THE PARANORMAL MEDIA BLITZ:

GHOST BUSTERS,
PSYCHICS, AND SPIRIT MEDIUMS

EUROPEAN
ENLIGHTENMENT THOUGHT
European Enlightenment thought
did not necessarily deny the
existence of god, but did situate
science as the proper means of
understanding the natural world.
This established a division
between science and religion.
A social evolutionary lineage
developed:
MAGIC
RELIGION
SCIENCE

THEORETICAL
THEMES AND CRITIQUES
IRRATIONAL
Pre-modern West
Religion in general
Folk and indigenous
religions
RATIONAL
Modernity
Positivism
RATIONALIZE
Apply positivistic assumptions
RATIONALIZATION
Positivistic social organization to
maintain compliance and order.

 MARX
Repressive Power
WEBER
Power for Powers
Sake
FOUCAULT
Productive Power

THE EMIC/ETIC DICHOTOMY

EDITHTURNER

EMIC: Studying a culture from their

point of view.
ETIC: Applying theories to cultural
phenomena that might not make sense
to the members of that culture.
The NATIVE
ANTHROPOLOGIST or GOING
NATIVE: Can illuminate the false
fixity of the emic/etic dichotomy, but
at the possibility of professional,
academic, and social costs, iffor
examplethe anthropologist engages
in trance and channeling rituals, and
writes about it.

SHAKESPEARE
THEGHOSTOF
HAMLETS
FATHER

DICKENS
MARLEYS
GHOST
FROM
ACHRISTMAS
CAROL

OSCARWILDE,THECANTERVILLEGHOST

BASEDONCLAIMS
BYTHELUTZS
THATTHEY
LIVEDINA
HAUNTEDHOUSE
ANDHAD
TROUBLING
PARANORMAL
EXPERIENCES.

BASEDONAN
ACTUAL
PARANORMAL
INVESTIGATION
BYDR.THELMAMOSS
ANDHERTEAM
FROMUCLA

ISEEDEADPEOPLE.

EDANDLORRAINEWARREN
www.warrens.net

www.derekacorah.org

JAMESVANPRAAGH
www.vanpraagh.com

TEDDANSONASVANPRAAGH

CATEGORIES OF HAUNTINGS
RESIDUAL HAUNTING: Like a video playback of an
event from the past with no interaction with the human
observer.
SPIRIT MANIFESTATION: Full or partial bodied
apparition, mists, orbs and light anomalies, odors, voices,
knocks, whistles, footsteps, touches, cold spots. These are
generally attributed to deceased humans who are caught in
this realm, or who return to visit.
POLTERGIESTS: Playful and at times harmful entities that
cause objects to move or float, hide items, make noises, etc.
DEMONS: They rarely interact with humans, but when they
do, can cause great damage.

SEANCES

ATTEMPTS TO MAKE GHOST HUNTING

RATIONAL THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

UCLA PARAPSYCHOLOGIST,
THELMA MOSS
Moss and her team
investigated a Culver City
haunting in 1974 in which
a woman claimed that
three ghosts repeatedly
sexually assaulted her.
They documented
poltergeist activity and
manifestations of entities.

35mmPHOTOGRAPHSHOWING
REVERSEARCSOVERTHESUBJECTSHEAD

THEATLANTIC
PARANORMAL
SOCIETY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciHf4WXKY4E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSo_FWH3iz0

Most Haunted
Haunted History
Ghost Hunters
The Unexplained
Psychic Detectives
Haunted America
Paranormal
The Ghost Whisperer
Talking With The Dead
Medium
Ghost Adventures
Paranormal State

MARXS THEORY OF
REPRESSIVE POWER
Power is rooted in economic relations.
Capitalists coerce workers through top down,
visible and identifiable tactics.

WEBERS THEORY OF
POWER FOR POWERS SAKE
Economic and political power
can be the consequence of
power in other social realms.
For example: bureaucrats
wield power even though they
are not wealthy.
Bureaucracy is a primary force
in the rationalization of
society.
Power is valued for its own
sake.
Or the charismatic leader is
often concerned with power
over wealth.

FOUCAULTS
THEORY OF PRODUCTIVE POWER
Productive power circulates in the social field and can attache to strategies
of domination as well asresistance. This occurs because bodies and minds
are disciplined, normalized, and placed under surveillance to participate.
Productive power is perpetuated through discourses that construct what
comes to be regarded as truths.
DISCOURSES ARE: ways of constituting knowledge, together with the
social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations Discourses are
more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the
'nature' of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of
the subjects they seek to govern.
IDEOLOGIES: Systems of abstract ideas that foster social compliance with
hegemonic norms.
Foucault asserts that discourses are interstitial with ideologies.
A way to think of the relationship between the two is that discourses are
processes that produce and reinforce ideologies as reifying abstractions.

INVISIBLIZED
This form of power is
productive because
it is a network that
circulates amongst us
and that we are
disciplined to
participate in.
Sources of repressions
become INVISIBLE,
elusive, and hard to
identify.

SURVEILLANCE
A strategy to maintain social
compliance and order.
Practiced in many societies around
the globe and throughout history.
The spirits of many religions are
believed to be able to observe
humans and monitor their
behavior, generally at all times and
in all places.
Generates tensions among the
irrational, rational, and
rationalization.

THE PANOPTICON
Designed in 1781 by
Jeremy Bentham to
maximize prison
efficiency.
A few guards can watch
hundreds of inmates.
Because the prisoners
never know when they
are being watched they
discipline themselves to
comply with prison rules.

ATMCAMERAS

TRAFFICCAMERAS

STORECAMERAS

LAWENFORCEMENTANDNEWS
HELICOPTERSURVEILLANCE

SURVEILLANCEINLONDON

DIGITAL SURVEILLANCE

Much of the personal details of

our individual lives are digitally
stored and accessible to many
unknown others:
Education
Health
Credit
Finances
Spending habits
Gambling habits
Taxes
DMV records
Legal records
Dating preferences

As people feel a loss of control over

their lives, and find it hard to identify
who or what is responsible for that
loss, are they turning to the
paranormal for answers?

Is the paranormal media blitz a way

of TURNING THE CAMERAS ON
THE ELUSIVE AND THE
INVISIBLE?

Are people turning to the paranormal

for a more personalized and
autonomous system of belief as an
alternative to the rigid ideologies and
authorities of world religions?