Over the years I’ve probably read quite a bit and not specifically on the paranormal either, which has helped me hopefully gain a greater understanding of the subject. Well as much as you can have for something that’s pretty unknown.

In order to keep my reading material varied over the years I’ve adopted two fundamental approaches;

1) Never ever judge a book by its cover, or its author for that matter.

2) Keep an open mind and see it through.

This has meant I’ve picked up and read books covering the standard ghost stories and experiences, things angled more to science, telepathy, ESP, Quantum Physics, Relativity, Synchronicity, Consciousness and so much more !

However this curiosity has also meant I’ve picked up a few books that have been off the normal track let’s say. Some have been relatively up to date, where others have most certainly been a little older and most certainly weirder! What I often find interesting isn’t just what can be found between the covers of a book, but also the sequence of events that have brought me to the book in question. My more spiritual friends would remind me that this would be the journey that brought the book to me. To be fair on occasion it has actually felt a little like that and I’ve been left contemplating exactly what it is specifically that I’m supposed to take away from reading the book!

Now by this point you’re probably wondering where exactly I’m going with this, so let me explain. I have one particular book that came into my possession through a series of strange events and research, but I was never prepared for the actual history of this book in question!

As with all great stories I’m going to try to kick things off from the beginning here, well where else could I start?

A good few years back now whilst I worked at an office in Hatfield a few people began to become aware of my paranormal interests, which in turn sparked a few very different conversations at the coffee machine. One particular guy who had a keen interest in UFOs became a regular in those ghostly coffee machine discussions. So much so that he began to draw my attention to a particular documentary he had watched about spiritual communication. The documentary in question was called ‘The Afterlife Investigations’ and focussed mainly around one particular case, the Scole Experiment. Watching this little known show actually gave me a research focus for a little while which was based around the séance room activity experienced at Scole. It also helped me dig deep into the SPR to gain a greater understanding of the subject. I also read two books on the Scole Experiment; one by the Scole Group themselves, and one by the investigators from the SPR that attended some of the experiment sessions.

However, neither of these books or any I read related to the concept of mediumship are the particular book that made its way into my possession.

The Scole Experiment saw some amazing probable evidence; such as trance communication, apports, audio, levitating objects and the very interesting photographic experiments.

It was those cryptic messages delivered onto blank film during the sessions that caught my eye. Especially as some of them appeared to suggest connections with the likes of FWH Myers and T Edison. As I researched this interesting subject I stumbled upon a particular film which still remained a mystery at most. This film was called ‘the dragon film’ and is believed to have links to Alchemy. This film and its probable message fascinated me and I soon learnt that it was suspected of being fraud. The reason for this assumption seemed to have arisen from the fact that the images on this one film could be linked to one singular book.

That book was the ‘A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural’ by Maurice Bessy. As the images came from this one book I decided that perhaps it may be a good idea to obtain the book. Oddly this occurred shortly after when my ex-wife brought a used copy for me.

Sure enough all the images from ‘the dragon film’ were present in the copy of the book I had and the rest of the book added more to the mix.

Oddly the second-hand book I received had certain pages noted down too. Not related to ‘the dragon film’ image, but still interesting.

However this book had one last piece of history to share with me. You see beneath its dust cover was a very unique and dominant image which immediately arouses links to some very dark routes indeed. In fact there was very good reason why this book created an element of fear. It’s believed that the image on the cover of the book was the inspiration for the symbol that the church of Satan adopted and later appeared above their alters. The connection to Satanism doesn’t end there though, as it’s believed this book was used by the members of the church of Satan prior to them creating their own bible. It could be suggested that this book was also part of the inspiration for Satanists. However there’s no solid fact to support this.

So, through the journey of research into an area of the paranormal which caught my interest, I have acquired several books on the subject and one older book with some very interesting history.

However, this book isn’t a book of magic and doesn’t appear to contain any supernatural curses, it simply contains some varied information on the field. Although I can’t help wonder if this all came about for a reason sometimes. It would be great to solve ‘the dragon film’ after all.

Oddly those I’ve shown the books cover to have immediately made the association to something dark without opening it. This was equally the case on social media too. This book was published before the Church of Satan was formed and used the symbol from the cover. Yet most believe the book to be dark and probably produced by the church of Satan. Perception, lack of understanding, misinformation, assumption and often jumping to conclusions can always lead us to come to a belief regarding some things that isn’t based on fact.

When this book came into my possession I saw it only as a research source for ‘the dragon film’. It had a slight familiarity about it, but I didn’t make the connection to Satanism until I looked into its history.

There’s actually some quite fascinating stuff in this book and I am still working on ‘the dragon film’; perhaps that will be another post at a later date.

Okay, so the cover of this book inspired the church of Satan symbol. Members may have used the book whilst they waited for their own Bible, but please don’t judge a book by its cover; especially out of fear because you don’t have all the facts. This is a lesson that many could apply to the world and life today. Often what we see externally is a small snapshot of someone’s entirety and we should take time to learn more about them. We certainly should never judge someone or anything straight away when the facts are absent.

If you would like a copy of this book click on the image below to grab one from Amazon…

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