James Thurgill --- Placing the Paranormal

Placing the paranormal James Thurgill As interest in the paranormal continues to grow, the practice of ghost hunting is becoming far more prevalent within popular culture; from an abundance of television shows aimed at locating the spectral to a rise in ghost tours and amateur led investigations, ghost hunting is ubiquitous within contemporary cultural activity. Paranormal investigation forces a confrontation with history, with its permeable nature; time and place become ‘out of joint’. However, there have been seldom attempts to analyse ghost hunting as an engagement with the landscape. The practice of ghost hunting calls for the development of what might be determined as a spectral ecology, a specific vista of the environment as reiterated, temporally unstable, uncanny even. The ghost is a revenant, a return of the past in the present; ghosts are bound to places, anchored to precise locations. As such, we might want to think about place hauntologically; that is, as performative reiteration. Ghost hunting itself could be analysed through the same framework; the paranormal finds itself in vogue on a cyclical basis throughout history. This work aims therefore; to place the paranormal, moreover ghost hunting, as a conduit for engaging with place and time, locating the practice within the wider context of a spectral fetishism that mobilises hauntology.

Angela Voss ---- Making Sense of the Paranormal: A Platonic Context for Research Methods

Making Sense of the Paranormal: A Platonic Context for Research Methods

Angela Voss (University of Exeter)

Summary for Website

Judging by the number of academic conferences, research centres and publications now focussed on ‘paranormal’ experiences, it is clear that there is both an upsurge in scholarly interest in this challenging field and a wide variety of methodologies harnessed to address it.[1] From psychical research and parapsychology, anthropology and social sciences, to literature, film and the arts, transpersonal and depth psychology and experiential frameworks based on participator observation, a vast range of extraordinary and anomalous phenomena is open to investigation by all, whether sceptic or sympathiser. However, whilst this can lead to a refreshing display of interdisciplinarity, there is also a danger that a lack of discrimination concerning the merits or appropriateness of methods used to address this non-rational realm may result in a ‘free for all’ hotch potch of contending positions and convictions, with no clear rationale with which to assess the deeper philosophical or epistemological issues involved. In my contribution to this volume, I am suggesting an approach to these issues which may inform and elucidate usages and engagements with the paranormal through providing a framework which both recognises multiple ways of knowing, and also situates them within a coherent whole. This model is essentially derived from Platonic and neoplatonic philosophy. 

Platonism has been denounced by the positivistic strand of twentieth century philosophy and science, partly because of its association with fascism and communism (Hedley & Hutton 2008: 269-282)[2] but mainly because it champions the potential of noetic cognition, a mode of perception which tends to be denied, if not destroyed, by the stronghold of the rational mind (Peter Atkins 2011, Ian McGilchrist 2009: 347, David Stove 1991: ch.7).[3] However writers such as Victoria Nelson (2001), Jeffrey Kripal (2010) and Gregory Shaw (2011)[4] call for scholars to intelligently explore hidden dimensions of experience through building bridges between the public discourses of scepticism and the private ones of authentic anomalous experience (Shaw 2011: 18). I posit that the adoption of models derived from pre-modern religious philosophy may do this through preserving the essential mystery of numinous encounters whilst also providing route maps for their exploration.

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[1] How one defines ‘paranormal’ depends on one’s definition of ‘normal’. For the purposes of this essay I am using the OED definition: ‘supposed psychical events and phenomena ... whose operation is outside the scope of the known laws of nature or of normal scientific understanding.’

[2] Hedley, D. and Hutton, S. (eds) 2008. Platonism at the Origins of Modernity  Dordrecht: Springer

[3] Atkins, P. 2011. On Being – a scientist’s exploration of the great questions of being. Oxford: Oxford

University Press; McGilchrist, I. 2010. The Master and his Emissary. Yale: Yale University Press; Stove, D. 1991. The Plato Cult and Other Follies. Oxford: Blackwell

[4] Nelson, V. 2001. The Secret Life of Puppets. Harvard: Harvard University Press;
Kripal, J. J. 2010.  Authors of the Impossible: the Paranormal and the Sacred.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Shaw, G. 2011. ‘Iamblichean Theurgy: Reflections on the Practice of Later Platonists’. Unpublished paper given at Rice University, Texas, 16/2/11.

 

Melvyn J. Willin --- Music and the Paranormal

The paranormal continues to intrigue people throughout many sections of society and it might be argued that mankind’s belief system requires a striving for matters beyond human comprehension. Music plays a role in many aspects of life and in most religions. The singing of popular songs and well-known hymns has long been thought conducive to binding a group of people together and, in the case of Spiritualism, to encourage the communication of spirits. Mediums have spoken of direct contact with the spirits of departed composers and performers. They have played their music, written it down under dictation from these discarnates, and provided information about composers and their works conveyed from an allegedly spiritual source. Although not necessarily claiming spirit contact directly as the source of their inspiration, many well known and respected composers have undergone psychic experiences which have brought them into contact with an external source which has been described as ‘divine’. For the purpose of this chapter I decided to explore the realm of musical mediumship through Spiritualism and spiritualistic sources. This will include the claims of 19th Century believers such as Jesse Shepard, Florizel von Reuter, Charles Tweedale and Jelly d'Aranyi as well as details of interviews given to me by 20th and 21st Century composers and performers such as John Tavener and John Lill. So-called ‘musical mediums’ will be discussed with reference to the validity of their music and the claims attached to their works - the main person studied being Rosemary Brown. A number of well-known classical composers and famous performers will be examined including Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin and Caruso. Throughout the chapter the intangibility of both music and the paranormal will be highlighted. Musical mediums are viewed by the society in which they operate as rather special people. They fulfil a need for the existence of something that lies outside of the material world that we all live in. They allegedly produce music from a spirit world that (they believe) provides proof of survival beyond death. Furthermore, because musical ability is viewed by many as being a ‘gift’ from some unknown source when it is displayed by seemingly normal people then a divine origin can be more easily suggested. These ideas will be examined.

Sarah Sparkes ---- Guests, Hosts & Ghosts and how to make them: The GHost project – manifesting ghosts through visual art and creative research.

Guests, Hosts & Ghosts and how to make them: The GHost project – manifesting ghosts through visual art and creative research. Sarah Sparkes GHost is a visual arts and creative research project which, in homage to Marcel Duchamp’s artwork, “A guest + a host = a ghost”, takes on and explores the conceit of guests, hosts and ghosts, both metaphorically and practically, in its activities. To date, the project has had two central strands. Firstly, a consideration of the relevance of ghosts in contemporary culture which is centred around a programme of interdisciplinary seminars – so-called Hostings – held in Senate House at the University of London. Secondly, Ghost is composed of a series of exhibitions, screenings and performances designed to make manifest and, by extension, examine the aesthetics of ghosts and haunted spaces. Drawing on a number of case studies from GHost exhibitions and Hostings this chapter will explore how ghostly charactereistics are manifested in contemporary culture and art practice. The chapter will look at the ghosts of video art and film – literal apparitions as well as the more abstract notion of technology becoming the medium which channels the spirits – and the creation of the uncanny in installation and performance art. Particular reference will be made to the use of audiovisual and mechanical technologies as well as performance art to manifest ghostly apparitions and simulate haunted atmospheres. Drawing on the GHost exhibitions and Hostings, this chapter aims to provide some insights into the manifestation of ghostly aesthetics.

Sarah Sloane ---- Whilhelm Reich and Etheric Warriors

Etheric Warriors Don and Carol Croft and the Legacy of Wilhelm Reich North American activists Carol and Don Croft call themselves “etheric warriors” and join thousands of contemporary believers in “orgone energy,” a bioenergetic substance first posited by Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. Through close readings of “The Adventures of Don and Carol Croft” and other online documents, we can see the principles of Reich’s theories wrenched by the Crofts and others into a homegrown conspiracy theory that funds its paranoia with an arsenal of resin-based products for sale on several websites. Wilhelm Reich first developed the theory of orgone energy, a “primordial energy” that enlivens healthy people and breaks apart their “body armor” and releases blockages. A variation on Freud’s notion of libido, Reich’s theory of orgone energy sees it as related to orgasm, the basis of psychosexual and physical health in all life forms. Clouds, galaxies, individual cells, primitive life forms, and human beings are influenced by the presence or absence of orgone. Reich also built “orgone accumulators,” which healed their users of illnesses such as cancer, neurosis, or other diseases formed by blockage of their orgasmic energy. The Crofts use Reichean principles of orgone energy to guide their attempts to neutralize deadly orgone radiation (DOR) which is present in cell phone towers, universities, government buildings, and post offices. Carol Croft, “a high-level empath” and psychic, communicates with dolphins who have helped her and Don Croft know how to proceed in their fight against DOR. Today the Crofts make and sell Chemtrailbusters, St. Buster Buttons, Rainbow Zapper Eggs, Tower Busters, and Holy Hand Grenades in online shops also selling orgone jewelry, healing stones, chakra-cleansing stones, aura photos, and healing bracelets. Through these devices, orgone energy can be “gifted” to places that harbor DOR, as explained on the thousands of postings on the many discussion forums on www.ethericwarriors.com

Gareth Rees ---- The Monsters of Hackney & Walthamstow Marshes: Prehistoric Ghosts that Haunt East London’s Lower Lea Valley

The Monsters of Hackney & Walthamstow Marshes: Prehistoric Ghosts That Haunt the Lower Lea Valley On the 27th of December 1981, four boys leave their homes to play on the snow. In this weather, Hackney Marshes’ playing fields become an irresistible plateau of bright white possibility. They build snowmen. They throw snowballs. They do what young boys do. And when they find a mysterious set of footprints they follow, wondering what could possibly make such huge impressions. Little Tommy Murray, 13, is walking a little ahead of his friends when he comes upon something. At first glance it looks like a dog. But this thing is gigantic. It turns and rears up at him, growling, all teeth and claws. Tommy screams. His friends’ mouths open in horror. A bear is roaming Hackney marshes. This is not the first time an incident like this has been reported, (and perhaps not the last). Whether the tale of the 1981 bear is a hoax, a true account of a wild bear or a paranormal vision, it’s not surprising that such stories take hold in this particular part of London. Bears, crocodiles and wild cats have all been spotted here. The scientific evidence stacked against the existence of these creatures does little to dispel these rumours, which gain their own narrative momentum and quickly become artifacts of local urban folklore.In this essay I want to explain why the lower Lea Valley is haunted by spectres of the past; how it challenges perceptions of linear time and space in a modern city; and why its peculiar topography makes a fertile ground for paranormal beast sightings. If you examine how the surrounding roads and water channels interlock, this zone is almost an island. Or, the way I look at it, the opposite of an island. This is not a place surrounded by nothing. It’s a nothing surrounded by place.

María del Pilar Blanco ---- Mexico’s La Ilustración Espírita: Toward a Transatlantic Understanding of a Spiritualist Archive

‘La Ilustración Espírita: Toward a Transatlantic Understanding of a Spiritualist Archive’ Dr. María del Pilar Blanco (maria.blanco@ucl.ac.uk) The publication of John Gray’s The Immortalization Commission (2011) represents a very recent and popular example of how contemporary criticism and philosophy continues to show a deep interest in the relations between humanity’s desire for immortality and the modern age of scientific confidence. Like Gray, other authors like Roger Luckhurst (The Invention of Telepathy, 2002) describe how subjects in Anglo-American industrial cultures in the nineteenth century, having broken the codes to some of the most enduring of mysteries of life, envisaged applying the same methods to dispel the shadows surrounding the afterlife. However, the narratives about the material cultures that contributed to a spectral turn of the nineteenth century have mostly focused on how this was predominantly a European and North American phenomenon. This essay seeks to shed new light on this transatlantic network of spiritualism through an analysis of Mexico City’s La Ilustración Espírita, one of the country’s magazines devoted to this doctrine. Published for over two decades, the magazine was contemporaneous with similar publications in the global north, and represents an excellent repository of the debates between spiritualists and materialists in the dawn of Mexico’s liberal age. Spiritualism and ultimately spiritualist journalism were practices that went hand in hand with the opening of transatlantic exchanges about science in the last decades of that century. I argue that by opening these archives we can start building a more historically and culturally nuanced methodology that addresses how global societies came to terms with dreams of immortality and the ghosts of an expanding scientific age. Opening the archive of La Ilustración Espírita is therefore an example of how we can begin to understand haunting as a historical phenomenon that asks to be examined at both local and global levels.