Recent Publications
Greening the Paranormal explores parallels between anomalistics (the study of the paranormal in all its guises, incorporating parapsychology, paranthropology, cryptozoology, religious studies, and so on), and ecology (the study of living systems), not just for the sake of exploring interesting intersections (of which there are many), but for the essential task of contributing towards a much broader - necessary - change of perspective concerning our relationship to the living planet. The chapters collected in this book demonstrate that we have much to learn from exploring the ecology of extraordinary experience.
FEATURING CONTRIBUTIONS FROM Paul Devereux, Cody Meyocks, Nancy Wissers, Amba J. Sepie, Lance M. Foster, Jacob W. Glazier, Christine Simmonds-Moore, Mark A. Schroll, Viktória Duda, Maya Ward, Simon Wilson, David Luke, Brian Taylor, Silvia Mutterle, Susan Marsh, Timothy Grieve-Carlson, Elorah Fangrad, Rick Fehr, and Christopher Laursen.
Jack is the editor of the Paranthropology journal
For more information about Jack, visit his website.
For more information about Jack, visit his website.
For more information about James, visit his blog Residual Noise
James' lecture, Ghost Noise, from our 2015 conference, is available on our vimeo channel. |
The Sixties, for many, was a time of new ideas, freedom, and renewed hope – from the civil rights movement to Woodstock. But towards the end of 1969 and the start of the 1970s, everything seemed to implode. The Manson murders, the tragic events of the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont and the appearance of the Zodiac Killer all called a halt to the progress of a glorious decade. At the end of the Sixties, the hippie dream died – or so the story goes. In The Bad Trip, James Riley descends into the underworld of the Sixties to reveal the dark side of the counterculture. He explores the seam of apocalyptic thinking that had lain hidden beneath the decade’s psychedelic utopianism all along. Moving between Britain and America, this is a magical mystery tour that shows just how different our concept of ‘the Sixties’ is from the reality of the period. A brilliant and trenchant cultural history published 50 years after the action – drawing on interviews with key figures from the music, art, and film scenes of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the US and UK. |
American artist Shannon Taggart became aware of Spiritualism as a teenager, when her cousin received a message from a medium that revealed details about her grandfather’s death. In 2001, while working as a photographer, she began taking pictures where that message was received – Lily Dale, New York, home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community – proceeding to other such communities as England’s Arthur Findlay College. Taggart expected to spend one summer figuring out the tricks of the Spiritualist trade. Instead, Spiritualism’s mysterious processes, earnest practitioners, and neglected photographic history became an inspiration. Her project evolved into an eighteen-year journey that has taken her around the world in search of ‘ectoplasm’ – the elusive substance that is said to be both spiritual and material.
With SÉANCE – part documentary, part ghost story – Taggart offers us haunting images exploring Spiritualist practices in the US, England and Europe: 150 of her original photographs, many of which have never been published, as well as rare historical photographs. Supported with a commentary on her experiences, a foreword by Dan Aykroyd, creator of Ghostbusters (1984) and fourth-generation Spiritualist, and illustrated essays from curator Andreas Fischer and artist Tony Oursler, SÉANCE examines Spiritualism’s relationship with human celebrity, its connections to art, science, and technology, and its intrinsic bond with the medium of photography. The book concludes with the debate over ectoplasm and how Spiritualism can move forward in the twenty-first century.
With SÉANCE – part documentary, part ghost story – Taggart offers us haunting images exploring Spiritualist practices in the US, England and Europe: 150 of her original photographs, many of which have never been published, as well as rare historical photographs. Supported with a commentary on her experiences, a foreword by Dan Aykroyd, creator of Ghostbusters (1984) and fourth-generation Spiritualist, and illustrated essays from curator Andreas Fischer and artist Tony Oursler, SÉANCE examines Spiritualism’s relationship with human celebrity, its connections to art, science, and technology, and its intrinsic bond with the medium of photography. The book concludes with the debate over ectoplasm and how Spiritualism can move forward in the twenty-first century.
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Visit Shannon's website here. |
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Introduction: The Supernatural in Society, Culture, and History • Dennis Waskul and Marc Eaton
1. Toward a Cryptoscience • William Ryan Force 2. On Researching the Supernatural: Cultural Competence and Cape Breton Stories • Jeannie Banks Thomas 3. Ghosts and Hauntings: Genres, Forms, and Types • Dennis Waskul 4. Paranormal Investigation: The Scientist and the Sensitive • Marc Eaton 5. The Allure of Dark Tourism: Legend Tripping and Ghost Seeking in Dark Places • Rachael Ironside 6. “The Spirits Tell Me That You’re Seeking Help”: Fortune-Telling in Late Capitalism • Stephen L. Muzzatti and Emma M. Smith 7 .Reading Tarot: Telling Fortunes, Telling Friends, and Retelling Everyday Life • Janet Baldwin 8. Twentieth-Century Voodoo: Black Culture, Cultural Geographies, and the Meaning of Place • I’Nasah Crockett 9. Vampirism: Modern Vampires and Embattled Identity Claims • Joseph P. Laycock 10. Cryptozoology: The Hunt for Hidden Animals and Monsters • Tea Krulos 11. Alien Abduction Narratives: A Proposed Model and Brief Case Study • Scott R. Scribner |
