trickster

Both Batman and (according to The Killing Joke) the Joker were born out of the pain of the absurd. As a result, it is what keeps both of them busy: the Joker by trying to cause unjust deaths, and Batman by trying to stop them.

Thinking deeply about TV, movies, and music doesn’t make you a “complete idiot.” In fact, it might make you a philosopher, someone who believes the unexamined life is not worth living and the unexamined cartoon is not worth watching.

None rise to the level of Batman and Joker, two enemies who seem determined not to kill each other because each gains too much from what the other brings to their destructive dyad. Yet, the Joker is more than simply a foil for Batman; he has his own goals that would exist regardless of whether the Caped Crusader was in the picture.

Keel is one of few who recognized that UFO sightings should not be studied as discrete events in isolation and that their effects are not limited to a circumscribed time and place. The consequences could extend for weeks or months and be profoundly destabilizing to the personal lives of those who become enmeshed in the phenomena. Some who had impre

Historically, many groups that attempted to engage paranormal phenomena became unstable. There is little reason to think that secret government projects would escape that fate. They too are probably prone to paranoia and conspiracy theorizing. Because of the secrecy surrounding their work, and the importance of it, they could be susceptible to delu

book Wondrous Events: Foundations of Religious Belief (1994) noted that many dramatic paranormal manifestations involve small groups of people. Some of these phenomena are spontaneous, often occurring to the dismay of those present, but other groups seek to induce paranormal occurrences. In either situation, typically small numbers of people are in

An enormous number of people have influenced my thinking, but three were particularly important: William Braud, Barbara Babcock, and Edmund Leach. Parapsychologist William Braud integrated an enormous range of findings with his model of lability and inertia in psi processes. Barbara Babcock is the most significant interpreter of the trickster figur

Anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann provided a detailed commentary on magical practices in her Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft (1989). That book was based on a study of witchcraft practitioners in England. During her investigation, she took courses on ritual magic, practiced assigned exercises, participated in rituals, and came to have anomalous experie

Another useful, and superbly documented, book is The Future of the Body (1992) by Michael Murphy.