The author was a Church of England clergyman: it is important to remember this when reading the remarkable account of his long and thorough investigation of psychic phenomena and other esoteric subjects. His approach and method of investigation show him to have been an open-minded, but far from gullible, researcher. His account and style of writing is lively and absorbing, but at all times objective and strictly factual.

It is Allan Barham’s approach to many, often unrelated, phenomena and subjects which sets this book apart from most others. He was not a disgruntled Anglican cleric who believed the grass on the other side to be greener: he emerges as a well-balanced, happy and contented man who has had the good sense to share with the reader many unusual experiences.

What makes this book particularly attractive is that the author puts into words and into perspective so many explanatiions and logical conclusions that have so often come to mind, but were rarely expressed in such an articulate and easily readable style.

The author’s personal contact with, and account of, eminent mediums such as Ena Twigg, Grace Rosher, Leslie Flint and Rosemary Brown, give a strong sense of personal involvement. His thorough study and presentation of such fascinating subjects as hypnosis, psychokinesis, and non-medical healing, and his examination of such topics as Queen Victoria and Spiritualism, the attitude of the Churches to psychic phenomena, and the Shroud of Turin, give the reader a very sound background knowledge to many subjects which are, in the author’s words, ‘strange to relate’.

As Professor Arthur Ellison, at the time of publication of this book, President of the Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.), wrote in his Preface, this book is ‘sympathetically yet critically written. It can only help in creating an extension of informed opinion’.

CONTENTS
Preface by Professor Arthur  J. Ellison – Foreword by Sir Victor Goddard – 1. The Beginning – 2. Hypnosis and Psychical Research – 3. Ena Twigg and Grace Rosher – 4. Direct Voice Mediumship – 5. Psychokinesis Research – 6. Experiments in PK and ESP – 7. Non-medical Healing – 8. Queen Victoria and Spiritualism – 9. Leslie Flint, Bernard Shaw and Rosemary Brown – 10. Out-of-the-body Experiences – 11. The Churches and Psychic Phenomena – 12. The UFO Problem – 13. The Shroud of Turin – Bibliography – Index.

0-86140-186-7, 21.6 cm. xii, 128 pp. 2nd revised edition 1984  £9.95