Is there life on other worlds? Emanuel Swedenborg, after claiming to converse with spirits from planets both within and without our solar system, concluded that the Infinite God would not create such an enormous undertaking for one world alone, with only one heaven for one race of people. He said: "That there are many worlds, may be evident to every one, from there being so many constellations visible in the universe; and it is known in the learned world that every fixed star is like a sun in its place; for it remains fixed like the sun of our earth in its place . . . Consequently that like the sun of our world, it has round it planets, which are earths; and the reason that these do not appear to our eyes, is their being at such an immense distance, and having only the light of their star, which cannot be reflected again as far as here. For what other purpose is there so great a heaven with so many stars? For the end of the creation of the universe is man, that from man there may be an angelic heaven." [n.126] Born in Sweden in 1688, Swedenborg was a scientist, philosopher, theologian, revelator, and mystic best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, and his magnum opus, Arcana Coelestia. He devoted the last twenty-five years of his life to writing works of a spiritual nature and died in 1772. *** The Life on Other Worlds Series is a selection of classic accounts of the afterlife and otherworldly life, told by those who are already there or who have been shown glimpses of what awaits us when our lives on earth are over. Descriptions vary, yet a thread of similarity runs through them all. May this collection serve as a travel guide as we embark on the greatest adventure of all-the journey into the mysterious realms beyond this world.

In the hundreds of confessions relating to witchcraft and sorcery trials from early modern Britain we frequently find detailed descriptions of intimate working relationships between popular magical practitioners and familiar spirits of either human or animal form. Until recently historians often dismissed these descriptions as elaborate fictions created by judicial interrogators eager to find evidence of stereotypical pacts with the Devil. Although this paradigm is now routinely questioned, and most historians acknowledge that there was a folkloric component to familiar lore in the period, these beliefs and the experiences reportedly associated with them, remain substantially unexamined. Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits examines the folkloric roots of familiar lore from historical, anthropological and comparative religious perspectives. It argues that beliefs about witches' familiars were rooted in beliefs surrounding the use of fairy familiars by beneficent magical practitioners or 'cunning folk', and corroborates this through a comparative analysis of familiar beliefs found in traditional native American and Siberian shamanism. The author explores the experiential dimension of familiar lore by drawing parallels between early modern familiar encounters and visionary mysticism as it appears in both tribal shamanism and medieval European contemplative traditions. These perspectives challenge the reductionist view of popular magic in early modern British often presented by historians.

In addition to current definitions, provides an historical treatment to words and idioms included.