Can we be certain that mind/consciousness is just an epiphenomenon of neurophysiological activity, that it is little more than a byproduct of brain function? How do we know that our current models are accurate explanations, even accurate descriptions, of what consciousness is? The computer model of the mind and brain, with consciousness as software, is […]
In recent years, scholarly attention in academic religious studies has shifted towards a focus on paranormal topics as an avenue for deepening our understanding of religion more generally. Jeffrey J. Kripal, for instance, has argued in his books Authors of the Impossible (2010) and Mutants and Mystics (2011), that the paranormal is ‘our secret in […]
The following essay is a modified version of the introductory chapter to the book Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal (available now from Amazon US and Amazon UK). *** Over the course of four groundbreaking books published between 1919-1932,1 Charles Hoy Fort (1874-1932) meticulously presented thousands of accounts of anomalous events […]
For a while now I have been thinking of different ways to use the paranormal as a catalyst for deeper understanding in my teaching of A-Level Religious Studies (as well as using A-Level Religious Studies as a means to better understand the paranormal). I have found that my students are often fascinated by the paranormal, […]
X-Files of the Humanities 