Episode 29: Domesticating Wild Spirits: High Strangeness with Dr. Jack Hunter

Photograph by Barbara Fisher

Hello, everyone! This episode, alas, doesn’t include Kendra; she hasn’t recorded with us since the week before last when we recorded with Micheal. As she records, we’ll take the recordings Morganna and I did while she was gone and mix them in with Kendra episodes so there’s a good balance.

What we do have in this episode, however, is a real treat: Dr. Jack Hunter. He’s an anthropologist who explores the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology and the paranormal. He’s an academic who refuses to dismiss strange experiences as “just the beliefs” of other people, and his books are a fantastic blend of anthropological investigation and personal experience narrative. Talking with him was a joy, and we had a great deal of fun.

Morganna and I started talking with him about his latest book, Manifesting Spirits: An Anthropological Study of Mediumship and the Paranormal, but as is our way, the discussion naturally progressed beyond the original topic into the realm of high strangeness, the nature of reality, what are the differences between spiritual experiences and physical experiences and the “Boggle Threshold.”

What, you ask is the “Boggle Threshold?”

You’ll have to listen to find out.

I did mess up Jack’s intro, but rather than re-record it with a different microphone and different sound quality and patch it together, I let it stand. It’s only a couple of words that I stumbled over. The ending, too, is a bit different than usual because one of his very cute children came in to fetch Daddy, so there are some extra goodbyes, including from a delightful chirping little voice. We left it in because it was so adorable.

It’s a short episode, but it is packed full of excellent thoughts and conversation—we all had fun with it, and think you will, too.

And if you’re interested, here’s a list of all of Dr. Jack’s books:


Books He Authored:
Manifesting Spirits: An Anthropological Study of Mediumship and the Paranormal
Spirits Gods and Magic: An Introduction to the Anthropology of the Supernatural
Charlie: Trance Communications and Spirit Teachings (with Christine Di Nucci)

Books He Edited:
Greening the Paranormal: Exploring the Ecology of Extraordinary Experience
Engaging the Anomalous: Collected Essays on Anthropology, The Paranormal, Mediumship and Extraordinary Experience
Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal
Strange Dimensions: A Paranthropology Anthology
Talking With the Spirits: Ethnographies From Between the Worlds
Paranthropology: Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal.

Dr. Jack Hunter is also teaching an online course via Zoom called Spirits, Gods and Magic: An Introduction to the Anthropology of the Supernatural. He says there are few spots open, so sign up if you’re interested!