ABSTRACT
Judging by the number of academic conferences, research centres and publications now focused on ‘paranormal’ experiences, it is clear that there is both an upsurge in scholarly interest in this challenging field and a wide variety of methodologies harnessed to address it. 1 From psychical research and parapsychology, anthropology and social sciences, to literature, film and the arts, transpersonal and depth psychology and experiential frameworks based on participator observation, a vast range of extraordinary and anomalous phenomena is open to investigation by all, whether sceptic or sympathiser. However, whilst this can lead to a refreshing display of interdisciplinarity, there is also a danger that a lack of discrimination concerning the merits or appropriateness of methods used to address this non-rational realm may result in a ‘free for all’ hotchpotch of contending positions and convictions, with no clear rationale with which to assess the deeper philosophical or epistemological issues involved. In this chapter I shall suggest an approach to these issues that may inform engagements with the paranormal through providing a framework that both recognises multiple ways of knowing and situates them within a coherent whole. This model is essentially derived from Platonic and neoplatonic philosophy.
