By the fantastic, I mean something that is often very physical, empirical, and sometimes even witnessed by many people. I mean something that possesses its own agency and purpose and often changes history, be it of a single person or an entire civilizatio

Any comprehensive theory of the paranormal must explain its role in cultural transitions.

What appears to the experiencer, after all, is a part of culture. Indeed, one of my deepest intuitions that I will play out in these pages is that the paranormal is culture working in heretofore unimagined ways—expressing itself, yes, but also overcoming,