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Title: The Trickster and the Paranormal by George P. Hansen ISBN: 1-4010-0082-7 Publisher: Xlibris Corporation Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Essential
Comment: There are very few books really worth reading on the subject of the paranormal or forteana. When one that is comes along it is an exciting event. Hansen's approach to parnanormal phenomena is interdisciplinary. He ties together anthropology, literary criticism, semiotics, psychology and other disciplines to examine the paranormal. Having worked professionally in parapsychology laboratories for many years, he was able to recognize the limits of a scientific, rational, Aristotelian approach to understanding the paranormal. He never suggests that such research is invalid or meaningless. However, by its nature it is only able to illuminate very limited aspects of the paranormal. By trying together work in a wide variety of disciplines, he illustrates how a constellation of attributes he calls "the trickster" can serve as a unifying principal for understanding these phenomena. The trickster is characterized as deceptive, liminal and anti-structural. It is at work when classifications cannot be clearly defined. This character is essential to understanding the works of Charles Fort, the brilliant philosopher of anti-science and the paranormal. For further reading on the subject of anti-structure & liminality in the paranormal fields I strongly recommend the works of Patrick Harpur, John Keel, & Jacques Vallee who also follow in the footsteps of Fort.
Rating: 4
Summary: Facing the Difficult Realites about the Paranormal
Comment: Despite more than a hundred years of the highest quality scientific research which, to any genuinely rational mind, demonstrates the existence of several kinds of paranormal phenomena (telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychokinesis being the major ones), parapsychology research remains marginalized, rejected and actively persecuted. As a psychologist that tells me there are powerful, irrational forces involved. Hansen's excellent book surveys many of these and is must reading for anyone who really wants to understand this area.
Personally the data in the book depressed me in many ways, for I am one of those who attempts to make scientific sense of this area (even though I know there's much more to the world than that) and it's not cheering to be reminded of these difficulties. But we don't solve problems by pretending they are not there, so I am grateful to Hansen for this authoritative reminder.
Rating: 5
Summary: Difficult, but worth the effort
Comment: Anyone who has studied paranormal phenomena knows how maddening they can be. Whether you're talking about apparitions, UFOs or anything in between, the phenomena have an elusive, always-just-out-of-reach quality. Jacques Vallee and others have suggested that paranormal phenomena may be part of a "control system" - intentionally inexplicable carrots dangled in front of us by Someone or Something to instill a sense of wonder and keep us thinking and evolving. This "trickster" quality of the phenomena themselves is what I had assumed this book would be about, but it's actually much broader in scope.
Be forewarned: This isn't light reading. It's a dense, scholarly 500-page work that will have you confused and ready to give up at various points. It reminds me of "Hamlet's Mill" -- another dense, scholarly work whose meaning and depth aren't fully revealed until you've read it several times. The author states at one point that readers of early drafts complained that the book seemed unfocused and rambling, and I suspect that even the final version will strike most readers as somewhat abstruse. However, even though I've only read it once at this point, I do believe that what the author has to say is extremely important and well worth the effort it will take you to mine his nuggets.
I was vaguely aware of Native American "trickster" lore, but I wasn't aware that there was an entire body of scholarly work surrounding the trickster archetype. The author seems to have not only a solid foundation in parapsychology but also an amazing knowledge and grasp of all of the disciplines relevant to the trickster - anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism or whatever. In a nutshell, he explains how paranormal phenomena fit the trickster model and how approaching the phenomena from this perspective can inform and enrich one's understanding not only of the phenomena themselves but also of society's reactions to them.
For example, with UFOs I might have expected him to discuss how even the best cases don't present any consistent picture of what UFOs "are." They're sort of like nuts-and-bolts spaceships ... but also sort of like holograms ... and ultimately so incomprehensible that you just throw up your hands (or latch onto one particular theory and ignore the vast body of evidence that doesn't fit it). Instead, he explains how the entire UFO phenomenon, from the worst hoaxes to the best cases, fits the trickster model and how the phenomenon's effect on various segments of society (from "true believers" in aliens with magical powers to nuts-and-bolts ufologists to CSICOP debunkers) likewise fits the model.
I hesitate to say more, because I don't feel that after one reading I have a sufficient grasp of everything the author is trying to say. Suffice it to say that I do think this book will repay the effort you put into it. It's not all dry, either - the author's background in parapsychology provides the fodder for quite a bit of interesting information about personalities and events. Just be forewarned that much of the discussion about the trickster and related concepts makes for difficult, jargon-laden reading and will require considerable effort on your part.
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Title: Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld by Patrick Harpur ISBN: 0937663093 Publisher: Pine Winds Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence by Etzel Cardena, Steven Jay Lynn, Stanley C. Krippner, Steven J. Lynn ISBN: 1557986258 Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA) Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The Philosopher's Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination by Patrick Harpur ISBN: 1566634857 Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: The Complete Books of Charles Fort by Charles Fort ISBN: 0486230945 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 April, 1975 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs by Brenda Denzler ISBN: 0520239059 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 02 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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