Terje Simonsen, on the where parapsychology has been and where it’s headed.

Click here for Terje Simonsen’s Website

THE BOOK: A Short History of (Nearly) Everything Paranormal: Our Secret Powers Telepathy, Clairvoyance & Precognition

Click here for forum Discussion

Skeptiko-496-Terje-Simonsen

Skeptiko-496-Terje-Simonsen

Audio Clip: [00:00:00] Do you do problems? No. Never? I always found them irrelevant, positions that never come up in actual games. Let me show you what I think you might like.

Alex Tsakiris: [00:00:13] That’s a clip from a Netflix show called The Queen’s Gambit about a woman chess player and I have an interview coming up in a minute with Terje Simonsen, who has written an excellent book about parapsychology. But as you’ll hear, we want to talk about a lot of other things, including chess.

Terje Simonsen: [00:00:33] I used to play chess with the Grand master of the Ordo Templi orientis, here in Norway. And he is quite famous because you know, The Norwegian black metal familiar in the music, they were famous for burning churches, and he was some kind of ideological load staff for them you know, Seaman Miska. And he did not to respect me because, you know, I tried to be a good guy and somehow I felt he was despising that because I wanted out for power and conjuring spirits. And so, but after I beat him seven times in a row in chess, he started respecting.

Alex Tsakiris: [00:01:09] But we did talk about parapsychology too. And I think there is a strangeness to where parapsychology has gone. It’s just made itself irrelevant. And I think part of the reason it’s made itself irrelevant is because it’s tried to thread that needle in a way that divorces itself from spirituality.

Terje Simonsen: [00:01:32] Very interesting. I share lots of your say, General considerations about this. What I miss in parapsychology is the say, the existential aspect of it.

Alex Tsakiris: [00:01:47] Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science and spirituality with leading researchers, thinkers and their critics. I’m your host Alex Tsakiris and today we welcome Terje Simonsen to Skeptiko. Terje has a new book , it’s republication of a book but he’s added some stuff, It’s a great book. A Short History of nearly everything paranormal, our secret powers, telepathy, clairvoyance and pre cognition. This is a book that is getting a lot of attention. It won the 2019 Book Award from the Parapsychology Association.It’s gotten very nice reviews and accolades from no less than Dean Raidn and other folks in the parapsychology community. So it’s really quite an accomplishment and Terje It’s great to have you on Skeptiko. Thanks for joining me.

Terje Simonsen : [00:02:45] Thanks for having me, I’m so good. I have always admired the interviews you have done, so yeah.

Alex Tsakiris: [00:02:51 ] We’ll see what you think at the end. We are going to have a good time. You know the Skeptiko drill, there’s so much to cover. I want to say that this book is is great. Anyone who is interested in parapsychology will enjoy this book. And I think we’ll find it important, it fills in a lot of gaps,