During the recent annual meetings for biblical studies scholars held in San Antonio, Dr. Heiser interviewed a number of scholars about their recent work. In Part 2 of those interviews, we meet Dr. Andy Naselli (New Testament professor at Bethlehem College and...
Psychology
New Online Encyclopedia for PSI Studies
Dean Radin just recommended (on Twitter) this new (in progress) reference tool: The PSI Encyclopedia. The "Learn More / About" page reads, in part: ‘Psi’ is the modern collective term for the psychic functions of telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and...
Theses and Dissertations on UFO-Related Topics
[UPDATE 6/26/2013: Thanks to Jonas for adding some theses and dissertations in a comment - I have added them at the end of this post. MSH. Thanks as well (7/1/2013) to the Spooky Paradigms blogger for directing my attention to his first post in the series, where he...
Ancient Astronauts and Religious Yearning
Jason Colavito has a thoughtful post over at his blog entitled, "Ancient Astronauts and the Decline of the West." I recommend reading this short piece, as it touches on a significant idea: that, as society and culture in the West declines or enters periods of hardship...
Myth and Mystery of UFOs: A Review
I just finished Thomas Bullard's book, The Myth and Mystery of UFOs, by scholar-folklorist Thomas Bullard (University of Kansas Press, 2010). Rather than write my own review, I found the work summarized nicely in this review over at Magonia review of books blog. I'll...
How to Detect BS (and so, PaleoBabble)
Here's an interesting and humorous post by public speaker Scott Berkun entitled, "How to Detect Bullshit." Several parts of it are quite applicable to the paleobabbling that happens every day on the web (and in print and on radio).
The Psychology of the Rendelsham Revelation
Well, a couple days ago the world was told that a high-ranking UK military officer "admitted" that the famous Rendlesham event involved extraterrestrials. This story and "admission" is actually a wonderful example of the disappointing level of "proof" works in the...
Short Article on Sleep Paralysis
It starts about half way down the page at this link. Personally, I think it is very likely that sleep paralysis explains a lot of "abduction" experiences. Anyone acquainted with the literature, though, will know it doesn't explain many experiences, though. Editor's...
Articles 8 Through 14 from Psychological Inquiry
Here are the rest of the articles: 8. Alleged Alien Abductions: False Memories, Hypnosis, and Fantasy Proneness. By: Lynn, Steven Jay; Kirsch, Irving I.. Psychological Inquiry, 1996, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p151, 5p; Abstract Comments on the article 'Toward an Explanation of...
4th and 5th Articles from Psychological Inquiry
I'm going to take these two at a time to speed up going through this issue (and to get you the articles). My next post will be about the contents of the third and fourth articles, but I will likely skip any comments on the fifth article. Here are # 4 and # 5: 4. On...
Third Article from Psychological Inquiry
Readers recall that, back in 1996, the peer-reviewed journal Psychological Inquiry devoted an entire issue to discussing alien abduction. The second article (posted a few weeks ago), agreed with the first one by Newman and Baumeister with respect to the notion that...
Second Article in Psychological Inquiry
I'm guessing anyone who's interested in the first article has read it by now. I enjoyed some of the humorous responses. Yep, it's another one-size-fits-all explanation from the psychiatric community. They can't seem to deal with those abductees who have conscious...
Professional Psychiatry and the Abduction Phenomenon
Well, I'm finally back at blogging after some brief travel. I had meant to go into the third group that would use UFO beliefs as propaganda, but to be honest, I'm more interested now in the next trajectory. For those who are curious, I may go back to this in detail....