Forbidden Histories is now available in audio format! I’m excited to announce the latest addition to the FH multimedia universe: The Forbidden Histories podcast, where contents are discussed in an entertaining dialogue format. Each episode can be streamed and downloaded in an English and a separate German version. Here is the introduction (in English): https://forbiddenhistories.podbean.com/e/introduction-from-magic-to-science/ ... Read more The post New: The Forbidden Histories Podcast –...| Forbidden Histories
As I live in Switzerland now, I thought it was high time to produce more output in my German mother language. If you read German, or know folks who do and may be interested, feel free to share zis: A German biosketch of yours truly:https://www.forbiddenhistories.com/andreas-sommer My German Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DrAndreasSommer And of course my German ... Read more The post Forbidden Histories in German first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
One lesson we can learn from a fresh look at our historical sources is that leaders of modern sciences have been hopelessly polarized in their views on the empirical evidence for ‘occult’ phenomena. In my last post, I addressed this by noting deep disagreements among founding figures of modern psychology and psychiatry regarding the marvels ... Read more The post Clash of the Titans: William James vs. Alfred Russel Wallace first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
Does it matter that some eminent scientists and intellectuals have firmly believed in ‘psychic’ phenomena? Or should we just accept vocally dismissive statements on these matters by scientifically distinguished disbelievers? This is one of several questions I touched upon in my latest article, which I was invited to contribute to a thematic issue of the ... Read more The post Censoring William James first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
Callum Cooper, a psychologist at the University of Northampton, recently interviewed me for The Psychologist, a magazine published by the British Psychological Society for its members. Here’s an excerpt: Why do you think [historical awareness] is important to present-day psychologists? Evidence matters not only in science, and history can’t be just a free-for-all. Scientists should have ... Read more The post Modern Psychology, the ‘Occult’, and Evidence-Free History: An Interview wi...| Forbidden Histories
If you follow our Twitter feed and Facebook page, you’re already aware of the devastating loss of Carlos Alvarado, who passed away on Friday, July 16th. Below is a short tribute to my beloved fellow historian of psychical research, which I wrote for the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition (JAEX), a new open access ... Read more The post A Remedy for Historical Split Personalities: In Memory of Carlos S. Alvarado (1955-2021) first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
Richard Noakes, the author of the seminal Physics and Psychics (Cambridge, 2019) has generously donated these beauties from his library as prizes for the next Patreon draw, which ends on 19 July, 7pm (for your chance to win one of these books, see below): Psychical and Supernormal Phenomena (London, 1916) is an overview of predominantly ... Read more The post Patreon Prize Draw: Antiquarian Gems from the Library of Richard Noakes first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
Hot off the press: A selection of the correspondence of J. B. Rhine, the biologist who famously established a laboratory for experimental studies of telepathy and other occult phenomena at Duke University in the 1930s. Among Rhine’s correspondents whose letters are included in the volume are renowned psychologists such as Carl G. Jung and B. ... Read more The post New Book: Selections from the Correspondence of J. B. Rhine first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
When Francis Bacon – a key figure of the Scientific Revolution in Britain – travelled France as an adolescent, he was puzzled by a number of strange experiences. As mentioned in my video on Bacon’s views on “natural magic”, one such experience involved his dream which seemed to predict the unexpected death of his father ... Read more The post Warts and All: Francis Bacon’s Account of a Cure by “Sympathetic Magic” first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
Richard Noakes, author of the seminal Physics and Psychics (Cambridge University Press, 2019), is thinning out his personal library and just put two volumes of the Victorian spiritualist journal Borderland on eBay. Edited by the famous journalist William T. Stead (who died on the sinking Titanic in 1912), Borderland was one of the most prominent ... Read more The post From the Library of Richard Noakes: Place a bid for W. T. Stead’s Borderland (vols. 1893 & 1894) on eBay! first appeared on ...| Forbidden Histories