Parapsychology, Anthropology, Mediumship, Phenomenology, Spiritualism, Paranormal, Supernatural, Folklore, Religion, Sociology Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by
- •
- Neuroscience, Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Applied Psychology

The Bible is full of references to magic and divination, but we rarely find attestations of witches and witchcraft, i.e. women performing acts of black magic. However, there is a mysterious passage in the Book of Ezekiel which seems to relate exactly that. In this compelling lecture Dr Alinda Damsma throws light on the identity and practices of these women, seeing them in the context of other known activities in the Ancient Near East. More info: https://www.treadwells-london.com/events-1/the-bibles-own-witches?mc_cid=27225007b0&mc_eid=50358b363f

- by Alinda Damsma
- •
- Death, Divination, Spirituality, Magic

The term sleep paralysis has been applied in order to, generally, denote experiencing what has been variously defined as a waking sleep: that is, being mentally alert and yet unable to move (or able to only make slight movements such as with the eyes and mouth, being able to look around and maybe able to speak).
Sleep paralysis has a very, very long history and thus many attempts have been made to explain it. In fact, so long is its history that we find various references to it within the Bible.

This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences, and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. The paper borrows widely, but by no means exhaustively, from parapsychology as well as transpersonal studies, anthropology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neurobiology, particularly neurochemistry. It is organized into neurochemical models of paranormal experience (section 1), field reports of intentional and spontaneous phenomena incorporating anthropological, historical and clinical cases, and personal accounts (section 2), surveys of paranormal belief and experience (section 3), experimental research (section 4), and a methodological critique of the experimental research with recommendations for further work (section 5).

- by David Luke
- •
- Religion, Psychology, Parapsychology, Psychiatry

Psychedelic consciousness is linked with deeper awareness into one’s psyche and connection to the transpersonal (Metzner, 1998). Recently, academia has witnessed the growth of psychedelic research (Sessa, 2012). Specifically, qualitative analyses into these states, including ayahuasca. Anecdotal reports of ayahuasca include profound transformations in one’s psycho-spiritual nature (Shanon, 2002). Nevertheless, the data is sparse on the phenomenology and there is a shortage of face-to-face interviews on ayahuasca users from western civilizations (Luke, 2011). The aim of the present study was to examine the phenomenological accounts of ayahuasca users from Britain. Three participants (1 male, 2 females) completed semi-structured interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis philosophy was used to interpret ayahuasca users’ experiences. Research found evidence for 3 super-themes: psychotherapeutic healing, spiritual re-birth and materialistic society anti-spiritual. Research findings promote the future exploration of the therapeutic applications of ayahuasca. Additionally, there is an opportunity to explore the psycho-social features of ayahuasca discursively.

- by Rachel Evenden and +1
- •
- Critical Theory, Pharmacology, Neuroscience, Psychology

This essay examines a particular class of ghost movies: those where the ghost is ultimately refused and relegated to the realm of human imagination and trickery. It focuses on the case of Paul Leni’s 1927 The Cat and the Canary, to show how this film remediates a long tradition of spectacular entertainments based on the rejection of supernaturalism, and how such rejection has important consequences in the narrative frame and in the nature of the gratification invited in their audience. The chapter applies the concept the “spectralization of the mind,” proposed by literature scholar Terry Castle, in order to explain the narrative and conceptual role played by ghosts in this film. Particular attention is also given to the use of superimposition techniques and to the interpretation of noise as a sign of ghostly presence.

- by Simone Natale
- •
- Silent Film, Ghosts, Cultural History Of Ghosts, Early Cinema

Current events in science imply that a new scientific revolution in physics is unfolding. This new revolution will be as much about mind and consciousness as it is about matter and physics. It will bring a new theory of physical reality that includes the consciousness that senses, interprets and interacts with physical reality. The new theory of consciousness will lead to explanatory models of the paranormal as well as explain how consciousness survives death. This prediction is not an optimistic 'pipe dream', but our present and future. A theory of this type has already been developed. It is based on a five-dimensional Einstein-Kaluza model of the space-time continuum. ‘Single field theory' or SOFT can easily account for paranormal phenomena and the survival of consciousness. Whatever theory finally succeeds in bridging the gap between mind and matter, indications are that it will have many of the characteristics of SOFT if it is not SOFT. Whatever the case may be, a valid theory that combines physical reality and consciousness is truly a theory to die for!

4. President’s Letter
New SPR President, Prof. John Poynton, asks whether the tide has turned for psychical research.
6. The Medium
Dr Leo Ruickbie talks to Kai Mügge about his life and work as a physical medium, including the question of investigation.
12. The Séance
After the table levitated, what happened next? Dr Leo Ruickbie details his recent experience of a séance with Kai Mügge and the Felix Circle.
16. Listening to Tea Leaves
Ann R. Winsper asks whether electronic voice phenomena are genuine spirit communications or ‘audible tea leaves’.
19. Voices from Pennsylvania
Dr Peter McCue details his analysis of audio files purporting to be communications from the spirits of the deceased.
|22. Auditory Hallucinations
Dr James Paul Pandarakalam poses the question whether the source of auditory hallucinations lies beyond the material brain.
26. The Enfield Saga
Guy Lyon Playfair chronicles the history of the Enfield poltergeist from This House is Haunted to the TV drama The Enfield Haunting.
28. Macfadyen on Enfield
Actor Matthew Macfadyen reveals what it was like to play Guy Lyon Playfair in the recent Sky Living mini-series The Enfield Haunting.
30. The Enfield Effect
SPR Council Member John Fraser considers the increased interest in the SPR and asks what should be done about it.
31. No Coincidence
What happened when the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes went to Crete? Callum Cooper tells all.
33. Ex Libris
SPR Librarian Karen Patel reveals what is new on the library shelves.
34. Ghosts in the Machines
Brandon Hodge searches for the remains of the famous spirit room of Jonathan Koons.
36. Letters
Prof. Peter Mulacz responds to criticisms of his article in PR74.
39. Contributors
40. Events

Report on the "54th PA Annual Convention" (18.-21. August 2011), on the "7th Psi Meeting: Psi Research and Anomalistic Psychology" (17.-18. August 2011) and on the "6th Journey of Altered States of Consciousness", 16.-17. & 21.-22. August... more

Communication with the dead is not characteristically associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. However, lodged in the Rare Books Collection of the University of British Columbia is a remarkable diary kept by William Michael Rossetti. It consists of a small series of 27 handwritten folios entitled simply "Memoranda by himself." This diary is a meticulous record of twenty spirit-ualist séances that took place between 1865 and 1868, séances that attracted a number of Pre-Raphaelite artists, their friends, and family members. By 1865 spiritualism was practised widely throughout Britain. Though summoning the dead was by no means a recent preoccupation, it appeared in its modern form in America in the late 1840s, was brought simultaneously to England and the Continent in the early 1850s, and was widely disseminated by the 1860s. It was a highly controversial practice and drew in many famous names, for and against. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an early convert, Charles Dickens a vigorous opponent, but its adherents ranged from Queen Victoria at one end of the social spectrum to Mary Marshall-poor, vulgar, but hugely eminent as the "washerwoman medium"-at the other. Séances, both public and private, took place throughout the country. Some were spectacular displays of showmanship involving large audiences; some were intimate, devout gatherings, while others took the form of after-dinner entertainment. The social, anthropological, and religious status of spiritualism has been much debated, but one important factor drove people to the darkened room of the medium: the desire to contact a dead loved-one. It was this motive that lay behind the séances in William Michael Rossetti's diary, since many of them were driven by Dante Gabriel Rossetti's desire to reach out to the dead Elizabeth Siddal. Though William was of course present at all the séances, not all were attended by his brother, and the "spirit" of Elizabeth Sid-The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, ns 29 (Fall 2020)

- by Rosalind White
- •
- Victorian Studies, Victorian cultural studies, Victorian Art, Spiritualism

Quarrd les àmes errantes sortent de I'ombre (lornrnc chez Maury, le rêveur démystifie ses revenants au cours même de son rÔvL:. Unc autre analogie, cette fois-ci bien évidemment ignorée de Freud, pourrnit être tracée entre l'auteur français et I'auteur viennois. De même que Maury assigne au fantôme paternel un statut d'origine dans ses Souvenirs, dc même, dans la deuxième édition dela Traumdeutung, en 1909, Freud révèle après coup que son livre peut être lu comme un fragment d'autoanalyse déclenché par la mort de son père. Mais, contrairement à Freud, Maury demeure dans l'implicite, alors que Freud insiste pour donner cè nouveau sens à son livre. Et, bien entendu, comme on I'a vu, Maury ne confère à ses hantises ni une fonction de modèle généralisable à tous les humains ni un sens aedipien avant la lettre.

- by Mireille Berton
- •
- History, Epistemology, Film Studies, Magic

La realidad daimónica representa otra manera de entender los fenómenos relacionados con el mundo de lo misterioso. Para muchos, estará en la línea defendida por los escépticos pero -con seguridad- nos llevará a cuestionarnos acerca de... more

- by Isaac Kershaw
- •
- Screenwriting, Physiology, Sociology, Psychology

As I sat in a darkened séance room, holding the hands of my neighbours and singing along to popular songs on a cassette recorder, I felt a mixture of foolishness and nervous expectation. Neither 'believer' nor 'sceptic' I was open to experience whatever the evening had in store. The physical/trance demonstration was part of my research into mediumship and afterlife phenomena. Spirit possession and mediumship are not unusual topics for an anthropologist of religion, but by studying paranormal phenomena in the UK I had crossed a disciplinary boundary of academic probity, and risked being seen as gullible and academically unsound. A second boundary crossing involved the body of the medium. The discrete boundary we like to think unites our physical body with whatever other elements make us human (soul, spirit, consciousness, mind) was suddenly called into question. Assuming the séance was not simply an elaborate hoax, was it perhaps evidence that we live simultaneously on more than one plane of existence, and that direct communication between planes and their inhabitants is possible? This discussion is about boundary crossing, methodologically, in terms of subject matter, and ontologically, in seeking to understand how the world is constructed.

- by Fiona Bowie
- •
- Anthropology, Folklore, Ontology, Social Sciences

This article investigates the issue of faith healing in the Philippines as practiced by spiritists there. How does this happen? Who are what is behind it? Then it looks at what the Bible teaches about divine healing. The correlations and... more

- by Dave Johnson
- •
- Religion, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Ontology

In the field of Science of Religion and associated fields of the Human Sciences revisions about the limits of reality have begun, in response both to intercultural encounters as well as to a rising awareness of research on the complexity of reality in the natural sciences. These have elicited proposals that the perspectives of the "religious" and the "para-normal" should be distinguished. This resonates with traditions of empirical and theoretical research often marginalized by the prevailing Positivist ideology and by Cognitivism. It also resonates with suppressed cultural traditions. A cautious movement towards a wider and differentiated assessment of reality and of phenomena, to be approached in these two perspectives, can however be observed in scholarship of religion, and even in the fold of Cognitivist Psychology.
This presentation, held at the conference of the German Association for Science of Religion / DVRW in Potsdam in 2018 explores the field and argues for the validity and heuristic power of this distinction.

The word paranormal comes from the words "para" meaning beyond, and normal. So the term paranormal really means something that is beyond the normal scope of science or being beyond a scientific explanation.
Paranormal Investigating can be excited and scary at the same time. It takes a certain type of person to search for paranormal activity and if you really think about it, searching for ghosts or other paranormal activity is quite frankly, a pretty scary situation, which is why a Paranormal investigator must have a strong mental attitude, and be ready to not panic in stressful or dangerous situations.
This book is ideal for those who are new to paranormal investigation and also for more experienced investigators who want to learn more about how to apply a critical-path scientific approach. Perhaps most importantly, the book contains an entire chapter of information about precautions to be taken during paranormal investigation.

The temples of the Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn) in Brazil and across the world are intended as 'spiritual emergency units' where mediums and their spirit guides provide patients with free assistance for health, relational, spiritual, and material matters concerning the person’s wellbeing. The therapeutic practice is known as 'disobsessive healing' and involves the release of causal spiritual agents considered to be affecting the person’s wellbeing. This paper discusses the Vale do Amanhecer’s etiology of illness and how mediums understand disobsessive healing as a complementary epistemology of healing, discerning spiritual and pathological experiences. Then, it examines how patients may draw their therapeutic trajectories across biomedical and spiritual contexts, sometimes developing mediumship as part of their therapeutic process. Approaching these therapeutic practices from the standpoint of affect and bodily experience may undermine the prominence of 'belief' in the study of non-biomedical approaches to healing, shedding light upon the relational, embodied, and lived-through dimensions of the notions involved in the therapeutic process.

This study was carried out to help demystify traditional medical practices in Zimbabwe and assist people in understanding Zimbabwean traditional medicine. The Zimbabwean traditional religion involves a hierarchy of spirit mediums differing in the way they practice traditional medicine, as well as the origin and power of the spirit(s) that possess(es) them. MaGombwe, mediums of angels of God, occupy the highest level on the hierarchy. The second level is that of maSadunhu, the spirit mediums of the original leaders of clans who look after the interests of members of their clans. The third level is that of maTateguru, the spirits who look after the interests of the families they left behind. These spirits of great grandparents are complimented by spirits of grandparents who possess their mediums only to get a specific thing done and then disappear. The fourth level is occupied by N'angas, the 'real traditional medical practitioners.' These mediums may be possessed by spirits from any of the above levels, and differ from mediums at the original level in that they charge clients and the powers of their spirits are lower. The spirits at any of the levels are complimented by maShave, spirits that were created to perform specific tasks. The role of the spirit mediums is to service spiritual and medicinal interests of people. Training at the different levels of spirit mediums involves rigorous and tedious apprenticeship systems, and the mediums are willing to cooperate with other service providers if certain conditions are met. ______________________________________________________________________________ Médecine traditionnelle au Zimbabwe Takawira Kazembe Département des sciences et d'éducation mathématique, faculté d'éducation, Résumé Cette étude a été effectuée pour aider à démystifier les pratiques médicinales traditionnelles au Zimbabwe et pour aider les gens à comprendre la médecine traditionnelle Zimbabwéenne. La religion traditionnelle Zimbabwéenne implique une hiérarchie d'esprits médiums qui diffèrent dans la manière qu'ils pratiquent la médecine traditionnelle, aussi bien que dans l'origine et le pouvoir de(s) esprit(s) qui les possède(nt). MaGombwe, médiums des anges de Dieu, occupe le plus haut niveau de la hiérarchie. Le second niveau est celui de maSadunhu, les esprits médiums des chefs originaux de clans qui s'occupent des intérêts des membres de leurs clans. Le troisième niveau est celui de maTateguru, les esprits qui s'occupent des intérêts des familles qui sont laissées en arrière. Ces esprits d'arrière-grands-parents sont loués par les esprits des grands-parents qui possèdent leurs médiums seulement pour accomplir une chose spécifique et puis ils disparaissent. Le quatrième niveau est occupé par N'angas, les « vrai praticiens de la médecine traditionnelle ». Ces médiums peuvent être possédés par les esprits de n'importe lesquels des niveaux au-dessus, et diffèrent des médiums au niveau originel parce qu'ils font payer les clients

- by Rose+Croix Journal
- •
- Religion, Africa, Rosicrucianism, Training
- by Jane Tripp
- •
- Visual Studies, Photography, Ghosts, Cultural History Of Ghosts

An expert on folklore and Ufology, and board member of the Center for UFO Studies, Thomas E. Bullard here sets out to investigate the "pretty paradox of UFOs: Though popular with the public and a staple image in everyday life, they cannot even get off the ground as a matter of interest among the scientists and journalists who ought to lead the way in exploring the matter." This wide-ranging and hefty volume is Bullard's attempt to offer further credence to UFOs as a subject of serious academic and scientific study. In this regard, the book joins the ranks of several other recent scholarly volumes attempting to bring paranormal phenomena from the margins into the academic mainstream. (A recent review essay by Laycock and Wise treated a several such books; see RSR 40:2.) Bullard argues that "UFO ideas comprise a modern myth, one that has grown out of cultural traditions, psychological predispositions, and social preoccupations, to create a full-blown understanding of this world based on its relationship to others." His book is "less about sights in the sky or the people who see them than about the thoughts and expressions that represent UFOs." Drawing upon folklore and the history of religions, and employing sociological methods and insights, Bullard examines the historical context for, and construction and evolution of, the UFO myth, demonstrating how, for example, the "pattern of shamanic initiations…also applies to [UFO] abductions," thus suggesting that "much thinking about UFOs takes shape from preexisting templates and the result is a mythic version that mixes the underlying reality with abundant cultural influences." A balanced and nuanced account of UFOs, Bullard's book takes seriously-sympathetically and critically-the perspectives of believers, abductees, witnesses, skeptics, academics, and scientists. His conclusion-that "as social facts and cultural phenomena, UFOs deserve a prominent place in academic inquiry"-is supported by sensitive and compelling argumentation, and should therefore be heeded by anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and historians of religion, and any scholars of religion interested in how culture and human imagination interact in and through UFO phenomena.

escrito ya en 1871 señaló: "Serpiente adoran por desgracia cayó hace años en manos de los escritores especulativos, que se mezclan con filosofías ocultas, misterios druidas, y esas tonterías portentosa llamada 'Simbolismo Arkite,' hasta... more

Wątki orientalne stanowią istotny komponent powstających na Zachodzie nurtów myśli ezoterycznej okresu międzywojennego, a ezoteryzm polski nie był pod tym względem wyjątkowy. W tym kontekście Indie zaczęły być postrzegane jako źródło odnowy, nadzieja na obudzenie i odrodzenie Europy. Ezoterykiem, który chętnie czerpał z tego źródła wątków był jeden z najbardziej wszechstronnych przedstawicieli polskiego środowiska ezoterycznego okresu międzywojennego, lwowianin Józef Świtkowski (1876–1942). Bogactwo jego zainteresowań, a także aktywność, jaką podejmował nie tylko zresztą na polu ezoteryki, sprawiła, że był on postrzegany zarówno jako ekspert w tym zakresie, jak i swego rodzaju "zwornik" ezoterycznego Lwowa. Był on twórcą jednej z najbardziej rozpowszechnionych interpretacji jogi, którą oparł w przeważającej mierze na myśli Rudolfa Steinera. Najważniejszą pracą dotyczącą jogi, jaką przygotował Świtkowski, jest "Wstęp w światy nadzmysłowe. Radża joga nowoczesna", w którym znalazł się pełny wykład jego poglądów na temat jogi - tak teoria, jak i wskazówki praktyczne.
Praca naukowa finansowana w ramach programu Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego pod nazwą „Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki” w latach 2016–2019: Kultura polska wobec zachodniej filozofii ezoterycznej w latach 1890–1939 (0186/NPRH4/H2b/83/2016).

Beliefs happen to be the most significant indicators of a person's overall personality and provide us a window on his mental constructs. The study of the paranormal activities and phenomena has been riddled with controversy since its conception and previous researches revealed mixed and contradictory findings. The present study focuses to study correlation between paranormal beliefs and the religious beliefs across different religious groups, among individuals of different age groups and socioeconomic status. Significant positive correlation was found between religious beliefs and paranormal beliefs as well as between religious beliefs and the traditional religious beliefs, psi and witchcraft subscales of the paranormal beliefs scale. Muslims scored higher on the traditional religious beliefs subscale in comparison with the Hindus. On the other hand, among the Hindus a higher degree of endorsement of witchcraft was observed. However, so far as the Christians are concerned no significant differences were observed either on global paranormal beliefs or any of the subscales of the paranormal beliefs. Socially marginal groups were found to be more susceptible to paranormal beliefs. They scored higher on psi, witchcraft, superstition, spiritualism, precognition as well as the total-paranormal beliefs scale.

This study presents the movement history of Instrumental Transcomunication (ITC) and analyzes the discourse of supporters. We understand ITC as one of the possible uses and appropriations of communication technologies. ITC is a practice in which contact with spirits is believed through communication technologies, which capture sounds and images supposedly generated by the media. The theoretical framework is based on media archeology and technological imagery. We consider communication technologies as extensions of man, according to Marshall McLuhan. We understand that ICT reflects an imaginary of human extrasensory extension.
This study is a chapter of the book "Communication, languages and religions", published in January 2020, in Brazil.

Since the first public demonstration of Mediumship in 1849, mediums have been accused of fraudulent behavior. Today the debate continues as the SNU set guidelines for physical séances to protect the reputation of their establishments. Additionally, the Internet continues the discussion through blogs, YouTube, and websites. Although, there will always be skeptics, the role of Spiritualism in contemporary physical mediumship tends to be neglected as materialism overshadows spirituality. The need to make a living can turn physical mediums into “mixed mediums,” where part of their séance is real and part magic trick. This thesis explores physical mediumship from the Seven Principles, the foundation of Spiritualist philosophy, to examine its truth or falsity.

Yôkaigaku, the "Japanese demonology", and the creatures which it deals with, constitute a scientific field of study in Japan since the Meiji period (1868-1912) -when in 1886 Inoue Enryô founded the Yôkai Kenkyûkai (Association for yôkai studies) -, but possesses deeper roots which spread in the Edo period (1603-1867). Nevertheless, it is only from the '80 that it started to be object of research in the West, and in more recent time landed also in Italy. This article aims to analyze in a critical view the historical path of yôkaigaku from origins to the recent western studies, putting emphasis on the main changes and new developments, in order to build a first step of dialogue with this field of anthropological studies in our country.

- by Diego Cucinelli
- •
- Japanese Studies, Anthropology, Philosophy, Modern and Contemporary Japan

Darstellung der Elemente der "Esoterik"; trotz Überlappung der Themenbereiche bestehen massive Unterschiede zur (wissenschaftlich vorgehenden) Parapsychologie. Glaubensbereitschaft vs. wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis; Aspekte der... more

The subjective experience of feeling consciously connected with others and our environment--to that which is larger than ourselves--has been found to promote physical and mental health, or well-being. Various ways of evaluating this sense of connectedness have been studied under controlled scientific conditions. Through these studies, more has been learned about the effect of connectedness, ways of facilitating a sense of connection, and how to approach some objective understanding of its physical basis and human value. Evidently, we do share a interconnected rapport with others and with nature. However, we may have formed the contrary habit of dissociating and repressing a sense of connectedness for reasons strategic to our individual survival. Nevertheless, individual and global health could depend on therapeutically confronting these choices--both personally and socially. (Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 1996;2(3):39-45)
Darwin's concept, "survival of the fittest," was not meant to refer exclusively to "superior" individuals. He wrote, "Those communities which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best and rear the greatest number of offspring."1 Similarly, over thousands of years, religious, political, and intellectual movements have promoted various kinds of human sympathy, successfully enhancing the lives of individuals.
Today, an international community is held accountable for engineering worldwide cooperation. How will humanity--composed of so many segmented systems, each with its differing beliefs--come to adopt a capacity for sympathy through a sense of connectedness, such that we and the ecosystem of this planet survive and flourish?
Until recently, the concept of connectedness was treated as not suited for scientific study. However, with improvements in instrumentation and changes of interest, various kinds of connectedness are now being explored in many areas of research. Over the past 30 years a significant number of studies have been conducted, and these have scientifically begun to
determine its value and extent. A sense of connectedness appears to be a more fundamental and profound natural characteristic than is commonly recognized. Receiving the Nobel Prize in 1971, Neptali Ricardo Reyes (pseudonym, Pablo Neruda) said that the poet must achieve a balance "between solitude and solidarity, between feeling and action, between the intimacy of one's self, the intimacy of humankind, and the revelation of Nature."