276°
Posted 20 hours ago

The Silent Companions: The perfect spooky tale to curl up with this autumn

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

Wood, R.A., Hopkins, S.A., Moodley, K.K. & Chan, D. (2015). Fifty percent prevalence of extracampine hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease patients. Frontiers in Neurology, 6, 263.

In some instances, dummy boards were used as props in elaborate practical jokes. The 18th-century Dutch artist and writer, Arnold Houbraken, describes a social gathering where a dummy board was placed at the door to greet the company. Some guests, mistaking the wooden figure for a maidservant, attempted to give it a tip, a source of great amusement to those watching. Although this kind of experience is not necessarily a frequent part of how voice-hearers describe their experience, it is also not a one-off. Anecdotally voice-hearers will talk about their voices being present without speaking, taking up spatial positions even when silent, and in some cases ‘looking’ at the world alongside the voice-hearer. In the Hearing the Voice phenomenology survey published last year (Woods et al., 2015), 69 per cent of a sample of 153 voice-hearers described their voices as being characterful or having a distinct personality, while 66 per cent associated their voices with unusual bodily sensations or changes. And in some cases, descriptions of presence were explicitly made:This is a great, spooky tale, one you’ll absolutely have to suspend disbelief, but oh how great it is once you do! It does get a little gruesome at some points which was a little outside of my comfort zone, but then again, I’m a big wimp so there’s that. Unfortunately, things started to fizzle out for me the more I kept reading. It felt like a slow burn at first that I was hoping would pay off over time but that wasn’t the case. There are some decent creepy moments here and there but my goodness, this novel has way too much dialogue. The three alternating timelines with the super past, past, and current aspects of this novel just didn’t work out at all for me. Unusual feelings of presence have always been associated with similarly unusual or unorthodox interpretations. Some presence experiences appear to share qualities with the feeling (and subsequent discovery) of being stared at; a phenomenon argued to be a real faculty of perception by some (Sheldrake, 2005), but without any strong empirical basis (e.g. Colwell et al., 2000). Persinger and colleagues (e.g. Booth et al., 2005) have argued that felt presences can occur as a result of changes to the earth’s magnetic field, although such effects seem likely to arise from participant suggestibility (Granqvist et al., 2005). Finally, some psychotherapists and spiritual healers consider presences to be evidence of an entity that must be persuaded to depart its host; a controversial approach known as ‘spirit release’ therapy (Powell, 2006).

Sheldrake, R. (2005). The sense of being stared at – Part 1: Is it real or illusory? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12(6), 10–31. What an eerie story! Be aware that if you have a fear of wooden dolls with eyes that follow you when you move around, this is probably not a book for you (or maybe it’s exactly the book for you, then!) :-)The Silent Companions is Laura Purcell’s masterpiece and the original reason I fell in love with Gothic horror. I consider it to be the perfect entry point for readers new to the genre and wanting to give it a try. This book was very good and quite enjoyable! I love books which are atmospheric and evoke feelings of dread and unease. This book, like the silent companions, will creep up on you and have you worrying about things that go bump in the night (or shall I say hiss?). Purcell builds the suspense as her story unfolds. I really enjoyed how all the story-lines/plot timelines came together and brought about the end of the book! Plus, the ending? Was anyone else scratching their head at the end, thinking "what just happened? “I have my theories and think I have it figured out but like that I was left with questions. I feel like I was in the same boat as Elise at the end. Wondering what the hell just happened!?!

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment