August Night

The author of this stimulating volume is the founder of Paranthropology, a journal that he has been publishing since 2010 and, as indicated in the title, dealing with anthropological approaches to the paranormal. The articles cover the anthropological context of anomalous experiences and the fact that they should be taken seriously, spirits, mediumship, altered states of consciousness and a series of interviews with other researchers. One of the central issues is the ontological status of the phenomena discussed, which do not fit in with orthodox scientific materialism with its 'hegemonic dismissal of alternative beliefs systems as necessarily unfounded and irrational'. In this respect, the author advocates a 'model agnosticism'. He also relates a revealing incident where an aggressive sceptic on an editorial board forced the publishers to withdraw his article because in a different context he had presented information that supported the claim to the ontological reality of supernatural phenomena. This was regarded as absolutely unacceptable and is a good illustration of the taboo of taking the paranormal seriously even as a possibility within academia - a totally unscientific and closed minded approach. By contrast, this book opens up some valuable avenues for consideration.