Catalog of the exhibition Summoning Ghosts: the Art of Hung Liu, organized by Rene de Guzman on behalf of the Oakland Museum of California and presented March 16-June 30, 2013.

INTRODUCTION TO SUMMONING SPIRITS. How To Set Up Your Seance. Published by Times Square Press, New York. No doubt, you will succeed in summoning some of the entities, spirits and presences, and reaching spirits and entities who did not yet depart from the doomed zone, if you diligently comply with the rules, and follow the instructions of the Sahiriin and the Honorable Allamah as explained in this book. They are still alive, but they do exist in a different form. And these entities include the spirits of dead people (Human beings) who are still trapped in the doomed zone. Some of them have stayed in this macabre and disturbing zone for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. You will be able to communicate with some of these entities, summon them, ask them favors, and even command them. But who are these entities, if they are not the souls of the departed ones, the souls of dear friends, siblings, parents, and relatives, we once had, here, on Earth?"

Discover the spine-chilling history of ghosts and the supernatural across the world in this illustrated guide. A History of Ghosts, Spirits and the Supernatural charts the extraordinary narrative of one of the most fascinating and controversial subjects in the world, covering everything from Neolithic ancestor worship and ancient necromancy to modern-day ghost-hunting and creepypasta tales and from the Japanese onryo to the La Llorona of Latin America. The perfect introduction to the subject, this spellbinding volume details the numerous ways in which spirits and the spirit world have been depicted in myth and religion, folklore, art, and literature. In this ghostly novel, you will find: Recounts of infamous tales of haunted houses and ghost ships, séances and mediumships, poltergeists, possessions, and demonic encounters. Feature profiles for other ghostly or undead beings, such as vampires and werewolves. The numerous reasons that ghost stories and tales of the uncanny are a common feature of cultures the world over. A serious but reader-friendly overview of a fascinating and controversial subject that explores the supernatural across the world and throughout history. The most holistic history of the subject available, A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and the Supernatural will shock and delight you in equal measure - whether you are a believer or a skeptic.

Ghosts haunt the stages of world theatre, appearing in classical Greek drama through to the plays of 21st-century dramatists. Tracing the phenomenon across time and in different cultures, the chapters collected here examine their representation, dramatic function, and what they may tell us about the belief systems of their original audiences and the conditions of theatrical production. As illusions of illusions, they foreground many dramatic themes common to a wide variety of periods and cultures. Arranged chronologically, this collection examines how ghosts represent political change in Athenian culture in three plays by Aeschylus; their function in traditional Japanese drama; the staging of the supernatural in the dramatic liturgy of the early Middle Ages; ghosts within the dramatic works of Middleton, George Peele, and Christopher Marlowe, and the technologies employed in the 18th and 19th centuries to represent the supernatural on stage. Coverage of the dramatic representation of ghosts in the 20th and 21st centuries includes studies of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, plays by Sam Shepard, David Mamet, and Sarah Ruhl, Paddy Chayefsky's The Tenth Man, Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, and the spectral imprint of Shakespeare's ghosts in the Irish drama of Marina Carr, Martin McDonagh, William Butler Yeats, and Samuel Beckett. The volume closes by examining three contemporary American indigenous plays by Anishinaabe author, Alanis King.

In conversation with emigrants from Laos and Cambodia, Jean M. Langford repeatedly met with spirits: the wandering souls of the seriously ill, dangerous ghosts of those who died by violence, restless ancestors displaced from their homes. For these emigrants, the dead not only appear in memories, safely ensconced in the past, but also erupt with a physical force into the daily life and dreams of the present. Inspired by these conversations, Consoling Ghosts is a sustained contemplation of relationships with the dying and the dead. At their heart, as Langford’s work reveals, emigrants’ stories are parables not of cultural difference but rather of life and death. Langford inquires how and why spirits become implicated in remembering and responding to violence, whether the bloody violence of war or the more structural violence of social marginalization and poverty. What is at stake, she asks, when spirits break out of their usual confinement as symbolic figures for history, heritage, or trauma to haunt the corridors of hospitals and funeral homes? Emigrants’ theories and stories of ghosts, Langford suggests, inherently question the metaphorical status of spirits, in the process challenging both contemporary bioethics of dying and dominant styles of mourning. Consoling Ghosts explores the possibilities opened up by a more literal existence of ghosts, from the confrontation of shades of past violence through bodily ritual to rites of mourning that unfold in acts of material care for the dead instead of memorialization. Ultimately the book invites us to consider alternate ways of facing death, conducting relationships with the dead and dying, and addressing the effects of violence that continue to reverberate in bodies and social worlds.

SIHR DJINN AFARIT AND HOW TO SUMMON THEM: The Banned Book Of Sorcery, Spells, Magic and Witchcraft. 3rd Edition. Published by Times Square Press, New York. "This is a heavy-duty Kitab (Book) on Sihr (Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery), Djinns, Afarit, Kitabaat (Magical writings), and Talasem (Talismans). As a practitioner of Ilmu Al Sihr, you will have the rare and unprecedented opportunity to polish and perfect your practice. As a novice and a researcher, you will learn quite a lot about all these subjects which were never before discussed and explained in any other language than in Arabic. As you already know, Djinns, Afarit and Sihr originated in the ancient Middle East, Arab Peninsula and North Africa, and the Saher (Magician, Sorcerer) used only Arabic, and the secret languages of Al-Arwaah (Spirits) and "Etheric Entities" to summon multiple and various categories of Spirits and entities which remained shrouded in absolute secrecy for centuries." Honorable Ulema Master Farid Tayara.

"A collection of essays that explores the various roles ghosts have played in motion pictures, spanning a range of time periods, genres and nations"--

As a Debunker, Chess Putnam is used to investigating reports of suspected hauntings and sending ghosts back to the City of Eternity beneath the surface of the earth. What she isn't used to is having suburban housewives refusing to acknowledge the presence of ghosts in their homes. There are lots of reasons why someone might harbor a spirit, and none of them are good. At least Chess has Terrible on her side. But things are never as black and white as they seem, especially not when love is involved, and Chess finds herself making a decision she never thought she'd make.

From Halloween expert Morton, a level-headed and entertaining history of our desire and attempts to hold conversations with the dead. Calling the Spirits investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer’s Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualism—when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by “spirit rappings”; Daniel Dunglas Home, the “greatest medium of all time”; Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the afterlife; and Helen Duncan, the medium whose trial in 1944 for witchcraft proved more popular to the public than news about the war. The book also considers Ouija boards, modern psychics, and paranormal investigations, and is illustrated with engravings, fine art (from beyond), and photographs. Hugely entertaining, it begs the question: is anybody there . . . ?

The legend of the ghostly Bloody Mary involves seeing a woman's bloody image appear in the mirror. But where does this eerie legend originate? Some say she is the spirit of Queen Mary I of England. Queen Mary I wanted England to embrace Catholicism, and her bloody persecution of Protestants led to her nickname, Bloody Mary. No matter its origin, this spooky story has haunted people around the world for centuries.