Hi Troy. I wish you luck in your research. I'd like to ask out of curiosity, what's the basis for your interest? Is it purely historical or are you looking for evidence of the existence of something in particular?
Hi bishop,
I am a medieval historian by trade, so I am interested in the paranormal phenomena associated with the Catholic mystics of those centuries: levitation, luminous phenomena, inedia, clairvoyance, etc. (See the fascinating book
The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism by Herbert Thurston.) I also find it fascinating that similar phenomena crop up in other wisdom traditions as well, and that they all seem to occur in the context of altered states of consciousness. In this respect, I find current attempts to study meditation in conjunction with psi abilities, such as those of Dean Radin and the folks at DOPS, to be potentially theoretically important.
I am also interested in the early history of psychical research. It's apparent to me that conventional histories of psychology leave out just how important early psychical researchers were to the foundation of the discipline, or if they're acknowledged at all, it's with an air of embarrassment. Scholar Andreas Sommer -
http://forbiddenhistories.wordpress.com/ - is doing a lot of good work here to correct the traditional narrative.
So, yes, my interest is historical, but it's also tied to a search for compelling evidence for the paranormal.