Have you ever read a book that seriously frightened you?

[Tom Montgomery]

.
I have.

It was Hostage to the Devil (1992) by Malachi Martin. The book is still in print. It is an allegedly factual account of five modern exorcisms.

You could argue that my fright was due to having been raised Roman Catholic... and you might be correct. Today I am a skeptic and free thinker. I do not believe in the supernatural. But Martin's serious descriptions of demonic possession and discussion of the circumstances that make one vulnerable are chilling. And, frankly, the accounts in this book haunt me to this day.

The book is allegedly fact and not fiction. I must say I have never been so affected by a story of the supernatural whether it be fact or fiction.

So have you been seriously frightened by a book?

[Jim Mahan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_(book)

A popular book in the eighties, later made into a film: Communion, published as a nonfiction account of a man abducted by space aliens.

Kept me up a few nights when I read it.

[Gerarddm]

The Hot Zone, about the Ebola virus.

[skuthorp]

Knights of the Bushido, at about 14.

[David W Pratt]

Calculus text.

[CWSmith]

No, but I had a college roommate who used to get very upset and leave the room if I played Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. True story.

[bobbys]

Going by all the anti religion threads here it must be the bible that scares most here.

[Jim Bow]

The Baltimore Catechism

[Breakaway]

Salems Lot.

Not that I believe in vampires, but Kings writing sucked me into the story such that I experienced physical reaction to plot action.

Kevin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[CWSmith]

The Baltimore Catechism

I didn't read it. I lived it! It still haunts me.

[Tom Montgomery]

Going by all the anti religion threads here it must be the bible that scares most here.

Naw… the ancient men of renown and the giants mentioned in Genesis did not frighten me at all. I’ll admit Abraham nearly murdering his son on YAWEH’s orders had me on the edge of my seat. But that was a case of suspense, not fright. There is certainly a lot in the Old Testament that disgusts me. But that is not fright either. What frightens me are ‘Muricans who are more fond of Leviticus than the teaching of Jesus in the four Gospels.

[Tom Montgomery]

I didn't read it [The Baltimore Catechism] I lived it! It still haunts me.

Ditto.

[WX]

Going by all the anti religion threads here it must be the bible that scares most here.

The book is fine, it's the people who think it's the literal truth that is the scary part.

[WX]

Naw… the ancient men of renown and the giants mentioned in Genesis did not frighten me at all. I’ll admit Abraham nearly murdering his son on YAWEH’s orders had me on the edge of my seat. But that was a case of suspense, not fright. There is certainly a lot in the Old Testament that disgusts me. But that is not fright either. What frightens me are ‘Muricans who are more fond of Leviticus than the teaching of Jesus in the four Gospels.

Pick number, any number, first offence...death.

[skuthorp]

Going by all the anti religion threads here it must be the bible that scares most here.

Bronze age folk tales are fun as long as you don't believe them literally……..

[bobbys]

Naw… the ancient men of renown and the giants mentioned in Genesis did not frighten me at all. I’ll admit Abraham nearly murdering his son on YAWEH’s orders had me on the edge of my seat. But that was a case of suspense, not fright. There is certainly a lot in the Old Testament that disgusts me. But that is not fright either. What frightens me are ‘Muricans who are more fond of Leviticus than the teaching of Jesus in the four Gospels.

I would worry about anyone following the rules of leviticus as well unless of course they are a levite Hebrew priest sent from Israel. Thise rules never applied to the gentiles anyway so you can sleep at night..

I dont know these folks you are refering to..

I never met any .

[Tom Montgomery]

I would worry about anyone following the rules of leviticus as well unless of course they are a levite Hebrew priest sent from Israel. Thise rules never applied to the gentiles anyway so you can sleep at night.

How liberal of you! I had no idea you are so open minded regarding sex! You had better be careful expressing those views around your fellow MAGA heads. You may end up labeled a RINO.

[Ted Hoppe]

The Bible is frightening.

[skuthorp]

Why Ted? It's a heavily censored and edited set of bronze age legends, augmented by imaginings and political additions aimed at keeping those in power still in power. And enforced by severe punishments and 'removal' of any threats by the most brutal means available. All accompanied by blokes with hang ups waving crosses.
Now if you said that the present wacko mob in ther US frightened you I can believe that.

[Ted Hoppe]

Those who really use all the bible here frighten me. there are particular stories that are practiced here - a small man killing a leader with a well aimed high velocity projectile, pregnant virgins having to hide and give berth to sons of men they did not know, a party where friends kill you in a most painful way and a troublemaking leader who just before he leaves says he is with you and is going to be right back and doesn't. Yeah, Sounds like America.

[L.W. Baxter]

i read "thinner" by stephen king. didn't seem so bad at first.

[skuthorp]

I do understand that fear Ted, there are plenty of examples from the Inquisition to regular Pogroms against the Jews to forced conversion on pain of death, and then death anyhow one their soul was 'saved'. Man has always bent any religious philosophies and morality to his own particular and current priorities. Groucho had it right, "You don't like my principles? I have others". I regard them all as constructs, admittedly in the bigger picture probably useful constructs, in the development of european man, but at what cost. The beliefs of less corrupted peoples where they and the land are one is more appealing and yet may be the most enduring.
As I often say, humans are like that.

[Jim Mahan]

Wading through this thread, I remember taking a lit class in high school called Fantasy and the Supernatural. It was when I first heard of HP Lovecraft. That was some scary crap. I didn't finish the reading assigment. It was when the book that inspired the movie The Excorcist had been out a while. When we had that class, the teacher invited a person he knew who was into some 'powers of the mind' stuff, and I don't remember most of it, but I remember going home after school, and completely sober, because I wasn't yet into smoking pot, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror with the door closed and the light off, so it was just dimly lit by the indirect light from the window, and just stared, motionlessly staring into my own reflection, for like half an hour. It was suggested by the visitor to the class, as a way to get out of normal brain mode and start trying to experience something else. After about five or ten minutes, the image started to blur, as my eyes and visual brain circuits got fatigued with the unvarying optical load. And then the deep shadows of my eye sockets and cheekbones started to coalesce into blurred shapes and move and transform my whole head into something, somebody else. I made myself keep it up, to see what, if anything would come of it. And then the image I was staring at slowly coalesced into the face of a demon, and scared the bejeesus out of me. I tried the exercise again shortly after that, and it only took a few minutes to conjure up the demon face, and by then the movie version of The Excorcist came out and the rotating puking head of the possessed girl on the bed was in the news and the TV afternoon shows.

You need to be careful with your mind because you can lead it to weird places, and when stuff starts living in your head, you can start believing all sorts of dangerous stuff. Like "let's go out in the canyon, put lampshades on our heads, and wait in the dark with candles for the space aliens to take us up to the mother ship. Don't hold dinner, mom."

[LeeG]

The Unmaking of Democracy by Timothy Snyder

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Annapurna by M. Herzog.

The railway carriage scene.

[Flying Orca]

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story (Michael Lewis). Democracy for Realists (Achen & Bartels). Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future gets honourable mention, as I'm not quite finished yet.

[Dave Hadfield]

The Shining.

Had to sleep with the lights on.

[Osborne Russell]

Going by all the anti religion threads here it must be the bible that scares most here.

I once spent a night in a motel in Utah. Rather than the Gideon Bible they have the Book Of Mormon. Thankfully, I fell asleep.

Organized, institutional MEM is a scam. The scale of it is scary.

Next day, there was a carriage -- white horses -- coming down the street. Bride and groom, past the Datuns and Toyotas and Der Wienerschnitzel.

In wonderment and to endure the spectacle to the end, I sought to support myself with my left hand upon an aluminum streetlight pole. Just before my hand reached the pole, I noticed some scratch marks that did not seem random. Looking closer, I recognized a very careful version of "Stoned Again" by Robert Crumb. Clippety clop went the horses.

I stood where someone had stood before me.

[Gerarddm]

O I forgot: Heavy Weather Sailing by K. Adlard Coles. The photos and stories of extreme sea states really scared me.

[The Q]

No.

[Dan McCosh]

Might try to define what is "scary". For scary concepts--"Hot Zone" had a blurb calling it "The scariest book I've ever read"---by Steven King. Actually, I thought "The Demon in the Freezer" was scarier. For scary concepts, I would add "Blind Man's Bluff", if you think about nuclear holocasts. As for vivid narratives that make you gasp, I would nominate "Jaws". I actually did gasp while reading it.