I wouldn’t say that I have a unique point of view among paranormal researchers, but it is a rather rare one. Most people exist huddled at opposite extremes; that is, they either have a passionate belief in paranormal phenomena, convinced by the tiniest shreds of evidence, or they think...
Just about anything, in any format, can get censored or banned these days- books, television, movies, art, and music, to name a few. Now we can add classic nursery rhymes to the list of “offensive” material. The world, it seems, has completely lost its sense of reason and logic....
Ambrose Bierce pondered one day, “Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.” “Ah,” said Lewis Carroll, “Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it...
The Irish Censorship of Publications Board was established in 1929 by the newly-formed Irish Free State (boy, isn’t that a contradiction in terms) to examine and restrict ‘obscene’ publications. Liam O’Flaherty’s The House of Gold had coincidentally been released that same year and enjoyed a brief time in print...
Texas-born Tomás Rivera’s coming-of-age story of a Mexican boy’s life in a migrant family in the 1940s and 1950s, with its themes of family life and tensions, is apparently too much for the parents of a Clarke County seventh-grader and they want the book banned. They demanded that the...
Most people have either had the experience or been witness to the self-censorship that comes from the fear of causing offense to someone; some others may feel that over-protectiveness denies people the opportunity to decide for themselves where the moral line is when it comes to artful expression. Most...
“Batman: The Killing Joke” is a one-shot graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland. Published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained so popular that it has been in print since then. It has also been subject recently to censorship efforts. Looking into the...
We’ve covered how to blend spiritual work into paranormal investigations in one of the earliest series for this column; and how the psychology of perception shapes our paranormal experiences; as well as a plethora of discussions on how scientific principles and methods apply to paranormal research. Through it all,...
Most of us aren’t surprised by “Fifty Shades of Grey” being the fourth most-challenged book of 2012, but would you expect a children’s book to make number one? Dav Pilkey’s “Captain Underpants” has been repeatedly banned or challenged due to concerns over offensive language and charges of being “unsuited...
We know that the mentality behind censorship and the banning of books is shortsighted and narrow-minded; but when that ignorance causes those words to completely disappear from the world, it’s just nauseating. That’s what is happening to rare nationalist works that were banned by the British during India’s quest...