pp. 6–9:
Editorial: Persistence and Change
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pp. 10–14:
Guest Editorial: On the Importance of Academic Publishing in Parapsychology
Carlos S. Alvarado
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pp. 15–28:
On Deception and Ignorance as Problems for Parapsychology and on the Benefits of the Survival Hypothesis (from an Economist’s Viewpoint)
Michael W. Driesch
Abstract – There are numerous hypotheses regarding human acting in the social and the natural sciences. Among them we find Gary Becker’s economical approach that functionalizes personal benefit in an assessment that especially weighs non-monetary costs against yields. In this article, Becker’s explanatory scheme will be applied to scientists who concern themselves with parapsychological / anomalistic phenomena – in both an open-minded, research-oriented way and with dogmatically hostile inclinations. It will be shown that the knowledge aspirations of scientific work sometimes will be repressed, if and when an individual is tendentially dominated by personal creeds and material constraints.
Keywords: Survival hypothesis – parapsychology – deception – ignorance – preferences – utility/benefits
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pp. 29–63:
The “Vienna Circle” and Parapsychology: Comments on a Book Review by Wilfried Kugel
Peter Mulacz
Abstract – Activities of members of the philosophical Vienna Circle in parapsychological investigations during the first half of the 1920s are discussed, as are their environment, the pseudo-exposure of Rudi Schneider, and Hans Thirring’s, the Vienna physicist’s, experiments with the Schneider brothers from Braunau am Inn.
Keywords: Vienna Circle – Institute for Physics at Vienna University – Julius Wagner-Jauregg – Hans Hahn – Countess Wassilko-Serecki – Rudi Schneider – Willy Schneider – Ubald Tartaruga – Hans Thirring – Eleonore Zugun
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pp. 64–84:
Aí é orixá! — On the Question of the Authenticity of the Incorporation of Non-human Entities in the candomblé
Hannes Leuschner
Abstract – The central element of the Afro-Brazilian candomblé-religion is the belief in the possibility of incorporations of non-human entities in human mediums. The questioning of the authenticity of such incorporations in particular cases is a strong topos not only from outside, but as well from inside the religious scene. Using ethnographic material collected during various field-research campaigns, a survey of contemporary innerreligious discussions will be given and discussed in comparison (interreligious) to conceptions of incorporation in other mediumistic fields in Brazil (viz. umbanda and kardecism). Finally a connection to André Droogers considerations concerning ‘play’ and ‘power’ as terms of a ‘ludic’ way of doing religious studies will be sketched.
Keywords: candomblé – mediumship – André Droogers – incorporation – kardecism – umbanda
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pp. 85–114:
The Cultural Kindling of Spiritual Experiences
Julia L. Cassaniti, Tanya M. Luhrmann
Abstract – In this paper we suggest that it is important for the anthropology of Christianity and the anthropology of religion more generally to develop a comparative phenomenology of spiritual experience. Our method is to distinguish between a named phenomenon without fixed mental or bodily events (phenomena that have specific local terms but are recognized by individuals by a broad and almost indiscriminate range of physical events); bodily affordances (events of the body that happen in social settings but are only identified as religious in those social settings when they afford, or make available, an interpretation that makes sense in that setting); and striking anomalous events. We demonstrate that local cultural practices shift the pattern of spiritual experiences, even those such as sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences that might be imagined in some ways as culture free, but that the more the spiritual experience is constrained by a specific physiology, the more the frequency of the event will be constrained by an individual’s vulnerability to those experiences. We will call this the “cultural kindling” of spiritual experience.
Keywords: Culture – phenomenology – spiritual experience
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pp. 115–139:
Indigo Children: Wish Fulfillment or Delusion? Unexpected Consequences of a Process of Pathologisation
Gerhard Mayer, Anita Brutler
Abstract – The term “indigo children” which is familiar in the esoteric and new age scene is understood as a characterisation of children who distinguish themselves – according to the proponents of this concept – by specific characteristics and talents. As strong the response to this phenomenon has been, firstly in the USA and then internationally too, as little it became a topic of serious (scientific) publications. For a long period, easily accessible information on “indigo children” was only available from religious or ideological organisations like advice centres for sects, ideological issues and world-view questions as well as from skeptics. This chapter gives an overview on genesis as well as the common interpretations of the phenomenon from an ideologically neutral perspective. The overview is based on a few scientific studies of the concept of “indigo children”. Starting from this I will take a look on further forms and strategies of specialisation (of children) with regard to its social acceptance. Furthermore, I will provide a few critical thoughts about the issue of (inappropriate) pathologisation and its relation to esoteric patterns of making meaning.
Keywords: Indigo children – aura – esotericism – pathologisation – Ritalin – ADD/ADHD – specialness – empowered childhood – behavioral problems
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pp. 140–166:
Arson in the Berlin Reichstag: Conspiracy Theories and a Genuine Conspiracy
Wilfried Kugel
Abstract – For the time period from 1946 to this day, this paper documents the establishing and continual distribution of a “single-culprit legend” in the Federal Republic of Germany. This legend has the purpose to relieve the National Socialists of the charge of having set fire to the Berlin Reichstag 1933 themselves. The initiators of this legend were former Gestapo members who wanted to relieve themselves after the end of WW2 and who were supported by other former Nazis.
Keywords: Weimar Constitution – NSDAP – Reichstag Fire – Gestapo – denazification – Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – Der Spiegel – Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf – Rudolf Diels – Walter Zirpins – Fritz Tobias – Rudolf Augstein – Hans Mommsen – Sven Felix Kellerhoff – Norbert Lammert
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pp. 167–196:
Continued Discussions on Previous Papers
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Re the Book Review of Lieschens Wald, a novel by Günter F. Janßen, reviewed by T.A. Günter, Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 15 (2015), pp. 173–179:
- Gerd H. Hövelmann: In the Brieselang Forest — An Inspection
Reviewer's response:
- T.A. Günter: Brieselang: A Daylight Perspective
Re the Book Review of UFOs – Phänomen oder Phantomphänomen? by André Kramer, Klaus Felsmann and Natale Guido Cincinnati, reviewed by Bernhard Pröschold, Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 14 (2014), pp. 91–94:
- André Kramer: Response to B. Pröschold’s Review of UFOs – Phänomen oder Phantomphänomen?
Supplement to the Bibliography, “Academic Theses on Anomalistics 2011–2015“ by Gerd H. Hövelmann, Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 15 (2015), pp. 359–364:
- Gerd H. Hövelmann: Supplement to the Bibliography, “Academic Theses on Anomalistics 2011–2015“
Re the Book Review of Sie nannten sich Der Wiener Kreis by Karl Sigmund, reviewed by Wilfried Kugel, Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 15 (2015), pp. 406–415:
- Gerd H. Hövelmann: Hans Reichenbach and C. T. K. Chari – A Historical Footnote
Reviewer's response:
- Wilfried Kugel: In Search of a Theory
pp. 197–211:
„An Unusual Scientific Achievement“: Adolf Kurzweg (1925–2014) and His Pioneer Study on the History of Parapsychology — A Belated Obituary
Uwe Schellinger
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pp. 212–246:
Book Reviews
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- Norbert Schmacke (Hrsg., 2015): Der Glaube an Globuli: Die Verheißungen der Homöopathie
Reviewer: Florian G. Mildenberger - Christian Brachthäuser (2015): Marspyramiden und Mondruinen – Edmond Hamilton (1904–1977), H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) und Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961): Vergessene Pioniere der Paläo-SETI-Hypothese
Reviewer: André Kramer - Dieter Hassler (2015): Indizienbeweise für ein Leben nach dem Tod und die Wiedergeburt, Bände 2a + 2b: Rückführungen in „frühere Leben“ und deren Nachprüfung
Reviewer: Armin Albano-Müller - Harald Lesch (2015): LIMIT – die Grenze physikalischer Erkenntnis: Ein Lehrvideo der Komplett-Media GmbH
Reviewer: Gerd Weckwerth - Peter Staudenmeier (2014): Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era
Reviewer: Michael Seelig - Etzel Cardeña, John Palmer & David Marcusson-Clavertz (Eds., 2015): Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century
Reviewer: Gerhard Mayer - Anousch Müller (2016): Unheilpraktiker: Wie Heilpraktiker mit unserer Gesundheit spielen
Reviewer: Florian G. Mildenberger
pp. 247–256:
Abstract Service