Anthropology and the Ontological
Status of the Paranormal
by Jack Hunter
(continued from page 4)
What makes the issue even more interesting is the fact
that Edith Turner is not the only anthropologist to have
participated in “native” rituals and to have had
experiences that have gone beyond the boundaries of
traditional positivist science; McClenon & Nooney (2002)
describe several such instances. Replication of results
is already, at least to some extent, being gained by
experiential anthropological methods to a degree that
laboratory parapsychological approaches have struggled
to achieve.
The question as to whether
anthropologists are in a position to comment on the
ontology of paranormal phenomena is, in my opinion, to
be answered in the affirmative. I believe that there is
good reason to suggest that anthropological
methodologies could be employed alongside those of
parapsychology and psychical research as a means to
approach the most important question related to the
issue of the paranormal: does it have any form of
reality?
Acknowledgements
A special thank-you to Dr. David Luke and Dr. Fiona
Bowie for their constructive comments on an early draft
of this article, and thanks to Dr. Mark A. Schroll for
providing me with the opportunity to contribute it to
the Rhine Online magazine.
References
Comte, A. 1853. The Positive
Philosophy. In K. Thompson & J. Tunstall (eds.) 1976.
Sociological Perspectives. Harmonsworth: Penguin Books.
Giesler, P. 1984. Parapsychological
Anthropology: I. Multi-Method Approaches to the Study of
Psi in the Field Setting. The Journal of the American
Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 78, No. 4, pp.
289-330.
McClenon, J. & Nooney, J. 2002.
Anomalous Experiences Reported by Field Anthropologists:
Evaluating Theories Regarding Religion. Anthropology of
Consciousness, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 46-60.
Turner, E. 1993. The Reality of Spirits: A Tabooed or
Permitted Field of Study? Anthropology of Consciousness,
Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 9-12.
Turner, E. 1998.
Experiencing Ritual. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Editor's note: Jack Hunter is
the Editor of
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches
to the Paranormal. It will feature a range of short
articles, news, reviews and so on from a variety of
different writers. While the main emphasis of the
journal is on anthropological approaches, it will also
branch out into other disciplines - psychology,
parapsychology, sociology, folklore, history - as a
means to explore the way in which these theoretical
methodologies interact and shed light on the paranormal.
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Interview
with Christine Simmonds-Moore
by Jennifer Moore
Christine
Simmonds-Moore, PhD, is a visiting researcher this year
at the Rhine Center. We have been fortunate to work
alongside her and share in her knowledge, curiosity,
innovative research ideas, and overall enthusiasm for
parapsychology. She also holds the position of Senior
Lecturer in Psychology at Liverpool Hope University, UK.
She took time out of her busy schedule for an
interview, and we hope that it gives you the chance to
know a bit more about her and some of her current psi
research.
What led you to an interest in
parapsychology?
I have always been
interested in mysteries, and as a child was often found
to be digging for treasure in the garden and drawn to
books and TV shows about unexplained phenomena and
mysteries. I remember getting really excited about ghost
stories in the 6th form (when I was 17) and chatting
with school friends and a teacher about local stories
(including an apparition that was witnessed by my
friend's mother in her own home). My academic interests
in psychology lead me back into parapsychology later,
through reading and studying altered states of
consciousness (in particular, the hypnagogic state of
consciousness, between wakefulness and sleep). I am
intrigued by peoples' psi experiences, and want to
understand them, and the nature of human consciousness.
Was your family supportive of psi
experiences or the study of psi?
My parents
have always taken the approach of encouraging me to
discover my own way. Despite initially wondering why my
salary was going down every year post graduation (!) I
think that they saw that my PhD led to a teaching post
in a UK university, and as such I was actually following
a very respectable pathway. I think the subject matter
is exciting to my mum (she has had a few experiences and
has done some Reiki classes), while my dad was a little
wary to begin with. My dad visited me when I was working
at the Rhine Research Center in 2003 and realized that a
lot of what I am studying does actually fit with his
world view (he is quite religious, a Baptist), e.g.,
ghosts (the church carries out exorcisms) and the
observation that people may sometimes phone each other
at exactly the same time. I often give my parents copies
of my publications - I don't think they read them, but I
think that they are very proud of me.
How did you make your way into this field that has
so few academic opportunities?
The fact
that studying paranormal phenomena was not an easy path
was probably one of the things that made me more
determined to get there. I made the decision that this
is what I wanted to study, after I had finished my
degree and masters degree, and whilst working at Bangor
university in North Wales as a researcher and then as a
teaching assistant. I went to Bangor to begin a PhD, but
I realized that I didn't want to do the PhD in the way
that my supervisor wanted me to do it, and that I had
been moving away from my dreams.
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