If you are not familiar with it already, every month or so I do a post under the paranormal book club series where I recommend a list of books that I feel people may find useful. Every book I recommend I have read. This post however is a little different. I have not yet read any of the books I am about to mention, because they are on my Christmas Wish list. Hopefully one of more of them may end up under my tree as a gift from Santa.
Shannon Taggart: Seance
Named one of one of Time's best photobooks of 2019, this portrait of spiritualist communities across the US and Europe is now redesigned with additional archival images
American photographer Shannon Taggart's fascination with spiritualism, the belief in deceased individuals' ability to communicate with the living, began during her adolescence when a medium revealed additional information about the circumstances of Taggart's grandfather's death. A decade later, Taggart, then a practicing photojournalist, found herself obsessively drawn to Lily Dale, New York--the world's largest spiritualist community. Her transformative experiences there catalyzed an 18-year odyssey documenting spiritualist communities throughout the world in search of "ectoplasm"--an emanation exorcised from the body of the medium, believed to be both spiritual and material.
Named one of Time's best photobooks of 2019, and now revisited by Atelier Éditions, Séance offers readers a remarkable series of supernatural photographs exploring spiritualist practices and beliefs within communities found across the US, the UK and Europe. The photos are accompanied by Taggart's commentary on her experiences, a foreword by Dan Aykroyd, creator of the Ghostbusters franchise and fourth-generation spiritualist, and illustrated essays by Andreas Fischer and Tony Oursler. Atelier Éditions' reissue also features new commentary by writer and filmmaker J.F. Martel, additional archival images and a new design.
Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Shannon Taggart (born 1975) has contributed to Time, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine, Discover, New York, Wall Street Journal and Reader's Digest. Her first monograph, Séance (Fulgur Press), was published in 2019. She is currently working on an illustrated book about the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT), one of the most exotic cases within the history of psychical research.
I am a bit of a sucker for hard covers full of glossy photos so given the subject matter, this is probably the number 1 book on my list. It is not cheap, but it is certainly a coffee table book that would get the room talking!
THE HEYDAY OF MENTAL MEDIUMSHIP: 1880s - 1930s: INVESTIGATORS, MEDIUMS AND COMMUNICATORS by Alan Gauld
There have been important mediums and researchers throughout the history of psychical research in many parts of the world, but the period from the 1880s to the 1930s saw a coming together of outstanding scientific minds in Europe and the USA who probed the phenomena of mental mediumship with a diligence, intellectual discipline and degree of enthusiasm not encountered on such a scale before or since.
This period saw the establishment of the Society for Psychical Research in Britain (1882), followed swiftly by the American Society for Psychical Research (1884), which resulted in close collaboration between people who, apart from their intellects, also had the financial means and the time to devote to the subject.
In this book Alan Gauld, whose works on mediumship, psychical research and psychic phenomena have become classics in the genre, offers important insights into aspects of the early days of mediumship research that over the years have largely gone off the radar. Here we see the great names of psychical research as real people in personal relationships, and we learn about the informal beginnings of serious investigations and explore their cultural context.
The Heyday of Mental Mediumship is destined to become Gauld's magnum opus.
A lot of my research these days seems to be focused on the spiritualist era mentioned above. Gauld is well known for his work in this area so much like the blurb says, I feel this will be his best yet and a must have for my collection.
An Illustrated History of Ghosts Hardcover by Adam Allsuch Boardman
A bump in the night, the crack of floorboards and the uneasy coldness of a room... Signs we might attribute to a ghostly presence.
Through the decades, investigators and mediums have dedicated themselves to the task of reaching through the veil and contacting the other side. Whether ghosts are the souls of the dead, windows in time or interdimensional beings, cultures through the ages have responded with fear and fascination to their horrific haunts and eerie appearances. This illustrative study will take you through the history and culture of ghosts.
Another hard cover with pictures and a bit of a history. I am really easy to please in this area!!
Ghosted!: Exploring the Haunting Reality of Paranormal Encounters by by Brian Laythe, James Houran, Neil Dagnall, Kenneth Drinkwater and Ciaran O'Keeffe
Reports of paranormal experiences vary tremendously, but are often associated with ghosts, haunted houses, and otherwise eerie circumstances. There exist both classic and modern texts on ghosts and haunted or possessed people, places and spaces; many discuss traditional ideas regarding such phenomena or utilize now-outdated research in highly academic and technical ways.
This book offers a very different approach in reviews provided by a leading-edge research program devoted to who has ghostly experiences and why. With new insights both global in scale and multidisciplinary in scope, this collaboration by five researchers uncovers consistent evidence that anomalous experiences represent a very real "Haunted People Syndrome"--a term describing anomalous experiences that manifest recurrently to the same percipients and are interpreted as "ghostly"--with implications for future research across academia. The participation of new citizen scientists (the field investigators and researchers among us) is invited in furthering the exploration of paranormal mysteries. Photos and figures illustrating concepts and models are included, as is a glossary.
I have actually wanted this one for a while, however, it is difficult to get here in Australia. Given the authors and the subject matter, it is no surprise that this is right up my alley!
I could probably sit here all day and write a very long list of all of the books I want, however these are the ones that I have been saving my pennies for. I am not an amazon affiliate (it is just easier to link to Amazon) and I have not been asked to recommend these books nor have I been given free copies. This is simply just my Christmas wish list!
What books do you want to find under your tree this Christmas?
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