of-body experiences, ESP (Ellis personally knew and gives credence to controversial psychic Peter Hurkos, even though Skeptical Enquirer readers have gotten a more dismal picture of the guy).
The aura may even reveal origins of personality that psychology (a pseudoscience, writes Ellis) take for granted.
While skeptics in the rational-materialist field might judge the author naive, a lot worse claptrap has been written about the paranormal, believe me. I sincerely hope none of it was mine, but in any case Ellis' level, non-vitriolic voice brings a thoughtful, fresh attitude to an oft-abused field, a breath of fresh ectoplasm in the New Age shelfdom.
Advisory: Bigfoot, Nessie, Chupacabra, astrology, crop circles and warrior-spirit Ramtha are among trendy Forteana topics that do not materialize here.
Ellis, trained in the legal field, writes that he only took a keen interest in the "occult" after waking to a beautiful female phantom in his new San Francisco apartment - the image of the previous tenant, recently murdered. This was a new experience for him indeed! Perusing extant paranormal books and authors he found their scholarship abysmal or their conclusions compromised by biased philosophies and agendas.
Thus this, his own delving into everything from UFOs to Creationism (and religion), and claiming to bring no preconceptions (or cheesy cable-TV Discovery Channel camera crews) to the circus of the supernatural.
Ellis commits some gaffes in names and lay science (such as calling the speed of thought instantaneous; neurologists have measured it), but believers and skeptics alike may find his opinions provocative, if backed up only by the minimum of witness testimony and amazing!but!true! anecdotes (though a section on reincarnation goes into fascinating, detailed cases).
Ellis discounts TV spirit-mediums (sorry, Tyler Henry) and "alien abductions." He warns that precognition/prophecy carries an unacceptable implication that there is no free will (dude should have had the bad experiences in trying to get published that I have; no free will works for me!).
Ellis also reasons that if UFO craft (which have indeed crashed, he says, but Roswell is invalidated by all its hoaxes and showbiz hype) hail from nonhuman civilizations, they more likely dwell on the moon or in Earth's oceans than travel from any star light years away.
And, applying Occam's razor, he finds the Bible, Talmud and Koran to be ragtag, committee-written lore, untenable as historical fact.
A recurring key ingredient of paranormality, in Ellis' opinion, is the human "aura," his concept of an immutable spirit/soul. Able to be sensed by instruments, function and gather input independent of the body and brain, this electromagnetic field could account for ghosts, "past lives," faith healing, out-of-body experiences, ESP (Ellis personally knew and gives credence to controversial psychic Peter Hurkos, even though Skeptical Enquirer readers have gotten a more dismal picture of the guy).
The aura may even reveal origins of personality that psychology (a pseudoscience, writes Ellis) take for granted.
While skeptics in the rational-materialist field might judge the author naive, a lot worse claptrap has been written about the paranormal, believe me. I sincerely hope none of it was mine, but in any case Ellis' level, non-vitriolic voice brings a thoughtful, fresh attitude to an oft-abused field, a breath of fresh ectoplasm in the New Age shelfdom.
Advisory: Bigfoot, Nessie, Chupacabra, astrology, crop circles and warrior-spirit Ramtha are among trendy Forteana topics that do not materialize here.
January 22, 2022
This book took me a while to finish because a lot of the topics brought up a lot of thinking..
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews