141. Steve Volk Investigates UFOs, Ghosts, Telepathy and Near-Death Experience in, Fringe-ology

Summary: Investigative journalist and author Steve Volk seeks a middle-ground between mainstream science skepticism and researchers on the paranormal fringe.   Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for an interview with Steve Volk, author of Fringe-ology.  During the interview Mr. Volk discusses his personal experience with poltergeist phenomena: Alex Tsakiris: In your book you do a very nice job of exploring the mystery of the paranormal. But at the same time, I look at the mystery associated with your experience with a ghost in your house. That is, what happened to you when you were a kid growing up and you experienced this poltergeist phenomena. At the end of the day, in the book you come away and say, “Well, it’s a mystery.” Steve Volk: It is. Alex Tsakiris: But that’s a tricky word because it could mean two things. It could appeal to that certain group of people who say, “Okay, we don’t know if it really happened. It’s a mystery.” Or another group of people could process it and say, “Oh, it’s a mystery. We don’t know the precise confluence of paranormal things that happened to cause it.” Are we using a word that doesn’t get us to the underlying question about this mystery? Steve Volk: I think in the totality of that chapter with the fact that I explore the idea of it having been a traditional sort of ghost, along with a range of skeptical explanations from the fantasy-prone personality which is really purely a psychological one to what I consider the more exotic materialist theories like Vic Tandy’s theory of infrasound that there are these sound waves below the level of human hearing that can cause us to even have visual hallucinations, on through Persinger and the electromagnetic energy temporal lobe interaction that he’s been pursuing for a while now, there’s this range of potential explanations right? I wanted to just put them all out on the table because I think that they all have some sort of validity. I think we need to be willing to consider all these possibilities. I suppose, in that respect Alex, I might appear a little bit of a gadfly at times because I’m challenging everyone to look at all the possibilities all the way on through. Steve Volk's Website Play it: Download MP3 (44:00 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: We’re joined today by someone you’ve gotten to know over the last few episodes of Skeptiko as Steve Volk has been a guest host here and brought us three very informative, insightful interviews about the history of parapsychology, neuro-theology, and ghosts. Today Steve is here to talk about his new book, Fringe-ology, a book that covers all these topics and a lot more. Steve, welcome to Skeptiko. Steve Volk: Alex, thank you so much for having me. Alex Tsakiris: Well, it’s really great to have you on. The book is really fantastic. I really enjoyed it and of course, we’ve really primed the pump on this little discussion we’re going to have. I’m looking forward to getting into some of these things with you. Steve Volk: I was going to say maybe we should stop right at “It’s great.” [Laughs] Alex Tsakiris: [Laughs] Steve Volk: Let’s just call it there. Thank you very much, Alex. Good times. Alex Tsakiris: [Laughs] Well…of course we’re not going to do that. Steve Volk: I know, I know. Alex Tsakiris: But first I want to let people know I really did—I genuinely like the book. One of the things I thought was really, really great about it is you’re an investigative journalist and you really brought that kind of sensibility to this book. I love the way you dug into these topics, topics that aren’t covered nearly enough, of course. But you dug into them and you brought us a whole bunch of new information. You take Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, one of the opening chapters in the book—I mean, wow. Whoever knew that she was the real originator, the first NDE researcher? And you chronicle all of that and do a great job of doing it.