Dead, but Still Kicking: Encounters with Mediums, Shamans, and Spirits

by Paul Spencer Sochaczewski

Overview

Do you believe in spirits?

Paul Sochaczewski travels to Indonesia, Myanmar, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland to speak with mediums, shamans, and, yes, spirits of dead folks. In this innovative work of personal journalism, Sochaczewski—a self-described Agnostic Spiritualist—creates the Three Tenets of Spiritualism. He receives a personal mandate from Moses, speaks with Alfred Russel Wallace about his relationship with Charles Darwin, gets frustrated by vague messages given by Wallace’s assistant, Ali, encounters a female vampire ghost who wants to follow him home (it’s his own fault), converses with nature spirits, and is invited on a date with the Mermaid Queen of Java.

In exploring the characteristics that give mediums their power and in examining tricks of the trade, he admits there are many things we can’t explain with our science-oriented, logical, left brains.

While there are few answers in this book, there are many questions and conundrums, such as: Are we more than our physical bodies? Is death the end, or merely the beginning of a new phase of existence? And, was the terrifying misandrous female vampire ghost Paul met in Borneo satisfied with the red chicken he offered her?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9782940573325
Publisher:	Explorer's Eye Press
Publication date:	05/03/2019
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Paul Spencer Sochaczewski doesn't believe in spirits, ghosts, or psychic phenomena. Nevertheless, he is convinced that there are some happenings that cannot easily be explained by our Western, Cartesian, science-oriented set of beliefs. Let's call him an Agnostic Spiritualist. By all accounts, he enjoys a good life. He might grumble about his golf swing and being overlooked by the Pulitzer Prize committee, but no one pays much attention to such petty irritations. He applauds people who respect language, who do not abuse their cellphones in public, and who teach their children not to stand on seats on buses and trains. He would like to do nasty things to businesspeople who destroy rainforests to create oil palm plantations. He's not sure to whom (or to what) he owes his good fortune. Perhaps the answer will become clear one day. Or maybe he'll find out in the next life. Try to contact him. But for the moment, write to Paul at: www.sochaczewski.com

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

The Big Question

When we die, is it the end? Or the beginning of the next phase?

THE EXPERIENCES

Moses Sends Me on a Peacekeeping Mission:

Psychics predict the future. Can mediums look into the past to enlighten the present?

“Beings of a Like Mental Nature to Ourselves”:

The creator of the Theory of Natural Selection was also a confirmed spiritualist. I sought his advice.

The Search for Ali:

Can eager shamans solve the mystery of Wallace’s “faithful companion?”

“Are You Strong Enough to Go Through with This?”:

Conversations with a female vampire spirit in a city built on a ghost story.

An Invitation to Meet the Mermaid Queen:

Some relationships aren’t meant to be analyzed too closely. “Accept it. Or not.”

The Trees Speak:

Vital energy meets conservation imperative—the eloquent spirits of nature plead for their lives.

EPILOGUE

What If?

Do I believe in spirits? More important, do you?

ENDNOTES

REFERENCES

Editorial Reviews

“Hardly worth the paper it’s printed on. Real mediums would also make stunning and enigmatic predictions. Like I have done.”

—Nostradamus

“That rascal Nostradamus copied my technique, my predictions, my innovative use of enigmatic metaphors. It was me, saya, King of Kediri, who gave the world yellow dwarves, ships that navigate in the skies, and women who dress like men. Oh, by the way, this is a terrific book, less poetic than my work, and less filled with Javanese mysticism, but still of notable value.”

—Joyoboyo

“Enlightening. A noble companion volume to my own books on spiritualism.”

—Arthur Conan Doyle

“Not a single raven. Not even a man buried behind a wall. Nevertheless, one of the better books about extraordinary dead folks to come around in a while.”

—Edgar Allen Poe

“Sochaczewski has been following me for more than forty years. I finally got to speak to him, and our conversations are recorded in this fine book. But now maybe he’ll leave me alone—I’m so busy—there’s a pile of strange beetles to identify, papers to write, and endless toil just trying to earn a few shillings to keep the family in porridge.”

—Alfred Russel Wallace

“I predicted this book would happen.”

—Edgar Cayce

“Too bad Sochaczewski never knew my wife George; she was a much better medium than the poseurs in this book. Otherwise, a brave attempt to understand the widening gyres.”

—W.B. Yeats

“Well done, son.”

—The late Samuel Wachtel, Paul’s father

From the Publisher