Overview

This book explores various explanatory frameworks for paranormal encounters. It opens with the story of an inexplicable human figure seen crossing a secluded hotel corridor, interpreted as a ghost by the sole witness. The subsequent chapters explore the three most important historical perspectives accounting for this and other types of paranormal experience. Each perspective is examined from first principles, with specific reference to what happened in the corridor, how it happened, why it happened, and who might be responsible. The first perspective considers the experience to be legitimate – to be something real – and various possibilities are presented that are grounded in the paranormal and parapsychological literature, among which a “ghost” is one putative explanation. In turn, the second perspective treats the experience as being wholly illegitimate. With reference to psychological theory, the ghost sighting is a product of erroneous consciousness. The third perspective is different yet again, and considers the sighting to be authentic, but argues that explaining the ghost requires a radical departure from conventional models of reality and consciousness. By contrasting these three paths, the book provides a valuable resource for readers interested in the philosophical and psychological origins of explanations for paranormal experiences, from the 19th century to the present. It will appeal to general readers in addition to students and scholars of parapsychology, anomalistic psychology, and consciousness studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tony Jinks
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition:   1st ed. 2019
Weight:   0.538kg
ISBN:  

9783030289041

ISBN 10:   3030289044
Pages:   399
Publication Date:   16 October 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Part 1: Paranormal experience.- Chapter 1: What is a ghost?.- Chapter 2: What is the paranormal?.- Chapter 3: What is experience?.- Part 2: The first-path.- Chapter 4: The 5W1H method.- Chapter 5: Low energy ghosts.- Chapter 6: High energy ghosts.- Chapter 7: Ghosts and the how?.- Chapter 8: Filters and Tuners.- Chapter 9: Multiple filters?.- Chapter 10: The receiver.- Part 3: The second-path.- Chapter 11: Defining reality.- Chapter 12: The observer and consciousness.- Chapter 13: The emergent mind.- Chapter 14: Scientific reality and errors in consciousness.- Chapter 15: No (ghostly) illusions.- Chapter 16: Hallucinations.- Chapter 17: Altered states of consciousness.- Chapter 18: The how and why of psychedelics.- Chapter 19: Global changes to the altered state.- Chapter 20: Dissociation .- Chapter 21: Component changes to the altered state.- Chapter 22: Mental imagery and the jigsaw.- Chapter 23: The enigma of unconscious imagery.- Chapter 24: Cultural Wiring.- Chapter 25: Forcing the boundaries of the second-path – a purposeful unconscious.- Chapter 26: The problem of the producer.- Chapter 27: The producer solved?.- Part 4: The third-path.- Chapter 28: A return to dualism.- Chapter 29: The prism.- Chapter 30: The Otherreal.- Chapter 31: Consciousness and dimensionality.- Chapter 32: A transpersonal alternative.- Chapter 33: Witnessed experience and the third-path.- Chapter 34: The three paths and Tom’s ghost.

Reviews

I would recommend this book, not only to students of parapsychology but to every psychology and psychiatry student as well as serious ghost hunters. (Graham Kidd, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 84 (3), 2020)

Author Information

Tony Jinks is Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia. He teaches biological psychology, publishes in the field of parapsychology and paranormal experience, and is a Past-President of the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research.

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