MIRACLES: A Parascientific Inquiry Into Wondrous Phenomena

red & black 1/2 cloth hardcover 8vo. (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. fine cond. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. faint spot bottom of front flyleaf, otherwise contents free of markings. dustwrapper in vg cond. corners rubbed, small tears top and bottom of spine, 1 cm tear rear cover, 1" tear on rear flap, not price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking, underlining, remainder markings etc~. first edition. first printing so stated. x+332p+ about the author. glossy b&w photo illustrations. bibliography. index. religion. apparitions. psychic phenomena. parapsychology. teleportation. levitation. stigmata. ~ Whether they involve the mysterious formation of a glowing cross in the window of a Florida church or the spectacular appearance of a figure thought to be the Blessed Virgin Mary before thousands of witnesses, miracles have fascinated and provoked endless controversy throughout the history of Christianity. Are such awesome events in fact manifestations of a divine force in everyday life, or are they merely hallucinations induced by religious hysteria? Miracles is the first scientific, comprehensive, and critical investigation of these remarkable phenomena. D. Scott Rogo, one of this country's most widely published experts on parapsychology, documents and examines here hundreds of cases of the miraculous. These include the miraculous talents of levitation and the development of the stigmata and the uncanny abilities of Padre Pio; the divine images of Guadalupe and the Shroud of Turin; and many lesser known but equally impressive cases like the following: In 1907 the town of Remiremont, France, struck a medal to honor a statue of the Blessed Virgin housed in a local church. A number of stones that fell in an unusual hailstorm shortly afterward were discovered to be impressed with the same image as that on the medal. Several times each year dried blood believed to be a relic of the fourth~century martyr St. Januarius liquefies in its phials in Naples Cathedral. In 1975 a Philadelphia woman discovered that her plaster statue of Christ had begun to bleed. A subsequent chemical analysis established that the liquid was human blood. A young boy who visited the healing shrine at Lourdes in 1947 was cured of his blindness, even though medical examinations determined that his optic nerves remained irreparably damaged. Yet Miracles is more than just a compilation of wonders. Drawing on both conventional science and the most recent findings of parapsychology laboratories throughout the world, Rogo demonstrates that miracles are actually generated by the formidable powers of the human mind itself. But can this explanation be reconciled with the belief that miracles are exclusively spiritual phenomena? Rogo's conclusions are challenging and provide some surprising theories about the nature of supernatural involvement in the miraculous. For the student of the paranormal or the general reader who is curious about these little~understood events, Miracles is compelling reading, a thorough and accessible inquiry that promises to become the standard general reference on an astonishing subject.…