Deep Weird

Deep Weird: The Varieties of High Strangeness Experiences Edited by Jack Hunter (2023 August Night Press eBook 571p) 

 

 In reviews last year this book seemed promising – an edited collection of papers and essays on the truly weird and strange experiences known by researchers as Deep Weird. The reported experiences just too unusual, too bizarre to be pigeon-holed into the usual categories. Knowing my interest in such things (long-time Fortean Times subscriber here!) it sounded like something I’d definitely want to read without hesitation.

The introduction is a strong start, the editor explains how he likens the current volume to William James’ classic The Varieties of Religious Experience from 1902. Examples of what he wants to cover are given and it all seems intriguing enough.

The first section also starts strong with stories and anecdotes on topics ranging from Synchronicity to Fairies but soon it seems we’ve run out of what I’d class as Deep Weird and we’re back to discussing pretty tired and well-trodden paranormal topics like so-called ‘Ectoplasm’ at seances 100 years ago, Near Death Experiences and Poltergeists.

The next section about researching such things also varies in quality and the final part Modelling the Deep Weird mainly disappears into its own navel.

Maybe its my own personal biases showing but I feel many of the so-called researchers have ‘gone native’ and become true believers in many of the topics that they pretend to be objective about, resulting in a lot of the material having to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Perhaps I was expecting too much.

There are some little gems in this book but overall, I felt quite disappointed with it.