Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

 “Stargate Meets the Mummy”: A Review of Ancient Civilizations (Book 1 of Lamentations and Magic), by Russell Cowdrey (Coppell, TX, USA: RPC Novels, LLC, 2023). ISBN: 978-1-960300-00-3. While standing solidly on its merits as historical fiction, Ancient Civilizations ’ supernatural aspects are what set this book apart. From the opening battle, set in Egypt in 321 BC, the author cues the reader that there is something greater than reality as we know it going on. By the end of the opening, Cowdrey has given us an intriguing JJ Abrams-esque Mystery Box. The narrative quickly shifts to the Louvre. It’s 1883. Educated antiquities expert Louisa Sophia is robbing the exhibit of Ramses III. Louisa is Evelyn Carnahan from The Mummy with very sketchy morals. We again change locations to Mosul Province in the Ottoman Empire to meet the hero—physician turned archaeologist and treasure hunter Ben McGehee. Like Quincy Morris from Dracula , he’s from Texas. From Louisa and Ben’s first meet...

  (New Milford, CT: Visionary Living Publishing, 2021). ISBN: 978-1-942157-54-0 Having just read and reviewed Karl Petry’s first book, Absent Witness , and learning that he is very much the “real deal,” I immediately noticed the title of his second book— Somewhere the Dead Are Singing— and felt instantly compelled to read it. It was during the Mothman Festival in 2019, after cohosting a memorial event for Rosemary Ellen Guiley after her passing several months earlier, that I first experienced the accuracy of Petry’s title. While walking near the igloos in the fabled Point Pleasant TNT Area with a dozen colleagues—many of whom had been close with Rosemary—my PSB11 spirit box (Ro’s personal choice) spontaneously switched on. I placed my voice-activated digital recorder over the speaker as a communication began to emerge. Back in the hotel a few hours later, I played the tape and distinctly heard a mix of ethereal and a single human voice singing: “We’re here with you.” The four...

   Translated by Samuel Chong (English trans. June 2021; originally published in German in 2000). ISBN: 9798513274353 In an age of Conspiracy Theory Mania—a mix of those who revel in it and those who completely reject it—there are few subjects that are as thorny and contentious as the idea that there are secret lodges or societies that set the course of geopolitics from the shadows, engineering puppet governments, wars, and catastrophes to subjugate humanity and main ultimate control. From the innocuous fraternal organizations like the Freemasons, to political and economic organizations like the Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, and Club of Rome, the idea that a select few are making decisions for billions is one that is often met with anger and fierce recrimination. No matter the “evidence” put forth about odd places like Bohemian Grove and secret satchels with documents outlining the course of wars originating with the Bavarian Illumi...

   (Visionary Living Publishing, 2016). ISBN: 978-1-942157-04-5 A quick disclaimer to start. As many of you know, I am married to a talented psychic medium, and we have been an investigative team in the field of the paranormal for nearly a decade. My daughter is also a gifted psychic medium, and I have worked with and met several others over the years. The publisher of this book is also the publisher of a book that my wife and I wrote, Watch Out for the Hallway: Our Two-Year Investigation of the Most Haunted Library in North Carolina . That said, I believe that my experience with psychic mediums and with this publisher, whom I know to be highly respected and honest, makes me more—rather than less—qualified to give an equally honest review of this book. The first item of note about Absent Witness is that it goes into more detail about the author’s childhood/family life than many books by psychics. Having spent a good bit of time in Newark and Kearny, New Jersey, in my yo...

  (Year of the Book, 2022). ISBN: 978-1-646491-56-8 Larry Schardt, known and loved across the highways and byways of America for his mantra, “Peace, Love, and Rock ‘n’ Roll!” is an educator, motivational speaker, and champion of “Success that Rocks!” who has been motivating audiences for thirty-five years, thirty of which he has spent at the venerable home of the Nittany Lions, Pennsylvania State University. A prototypical Hippie—albeit in pressed shirt and neatly knotted tie instead of tie-dye—Larry runs writers’ retreats and is the author of the bestselling book James Conner: The Triumphs of a Football Hero , which BookAuthority voted amongst the top 25 all-time-best sports books ever written. My Runaway Summer , however, is not a sports biography. It is Larry’s poignantly personal, open, and passionate account of a memorable summer he spent in his early teens. I first met Larry “Rock ‘n’ Roll” Schardt at the WV Writers Conference in the summer of 2013. I was immediately ...

  “Spiritual Combat in a Gritty Thriller”: A Review of The Karma Factor by Thomas Lane (2023). ISBN: 978-1-958848-21-0 Beautifully bound in a 7.5 × 9.25 inch hardcover edition, Thomas Lane’s debut novel is a fast-paced thriller with deep, compelling roots in the spiritual realms of Karma, reincarnation, and the Akashic Record. With the popularity of the timeline-jumping, what’s-the-nature-of-reality, can-you-change-the-future programming created by the likes of JJ Abrams, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, and Steven Moffat, audiences in the 2020s are more knowledgeable about nontraditional storytelling than ever and are eager to take the leap into the dark, churning waters at the nexus of spirituality, philosophy, and advanced technology. Netflix series like Russian Doll , Archive 81 , and the German-language Dark and 1899 rely on this audience education and interest, pulling no punches on the profound implications of our choices, the nature of reality, and the dangers of mani...

  (2022). ISBN: 978-989-53812-2-7 I want to warn you at the onset—Patricia Cori’s Hacking the God Code: The Conspiracy to Steal the Human Soul might very well be a challenging read. Not because of any lack of skill on the part of the writer—Cori is the author of 12 other books and her writing style is passionate, articulate, and clear. However, as you can see by the title and subtitle, Hacking the God Code: The Conspiracy to Steal the Human Soul is provocative and boundary pushing and requires that you have both an open mind and a belief that humanity is not yet doomed. You might also have noticed that thorny word Conspiracy . Before you roll your eyes, I encourage you to consider the meaning of this word outside of its corrupted context. In my lectures on what I call “fringe theories” and nefarious government programs such as MKUltra and Operation Paperclip, I define conspiracy theorists as “a group of people who think something nefarious may secretly have been perpetrated ...