Universal Vampire Update

Just heard from the editors that the forthcoming multi-volume blockbuster The Universal Vampire is scheduled for publication in April 2012. The publishers were 'very impressed with the quality of the essays in the collection'. A brief description of my chapter can be found here http://www.academia.edu/1536481/Evidence_for_the_Undead

CFP: Esotericism and Health

Call for Papers ESSWE 4: Western Esotericism and Health

Datum: June 26, 2013 -to- June 29, 2013
Call for Papers: ESSWE4 - The Fourth International Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism

Western Esotericism and Health

26-29 June 2013, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Issues relating to health (understood in a broad sense) can be seen as an intrinsic part of the field of esotericism, but surprisingly little attention has been given to how health is understood and construed in esoteric discourses. The conference is thus as an attempt to fill an important lacuna in the study of Western esotericism. Suggested topics include (but are not limited to), esoteric notions and discourses on health, sexuality and well-being, "occult" causes for disease, "occult medicine", notions of therapeutic benefits of magic and meditation, alchemical approaches to health, alternative forms of medicine, etc.

Keynote lecturers include:

Catherine L. Albense (University of California)
Peter Forshaw (University of Amsterdam)
James R. Lewis (Tromsø University)
Mark Sedgwick (Aarhus University)
Andrew Weeks (Illinois State University)
Alison Winter (University of Chicago)

Papers are invited in English. Proposals for 20 minutes’ papers (title and short abstract of approximately 250 words) should be sent to Henrik Bogdan (henrik.bogdan@religion.gu.se), with your name and academic affiliation, by January 15, 2013.

Conference Chairman: Henrik Bogdan, University of Gothenburg

Conference Committee: Egil Asprem, Henrik Bogdan, Olav Hammer, Kennet Granholm, Asbjørn Dyrendal and Jesper Aa. Petersen

Spiritualism Anthology Details Released

Just arrived in my inbox are the full(er) details of the forthcoming anthology on spiritualism:

the anthology is to be published as:

Christopher M. Moreman (Ed.), The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with
the Dead in American and around the World (ABC-CLIO, 2013). It is
scheduled for release in the summer.

Sub-titles (and authors for each) are:
Vol. 1: American Origins and Global Proliferation (Paper; D. Wilson; Biondi; Sommer; Kragh; Dempsey; Hamilton; Straughan; Crockford; Charet; Moore; Biscop; Cosgrove; Rocha)
Vol. 2: Belief, Practice, and Evidence for Life After Death (Betty; Gutierrez; Singleton; Roxburgh & Roe; Leonard; Kavan; Alvarado; P. Wilson; Schwartz; Roe & Roxburgh; Hageman & Krippner; Meyer zu Erpen; Delgado; Stasulane; Hamilton).
Vol. 3: Social and Cultural Responses (Lynch; Knowles; Ricci; Williams-Hogan; Butler; Ruickbie; Lowry; Manson; Guillory; Troy; McDonald; Kee; Hoeger; Natale)

Magonia Review of The Supernatural

 Magonia Review of Books, review of Leo Ruickbie, A Brief Guide to the Supernatural: Ghosts, Vampires and the Paranormal (Constable and Robinson, 2012), dated 29 March 2012:

The book is well referenced in the form of footnotes and makes a good general introduction.

See the full review at http://pelicanist.blogspot.de/2012/04/shortreviews04.html