Ed Hawkins has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators. The most-rated is Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy.
The Men on Magic Carpets: Searching for the Superhuman Sports Star
Summary
Imagine you are a professional footballer, golfer or athlete. Now imagine you are that professional sportsman or sportswoman but - using no more than the power of your own mind - you can make yourself bigger, faster, more accurate or able to control your opponent’s mind. You would be the world’s first superhuman sports star. In the 1970s the US military believed they could create a ‘super soldier’ - one who could use psychic powers to walk through walls, disarm the enemy through telepathy or kill a goat by staring at it. The brain behind these techniques was Michael Murphy, one of the founders of New Age spiritualism in the hippy enclaves of San Francisco. But Murphy’s primary goal was to use these powers in sport to create a supreme athlete capable of extraordinary feats. Murphy and his protégés have dedicated their lives to teaching athletes and coaches to use his methods. Locking runners in huts to make them believe they were dead saints, spies using mind control to win chess matches, Russian Olympians shape-shifting, and golfers imagining they were Darth Vader - coaches and athletes soon began to trust in very weird things. So weird, in fact, that sport’s burgeoning obsession with money and image meant the hippies went underground and the superhuman powers became mythical. But the trailblazers - now more hip replacement than hippy - are making a comeback, influencing some of the world’s top teams. Award-winning investigative journalist Ed Hawkins meets Murphy and his protégés as well as a cast of athletes and coaches convinced by their methods as he immerses himself in a world shrouded in secrecy and weirdness. In a simultaneously hilarious and unsettling tale, he experiences firsthand the techniques as he endeavours to reveal the truth about sports psychology. Is it really possible to enter a mind-altering state or to shift your body shape? Or is it all just bunkum? And are the American military still watching?
©2019 Ed Hawkins (P)2019 Audible, Ltd
Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy
Summary
A startling and powerful journey to the very core of India's illegal bookmaking industry that exposes the scale of corruption and the match-fixing that now runs rife throughout world cricket. For several years Ed Hawkins made friends with India's illegal bookmakers - men who boast turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars per cricket match - as well as the corruption officers of the International Cricket Council who are trying to shut them down. It's a shady world and rumours abound. But then Hawkins receives a message that changes everything and he decides it is time to expose the truth behind match-fixing. Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy is a story featuring politicians, governing bodies, illegal bookmakers, and powerless players - as well as corruption, intimidation and even suicide. It is a story that touches all cricket-playing nations around the world. It is a story that every cricket fan must read. You might never again watch a cricket match without suspicion....
©2012 Ed Hawkins (P)2014 Audible, Inc.