From the desk of Nan Zingrone …
December is a busy month for all us and the Parapsychology Foundation would not only like to extend our best wishes for your holiday season but bring you up to date on our year-end acquisitions for the Eileen J. Garrett Library, the first book by Parapsychology Foundation Research Fellow Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado on the work on psychical research of early 20th century Nobel Laureate Charles Richet, and the upcoming Parapsychology Research and Education free online course (ParaMOOC2020) that starts in January. So here we go!
2019 Holiday Book Exposition
On the 20th of December, the Parapsychology Foundation uploaded a great new video highlighting the purchases of recent books for the Eileen J. Garrett Library out in Greenport, NY on the eastern edge of the North Fork of Long Island. Filmed by Anna Damalas, this charming journey through the 16 new titles that were bought this year for the libary is a must see! For the list of the new aquisitions check on this page on the PF website by clicking here.
PF Research Fellow Carlos S. Alvarado’s New Book
In early December, White Crow Press published Dr. Alvarado’s first book, Charles Richet: A Nobel Prize Winning Scientist’s Exploration of Psychic Phenomena. The book compiles a number of Alvarado’s previously published essays with new introductions and additional materials on the early 20th century Nobel Laureate. What the Nobel Prize biography doesn’t mention is that Richet was a significant contributor to the literature of psychical research during the same period in which he was contributing to mainstream science. In fact, Alvarado wrote the Psi Encyclopedia entry on Richet some time back to highlight the work Richet did that is so important to our field.
Probably the best place to understand the how, why and what Alvarado put together in his book on Richet is Alvarado’s recent blog on the topic. But to boil it down a bit, the book includes six chapters covering the work Richet did with mediums and psychics. Alvarado also examines Richet’s use of the word metapsychics to denote the field, its research and theory. Charles Richet is put together as “a first step to obtain information about the subject, and one I acknowledge needs further and more detailed study” says Alvarado. The book is available directly from White Crow Books as a paperback or as an iTunes or Kindle ebook or from Amazon by clicking here.
ParaMOOC2020
logo was created by the artist radiantskies and was licensed for use from 123rf.com by the AZIRE.
Parapsychology Research and Education (otherwise known as ParaMOOC) has been offered since 2015. Last year, we changed the structure of this free massively open online course — hence the MOOC designation — from weekday presentations to presentations only on Saturdays and Sundays. (Well, okay, we don’t get thousands upon thousands of registrants but there are definitely enough virtual seats for anybody who wants to sign up!)
The 2020 iteration of the course launches on January 13th, 2020 for open enrollment with the first live session airing on Saturday the 18th of January at noon Eastern. Presentations will continue every weekend until Saturday the 29th of February. As always there will be a lot of additional materials, and all the live broadcasts will be recorded.
For more information go to the Parapsychology Online website and click on News. The ParaMOOC Schedule is also there (we’re still getting titles from confirmed faculty and may be adding a talk or two as we go along), as well as a page of information about where to find previous lectures and other materials that would appeal to those who have a serious interest in the field. To pre-register you can also send an email to parapsychologyonline@gmail.com with “ParaMOOC2020 Register” in the subject line. Hope to see you all there!