Projects

Christopher regularly writes chapters and articles, as well as book reviews. Here is his latest…

Chapters, Articles, and Indie Publications

The book cover for Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural, edited by Simone Natale and D.W. Pasulka

“Plurality through Imagination: The Emergence of Online Tulpa Communities in the Making of New Identities,” Believing in Bits: Digital Technology and the Supernatural, edited by D.W. Pasulka and Simone Natale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 163-179.

The book cover for Greening the Paranormal: Exploring the Ecology of Extraordinary Experience, edited by Jack Hunter, features the silhouette of a face adorned with plants

With Elorah Fangrad and Rick Fehr, “Psychic Naturalism,” Greening the Paranormal, edited by Jack Hunter (Hove: August Night Books, 2019), 239-254.

An image of the Paranormal Activity (transformation) project against an artpiece by Sylvana d'Angelo

With Sylvana d’Angelo, Paranormal Activity (trans)formation (Vancouver: Zine Club, 2018). This ‘zine project, the second collaboration between Christopher Laursen and Vancouver-based artist and ‘zine publisher Sylvana d’Angelo, features various paranormal experiencers recalling a specific moment in an experience they had in a sentence or two, followed by an annotation on how it transformed how they see the world. It was exhibited at the Vancouver Art Book Fair, Prague Zine Fest, the Los Angeles Book Fair, and Miss Read in Berlin.

Cover for the book Religion: Super, edited by Jeffrey J. Kripal, features a chair flying in the air during a seance

“The Poltergeist at the Intersection of the Spirit and the Material: Some Contemporary and Historical Observations,” Super Religion, edited by Jeffrey J. Kripal (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Macmillan Reference, 2016), 311-326.

Cover of the book Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore, and the Paranormal, edited by Jack Hunter, features a man sitting in an armchair with a semi-transparent spirit hovering in the air over him

With Eden S. French, “The Transmediumizers,” Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore, and the Paranormal, edited by Jack Hunter (Paphos: Cyprus: Aporetic Press, 2016), 97-112.

Encyclopedic entries on “Poltergeist,” “Psychokinesis,” “Animals and the Paranormal,” and “The Paranormal on Television” in Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies, edited by Matt Cardin (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2015).

An image of the project Paranormal Activity (disambiguation) features a publication in a blue folder

“Explicable Orbs, Spirit Wonders,” Paranormal Activity (Dis)Ambiguation, curated and edited by Sylvana d’Angelo (Vancouver: Project Space Press, 2015), 18-21.

An image of a page from the article "Preserving Parapsychology" published in Fortean Times features a photograph of a table on which are displayed ouija boards

“Preserving Parapsychology,” Fortean Times 319 (October 2014), 56-57.

Cover of the Fortean Times featuring the article The Baldoon Mystery with an illustration of witches and black dog looking at a burning cabin

With Paul Cropper, “The Baldoon Mystery,” Fortean Times 315 (June 2014), 30-39.

“5 Archives on the Modern Metaphysical,” Dissertation Reviews (August 2013), online.

Cover of the journal Paranthropology featuring the contents for the issue

“Turning to the Affective in Direct Experiences: An Interdisciplinary, Investigative Quest,” Paranthropology 4, no. 1(a) (January 2013), 41-50.

Image of an article from Viewpoint: The Newsletter of the British Society for the History of Science where an article on a conference was published

“BSHS-Sponsored Conferences: Science and Technology in the European Periphery,” Viewpoint: The Newsletter of the British Society for the History of Science 93 (October 2010), 11.

Reviews

  • Review of Kelly Bulkeley’s Big Dreams: The Science of Dreaming and the Origins of Religion, The American Academy of Religion’s Reading Religion (30 November 2016), Online.
  • Review of Jeffrey J. Kripal et al’s Comparing Religions, Fortean Times 321 (December 2014), 61-62.
  • Review of Robert E. Bartholomew and Bob Rickard’s Mass Hysteria in Schools, Fortean Times 320 (November 2014), 58-59.
  • Review of Christopher C. French and Anna Stone’s Anomalistic Parapsychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief and Experience, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 78.4, no. 917 (October 2014), 249-251.
  • Review of Shirley Hitchings and James Clark’s The Poltergeist Prince of London, Fortean Times 213 (March 2014), 60.
  • Retrospective Review of William Roll’s The Poltergeist, Journal of Scientific Exploration 27, no. 3 (Fall 2013), 575–577.
  • Review of Deonna Kelli Sayed’s Paranormal Obsession: America’s Fascination with Ghosts and Hauntings, Spooks and Spirits, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 76.4, no. 909 (October 2012), 10-12.
  • Review of Jeffrey J. Kripal’s Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and The Sacred, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 75.1, no. 902 (January 2011), 44-47.