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Author: Robert Mcluhan
I've had a project in mind for some time now, and it's starting to take shape. It's a response to the objection that there is no evidence for psychic phenomena. The complaint is largely rhetorical, of course. The implication is that the evidence, being anecdotal, is too weak to merit consideration: in other words it isn't really evidence.
But I believe a lot of people think there is no evidence - literally. And the best reason I can think of for this is that they seldom hear about it directly. Take a subject like poltergeists: it's just not on the general radar, except as something that people 'believe in'; there's little sense of it as a distinct phenomenon.
I believe we'd benefit from listening to people who have experienced it. It might improve the level of the debate.
So my idea is to try to make the primary sources more accessible, taking advantage of the e-book revolution. I've made a start by publishing a collection of poltergeist reports on Amazon Kindle These are the original eyewitness accounts, the source of much of what is known about the phenomenon, in the form of letters, diary entries, pamphlets and journal articles. There's Stans, which I covered here recently, and Hydesville, which I discussed a year ago (full list below). These very dramatic cases are striking, but the sober observations of investigators are just as interesting, for instance the so-called Atlantic Monthly case, which is frequently cited in books, and the Worksop poltergeist investigated by Frank Podmore on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research......more at Paranormalia
Copyright©Robert Mcluhan
Reproduced courtesy of Robert Mcluhan
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