Apparitions, Healings, and Weeping Madonnas: Christianity and the Paranormal Paperback - 2004

From the publisher

Is there a middle ground between miracles and tall tales? Here's a book to help believers in Christianity make sense of it all. On June 1, 1974, a woman in England claims to have watched a news account of a massive a chemical plant explosion that killed 28 people-four hours before it actually happened! In 1963 a woman's husband mysteriously disappeared. She consulted a psychic who, upon handling a piece of one of the husband's shirts, immediately announced, "he's in La Jolla. He went there to heal a psychic wound when he was 14 and his father disappeared." That turned out to be accurate! In the United States, apparitions, miracle cures, and other paranormal phenomena, including stigmata, possessions, ghostly apparitions, and weeping (or bleeding) statues, have recently been reported in 8 states and at least two boroughs of New York City. Many people dismiss such stories as urban legends or as the kind of tall tales children tell in order to scare each other. Even though visions, prophecies, and miracles have been a focal point of religious faith throughout history, the skepticism of the modern world has tended to gloss over or ridicule reports of these phenomena. Nevertheless, many people continue to accept such accounts--according to a poll in Life Magazine, 83% of Americans believe miracles. And, the documentation of a miracle remains a prerequisite for sainthood within the Catholic Church. Why do so many believe-despite our skeptical age. Is there valid evidence to substantiate these stories of occult happenings? In Apparitions, Healings, and Weeping Madonnas, Lisa Schwebel examines a broad variety of mystical experiences through the twin lenses of scientific and paranormal research. Her fascinating and important book sets out to record how religious people have described their "supernatural" experiences and then places these accounts within the wider context of the Christian mystical tradition. The author closely examines accounts of such seemingly "miraculous" phenomena as ghosts and apparitions, weeping icons, prophecy, healings, and visions. The author then examines what psychology and the physical sciences teach us about the phenomena of visions and miracles. She explores mystical accounts that have been reported throughout history-often without accompanying claims of divine intervention-and investigates what such accounts reveal about the authenticity of mystical phenomena. Schwebel also demonstrates how research in parapsychology can provide a theoretical framework for analyzing visions and miracles. Taken together, the anecdotes and stories in this book provide compelling documentation of events that defy the teachings of modern science. And the author provides modern Christians with the knowledge that will help them to differentiate between tall tales and the truly inexplicable. +