Engaging the Anomalous

"As I have lectured on both sides of the pond, I have noticed a kind of quiet renaissance of interest in the paranormal among intellectuals, especially among younger scholars of religion, anthropology, and literary criticism. Jack Hunter is a shining light among these emerging voices. His search for a non-reductive anthropology, for a “paranthropology" as his journal has it, is among the most hopeful and creative signs in our shared fields. With his trademark refusal to simply “bracket” away every honest ontological question and his balanced insistence that there is a third path forward between and beyond naive belief and equally naive debunking, Jack has blazed a trail through any number of intellectual and spiritual jungles. Here is a welcome record of that trail-blazing and that intellectual courage."

Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions.

"Throughout history, across all cultures, and at all educational levels, people have reported experiences labeled strange, bizarre, paranormal, or supernatural. Anthropologist Jack Hunter inspects these weird but common experiences in a collected set of crisp essays and interviews. Are such experiences real, despite their challenges to today's scientific worldview? Or should we take human experiences more seriously and use them as clues to help expand our sense of reality? These are among the endlessly fascinating questions explored in an engaging way in 'Engaging the Anomalous.'"

Dean Radin, Chief Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences. Author of Real Magic.

“A must-read for anyone interested in the study of anomalous, extraordinary, and paranormal experiences. The brilliance of Hunter’s analysis is not just that he identifies how contemporary methods fall short of weighing in on the ontological reality of the paranormal… but in the construction of a new method, a new strategy, that acknowledges the “agency” of spirits and paranormal experience. Yes, spirits are ontologically real, surprise!”

Diana Walsh Pasulka, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Technology, Belief.