The Origins of Psychic Phenomena: Poltergeists, Incubi, Succubi, and the Unconscious Mind

From alien abduction to possessions and spontaneous combustion, THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA explores the unconscious mind's ability to externalize itself, processing real-world experiences and producing in turn often frightening manifestations. Chapters consider the evolution of the brain and concurrent psychic activities and consider the role of consciousness in supernatural phenomena, making this a fine pick for any collection strong in either new age or psychology.

The serendipitous events that seem to accompany the books sent me for review are getting just a little spooky. For example, I'll be thinking, Gee, I'd like to review (a certain kind of) Gnostic book and...BAM! It shows up in the mail. Or I tell myself that I will absolutely, positively never again even look at a book dealing with the Bible and...BAM! One is sent that really shows "the Book" in a totally whole new slant. In the case of ORIGINS, I thought, Just stick a stake in me now, if I had to force myself to read any more pseudo-scientific, "New Age" interpretations of reality, & particularly historic reality. But I was drawn to the title of the book, and even more intrigued when I discovered that original 1984 title was Creatures from Inner Space. Now how could I pass that up? So I started reading, making my little notes--and before I realized it, it was dawn's early light. The book was finished. Time to crawl back into my crypt. Like Houdini I have been drawn to the occult & psychic phenomena--and also like Houdini, I remain mostly unconvinced, seeing in so-called "Manifestations" little more than manipulation & false mirrors & false memories & serpentine smoke disguising all the shoddy props but fading in the light of common sense. It was with this fairly closed mindset that I read the Introduction. I came to immediate attention at this comment: ...So what, then, really is a human personality, and what so much the limits of its powers, as a full, unrealized extent of them? [P. 3] Two correspondences immediately entered my fragile head: DAIMONIC REALITY and SETH SPEAKS. I write this not to suggest subject redundancy, but to impress upon the reader the type of pan-psychic (psychological) connection ORIGINS invokes. To summarize these works: DAIMONIC REALITY argues for the existence of an inner reality just as real & authentic as the external world. This is the reality of unconscious mind, but in its active 24/7 existence & based on, or spilling over into what Jung called The Collective Unconscious. This flipside of common reality is neither black nor white--or gray either for that fact. Just where this consciousness can be physically located is one of the tantalizing subjects of ORIGINS. The content of ORIGINS is perfectly aligned with the ideas presented in DAIMONIC REALITY; that is, the philosophy is a perfect fit. Author Stan Gooch is even more critical of the Jane Roberts material than I am--and that's saying a lot. However, I seem to remember finding a great deal of intellectual inspiration in Robert's first book SETH SPEAKS, but it's been aeons since I read the material & heaven knows what state my own consciousness was in at that historic place in time. I just remember really relating to the idea presented in SETH SPEAKS that the mundane personality is just the tip of a multidimensional iceberg-like Entity. As a psychological researcher, Stan Gooch's main intent in this work is to (1) demonstrate the actual,

The Origins of Psychic Phenomena, originally released as Creatures from Inner Space, is another fabulous book by Stan Gooch that reveals the treasure trove of the human brain and its mischievous workings. One example is the haunted house; a house can only be haunted when there is someone in it, an empty house is an un-haunted one, we carry our ghosts with us and are capable of all sorts of mental projections. Gooch takes a rational approach to all of these baffling phenomena that never kills the excitement of his conclusions. He also has a personal style of writing that carries you along with him to such a degree that the discoveries made seem like a shared venture as they become unravelled. The Origins of Psychic Phenomena is a deep and harrowing probe into the psychology of the human species that rises to the challenge of its extraordinary content and treats it with humanity.