Author: Andrew M. Greeley

Publisher:

ISBN: STANFORD:36105037202236

Category: Mysticism

Page: 88

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This work collects 48 essays by Andrew Greeley on the Sociology of Religion Published over a thirty year period (1962-1992) and reprinted here as they originally appeared, the essays reflect a wide range of interests and questions.

Author: Andrew M. Greeley

Publisher: University of South Florida

ISBN: UOM:39015032100847

Category: Religion

Page: 621

View: 847

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This work collects 48 essays by Andrew Greeley on the Sociology of Religion Published over a thirty year period (1962-1992) and reprinted here as they originally appeared, the essays reflect a wide range of interests and questions. Nevertheless, the essays are unified by a propensity to subject questions of religion and behavior to empirical test and quantitative data. The occurrence of hallucinations and the paranormal, attitudes towards racial integration and AIDS policy, and the sociology of American Catholics are but a few of the questions examined in these studies. Beyond being a remarkable record of Greeley's on-going work in the sociology of religion, the essays also serve, as noted in Michael Hout's introduction, to chronicle "how (the) sociology of religion has moved from the margins of sociology (back) into the core of the discipline..."

This book is based on the author's ten-year research into the politics of belief surrounding paranormal ideas.

Author: Jeremy Northcote

Publisher: Andrews UK Limited

ISBN: 9781845404116

Category: Social Science

Page: 254

View: 389

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This book is based on the author's ten-year research into the politics of belief surrounding paranormal ideas. Through a detailed examination of the participants, issues, strategies and underlying factors that constitute the contemporary paranormal debate, the book explores the struggle surrounding the status of paranormal phenomena. It examines, on the one hand, how the principal arbiters of religious and scientific truths - the Church and the academic establishment - reject paranormal ideas as "occult" and "pseudo-scientific", and how, on the other hand, paranormal enthusiasts attempt to resist such labels and instead establish paranormal ideas as legitimate knowledge. The author contends that the paranormal debate is the outcome of wider discursive processes that are concerned with the construction and negotiation of truth in Western society generally. More specifically, the debate is seen as an aspect of the "boundary work" that defines the contours of religious and scientific orthodoxy. The book paves new ground in understanding the nature of belief relating to a topic that has long held fascination to academics and lay people alike – paranormal ideas. It develops a discursive framework for understanding a contemporary social phenomenon, hence placing the study at the cutting edge of ethnographic development that seeks to integrate discursive perspectives with empirical accounts of sociological phenomena. Most importantly, the study is intended to contribute to the debate surrounding communicative action, by outlining a discursive perspective on the negotiation of ideational differences that goes beyond the incommensurability theories that have dominated the sociology of communication and knowledge.

This journal is particularly relevant to those researchers wishing for a
multidisciplinary approach to the paranormal that investigates the phenomena
from an anthropological foundation. Sociology of Religion It is so often difficult to
have a ...

Author: Courtney M. Block

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN: 9781538131459

Category: Parapsychology

Page: 352

View: 627

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In this book, you'll find an assortment of resources that seriously examine various paranormal topics. You'll also learn how you can apply the components of credibility to find additional research as well as information on conducting your own paranormal investigations.

Presents a sociological study on the belief in the paranormal, presenting profiles of believers, discussion about the persistence of their belief despite scientific evidence, and the effects of these beliefs on political and social ...

Author: Erich Goode

Publisher:

ISBN: 1616144912

Category: Body, Mind & Spirit

Page: 335

View: 576

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Presents a sociological study on the belief in the paranormal, presenting profiles of believers, discussion about the persistence of their belief despite scientific evidence, and the effects of these beliefs on political and social movements.

A Sociological Introduction Erich Goode. receive grants or fellowships or awards
from scientific organizations . In short , they are not members of the scientific
community . Second , cranks have a tendency toward paranoia , usually ...

Author: Erich Goode

Publisher: Waveland PressInc

ISBN: IND:30000068999394

Category: Body, Mind & Spirit

Page: 310

View: 552

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GREELEY , ANDREW W . , The Sociology of the Paranormal ( Beverly Hills :
Sage Publications , 1975 ) . A brief examina tion of mystical experience . HALL ,
JOHN R . , “ Apocalypse at Jonestown , ” Society , September 1979 , pp . 52 - 61 .

Author: Paul B. Horton

Publisher: Prentice Hall

ISBN: UOM:39015016126974

Category: Social problems

Page: 464

View: 605

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“A Bounded Affinity Theory of Religion and the Paranormal.” Sociology of
Religion 77(4):334–358. Baker, Joseph O. and Scott Draper . 2010. “Diverse
Supernatural Portfolios: Certitude, Exclusivity, and the Curvilinear Relationship
Between ...

Author: Marc A. Eaton

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9780429670800

Category: Social Science

Page: 208

View: 711

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Based on ethnographic research, this book examines the paranormal investigation subculture in the US. Presenting interviews with investigators as well as extensive field observations, it explores their reasons for getting involved, their use of different investigative methods, the interpretive processes by which they individually and collectively ‘sense’ spirits, the ways in which these processes are influenced by small group power dynamics, and what paranormal investigation ultimately means to those who participate. While focusing on the practices by which investigators ‘sense’ spirits in small groups, the author also situates paranormal investigation within a broader cultural context and attends to how investigators attempt to legitimize their practice despite being marginalized by both science and religion. A fascinating study of ghosts as an inherently social phenomenon, Sensing Spirits will appeal to sociologists with interests in ethnography, interactionism, cultural studies and subcultures.

He is especially interested in comparative religion and in inter - denominational
differences as they affect belief in the supernatural . He is a practising Catholic .
George K. Zollschan ( Chapter 4 ) is a Sociologist who has published books in
the ...

Author: George K. Zollschan

Publisher: Prism PressLtd

ISBN: 1853270261

Category: Human behavior

Page: 373

View: 746

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Essays explore paranormal belief and experience, focusing on mind-expanding drugs, the near-death experience, mysticism and meditation, and miracles, and include debates between believers and unbelievers

Professor Collins is professor of sociology at the University of Cardiff and was
previously active in research into the sociology of psychic research ( between
1971 and 1985 ) . The purpose of this talk to the SPR on 11th June was to
provide a ...

Author:

Publisher:

ISBN: IND:30000070088871

Category: Occultism

Page:

View: 965

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ethnocentric method, one that amounts in essence to equating “supernatural”
with “(scientifically) false.” (Crapo 2003: 8–9) This perspective is shared by many
in the social sciences. Consider the work of the sociologists of religion Rodney ...

Author: Homayun Sidky

Publisher: Anthem Press

ISBN: 9781785271632

Category: Social Science

Page: 518

View: 119

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"Religion, Supernaturalism, the Paranormal, and Pseudoscience" provides a comprehensive rejoinder to the challenges posed to science, scientific anthropology, evolutionary theory and rationality by the advocates of supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific perspectives and modes of thought associated with the current rise of irrationalism, antiintellectualism, and emboldened religious fundamentalism and violence. Drawing upon H. Sidky’s scientific anthropological background and ethnographic field research of supernatural and paranormal beliefs and practices in several cultures over three decades, the book answers several important questions: Why do humans have a proclivity for the supernatural and paranormal thinking? Why has humanity remained shackled to sets of ideas inherited from a violent past that have no basis in reality and which bestow an illusionary solace, promote bloodshed, endless cruelties and fervent hatreds, and have come at a high cost? Why have ancient superstitions been held as sacred, inviolate truths while other aspects of the archaic belief systems of which they were a part have long been discarded? Why have not humans outgrown religion and paranormal beliefs?

Moreover , reports of personal encounters with paranormal phenomena often
come to light many years after they originally occurred ( Westrum 1977 ) . There
is , however , a class of paranormal experiences which may yield to sociological
 ...

Author: ANONIMO

Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman

ISBN: UCAL:B4927890

Category:

Page:

View: 285

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There are a handful of studies by sociologists who have talked to paranormal
practitioners (cf. Bader, Mencken and Baker 2010, Wood 2007), but overall we
know precious little about the (im)materiality of the paranormal in people's lives.

Author: Olu Jenzen

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317042198

Category: Social Science

Page: 492

View: 795

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Despite the much vaunted ’end of religion’ and the growth of secularism, people are engaging like never before in their own ’spiritualities of life’. Across the West, paranormal belief is on the rise. The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures brings together the work of international scholars across the social sciences and humanities to question how and why people are seeking meaning in the realm of the paranormal, a heretofore subjugated knowledge. With contributions from the UK and other European countries, the USA, Australia and Canada, this ground-breaking book attends to the paranormal as a position from which to critique dominant forms of knowledge production and spirituality. A rich exploration of everyday life practices, textual engagements and discourses relating to the paranormal, as well as the mediation, technology and art of paranormal activity, this book explores themes such as subcultures and mainstreaming, as well as epistemological, methodological, and phenomenological questions, and the role of the paranormal in social change. The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures constitutes an essential resource for those interested in the academic study of cultural engagements with paranormality; it will appeal to scholars of cultural and media studies, popular culture, sociology, cultural geography, literature, film and music.

However, unlike many books on the paranormal, this volume does not focus on proving or disproving the paranormal, but rather on understanding the people who believe and how those beliefs shape their lives.

Author: Christopher D. Bader

Publisher: NYU Press

ISBN: 0814786421

Category: Religion

Page: 272

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A significant number of Americans spend their weekends at UFO conventions hearing whispers of government cover-ups, at New Age gatherings learning the keys to enlightenment, or ambling around historical downtowns learning about resident ghosts in tourist-targeted “ghost walks”. They have been fed a steady diet of fictional shows with paranormal themes such as The X-Files, Supernatural, and Medium, shows that may seek to simply entertain, but also serve to disseminate paranormal beliefs. The public hunger for the paranormal seems insatiable. Paranormal America provides the definitive portrait of Americans who believe in or have experienced such phenomena as ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs, psychic phenomena, astrology, and the power of mediums. However, unlike many books on the paranormal, this volume does not focus on proving or disproving the paranormal, but rather on understanding the people who believe and how those beliefs shape their lives. Drawing on the Baylor Religion Survey—a multi-year national random sample of American religious values, practices, and behaviors—as well as extensive fieldwork including joining hunts for Bigfoot and spending the night in a haunted house, authors Christopher Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph Baker shed light on what the various types of paranormal experiences, beliefs, and activities claimed by Americans are; whether holding an unconventional belief, such as believing in Bigfoot, means that one is unconventional in other attitudes and behaviors; who has such experiences and beliefs and how they differ from other Americans; and if we can expect major religions to emerge from the paranormal. Brimming with engaging personal stories and provocative findings, Paranormal America is an entertaining yet authoritative look at a growing segment of American religious culture.

... which surely should be a challenge to any social scientist exploring the
incidence and prevalence of paranormal experiences in the American population
. Those who pray frequently are more likely to have such experiences than those
who ...

Author:

Publisher:

ISBN: UVA:X001193800

Category: Social problems

Page:

View: 302

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B. G. H. Gallup ; F. Newport , » Belief in paranormal phenomena among adult
Americans « , in : Skeptical Inquirer 15 , 1991 , 137-146 ; A. M. Greeley , The
sociology of the paranormal . A reconnaissance , Beverly Hills ; London 1975 ; E.

Author:

Publisher:

ISBN: UOM:39015066166573

Category: Religion

Page:

View: 639

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Between 1982 and 1986 , I taught sociology classes for the University of
Maryland Asian Division in Japan , Korea , the ... to Anthropology students have
gathered over 2000 firsthand narratives regarding apparitions , waking ESP ,
paranormal ...

Author:

Publisher:

ISBN: UOM:39015066166086

Category: Parapsychology

Page:

View: 816

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The Sociology of the Paranormal : A Reconnaissance . London and Beverley
Hills : Sage . Green , Celia , and Charles McCreery . 1975 . Apparitions . London :
Hamish Hamilton . Greyson , B . , and C . P . Flynn , eds . 1984 . The Near - Death
 ...

Author: Gillian Bennett

Publisher:

ISBN: UOM:39015047567238

Category: Social Science

Page: 223

View: 900

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Drawing on modern field research among elderly women in England and historical research in supernatural traditions, Gillian Bennett offers a clear and thought-provoking discussion of the vigorous survival, nature, and patterns of belief in the supernatural. Focusing on contact with the dead, which was especially emphasized and recounted by her informants, Bennett discusses the role of bereavement in these occurrences, examines how and why narratives are employed to account for personal experiences, and looks at case studies in the history of ghosts and visitations. Book jacket.

and classic paranormal beliefs , they regularly run counter to the expectations of
the theory . For example , better - educated people are significantly more likely to
believe in ESP , psychic healing , and déjà vu . The deprivation theory does a ...

Author:

Publisher:

ISBN: UCAL:B3702966

Category: Religion

Page:

View: 765

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Official journal of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. JSSR was founded in 1949 by students of religion and of social science in order to stimulate and communicate significant scientific research on religious institutions and experience.

These authors stress that the reality of such paranormal phenomena as
extrasensory perception or psychokinesis is irrelevant to their analysis . They are
concerned solely with studying how scientists attempt to establish or refute ...

Author: Michael Mulkay

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing

ISBN: UCSC:32106019498820

Category: Cities and towns

Page: 132

View: 708

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The major contributors to the sociology of knowledge have agreed that the conclusions of science depend on social action only in a very limited sense. This view is examined critically and it is argued that scientific knowledge should be included fully within the scope of sociological analysis. The production of scientific knowledge is depicted as a process of negotiation, the outcome of which depends on participants' use of resources which are both technical and social. It is shown how cultural resources are taking over from the broader cultural milieu and incorporated into the body of certified knowledge; and how, in the wider political context, scientists' claims are conditioned and affected by their social allegiances.