| Title | : | Ecology of Souls: A New Mythology of Death \u0026 the ParanormalVolume One |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1733980857 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781733980852 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 370 |
| Publication | : | Published July 7, 2022 |
Is the UFO mystery reaching out to us from beyond the stars... or from beyond the grave?
This staggering implication demands not only scrutiny of the UFO phenomenon but nearly every unexplained mystery haunting us today. In this first of two volumes, Joshua Cutchin takes readers on a methodical journey through ancient traditions to lay the crucial foundation for a new mythology of death and the paranormal.
Welcome to the ecology of souls.
PRAISE FOR ECOLOGY OF SOULS
“Those of us who work in these strangest of folklores work with conjectures, not certainties, with intuitions, not conclusions. Still, there are particularly gifted writers whom I profoundly trust to guide me. Joshua Cutchin is among them. Here are yet two more big books from him on a global comparison that many of us have made but no one has pursued to the literal ends of the earth, as he has here—that between the world of the dead and the world of the UFO. Please read these books. And please recognize that when we can only speak of these glowing presences as ‘threats’ in the sky, we might as well be trying to shoot down souls. Good luck with that.”
— Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion, Associate Dean of the School of Humanities, Rice University
“In Ecology of Souls, Joshua Cutchin makes the case for an ecological perspective on the paranormal, with the processes of death and dying seen as essential clues for unravelling its mysteries. Paranormal entities of all different kinds are conceived as psychopomps performing ancient cosmic functions—ushering souls in their transition to the other side. By applying comparative methods—examining patterns across different cultural and folkloric traditions, and exploring commonalities between experiential narratives—Cutchin builds an argument for the centrality of death in all manner of paranormal experiences. This book is a bold and innovative contribution to Fortean research and scholarship, and a kaleidoscopic expedition into the wilds of the paranormal ecosystem.”
— Jack Hunter, PhD, editor of Greening the Paranormal: Exploring the Ecology of Extraordinary Experience
“In a world where there are an infinite amount of questions, Joshua Cutchin has some of the answers! He offers a refreshing look into the concept of death and paranormal experiences through a fascinating lens while going back to our cultural lore. Whether you are curious or a skilled anomalous researcher, this book should be a must-add to any library.”
— Alex Matsuo, founder and director of Association of Paranormal Study
Ecology of Souls: A New Mythology of Death \u0026 the ParanormalVolume One Reviews
-
The print version of this two book series is 1,405 pages. I read the two books as a Kindle Unlimited download. Many thanks to the author for making this book available on KU. I'm adding this same review for both volumes.
If you write about faeries, the paranormal, aliens, UFO’s, cryptids, monsters, the Otherworld, death, psychopomps, altered states of consciousness, magic, witches, folklore, Jungian Archetypes, Reincarnation, shamanism, or mythology, these are the books for you!
My Recommendation:
This was a massive read! It took me a month to devour. But there is so much in this book that made sense to me. I’m buying my own Kindle copy of the books, because if you write paranormal fiction or poetry, this is a book to use for reference, again and again!
Let’s start with the first word I had to look up: psychopomp.
A psychopomp is a being, possibly a god or a person acting as a shaman, who guides the spirits of the dead to the afterlife or the otherworld. Think of a psychopomp as a soul gatherer…
Now, find the threads of connection from psychopomps to faeries, UFOs, cryptids, ghosts, spirits, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, etc. Do I have your interest?
Cutchin has compiled thousands of occurrences of near-death experiences, faery encounters, and otherworldly experiences that connect these phenomena to death and the afterlife.
The correlations are believable, even if some data comes from folktales. The questions to ask yourself is how much truth was buried within the myths? How much of the truth was misinterpreted? How come we didn’t connect the dots sooner?
The section that compared faery encounters to modern day alien encounters opened my eyes to another interpretation. Faeries have long been associated with the Otherworld and death. I’d never looked at an alien encounter in the same way. After reading this book, I can see the connections. I’m a believer.
I own Whitley Strieber’s best-selling series Communion, Transformation, and Breakthrough, which all chronicles his experiences with UFOs and abduction. Cutchins draws on Strieber’s experiences and knowledge often.
Now, after all these years since the Communion books were first published, Strieber contends that these experiences have something to do with death. They connect to the liminal—the Veil between the worlds where the aliens act as psychopomps, inviting us to cross over into the unknown.
In fact, Cutchins points out, if you look at the alien portrayed on the cover of Communion, you will see an image similar to the descriptions of faeries found in Celtic mythology. Those large, black eyes are often described in faery encounters.
This is a diverse study of paranormal phenomena, and how death and our consciousness are all connected. The books are much more than just witness accounts. Included is a separate volume to cover all the citations and references.
Read the books and draw your own conclusions. -
This is really a review of both volumes of this work, as you really can't read one without the other.
These books cover so much territory it is hard to summarize. Cutchin goes in depth on all manners of death and soul mythology and symbolism from the world over, and its intersections with everything from psychedelics, to meditation, UFOs, the fae, OBEs, NDEs, and so much more. He presents a convincing argument that all of these are connected in an ecology of souls, and how souls travel through things like birth and death.
Whether Cutchin is right or not makes no difference to the value of these books for me. It was a masterclass in comparative mythology, well researched and balanced across cultures, well organized and argued. It really gives the reader something to think about. I would highly recommend the book to anybody interested in the paranormal, but also anybody interested in mythology and how it evolves.
