Work in Progress

Modern Psychology, the ‘Occult’, and Evidence-Free History: An Interview with The Psychologist Magazine

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Callum Cooper, a psychologist at the University of Northampton, recently interviewed me for The Psychologist, a magazine published by the British Psychological Society for its members. Here’s an excerpt: Why do you think [historical awareness] is important to present-day psychologists? Evidence matters not only in science, and history can’t be just a free-for-all. Scientists should have … Read more

A Remedy for Historical Split Personalities: In Memory of Carlos S. Alvarado (1955-2021)

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If you follow our Twitter feed and Facebook page, you’re already aware of the devastating loss of Carlos Alvarado, who passed away on Friday, July 16th. Below is a short tribute to my beloved fellow historian of psychical research, which I wrote for the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition (JAEX), a new open access … Read more

Warts and All: Francis Bacon’s Account of a Cure by “Sympathetic Magic”

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When Francis Bacon – a key figure of the Scientific Revolution in Britain – travelled France as an adolescent, he was puzzled by a number of strange experiences. As mentioned in my video on Bacon’s views on “natural magic”, one such experience involved his dream which seemed to predict the unexpected death of his father … Read more

From the Library of Richard Noakes: Place a bid for W. T. Stead’s Borderland (vols. 1893 & 1894) on eBay!

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Richard Noakes, author of the seminal Physics and Psychics (Cambridge University Press, 2019), is thinning out his personal library and just put two volumes of the Victorian spiritualist journal Borderland on eBay. Edited by the famous journalist William T. Stead (who died on the sinking Titanic in 1912), Borderland was one of the most prominent … Read more

A Classicist in Search of Modern Oracles: Free Download of E.R. Dodds’s Article on Interpretations of Trance Mediumship (1934)

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Eric Robertson Dodds (1893-1979). Image credit: Hugh Lloyd-Jones/Verlag C.H. Beck. If you enjoyed my video plug for the reading group and are keen on additional background readings about Oxford classicist Eric R. Dodds, I got you sorted: you can now download a free PDF of Dodds’s article “Why I do not believe in survival” (1934) … Read more

Valentine Greatrakes vs. the “Royal Touch”: Magical Healing during the Scientific Revolution

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About every other Christmas I go into full geek mode and binge-watch the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings movies. In the concluding part, ‘The Return of the King’, there’s a scene where Aragorn, finally having come to terms with his kingship, lays his hands on the wounded with the intent to restore … Read more

Hidden Histories of the Unconscious Mind: Rediscovering Freud’s “Brilliant Mystic”, Carl du Prel (1839-1899)

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The philosopher and occult writer Carl du Prel was the most prominent German-language theorist of the unconscious self immediately before Sigmund Freud, who once called du Prel “that brilliant mystic.” Revered by artists like R. M. Rilke, Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint, du Prel’s writings informed the work of renowned psychologists other than Freud, … Read more

William James and the Occult: Download a Free PDF of my Oxford Handbook Chapter, “James and Psychical Research in Context”

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I’m glad to share the news that my contribution to the Oxford Handbook of William James has just appeared in an electronic version ahead of print. William James at a slate-writing seance with the medium Mrs. Walden (probably late 1890s. Image Credit: James papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS.Am.1092.[1]). Chapter summary: James’s open advocacy, practice, … Read more

New on Youtube: “Poltergeist Phenomena and the History of Science”

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I made a new video for you! This and the following videos are based on my first Forbidden Histories article, “The Naturalization of the Poltergeist” (click here to read). Here’s part 1: For those who would like to do their own historical research, here’s an UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY with references for the article and both parts … Read more

Religion and the Marginalization of the ‘Empirical Occult’ in East Asia and the West: A Call for Cross-Cultural Collaborations

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When the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine in London was still in existence, it was widely regarded the international flagship of medical history and attracted some of the brightest scholars and students from all around the world. One of the people I met there around a decade ago was Yu-chuan Wu from … Read more