When Anomalist Books’ Patrick Huyghe mailed me a copy of their title Spirit Voices: The First Live Conversation Between Worlds by Mark L. Cowden, I have to confess that, at first, I viewed it with a degree of trepidation. Not, I should stress, because I had any specific qualms about dealing with, or confronting, the subject-matter, but simply because although I read a lot of books – and write a lot of books too – on UFOs, cryptozoology, and conspiracy-theories, I have to admit that ghosts, spiritualism, and life-after-death have never really been my thing.

But, since Patrick asked me if I would review the book, and I had said “Yes,” I  figured I would see what the author had to say. And I’m very glad that I did! Spirit Voices is most certainly not your average book about chain-rattling spooks, shrieking specters and things that go bump in the night. Rather, it’s a very readable, highly engaging, and thoughtful study of one man’s quest (Mark himself) to seek out the truth about life-after-death, the nature and heart of the phenomenon, and its reported interactions with our plane of reality.

This is the type of subject that could have easily been turned into one of those horrible, sickly, belief-driven, self-help, “love and light”-style books written by hippie-types with names like “Eagle,” “Cloud,” and “Dolphin,” that I totally, totally despise. Fortunately, there’s none of that here – at all.

Rather, what we get is an utterly absorbing study of how Mark – an audio-visual technician from Oklahoma – found himself in Ireland, in 2010, investigating apparent contact from beyond the grave. And when I say contact, I mean precisely that: the capture and recording of apparent conversations with spirit entities from somewhere else.

And what particularly stands out for me is that Spirit Voices is as much about the potential for something, some essence, maybe – call it what you will – surviving bodily death, as it is about Mark’s very own, and deeply personal, quest to come to terms with the incredible data and experiences that crossed his path during the course of his adventurous trek in search of the truth.

Written in somewhat of a diary fashion (which is a good thing, I should stress), Spirit Voices expertly captures the essence of the investigation, as Mark grapples with such issues as whether or not (from the perspective of Christian teachings) it’s ethical, moral or right to try and contact the dead, the profound positive implications for society and science that interaction with the spirit-world undoubtedly provokes, and the effect that exposure to such phenomena – in a conversation-style setting – can have on the individual.

And that Mark has a background in the audio-visual world is a major bonus, too, and particularly so when we see him in-the-field (or in the proverbial spooky old house or haunted castle), utilizing technologies to capture the voices of the dead, rather than simply employing the tired, well-worn tools of some old Gothic novel.

In other words, Spirit Voices - and its many attendant revelations, implications, and discoveries – offers us some hope that death is not the end. And – this being one of the most important aspects of the book – it shows that growing advances in human technology and fringe-science may actually play significant, future roles in contacting the dead, and validating that physical death may not mean literal death.

But, perhaps above all else – and I base this on Mark’s very own forthright and refreshing style of writing – Spirit Voices shows the sheer extent to which people can find themselves propelled to new levels of thought, understanding and appreciation of the mysteries of this world and beyond when they address the controversial question that each and every one of  us want answering: What happens to us when we die?

Whatever your views on life-after-death, Spirit Voices is an extraordinarily good, solid look at its subject-matter, written by a man who offers us an undeniably personal and near-unique look at a phenomenon that is as misunderstood as it is mysterious.

I will leave you with what I consider to be one of Mark’s most important statements in his book. Of the revelations that might await us, he says the day may come when “the world’s religious leaders finally accept that there does not need to be one specific explanation for our magical existence, with the copyright holder of this information being the strongest, wealthiest, most agenda-driven organization capable of reaching the most people.”

Amen to that!

Check out Mysterious Universe’s interview with Mark Cowden in Season 6 Episode 16

The good folks at Anomalist Books – Patrick Huyghe and Dennis Stacy – have just published my latest book, Monster Diary: On the Road in Search of Strange and Sinister Creatures. It’s a book about which they say: “MONSTER DIARY is the latest saga in Nick Redfern’s ongoing series of worldwide road-trips in search of strange creatures and terrifying beasts. In this transatlantic trek, Redfern is hot on the trail of…a Mothman-like creature in Wisconsin; giant eels that lurk in the canals of Birmingham, England; a spectral mammoth and a ghostly big-cat in American woods; Bigfoot in New Mexico; a Chupacabras in the wilds of Oklahoma; vampire-like beasts roaming the valleys of Wales; and California’s very own shape-shifting Skinwalkers.”

Patrick and Dennis continue: “MONSTER DIARY reveals that many of the unknown animals of our planet are not all they seem to be. They may appear to be flesh-and-blood creatures, but is that what they really are?

“Redfern sets out to prove that the true nature of the fearsome creatures that dwell in dark and shadowy woods, atop imposing mountainous peaks, and within the depths of murky lakes and rivers can only be understood with a knowledge of ancient rituals designed to conjure up foul life forms from some terrible realm, ominous sacrificial ceremonies undertaken in the dead of night, and disturbing occult rites. Monsters do exist. Monsters are among us. But they are not what you probably think there are.”

The book is written in definitive road-trip style, and covers my many and varied investigations of strange creatures from early 2009 to late 2011. But, there’s something else, too. It’s something that will likely get mainstream Cryptozoologists, Ufologists, ghost-hunters, and investigators of the paranormal in states of fury. And, no doubt, it will provoke a great deal of eye-rolling and head-shaking, too. What is it? I’ll tell you! The numerous examples I cite in the book where bizarre beasts, supernatural phenomena, and UFOs have all crossed paths; time and again, and to deeply significant degrees.

As many will know, I hardly hold the most conventional views on all of the above phenomena, and I’m pretty much convinced that, in some fashion we still don’t really understand, they’re all inter-connected. And that’s one of the main threads of Monster Diary: this curious cross-over of Fortean phenomena, with Cryptozoology playing a major roll in that cross-over.

For example, one of the things I talk about in the book is the US Army’s 19th Century Camel Corps – a program where, in the pummelling desert heat of the American southwest, the military used camels for a while, rather than horses, to carry and transport supplies, munitions, etc. I include in the book a number of stories of people seeing what sound like ghostly, spectral remnants of the old camels – even today. But, here’s the thing: as I note in the pages of Monster Diary, a number of those sightings have been made in the direct vicinity of Giant Rock, California – home, for years, to legendary Flying Saucer Contactee, George Van Tassel.

And that’s not all. I also make mention in the book of some very curious cross-over synchronicities that occurred to me while I was researching my 2010 book, Final Events, and which dealt with Jack Parsons, Aleister Crowley and sacrificial frogs – all of which tied in with me stumbling upon what looked like a sacrificed frog sat atop my very own scaled-down version of Stonehenge, and which occurred when, for days on end, the skies of my back-yard were near-endlessly plagued by very low-flying black helicopters. Yes, it was very bizarre!

Then there’s the weird story - that I also relate in the book – of how a piece of cryptozoological graffiti found at a legendary UFO site seemed to provoke a sudden wave of reports, sightings and curious “coincidences” concerning the very same, famous cryptid portrayed in the spray-painted artwork.

I could, of course, go on and on. But, the point is that on so many occasions now – many more are related in the pages of Monster Diary – I have come across case after case where puzzles of a cryptozoological and strange animal variety cross paths with so many other supernatural phenomena, to the point where trying to investigate sightings of bizarre beasts in a cryptozoological context -and nothing else – simply does not work.

Or, rather, it certainly doesn’t work for me. I fully realize that belief is an undeniably powerful thing, and trying to demonstrate to Ufologists, monster-hunters, and ghost-seekers that their favorite topics of investigation might not be so separate as they conclude them to be, is no easy task. But, something is going on, there’s no doubt about that. And that’s the chief thrust of Monster Diary: demonstrating, road-trip-style, that the unknown animals that populate the skies, waters and forests of our world are not what they appear to be. They’re far worse and much stranger…