A personal exploration of questions surrounding psychic healing, séances, astral projection, and more After an injury threatened his chances of signing a professional baseball contract, R. Alan
A personal exploration of questions surrounding psychic healing, séances, astral projection, and more
After an injury threatened his chances of signing a professional baseball contract, R. Alan Streett sought help from Olga Worrall, a world-famous psychic healer. This encounter set in motion his lifelong search for the origin and nature of psychic phenomena. Were they natural or supernatural? From God, or from the devil? Were they mentalists’ tricks, or feats of the subconscious mind? Streett invites us to join him in real time as he explores the fascinating world of the paranormal, offering insights into healing, magic, trance channeling, yogic meditation, alternative medicine, astral projection, and the brain’s ability to produce spiritual and mystical experiences. Ultimately Streett enables readers to draw some time-tested and cutting-edge conclusions.
Exploring the Paranormal is a helpful guide for all who wish to understand the varied forms of spirituality that are so popular today.
“In Exploring the Paranormal Christian scholar R. Alan Streett recounts his half-century-long journey into the captivating world of paranormal experiences—spiritual healings, clairvoyance, spirit contact, magic, and beyond—meeting the fascinating practitioners and encountering the intellectual challenges of mapping the subconscious world where mind, psyche, and spirit converge and interact. And he does this all while trying to develop a mature Christian commitment and remain true to an orthodox theological heritage. Readers will be caught up in the unexpected twists and turns as new encounters force thoughtful changes upon the seeker-pilgrim.”
—J. Gordon Melton, Baylor University
“In Exploring the Paranormal, Alan Streett takes us on a journey to the edge of the spiritual frontiers and explains how faith, when triggered in the brain by an unexpected word, event, sight, thought, or even a serendipitous encounter, can produce amazing results, including physical healing and spiritual breakthroughs. Broadly speaking, faith is our sixth sense that unlocks the mysteries of the world around us. It views as real what the five natural senses cannot comprehend. In this book, theology and psychology meet at the intersection of the spirit and mind.”
—Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Duke University
“Alan Streett takes us on an astonishing journey. This is a memoir of sorts, tracing Streett’s life from accomplished baseball player to theology professor, though one centered on the author’s longtime engagement with and study of spiritualism, psychic phenomena, and all things paranormal. In a world increasingly at home with ‘spiritual, not religious,’ this book is a fascinating read.”
—Joel B. Green, Fuller Theological Seminary
“Alan Streett conveys the most powerful and precious insight: that the presence of the sacred is real and surrounds us. Here and now, we all have the opportunity to seek, to open our spiritual awareness, to awaken [to its existence.”
—Lisa Miller, founder of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Columbia University
“Alan Streett has spent a lifetime seeking to understand the nature of the paranormal. Dissatisfied with typical evangelical explanations, he follows the trail of evidence wherever it leads and invites us to join him. Along the way we encounter psychic healers, trance mediums, Christian mystics, and even a few hucksters—all claiming to have transcendental experiences. As he separates fact from fantasy, Streett draws surprising conclusions about these extraordinary occurrences. Exploring the Paranormal is a real page turner!”
—Jonathan Merritt, contributor to The Atlantic and columnist for Religion News Service
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R. Alan Streett is senior research professor emeritus of biblical theology at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas.
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Table of Contents
Foreword by James F. McGrath
Part 1
1. My Quest
2. Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship
3. The Summer of ’68
4. A Fifth-Year Senior
5. Washington, DC
6. My First Séance
Part 2
7. The Great Reversal
8. Deliverance!
9. A Demon behind Every Bush
10. A Tragic Setback
Part 3
11. Magic and the Witch Doctor
12. The Spiritualists
13. The Man Who Spoke to the Dead
Part 4
14. Mind over Matter
15. Practice What You Preach!
16. The Subconscious Mind and Brainwaves
17. Nighttime Brainwaves and Psychic Phenomena
18. Searching for Ted Swager
19. Lessons Learned
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