Supernatural Machines - by David Brandon Hodge (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Supernatural Machines is a groundbreaking visual history of the devices invented to speak with the dead.

From the spectral raps of the Fox Sisters to the rise of the Ouija board, Brandon Hodge guides readers through two centuries of spiritual innovation--exploring the haunted technologies born from our longing to pierce the veil between life and death. A unique fusion of esoteric history, visual culture, and ghost story, this richly illustrated, large-format volume reveals the occult ingenuity of mediums, inventors, and mystics who crafted writing planchettes, talking boards, spirit trumpets, and other strange apparatus to reach beyond the grave. With original photography, archival ephemera, and gripping historical narratives, Supernatural Machines brings to light a forgotten chronicle of technological mysticism. Each of its 14 chapters is a portal to the past, a captivating read accompanied by stunning photographs, detailed illustrations, and haunting accounts that breathe life into the arcane artifacts that have captivated the imagination of our ancestors and ourselves

About the Author

David Brandon Hodge is a historian, collector, and author specializing in the history of spirit communication devices. Founder of MysteriousPlanchette.com and curator of the world's largest archive of séance artifacts, his research has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine and Paranormal Review, and has served as a consultant for museums and exhibitions worldwide, including the acclaimed Supernatural America exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum's Conjuring the Spirit World exhibit. Hodge has also appeared in many prominent programs as an expert on the occult, including Oddities, Mysteries at the Museum, and Expedition Files, and served as historical consultant and provided séance artifacts for Rick Alverson's film The Mountain and Lasse Hellström's biopic Hilma. Hodge is also a respected game designer and lecturer, known for his horror-themed scenarios and his work with Atlas Obscura and Coast to Coast AM. He owns and operates Monkey See, Monkey Do! toy store and Big Top Candy Shop in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his two children, Jack and Elliot, and the ghosts of several cats.