I once met the author at a conference a number of years ago. I understand he has been a student of the paranormal since he was very young. He told me he was raised in a house that was haunted and had an out of body experience early in life. He had his first UFO sighting at the age of l0. He did a column called ON THE TRAIL OF THE FLYING SAUCERS for Ray Palmer's magazine and he used to correspond with Richard Shaver who claimed that he had been in the caves and been attacked by the dero. Its all very strange. Beckley tells it best in this book. There are literally dozens of stories about individuals who have met the inner earth dwellers. Its easy to read -- Beckley has a breezy style of writing. Its exciting and will keep you turning the page.

In "Subterranean Worlds Inside Earth," author Timothy Green Beckley has collected many stories from a vast wealth of sources on the subject of what is often called "The Inner Earth Theory." The theory holds that the Earth does not consist of molten metal at its core, as modern science tells us, but is instead quite hollow inside, and supports several different races of sentient beings as well as their impressive underground cities. Those cities are said to be linked to one another by underground tunnels with aboveground openings that the occasional surface-dwelling mortal stumbles on to.

Much of the information Beckley presents comes from a man named Richard Shaver, a spot welder on the Detroit automobile assembly lines who one day began to hear strange voices projected at him as he went about his work. Following the trail that began with that unearthly auditory experience, Shaver eventually came to the conclusion that the voices were coming from somewhere beneath the Earth, from a race of creatures he came to call the "Deros," which is short for "degenerate robots."

The Deros have a story of their own. They were once a gentle race who lived on the surface of the Earth, until it became apparent that the sun was being transformed in some way that caused an increase in the amount of a form of dangerous radiation contained in its rays. Some of the Deros escaped the planet by going into space in their highly-developed spacecraft, but not all of them managed to do so.

Those forced to remain went underground and built the cities referred to above, but the sun's poisonous radiation also caused them to go insane and to develop cruel and sadistic personality traits. It is because of their evil madness that mankind suffers so much today, and Shaver himself experienced some bizarre mistreatments as he sought to learn more about the mysterious Deros. Shaver eventually published many of his Dero tales in a magazine called "Amazing Stories," which were so popular that they greatly increased the magazine's circulation.

But Shaver's story of the Deros is only one of many versions of exactly what is down there in the Hollow Earth. Beckley also offers stories by journalist John J. Robinson and others whose research has turned up different legends and personal experiences, some of which tell of a hidden paradise below our feet where beautiful, spiritually benevolent creatures reside.

Beckley's use of numerous and divergent reports helps to paint a wonderfully complete picture of the centuries of folklore that have become mingled with scientific fact through real-world investigations into the "Subterranean Worlds Inside Earth." Some of what's here stretches credibility a little more than might be totally comfortable. But if you have an appetite for unsolved mysteries that extend beyond the realm of the safe and the knowable, then Beckley's thorough overview of what may be inside the Hollow Earth is well worth the time spent reading it.

Alchemy has always been of interest to me. The idea that you can take ordinary metal and turn it into gold has naturally got to be appealing - especially in our very materialistic society. St Germain is said to have been a master alchemist who was a favorite of the court of kings and queens, as well as the powerful of the time. In addition to his seemingly magical abilities he never seem to age. In fact, this book makes a good case that it would appear and than vanish throughout the course of over 400 years. There are those who say he was there when they signed the Constitution as well on TV in France in the last decade. This book held my interest -- it makes for both fascinating reading, but is also practical for those wishing to further their occult studies in rejuvenation and youthfulness. There is also a large selection of messages beamed from St Germain who is said to be living beneath Mt Shasta in the underground city of Telos, where he is working with the great while brotherhood of light.

I thought that the Publisher's statment that Nostradamus was an Alien from another world (several times) was just ridiculous. All of his conclusions are subject to interpretation, and in my opinion missed the mark several times. I wonder who the other "reviewers" really are?!? I bought this book on their recommendation. I'm sorry I wasted my time and money!

Years ago I went out and purchased about 6 or 8 books dealing with the prophecies of Nostradamus. A lot of them are pretty unreadable. Unless you are a history buff what happened in France or throughout Europe 3oo or 400 years ago is going to have very little meaning. Also, unless you know French you will have to plow through page after page of translations which - often -- will bring you no closer to making a determination about if the seer actually predicted a particular event or not. UNPUBLISHED PROPHECIES has two things going for it. It gets right to the point, pretty much dealing with the works of Nostradamus that have meaning in our modern every day lives. The editors have sorted everything out for the reader in a reasonable number of pages so you dont have to take a course in French. Furthermore, there are some predictions in this book that supposedly have never been published before. Additionally, I just obtained a recent printing of this book to find out that the publisher have added some material on the terrorist attack on America. In fact the sub title deals with this new threat and there is even a special update you can get by writing to the publisher.

There has been a resurgence of interest in Nostradamus in the wake of the tragic terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Along with a widely circulated hoax prophecy that was quickly unmasked by astute students of the prophet, the authentic prophecy found in Century 6, Quatrain 97, seemed to uncannily predict the World Trade Center's destruction.

The skeptic's response to all such apparent fulfillments of prophecy is to argue that since the actual wording of the quatrain is so vague, it can be interpreted any number of ways. However, it is even less logical to assume that Nostradamus was working totally blind and that future events correspond to what he predicted simply by chance. It has been said that if you put a monkey in front of a typewriter, he will eventually type out the words of Shakespeare. But again, it simply isn't possible for Nostradamus to be as accurate as he is working from within a total vacuum, is it?

Which brings us to "Nostradamus' Unpublished Prophecies" by Arthur Crockett. Crockett opens with a crash course for the uninitiated on the life history of Nostradamus, beginning with his humble yet nearly supernatural birth in 16th Century France through his time as a medical doctor working with victims of the Black Plague. Beginners to the subject will enjoy reading about the early years when Nostradamus first became aware of his gift of prophecy and the fame he acheived in his own lifetime, including his eventual championing by the French royal court.

Next Crockett gives an interesting overview of some of the prophecies already assumed to be fulfilled, such as quatrains that seem to predict the rise and fall of Adolph Hitler and the end of the Cold War. The accuracy with which Nostradamus predicted so many future events that are now in our past is the best testimony one can make for him being the real thing.

From there, Crockett moves on to the heart of the book, the prophecies by Nostradamus that were omitted from the seer's official collection.

"The legend goes," Crockett writes, "that shortly before his death, Nostradamus penned a series of prophecies so startling that he never had them included in his published works, too afraid was he of the effect they might have. These predictions were circulated only to royalty and were thought destroyed for many years until they were uncovered in the basement of the house where Nostradamus died. They were sealed behind a wall which only recently was torn down to reinforce the old building which is now a landmark."

So we are given something new to ponder over and wonder about. Many of the unpublished prophecies have to do with the Second Coming of Christ and visitors from Outer Space as well as several appearances by the Virgin Mary.

Also included with the book is a two-page insert called "Nostradamus' Black Prophecies," one of which is a story in itself. Keeping in mind that the book was published in 1983, the insert contains a prophecy that declares, "In the year eighty plus nine, the vast East collapses." You may recall that it was in 1989 that the student revolt in China happened, followed by a bloody massacre and the complete breakdown of law and order in China that lasted for several weeks. It's just such moments that keep students of Nostradamus hooked.

In any case, I heartily recommend "Nostradamus' Unpublished Prophecies" to both the adept scholar and the newcomer to the prophet. Whatever lies ahead of us in the future may have already been seen and documented in the four-line poems of a man who spoke through time itself.

As an environmental planning gradute student, I've read a lot of other books and articles by Tim Beatly, and I almost always enjoy what he has to say. His latest book was really a bit disappointing though. His basic premise in writng this book was to look at examples of sustainable urbanism from Europe (specifically Northern Europe-Denmark, Netherlands, Germany) and then see how those examples could possibly apply to American cities. From my experiences with American planning, very little in this book would be possible in America because our governance structures, local government financing, and politics are just too different. Plus his book gives the impression that Europe is somehow much more enlightened than America when it comes to planning for sustainability in urban areas, which, if you've been to anywhere in Europe outside of the countries he profiles, you'll know is not true. In all, I think he's really slanted his case studies in an effort to make a point that's become a personal cause of his without any attempt at objectivity or attention as to how realistic any of these recommendations would be in American society. The book he wrote with Christy Manning, "Ecology of Place" is a much better treatment of pretty much the same subject.

Beatley shows there is much to learn from the Europeans when it come to the ecological and environmental city planning. Although it would be hard to implement European planning practices on American soil, it brings a new, and beneficial perspective that many can use towards an incremental change.

Count Saint Germain seems to have been a truly interesting and mysterious person who deserves a good, honest, thoroughly researched biography. This book is none of those things. In the blurb above this review you will see that they are using the 'gold and violet' cover as a selling point, which I find humorously--almost touchingly--simpleminded. There are spelling mistakes and errors of fact (such as wrong dates) all over the place, and the authors refuse to look at any story concerning Saint Germain with the least bit of scepticism. Thus we are told that Francis Bacon and Christopher Columbus were actually Saint Germain, and that as, Sir Francis Bacon, Saint Germain wrote all of Shakespeare's plays. The silliness never stops! Then we are told that the secret of immortality lies in starving yourself for forty days, after which your hair and teeth will fall out; a few hours later they will grow back, and after that you'll be immortal. (Don't try this at home, kids!) So I'm afraid I cannot recommend this book. The one star is for the gold and violet cover, which is mighty purty.