The Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research 9 (2023)
This issue's main article is an interview with Danny Robins. Robins is the host of a range of popular media versions of paranormal shows. He focusses mainly on ghosts but he also delves into timeslips, UFOs and other phenomena. Some may question why this article is here. Whatever your views of Danny Robins and his output he is media-savvy, visible and well known and popular (over four million downloads of his podcasts, for example). He knows how to use the mainstream media to his advantage and he has a large social-media presence which drives, to a degree, the content of his shows. Due to all of this he is getting people talking about subjects close to the hearts of SPR members; getting people to reveal their own ghost encounters – bringing a wealth of cases to the fore that most of us have previously been unaware of. He is essentially and inadvertently collating a modern-day Phantasms of the Living. With our interests most of us will have had someone mention Robins or his body of work – most recently under the Uncanny brand. Surely the next step should be to say to them – "Well, if you enjoyed that have you ever thought of joining the SPR?".
In addition we have an interesting piece from Mike Daw. We're all told to look after our diet for health reasons, but what about mediumistic and Psi reasons? Would that be enough to make you skip dessert? Read on in Food and the Psychic Investigator – Diet and Hereward Carrington's Theories of Mediumship and Psi.
An article from occassional SPR member Trevor Harley is a look back at his early years in Cambridge, where he met and worked with one or two whose names will be familar. Harley's views have changed over the years and he is left with feelings that seem to suggest he will be leaving his interest in psychic studies behind.
Christof King's article on synchronicity in issue 8 has prompted some letters disagreeing with some aspects of his work, whereas our President Professor Adrian Parker takes a different view from the authors of the letters.
The other article in this issue is a quick look at a publication from Robert Bigelow - a beautiful five-volume set of most of the winning essays from his recent competition on survival of consciousness after physical death.
Remember, this is your magazine. There is space for a lively letters page but that only works if you contribute. And talking of contributions – if anyone would like to contribute an article then please get in touch. If there are topics you would like to read about but don't necessarily want to write about yourself then please get in touch as well. Please send all correspondence to the same email address as in the past, [email protected]
Gordon Rutter
Editor