Book Review; Atlas of Cursed Places.

Atlas of Cursed Places

A travel guide to dangerous and frightful destinations

Author:                          Oliver Le Carrer

Publisher:                      Black Dog & Leventhal

Type:                              Hard Cover

Pages:                             142

Genre:                            non-fiction (mostly, see below)

Published:                      2015

ISBN:                              9781631910005

 The book itself is really nice looking, its hardcover and is well made.  It has many beautiful maps, but no drawings or sketches of the buildings described sadly. 

 The introduction is a little off putting and i started to worry what i am in for with this one. It kind of implied that the biblical genesis is actual history. And insinuates that  billion people (that's almost everyone on earth) is judo-christian. It also strangely tries to separate the paranormal and supernatural from religion, which is really weird, whats more supernatural than magic and the Gods?

 But please do plow through this, the book isn't really trying to indoctrinate the innocent reader into any one religion, as later on it gives other Gods almost as much historical reality. It seems the meaning can sometimes be muddied by flowery prose.

 The book does use the antiquated BC/AD which doesn't add to its credibility, but is a common enough mistake to not effect the score too much. 

 The book looks at some interesting places like, islands, castles, villages, forests, tombs, cemeteries, marshlands, and delves into some haunted locations and the homes of some cryptids. Each entry has a few pages of information and at least one map of where the subject is located.

 Some of the most interesting places for me were, the Pine Barrens, Amityville, The Suicide Forrest, The Bermuda Triangle, and Eilean Mor Lighthouse. 

 As an example the book looks at Nuremburg and tells how a former SS Nazi barracks has become home to the High Commission for Refugees there.

 But on page 92 i read something incredibly distressing. The location is Nauru, and the last paragraph notes that it- 

"leased part of its modest surface area to Australia as a reception center for illegal immigrants." 

 I was shocked, i read those words again and again as tears came to my eyes. 

 Because i know that the reception refuges face on Nauru is not a nice one. Any person that arrives in Australia by boat is captured, and relocated to one of Australians off shore prison camps like Nauru. These poor men, women and children are not processed, our far right wing government (and center right opposition) have refused to ever allow any of them to resettle in Australia. These prison camps are designed as a punishment for trying to seek asylum in Australian, and as a deterrent from other refuges from attempting to do the same.

 Remember that these are not illegal immigrants, these are refugees seeking asylum in Australia, fleeing war, famine and terrorism.

 In these prison camps on Nauru and Manus islands, refuges face isolation, torture, lack of medical care, hopelessness, rape, assault, murder, and child abuse. As a result of the horrors they have fled and those inflicted upon them by indefinite incarceration without crime, charge or trial some of these poor people have self harmed and even committed suicide in order to free themselves from the unending horror.

 Please don't take my word for it, follow the links. Another disturbing aspect of this is that the ministers responsible for this horror are often promoted, and given even more power.

 While contacting the Coalition and Labor governments might help the only real solution is to vote Green in Australia as they are the only  party (of reasonable size) that have an even remotely humane refugee policy. 

A history of Nauru

Nauru human rights abuse 

Dutton promoted despite failure

Women on Nauru

Australian Human Rights Commission

The Greens Refugee Plan

 Okay, so in light of this horrific lack of research on the author, fact checker, and editors part it may surprise you to know that i do actually recommend this book. It is a nice looking book and is an interesting read. But the Nauru part is a great example of the need to check your sources, and to get your information from more than one source. It would be a good way to teach children the importance of this ability and it seems the ability to discern fact from lie (alternate fact) is more and more necessary as we know that the fascism of the Right gains power through ignorance.

 Please seek help if you need to talk about the horrors that refugees are facing at the hands of the Australian government.

Review: Haunted Australia

 Haunted Australia

 

Author:                               John Heffernan

Publisher:                           Scholastic

Type:                                   Soft Cover

Pages:                                  161

Genre:                                 non-fiction

Published:                            2005

ISBN:                                   9781865048260

 I purchased this book online at about three in the morning, along with a few others, i missed the fact it was a scholastic book. For those who don't know Scholastic does fine works making books easier for school children to access. However Scholastic books tend to be for younger readers, so it has large printing, is wide spaced, glosses over many details and sometimes descends into silly speak.  
 Now don't get me wrong using 'spooxpert' to refer to parapsychologists, or paranormal investigators was kind of amusing the first time, however it grated more and more with every single use, and by the end of the book i wanted to hit something. 
 To be fair to this book i am going to rate it as best i can for its child to teen target audience.

 The book is a collection of true ghost encounters from Australia, while some cover a few pages others take up a single paragraph.
 The book has a good introduction, and i should mention i suppose that the book does deal with ghosts and therefore mentions death a few times, as with everything, if you are concerned about younger readers, be a responsible parent and read it yourself first, and discuss it after you have both read it. There are no pictures in this book at all, though some pages have a pattern (as seen in the above photo).
 The book covers haunted houses, ships, theaters, hotels, islands, barracks, prisons, hospitals, roads and even a haunted toilet.
 There is a section on ghost animals including  horses and cattle in addition to the usual dogs and cats.
 Other topics covered include Indigenous spirits, 'guardian angels', ghost hunting, spook (min min) lights, ghost towns, phantom hitchhikers, animal PSI, possession and old hag syndrome.

 There is a short frequently asked questions, but sadly;

 "Why are you trying to make 'spooxperts' a thing?"

wasn't one of those questions, my personal conclusion is that it wasn't included because there is no excuse as 'spooxperts' is an unjustifiable abuse of the English language.

 The book closes with a glossary and some references. There is no index!

 OK so all joking aside, this is a decent book, i can see myself reading this in mid to late primary school maybe. It might have been nice to know there were other haunted houses in Australia. Its simple to read, doesn't get too dark and should peek a child's interest in exploring the subject more. Personally while i can understand not putting the home addresses in the descriptions i would still have liked to see times, dates, and names, some of the places described have been destroyed so why not give there locations. And it has no index, how can any book of this nature be published without an index? 

 I would recommend this book to younger readers who have an interest in the paranormal or are experiencing a haunting, books of this nature focusing on Australia are not too common so anyone interest in Australia or its history might also find this book a launching point to further research.

__

Remember always expect a skeptic to be skeptical of everything, not just what they don't want to accept.

Drop Bear Growls

The ghostly wrestler?

Paranormal Hammerlock

 It’s time for another spooky tale of the paranormal kind. This is a true story it happened to me yesterday (16/08/2025).

It began Sunday evening as I was washing up, beside my sink there is a door to the sleepout or sunroom, and it’s kind of like a veranda that has windows on all the outside facing walls. At the moment the sunroom is used for storage. So anyway I am standing there washing up and I am startled by knocking on this door! You have to understand that the only other door to this room is in my bedroom and it isn’t used, it actually has furniture placed on both sides. The house is on stilts and the windows out of reach and closed. 

 SIMS 4 PLAN OF MY HOUSE

So I hear this knocking and I look at the door, which is about a meter from me. I think it must be echoing strangely and I go check the front and back doors, which are both locked and no one is there. I check next doors drive way and they are not home, besides it was too loud to be from them. So I go back to the kitchen, I am standing at the door to the sleepout and I reach out my hand, wondering if I really want to open the door. , And it comes again five loud knocks, this time see the door move, I flinch back my right hand that was just about to grab the door handle. I consider again if I want to open the door, instead I say “no one is home, you can’t come in” at the door and go into the lounge room to play some second son on the PS4.

 SIMS 4 COPY OF MY HOUSE

That night I had trouble sleeping again, I do suffer from insomnia, but I have also been under a lot of stress due to my boyfriend of almost 4 years dumping me for another guy. So sleep didn’t come easy and when it did, it seemed I woke almost instantly.
Eventually I must have gotten to sleep because I awoke lying on my stomach with my head facing the bedroom door. I looked and listened for a momentarily to determine what if anything had woken me up.

THE BEDROOM DOOR TO THE SLEEPOUT

That’s when I noticed my right arm, laying at my side, it moved. I thought for a second it might be a spasm, or maybe my arm was asleep, as it felt very strange. It wasn’t asleep though, it moved again, awkwardly. It’s difficult to explain, I am lying there and I am watching my arm lift off the bed. I didn’t take notice at the time but the covers had been pulled away from my right arm and back. My arm moves again it looks like it’s being lifted and manipulated by unseen hands, I am thinking I am having some kind of seizure or something. 

I can actually see the skin moving as my arm moves.As the pressure tightens i can actually feel hands and fingers, the hardest being on my bicep, the thumb pressing deep into my skin.

Then my arm is lifted and twisted more, and I realize My arm is actually being twisted around and behind my back, in like a hammerhold, a restraining move, like the police do. 

I lash out with my mind in panic! And it is gone; I am alone in my bedroom again. I quickly rollover, pulling the covers back on me, and I fall soundly asleep.

THE KITCHEN DOOR INTO THE SLEEPOUT

This was not the old hag, I have only had old hag visits while lying on my back, this was different. Needless to say I cleansed my house and slept a lot better last night. In the mirror this morning i see a bruse where the entitys thumb dug deep into my bicep. 

Its kind of faint and didn't show up too well on camera, but its there, and not in a place that i could have accidentally hit without a convoluted and memorable event.

Please forgive the dreaded red circle of unseeing.

Charlie Charlie challenge

Charlie Charlie can we play?

There is a craze going around at the moment, called the charlie charlie challenge. You basically take a piece of paper, divide it into four squares. You write yes no, yes no, each to a square. Then you take two pencils and balance them along the lines, so they intersect at the crossroads.You then ask 'Charlie Charlie are you there?" when Charlie Charlie says yes you ask, "Charlie Charlie can we play?" he he again says yes you can ask him questions and he will answer them yes or no. 

NO

Apparently to end the session you should say "Thank you Charlie Charlie, can we stop?". If he says yes you should say "Charlie Charlie, thank you" and stop, some even say to crumple the paper, and drop the pencils on the ground.
He answers yes or no by moving the pencil so it falls into one of the labelled squares.

YES

The 'game' seems to have come from Spanish speaking country's, though it does beg the question why it isn't Carlitos Carlitos? There are even some claims that Charlie Charlie is a ancient Mexican god, such claims seem unlikely unless the deity has had a name change. 

There are also claims that Charlie Charlie is a demon, and the practice is satanic, though i can see nothing overtly christian / catholic about Charlie Charlie or the game itself, so we can probably rule this out. Some say he is a ghost of a young man. Charlie Charlie is said to have black eyes and a red robe and to harass people who don't play the game by his rules. 
Such people have experienced disembodied voices, Telekinesis, unexplained shadows, sinister laughing among other 'paranormal' events.

To my eyes this seems less like Ouija board use, or even use of a Pendulum for divination. But with the Spirit of the Pendulum given a name and back story.

After some experimentation it seems Charlie Charlie does give adequate answers. It can be difficult to set up the pencils where they wont be inadvertently influenced by table movements and your own breath, though it could be argued that maybe that's the energy that can more easily be used by Charlie Charlie to answer the questions.
It seems harmless enough, and might teach the young folk that ending a ritual is just as important as starting it. As well as the ability to tell when a given phenomenon is supernatural or mundane, this is a very important skill to develop and it seems severely lacking in our current society. So many people jump to the illogical conclusion that something is mundane despite all evidence to the contrary.
Personally for my quick divination needs i would stick with the pendulum, its just as easy to perform and gives more reliable results. Please comment below if you have tried it and let us know what happened.
As with everything, caution should be used when dealing with the other realm.

Charlie Charlie can we stop?

Update:

While making a video version of this blog i may have been visited by Charlie Charlie himself.