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The Trickster and the Paranormal
Paranormal and supernatural events have been reported for millennia. They have fostered history’s most important cultural transformations (e.g., via the miracles of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed). Paranormal phenomena are frequently portrayed in the world’s greatest art and literature, as well as in popular TV shows and movies. Most adults in the U.S. believe in them. Yet they have a marginal place in modern culture. No university departments are devoted to studying psychic phenomena. In fact, a panoply of scientists now aggressively denounces them.These facts present a deeply puzzling situation. But they become coherent after pondering the trickster figure, an archaic being found worldwide in mythology and folklore. The trickster governs paradox and the irrational, but his messages are concealed. This book draws upon theories of the trickster from anthropology, folklore, sociology, semiotics, and literary criticism. It examines psychic phenomena and UFOs and explains why they are so problematical for science.
568 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 20, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 29, 2008
This is a comprehensive overview of parapsychology and the paranormal. Scholarly and dense—definitely not light reading—it is nonetheless well thought out and approachable. Hansen's exhaustive research of the field shows clear but strange patterns. The paranormal, or psi, is more than the "hoax or delusion" argument with which skeptics often dismiss it, but not quite as true believers portray it, either. Like light particles in the world of quantum physics, the paranormal seems to change its nature based on who is doing the observing. It is most comfortable working in the world of the outsider, the marginalized and liminal, artists, mischief makers, magicians, the social pariahs and anti-establishment types—and in this, shares many of the characteristics of trickster deities throughout the world.
Because tricksters are so often comfortable in the culture of the shunned, it is almost a given that academia will run from psi as a priest from that which is unclean. Serious and impartial study becomes difficult because to engage in it, academics must overcome rigid social taboos and embrace unconventional thought paradigms. Academia is no more immune from societal pressures and conventional thinking than any other human institution. As Hansen himself states, "The widespread, subtly negative attitude toward fantasy, imagery, and the imagination indirectly acknowledges its power and the need to keep it constrained." There is also the very real danger of becoming so drawn into the subject one loses one's ability to tell fantasy from reality. Loss of objectivity comes in many forms.
I don't think any summary I achieve here could do justice to the amount of researcher Mr. Hansen has laid out in this book, encompassing a multiplicity of disciplines from physics to anthropology, psychology to deconstructionism, lab parapsychology to professional magic. For a meticulous and original view of the field—its history, current trends, and deeper philosophical meaning—The Trickster and the Paranormal cannot be beat.
Because tricksters are so often comfortable in the culture of the shunned, it is almost a given that academia will run from psi as a priest from that which is unclean. Serious and impartial study becomes difficult because to engage in it, academics must overcome rigid social taboos and embrace unconventional thought paradigms. Academia is no more immune from societal pressures and conventional thinking than any other human institution. As Hansen himself states, "The widespread, subtly negative attitude toward fantasy, imagery, and the imagination indirectly acknowledges its power and the need to keep it constrained." There is also the very real danger of becoming so drawn into the subject one loses one's ability to tell fantasy from reality. Loss of objectivity comes in many forms.
I don't think any summary I achieve here could do justice to the amount of researcher Mr. Hansen has laid out in this book, encompassing a multiplicity of disciplines from physics to anthropology, psychology to deconstructionism, lab parapsychology to professional magic. For a meticulous and original view of the field—its history, current trends, and deeper philosophical meaning—The Trickster and the Paranormal cannot be beat.
August 9, 2022
The clearest case I've ever seen of "don't judge a book by its cover." Surprisingly good, very well-researched; a somewhat difficult book to explain, perhaps the easiest way to describe it is that Hansen masterfully pulls together many (many!) threads that I had thought about before and understood in isolation, but not in connection with each other. The key is the constellation (of the liminal / trickster / etc.) that he places these ideas in, as well as his fundamental point that rationally organized society cannot, by its very nature, take seriously the question of the irrational / magical / liminal, which means that these perspectives are always treated as low-social-status and marginal, literally by definition. As Hansen points out, you essentially cannot have serious, large-scale scholarly research on these phenomena, which is a fascinating paradox (and his own book is a curious near-refutation of this paradox).
Probably the most interesting implication is that institutional religion is nourished by the liminal, but also has a vested interest in structure (Christianity literally involves cannibalism, and in this sense is shocking/liminal, etc., but also not); we can see historically that Jansenists and the more egregious mystics cannot be easily incorporated into the 'structure/formal' part of religion, yet it's essential for both sides of this antinomy to coexist (see Cusa, Florensky, etc.) for Christianity to be complete. Maintaining this balance has been harder for the Latin West, which is literally more juridical (as the organs of canon law were based in Rome), while the Greek East perhaps went too far in the other direction (Palamism etc.).
Anyway, there are probably a few too many chapters, and the parts about Derrida and Lacan are (charitably) just-so stories and not very convincing, but he makes many extremely interesting points about topics that initially seem batshit insane (UFOs, psi, etc.). At this point in my life, it's rare to find a book that truly surprises me or makes me think differently about any topic, but Hansen managed it roughly once every 3-4 chapters. The best compliment I can give this book is to say that it made me feel like an undergraduate again.
Probably the most interesting implication is that institutional religion is nourished by the liminal, but also has a vested interest in structure (Christianity literally involves cannibalism, and in this sense is shocking/liminal, etc., but also not); we can see historically that Jansenists and the more egregious mystics cannot be easily incorporated into the 'structure/formal' part of religion, yet it's essential for both sides of this antinomy to coexist (see Cusa, Florensky, etc.) for Christianity to be complete. Maintaining this balance has been harder for the Latin West, which is literally more juridical (as the organs of canon law were based in Rome), while the Greek East perhaps went too far in the other direction (Palamism etc.).
Anyway, there are probably a few too many chapters, and the parts about Derrida and Lacan are (charitably) just-so stories and not very convincing, but he makes many extremely interesting points about topics that initially seem batshit insane (UFOs, psi, etc.). At this point in my life, it's rare to find a book that truly surprises me or makes me think differently about any topic, but Hansen managed it roughly once every 3-4 chapters. The best compliment I can give this book is to say that it made me feel like an undergraduate again.
April 19, 2010
This is one of the most fascinating dry books (or driest sensational book) I've ever had the joy of working through.
Hansen is brilliant at a kind of persistent examination of things that are often literally unspeakable, or at least very, very hard to pin down. It's the kind of book that seems destined for importance among a certain subset of the population while being ignored by everyone else.
After all, it's tricky, this stuff.
One of those paranormal books guaranteed to tick off skeptics and true believers alike - and, perhaps, to make a few academics and sensational journalists alike ask some deep questions of themselves.
Hansen is brilliant at a kind of persistent examination of things that are often literally unspeakable, or at least very, very hard to pin down. It's the kind of book that seems destined for importance among a certain subset of the population while being ignored by everyone else.
After all, it's tricky, this stuff.
One of those paranormal books guaranteed to tick off skeptics and true believers alike - and, perhaps, to make a few academics and sensational journalists alike ask some deep questions of themselves.
December 25, 2010
Everything about this book is wyrd. It mishmashes hifallutin poststructuralism, structuralism, parapsychology sociology anthromorphology, aliens, popculture, mythology, etc. etc., to produce a socialscientific theory as to why people experience the paranormal, who experiences the paranormal and what it might mean about the nature of reality as we know it.
As a trickster is, so a trickster does, and the organization of this book is funky. The writing can be a little dry and stilted. Neverthless, it is intimate, and this book doubles as reference material for parapsychological experiments of worth, mythological creatures, UFO sightings, and more!
As a trickster is, so a trickster does, and the organization of this book is funky. The writing can be a little dry and stilted. Neverthless, it is intimate, and this book doubles as reference material for parapsychological experiments of worth, mythological creatures, UFO sightings, and more!
December 10, 2021
Incredible book that lines basically every interest I’ve had in my life into a constellation. However, Hansen does warn against the dangers of becoming entangled with the trickster, even as a researcher, and in fact, upon finishing this book, I took my dogs for a much-needed walk along our usual route and was stopped and patted down by assault rifle-carrying cops, the very manifestations of order, age-old nemesis of the trickster. Reader beware!
January 25, 2018
I have tried, on several occasions, to talk about this book to friends/family, and I find it impossible.
It's too big a book.
I'll try at some point to come back to this review and do a decent job.
The thing is, despite what you'd think from the title, this is really a manifesto that weaves together psychology, sociology, and mythology into a framework that helps you -- well, helped me, at least, make sense of everything.
That's not an exaggeration. I literally understand myself better than I ever have before, after reading this book. I can look back at things I "decided" about myself and the world when I was 10 years old and understand the effects of those decisions decades later.
I understand my place in the world in a way I never did before.
I hope Hansen writes another book.
It's too big a book.
I'll try at some point to come back to this review and do a decent job.
The thing is, despite what you'd think from the title, this is really a manifesto that weaves together psychology, sociology, and mythology into a framework that helps you -- well, helped me, at least, make sense of everything.
That's not an exaggeration. I literally understand myself better than I ever have before, after reading this book. I can look back at things I "decided" about myself and the world when I was 10 years old and understand the effects of those decisions decades later.
I understand my place in the world in a way I never did before.
I hope Hansen writes another book.
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September 28, 20135 stars. See my review at BookLikes:
http://LittleMissProcrastination.book...
http://LittleMissProcrastination.book...
January 12, 2023
-does an excellent job pointing out flaws in Rationalism especially related to the paranormal
-jam packed with fascinating ideas and concepts to explore
-Consensus Reality is boring dog shit :D
-jam packed with fascinating ideas and concepts to explore
-Consensus Reality is boring dog shit :D
September 6, 2023
First of all, it's very hard to write a short review of such a monumental book like this, I just want to recommend it to anyone interested in... hmm... Interested in all paranormal phenomena, marginality, liminality, chaos, binary oppositions and boundary transgression, literary theory, paranoia, totemism, shamanism, esotericism and how it all relates to the Trickster archetype and much, much more. It's an incredibly wide, but also deep study of the Trickster archetype in all aspects of reality, personal and impersonal. Here's the author's description of it:
"The trickster is a personification of many of the ideas above. He is
a collection of abstract properties that tend to occur together. He has
no fixed shape, form, or image. Some of his primary characteristics
include disruption, deception, lowered sexual inhibitions, psi
phenomena, and marginality. I must admit that I sometimes still find
it difficult to think about how all these logically relate to each other.
Personification provides a way of organizing this melange that
otherwise seems incoherent.
The trickster is found worldwide. Superficially, his tales seem little
more than entertaining stories for children, but they encode
important truths. The trickster is central to many religious beliefs, and
some of the tales are sacred. In fact, a number of cultures permit
only a few persons to tell the stories and restrict when they can be
told, because they have a power of their own.
The trickster has innumerable internal contradictions, and those
are what have made him so difficult for scholars. He seems
irrational, and he is. The usual scientific concepts are inadequate to
fully explain him. He has many meanings and cannot be reduced to
a single interpretation. He resists being placed in any single
category. That’s why this book covered such a range of topics—from
ritual clowns who eat excrement, to experiments with random
number generators, to literary criticism. This diversity is the reason
so few people have any comprehension of the scope of his
relevance, including his pertinence to psi.
Earlier cultures celebrated the trickster, but now he is only a
shallow remnant of his previous glory. He is considered merely
amusing, entertaining, but of little serious importance. This reflects a
deep but subtle change in culture and civilization"
Mr. Hansen is a fair, honest man, which is rare to encounter. He honestly evaluates the 'believers' and 'sceptics' approaches, despite himself being a believer in ESP and PSI phenomena. The research he did for his book and his erudite approach to the theme is worthy of every praise.
This book took a long time for me to read, mostly because of the chapters on literary theory,
structuralism, deconstructionism which are not at all relevant to me. That being said, for someone interested in that angle of approach, the chapters I found boring will be very useful and interesting.
"The trickster is a personification of many of the ideas above. He is
a collection of abstract properties that tend to occur together. He has
no fixed shape, form, or image. Some of his primary characteristics
include disruption, deception, lowered sexual inhibitions, psi
phenomena, and marginality. I must admit that I sometimes still find
it difficult to think about how all these logically relate to each other.
Personification provides a way of organizing this melange that
otherwise seems incoherent.
The trickster is found worldwide. Superficially, his tales seem little
more than entertaining stories for children, but they encode
important truths. The trickster is central to many religious beliefs, and
some of the tales are sacred. In fact, a number of cultures permit
only a few persons to tell the stories and restrict when they can be
told, because they have a power of their own.
The trickster has innumerable internal contradictions, and those
are what have made him so difficult for scholars. He seems
irrational, and he is. The usual scientific concepts are inadequate to
fully explain him. He has many meanings and cannot be reduced to
a single interpretation. He resists being placed in any single
category. That’s why this book covered such a range of topics—from
ritual clowns who eat excrement, to experiments with random
number generators, to literary criticism. This diversity is the reason
so few people have any comprehension of the scope of his
relevance, including his pertinence to psi.
Earlier cultures celebrated the trickster, but now he is only a
shallow remnant of his previous glory. He is considered merely
amusing, entertaining, but of little serious importance. This reflects a
deep but subtle change in culture and civilization"
Mr. Hansen is a fair, honest man, which is rare to encounter. He honestly evaluates the 'believers' and 'sceptics' approaches, despite himself being a believer in ESP and PSI phenomena. The research he did for his book and his erudite approach to the theme is worthy of every praise.
This book took a long time for me to read, mostly because of the chapters on literary theory,
structuralism, deconstructionism which are not at all relevant to me. That being said, for someone interested in that angle of approach, the chapters I found boring will be very useful and interesting.
October 21, 2017
This was a dense, thoughtful, difficult book that's hard to describe because it includes so much. The very short thumbnail: the paranormal - strange events and sightings like UFOs, ghosts, and psychic phenomena - defy all efforts to be measured and grasped by science. This is in part because the phenomena themselves are unpredictable and hard to measure, partly because the mere act of investigating them seems to alter them, and in part because seekers/experiences of the strange curiously tend towards deception (of self and others) and paranoia.
Hansen puts forth possible explanations for this: literary, psychological, historical - some of which are easier to understand than others. I for one couldn't grasp structuralism vs. anti-structuralism as I just have no background in literary theory. The common thread was the trickster, the personification of all that is in between, non binary, and transitional, and how it's perceived by different cultures and times.
Hansen comes down firmly on the side of psi phenomena being real (if only subjectively) and is justly critical of establishment science's resistance to examine it critically due to fear of ridicule and loss of status. He also posits that modern Western culture privileges objective experiences over subjective, a perspective I tend to agree with, though I think that this is for good reason: the only baseline for reality that we've got is that which everyone can perceive.
I will say Hansen comes at the topic of the paranormal from multiple unique directions and successfully resists making any iron-clad judgment on the source or nature of weird phenomena, and neither condemns nor celebrates the experiencers. If you're looking for something that doesn't try to tell you what to think of strange things, check out this book but be aware that it's a hard read.
Hansen puts forth possible explanations for this: literary, psychological, historical - some of which are easier to understand than others. I for one couldn't grasp structuralism vs. anti-structuralism as I just have no background in literary theory. The common thread was the trickster, the personification of all that is in between, non binary, and transitional, and how it's perceived by different cultures and times.
Hansen comes down firmly on the side of psi phenomena being real (if only subjectively) and is justly critical of establishment science's resistance to examine it critically due to fear of ridicule and loss of status. He also posits that modern Western culture privileges objective experiences over subjective, a perspective I tend to agree with, though I think that this is for good reason: the only baseline for reality that we've got is that which everyone can perceive.
I will say Hansen comes at the topic of the paranormal from multiple unique directions and successfully resists making any iron-clad judgment on the source or nature of weird phenomena, and neither condemns nor celebrates the experiencers. If you're looking for something that doesn't try to tell you what to think of strange things, check out this book but be aware that it's a hard read.
November 15, 2013
The writing style is surprisingly clear and easy to read -- the book is difficult because of the ideas. Hansen sketches a view of the paranormal that is almost incomprehensible from the objective materialist view of reality. Basically he argues that skeptics and believers are wrong in the same way, skeptics for dismissing the phenomena because they can't be proven, and believers for hoping and expecting that they'll be proven. For reasons that are challenging to think about, and that Hansen only hints at in later chapters, the impossibility of proof is part of the nature of the phenomena.
I've read lots of non-fiction books on the paranormal and this is the smartest, but maybe not a good one to start with. Instead I'd recommend some John Keel.
I've read lots of non-fiction books on the paranormal and this is the smartest, but maybe not a good one to start with. Instead I'd recommend some John Keel.
May 23, 2015
A weighty book that takes a while to process, though it's broken up into independent sections so you don't need to read it straight through. This book really gets into how very weird reality and the human mind are, and even if you disagree with Hansen's conclusions, it's thought-provoking in a big way. One of the four books I recommend to anyone.
April 25, 2025
It took me a long time to get around to actually reading this legendary bit of paranormal scholarship. I think I was hesitant because its legacy consists mainly of paranormal enthusiasts citing 'the trickster phenomenon' to account for any and all instances of fakery, inconsistency, or delusion in their chosen topic. Now having read it, I wonder how many people who summarise it have actually read the whole thing.
Bringing together all sorts of schools of thought (including but not limited to parapsychology, Lacanian theory, post-structuralism, anthropology, ufology, and counterintelligence), this stimulates so many interesting avenues of thinking for anyone interested in the paranormal that it'll leave your head spinning. Pick any well-documented paranormal case or figure and go over it again with the tools this book puts at your disposal; you're bound to come across new insights (or puzzles). The most interesting idea for me was a short section identifying magic (specifically mana) as occupying a gap between signifier and signified. All magic can be understood this way, in terms of loading a representation with an enormous excess of meaning. Just consider the immense amount of meaning an adept can draw from the simple diagram of the Tree of Life. This one idea also has significant explanatory power for intelligence agencies' interest in UFOs: the sightings are a hypnotic blank slate or floating signifier that can be loaded with whatever meaning is most expedient for that scenario.
The book is full of ideas like this, thousands of them, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in these topics. I can't recommend it enough. The only book I can compare it to is Daimonic Reality, but the scholarship in this book is more robust and the ideas are even more interesting. If anyone reading this knows of a book even remotely comparable to this then please tell me!
Bringing together all sorts of schools of thought (including but not limited to parapsychology, Lacanian theory, post-structuralism, anthropology, ufology, and counterintelligence), this stimulates so many interesting avenues of thinking for anyone interested in the paranormal that it'll leave your head spinning. Pick any well-documented paranormal case or figure and go over it again with the tools this book puts at your disposal; you're bound to come across new insights (or puzzles). The most interesting idea for me was a short section identifying magic (specifically mana) as occupying a gap between signifier and signified. All magic can be understood this way, in terms of loading a representation with an enormous excess of meaning. Just consider the immense amount of meaning an adept can draw from the simple diagram of the Tree of Life. This one idea also has significant explanatory power for intelligence agencies' interest in UFOs: the sightings are a hypnotic blank slate or floating signifier that can be loaded with whatever meaning is most expedient for that scenario.
The book is full of ideas like this, thousands of them, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in these topics. I can't recommend it enough. The only book I can compare it to is Daimonic Reality, but the scholarship in this book is more robust and the ideas are even more interesting. If anyone reading this knows of a book even remotely comparable to this then please tell me!
December 30, 2023
This book is an extensive analysis of the paranormal at a deep, scholarly level, and it presents the theory of the trickster as to why paranormal/supernatural/occult related subjects and occurrences are all completely shunned and condemned by both rational science and religion in equal measure. Subjects of liminality, anti-structure, semiotics, and a half-dozen fields of study, from psychoanalysis to anthropology to parapsychology, are all covered. At times hard to put down—the chapters on UFOs was pretty intense.
August 11, 2019
This is a graduate-level course on paranormal theory. It is dense and Hansen repeats himself (his introduction makes clear one should not read it through but read the sections in which one is most interested, so this is not his fault). Trust me, you will be grateful for the reiterations, as they will let you feel as though you know something. It is not a light read and will repel the smatterer. I do not think I have ever so heavily highlighted a book.
July 29, 2017
This book is decently informative and well-researched, albeit dry, lengthy, and a bit repetitive in certain areas. Well-written in a "scholarly" way, but not in a particularly captivating way. There are certainly more "entertaining" choices for paranormal subject matter.
January 3, 2019
The trickster constellation pervades.... This is the most completest analysis of the trickster archetype within the paranormal field. Most interesting to me was Hansen's history of paranormal institutions.
November 21, 2022
"The supernatural is irrational, yet it is also real. It has enormous power. We ignore it at our peril. It operates not only on the individual psyche, but at a collective level, influencing entire cultures."
January 19, 2025
This is a required read for anyone interested in not only the paranormal, but more specifically High-Strangeness. We are currently living in time of contention, distrust of authority and boundary blurring. The trickster is ready and waiting.
This is a frequently referenced book for a reason
This is a frequently referenced book for a reason
October 20, 2022
Quite a slog. Did not pay off like I hoped. This is very, very inside baseball on the paranormal topic. Only bother if you are truly obsessed.
February 22, 2025
Great book.
January 25, 2020
Dense and uneven, but very provocative
This is a deep, dense, and scholarly work, and I truly enjoyed reading it. It took me many weeks to finish, but I was as compelled by the thoughtful writing and big ideas represented here.
It has so many good ideas, but it does suffer from some verbosity and lack of restraint--a good, hard edit would make it much better.
I think I gave it 4 starts instead of 5, however, because while the ideas are fascinating, the conclusions are a bit sparse and lacking. Of course, it is very understandable: these are big, mysterious questions, but somehow it never all quite came together for me.
This is a deep, dense, and scholarly work, and I truly enjoyed reading it. It took me many weeks to finish, but I was as compelled by the thoughtful writing and big ideas represented here.
It has so many good ideas, but it does suffer from some verbosity and lack of restraint--a good, hard edit would make it much better.
I think I gave it 4 starts instead of 5, however, because while the ideas are fascinating, the conclusions are a bit sparse and lacking. Of course, it is very understandable: these are big, mysterious questions, but somehow it never all quite came together for me.
October 14, 2012
Before there were "ghost hunter" shows on cable, there was this.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews