The Trickster and the Paranormal
Page 53
8 Bolen, 1989, p. 169.
9 Stassinopoulos & Beny, 1983, p. 190.
10 Bolen, 1989, p. 171.
11 Brown, 1947, p. 8.
12 Bolen, 1989, p. 181.
13 Bolen, 1989, p. 168.
14 Bolen, 1989, p. 186.
15 Bolen, 1989, p. 173.
16 Brown, 1947, p. 11.
17 Wescott, 1962, p. 345.
18 Wescott, 1962, p. 345.
19 Wescott, 1962, p. 342.
20 Pelton, 1980, p. 163.
21 Wescott, 1962, p. 348.
22 Wescott, 1962, p. 343. For more on the significance of hair for sexuality and magic, see Edmund Leach’s essay Magical Hair (1958/1967).
23 Wescott, 1962, p. 337.
24 Wescott, 1962, p. 340.
25 For a brief discussion, see pages 1 and 2 of Frank Kermode’s The Genesis of Secrecy (1979).
26 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 237.
27 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 217.
28 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 232.
29 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 231.
30 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 231.
31 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 237.
32 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 237.
33 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 237.
34 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 237.
35 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 220.
36 Jung, 1943/1967, p. 237.
37 Leach, 1964. The UFO is another example. UFOs are often seen as conveying messages from god-like beings. The most famous poem in ufology is Gray Barker’s “UFO is a Bucket of Shit.”
38 Roberts, “Does God Lie?” (1988).
39 Tricksters of the Bible are not limited to the Old Testament. Medieval scholar Kathleen Ashley analyzed both Christ and Satan as tricksters in a 1982 essay. She commented that “in Christ and Satan, I would argue, is a pair of tricksters who have evolved from one idea of the sacred, a God who paradoxically encompasses both good and evil” (p. 127). The issue of opposites is central, and she explored it at length. Ashley utilized concepts of liminality and structuralism, topics explored in the coming chapters.
For discussions of the Harlequin see McClelland, 1964; Taylor, 1985.
41 Lucille Charles’ article “The Clown’s Function” (1945), Laura Makarius’ “Ritual Clowns and Symbolical Behavior” (1970), and Rogan Taylor’s book The Death and Resurrection Show (1985) provide useful reviews of clowns from various cultures.
42 Babcock, 1982.
43 Wescott, 1962, p. 343.
44 Carroll, 1984.
45 Babcock & Cox, 1994, p. 99.
Chapter 3—Ernest Hartmann’s Mental Boundaries
1 There are no credible accounts of witnesses observing someone being phys i-cally abducted by extra-terrestrial aliens. The full causes of abduction experiences are unclear, but external factors likely play important roles. Fantasy is an insufficient explanation.
2 Haraldsson, Houtkooper, & Hoeltje, (1987).
3 Parapsychological Research With Children: An Annotated Bibliography by Drewes & Drucker (1991). See also Palmer, 1977, p. 148.
4 See Palmer, 1977, p. 133-134.
5 See Wickramasekera (1991); Pekala, Kumar, & Cummings (1992).
Chapter 4—Victor Turner’s Concept of Anti-Structure
1A notable, but little known, exception is the work of Peter Rogerson
(1986).
2The translator’s note claims that the book was first published in 1908, but the French Catalogue General des Livres Imprimes de la Bibliotheque Nationale and the U.S. National Union Catalog both give the original publication date as 1909.
3 For biographical information on van Gennep see Arnold Van Gennep: The Creator of French Ethnography by Belmont (1974/1979). See also Rodney Needham’s Introduction to his translation of van Gennep’s The Semi-Scholars, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967. See also “Arnold van Gennep: The Hermit of Bourg-la-Reine” by Zumwalt (1982).
4 For biographical information on Victor Turner, see his posthumously published books On the Edge of the Bush (1985) and Blazing the Trail (1992) which were edited by his wife.
5 Turner, 1969, p. 131.
6 Van Gennep, 1909/1960, p. 114.
7 Van Gennep, 1909/1960, p. 114.
8 Turner, 1969, p. 125.
9 Turner, 1982, p. 26.
10 Turner, 1969, p. 95.
11 Turner, 1982, p. 27.
12 12Turner, 1982, p. 27.
13 Turner, 1982, p. 28.
14 See Peters, 1982, 1994.
15Both Jungian and Freudian analysts have made use of Turner’s ideas. The Jungians have adapted them more extensively; for examples see the anthology Liminality and Transitional Phenomena edited by Nathan Schwartz-Salant and Murray Stein (1991). Volney Gay, who has more of a Freudian orientation, made use of Turner’s ideas in an article “Ritual and Self-Esteem in Victor Turner and Heinz Kohut” (Gay, 1983a). Gay also addressed the trickster in “Winnicott’s Contribution to Religious Studies: The Resurrection of the Culture Hero” (Gay, 1983b). Via his interpreters, Donald W. Winnicott’s work may provide some useful insights, though his own writing is some of the most impenetrable I’ve ever encountered. Winnicott introduced the idea of the “transitional object.” Gay called attention to its relevance to the trickster, though he did not discuss liminality in that article.
16 Turner, 1969, p. 116.
17 Turner, 1974, p. 274.
16 Turner, 1969, p. 95.
17 Turner, 1969, p. 111.
18 Turner, 1969, p. 128.
21Turner, 1974, p. 298.
22Turner, 1974, p. 273.
23 As mentioned earlier, a number of women and minority scholars show an appreciation for Babcock’s insights on the trickster. A few other writers are beginning to recognize the connection to anti-structure (e.g., Grottanelli, 1983; Koep-ping, 1985).
24 Babcock-Abrahams, 1975a, p. 184.
25 For some reflections on Koestler, see Arthur Koestler and Parapsychology by Brian Inglis, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 78, 1984, ^pp. 263-272.
26 Basso, 1987, pp. 7-8.
27 Ferdinand Demara was the subject of Robert Crichton’s The Great Impostor (New York: Random House, 1959). Demara performed surgeries, served as an assistant warden of a prison and as a university dean, among other escapades. He had an attraction to monasteries, which provide a containment structure for liminality. Frank Abagnale, another celebrated impostor, tells in his autobiography Catch Me If You Can (Frank W. Agabnale, Jr., with Stan Redding, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1980) how he was able to pass as an airline pilot, attorney, and college professor. Both Demara and Abagnale had a remarkable ability to adapt to new situations and readily take on new identities, being shape-shifters, at least in a psychological sense. During their childhoods both of their fathers had suffered a severe financial setback and consequent loss of status. Carlos Castaneda shows a similarity. Psychologist Richard de Mille analyzed Castaneda in his The Don Juan Papers (1980) and suggested that Castaneda’s father did not achieve the status that one might have expected of him. Perhaps that contributed to a trickster constellation and served as one of the subtle influences that led Carlos to perpetrating his hoax.
28 Brown, 1947, p. 97.
29 8Peacock (1969).
30 Turner, 1982, p. 26.
31 See Needham, 1973.
32 Turner, 1969, pp. 108-109.
33 Turner, 1969, pp. 109.
34 Middleton, 1968/1973, p. 380.
35 5Leach, 1962/1969, p. 11.
36 Otto, 1917/1975, p. 18.
37 Degh & Vazsonyi, 1973, p. 28.
38 Douglas, 1966, p. 8.
39 Douglas, 1966, p. 94.
40 Makarius, 1973, p. 663.
41 Makarius, 1973, p. 663.
42 See Ballinger, 1989; Carroll, 1986.
43 E.g., Brown & Tuzin, 1983; Girard 1972/1977; Tierney, 1989.
44 For accounts of Toelken’s experiences with, and views on, the trickster, see Toelken, 1987, 1995a, 1995b, 1996; Toelken & Scott, 1981.
45 Toelke
n, 1995a, p. 30; also Toelken, 1996, p. 7.
46 Turner, 1969, pp. 137-138.
47 Turner, 1969, p. 128.
48 See Fraser, 1992; Tatro, 1974; for additional references see Boles, Davis & Tatro, 1983.
49 Bainbridge, 1989.
Chapter 5—Mysticism, Holy Madness, and Fools for God
1 Bharati, 1976; Otto, 1926/1987.
2 Turner, 1969, p. 107.
3 Turner, 1964/1967, pp. 98-99.
4 Leontius, the bishop of Neapolis on Cyprus, wrote a biography of him in the middle of the seventh century. A translation of this biography can be found in an appendix to Symeon the Holy Fool: Leontius’s Life and the Late Antique City by Derek Krueger, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996. For shorter accounts of St. Simeon, see Feuerstein, 1991; Saward, 1980.
5 Wilson, 1989, p. 68.
6 Butler’s Lives of the Saints, 1756-9/1981, Vol. IV, pp. 22-32. Cousins, 1978.
8 See Babcock-Abrahams, 1975, p. 175; Radin 1956/1972, p. 7.
9 Willeford, 1969, p. 7.
10 Turner, 1982, p. 27.
11 Eliade, 1951/1964, pp. 96-99.
12 Dodds, 1951/1971, p. 290. Dodds served as president of the Society for Psychical Research.
13 For a discussion of some amazing capabilities of birds, see The Human Nature of Birds by Theodore Xenophon Barber (1993). Besides his interest in birds, Barber is also an authority on hypnosis, another liminal area.
14 Huysmans, 1901/1979.
15 The removal of intestines merits note. Wakdjunkaga, the Winnebago trickster, removed his intestines (Radin, 1956/1972, p. 18). Street magicians in India have performed a similar trick (Siegel, 1991, p. 198). E. E. Evans-Pritchard in Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937/1950, p. 40) reports that the Azande believe that a witchcraft substance is found in the small intestine. The prevalence of this motif in these diverse situations suggests a deep though obscure connection. Intestines are crucial in transmuting food to excrement (a
binary opposition). Divination by entrails might also be recalled.
16 Feuerstein, 1991, p. 26.
17 Schiffman, 1989.
18 Isherwood, 1965, p. 90.
19 Feuerstein, 1991, p. 14.
20 Oetgen, 1976, pp. 191-211.
21 Turner, 1969, pp. 141-142.
22 Atwater, 1994.
23 Haraldsson & Houtkooper, 1991.
Chapter 6—Shamanism and Its Sham
1 Turner, 1969, pp. 116-117.
2 For an article that addresses shamanism and liminality in relatively technical and abstract terms, see “Crazy Wisdom: The Shaman as Mediator of Realities” by Mary Schmidt (1987).
3 For a discussion see Lewis, 1971/1989.
4 Jung 1956/1972, p. 196.
5 Campbell, 1959/1987, p. 275.
6 La Barre, 1970/1972, p. 136.
Graduate student Larry Ellis has a useful discussion in his 1993 article Trickster: Shaman of the Liminal.
8 Ricketts, 1993, p. 93.
9 Ricketts, 1993, p. 87.
10 Ricketts, 1993, p. 88.
11 Ricketts, 1993, p. 88.
12 Ricketts, 1966, pp. 345-346.
13 Ricketts was familiar with Barbara Babcock’s work and listed it in an earlier article (Ricketts, 1987), but like many male academics of his generation, he failed to grasp its significance.
14 Eliade, 1951/1964, p. 255.
15 Smith, 1968, p. 15.
16 The most controlled investigation of which I am aware is that of anthropologist Philip Singer. He brought Philippine psychic surgeon Philip Malicdan to a laboratory in Michigan. The goal was to determine whether Malicdan could actually enter a human body and remove tissue without leaving a scar, or if he was using sleight of hand. A number of cameras recorded the events; eminent magician Max Maven was on site to observe, and the “extracted” tissues were medically analyzed. The photography expert, magician, and the medical analysis all supported the conclusion that fraud had been attempted. (See Philip Singer, 1990).
Also of interest are his articles: The Ethnography of the Paranormal by Philip Singer and Kate W. Ankenbrandt, 1980; „Hungry for a Miracle:“ Psi, Science, and Faith in Psychic Surgery and Parapsychological Anthropology by Philip Singer and Kate Ankenbrandt, 1983.
Observations made in the Philippines in the field were reported by David Hoy, a magician and mentalist very sympathetic to the paranormal, but he also came to negative conclusions. David Hoy, Psychic Surgery: Hoax or Hope?, Zetetic Scholar, No. 8, 1981, pp. 37-46.
Several articles in medical journals reported analyses of blood and tissue from psychic surgeries. They were found to be from animals. Patrick J. Lincoln, Disclosing the Bewitched by Serological Methods, Medicine, Science and the Law, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1975, pp. 163-166. P. J. Lincoln & N. J. Wood, Psychic Surgery: A Serological Investigation, The Lancet, June 2, 1979, Vol. 1, pp. 1197-1198. ‘Psychic Surgery’ Can Mean Fiscal Excision with Tumor Retention, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 228, No. 3, April 15, 1974, pp. 278-280.
All of the above-cited studies investigated the paranormal aspect, i.e. removal of internal tissue without cutting the skin. Health benefits to patients were not assessed. One of the patients in Singer’s study was a medical doctor, who was convinced, despite the evidence of fraud, that that Malicdan had removed adhesions from her two caesarean sections.
17 Some of the same themes are also discussed in The Mind Game: Witchdoctors and Psychiatrists by E. Fuller Torrey. New York: Jason Aronson, 1983 (Originally published 1972).
18 Andrew Christensen and Neil S. Jacobson, 1994.
19 Higgins, 1985.
20 The Chukchee by Waldemar Bogoras, New York: G. E. Stechert, 19041909. See also Jane M. Murphy „Psychotherapeutic Aspects of Shamanism on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska“ in Magic, Faith, and Healing: Studies in Primitive Psychiatry Today edited by Ari Kiev, New York: Free Press, 1964, pp. 53-83; and
Winnebago Berdache by Nancy Oestreich Lurie (1953).
21 Kalweit, 1984/1988.
22 E.g., Lommel, 1967.
See also Kirby, 1974.
Chapter 7—Michael Winkelman on Magico-Religious Practitioners
1 1 Michael Winkelman, The Effect of Formal Education on Extrasensory Abilities: The Ozolco Study, Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 45, 1981, pp. 321336.
2
Winkelman, 1992, p. 7.
3
Winkelman, 1992, p. 8.
Chapter 8—Max Weber, Charisma, and the Disenchantment of the World
1 Ellenberger, 1964/1968.
2
The date 1913 was of the original manuscript, see Ephraim Fischoff’s appendix in Weber’s The Sociology of Religion, Boston: Beacon Press, 1964, p. 277.
3
Weber, 1978, p. 241.
4
Weber, 1978, p. 1115.
5 Weber, 1978, p. 244.
6 Weber, 1978, p. 1112.
7 Weber, 1978, p. 246.
8 Weber, 1978, p. 244.
9
Weber, 1978, pp. 1113-1114.
10 Weber, 1978, p. 1113.
11 Weber, 1978, p. 242.
12
Weber, 1978, p. 1114.
13
Weber, 1978, p. 400.
14
Turner defined the liminoid as an attenuated version of the liminal. The liminoid is found in modern Western societies, the liminal in more aboriginal ones. Turner had some difficulty in making the distinction as can be seen in his essay “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual” in his From Ritual to Theatre (1982).
Parsons, 1963/1964, p. xxxii. 16 Weber, 1904-05/1958, p. 105.
17 He adopted the phrase “the disenchantment of the world” from Friedrich Schiller. See H. H. Gerth & C. Wright Mills, “Bureaucracy and Charisma: A
Philosophy of History” (in Glassman & Swatos, 1986, pp. 11-15, see p. 11.)
18
Eisenstadt, 1968, p. liv.
19
For moderate exceptions see “Charisma an
d Modernity: The Use and Abuse of a Concept” by Joseph Bensman & Michael Givant in Glassman & Swatos (1986), pp. 27-56; McIntosh, 1970.
20
Davis, 1980, p. 10.
21
Weber, 1978, p. 401.
22
Davis, 1980, p. 10.
23
Davis, 1980, p. 11.
24
Davis, 1980, p. 299. Other scholars have echoed this theme; see for instance Killing the Spirit: Higher Education in America (1990) by historian Page Smith.
25
Weber, 1978, p. 244.
26
Davis, 1980, p. 299.
27
One example is: Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science by Paul R. Gross & Norman Levitt, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. This book has been highly praised in the pages of Skeptical Inquirer and the authors have made presentations at a CSICOP conference. Another examples is: The Flight From Science and Reason edited by Paul R. Gross, Norman Levitt, & Martin W. Lewis, New York Academy of Sciences, 1997. A number of CSICOP members contributed to that volume.
Chapter 9—Cultural Change and the Paranormal
1 Wallace, 1956, p. 265.
2
Wallace, 1956, p. 268.
3
Wallace, 1956, p. 266.
4
Wallace, 1956, p. 269.
5 Wallace, 1956, p. 269.
Wallace, 1956, p. 270. Wallace, in keeping with his times, referred to the being as a “wish … gratified in fantasy (subjectively real, of course)” (p. 274). Despite the bias, his description of the revitalization process is quite insightful.
7 Wallace, 1956, p. 273.
8 Ellenberger, 1964/1968.
9
Wallace, 1956, p. 271.
10 Wallace, 1956, p. 274.
11 Wallace, 1956, p. 273.
12
Wallace, 1956, p. 269.
13
Even before Farrakhan, leaders of the Nation of Islam believed in the importance of flying saucers. See An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad by Claude Andrew Clegg III (1997).
14
Unusual Personal Experiences, 1992.
15 Zha & McConnell, 1991.
16
See Rossman, 1979.
17 Turner, 1969, p. 112.
18 Hartmann, 1991, p. 121.
19
Raschke, 1981/1989, p. 30.