The Obscure Occult Book Report (TOOBR)

• A longing for transcendence with a certain style

  A collection of fictional writings that break the traditional rules of storytelling leads us into a consideration of how writing might be used for magical purposes.The book, this episode, is: John Foxx, The Quiet Man: Short Stories by John Foxx (London: Rocket 88 Books, 2020).See also: Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures (Winchester, UK: Zero Books, 2014).Listen to John Foxx reading his story “The Marvellous Notebook” (among others) at: https://tinyurl.com/yr46a2y6 (bandcamp.com, accessed January 2025).To support the podcast, 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  34:25
• Suddenly psychosis isn't so psychotic

  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).To support the podcast, 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  39:57
• Glimmers from the matrix of ideas

  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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  35:51
• Ghosts haunt places but poltergeists people

  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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  44:22
• Disembodied voices trying to hypnotize

  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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  32:58

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