WONDERS IN WINNIPEG

Serena Keshavjee (Editor). The Art of Ectoplasm; Encounters with Winnipeg's Ghost Photographs. University of Manitoba Press, 2023.

Of all the phenomena of Spiritualism and mediumship, ectoplasm seems to me to be the most implausible, even ridiculous. The photographs recording the phenomenon are surely faked, and any supposed physical evidence is never really evidence of anything. And what has it got to do with the University of Manitoba?

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PHYSICS AND PSYCHICS

Richard Noakes. Physics and Psychics; The Occult and the Sciences in Modern Britain. Cambridge University Press. 2019.

Psychical researchers, at least those at the more serious end will often justify the validity of their subject by referring to the many notable scientists in other areas of science who have been interested in, and often done their own research into alleged psychic phenomena.

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GHOST WRITINGS

Brandon Massullo. The Ghost Studies. New Page Books, 2017.

This is a genuine attempt by someone who is a trained clinical therapist and parapsychologist to scientifically evaluate reported experiences of the paranormal. The author accepts that "95% of reported ghostly encounters are not the result of mental illness"; this does not of course mean that the phenomena, which so many people (including the reviewer) have experienced, are real.
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AMATEUR HOUR

Sharon A. Hill. Scientifical Americans; The Culture of Amateur Paranormal Researchers. McFarland, 2017.

Sharon Hill opens the introduction to this book with a question that sceptical researchers of anomalies are often asked: if we are sceptical about such phenomena, why are we researching and writing about them? Hill’s answer is that she loves the ‘idea’ of such things, even if she does not accept their reality.
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ELIMINATING THE IMPOSSIBLE

Stefan Bechtel and Laurence Roy Stains. Through a Glass Darkly: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Quest to Solve the Greatest Mystery of All. St Martin’s Press, 2017.

When Canadian medium ‘Margery’ produced the voice, seemingly of her dead brother, even when her mouth and nose were covered by a sceptical investigator, the said spirit demanded, ‘Now, Doctor, isn’t that convincing?’ To which the man replied, with utter seriousness, ‘How do I know you don’t talk through your ears?’

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PARANORMAL POINTERS

David Groome and Ron Roberts (editors). Parapsychology: The Science of Unusual Experiences. 2nd Edition, Routledge, 2016.

Let’s get one thing out of the way at the start, this book is mis-titled, parapsychology as such takes up only one chapter, so a more accurate title might be 'Critical Essays on the Paranormal' or 'The Psychology of the Paranormal' 
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SENSE ON PSI

Caroline Watt. Parapsychology: A Beginner’s Guide. OneWorld, 2016

In a field increasingly dominated by rival certainties, many seemingly fuelled by America’s culture wars, it was a pleasant surprise to read this admirably even-handed introduction to parapsychology. 
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PSI, ESP, UFO, A-Z

Matt Cardin (editor). Ghosts, Spirits and Psychics: The Paranormal From Alchemy to Zombies. ABC-CLIO, 2015.

There have been various attempts to compile an encyclopaedia or quasi encyclopaedia of what might loosely be called the 'paranormal' over the years. It is not to an easy task to say the least. Compiling encyclopaedias where there is at the least a consensus that the topic exists is hard enough, especially where there are differing interpretations and outlooks.
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SOUND AS A BELL

Steven T. Parsons and Callum E Cooper (editors). Paracoustics: Sound and the Paranormal. White Crow Books, 2015.

This collection of papers by the editors and a number of contributors covers several areas of sound and the paranormal, after general discussions of the physics and psychology of sound. The first area of discussion are the various knocks, raps and imitative sounds encountered in haunted houses; in many ways these, rather than visual experiences, constitute the essence of the haunting experience and a number of examples are given.
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SEEKING PSI

Damien Broderick and Ben Goertzel (eds) Evidence for Psi: Thirteen Empirical Research Reports. McFarland, 2015.

This is a collection of thirteen papers dealing with various aspects of experimental psi:
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EXPLORING THE PARANORMAL

Christopher C. French and Anna Stone. Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief and Experience. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Christopher French defines anomalistic psychology as “attempts to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known (or knowable) psychological and physical factors . . . without assuming there is anything paranormal involved” [p1].

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MISSING THE SPIRIT

Jonathan Barry. Raising Spirits: How a Conjuror’s Tale was Transmitted Across the Enlightenment. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

In about 1690 Thomas Perks, a blacksmith and/or gunsmith of the village of Mangotsfield in Gloucestershire, with an interest in mathematics and astronomy, tried to summon up spirits using one of the primaries popular at the time. According to his acquaintance Rev Arthur Bedford, the Vicar of Temple Perks was so traumatised by what he experienced that his health gave way and he died a couple of years later.

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ADVANCES IN PARAPSYCHOLOGY

Stanley Krippner, Adam J Rock, Julia Beischel, Harris L Friedman and Cheryl L Fracasso (Editors) Advances in Parapsychological Research 9. McFarland, 2013.

It is sixteen years since the previous Advances in Parapsychological Research, volumes of which used to be produced every three or four years, and this volume is substantially slimmer than its predecessors.
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GOOD GHOST GUIDE

Leo Ruickbie. A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting: How to Identify and Investigate Spirits, Poltergeists, Hauntings and Other Paranormal Activity. Robinson, 2013.

With more than 300 pages of text and more than 50 of endnotes, this book is not really a ‘brief’ guide. Combining practical assistance on preparation, equipment and investigation techniques and protocol, including the all-important health and safety advice, with a brief history of ghost hunting and a sociological analysis of ghost hunters, and a roundup of the various theories about ghosts, this is clearly quite comprehensive and remarkable good value for the price.

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EXTRASENSIBLE PERCEPTION

Brian Clegg. Extra Sensory: The Science and Pseudoscience of Telepathy and Other Powers of the Mind. St Martins Press, 2013.

It probably takes some guts for an established science writer to write a book about ESP and the like, and not to immediately write the whole thing off without a moment’s thought. Perhaps being an outsider to the academic establishment Clegg is freer in such regard.
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LIFE OF PSI

Rosemarie Pilkington (Editor), Men and Women of Parapsychology, Personal Reflections: ESPRIT Volume 2. Foreword by Nancy L Zingrone. Anomalist Books, 2013.

This is the second volume of Rosemarie Pilkington’s surveys of aging parapsychologists, (the youngest is my age, several are in their 80s, and two died in the course of the writing), the first volume of which was reviewed HERE. 

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THE MATHEMATICS OF THE PARANORMAL

James D. Stein. The Paranormal Equation: A New Scientific Perspective on Remote Viewing, Clairvoyance, and Other Inexplicable Phenomena. New Page Books, 2013.

Dr Stein is a professor of mathematics and he believes that there are truths about the natural world that nominally fall within the domain of science that might be impossible for science to discover. He thinks that some as yet undiscovered natural laws might account for some of what appear to be paranormal phenomena.
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QUITE EXTRAORDINARY

Peter Lamont. Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

In this interesting book Peter Lamont, historian, psychologist, sceptical psychical researcher and one time professional magician examines the rhetoric used by both promoters and critiques of paranormal phenomena over the last two hundred years. He traces these developments across mesmerism, spiritualism, psychical research and 'scientific' parapsychology.

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THINKING ABOUT THOUGHT-READING

Barry H. Wiley. The Thought Reader Craze: Victorian Science at the Enchanted Boundary. McFarland, 2012.

If Roger Clarke’s book reviewed below covered a broad sweep, this account covers a narrower field in more depth. Wiley’s study covers roughly the period from about 1870 to 1914, the latter part of the “social” 19th century (1815-1914). This was the age in which science came of age and began to professionalise, a period of astounding discoveries and inventions, the period in which a recognisably modern world came into being. 

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EVERYDAY ESP

James C Carpenter. First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life. Rowman and Littlefield, 2012

James Carpenter, a clinical psychologist and a board member of the Rhine Research Centre, argues that most ‘ESP’ is unconscious and pervasive, only a small fraction coming to consciousness as anomalous experiences. He furthermore argues that what is involved in psi occurrences is not so much the acquisition of knowledge but a kind of apprehension of things. 🔻