DEEP WEIRD IBD

Sinopsis

This book is about the stranger reaches of extraordinary experience research. In these pages an intrepid cast of writers, investigatorsáand academics explore the complexities of extraordinary experience, and consider why it is that some of the mostáunusualáexperientialáreportsá- what we might call âÇÖhigh strangenessâÇÖ experiences - come to be neglected, even in what is already a relatively fringe field of inquiry.The aversion to the mostáunusualáforms of extraordinary experience has resulted in a gulf between the kinds of experiences discussed in the academic parapsychological literature and those experiences discussed by Fortean and popular paranormal researchers, who have more frequently been able to discuss a broader range of extraordinary experiential accounts - from UFO encounters to Bigfoot and fairy sightings, and everything in between.Notwithstanding this divide,áthere are significant themes that run throughout the established academic literature on religious and extraordinary experience, the parapsychological literature, and the canon of popular paranormal research. These similarities suggest that even the mostáunusualáexperiences, which are often ignored in academic research, contain elements that connect them to other forms of extraordinary experience that are more broadly accepted, such as certain kinds of spiritual, mystical, religious and other paranormal experiences.áThis book is an exploration of the possibility that the âÇÖhighlyástrangeâÇÖ might well be a core underlying feature of extraordinary experiences more generally, and that instead of being neglected, âÇÖhigh strangenessâÇÖ should be granted greater and renewed scholarly and parapsychological attention.Includes contributions fromáJeffrey J. Kripal, Jack Hunter, Sharon Hewitt Rawlette, Gregory Shushan, Samantha Lee Treasure, Michael Grosso,ááZofia Weaver, Alan Murdie, David Luke, Simon Young, Zelia Edgar, Leonardo Breno Martins, Peter M. Rojcewicz, Barbara A. Fisher, Christopher Diltz,áJoshua Cutchin, Anthony Peake, Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, Susan Demeter and Renée E. Mazinegiizhigo-kwe Bédard.