Sadly,
too
many scientists are quick to dismiss reports of anomalous
phenomena - 'damned' data as Charles Fort called them - from high
quality sources . It is from such 'signals in the noise' that
major paradigm shifts might result if scientists and academics
were free from psychological, institutional or commercial and
economic constraints.
"It
is clear, then, that the idea of a fixed method, or of a fixed
theory of rationality, rests on too naive a view of man and his
social surroundings. To those who look at the rich material provided
by history, and who are not intent on impoverishing it in order
to please their lower instincts, their craving for intellectual
security in the form of clarity, precision, 'objectivity', 'truth',
it will become clear that there is only one principle that can
be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human
development. It is the principle: anything goes."
Paul
K. Feyerabend, Against
Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge
(1975), 27-8.
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Books
& Articles (PDF & RTF formats)
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The
Certainty Of The Worlds Of Spirits Richard Baxter |
1691. "The
certainty of the worlds of spirits, and consequently, of the immortality
of souls. of the malice and misery of the devils, and the damned.
And of the blessedness of the justified, : fully evinced by unquestionable
histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices, &c..."
(From the Title Page)
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An
essay on demonology, ghosts and apparitions, and popular superstitions
James Thatcher
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1831. There
are mysteries even in nature, which we cannot investigate, paradoxes
which we can never resolve. (From the title page)
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The
Night Side of Nature: Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers V1 Catherine
Crowe |
The
Night Side of Nature: Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers V2 Catherine
Crowe
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1848.
Examines numerous kind of parapsychological phenomena including
dreams and premonitions, wraiths, haunted houses and apparitions
and argues that such events do occur. (Google Books)
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Cock
Lane and Common-Sense Andrew
Lang |
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Written
by folklorist Andrew Lang (18441912), this 1894 publication
examines the ambivalent relationship the living have attempted
to forge with the dead throughout history. Nicknamed 'the
Wizard of St Andrews', this prolific polymath also worked
as an anthropologist, classicist, historian, poet, mythologist,
essayist and journalist, producing over a hundred publications
in his lifetime. Largely ignored by scholarship, this book
suggests expanding the study of folklore to include contemporary
narratives of supernatural events. Taking its title from
the legends of the notorious Cock Lane ghost, the work considers
the survival of ancient beliefs such as hauntings, clairvoyance,
and other phenomena believed to transcend the laws of nature,
and how such beliefs have persisted through great social
upheaval and change. It includes chapters on savage and
ancient spiritualism, comparative psychical research, haunted
houses, second sight, crystal gazing, and Presbyterian ghost
hunters, among others.
Cambridge
University Press book review
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Human
Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death Frederic
W. H. Myers |
1907. A major
classic of early psychical research and indeed of psychology in
general. Although it was published two years after Myers's death,
most of it had been finished and was ready for publication at
the time of his passing. The book consists of 10 chapters plus
lengthy appendices that present empirical data and case reports
supporting the primary material. Myers begins by outlining his
overall purposes and introducing his unifying conception of the
nature of human personalitythe Subliminal Self. Chapters
2 and 3 begin fleshing out this theory by discussing hysteria
and genius, two seemingly different phenomena that Myers believed
are closely related psychologically. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss
the emergence of subliminal functioning in sleep and hypnosis.
Chapters 6 through 9 present a wide variety of evidence, both
spontaneous and experimental, for psychological automatisms, conceived
as messages sent up to everyday consciousness by the subliminal
consciousness in sensory or motor form. The final chapter is an
epilogue assembled by the editors from some of Myers's more speculative
writings, consisting largely of a "Provisional Sketch of
a Religious Synthesis" and several related appendices in
which Myers outlines his hope and belief that science and religion
will ultimately come together so that the methods of science can
be applied to the great questions of life that the religions alone
have thus far asked.
Esalen
Center for Theory and Research
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Fairies
and their Kin Bob
Trubshaw
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A short comparative
study of fairies, ghosts and other apparitional forms, earthlights
and abductions. He adopts a phenomenological approach - i.e.
he accepts that the experiences that people have had of
these forms are genuine and proceeds to enquire into what might
be the possible causes.
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Wizards
or Charlatans - Doctors or Herbalists? Richard C. Allen
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An Appraisal
of the "Cunning Men" of Cwrt Y Cadno, Camarthenshire
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The
Book of the Damned Charles Fort |
Time travel,
UFOs, mysterious planets, stigmata, rock-throwing poltergeists,
huge footprints, bizarre rains of fish and frogs-nearly a century
after Charles Fort's Book of the Damned was originally
published, the strange phenomenon presented in this book remains
largely unexplained by modern science. Through painstaking research
and a witty, sarcastic style, Fort captures the imagination while
exposing the flaws of popular scientific explanations. Virtually
all of his material was compiled and documented from reports published
in reputable journals, newspapers and periodicals because he was
an avid collector. Charles Fort was somewhat of a recluse who
spent most of his spare time researching these strange events
and collected these reports from publications sent to him from
around the globe. This was the first of a series of books he created
on unusual and unexplained events and to this day it remains the
most popular.
Goodreads
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Lo!
Charles Fort |
Charles Fort's
parade of scientific anomalies frames the larger anomaly that
is human existence. Lo! is a book with the capacity to
rewire brains and sculpt new lenses for seeing the unexpected,
the unexplained - and perhaps for glimpsing our own role in Fort's
mystifying cosmic scheme.
Google
Books
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New
Lands Charles
Fort |
New Lands
was the second nonfiction book of the author Charles Fort, written
in 1925. It deals primarily with astronomical anomalies. Fort
expands in this book on his theory about the Super-Sargasso Sea
- a place where earthly things supposedly materialize in order
to rain down on Earth - as well as developing an idea that there
are continents above the skies of Earth. As evidence, he cites
a number of anomalous phenomena, including strange "mirages"
of land masses, groups of people, and animals in the skies. He
also continues his attacks on scientific dogma, citing a number
of mysterious stars and planets that scientists failed to account
for.
Goodreads
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Wild
Talents Charles
Fort |
Wild Talents
captures Charles Fort at his finest, most thought provoking, and
wittiest. Containing accounts of - among numerous other bizarre
topics - strange coincidences, vampires, werewolves, talking dogs,
poltergeist activity, teleportation, witchcraft, vanishing people,
spontaneous human combustion, and the escapades of the 'mad bats
of Trinidad, ' the book is essential reading for anyone wanting
to learn about the early years of research into the myriad mysteries
of this world and beyond.
Goodreads
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The
Strange Properties Of Psychokinesis Helmut
Schmidt
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This
paper, in Mind Science Foundation, discusses evidence for
a psychokinetic effect acting on chance events.
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A
NeuroQuantologic Approach to How Human Thought Might Affect the
Universe Michael
A. Persinger, Stanley A. Koren and Ghislaine F. Lafreniere
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A speculative
but serious attempt to understand how quantum and neuro-physiological
processes might help explain how thought might interact with the
universe.
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Tarot
and Physics
Jane English |
After using
Tarot cards daily for several years as part of a meditation and
self-reflection practice, Jane English, a Ph.D. physicist felt
both personal and scientific need to reconcile her Tarot experience
with her scientific worldview. Statistical analysis of cards chosen
daily in meditation for three years from 1978 to 1981 (one card
for body, one for mind and one for spirit)
shows 99.97% probability of their being non-random ...
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Investigations
of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena and an Encounter with an Elf-like
Humanoid (1974 to 1994) Denis
Martin |
As a physics
teacher beginning in 1974 I soon began to hear reports from students
who claimed they they had seen UFOs, so I took it upon myself
to undertake some very basic investigation and interviewed
them in what I believe was an impartial and unbiased way. I also
began to receive reports from other people. I did not normally
seek out witnesses of these phenomena but acted only when individuals,
or a mutual friend, came to me because they knew of my interest.
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Links
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Skeptical
Investigations
As a scientific enterprise, anomalistics is normatively skeptical
and demands inquiry prior to judgement, but skepticism means doubt
rather than denial. While recognizing that a legitimate anomaly
may constitute a crisis for conventional theories in science,
anomalistics also sees them as an opportunity for progressive
change in science. Thus, anomalies are viewed not as nuisances
but as welcome discoveries that may lead to the expansion of our
scientific understanding.
skepticalinvestigations.org
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skeptiko.com
This website,
hosted by Alex Tsakiris, follows the data in the fields of parapsychology
and consciousness research wherever it leads. It explorse the
possibility that science-as-we-know-it might be at a tipping point
and engages the top thinkers in pointed discussions about the
questions that matter most. It treats all guests with respect.
Adapted
from the "about" page on the website.
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Rupert
Sheldrake Online Website
of the innovative and controversial biologist Rupert Sheldrake. |
Jacques
F. Vallee Aerial Phenomena Research:
Selected Papers |
John
E. Mack The
UFO Abduction Phenomenon. The author describes how he got into the
study of the UFO abduction experience, a bit of the history of the
field, the phenomenology of UFO abductions, who the abductees are,
his use of non-ordinary states of consciousness in working with
them, some of the physical evidence involved, what effect being
abducted has on the abductees, and his interpretation of the meaning
of the experience. |
Experiencers
- A documentary
by Stephane Allix about the Alien Abduction Phenomenon featuring
research by the late John E. Mack, professor of psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School until his death in 2004.
Mack took
seriously the accounts of people who claimed to have been abducted
by aliens. These 'experiencers' were neither mentally ill nor
delusional. His research showed that many experienced a shift
in their perception of their own identity, reducing their sense
of separateness and precipitating a cosmic perspective.
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Jacques
Vallee, Terrence McKenna, John Mack and Budd Hopkins on UFOs and
the Alien Abduction phenomenon This informative and insightful
compilation of video extracts provides a clear overview of a more
"transcendentalist" than physical "nuts-and-bolts"
interpretation of the abduction phenomenon. It reveals the different
nuances in the perspectives of the researchers. For example, Budd
Hopkins favours the idea that the aliens are actual beings who
come in craft powered by technology far more advanced than ours
and who perform highly unethical procedures on their victims.
Hopkins adopts, as John Mack suggests in the last video, an "anthropocentric
humanist" approach which resists and rejects the aliens -
as far as is possible - and supports the ongoing recovery, and
the psychological and spiritual healing of the abductees. Mack,
as Hopkins suggests, is more concerned with understanding the
purpose behind the phenomenon and recognizing its transformative
potential. Mack is less protective and anthropocentric and feels
that the phenomenon has profound implications for humanity. It
strikes at the root of human arrogance and "cosmic egoism",
and if, however difficult it may be, we embrace the experience
it can open the human mind and spirit to other vast orders of
reality beyond our immediate physical environment.
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Scientific
Evidence for Reincarnation Whether the skeptics like it
or not there is strong evidence for the reality of the phenomenon
of past-life recall. The research of the late Professor Ian Stevenson
of the Division of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia,
for example, using strict scientific protocols, rules out the
kinds of "rationalistic" explanations invoked by the
skeptics. Aslo, Jim B. Tucker , an associate professor of psychiatry
at the University of Virginia Medical Center's Division of Perceptual
Studies, has continued the research, again, with startling results.
It must be understood that this research does not prove
reincarnation, which could have other causes, although they, too,
would lie outside the current scientific paradigm. Simply because
Tucker invokes quantum mechanics to explain the phenomenon - and
this has been rightly criticized by many physicists - it does
not invalidate the data obtained.
Dr. Robert
Almeder, talking in the first video, is Professor Emeritus of
Philosophy at Georgia State University, and is known in particular
for his work on the philosophy of science, and has also written
on the philosophy of mind, epistemology and ethics.
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Fortean
Times The
magazine dedicated to press reports of anomalous phenomena. |
National
Archives UFO
files released by the Ministry of Defence.
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DeanRadin.com
Website
of the parapsychologist Dean Radin. |
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