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The Esoteric Experience: Positive orNegative? - Mike RushSupernatural Abductions: UFO andFolklore Narratives - FrancoBejarano Application of an EthnographicMethodology for the Study of SpiritPossession - Terence J. PalmerCapturing Intention?: PIPPhotography and ShamanicIntervention - Zoe BranEvidence Unseen: The Ethnographicand Personal Unknown - Paul D.BiscopThe Ka in Ancient Egypt - Callum E.Cooper Anthropology, Evolution and Anomalous Experience -James McClenon A Matter of Spirit: AnImaginal Perspective on theParanormal -Angela VossPsychedelics, Spirits andthe Sacred Feminine:Communion as CulturalCritique - Cameron AdamsReflecting onParanthropology: Anthropological Approaches to theParanormal - Jack Hunter,Mark A. Schroll & FabianGraham& More...
Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal Vol. 2 No. 3 July 2011ISSN: 2044-9216
 
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal Vol. 2. No.3 2
 W
elcome to the July 2011 issue of 
 Paranthropology
.This issue marks the first anniversary of the journal’sexistence. By now the journal has attracted well over200 subscribers and is continuing to grow anddevelop in new directions. At this point I think itwould be useful to try to outline some of thedirections I would like to see the journal movetowards. The first is to put together a board of reviewers to peer-review articles submitted to the journal and to thus increase the academicrespectability of the publication. This, I feel, is anecessary step as it will, to a degree, improve the wayin which this sort of eclectic research is perceived bythe academic establishment. This will also ensurethat the quality of the articles published in the journal maintains a high standard both in terms of their content and style of presentation. To find outmore about the review board, and informationabout submissions and subscriptions, visit the journal’s new website at www.paranthropology.co.uk.This issue is also the first to be made available asa physical print-on-demand magazine. The hopehere is to expand the availability of the journal, andto make it easier for libraries and other institutions tokeep hard copies. Although it is necessary to pay forphysical copies, the journal will continue to be madeavailable online for free. It is important that
 Paranthropology
remains freely available. All too oftenhigh quality research into paranormal topics isdifficult to access, and it is about time that thischanged.As you can see from the contents list this issue ispacked with fascinating articles which I sincerelyhope you will find inspiring and thought provoking.
 Jack Hunter
Contents 
The Esoteric Experience: Positive or Negative
- Michael J. Rush
3-8.Supernatural Abductions: UFO and FolkloreNarratives
- Franco Bejarano
8-13.Reflecting on Paranthropology:Anthropological Methods for Studying theParanormal
- Jack Hunter 
(withcommentaries from
Mark A. Schroll 
&
FabianGraham
) 14-21.Application of an Ethnographic Methodologyfor the Study of Spirit Possession
- Terence J. Palmer 
22-26.Capturing Intention?: PIP Photography andShamanic Intervention -
Zoe Bran
27-29.Anthropology, Evolution and AnomalousExperience - James
McClenon
30-33.Evidence Unseen: The Ethnographic andPersonal Unknown
- Paul D. Biscop
34-36.
 
A Matter of Spirit: An Imaginal Perspectiveon the Paranormal -
Angela Voss
37-43.The Ka in Ancient Egypt
- Callum E. Cooper 
43-45.Diary of a PK Experiment 46-48.Psychedelics, Spirits and the SacredFeminine: Communion as Cultural Critique
- Cameron Adams
49-52.Paul Devereux Live at the Rhine: NaturalizingPsi as the Anthropology of Consciousness -
Ryan Hurd 
53-56.Conference Abstracts 57-59.Comments and Discussion 60.Reviews 61-63.
 
 W
estern Esotericism, or occultism, has often been viewed with suspicion and mistrust by the public,police and academia. It is often represented by themedia as being synonymous with Satanism, asdepicted in movies like Roman Polanski’s (1968)
 Rosemary’s Baby
or books such as Dennis Wheatley’s(1972)
The Devil Rides Out 
. Unfortunately thisstereotype influences many parts of society including television censorship, for example the ITC report onacceptable viewing (Sancho, 2001), and the 1980sSatanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) hysteria, which waspartly due to ignorance of Paganism and modernwitchcraft (La Fontaine, 1998). Until recently manyacademics have also treated the academic study of occultism with suspicion. Bronislaw Malinowski(1925) commented:‘Even for those who do not share in that hankering after the occult, after the short cuts into “esoterictruth”, this morbid interest, nowadays so freelyministered to by stale revivals of half-understoodancient creeds and cults, dished up, under the namesof “theosophy”, “spiritism” or “spiritualism”, and various pseudo-“sciences”,ologies and –isms – evenfor the clear scientific mind the subject of magic hasa special attraction.’Even occultists themselves have made disparaging remarks about their own tradition, Arthur EdwardWaite (1972) commented on magical grimoires, ‘Weshall see very shortly…that we are dealing with abizarre literature, which passes, by various fantasticphases, through all folly into crime.' It is notsurprising then that, according to the popular view,experiences from within occultism would be of spiritual evil. A general study of negative spiritualexperiences made by Jakobsen (1999) found thatspiritual evil can come from within or without aperson, can be encountered in certain places orpeople, is described in numerous ways and can resultin ‘…ice cold shivers, tingling scalp, sweating withterror, paralysed lips, vomiting from fear, shaking,rocking body, being unable to speak or move’.In brief Western Esotericism includes the beliefsand practices centred around magic, astrology, andalchemy from the ancient period to the modern day.Antoine Faivre (Faivre & Needleman, 1992) hasdefined Western Esotericism by describing sixcharacteristics, four essential and two nonessential tothe definition. The first four are:
correspondences
 between the microcosm and the macrocosm;
living nature
, the idea that the world or universe is alive orensouled;
imagination and intermediaries
, the use of theimagination to access states or metaphysical worldsbetween man and the divine; and
the experience of transmutation
, the psychospiritual process of transformation often implicit in these ideas andexperiences. The additional two characteristics are:
concordance
, the concept that all spiritual traditionsoriginate from, and therefore contain aspects of, asingle primordial wisdom tradition; and
transmission
,the ways in which this tradition is passed downthrough the centuries between initiates or adepts.In the academic arena, unlike the popular one,the term ‘esotericism’ is not usually synonymous with‘occultism’. In popular usage the latter may be usedas a convenient catchall but a more restricted usewould tend to apply it only to those aspects of esotericism that involve practice rather than doctrine(Faivre, 1987). According to R.A. Gilbert (1993) theterm ‘occultism’ was first used in English by MadameBlavatsky in
 Isis Unveiled 
, 1877.
Methodology
The question asked by this study was simply: whatkinds of spiritual experiences are reported by peopleinvolved with esotericism and occultism? Areexperiences, and their outcomes, negative or positive?This approach was based upon that of William James, author of the seminal
Varieties of Religious Experience
(James, 1902), who advocated judging spiritual experiences by their fruits. The threetraditions selected were Helena Blavatsky’s
Theosophy
,G.I. Gurdjieff’s
 Fourth Way
movement, and Mathers’
 Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
. All three traditionswere founded in the late 19
th
or early 20
th
centuriesand still have followers today. Sources of writtenaccounts of spiritual experiences were collected frompublished texts, the archive of the
 Religious Experience Research Centre
(RERC), and from contemporarypractitioners. The availability of occult and esoteric
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal Vol. 2. No.3 3
The Esoteric Experience: Positive or Negative?
Michael J. Rush
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