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Greatest Mysteries of the Unexplained : A Perplexing Collection of Phenomena

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For centuries mankind has sought - as yet in vain - to solve the riddle of a diverse range of unexplained mysteries. From disappearances, ghosts and mind-reading to curses, oracles and creatures of myth. This title comprises a collation of the most perplexing of all the world's inexplicable phenomena.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

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5 stars
54 (18%)
4 stars
80 (27%)
3 stars
96 (33%)
2 stars
48 (16%)
1 star
9 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Stela.
1,081 reviews442 followers
April 26, 2016
A gossipy reading, with no bibliography to back it up and full of insightful comments like “many believe” or “it seems likely”, or “could it have been…?” etc. Many “mysteries” gathered in the book are well-known and inhabit the gray zone between unexplained phenomena and urban folklore (the flag Neil Armstrong planted on the moon, the cursed objects like James Dean’s car, the little gray extraterrestrial beings, the famous abducted couple Betty and Barney Hill, and the pyramids, of course, the pyramids).

I wanted to give it one star, but in the end I gave it two, because, although I had to verify them, I found some amusing and/ or interesting information, which I’ll generously (☺ ) share with you.

First of all, did you know that there is a Dogon tribe, in Mali, West Africa, who is well informed about the Sirius binary star system (even though the fact that its two stars, Sirius A and B orbit each other in a fifty-year cycle makes only one of them visible in the sky) and think that life originated from them brought to Earth by the Nommo, beings with a fishlike appearance who arrived in a sort of spaceship and released huge amounts of water in order to survive?

Secondly, where do you think the name Alcatraz comes from? I’ll tell you, it comes from the droppings of the pelicans that led the local tribes to call the island the “White Rock”. Then it was renamed La Isla de los Alcatraces (The Island of Pelicans) by The Spanish conquerors.

Then if you think Inquisition Laws died with Inquisition, think again. It was in 1944, in the UK of all places, where a medium named Helen Duncan was charged with witchcraft and imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. At least she wasn’t burned at the stake!

Another medium or wizard or oracle or whatever was Rasputin (Rasputin is his surname, and means debauched, by the way) who, after having had a vision of the Holy Mother telling him to help the young Tsarevich Alexis, cured him of hemophilia. In spite of his colourful, eventful and mysterious biography, it was his surname translation I found most interesting and amusing.

It was also fun to read that the first Siamese brothers, Chang and Eng (obviously born in Siam), lived more than 60 years, both married and had 21 children between them. No Siamese offspring, though.

Finally some bizarre medical condition that reminded me once again that fairy tales are inspired from reality even in the creation of their apparently most absurd creatures, such as the two headed beings, since nature offered them craniopagus parasiticus – a condition of having two heads (if you are curious to know more Wiki can help you).

Even Jack-in-the-box seems inspired by the Jumping Frenchman of Maine syndrome (which came to my attention because it was firstly diagnosed on fellow Canadians ☺) – an exaggerated reflex reaction to the smallest of shocks.


As Looney Tunes used to say, that’s all folks. I don’t recommend you to buy the book, but if you already have it, it will prove useful enough to kill the hours of a long journey by train or plane.
Profile Image for Mike.
404 reviews24 followers
August 12, 2021
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anybody.
It is a bit outdated now though.
Profile Image for نور | NOUR .
305 reviews259 followers
October 30, 2018
Une fraction de gens qui prétend avoir vue et rencontré des extraterrestres ? D'accord des gens qui ont ce privilège.. Les pouvoirs super naturel ?.. D'accord d'accord..
Bon Quand j'étais enfant j'aimais lire ce type de livres maintenant non plus !
Profile Image for Amy Beth.
123 reviews38 followers
January 1, 2020
I think I "Googled" every entry in this book. It is like reading Weekly World News (is that still in print) or something. It's sort of right, sometimes, and sort of outrageous a lot of the time. I kept thinking about how the Ancient Aliens narrator says, "Ancient astronaut theorists believe..." as though that holds some degree of legitimacy.
Profile Image for Justin.
Author 28 books263 followers
April 1, 2024
First, this book was not exactly what I thought it would be. Because of this, I was on the fence going back and forth from enjoying it to not enjoying it at all. It has plenty of cases and goes into detail about some but not all. Before I explain everything I didn't like let me explain what I did like. The number of topics and wide range of them from psychics and lost civilizations to cryptids and UFOs made it quite diverse which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the topics I was interested in and they had my attention. There were several stories and cases I enjoyed more than most and again the detail was solid so from this aspect I liked the book.

As for what I didn't like let's start with the weird wording and awkward phrasing throughout the book. For some reason, many words and phrases were awkwardly worded like they didn't need to be there at all or they didn't beat around the bush and oddly described something. This is very evident in the beginning and then stops but picks up here and there until it becomes evident again toward the ending cases. I was also not a fan of all the lost civilizations and dinosaurs chapter as I found it boring which again might be from the author's poor choice of describing things which took me right out of the chapter. Cases like the Titanic predicted to sink years before it actually did were great except the author didn't go into detail and instead wasted 9 pages on one psychic. The psychic chapter was hit or miss for me as well.

Overall, this book is good to read but it definitely has its issues which if you're like me and come across may make you saying the same things and giving it the rating I'm giving it. 3 stars.
225 reviews6 followers
February 16, 2020
Needs more research

This is probably a good introduction to unexplained mysteries, but there are some instances that need more research. Some howlers:

* Leon Theremin: During the filming of a documentary (I think "Moog"), he was discovered living in Russia.

* Maitreya and the Crystal Tears: Joe Nickel has duplicated this "miracle".

* Jumping Frenchman of Maine Syndrome: "There was apparently nothing in the loggers' environment that could bring about such levels of stress [shell shock]." Large falling trees, maybe?

* The 1969 Moon Landing: Although the Moon landscape, the equipment involved, and even the appearance of low gravity could all have been replicated by Hollywood, it would have been impossible to reproduce an accurate astrological representation of a starry sky. (paraphrased) Really? The constellations are the same as on Earth, and NASA had computers that could calculate the positions of the planets. That would have been the *easiest* thing to fake. (BTW, that should be "astronomical", not "astrological.")

* Black Holes: Not every star becomes a black hole. Our Sun isn't big enough to become one.

* Wormholes and Warp Drives: "Einstein's famous theory of relativity (e=mc2) deems it impossible for a human being to travel faster than the speed of light." Okay, I'll forgive the 2 which should be an exponent, but relativity is more than e=mc^2; in fact the formula e=mc^2 does NOT make it impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. (This mistake is like saying that the Pythagorean Theorem can be used to find the area of a circle.)
Profile Image for Emily B..
175 reviews34 followers
December 4, 2021
I keep toggling between three and four stars for this rating. The stories were very entertaining and introduced some ideas I hadn’t considered. For example, when preachers speak in tongues, most people have one of two theories: either they are manifesting the Holy Spirit, or they are making things up. The authors propose a third option: it is a form of speaking unconsciously, much like sleep-talking.

Despite the entertaining stories, the quality of the research was lackluster. For example, when the authors describe the so-called Poe Toaster visiting Edgar Allan Poe’s grave, they imply that it might be the ghost of the author himself. However, why would Poe write notes to himself and leave gifts on his own grave? The link below has more details and a more logical explanation:

https://ghostaugustine.com/blog/edgar...

Another research failure showed up in the story about the Doom of Mar, a curse uttered against a royal family in Scotland. According to this website,

https://www.ornaverum.org/family/ersk...

“It predicted that a future Erskine would later live to see his home consumed by flames while his wife burned inside it and three of his children would never see the light of day. “

The curse eventually came true with John Francis Erskine, but only partially. The first half of the prediction was false, since his wife died roughly a year and a half before the fire. However, their three youngest children were born blind, so they never saw daylight. This lead to one of my favorite sentences:

“Half a curse is better than none”

Profile Image for Kasey.
111 reviews6 followers
February 20, 2020
This was a little embarrassing to read. Though everything I'm about to say is probably holding what this book is to too high a standard. This is great for the casual reader who finds this stuff interesting, and if that's you, stop reading this--you won't care about my complaints, lol.
I know it's just a silly collection of conspiracies, but it really should've included some type of sources or references, but one of the only sources referenced was UFO magazine. So even the historical facts weren't confirmed, and even where there were instances of photographic evidence/support, the pictures often weren't included. The writing was also not great. There were times where the author made some really great cultural observations--such as comparing alien abduction stories to traditional fairy tales and pointing out that they represent our same fears transcribed into the space/technology age--then completely undermined herself by insisting that the only explanations for somebody's slightly-correct prediction being a) they have psychic powers b) they're being possessed. Would've just appreciated less scope and more detail. And some more genuine attempts at suggesting possible explanations, or just not ending every little section with a tacky, repetitive sentence about the power of the human mind or something.
1 review
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December 12, 2020
Hello everyone,
This book which explains and gives a brief information about the past is so unexpecting, but you want to know more and more. It is so catchy. The words helped me more for literature. Talking about churches and castles which are so beautiful has dreadiest past. Rest in peace to all that beautiful souls. This book is not for any learning purpose but for acknowledgement of our past. Hopefully this book is just an amazing adventure which holds our sits together 😊
Thank you<3
228 reviews
August 14, 2020
I'm averaging one star for complete lack of research citations with three stars for the copious amount of kooky inspiration for book plots to come up with a two stars rating.
Profile Image for Sheila Myers.
Author 16 books21 followers
July 29, 2022
A nice introduction to some of the mysterious things around the world. Don't accept everything as it is written because there are no sources quoted to back up the work.
503 reviews5 followers
October 8, 2023
This book is good as long as you go in knowing what you are getting.
This is like Ghost Hunters or alien episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. It is not fact based, just for entertainment.
Profile Image for Akina Blaze.
154 reviews9 followers
January 29, 2026
A lot of these are quite known and it doesn't delve too deep so you are mostly just getting surface level facts that most already know. However, it is fun as casual reference or coffee table book.
Profile Image for RumBelle.
2,104 reviews20 followers
December 20, 2018
Divided up into several sections, based on the mysteries being discussed, this book chronicles the paranormal, unknown and enigmatic. In terms of mysteries I had previously known about, read about or been aware of, versus ones I did not, the ration was about 60-40, which still made the book an intriguing read.

Here are some highlights from each section:

Disappearances
Lord Lucan - An English Lord who disappeared off the face of the earth after being accused of attempting to murder his family.

Agatha Christie - Being the Queen of Crime Writing, her vanishing for several days in 1926 was a mystery unto itself

Dr. Leo Theremin - I had heard of his instrument, the Theremin, but not that he was a possible suspected Russian spy.

Sandringham Battalion - This one intrigued me the most. An entire battalion of British soldiers walked into a forest during a battle in the Dardanelles's and were never seen again. 250 men just vanished in Turkey during World War I.


Lost Worlds - This section was about vanished civilizations and included such peoples as:
The Anasazi in New Mexico

The Pharaohs in Egypt

Shambala, the mystical kingdom thought to be located in Tibet or Nepal


Ghostly Goings On - Many chapters in this section covered one topic, and within that topic several similar items were discussed. Some examples include:
Creepy Castles

Hexed Houses where ghosts and specters of various shapes and forms were seen

Haunted Churches such as the one near where Edgar Allan Poe was buried

I wish, in a way, that the items were talked about individually, such as several separate churches, or houses, and not lumped together, that way they could have been explored more fully.


Ghost Ships
The Flying Dutchman

The Queen Mary

The Western Reserve a ship that went down on the Great Lakes


Battlefield Ghosts
Culloden Moor - A battle that took place in 1746 that involved the Jacobites

Gettysburg

Jamaica Inn, and other locales in Cornwall, that are said to be extremely haunted


Paranormal Powers - This section was a little dull because it only discussed mediums, people who claimed to have psychic powers. After awhile, all the stories started to run together. One somewhat interesting entry though was of:
Helen Duncan, the last woman charged with witchcraft in the UK.

Seers and Oracles
The I Ching Book of Changes, a book with prophecies that, when read, are said to be able to tell anyone's future
.
The Oracle of Delphi - The most important, and powerful, Oracle of the ancient world.

Edgar Caycee - The Sleeping Prophet who foretold that Atlantis would be discovered in the Bahamas.


Mysterious Monuments
Newgrange - Ancient megalithic tombs in Ireland

Yonaguni - An underwater city like monument off the coast of Japan


Religious Phenomena
Shamans

Talking in Tongues


Medical Miracles
Superhuman Powers such as Beserker rage or the Whirling Dervishes

Alice In Wonderland Syndrome which afflicts the person with no perception of time or space


Curses
The Curse that killed James Dean

The Evil Eye


Weird Nature
The Giant Squid

Rogue Waves

Lake Monster sightings from all around the globe


UFO Sightings which talked about various phenomena related to UFO's and aliens

Mysterious Cosmos
The Moon Landing

Moon Cities


In my view, several topics in this book didn't really qualify as "mysteries." For example, we know what happened Egypt Pharaohs and we did in fact land on the moon. Overall though, it was an entertaining and certainly varied catalog of mysteries and oddities from all across the world.
Profile Image for Hope Vollm.
1,343 reviews23 followers
December 4, 2020
Ok, so this book basically managed to teach me nothing. Some things are mentioned but never really explained (the Anasazi disappeared, there are artifacts, then like nothing about them?).

There are lost civilizations mentioned. The Aztec and the Maya (but we know why they disappeared). And they only mention about 3. Nothing about Troy, Ithica, or any other place that was never "found" definitively. Nothing about the Nazca lines, Easter Island, or really anything else. It was like reading the summary of a Wikipedia article.

watch the Reading Curator Review!
Profile Image for Amanda.
11 reviews3 followers
October 13, 2013
This book contained some interesting information that I had not come across before.
However, while the authors did their best to be objective in describing the different events and phenomenon in the book, there is a feeling of maybe urging the reader to believe where perhaps skepticism would have been more prudent.
There is a general sense of trying to balance the two, but in some topics the scale gets tipped a little more towards belief rather than fact.
I struggled a little near the end to keep my interest as the authors came off a little too dry for my personal tastes.
Still, I did learn a few new things which is always a plus in my book.
Profile Image for Whitney.
175 reviews6 followers
July 10, 2014
I have a soft spot for the Weekly World News, may it Rest in Peace. With the repetitive writing and woo-woo conjectures, this book made me feel nostalgic for it: according to this book, UFO abductions and psychics are genuine, but the Moon Landing was fake. Priceless.

However, repetitive writing is repetitive. Plus, there were no articles on Bat Boy, space aliens who endorse presidents, or pictures of Satan's face in hurricanes and/or explosions. Bummer. Note to self: often, when you shop the "bargain" rack. you get exactly what you pay for. Good thing I borrowed it, as it was worth about Free.
Profile Image for Printed Pages and Coffee.
188 reviews9 followers
February 4, 2019
This was an interesting read, lots of new mysteries to both give you the chills and have a giggle about (separate mysteries, obviously!). I enjoyed the read but, maybe because each section as so short, it isn't something I would say was excellent. Also, occasional errors in word choice (like astrology rather than astronomy) did make me give this book (more of) a side-eye than it was already getting.
Profile Image for Theresa.
106 reviews5 followers
February 16, 2011
A interesting collection, some sections were boring but with this type of book you can pick and choose what to read. The section of ghostly goings-on with creepy castles, ghost ships, etc were excellent in its variety, the section on psychics not so much. I think info on psychics is a played out field with nothing new or exciting.
45 reviews2 followers
August 26, 2018
This horse's ass, (Andrew Holland) thinks the author of Gulliver's travels is named Robert Swift. He also says some UFO abductees have been relieved of their sexual organs. The book is sloppy, superficial, simplistic; it's written for a sixth grade reader, but even a sixth grader would object to the poor wording and writing in some of the chapters. At $1.99 it's a way to kill time at best.
16 reviews
May 9, 2013
This book was wierd. It was kind of creepy too. There were dissappearences. There were hauntings. There were also wierd traditions. Overall it was good though. I recommend it to people who like wierd or paranormal things.
Profile Image for Mersini.
692 reviews26 followers
February 16, 2015
Pretty standard as far as books of this kind go. It's more of an overview of various things, not going into enough detail of anything. It could have done with a couple of case studies to balance out the short chapters with something more detailed.
1 review
December 17, 2012
Really interesting, subjects are documented just long enough not to bore the reader.
I loved it
Profile Image for J.L..
Author 14 books70 followers
August 19, 2013
Pro: Expanded upon more than an Anglo-centric view. Not every story focused on Europe/North America.

Con: I'm coming to accept that pretty much all of these book are terribly written and/or edited.
Profile Image for Addy Parker.
58 reviews23 followers
April 28, 2015
Interesting subject. While this isn't a great information source it is an interesting overview of different mysteries in our world.
Profile Image for Kait.
401 reviews
July 26, 2018
Really interesting. I liked the short sections.
Profile Image for Ian Clark.
252 reviews4 followers
May 14, 2019
God awful book full of conjecture and guesswork.

Do not waste time on this sloppy journalistic piece.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews