Episode 152: The Science of Things Spiritual: Live in Lily Dale

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 11:15:00 -0400

On the last week of July, 2023, Phil and JF were delighted to speak at Shannon Taggart's Science of Things Spiritual Symposium in Lily Dale, the nerve centre of the Spiritualist movement. As speakers, your hosts were part of an inspiring lineup of scholars, artists, and researchers committed to exploring the borderlands of art, science, religion, and the paranormal. They also had the honour of launching the symposium with a live recording held on the evening of the July 27th. The topic was Frederic W. H. Myers' autobiographical essay, "Fragments of Inner Life," first published in full in 1961, some sixty years after the author's death. Myers was one of the original members of the Society for Psychical Research in England. A poet and classicist, he remained committed to the scientific promise of paranormal investigation until the end of his life. His book Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, also published posthumously, argues that psychical studies have confirmed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that death is just the beginning. In this talk, JF and Phil discuss Myers' relevance to 21st-century thinking on the Weird.

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REFERENCES

The Science of Things Spiritual Symposium: July 27-29, 2023
Frederic Myers, Fragments of Inner Life
Alan Bennett, History Boys
Arthur Machen, A Fragment of Life
Alan Gauld, The Founders of Psychical Research
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan
Frans de Waal, Mama’s Last Hug
Daniel Dennett, American cognitive scientist

Frederic Myers, Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death
Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being
Phil Ford, Dig
William James, Principles of Psychology
Akashic Record, Theosophical idea
Jeff Kripal, Authors of the Impossible

Episode 113: Framing the Invisible, with Shannon Taggart

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

Shannon Taggart's book Seance is a landmark in art photography and the history of psychical research. Taggart spent years photographing practitioners of spiritualism in the U.S. and Europe in an effort to capture the mysteries of mediumship, ectoplasm, and spirit photography. In this episode, she joins JF and Phil for a conversation on the often-misunderstood tradition of spiritualism, the investigation of the paranormal, and the real magic of photography. If the technological medium is the message, then perhaps the spiritual medium is the messenger.

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**REFERENCES

*Shannon Taggart, Séance *
Read the introduction to the book here
Visual companion page for this episode

Shannon and her work are featured in Peter Bebergal's excellent book, Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural

Weird Studies, Episode 24 with Lionel Snell
Lionel Snell, “The Charlatan and the Magus”
George P. Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal
Diane Arbus, American photographer
Warner Herzog (dir.), Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Jeffrey Mishlove, Interview with James Tunney on Francis Bacon
Eva C, French medium
Andrew Jackson Davis, American spiritualist
Henry Alcott, American Theosophist

For further reading on women, spiritualism, and the art of the invisible:
Ann Braude, Radical Spirits
Guggenheim, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future Special Guest: Shannon Taggart.

Weird Studies - Episodes Tagged with “Spiritualism”

Episode 152: The Science of Things Spiritual: Live in Lily Dale

Episode 113: Framing the Invisible, with Shannon Taggart