Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
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evolution: and altered states, 83; and Bergson, 85, 217, 231–33, 245; biological driven by unconscious, 212; and book as séance, 38; and control thesis, 182; cosmic, 103; creative, 85, 217; extraterrene, 68–69, 82–84, 124, 308n21; and filter thesis, 256; and Fort, 99, 103, 116–19, 133–36, 140; and Freud, 212; and Heard, Gerald, 306n91; and Human as Two, 256; of human consciousness, 38, 245, 263–65; of human culture, 116, 134, 263; and Huxley, Julian, 307n19; imaginal, 134; and insect, 298n114; and involution, 69, 71; and the mystical, 46, 71–72, 263, 298n117; and neuroscience, 253, 256, 261–63; and the psychical, 40, 135–36, 231–32; spiritual, 70, 99, 132–33, 294–95n33; and superpowers, 140, 231–32; and telepathy, 69, 84, 295n45; and UFO phenomenon, 150, 157–58, 182, 298n114; and Vallee, 150, 182; and Wallace, Alfred Russell, 70, 72, 84, 231, 295n45; and wild talents, 132–34. See also Darwin, Charles; evolution; evolutionary biology; Myers, Frederick W. H.
evolutionary biology, 70, 117, 118, 260
Exegesis (Dick), 32–33
Extrasensory Perception (ESP), 3, 11, 17, 290n12. See also remote viewing
Ezekiel, 153, 190–91, 301–2n18
Facts in Mesmerism (Townshend), 231
Faivre, Antoine, 19
fantastic, the: and Eliade, 5, 19; as hermeneutical key to the paranormal, 33; as the impossible, 256; and the mystical, 259; and the occult, 268; reader’s hesitation between natural and supernatural readings as constituting condition of, 34–35; as reading, 35; and science fiction, 5, 31
Fantastic Four, The, 154
fantastic narrative, 27, 35, 106, 122
fantastic realism, 203, 205–6
Fastwalker (Vallee), 146, 167, 301n5, 304n53; privileging Jung, 174
Fate magazine, 150–51
Fátima, 150, 153, 173, 182, 190, 192, 275–82
Fátima Revisited (Fernandes and D’Armada), 286
FBI Bulletin, 168
Ferenczi, Sandor, 14, 15
Fernandes, Joaquim, 280–82, 286, 312n1; Fátima Revisited, 286; Heavenly Lights, 286
Ferrer, Jorge N., ed., The Participatory Turn, 312n36
filter thesis: and altered states, 256; and dialectic of culture and consciousness, 268–69; and evolution, 256; history of, 256; and Huxley, Aldous, 73; and James, William, 73, 256–57, 264; and Kelly, Edward, 67, 73, 257, 268; as misleading in its dualism, 256; and neuroscience, 73, 252–58, 267–68; and permission metaphor, 257; and translation metaphor, 257; or transmission, 257
fin du secret, Le, or The End of the Secret (Binet-Sanglé), 229
Flammarion, Camille, 299n15
Flatland (Abbot), 21, 187. See also Flatland
Flatland, 188, 213, 252, 258, 262; invoked by Couliano, 21–24, 171. See also Flatland (Abbot)
Fleming, Alice, 48
Flournoy, Theodore, 54
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (Dick), 32
Flying Saucer Review, 164, 245
flying saucers: appearance in 1908 novel, 207; folklore to, 156, 159, 161, 163; and Jung, 245–47, 249, 281, 309n56; Méheust’s and Vallee’s approaches to compared, 243; Méheust’s books on, 203, 215, 239; Méheust’s interest less in than in X behind them, 249; modern coining of term, 151, 153; as mythological construction, 249; and science fiction, 206–15, 240, 249; and superheroes, 215
Flying Saucers (Jung), 153, 245, 246, 309n53
Fodor, Nandor, Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science, 290n3
folklore: and abduction narratives, 215, 285; from folklore to flying saucers, 156–64; future technology of, 147, 173–74; and the imaginal, 82; and origins of religion in psychical experiences, 12–13, 17–19, 216; and the paranormal, 146; as pointing to paradox of culturally conditioned nature, 13, 244–45; and psychofolklore, 42–43, 232, 241, 249; and science fiction, 173–74, 243–44; similarity between Méheust’s and Vallee’s readings of, 243; and UFO phenomenon, 156–64, 195, 197, 208
Forbidden Science (Vallee), 181, 184, 186, 306n95
Ford, Gerald R., 149, 301n8
Fort, Charles: and the Bible, 95–96, 101–2, 118, 129–31; as collector of anomalies, 95–97; comparative method of, 104, 106–11; and Dreiser, Theodore, 97–100, 124, 140, 299n13; early life of, 101–3; and Fuller, Buckminster, 97; and Hecht, Ben, 140; importance of imagination to, 98; and James, 132–33; and Lo! 98, 132, 137; Martian hypothesis of, 99–100; and Méheust, 242, 247–49; mythology of as science fiction, 122–23; New Lands, 93, 98, 127, 129, 300; The Outcast Manufacturers, 98; paranormal postmodernism of, 112, 122; as presciently postmodern, 104, 111; science mysticism of, 123–24; as seldom read, 7; and Tarkington, Booth, 97, 140; and teleportation, 137; and trans-mediumization, 133; and wild talents, 137–40, 170, 217. See also Book of the Damned, The (Fort); Wild Talents (Fort)
Foucauldianism, 22, 254. See also, Foucault, Michel
Foucault, Michel, 108, 217, 220, 223. See also, Foucauldianism
Fountain of Paradise, The, 1
fourth kind, the, 155
Fox, Mark, Spiritual Encounters with Unusual Light Phenomena, 287
Fragments of Inner Life (Myers), 37
Franklin, Benjamin, 80
Freixedo, Salvador, Visionaries, Mystics and Contactees, 286
Frescka, Ede, Inner Paths to Outer Space, 313n24
Freud, Sigmund: and dream symbolism as overdetermined, 189, 306n97; and Eliade, 19–20; on evolution driven by unconscious, 212; and Fort’s parapsychology of everyday life, 95; and Huxley, Aldous, 59; influence of Janet on, 13; influence on Breton of, 58, 206; and Jung, 14; and magnetic sleep, 220–21; and Méheust, 217, 220–21; and Myers, 63–64, 86, 297n80, 298n121; and the mystical, 14–16; and the occult, 14, 284; as opening the psyche while forgetting the psychical, 221; and Proceedings, 54; and subliminal, 63, 220; and telepathy, 14–16, 289n2, 291n24; and Vallee, 148, 189
From Mesmer to Freud (Crabtree), 308n32
Fuller, Buckminster, 97
Fuller, John G., The Interrupted Journey, 165
Fuller, Margaret, 16
Gamow, George, 14
Gardner, Murphy, William James on Psychical Research, 291n18
Gauld, Alan, 293n7; and the erotic, 45; The Founders of Psychical Research, 293n7; on Myers loving ghost of Annie Marshall, 44, 89–91; on Myers’s influences, 64; on Myers’s personal psychical experiences, 53–54; on Palladino, 49, 296n53; and the paranormal, 76; on Piper, 56–57; and Sidgwick group, 49, 56; and spirit messages, 50, 80
Geist, 11, 71, 72
Geller, Uri, 178, 305n67
Gilligan, Carol, 15
Good, Timothy, Need to Know, 301n13
Graf, Fritz, 11, 290n7
Griffin, David Ray, 112, 310n5; Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality, 299n30, 310n5
Gurdjieff, G. I., 206
Gurney, Edmund, 47, 54–56, 284, 294n9, 296n62; Phantasms of the Living, 47, 284; Tertium Quid, 294n9
Haeckel, Ernst, 99
Hall, Manley P., 192–93, 306n98; The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 192–93
hallucination, veridical, 75–76
Hanegraaff, Wouter J., Hidden Intercourse, 295n48
Hanger 18, 184
Hansen, George, 17, 308n29; The Trickster and the Paranormal, 291n31
Harding, D. E., 265; On Having No Head, 258, 311n8
Harris, Sam, 310n7
Harris, Thomas Lake, 51
Harvard University, 8, 23, 54, 259
Hastings, James, Encylopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 9
Heard, Gerald, 306n91
Heavenly Lights (Fernandes and D’Armada), 286
Hecht, Ben, 140
Hegel, G. W. F., 11, 71–72, 290n9; The Phenomenology of the Spirit, 71–72
Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition (Magee), 290n9, 297n101
Heindel, Max, 192
Henderson, Major Paul W., 166
Hennessey, R. A. S., Worlds Without End, 299n15
hermetic, the: as art of interpretation, 24, 201; and Hegel, 11, 71–72, 290n9, and Méheust, 201, 212, 214, 307–8n20; and science fiction, 31; soul of Western culture, 30
, 145; and Vallee, 145–46, 161, 192–93
Hess, David J., Science in the New Age, 290n15
Hesse, Hermann, Journey to the East, 5
Hidden Intercourse (Hanegraaff and Kripal), 295
Hildegaard of Bingen, 196
Hill, Barney and Betty, case of, 165–66, 207
Hinduism, epistemologies of, 254
Hire, Jean de la, Roue fulgurante, 207
Histoire et Doctrines des Rose + Croix (Sédir), 192
Hodgson, Richard, 47, 54, 55–57, 89, 237
Hofmann, Albert, 256
Hofstadter, Douglas, The Mind’s I, 258, 311n8
Holmes, Sherlock, 242
Home, Daniel Dunglas, 7–8, 53, 94
homo duplex, 61–62, 232, 252, 311n24. See also Human as Two
Hufford, David, 308n27
Hugo, Victor, 16, 47, 222
Human as Two, 58–66, 256; and brain, left vs. right, 259, 310n5; in dialogue with filter thesis, 252, 256; and evolution, 256; and Hegel’s Phenomenology as, 72; and Michel, 204; and Myers’s imaginary/imaginal, 83; and neuroscience, 259–67; and One, 39, 270; and Stevenson’s dream of a double personality, 86; and Talyor, Jill, 259–61; and telepathy, 81; as universal neuroanatomical fact, 266. See also homo duplex; psychology: bimodal
Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (Myers), 284; altered word-states defined in, 58, 62, 67, 72, 80, 83; beginning insight of, 66; content reproduced by structure of, 61; dream cases in, 78; the erotic erased from, 91; the erotic subsuming the tragic in, 90; methods used for, 55; as posthumously published, 46; as seldom read, 7; source texts of, 47; structured as textual erotic séance, 88–91; and Symposium, 88–89; the telepathic and the erotic linked in, 85
Huna, 3–4
Huxley, Aldous: on filter thesis, 59, 73, 256–57, 264, 296n76; and gnosis, 73; neo-Vedantic perennialism of, 306n99; The Perennial Philosophy, 296n76; as reader of Myers, 59; and traumatic insight, 59; and use of psychedelics, 73; views on Freud of, 59
Huxley, Julian, 307n19
Huxley, Thomas, 40, 45, 70; as grandfather of Aldous Huxley, 73
Hynek, J. Allen, 149; and classification model of sightings, 155; and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 155; The Edge of Reality, 152; and FBI Bulletin, 168; government work of, 151–52, 168; and Hall, Manly, 192–93, 306n98; and invisible college, 168–70, 192–94, 303n43; as mystical man, 150; and Project Blue Book, 151–52, 301n8; and Rosicrucian tradition, 192–94; on the signal in the noise, 155–56, 194, 216, 243; The UFO Experience, 152, 155; and Vallee, 150–52, 155, 168–70, 180–81, 192–94
hyperaesthesia, 225
hyperpromethia, 73
hypnotism, 13, 61, 194, 228–29, 232, 269, 300n31
imaginal, the, 9, 58, 144; coining of term, 82; and folklore, 243; and Fort, 98, 133–34; frame of science fiction, 210; history of term, 82–83; and insect and UFO phenomenon, 298n114; and Jungian hermeneutic, 246; Myers’s definition of, 83–85; as not the imaginary, 82
insect: and buzzing in Fátima experience, 277, 282; in definition of the imaginal, 83–84; and Fort, 96, 133–34; and mimicry in UFO phenomenon, 302n23; and Myers’s metaphor compared to UFO phenomenon, 298n114; as opposed to larval, 83–84; and Vallee’s description of UFO chasers, 146
Interrupted Journey, The (Fuller), 165
Invisible College, The (Vallee): central teaching of, 171; and disillusionment with both science and religion, 173–74; explanation of phrase, 168, 193, 303n43; as further development of ideas of Passport to Magonia, 168; and multidimensionality, 182, 194; and psychical component, 171–74; and social-control thesis, 185; and SRI, 175–78; and theses for UFOs, 170–71
Irreducible Mind (Kelly, Kelly, Crabtree, Gauld, Grosso, and Greyson), 293–94n7
Jacobs, David Michael: Secret Life, 301n6; The UFO Controversy in America, 301n6; UFOs and Abductions, 313n2
James, William: and Bergson, 85; and case of Mrs. Q. R., 76; and cosmic consciousness, 63, 297n82; and Durkheim, 308n33; and filter thesis, 73, 256–57, 264; and Fort, 132–33, 299–300n30; as founding figure of the psychical research tradition, 8; and “Fragments,” 90; friendship with Myers, 7, 47, 54, 56, 58; and Méheust, 203, 237, 242, 308n33; and Piper, Leonora, 13, 56–57; presidential address to S.P.R., 53; Principles of Psychology, 64; and Proceedings, 54, 58; as well known, 7; and white crow argument, 234, 299–300n30; and wild facts, 132–33
Janet, Pierre, 13, 88
Jeans, James, 265
Jeury, Michel, Les yeux geants, 308n22
Johnson, Alice, 47
Johnston, Sarah Iles, 290n7
John the Baptist, 50
Jones, Ernest, 14, 15; The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 291n22
Jones, Lindsay, Encyclopedia of Religion, 290n4
Joseph Balsamo (Dumas), 241
Joseph of Copertino, 209
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 47, 70, 94
Journey to the East (Hesse), 5
Juarés, Jean, 231–32
Jumper, 137
Jung, Carl, 291n20; and archetype, 245; dissertation of, 216; and flying saucers, 245–47, 249, 281, 309n56; Flying Saucers, 153, 245, 246, 309n53; and Freud, 14; and Huxley, Aldous, 59; Jung Speaking, 309n56; and Méheust, 243, 245–47; Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 309n56; and Myers, 64; and occult, 14; and Proceedings, 54; and quantum physics to explain the paranormal, 14; and synchronicity, 14, 25–26, 74–75, 110; and UFO dream of, 247; and Vallee, 153, 172, 174, 243, 245. See also psychoanalysis
Kakar, Sudhir, 291n24
Kaku, Michio, Hyperspace, 305n79
Kandinsky, Wassily, The Spiritual in Art, 16
Kane, Bob, 147
Kant, Immanuel, 11, 65, 234, 254; Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, 11
Kaplan, Louis, The Damned Universe of Charles Fort, 299n11
Kazantsev, Alexander, 185
Keel, John A.: The Eighth Tower, 313n26; The Mothman Prophecies, 300n40
Kelly, Edward: and failure of scientific psychology, 255; and filter thesis, 67, 73, 257, 268; Irreducible Mind, 293–94n7; and metetherial realm underlying consciousness, 67; and neutral monism, 310n5; and permission metaphor, 257
Kelly, Emily Williams, 40, 58, 60, 293–94n7; Irreducible Mind, 293–94n7
Kennedy, Robert F., 2–4, 289n1
Kent, Clark, 73, 83. See also Superman
Keyhoe, Donald E., 149, 152; Flying Saucers from Outer Space, 301n14
King, Stephen, 16, 37–38, 39; On Writing, 293n1
Kipling, Rudyard, 48
Knight, Damon, 95, 97, 122, 129, 298n1; Charles Fort, 299n2
Kripal, Jeffrey, 273–74, 293n68; Esalen, 200, 300, 305, 306, 310; Hidden Intercourse, 295; Kali’s Child, 310n5; Roads of Excess, 293n68, 310n5; The Serpent’s Gift, 298n113, 310n5; Valis-like experience of, 34, 293n68
Krippner, Stanley, Dream Telepathy, 4
Krishnamurti, 200
Lacombe, Claude, 144
Lang, Andrew, 12, 17, 222, 232, 249; The Making of Religion, 12
Lawson, E. Thomas, 310n3
Lectures on Psychical Research (Broad), 284–85
Lehrich, Christopher I., The Occult Mind, 297n105
Leuba, James, 10
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 199, 220
Lieb, Michael, Children of Ezekiel, 301–2n18
Lincoln, Abraham, 50, 295n45
Lipp, J. E., 154
Lo! (Fort), 98, 132, 137
Lodge, Oliver, 48, 80, 90
Long, Max Freedom, 3–4
Louis Lambert (Balzac), 240
Lowell, Percival, Mars and Its Canals, 99
Luckhurst, Roger, The Invention of Telepathy, 290n13
Luna, Luis Eduardo, Inner Paths to Outer Space, 313n24
Lyons, Arthur, The Blue Sense, 309n47
Mack, John E., 23–24
Magee, Glenn Alexander, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, 290n9, 297n101
magnetic sleep, 61, 219–21, 293n68
Magonia, 197; as a Fortean New Land, 160; and multiverse, 171, 182, 186, 188–89; original nint
h-century reference to, 160–61; Project on Internet, 243; Vallee’s conviction of metaphysical reality of, 186; and Vallee’s stained-glass window, 196
Majestic 12, 184
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Scholem), 191
Making of Religion (Lang), 12
Mallock, W. H., 40
Margolis, Jonathan, Uri Geller, 305n68
Marialien, 282
Mars and Its Canals (Lowell), 99
Marshall, Annie Hill, 88–91, 236
Martin, John, 153
Martino, Ernesto De, 13, 19, 244–45
Marxism, 254
Mary, the Virgin, 173, 236, 279. See also UFO phenomenon: Fátima events as
Matin des Magiciens, Le. See Morning of the Magicians, The (Pauwels and Bergier)
Matrix, The, 31
Maxwell, Joseph, 232
May, Edwin, 180, 305n72
Mayer, Elizabeth Lloyd, 15, 23; Extraordinary Knowing, 291n25
McCoy, Harold, 15
McDougall, William, 54
McMoneagle, Joseph, 179–80; Mind Trek, 179; The Stargate Chronicles, 305n70; The Ultimate Time Machine, 305n73
Mead, Margaret, 13, 290n15
meaning event, 292n49
Méheust, Bertrand: and autoscopy, 226; and Balzac, 239, 240; and Baudelaire, 239, 241; and Binet-Sangle, Charles, 229; and Bourdieu, Pierre, 218, 220; and Breton, André, 217, 222; and Bullard, Thomas, 215–16, 246; and coincidences between UFO experiences (1947 to present) and science fiction (1880–1945), 207–8; and comic books, 214; and comparative events, 200, 207–8; Le défi du magnetisme 199, 216; and Deleuze, Gilles, 220; and Deleuze, J. P. F., 226; and Derrida, Jacques, 217, 220; and description-construction, 217, 222–24, 241; Devenez savants, 307n5; and dialectic of culture and consciousness, 223–24, 238; and Didier, Alexis, 203, 227, 233–42; dissertation of, 216, 234; and Doyle, Arthur Conan, 222, 239, 242; Dumas, Alexandre, 239, 241; and Durand, Gilbert, 214; and Durkheim, Emile, 222; early life of, 203; and Eliade, Mircea, 222; and endoscopy, 225–26; En soucoupes volantes or On Flying Saucers, 25; and the erotic, 236; and the esoteric, 212; and evolutionary thinking, 231–33; and experiential core of UFO phenomenon, 215–16; and fantastic realism, 203, 205–6; and forgetting of animal magnetism, 216–20, 224; and Fort, Charles, 242, 247–49; and Foucault, Michel, 217, 223; and Freud, Sigmund, 217, 220–21; and guardians of threshold, 217, 220–22; and hagiography, 209; and hermeneutical mysticism, 201; and the hermetic, 201, 212, 214, 307–8n20; Histoires paranormales du Titanic, 307n5; Hugo, Victor, 222; and James, William, 203, 237, 242, 308n33; and Jung, Carl, 243, 245–47; and Kant, 234; and Lang, Andrew, 222, 232, 249; and magnetic sleep, 219–21; M. A. thesis of, 203; and metaphysics of history, 224; Michel’s influence on, 203, 209, 243, 307; and the mystical, 201, 206; and New Thought, 223; 100 mots pour comprendre la voyance, 307n5; and Pigeaire, Léonide, 219–20; and postmodernism, 217–18, 233; and psychical superpowers, 217, 224–33; and psychoanalysis, 220–22; psychometry, 241; and Schopenhauer, Arthur, 222; Science-fiction et soucoupes volantes or Science Fiction and Flying Saucers, 206, 214, 215; as seldom read, 7; and signal in the noise, 216, 243; and skeptics, 219–21, 228–29; Somnambulisme et médiumnite, 214, 220, 241, 244; and Superman, 214; and Swedenborg, Emanuel, 234; and Thurston, Herbert, 208–9; and Tin Tin, 214; and Townshend, Chauncy, 231, 235–37; and UFO phenomena as hermeneutical realities, 209–11; and Vallee, Jacques, 242–45, 309n49; Un voyant prodigieux or A Seer Extraordinaire, 233; and Winter, Alison, 238–39. See also Mesmerism; Puységur, Armand Marie Jacques de Chastenet, Marquis de