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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE  LIVE GUEST WEBPAGE TUESDAY August 4th 2009
Host Gia Scott  Dawn of Shades
WELCOMES
 AUTHOR John Chambers
LIVE RADIO PROGRAMMING
TONIGHT ON EXOGENY NETWORK INTERNET RADIO Tuesday 28th July 2009 7pm to 9pm Central Time
Broadcasting LIVE on the Paranormal Radio Network
Tuesday Night Dawn of Shades with Guest Author John Chambers 
John Chambers' New book
The Secret Life of Genius
How 24 Great Men and Women Were Touched by Spiritual Worlds.
 JOHN CHAMBERS is the author of Victor Hugo's Conversations with the Spirit World and has contributed essays to Forbidden Religion: Suppressed Heresies of the West.
Join Gia Scott as they discuss his new book THE SECRET LIFE OF GENIUS
 REVIEWS
"John Chambers has
penetrated to the core of
human genius, and found it
has less to do with raw
intelligence than we
previously assumed. The
two dozen, extraordinary
individuals he examines despite their radical
diversity all share
something in common; namely,
the application of spiritual
experience to life. Chambers
thereby unveils the most
empowering secret available
to every man and woman."
-
Frank Joseph,
editor-in-chief, Ancient
American magazine, author,
Survivors of Atlantis,
Discovering the Mysteries
of Ancient America.
"Rare and penetrating
glimpses into the paranormal
dimension of the creative
lives of 24 famous artists,
scientists, and politicians.
From Benvenuto Cellini to
Churchill and Carl Jung,
this book offers fresh
perspectives on the
achievements of greatness.
Written with grace, wit, and
quiet erudition- heartily
recommended." -
Michael
Grosso, Ph.D, author,
Soulmaker, The
Millennium Myth.
"John Chambers is a gifted
writer, and his writings are
always topnotch,
educational, and
entertaining reading. He
researches his material and
knows about what he writes!
In this book, Chambers looks
at how twenty-four
remarkable men and women
were touched by spiritual
worlds and what it did to
and for each of them. This
book is about relationships
between humans, God, nature,
and the realm of
spirituality from the era of
the 16th century to the 20th
century.
Occult influences
are covered.
Paranormal experiences and
other intriguing factors are
involved in the book,
detailed, analyzed, and
shared with the reader. This
reviewer found the following
sections of special
interest, and thinks the
reader will also: Michel de
Nostradamus, William Blake,
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley,
Honore
de Balzac, Madame Helena
Blavatsky, William Butler
Yeats, Carl G. Jung, Sri
Yashoda Ma, Doris Lessing,
and Norman Mailer.
The book
as a whole does a fine and
excellent job at presenting
its subjects in honest,
straight-forward analysis,
and it is a book that should
be on readers' reading lists
as a well-written and
memorable book concerning
the intricate topic of
spirituality and its effect
on people.
For a book that is
well-researched,
well-written, and
well-explained, John
Chambers deserves a round of
applause and a wide reading
audience. This is an
entertaining reading
experience.
The Secret Life of Genius
is a heady, intimate reading
journey! The subjects come
alive! Highly recommended."
-
Review
by Lee Prosser
-
leep@ghostvillage.com, Ghostvillage.com
<http://www.ghostvillage.com>, June 3, 2009.
"Whatever one thinks of the
conclusions reached by some
of the figures profiled in
Chambers' book, The Secret Life of
Genius is a
consistently fascinating and
provocative look at an
underappreciated side of
human creativity, showing
that a fascination with
'spiritual worlds' is not so
much an aberration as, in
many cases, a defining
attribute of the inquiring
mind."
-
Michael Prescott's
Blog,
July 15, 2009,
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/2009/07/book-review-the-secret-life-of-genius.html
Author John
Chambers
JOHN CHAMBERS/NEW AGE BOOKS ABROAD, 1921 Kinvarra Way,
Redding, California 96001, Tel:     (530... , FAX: (866) 212-0445, <darbyc@earthlink.net>
<http://www.newpara.com> NEW AGE BOOKS ABROAD
For complete information,
go to NEW AGE BOOKS ABROAD page at
<http://www.newpara.com/new_age_books_abroad.htm>
UNESCO's current bibliography of translation (Index
Translationum) lists some 1.7 million books from 130 countries
in 820 languages. Most of the translations are from English
into a
foreign language.
Topping the list of number of translations from
the native language of a single author (including all titles by that author)
is Agatha Christie, at 6,362.
No. 2 is Jules
Verne, with 4,021 translations.
Rounding out the top ten are: 3.
Vladimir Lenin (3,497);
4. William Shakespeare (3,435);
5.
Enid Blyton (3,433);
6. Barbara Cartland (3,315);
7.
Danielle Steele (2,767);
8. Hans Christian Anderson (2,624);
9. The Brothers Grimm (Jacob, 2,382, & Wilhelm, 2,374);
and
10. Mark Twain (2,022).
Would you like to
join that list?!
Advertise
foreign translation rights to your title in
New Age Books Abroad
 Every three months,
our online catalogue,
New Age Books Abroad,
is sent by email, as a PDF file, to 5,000 foreign language publishers in 37 countries worldwide. Each issue
contains display ads for on the average 30 New Age books from 15 publishers. The
purpose of these ads is to sell translation rights to your books.
 Most non-English language publishers are constantly on the prowl for U.S. and
U.K. books for translation into their own languages. Usually, they find these
books at publishers’ trade shows like the Frankfurt Book Fair.
New Age Books Abroad
is an alternative to these trade shows. We give non-English language publishers
the opportunity to find out about your book simply by receiving our catalogue on
their computer and reading your ad.
The foreign publisher may ask you for a
complimentary copy of your book. That publisher may decide to buy translation
rights to your book. If this happens, all you have to do is sign a contract with
the publisher, just as you would if you were selling your book to a local
publisher. From then on, the foreign language publisher handles
everything—translation, production, publication and distribution. You pay
nothing. And you may receive a healthy advance against royalties (along with
the royalties you will receive). New Paradigm Books’s Conversations with Eternity: The
Forgotten Masterpiece of Victor Hugo sold translation rights to
publishers in eight countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Latvia, Mexico, Brazil,
Italy and Lithuania), largely because of
New Age Books Abroad.
If you decide to advertise in New Age Books
Abroad, we do everything for you. We go to
AMAZON.COM
and/or your website or other websites, pick up the cover image and all
necessary editorial copy, and put your ad together. We send you a proof of
your ad as a PDF file. We make changes in your ad until we have your
complete approval.
For complete information,
go to NEW AGE BOOKS ABROAD page;
click on
<http://www.newpara.com/new_age_books_abroad.htm>
AS OF APRIL 1,
2009, NEW AGE BOOKS ABROAD has ceased regular publication. WE ARE NOW
PUBLISHING ONLY ONE-PAGE, SINGLE-TITLE ADVERTISEMENTS. These one-page
PDF files are sent out on a date specified by the advertiser. IF
YOU'RE INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR DETAILS
NEW PARADIGM BOOKS
New Paradigm Books
went out of business in the summer of 2008.
 Those interested in
acquiring a copy of IN SEARCH OF THE UNITIVE VISION: Letters of Sri
Madhava Ashish to an American Businessman 1978-1997, compiled with a
commentary by Seymour B. Ginsburg, should contact Mr. Ginsburg at <syginsburg@aol.com>
 MISS THE LIVE SHOW?
Click Here to Play Podcast AVAILABLE VIA QUICKTIME PLUG-IN 
CONTACT JOHN CHAMBERS
JOHN CHAMBERS/NEW AGE BOOKS ABROAD, 1921 Kinvarra Way,
Redding, California 96001,
Tel: (530..., FAX: (866) 212-0445, <darbyc@earthlink.net>
<http://www.newpara.com> | |
LEARN A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT
John Chambers
John Chambers has a Master
of Arts in English from the
University of Toronto and
spent three years at the
University of Paris.
His
previous translations
include Phase One: C. E. Q.
Manifesto, in Quebec:
Only the Beginning. He
has been a full-time English
instructor at Dawson
College, Montreal, Quebec,
Canada, and assistant editor
at McGraw-Hill Publishing
and managing editor at
International Thomson
Publishing, both in New
York, NY. He has published
numerous articles on
subjects ranging from ocean
shipping to mall sprawl to
alien abduction and is the
author of Conversations
with Eternity: The Forgotten
Masterpiece of Victor Hugo
(1998). Seven of his essays
appeared in Forbidden
Religion: Suppressed
Heresies of the West,
published by Inner
Traditions in November 2006.
From October 1997 to March
2008, he was the director of New
Paradigm Books publishing
company. He has
published two books with
Inner Traditions/Destiny:
Victor Hugo's Conversations
with the Spirit World: A
Literary Genius's Hidden
Life (January 2008) and
The Secret
Life of Genius: How 24 Great
Men and Women Were Touched
by Spiritual Worlds
(June 2009). He lives in
Redding, California, with his wife
Judy.
THE SECRET
LIFE OF GENIUS
How 24
Great Men and Women Were
Touched by Spiritual Worlds
by John Chambers
ISBN-13: 978-1-59477-272-6 /
ISBN-10: 1-59477-272-X.
Quality Paperback. July 1,
2009. 6"x 9". 336 pp. 24 b&w
illustrations. Imprint:
Destiny Books.
Inner
Traditions/Bear & Co., P.O.
Box 388, Rochester, VT
05767. 1-800-246-8648 /
(802) 767-3174,
Fax:
(802) 767-3726, http://www.innertraditions.com,
$18.95.
A look at the
paranormal and metaphysical
experiences that shaped the
lives and work of many of
the world's great men and
women from the Renaissance
to modern times
Explores how the collapse
of Prague, the occult
capital of Europe, in 1620,
was emblematic of the rise
of the more scientific and
technological worldview that
would shape modern society
Includes the encounters with
the paranormal of people as
diverse as Benvenuto
Cellini, Michel de
Nostradamus, Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe, H. G. Wells,
Doris Lessing, Carl Jung,
and Sir Winston Churchill.
What
role did the esoteric
thought of Swedenborg play
in the creative output of
prolific French writer
Honore de Balzac? Did a
supernatural encounter
prompt Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley to focus her work on
the theme of immortality?
Building on his earlier
research on communications
with the spirit world that
Victor Hugo, author of
Les Miserables,
experienced while in exile
on the isle of Jersey, John
Chambers now looks at the
role occult knowledge and
supernatural and mystical
experiences played in the
lives of 24 geniuses. His
investigation spans the life
and work of William Blake,
Helena Blavatsky, and W. B.
Yeats, whose esoteric
interests are well known, as
well as those little
suspected of such run-ins
with worlds beyond ours,
including Leo Tolstoy,
Norman Mailer, and the
world-class Japanese
novelist Yukio Mishima.
Chambers
presents more than anecdotes
and newly revealed secrets.
He chronicles the changing
nature of our relationship
with God: from the 16th
century, when nature and
spirit still seem to be one;
through the 19th
century, when spirit,
fragmented by technology,
manifests through channeling
and visionary experiences;
to the 20th
century, when man has so
abandoned spirituality that
God Himself is weakened. The
magical and occult world
shown in the lives of these
24 great men and women
offers us a glimpse of what
could still be ours -- a world
that though it is now
overshadowed by modern
scientific/technological
principles is yet still
visible on the horizon
through the paranormal
experiences of these
geniuses.
This page was last modified on Friday, December 04, 2009 12:44:10 AM
MEDIA
Internet Radio Interview
with Gia Scott, host of
Exogeny Network's "Dawn of
Shades" Show, Tuesday,
August 4, 2009, 5:00-7:00
PM, Pacific Time, 6:00-8:00
PM, Mountain Time,
7:00-9:00 PM, Central Time,
8:00-10:00 PM, Eastern Time.
For details go to
http://exogenynetwork.com/DawnOfShades.aspx
Radio Interview with
Pamela Marie Edmunds, host, "Bridge Between Two Worlds" Radio
Show
[
http://www.bridgebetweentwoworlds.net ] Monday, September
28, 2009, 5:00-6:00 PM. PST.
Signing at Barnes &
Noble Bookstore, 1400 Biddle Road, Medford, Oregon 97501, (541) 858-0203, January, 2010 (DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED)
THE SECRET
LIFE OF GENIUS Table of Contents
Introduction. Prague's
Other Universe
Chapter One. Benvenuto
Cellini (1500 - 1571):
Goldsmith and Guardian Angel
Chapter Two.
Michel de Nostradamus
(1503 - 1566): The Art of
Astral Medicine
Chapter Three.
Ben Jonson
(1572 - 1637): The Occult
as Confidence Game
Chapter Four.
Sir Isaac Newton
(1642 - 1727): In Search of
the Historical Noah
Chapter Five. Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749 - 1832): The Battle
Over Light
Chapter Six.
William Blake
(1757 - 1827): The Horse's
Mouth
Chapter Seven.
Alphonse de Lamartine
(1790 - 1869): The Fall of
An Angel
Chapter Eight.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley (1797 - 1851):
The Last Man
Chapter Nine.
Honore de Balzac
(1799 - 1850): Triumph and
Tragedy of the Inner Self
Chapter Ten.
Victor Hugo
(1802 - 1885): What the
Shadow's Mouth Says
Chapter Eleven.
Jules Verne
(1828 - 1905): The Prophet
as Peter Pan
Chapter Twelve.
Leo Tolstoy
(1828 - 1910): The Fruits
of Enlightenment
Chapter Thirteen. Madame
Helena Blavatsky
(1831 - 1891):
Mistress of Hidden Wisdom
Chapter Fourteen.
William Butler Yeats
(1865 - 1939): Metaphors
for Poetry
Chapter Fifteen.
H. G. Wells
(1866 - 1946): Did the
Father of Science Fiction
Have a Near-Death
Experience?
Chapter Sixteen.
Thomas Mann
(1871 - 1950): "It Was Not
Possible - But It Happened"
Chapter Seventeen.
Harry Houdini
(1874 - 1926): Ultimate
Escape
Chapter Eighteen.
Winston S. Churchill
(1874 - 1965): Encounter in
the Transvaal
Chapter Nineteen.
Carl G. Jung
(1875 - 1961): Speaker for
the Dead
Chapter Twenty.
Sri Yashoda Ma
(1882 - 1944): House Guest
of Krishna
Chapter Twenty-one.
Doris Lessing
(1919 - ): Canopus in
Argos: Archives
Chapter Twenty-two.
Norman Mailer
(1923 - 2007): Boxing with
God
Chapter Twenty-three.
Yukio Mishima
(1925 -1970):
Martyr-Genius of Japan
Chapter Twenty-four.
James Merrill
(1926 -1995): I and Mine
Hold It Back Brothers
Notes
Bibliography
In January
2008, Inner Traditions/Bear & Company <http://www.InnerTraditions.com>,
of Rochester, Vermont, published a wholly revised and expanded
edition of Conversations with Eternity: The
Forgotten Masterpiece of Victor Hugo
(New Paradigm Books, 1998) under the title
 Victor
Hugo's Conversations with the Spirit World:
A Literary Genius's Hidden Life
by
John Chambers
Destiny Books. ISBN-13:
978-1-59477-182-8. ISBN-10: 1-59477-182. 0. $18.95. Paper. 384 pages. 6
x 9. Three illustrations. January 2008.
During Victor Hugo's exile on Jersey
island, where he and his family and friends escaped the reign of
Napoleon III, he conducted "table-tapping" seances, transcribing
hundreds of channeled conversations with entities from the beyond.
Among his discarnate visitors were Shakespeare, Plato, Hannibal,
Rousseau, Galileo, Sir Walter Scott, and Jesus. According to the
transcripts, Jesus, during his three visits, condemns Druidism,
faults Christianity, and suggests a new religion with Hugo as its
prophet.
ROCK STAR
POWER PROPELS HUGO'S CONVERSATIONS.
(June
17, 2008) A mention of
Victor Hugo's Conversations with the
Spirit World by rising
28-year-old Brit rock star Natasha
Khan in an interview in the
Manchester Guardian for Monday,
June 16, sent sales of the book
soaring on AMAZON.COM.UK (and
probably in bookstores).
MORE...
"Things to do on Jersey when
you're dead...This intriguing corner of the
great novelist's life is
exceptionally well documented in
Victor Hugo's Conversations with the
Spirit World, by John
Chambers. Chambers, the first person
to translate the seance transcripts
into English (in an
earlier edition of this book),
does a fine job of evoking the
atmosphere of the exiles' home away
from home, their bitter homesickness
and burgeoning fascination with the
occult. His book is unusually well
written for a study of this kind,
laced with keen character sketches
and absorbing sidelights on William
Blake,
James Merrill, and Kabbalah. He
presents the facts without undue
speculation and lets his readers
draw their own conclusions....Victor
Hugo's Conversations with the Spirit
World is a superb contribution
to literary history and to the study
of the paranormal. I recommend it
highly." - Michael Prescott,
April 28, 2008. For full text,
click here: <http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/2008/04/things-to-do-on.html>
This page was last modified on Friday, December 04, 2009 12:44:10 AM
| |
|
In January
2008, Inner Traditions/Bear & Company <http://www.InnerTraditions.com>,
of Rochester, Vermont, published a wholly revised and expanded
edition of Conversations with Eternity: The
Forgotten Masterpiece of Victor Hugo
(New Paradigm Books, 1998) under the title
Victor
Hugo's Conversations with the Spirit World:
A Literary Genius's Hidden Life
by
John Chambers
Destiny Books. ISBN-13:
978-1-59477-182-8. ISBN-10: 1-59477-182. 0. $18.95. Paper. 384 pages. 6
x 9. Three illustrations. January 2008.
During Victor Hugo's exile on Jersey
island, where he and his family and friends escaped the reign of
Napoleon III, he conducted "table-tapping" seances, transcribing
hundreds of channeled conversations with entities from the beyond.
Among his discarnate visitors were Shakespeare, Plato, Hannibal,
Rousseau, Galileo, Sir Walter Scott, and Jesus. According to the
transcripts, Jesus, during his three visits, condemns Druidism,
faults Christianity, and suggests a new religion with Hugo as its
prophet.
ROCK STAR
POWER PROPELS HUGO'S CONVERSATIONS.
(June
17, 2008) A mention of
Victor Hugo's Conversations with the
Spirit World by rising
28-year-old Brit rock star Natasha
Khan in an interview in the
Manchester Guardian for Monday,
June 16, sent sales of the book
soaring on AMAZON.COM.UK (and
probably in bookstores).
MORE...
"Things to do on Jersey when
you're dead...This intriguing corner of the
great novelist's life is
exceptionally well documented in
Victor Hugo's Conversations with the
Spirit World, by John
Chambers. Chambers, the first person
to translate the seance transcripts
into English (in an
earlier edition of this book),
does a fine job of evoking the
atmosphere of the exiles' home away
from home, their bitter homesickness
and burgeoning fascination with the
occult. His book is unusually well
written for a study of this kind,
laced with keen character sketches
and absorbing sidelights on William
Blake,
James Merrill, and Kabbalah. He
presents the facts without undue
speculation and lets his readers
draw their own conclusions....Victor
Hugo's Conversations with the Spirit
World is a superb contribution
to literary history and to the study
of the paranormal. I recommend it
highly." - Michael Prescott,
April 28, 2008. For full text,
click here: <http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/2008/04/things-to-do-on.html>
| |
New age
collections will find it
an intriguing addition.
April 3, 2008.
"John Chambers's Victor
Hugo's Conversations with
the Spirit World: A Literary
Genius's Hidden Life is
for collections strong in
either New Age spirituality
or parapsychology. It
focuses on Victor Hugo's
exile on the island of
Jersey, where he and his
friends escaped the reign of
Napoleon III and where he
transcribed hundreds of
channeled conversations with
various incarnate energies
from beyond. New age
collections will find it an
intriguing addition." -
Midwest Book
Review
(Oregon, WI USA)
|
A Fascinating Story.
"Hugo comes across as a
complex man - as one would
expect - egotistical and
selfish, overbearing towards
his family, yet sensitive
and passionate on occasion.
He was also capable of
surprising insights, musing
on time running backwards,
or prefiguring David Bohm's
holographic universe. While
not convinced that the
seances were "the
greatest... adventure into
the supernatural that has
ever been recorded", I would
agree that this is a
fascinating story, and it is
told in an engaging way." -
Tom Ruffles, NTHPOSITION
Online Magazine, March 2008.
For full text, click here:
<http://www.nthposition.com/victorhugosconversations.php>/
Fortean Times, July
'08
| |
The most
intriguing book I
have ever read.
"If you have an
interest in either
Victor Hugo and/or
spiritualism, you do
not want to miss
this! This book is
absolutely
captivating, reading
almost like a novel
in certain parts. It
immerses you in
Hugo's legendary
exile on the isle of
Jersey and contains
transcripts from his
seances (with
ghostly visitors
such as Shakespeare,
Plato and Jesus,
among others). While
the authenticity of
these conversations
is certainly
questionable, the
prospect of reading
these "celebrities'"
take on things from
beyond the grave is
simply irresistible.
On the other hand,
historical facts and
descriptions of the
Hugo family dynamics
ground this
masterpiece in
reality. In sum, I
think this just
might be the most
intriguing book I
have ever read."
- AMAZON.CA.
Irresistible,
Aug 1
2008. By Jennie
(Ottawa, ONT.,
CA)
|
Fascinating.
"This is a
very well presented
biography, focusing on the
three years that Hugo spent
conversing with the spirit
world. There are
transcripts included that
make this book extremely
interesting, and whatever
conclusions you draw from
the material presented, I
assure you that you will be
entertained, amused and will
find yourself pondering the
conversations included in
this book. It is a
fascinating volume of work,
and one which, if you are
interested in either the
life of Victor Hugo or in
the various forms of Spirit
Contact that are documented,
you will find this an
important addition to your
library." - Boudica,
ZODIAC BISTRO, September 15,
2008. Click here <http://zodiacbistro.net/reviews/hugosconversations%20chambers.htm>
for full text of review.
A Real Page-Turner.
"Thanks to Chambers'
informative, engaging - and,
in parts, novelistic -
style, this book is a real
page-turner, full of bits
and pieces of interesting
history. Not only does
Chambers delve into the life
of Hugo, and the spirit
communications that he and
his family obtained, he
covers so many other
fascinating topics as well,
such as the channeled
writings of the poet James
Merrill, the Priory of Sion
and the theory that Hugo was
one of its grandmasters, as
well as the teachings of the
Zohar, a collection of
Kabalistic texts that Hugo
was familiar with.
This book is a must-read for
anyone interested in the
history of psychic research
and Spiritualism, as well as
ardent fans of Victor Hugo
and his work." -
Louis Proud in
New Dawn No. 110.
For
complete review, click on:
http://www.newdawnbooks.info/Reviews/Victor_Hugos_Conversations_with_the_Spirit_World.html
A Mesmerizing
Glimpse. "I
picked up this book
as a lark, but to my
surprise it turned
out to be a fascinating
read full of
forgotten little
tidbits of history.
It has a bit of
everything: Mystery,
passion, betrayal,
ambition, telepathic
snails....Chambers's
book is a
mesmerizing glimpse
into a
long-forgotten
pocket of history,
giving new insight
into the beliefs and
themes that Hugo
explored in his
writing throughout
his life. It also
helps explain the
allure of
Spiritualism, which
captivated writers
and thinkers like
Arthur Conan Doyle,
William James, and
poet James Merrill.
I highly recommend
it." SME,
The Bookworm Collective,
January 25, 2009.
For complete text of review,
click on
http://rockinbookworms.blogspot.com/2009/01/victor-hugos-conversation-with-spirit.html
|
Fascinating
Read . . .
Chilling . .
. and True.
"It
doesn't
dwell on
long boring
descriptions
of the
period and
scenery like
most books
would.
In fact,
gives enough
detail of
the period
to paint the
picture,
then cuts to
the meat of
the subject
matter.
Some of the
passages got
pretty deep,
and
honestly,
some I did
not fully
understand,
like the
philosophy
and so forth
of death and
reincarnation.
These
passages
only went
for a few
pages, so it
was okay.
This book
also
includes
some of the
actual
drawings
made by the
tables.
It's
compelling
and
mesmerizing -and,
at times,
frightening.
There is a
section
about
howling dogs
which just
gave me
goose
bumps."
- AMAZON.COM,
Nathan
Christian,
New
Stanton, PA,
U.S.,
May
19, 2009
|
Some Very
Evocative Texts.
"Chambers's work has
the merit of making
available to an
English-speaking
audience, for the
first time, some
very evocative texts
that deserve to be
read, even only for
their poetic value.
. . Chambers's
writing is somewhat
redolent of the
style of some French
popular biographers
of the 1950s, such
as Andre Maurois.
This is not a
criticism by any
means. Quite the
opposite, in fact:
the novelistic way
in which he presents
a certain number of
scenes - all
conscientiously
documented, one
should add - makes
for very pleasant
reading and helps to
better grasp the
ambiance of the time.
. . . [It's]
a
well-researched and
well-written book
that is often more
rewarding and
thought-provoking
than many supposedly
more academic
productions."
- Dr. Vittorio Frigerio,
Professor
and Chair, French
Department,
Dalhousie
University, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada,
Dalhousie French
Studies (no. 86,
Spring 2009), Reviews, pp.
160-161. For complete
text of review,
click
HERE.
Dr. Frigerio
is editor
of Belphegor
(http://etc.dal.ca/belphegor/)
MORE
ABOUT THE BOOK
Victor Hugo's
Conversations with the
Spirit World covers a
hitherto undocumented
(except in part by an
earlier version,
Conversations with Eternity)
 portion of Victor Hugo's
life: August 1853 to
December 1855, when, while
in political exile on Jersey
Island in the English
Channel, he participated in
numerous "tapping-table"
seances. Only with the
publication in 2002 of the
fourth and final volume of
daughter Adele Hugo's diary
have all the details of this
tumultuous period come to
light. Not until 1923 were
some of the transcripts of
the seances published in
France; not until 1970 did
they appear in substantial
number. Victor Hugo's
Conversations with the
Spirit World is the
first translation into
English of the transcripts
of these always beautiful,
often harrowing, seances; it
is also the first
introduction to the
English-speaking world of
lengthy portions of Adele
Hugo's richly detailed and
beguiling diary.
Scholars differ as to the
state of Hugo's mind during
this period on Jersey
Island. Some think he was
suffering from a form of
schizophrenia. Others
believe he was in a state of
grace, about to ascend to a
higher level of awareness.
The French intelligentsia is
embarrassed by this
flirtation with the spirit
world of their greatest
literary genius. Be that as
it may, the transcripts,
translated at length in this
book, attest that well over
100 spirits manifested
through the tapping tables
to Victor Hugo, his family,
and fellow political exiles.
They included shades of the
illustrious dead such as
Shakespeare, Plato and
Galileo, and spirits who
said they'd never been
alive, like the Shadow of
the Sepulcher and Death.
Aliens from Mercury and
Jupiter spoke through the
tables, with the Mercurians
channeling drawings of
themselves. Jesus, during
three visits, condemned
Druidism, faulted
Christianity, and suggested
a new religion with Hugo as
its prophet. The spirit of
Mozart, using a real piano,
struggled to channel a
symphony. Led by Balaam's
Ass, the entities set forth
a forbidding picture of our
cosmos as a giant prison
shaken by the winds of a
metempsychosis entailing the
passage of every
soul through plants, animals
and stones as well as
through humanoids. They
sought to tell Hugo and his
friends how to cope with
this unforgiving and
fearsome universe.
This is only one part of the
story. The Hugo family,
around and about the
seances, also comes to life
in the pages of this book.
Its members live in a
microcosm of seething
political and personal
turmoil. In Victor Hugo's
Conversations with the
Spirit World, lengthy
and lively vignettes focus
on each of the family
members in turn, with all of
their strengths, foibles and
shining individualities.
Hugo's three children, in
their twenties, vital,
talented, indomitable, have
reluctantly followed their
father into exile. They
chafe against being cut off
from their birthright of
participation in the
vibrant, ongoing life of
France. There is Charles,
the oldest, the reluctant
medium, furious and
rebellious under his
apparent compliance; Adele,
the diarist, on the verge of
schizophrenia, falling in
love with the dangerous
Lieutenant Pinson;
Francois-Victor, troubled
and scholarly but best able
to take advantage of this
exile, who settles into
translating the plays of
Shakespeare. The book
follows their difficult days
and nights while also
focusing on the lives of
other political exiles,
including the Hungarians and
especially their leader
Count Sandor Teleki, who,
valiant but war-weary, finds
unexpected solace in the
tapping tables. There is a
midnight vignette of the
French Emperor Napoleon III,
Hugo's greatest enemy,
wandering through the
corridors of his palace. All
this, and much more, is
interwoven everywhere with
the contents of the seances.
 An earlier version of
VICTOR
HUGO'S CONVERSATIONS WITH
THE SPIRIT WORLD: A LITERARY
GENIUS'S HIDDEN LIFE
was published in 1998 by New
Paradigm Books as
CONVERSATIONS WITH
ETERNITY:
The Forgotten Masterpiece
of Victor Hugo. That earlier version is now
out-of-print. Here are
some reviews:
"Presented here is a whole 'nother side to the incredible mind that wrote Les
Miserables.
Recorded during his three-year exile on the Isle of
Jersey using the seance method of table-tapping, this 'channeled'
conversation reveals a particularly unusual spiritual experience in the
renowned
19th-century French writer's life. Covering everything from Hugo's
beloved
daughter, who had died, to the subject of Napoleon and a brush with
Galileo,
lively bantering with Sir Walter Scott, 'Death,' the planet Mercury,
and many other subjects, the book makes you feel like an ambitious yet
misguided
archeologist who accidentally unearths the ancient text that provides a
spiritual Missing Link. Read it, love it, share it, talk about it;
most of
all, have fun with it. This is a total adventure, and I would give my
eyeteeth to have been
there!" - T.E., NAPRA REVIEW, May-June,
1999.
"Few people are aware that while in exile on the island of Jersey, the
great
French writer Victor Hugo channeled thousands of messages from the
dead. 'This emotional experience lasted for over two years,' writes
Martin
Ebon in the introduction, 'and the record of its exalted nights and
days is
certainly a unique document, as well as a glimpse into the subconscious
of an
egocentric, frustrated genius, seeking to crash through the barriers of
human
communication. And who knows? It may even be that Hugo succeeded.'
This
book translates a good deal of Hugo's channeling into English for the
first
time. Stitching it all together--and providing the much-needed history
and
perspective--is John Chambers's brilliant running commentary. Quite a
surprise,
quite a delight." - Patrick Huyghe, Editor, ANOMALIST.
From
The Age of Seance: "Another great Victorian-epoch writer was
less public in his espousal of spiritualism but no less fervent.
Conversations With Eternity is a distillation of transcripts of
table-turning sessions carried out by Victor Hugo and family while in exile
on Jersey. The notes were lost in various archives until 1923, when they
were collated and published in French. This is their first publication in
English.
"The Hugos fled the tyrannical regime of Napoleon III in
1851, and having arrived in Jersey, set about holding seances. It seems
likely that Hugo's interest in this activity was precipitated by the death,
nine years earlier, of his daughter Leopoldine. Equally, boredom may have
played a part. For two years the family were in nightly contact with the
ethereal realm, and Conversations With Eternity details the results
of their sessions.
"Anyone wishing to see the problems that researchers such as
William James were up against need look no further than this book. Various
spirits, including the shades of such luminaries as Hannibal and
Shakespeare, visited the Hugos to convey statements of either mind-numbing
banality or bewildering obscurity, sometimes both at once. The one,
just-about-coherent theme that emerges from this book is the notion of the
world as a prison for human souls, who become reincarnated as lesser
organisms if their owners were insufficiently well-behaved during their
lives. This leads to a lot of high-flown, repetitious gobbledygook and
amusing assertions such as: 'The plant is the grimmest of the soul's
prisons. The lily is sheer hell.'
"What Conversations With Eternity does well, with
its Channel Island channelings, is reinforce the frustrating truth about
seances and mediumship. Believers will find much to convince them in the
evidence it presents. Unbelievers will not.
"Nowadays spiritualism has become part of the
paranormal subculture. It and all its New Age-y and Fortean ilk are
tolerated but not subjected to any great level of scrutiny. Perhaps that is
because, despite our rationalist era, many of us remain in thrall to the
hope that deceased loved ones are waiting for us in the next world. We find
it hard to accept that life reaches a full stop; we feel there must be, at
the very least, a coda, if not a whole new open-ended sentence - " -
James Lovegrove, from The Age of Seance, The Financial Times,
London, U.K., March 8, 2008.
..Truly
great and deserve[s] to be in every library, both public and private.
Dec. 14, 2003."This remarkable book deals with
the spiritualistic track record of Victor Hugo, when he had moved to the
island of Jersey for political reasons.
"This
is a remarkable and truly fascinating account of the life of the great
writer and poet, and in a sense of the troubled times during which
he lived and wrote.
"Turning
to spiritualism at one point and the then-popular practice of table
turning to make and receive contacts with the alleged spirit world, this
book, translating all this, is a most valuable contribution to the world
of Hugo and his time.
"Today, we take a somewhat different
view of table turning and spiritualism, and demand hard scientific
evidence instead of blind belief.
"The introduction by Martin Ebon,
one-time right-hand man and aide to the late great medium Eileen Garrett,
is also a masterpiece of putting Mr. Chambers's translation of the Hugo
material in its proper context. One need also consider the research
into the evidence for reincarnation in this connection, and,
ultimately, the standards prevailing today in scientific
parapsychology.
"But the work by Mr. Chambers and the
introduction by Martin Ebon are truly great and deserve to be in every
library, both public and private." - Prof. Dr. Hans
Holzer,
parapsychologist and author of 126 books including Ghosts
and Life Beyond Life
The
translation and commentary ...is brilliant, honest, and accurate.
August 14, 2003.
"For readers of the paranormal, this book will be a shocker
with its vivid details, revelations, and intriguing approaches. Translated
from French with commentary by John Chambers, and with an introduction to
who Victor Hugo was by Martin Ebon, this books makes for fascinating
reading.
"Victor Hugo wrote many novels, the most famous being Les Misrables.
During Hugo's exile during 1853 - 1855 on the island of Jersey, he
channeled thousands of messages from the famous dead. These spirits from
beyond the grave and other star systems revealed to Hugo the existence of
powerful energies. They told Hugo they were attempting to raise the
vibrational level of the earth to a higher plane. These messages were 150
years ahead of their time, and in this book the reader comes to understand
the challenges and potential of these important messages that were
channeled through Victor Hugo.
"Long out of print, it is now available again. The translation and
commentary by John Chambers is brilliant, honest, and accurate. The
introduction by Martin Ebon is flawless, in style and in intent. This is
the type of book that needs to be placed in the home library for reference
and in the public library for those patrons interested in the paranormal.
"The book contains 22 chapters and opens with data to tell who the
messengers were, the way of contact, and what they represented in terms of
paranormal contact. The chapters are "Journeys to the
Afterworld," "Hannibal Storms the Turning Tables,"
"Metempsychosis Speaks," "The Haunting of Victor
Hugo," "The Secret World of Animals," "Roarings of
Ocean and Comet," "Voyage to the Planet Mercury,"
"Galileo on the Unexplainable," among others. At the conclusion
of this fine reference work is a section on the works consulted during the
translation of the work.
"This is a superb nonfiction book. Much praise is due John Chambers for his
masterful and accurate translation and incisive commentary. Highly
recommended." - Review by Lee Prosser - leep@ghostvillage.com
- Ghostvillage.com review
"...Informative commentary by translator John Chambers is an invaluable assist
for the reader. Conversations With Eternity is superb reading and a splendid
addition to the growing body of metaphysical literature available to the
English-speaking public today." - Sharon Stuart, MIDWEST REVIEW,
Feb., 1999:
"In 1851 the French writer Victor Hugo escaped the tyranny of Napoleon III only
to end up on the dismal Jersey islands in the English Channel. Hugo and his
family whiled away their exile by contacting famous and other dead spirits
floating around in the ether. The Hugos and their exiled neighbors
employed table tapping to convey the messages of these beings, including the
likes of Shakespeare, Hannibal, and the ancient Greek poet Anacreon, among
others. Hugo personally transcribed the messages and kept records of these
unusual communications. In Conversations with Eternity, John
Chambers has translated these otherworldly communiques into English for the
first time. Reading this work allows one to view the nineteenth century
from a refreshingly multi-dimensional perspective. The history is presented not
with a dreary reporting of mere facts and dates, but rather with something that
is strangely alive, pregnant with a timely spiritual urgency. Many of the
spirits insisted to Hugo and his seance clique that humanity must raise its
vibratory level in order to hasten its evolution toward light--a message also
found in contemporary channeled works such as The Pleiadian Agenda and Bringers
of the Dawn. The Hugo family's unusually bright social circle seemed
to attract a wide range of spirits who often poetically surpassed their
Earthbound audience. For example, poet Andre Chenier eloquently
described from beyond his 1794 execution by guillotine: 'A luminous
line separates my head from my body. It is an alive and feeling wound,
which is receiving the kiss of God. Death appears to me simultaneously on
the earth and in the sky; while my body, transfigured by the tomb, plunges into
the beatitudes of eternity...' Conversations With Eternity is
replete with channeled gems like the above, perfect for any jaded history buff
looking for a new perspective on the past as well as the future."
- Jaye
C. Beldo, FATE , May, 1999.
"In exile on Jersey,
with ''Ocean," sky, and sadness shaping the emotional environment, Victor Hugo
took up the newly popular practice of spiritism ("table turning"). Between
1853 and 1855, he, his family and friends recorded conversations with over a
hundred of the illustrious dead. Aeschylus, Plato, Christ, Mahomet, Dante,
Machiavelli, Moliere, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Mozart, Andre Chenier, Byron, and
Walter Scott spoke, as well as Balaam's Ass, Death, Metempsychosis, and Ocean.
Few people give credence to conversations with the dead, believing that most
visionaries, mystics and eccentrics who report them are seeking support for
personal agendas. In Hugo's case, in a gross simplification, his agenda
appears to be enhancing humankind's spiritual resources through instructing the
world in a gospel of redemption. Through sin we have blemished God's
creation, blighted our lives and become "imprisoned souls." Through
reincarnations, we can finally ascend into "worlds of reward" or will descend
into "punitary worlds." The theme, however, is by no means so
straightforward. An often skeptical Hugo questioned the immortals (or so
they chose to speak) on an amazing range of other topics--some as specialized as
the deficiencies of Racine's classical plays. Challenging, memorable,
poetic utterances abound. The reader's journey is not easy, but much guidance is
given. Martin Ebon ("dean of writers on the paranormal") provides a useful
historical Introduction. John Chambers (the translator) does much to
define operating conditions, explain process, and analyze themes and development
in the conversations. Nevertheless, problems abound. The hand-activated
table gave one tap for "a" and 26 for "z." Thus the time and effort
required for "receiving" answers seems impossible. Did making fair copies
of the en seance notes promote unlimited "automatic writing" in which Hugo's
untrammeled imagination took over? The poet-author of the brilliant Hernani, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Napoleon
the Small and so much else certainly had a compulsion to write and
teach. Not the least interesting element of this strange but
well-structured book is Chambers's expansion and exploration of home-grown
spiritism through skillful reconstruction of channeling, Gaia, quantum
holography, the Great Chain of Being, James Merrill's The Changing Light at
Sandover, and Cao Dai (the contemporary Vietnamese "Third Alliance
between God and Man" and repository of Hugolian religious thought).
This is a book for the curious. If open-minded, they will forgive the
misdating of Julius II, consult the book's bibliography, and also read Graham
Robb's fine new biography of Hugo." - Peter Skinner, FOREWORD, February,
1999.
"RATING:
3 OUT OF 4 STARS. THE BEST BOOK ON CHANNELING FOR YEARS--RECEIVE IT NOW!
"In December, 1851, Victor Hugo was in danger of arrest under the increasingly
tyrannical regime of Napoleon III. Trailing a stream of camp-followers, the Hugo
family fled from France to live for three years in exile in Jersey. This was the
beginning of a 19-year absence from France, most of this being spent on the
island of Guernsey. Ten years prior to Hugo's flight, his 19-year-old married
daughter Leopoldine, pregnant at the time, had drowned with her husband whilst
boating in the Seine. Returning from Spain, Hugo read of his daughter's death in
a newspaper glimpsed by accident in a Soubise cafe. As earlier that
same day Hugo had visited the mummified bodies in the charnel house of
Saint-Michael's Church, his terrible loss and the eerie reminder of death
affected him so profoundly that he developed an increasing interest in the
occult. He came to believe that personality (or some form of it) survived death.
From September 1853 to October 1855, Hugo and his circle, through the
interpretation of table-tappings, received messages from all manner of spirit
beings, ranging from Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Aeschylus and Napoleon, to
Galileo, Aristophanes, Moses, Byron, Jesus Christ, Socrates, Joan of Arc, and
even the Ass of Balaam. This is a judicious selection by John Chambers of
material previously unavailable in English." - Colin Bennett, FORTEAN TIMES, January, 2000.
"Readers of this journal will
undoubtedly be familiar with the phenomena of channeling. From the
well-known Seth material of Jane Roberts to the popular Ramtha phenomenon of the
seventies, channeling has brought
us such bizarre works as the Urantia Book
and the remarkable Course in Miracles. But here is a book of
channeled material which is a century older and which occurred in the presence
of a famous author. It was August of 1853 that Victor Hugo arrived with
his family on the island of Jersey, five miles off the French coast in the
English Channel. Six years prior, in Hydesville, New York, the Fox sisters
had heard loud raps which were interpreted as messages from the deceased.
Almost immediately, conversing with the dead by means of tapping out messages by
a table leg knocking on the floor a number of times for each letter mushroomed
into a world-wide Spiritualist fad to which even the French upper class turned
with enthusiastic passion. Ten years earlier in his life, in September of
1843, Hugo's beloved daughter Leopoldine, only 19 years old and three months
pregnant, had drowned with her husband in the river Seine. So when on
Sunday, September 11, 1853, the table tapped out the name
"Leopoldine," even the skeptical Victor Hugo was overcome by
emotion. For the ensuing two years he would be intimately involved in the
turning tables of the seances. From Martin Ebon's beautifully written and
highly informative Introduction to John Chambers' weaving of relevant
contemporary channeled material as commentary on the Hugo family experiences,
this book provides an exciting journey to those interested in psychical
phenomena. Whether the table rapping phenomena was, in fact, communication
with those claiming to be well-known historical figures such as Rousseau,
Hannibal, Luther, Galileo, Shakespeare, Mohammed, even Jesus, among others, or
whether the channeling can be explained as the working of the subconscious mind
of those present at the seances, fascinating ideas are presented: we are told
that ancient Carthage was founded by survivors from Atlantis; that
everything--human, animal, plant, and mineral--has a soul; that existence on
earth is punishment for injustice committed in previous incarnations. From
the spirit claiming to be Andre Chenier (1762-1794), who was guillotined for
his royalist sympathies, we are given a full description of his immediate
after-death experience; from a spirit claiming to be Shakespeare, that "Art
walks to heaven's door, but only love may enter;" from a spirit claiming to
be Martin Luther that "doubt is the instrument which forges the human
spirit." According to certain spirits, animals are criminals being
punished for their transgressions; other beings offer descriptions of
semi-corporeal life on Mercury and Jupiter. Metempsychosis is a cosmic
reality. Thus we are enjoined to honor and love animals and all the
so-called lower species. Chambers relates the Hugo channeled material to
contemporary channeled works such as Patricia Pereira's Songs of the
Arcturians, Eagles of the New Dawn and Songs of Malantor,
and James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover. Moreover, he
claims to see in the material ideas in physics which only recently have come to
be accepted. I, however, am skeptical, first, because the information
shared by supposedly knowledgeable spirits is, to me, disappointing in its
specific content; second, because I wonder whether forces of nature are able to
communicate with such clarity to the human mind; and, third, at least in
English, the messages seem remarkably too similar in their beautiful
style. Could they have been the product of Hugo's subconscious or
super-conscious minds communicating with those holding the table? In any
case, the content of the book does fascinate and challenge the reader.
Remember that it was after these experiences that Hugo wrote his remarkable Les
Miserables. Clearly the experiences on Jersey had a profound effect
on Hugo's later writings and thoughts. For those interested in Victor Hugo
and his works, or in the phenomenon of channeling, I would recommend this
book." -
John F. Miller, III, Ph.D, JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND PSYCHICAL
RESEARCH, Vol. 23, No.1, January, 2000 .
CONTACT JOHN CHAMBERS
JOHN CHAMBERS/NEW AGE BOOKS ABROAD, 1921 Kinvarra Way,
Redding, California 96001,
Tel: (530..., FAX: (866) 212-0445, <darbyc@earthlink.net>
<http://www.newpara.com>
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