The Obscure Occult Book Report (TOOBR)

We consider in detail some intriguing and sometimes startling true cases, exploring a text that offers frank and practical guidance to psychotherapists on how they should respond when paranormal forms of communication occur within therapy.

The book, this episode, is: The Psychic Thread: Paranormal and Transpersonal Aspects of Psychotherapy, by Elizabeth E. Mintz, in consultation with Gertrude Raffel Schmeidler (New York: Human Sciences Press, 1983).

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The seeds of chaos magic, uncovered in the unlikely context of a 1975 children’s book on chance and probability. We take a nostalgic romp through some of the fascinations and shortcomings of a scientistic take on magic, which seems to have formed a significant current in the 70s zeitgeist.

Our text for this episode is Chance, Luck & Destiny, by Peter Dickinson (London: Victor Gollancz, 1975).

For more about the book and Dickinson’s account of its origin, see https://tinyurl.com/yhks8vxe (peterdickinson.com). Accessed October, 2024. On the same website are details of all Dickinson’s books, including The Changes trilogy (The Devil’s Children, Heartsease, and The Weathermonger).

Support the podcast by joining my Patreon at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

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An obscure and possibly much underrated poltergeist case, from 1938, is our springboard into issues concerning how a psychoanalytical approach to paranormal investigation radically recontextualises the notion of “faked” versus “genuine” psychical phenomena.

The text under discussion is On the Trail of the Poltergeist, by Nandor Fodor (New York, NY: Citadel, 1958).

For more about Fodor’s life and work, see the short biography provided at: survivalafterdeath.info, https://tinyurl.com/mpfrs32k. Accessed September, 2024. For more on the Thornton Heath poltergeist case, see: Kate Summerscale (2020), The housewife, the ghost hunter and the poltergeist, https://tinyurl.com/2pceja3c (theguardian.com). Accessed September, 2024.

Support the podcast by joining my Patreon at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

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Can discarnate entities take possession of human beings? We consider an academic text that attempts to build a serious case by drawing on the work of Frederic Myers and considering evidence offered by the nature of dissociative states and hypnosis.

The text under discussion is The Science of Spirit Possession, second edition, by Terence Palmer (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars). Available at: https://tinyurl.com/4ecs3xen (amazon.com).

To find out more about Palmer’s work, see the discussion between him and Jeffrey Mishlove, https://tinyurl.com/bddh7t9m (youtube.com), and Palmer’s website (“Healing the Wounded Spirit”), https://tinyurl.com/4dm8b5kp (terencepalmer.co.uk). Accessed August, 2024.

Support the podcast by joining my Patreon at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

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In a change from the promised episode, a search for an intriguing-sounding text prompted by a half-remembered reference in a letter by Aleister Crowley leads us into an exploration of how language facilitates expression of what lies beyond sensory perception.

The main text under discussion is: Anatole France (1908). Aristos and Polyphilos on the Language of Metaphysics. In: The Garden of Epicurus, translated by Alfred Allinson (London: John Lane). Available at: https://tinyurl.com/2xrvjfuv (archive.org). Accessed July, 2024.

The other texts mentioned are:

Aleister Crowley (1982). Chapter XXVI: Mental Processes — Two Only are Possible. In: Magick Without Tears, edited by Karl J. Germer (New York: Ordo Templi Orientis). Available at: https://tinyurl.com/2ht6n4dp (hermetic.com). Accessed July, 2024.

Jacques Derrida (1974). White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy, translated by F.C.T. Moore, New Literary History, 6 (1), pp. 5-74. Available from: https://tinyurl.com/yk5byceh (tfreeman.net). Accessed July, 2024.

Support the podcast by joining my Patreon at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

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Our book, this time, is by a meditation master and former NASA engineer, who presents a mental technique for alleviating all forms of physical and emotional pain. We describe and explore his method, its origins, and confront the question of how it could possibly work, if, as its author insists, it's a mental technique that involves neither imagination nor visualisation.

The book providing the basis for our discussion is: Robert Harry Hover (2004). Internal Moving Healing Manual of Instruction: Stopping Your Pain & Other Unpleasant Things. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. The ISBN is 9781418438852. The book is available for sale at: https://tinyurl.com/34vr96dh (amazon.co.uk, accessed June, 2024).

An interesting article about the author and his work, by someone who had personal contact with him as a teacher, can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/mrjk5mkn (hokku.wordpress.com, accessed June, 2024).

Support the podcast by joining my Patreon at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

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In this episode we discuss a memoir of a mental health support worker who works with clients in the most deprived areas of London. We consider the issues arising from its author's deep interest in esotericism and the occult, and his attempts to redress what he perceives as the repressive shortcomings of the UK mental health system by resisting consensus models of mental health intervention and incorporating into his daily duties elements of magick and spirituality.

The book providing the basis for discussion is: The Human Experiment by David Stokes. No date, publisher, or location is given. The ISBN is 9781521944493. More information about the author and his other works is available from https://tinyurl.com/3p9fyf8p (amazon.co.uk, accessed May, 2024).

Support the podcast by joining my Patreon at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

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In this episode we set some parameters for the podcast as a whole, concerning the kinds of relationships that occultists might have with books and reading. The book under discussion concerns contemporary paranormal investigation: we consider some of the specific characteristics of the author's approach to communicating with the dead within this cultural context, and the light it casts upon possible dynamics in the relationship between the living and the dead, particularly around issues of judgment and identity, and how this might challenge or contradict mainstream assumptions.

The book providing the basis for discussion in this episode is: Into the Darkness: Conversations with the Dead by Angel Rae (Fort Wayne, IN: Dark Moon Press, 2017). More information about the book, the author, and her other works is available from https://tinyurl.com/26wbe4py (amazon.com, accessed April, 2024).

Support the podcast by joining my Patreon at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

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