ALSO RECEIVED
WE LEAF THROUGH A SMALL SELECTION OF THE DOZENS OF BOOKS THAT HAVE ARRIVED AT FORTEAN TOWERS IN RECENT MONTHS...
The Ghost Studies
New Perspectives on the Origins of Paranormal Experiences
Brandon Massullo New Page Books 2017 Pb, 191pp, notes, ind, $15.99, ISBN 9781632651211
Massullo, a parapsychologist and clinical therapist, provides a fresh overview of the current state of research into paranormal experiences. He admits that those who seek answers to the many questions the subject raises are facing a “selfless job” in which “the money is crap and so are the hours”. The result, however, in his case is very worthwhile.
His review seems focused and thorough, up-to-date and explained clearly. As a therapist he applies a positive approach to those who have such experiences – ghostly encounters are prominent here – helping them understand and process their experience. On the whole, he finds that the initial confusions and anxiety soon give way to positive life-affirming views.
The Human Experiment
David Stokes Privately published via Amazon Books 2017 Pb, 299pp, price unknown, ISBN 9781521944493
This book almost parallels Massullo’s (above). Stokes is an author and mental health worker in London, who councils his patients with a close and personal interaction in which he tries to help them understand the sources of their confusion and anxiety. He draws widely on Western occultism, native shamanic practices and an acknowledgement of meaningful coincidences. Stokes, here, shows how his method is achieving success and praise in a profession that is under-funded and under-appreciated.
The Jaynes Legacy
Shining New Light Through the Cracks of the Bicameral Mind
Lawrence Wile Imprint-Academic Inc 2018 Pb, 291pp, bib, ind, £14.95, ISBN 9781845409227
The publication of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in The Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind in 1972 stimulated “an unsettling ambivalence” in the academy that continues today. Even Richard Dawkins could not make up his mind on it, describing it as “either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between”. Wile – a medical doctor who has degrees in physics and philosophy, with further interests in psychiatry and neurology – tries to explain Jaynes’s thesis to us under such topics as consciousness as a property of matter, of protoplasm, of behaviourism, etc… and that it not be necessary for learning, thinking and reasoning.
According to Jaynes, until human consciousness emerged around 3,000 years ago, “hallucinations, poetry and civilisations were merely nonconscious reactivity”. Of course, this contradicts the modern idea of consciousness as continuous, gradual evolution from worms to men. Wile shows that the threadlike structure of Reissner’s fibres in the brain, which degenerated 100,000 years ago could have resulted in the emergence of consciousness.
Wile’s most interesting argument proposes that this process has left traces in the mystical traditions in many ancient cultures. A difficult, complex and profoundly important theory, wellargued and explained clearly.
Bridging Two Realms
Learn to Communicate with Your Loved Ones on the Other-Side John Holland Hay House 2018 Pb, 236pp, resources, £10.99, ISBN 9781781806975
Speaking directly to those enduring bereavement, John Holland, a spiritual medium – “internationally renowned” and “much sought after”, apparently – aims to help you “connect to your loved ones who have passed” and, along the way “build a bright bridge to your own spirit”. Those FT readers to whom these well-meant words offer some light in their gloom of grief might be interested to learn more.
To those more doubtful amongst us, it seems rather like a self-important farrago of New Age blathering and spiritualistic wishful thinking.
New Genesis
The greatest experiment on Earth Wojciech K Kulczyk New Genesis Foundation 2017 Pb, 228pp, illus, notes, gloss, $12.95, ISBN 9781999906009
A physicist ponders the question of how life began on Earth and developed over time. A small question but with an enormous implication for the complex interdependency that we see today of consciousness, creatures, cultures, resources and energy. Unlike the Jaynes/Wile book, the author gives greater attention to the physical and biological processes of the progress towards consciousness. Again, unlike Jaynes/Wile, Kulczyk finds all the known processes in failing to properly account for the appearance of consciousness. Instead, the last portion of the book looks towards the stars and alien intervention.
It’s a good, thoughtful read and asks some intelligent questions.
Occulture
The Unseen Forces That Drive Culture Forward
Carl Abrahamsson Park Street Press 2018 PBb, 272pp, notes, bib, ind, £18.99, ISBN 9781620557037
Abrahamsson is well positioned to chronicle the history of this neologism and the movement it represents. In his youth he was attracted to the occult-based art, music and magical rhetoric made more culturally visible by the likes of The Temple of Psychic Youth; the revival of interest in Crowley, Burroughs, Spare and others; filmmakers like Jarman; and modern adaptations of alchemy, shamanism, Kabbala, Hermetic philosophy, parapsychology, sex and drugs (to name but a few of its strands). Abrahamsson later joined its organisation, and still later began touring with lectures, films and books.
This anthology of his writing and talks looks back at the stages of the burgeoning ‘occulture’ – the revealed effect upon social culture of the occulted arts, sciences, music and literature, themselves any form or theory of magic and occultism. The term is, today, used widely, both in the academic field and in pop-culture, suitable reflected in the argument over who invented the term: Gensis P-Orridge or Professor Christopher Partridge.
As a commentary on the effect of various occult movements upon society generally, this is an entertaining and eye-opening study, and all the more important for presenting the view from outside the strict social anthropology of academic scholarship.
Psychic Dreaming
Dreamworking, Reincarnation, Out-Of-Body Experiences & Clairvoyance
Loyd Auerbach Llewellyn Books 2017 Pb, 257pp, bib, $16.99, ISBN 9780738751702
Auerbach, a veteran parapsychologist and writer, is always interesting as is this broad survey of the uses of dreaming in New Age USA. From experiences of reincarnation, crime and other problem solving, telepathy, clairvoyance, remote viewing and precognition to overcoming stress and fears, he presents clearly the methods used to induce and interpret them. However, because the book concentrates on ‘dreamwork’ as a modern phenomenon, it feels pretty lightweight by lacking any historical depth. It could have mentioned, for example, a great deal more about the ancient Graeco-Roman use of ‘incubation’ at hero shrines to induce dream encounters with the gods. Nor is there any mention of the great ‘psychic questing’ adventures from the early career of Andrew Collins and team in the late 1970s.
As Andy mentions on his own website, his use of dreams, coincidences and “creative intuition” was inspired by the fantastic tales of Tibetan terma in which such methods were used to find long lost holy relics and scriptures.