Common Phantoms

Alicia Puglionesi is author of the novella Krall Krall (2013) and the poetry chapbook Views from the National Forests (2014). She has published in The Point, Atlas Obscura, The Public Domain Review, and the VICE magazine Motherboard.

• Introduction: At Home, with Ghosts1. The Weather Map at the Bottom of the Mind2. Machines That Dream Together3. Drawings from the Other Side4. Psychic Domesticity5. The Wilderness of InsanityConclusion: To Keep Alive and Heap Up Data

"A fresh perspective on the goals and failures, friendships and rivalries, methods and dreams of those who investigated the interconnected powers of the human mind."—Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto, author of The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary's Journey on Indigenous Land "Common Phantoms is sophisticated, engaging, and at times moving. This important book complements recent studies on psychical research but also breaks new ground on topics such as gender, mental illness, empiricism, and race."—Christopher White, Vassar College, author of Other Worlds: Spirituality and the Search for Invisible Dimensions "Common Phantoms offers an insightful, entertaining look at America's haunted history and Americans' hunger to understand the invisible forces that shape their lives. Alicia Puglionesi's artful examination of psychic science—its investigators and experiments, its skeptics and true believers—provides a fascinating view of the empirical study of spiritual pursuits."—Peter Manseau, Smithsonian Curator of American Religious History and author of The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost