Hauntings (Ghosts, Haunts and the Occult)

Product Information

The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle ( Berkley Books, 1980) ISBN 9781935169222 No castle in England would be complete without at least one haunting brought on by love and tragic loss.

The lines between fact and fiction blur even further with documented cases of the real-life intelligence services trying to tap into the paranormal, most famously recounted in Jon Ronson’s book (and then film) The Men Who Stare at Goats, an investigation into how American military tried to tap into and weaponise psychic abilities. Baranski, Lynne (October 26, 1981). "In a Connecticut Murder Trial, Will (demonic) Possession Prove Nine-Tenths of the Law?". People. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015 . Retrieved August 17, 2008. Whether prestidigitation, the paranormal, or the grey area between, magic and the cold war thriller seem to go hand in hand. But Ronson’s goat-staring military men aside, surely it’s just fodder for fiction?Lyon Playfair, Guy (1980). This House Is Haunted: The True Story of a Poltergeist. Stein and Day. ISBN 978-0-7387-1867-5. These are just two biggies in a firmament of shows, films, and even computer games obsessing on the supernatural. Culture always reflects society’s concerns: our hopes, fears, and dreams. The occult (from the Latin word occultus; lit. 'clandestine', 'hidden', 'secret') is "knowledge of the hidden". [4] In common usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable", [5] usually referred to as science. The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, [6] in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural magic. The term occult sciences was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural magic. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, [1] amongst figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin. [2] It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus, and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky.

The Library’s collections are rich with contemporary material on these subjects. These include publications of the Society of Psychical Research, spiritualist journals and pamphlets, investigations of mediums and cuttings and offprints from the popular press.

Reprints and Permissions

Kachuba, John (2007). Ghosthunters: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers, and Other Investigators of America's Paranormal World. Red Wheel/Weiser Publishing. p.67. ISBN 9781601639752. and more. Footnote 14 The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 by Russian spiritualist Madame Helena Blavatsky, helped to popularise discussions of Eastern religions, astral projection, reincarnation and life after death. Blavatsky arrived in London in 1887, at a time when spiritualism and the occult “had the potential to mask more radical feminist desires” in the era of the New Woman and the challenge to the out-dated ideology of gendered separate spheres. Footnote 15 As a 1904 article on Blavatsky published after her death proclaimed, “the tendency to cultivate the esoteric” and to embrace the “magic arts” was paradoxically prominent in modern society, evident in “crystal-gazing, reading in magic mirrors, slate-writing, planchette, the quasi-scientific study of apparitions, of table-turning, of rappings by unseen powers, of telepathy, of the subliminal self, etc.” Footnote 16 Magic and modernity were very much intertwined. The idea of occult sciences developed in the sixteenth century. [10] The term usually encompassed three practices–astrology, alchemy, and natural magic–although sometimes various forms of divination were also included rather than being subsumed under natural magic. [10] These were grouped together because, according to the Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff, "each one of them engaged in a systematic investigation of nature and natural processes, in the context of theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult qualities, virtues or forces." [10] Although there are areas of overlap between these different occult sciences, they are separate and in some cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being illegitimate. [10]

Sconce, Jeffrey (2000). Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822325727. Henry, John (1 December 1986). "Occult Qualities and the Experimental Philosophy: Active Principles in Pre-Newtonian Matter Theory". History of Science. 24 (4): 335–381. Bibcode: 1986HisSc..24..335H. doi: 10.1177/007327538602400401. S2CID 142925825. A Satanist and murderer, is said to be buried close to the windmill and legend has it that his ghastly-looking zombie-like form has been seen to slowly emerge from its grave on some moonlit nights."

Sagittarius

Belanger, Jeff. "50 Years of Ghost Hunting and Research With the Warrens" (PDF). TheOneMatrix.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2013 . Retrieved June 11, 2013. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL ( link) Obituary of Ed Warren". Abriola Parkview Funeral Home. August 26, 2006 . Retrieved September 3, 2021. The foundation collection of the Library’s holdings on The Paranormal, the Occult and the Magical was built by author, psychical researcher and book collector Harry Price over many years before he gave it to the University of London in the late 1930s for the purpose of encouraging research and investigation into the unexplained.

Ed Warren's book Graveyard: True Hauntings from an Old New England Cemetery (St Martins Press, 1992) features a "White Lady" ghost which haunts Union Cemetery. He claimed to have "captured her essence" on film. [27] Other activities

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Books and journals can be searched for in the Library Catalogue and Archive collections in the Archive Catalogue.