Konstantinos
Author of Vampires: The Occult Truth (Llewellyn Truth about)
Works by Konstantinos
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1972
- Gender
- male
- Short biography
- Konstantinos is a recognized expert on occult, new age, and paranormal topics. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and technical writing from New York Polytechnic Institute. He is a published author of articles and short fiction which have been featured in numerous publications including Popular Electronics, The Spook, and FATE Magazine. Konstantinos is a popular lecturer on the paranormal at colleges and bookstores in the New York City area and he has appeared on CNBC's After Hours and The Ricki Lake Show.
A Dark Neopagan, Konstantinos has been researching the occult and practicing magick for over fifteen years. Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Konstantinos now devotes his time to writing, singing Gothic rock music, and exploring nocturnal life in New York City and around the country.
Konstantinos is also the author of Vampires: The Occult Truth, Summoning Spirits: The Art of Magical Evocation, Speak with the Dead: 7 Methods for Spirit Communication, Gothic Grimoire, Nocturnal Witchcraft, Nocturnicon: Calling Dark Forces and Powers, and the forthcoming Werewolves: The Occult Truth (September 2010).
Members
Reviews
Let's start with positives: I picked up this book to read about vampire folklore and this book is full of myths and creepy tales. It is a rare thing indeed to find vampire lore from around the world compiled in a slim volume. Also, the inclusion of a ritual for protection was a thoughtful addition and the letters from real "vampires" were fascinating to read. As for suggestions for improvement, I have a few. As another reviewer noted, Konstantinos doesn't document much and a lot of his show more evidence seems rather unreliable (for example, his entire theory explaining "unintentional psychic vampires" appears to have developed out of a single first hand encounter). Also, some of the arguments were very weak (I'm being kind here), such as when K. argues something to the effect that because a certain ancient culture had advanced math, they might have also been correct about their theories on the occult. And some of his info was downright wrong, like the statement that there was no vampire lore in ancient Egypt (a brief examination into the Ka/Ba relationship will show otherwise) ... But oh, I'm being too critical. I don't pretend to have answers about "occult mysteries" and who knows, maybe K. is right about everything. All I can say is that there are ways that K. could have presented this material to make it more compelling (citations, additional evidence beyond first hand experience, etc). Even as it is, I found this to be an enjoyable book, at times reading a lot like a Lovecraft story and I love Lovecraft. Would I recommend citing this book in any scholarly article? No. Would I recommend reading this book? To vampire lovers, yes. show less
"...I know this is a kind of book that people will give you side-eye for reading, but I'm really interested in this kind of thing, and I absolutely believe in the existence of an afterlife and ghosts. Do I believe all of the descriptions of the afterlife Konstantinos has claimed to receive from the dead? I take it with a grain of salt. It sounds reasonable, but it seems unlikely for someone to get such detailed information like this. Of course, he has been doing this for quite a long time show more now, and I haven't seriously tried it for myself, so what do I know? Most of my knowledge of spirit communication is from watching the TAPS investigators on Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International, which is a little different. They use only the scientific methods, which Konstantinos begins with in the book, but the later chapters deal with more spiritual methods that rely heavily on your mental focus, such as scrying and telepathy..."
For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger!
http://herebebookwyrms.blogspot.com/2011/12/speak-with-dead.html show less
For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger!
http://herebebookwyrms.blogspot.com/2011/12/speak-with-dead.html show less
An entertaining read, Konstantinos fails to document anything. He does, at least, provide a bibliography. But that is full of pop-culture references, most of which were published in the second half of the twentieth century.
I have read others' reviews of other Konstantinos books, some of them scathing. This is my first Konstantinos book so far, and I found it to be fascinating, fairly well written, and also well organized.
The organization is the biggest Plus for me. The author leads the prospective practitioner of spirit contact through a series of gradual, well explained, progressive steps through ever more involving forms of afterlife communications. The steps build upon each other, but if some of the more show more advanced and involved steps and methods in the latter sections are too much for the more casual paranormal explorer, the earlier sections still stand on their own. show less
The organization is the biggest Plus for me. The author leads the prospective practitioner of spirit contact through a series of gradual, well explained, progressive steps through ever more involving forms of afterlife communications. The steps build upon each other, but if some of the more show more advanced and involved steps and methods in the latter sections are too much for the more casual paranormal explorer, the earlier sections still stand on their own. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 15
- Members
- 1,415
- Popularity
- #18,178
- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
- 11
- ISBNs
- 25
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- 4
- Favorited
- 4