Borderlands

by Dr Mike Dash

The definitive exploration of the unknown and paranormal. BORDERLANDS contains hundreds of personal accounts of strange phenomena ranging from surviving mammoths in Siberia to intelligent clouds over New Zealand, from frozen frogs to plagues of murderous manhole covers. It also examines how and why these stories are reported and what they mean. The book sets out the scientific and psychological explanations for these phenomena, while remaining accessible to the casual reader. BORDERLANDS is the first complete critical survey of an extraordinary fast developing field.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, Occult, Collections

553 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 29, 1997

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a really thorough overview and investigation of all things paranormal. It emphasizes that you can't look at any one part of the subject matter in isolation; for instance ufo encounters frequently are followed up by psychic experiences or ghost visitations. It also dealt with lots of hoaxes and explored the cultural and psychological impact on sightings. One conclusion drawn from all the research done is that the poltergeist phenomenon is likely to be the most objectively real of them all; for whereas people taken into UFOs in the 1960s might see pull-down chart star maps that suited the 1960s, poltergeist encounters have taken the same form since they were first reported 3000 years ago. All in all, very cool stuff.

[Susan Paxton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a lot of other reviewers here, I found this first effort by Dash (Batavia's Graveyard) tedious, and digging through to find insights - and there are some - took too long (and I read a lot of extremely dry stuff, so I have a higher tolerance than many).

[Sharon A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding survey of Fortean phenomena. Dash is so knowledgeable and writes in an easy-to-read, direct way. There is no pseudoscientific babble. There is ample skepticism where warranted along with illuminating ideas about the scope and nature of these claims and phenomena. Highly recommended.

[R.A. Deckert · Rating 2 out of 5]

A superficial look at paranormal phenomena, from UFOs to spontaneous human combustion. The author was the chief researcher of the Fortean Times, an organization that studies strange phenomena, but he comes across like one of the debunkers who believe that UFOs and the paranormal are simply impossible so therefore they didn't happen and don't need to be investigated. Disappointing.

[Rhonda Wise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly straight forward exploration of strange phenomena. The write is a skeptic who wants to understand possible supernatural events but concludes that 99% of reports are either fraud, self-hypnosis or psychological trauma. It is interesting in the sheer amounts of data. It starts with a premise that seems to support the idea of the supernatural but ends up favoring psychological and/or mental illness causing hallucinations for those events that were not out right fraud. I am not sure if the author is intentionally biased or the specific events and conclusions he came to were coincidentally that way. It was still a very interesting read.

[Willow Redd · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive, but fascinating read covering everything from the Old Hag, to UFOs, to Faeries. Mike Dash presents case after case of alien abduction, lake monster sightings, strange earth phenomena, and anything else that defies exact classification within what he (and others) dub "The Borderlands."

The Borderlands are the realm of the unexplained in which the strangest things can happen to either an individual or group. Here, Dash tries to look at possible explanations such as mass hysteria, cultural sources, mind trickery, or simple hoaxes and straight up lies; but even though some experiences within the Borderlands can be explained away by some benign cause, there remain those few cases that defy explanation, remaining within the realm of the weird. And that's the most interesting thing about the Borderlands, there is still so much we just can't explain away.

Definitely a book worth having if you're exploring the unknown.

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an excellent introduction to paranormal topics like near-death experiences, alien universes, creatures of the nught, other worldly visitors and demonic infestation. It includes an excellent index and reference list. Read this and you will be pulled into the world of the paranormal.

[Alice Florence · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of incidents are mentioned in quick succession without going into much detail. I lost interest about a quarter way through it.