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The paranormal surrounds us: Psychic phenomena in literature, culture and psychoanalysis

Richard Reichbart’s book, The Paranormal Surrounds Us, will appeal to the general reader, parapsychologists, literary critics, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, and anthropologists. Paranormal experiences are universal in that most people have had a paranormal experience, an anomalous experience or an altered state of awareness. Those who haven’t probably know someone who has. For the psychoanalyst and psychotherapist interested in the paranormal, this book will be a page-turner. Reichbart presents a wide-ranging collection of fascinating examples of paranormal communication in well-known works of literature and film, lively vignettes of psychoanalytic process, with emphasis on his own work and the work of Jule Eisenbud, and the overall influence of culture, with a chapter on Native American culture that grew out of his experience as a young lawyer working with the Navajo before he became a psychoanalyst. He is bold as he not only discusses telepathic communication but also presents his observations of more controversial examples of paranormal communication (psi) such as thoughtography, apparitions, premonitions, remote viewing, psychokinesis and the inclusion of magic. He also discusses the relationship and connection between psi and magic, as seen in both Ingmar Bergmann’s movie The Magician and Navajo ceremonies. Moreover, he presents a detailed exposition of the paranormal in the thoughtography experiments conducted by Eisenbud, his first analyst, with Ted Serios who produced photographs on Polaroid film through psychokinesis. Psychoanalysts usually avoid the more controversial aspects of psi, but Reichbart does not. He has spent years working with the fear that people normally have when they encounter these experiences. One of the purposes of his book is to present Eisenbud’s work for reconsideration, as he was deeply dismayed by how it has been denigrated. When Reichbart began his own analytic training, he knew how unsafe it could be for a young analytic candidate to show an interest in psi. For many years, he stopped publishing the results of his psychic research and continued his work privately. This book is the result. The Paranormal Surrounds Us presents compelling examples of the paranormal communication that operates unconsciously in all relationships and that can be accessed more easily by some people than others. First, I will present examples of psi from the book’s Section I, Psi Phenomena in Literature, specifically from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and, next, from Section II on Psi Phenomena and Psychoanalysis. I will focus on Reichbart’s informative history of the paranormal in hypnosis and psychic research, its effect on Freud and the development of psychoanalysis, how psi appears in the psychoanalytic process, and some ideas about how psi phenomena are communicated. Third, I will discuss Section III on Psi Phenomena and Culture, focusing on Reichbart’s description of the multiple roles of the psychic in traditional Navajo society and the relationship of magic and psi in both Navajo culture and medieval culture as seen in the film The Magician, based on G.K. Chesterton’s play Magic.