Ghost Seminar!

Hello, All – here’s an upcoming seminar I’ll be teaching online for three weeks in July through the Oates Institute.  It’s fun (and accredited continuing education units for professionals: clergy, chaplains, social workers, psychologists, etc)   If interested, please contact michael@oates.org for more info.

Spirituality and Fiction: The Spirituality of the Ghost Story

This seminar explores the idea of life after death, and how it has been imagined. What are ghosts? What power …

This seminar explores the idea of life after death, and how it has been imagined.

What are ghosts? What power do we give them?  What are their spiritual and psycho-social implications? To which aspects of our psyche do ghosts speak? What do they say about the specific culture and historic time out of which the individual story arose?

What about post mortem retribution, karma in ghost stories? Justice, or “just desserts” in ghost stories? Voudoun and magical thinking, what’s that about?

Course objectives:
In this course, we will explore the spiritual implications of ghost stories and paranormal literature.

Clearly, these tales reflect cultural and psycho-social ideas; but they also pose many serious spiritual and psychological questions for the thoughtful reader about life after death, redemption, justice, magical thinking, and other things.

Syllabus:
M R James, “Casting the Runes”
M R James, “Count Magnus”
E F Benson, “Caterpillars”
H P Lovecraft, “Shadow Over Innsmouth”
Jan Olandese, “The Lawn Jockey”
Jan Olandese, “Death Be Not Loud”
Jan Olandese, “Cafe Merde”