Lecture evening – From séance to the laboratory 2017

 

Het Johan Borgman Fonds - Lecture evening – From séance to the laboratoryPoltergeist, clairvoyance, telepathy, dancing tables, ectoplasm and music from the afterlife. Everyone has an opinion about these concepts, but how do experts regard these phenomena?

Foundation Stichting Het Johan Borgman Fonds (HJBF) organized an evening dedicated to the fascinating history of academic research on paranormal phenomena in the Netherlands – a pioneering country for this academic field during the 1960s-80s. It was held on April 13, in cooperation with Stichting Jonge Historici and the Descartes Centre (Utrecht University). During this evening, it wasn’t just the specific history that was discussed, but also the wider role of generally accepted views on historiography itself.

 

One of the speakers was Ingrid Kloosterman, who holds a PhD on the history of Dutch Parapsychology. She wrote an introduction to the subject (noted above) in her book “Wetenschap van Gene Zijde’, which was published on May 1 2017.

Fellow speaker Roosje Keijser, Acquisition Specialist of private archives at Het Utrechts Archief, also discussed the importance of Dutch Parapsychology archives collected by the HJBF. At the end of the evening, the attendees had the chance to share their thoughts in a final discussion.