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A Brief Guide to the Supernatural
What is the supernatural and why is it important? From Most Haunted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer , from Underworld to Twilight , from Doom to Resident Evil , our imagination is forever drawn to this dark world - and for good reasons. The Brief Guide to the Supernatural goes in search of the unearthly with unexpected results. Combining history, psychology and parapsychology, Dr Leo Ruickbie explores the myths and possible realities of the paranormal - ghosts, the undead, angels, demons and UFOs - as well as the many ways people have tried to contact and record the impossible from magic to spiritualism to science. You may find the results unsettling. Included are several experiments to try at home - be warned!
300 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
6 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
About the author
Leo Ruickbie
16 books8 followersDr Leo Ruickbie is a sociologist and historian specialising in the field of witchcraft, Wicca, magic and the occult. He hold a PhD from King's College, London, for his work on modern witchcraft, and is the author of several books including Witchcraft Out of the Shadows and Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician. In 2008 and 2009 he exhibited on the subject of witchcraft in France. As well as giving public talks and writing articles for Pagan Dawn, Watkins Review and ASANAS, he also runs the WICA (witchology.com) website.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 31, 2012
This is a common sense account of the state of our 'understanding' (if that is the right word) of the supernatural - as it stands at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Ruickbie's book is a game of two halves. The first half looks at the phenomena (ghosts, the undead, angels, demons and extraterrestrials) and the second explores approaches to the phenomena, from magic through spiritualism to parapsychology and to the application of scientific method.
It is not encyclopedic about the supernatural in general (shape-shifters and werewolves are notable for their absence) but is almost encyclopedic within the categories, with detail, for example, on the history of angels and demons in our culture that really is enlightening.
His method is helpful too. He starts each section with a well written keystone narrative, from Borley Rectory in the ghost section through to the story of Mesmer in the section on science, before going into the history of the phenomena.
He also adds copious footnotes which may not prove that X exists but which certainly show that he is not making things up as far as reporting that others believed that X existed or manifested itself.
He also keeps a bit of excitement in the narrative so that you are allowed to consider a phenomenon as reasonably considered to be real by sound minds until there is some material proof of fraud or error. His account of the Fox sisters is exemplary in this regard.
So where are we at the end of all this? The sensible conclusion is that human interest in anomalies is perfectly reasonable because a lot of anomalies exist but whether those anomalies demonstrate a world that is essentially spiritual is far from proven and more unlikely than not.
But if the evidence for the actual entities that men believe in is extremely tenuous, nevertheless the world of ghosts, angels, demons and ETs (if certainly not mummies, vampires and zombies) does arise from some events that may be material but are not fully understood.
The question is whether what is being experienced are tricks of the mind, that is, of the material brain, or are mental observations of real events outside the self which are being interpreted in anthropomorphic terms as particular types of entity or phenomena.
The jury is out but both ‘tricks of the mind’ and ‘external but falsely interpreted events’ can be understood within an essentially materialist world view. Indeed, both are more easily explicable in terms of unknown physics and neuroscience than in terms of gods and monsters.
This is why the so-called progress from magic to science through the Christianised attempt to cope with the phenomena in nineteenth century spiritualism may not be as clear cut as we would like.
It might be that ‘magical’ thinking, clearly absurd at the core level of correspondences and sympathetic magic, may simply be an over-elaboration of truths about the functioning of the unconscious or the body-mind in the world that science may never have the tools to describe.
In other words, a skeptical approach (as opposed to a sceptical one), as held by hard-line positivists, may be appropriate towards religion and to the ways our species reinvents the phenomena culturally but it may not be helpful in understanding the phenomena themselves.
The virtue of the scientific approach may be paradoxical. Parapsychology and scientific method cannot do much more than confirm what underlies the phenomena – that there are anomalies in our understanding of the world which cannot yet be explained as obvious cause and effect.
It is not that cause and effect are not central to the phenomena but that that we do not have the perceptual tools to identify connections that are anomalous and certainly not simple. We do not see the linkages but just because we do not see them does not mean that they are not there.
Science allows the possibility of an unknown material cause and effect to displace imaginative and culturally bound attempts to explain what may never be explained and, even if explained, can almost certainly never be utilized.
One important thing that Ruickbie does in the book is to re-establish the centrality of Judaeo-Christianity as the grounding for explanations in past approaches to the supernatural within our culture. This is not only in relation to angels and demons but also to the adoption of spiritualism.
The secularization of our society has since shifted the supernatural into popular culture and into the new religions, both of which find Christianity uncomfortable – as they should, because it is nonsense designed to explain the inexplicable. But the new forms are not much better at the job.
Just as the creation of our artistic and musical traditions cannot be understood without reference to Christianity, so our perceptions of the supernatural, especially a persistent and neurotic belief in a life everlasting, rely on Christianity’s reinterpretation of our instinctive shamanism and magical thought.
Ruickbie’s account references Christian magical thinking at every turn – in ghosts, angels and demons – showing how it reinterpreted older shamanistic and pagan traditions and, as it receded as a force in our culture, left the space for extraterrestrials, ultraterrestrials, wandering souls and shadow people.
The conclusion has to be that it continues to be worth investing in further research into parapsychological anomalies, into the psychology of perception and consciousness and into the furthest reaches of speculative activity into the laws of our universe.
However, such enquiries must be understood to be at the limit of what we as humans can cope with mentally. The core anxieties of our species about death and the world will mean that most minds most of the time will either choose not to think at all or to think only in magical terms.
In short, an excellent brief guide to a subject that is not trivial but is at the core of our understanding of ourselves.
Ruickbie's book is a game of two halves. The first half looks at the phenomena (ghosts, the undead, angels, demons and extraterrestrials) and the second explores approaches to the phenomena, from magic through spiritualism to parapsychology and to the application of scientific method.
It is not encyclopedic about the supernatural in general (shape-shifters and werewolves are notable for their absence) but is almost encyclopedic within the categories, with detail, for example, on the history of angels and demons in our culture that really is enlightening.
His method is helpful too. He starts each section with a well written keystone narrative, from Borley Rectory in the ghost section through to the story of Mesmer in the section on science, before going into the history of the phenomena.
He also adds copious footnotes which may not prove that X exists but which certainly show that he is not making things up as far as reporting that others believed that X existed or manifested itself.
He also keeps a bit of excitement in the narrative so that you are allowed to consider a phenomenon as reasonably considered to be real by sound minds until there is some material proof of fraud or error. His account of the Fox sisters is exemplary in this regard.
So where are we at the end of all this? The sensible conclusion is that human interest in anomalies is perfectly reasonable because a lot of anomalies exist but whether those anomalies demonstrate a world that is essentially spiritual is far from proven and more unlikely than not.
But if the evidence for the actual entities that men believe in is extremely tenuous, nevertheless the world of ghosts, angels, demons and ETs (if certainly not mummies, vampires and zombies) does arise from some events that may be material but are not fully understood.
The question is whether what is being experienced are tricks of the mind, that is, of the material brain, or are mental observations of real events outside the self which are being interpreted in anthropomorphic terms as particular types of entity or phenomena.
The jury is out but both ‘tricks of the mind’ and ‘external but falsely interpreted events’ can be understood within an essentially materialist world view. Indeed, both are more easily explicable in terms of unknown physics and neuroscience than in terms of gods and monsters.
This is why the so-called progress from magic to science through the Christianised attempt to cope with the phenomena in nineteenth century spiritualism may not be as clear cut as we would like.
It might be that ‘magical’ thinking, clearly absurd at the core level of correspondences and sympathetic magic, may simply be an over-elaboration of truths about the functioning of the unconscious or the body-mind in the world that science may never have the tools to describe.
In other words, a skeptical approach (as opposed to a sceptical one), as held by hard-line positivists, may be appropriate towards religion and to the ways our species reinvents the phenomena culturally but it may not be helpful in understanding the phenomena themselves.
The virtue of the scientific approach may be paradoxical. Parapsychology and scientific method cannot do much more than confirm what underlies the phenomena – that there are anomalies in our understanding of the world which cannot yet be explained as obvious cause and effect.
It is not that cause and effect are not central to the phenomena but that that we do not have the perceptual tools to identify connections that are anomalous and certainly not simple. We do not see the linkages but just because we do not see them does not mean that they are not there.
Science allows the possibility of an unknown material cause and effect to displace imaginative and culturally bound attempts to explain what may never be explained and, even if explained, can almost certainly never be utilized.
One important thing that Ruickbie does in the book is to re-establish the centrality of Judaeo-Christianity as the grounding for explanations in past approaches to the supernatural within our culture. This is not only in relation to angels and demons but also to the adoption of spiritualism.
The secularization of our society has since shifted the supernatural into popular culture and into the new religions, both of which find Christianity uncomfortable – as they should, because it is nonsense designed to explain the inexplicable. But the new forms are not much better at the job.
Just as the creation of our artistic and musical traditions cannot be understood without reference to Christianity, so our perceptions of the supernatural, especially a persistent and neurotic belief in a life everlasting, rely on Christianity’s reinterpretation of our instinctive shamanism and magical thought.
Ruickbie’s account references Christian magical thinking at every turn – in ghosts, angels and demons – showing how it reinterpreted older shamanistic and pagan traditions and, as it receded as a force in our culture, left the space for extraterrestrials, ultraterrestrials, wandering souls and shadow people.
The conclusion has to be that it continues to be worth investing in further research into parapsychological anomalies, into the psychology of perception and consciousness and into the furthest reaches of speculative activity into the laws of our universe.
However, such enquiries must be understood to be at the limit of what we as humans can cope with mentally. The core anxieties of our species about death and the world will mean that most minds most of the time will either choose not to think at all or to think only in magical terms.
In short, an excellent brief guide to a subject that is not trivial but is at the core of our understanding of ourselves.
December 2, 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book although it did pose more questions than it answered, primarily, can consciousness survive death?
The book meandered through subjects ranging from ghosts; Demons, and UFO's cumlinating in a summary of parapsychology, and the tendency of both academics, and die-hard sceptics, to dismiss any evidence of the paranormal as being contrived and illegitimate, something that can be explained-away by way of an "alternative explanation".
Indeed, one of the most salient arguments within the text is that of the requirement to modify the existing scientific model to provide a space within which "the paranormal" can be debated and measured with maturity.
This book is an ideal foundation text for further readings in the field.
The book meandered through subjects ranging from ghosts; Demons, and UFO's cumlinating in a summary of parapsychology, and the tendency of both academics, and die-hard sceptics, to dismiss any evidence of the paranormal as being contrived and illegitimate, something that can be explained-away by way of an "alternative explanation".
Indeed, one of the most salient arguments within the text is that of the requirement to modify the existing scientific model to provide a space within which "the paranormal" can be debated and measured with maturity.
This book is an ideal foundation text for further readings in the field.
October 28, 2012
if you want to hold on to your beliefs in regards to the paranormal, don't read this book. if you want a scientific balanced view, this book is awesome...for me, this book was awesome :)
January 20, 2015
This book was not really what I expected it to be, and as such I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. It opened with a really great first chapter on ghosts, detailing ghost stories and stories of hauntings. The first chapter was scary, definitely had me sleeping with the lights on. After that, the chapters that followed on the undead, demons and angels, really just seemed to be historical accounts of people being too naive and cultures not advanced enough to know that what they thought was real, wasn't real. The chapter on angels detailed too many situations in which people from the time of Jesus thought they were seeing angels after fasting for weeks on end, and so were obviously hallucinating.
The second part of the book, Approaches to the Supernatural, kind of redeemed it for having such a weak beginning after a strong opening chapter. It detailed spiritualism and the scientific approach to parapsychology, including mind reading and precognition.
This book was easy to read though, and despite it's apparent scientific basis there were no fancy terms or jargon that the reader would not understand without a background in modern science. I definitely enjoyed the second part of the book more than the first, but it wasn't full of revelations about scientific advances in an apparently paranormal field. I think this book could be a good read if it's your first read on this topic, but I've read other, better books, and so I wasn't too pleased with this one, especially after it all seemed to go downhill after the very first chapter. I think I was also disappointed because the author has a PhD, so I expected more science and not just historical recounts of seeing angels, and how people in earlier times could be deluded into believing things that weren't real.
The second part of the book, Approaches to the Supernatural, kind of redeemed it for having such a weak beginning after a strong opening chapter. It detailed spiritualism and the scientific approach to parapsychology, including mind reading and precognition.
This book was easy to read though, and despite it's apparent scientific basis there were no fancy terms or jargon that the reader would not understand without a background in modern science. I definitely enjoyed the second part of the book more than the first, but it wasn't full of revelations about scientific advances in an apparently paranormal field. I think this book could be a good read if it's your first read on this topic, but I've read other, better books, and so I wasn't too pleased with this one, especially after it all seemed to go downhill after the very first chapter. I think I was also disappointed because the author has a PhD, so I expected more science and not just historical recounts of seeing angels, and how people in earlier times could be deluded into believing things that weren't real.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2012
It was pretty good.
July 23, 2017
Like a lot of these types of books it can be split into two parts, in one the author has quite clearly done a lot of in depth research and comes across as an expert in the areas involved, and in the second he has just flung a bunch of stuff together without even the most basic of fact checking so that while the chapters on biblical angels and demons seem like they are accurate they are undone as usual by the inclusion of obvious urban myths such as Franz Ferdinands car, not destroyed in WW2 but actually in a museum, and Majestic 12, not contested so much as no actual evidence.
This happens so often in similar books that you have to wonder if they are added by an editor worried that the reader might not be getting what they asked for that they put stuff in from memory.
And can anyone explain what Roswell has to do with the supernatural, this story is so full of holes it's adherents eventually gave up and started claiming the actual crash happened elsewhere.
This happens so often in similar books that you have to wonder if they are added by an editor worried that the reader might not be getting what they asked for that they put stuff in from memory.
And can anyone explain what Roswell has to do with the supernatural, this story is so full of holes it's adherents eventually gave up and started claiming the actual crash happened elsewhere.
September 24, 2018
Let me start off by saying that this book was absolutely not what I thought it was going to be. Honestly I thought I was picking up a book of urban legends + believer theories. What I got however, was a history lesson that I finished in one session! This books divided into two main subjects: spirits/beings etc and communicating with spirits. Each subsection begins with a tale or happening from history and is followed by an explanation of the mechanics and belief systems behind each ~phenomena~. This book doesn’t lean either way of the believer or non-believer, but helps readers to understand how culture and humanity has shaped our own ideas and experiences of the paranormal. This was way better than the $2 bargain bin read I thought it was going to be, and I’m really glad I gave it a shot.
February 20, 2018
Very tedious, not for the layperson. I didn't find it very interesting. It's well researched but you would want to be very well read in the genre to appreciate it.
June 5, 2019
Some interesting stories are included and I liked the author's slightly humourous and wry tone - but found some of the in-depth biblical analysis rather tedious. Overall a good read though.
December 31, 2020
I really liked the examples/stories that were presented in this book. They were very interesting.
December 22, 2019
Not as engaging and interesting as I thought it would be. Around half the book contains some interesting factual-based stories which offers an insight into the so-called supernatural. The other half has a tendency to ramble on and can be a struggle to read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews