Olin Library Resources
In the Olin Library, we have a variety of resources you can utilize in getting started with researching the paranormal, including access to articles within databases and journals.
Databases
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Access World News This link opens in a new windowMany newspapers run paranormal stories in October. Also potentially useful for researching the recent history behind a possible haunting or looking for UFO or cryptid stories.
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Ancestry Library Edition (Legacy Platform) This link opens in a new windowUseful for more than genealogy. If you are investigating the history behind a potential haunting, the records here could be very useful.
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Early English Books Online This link opens in a new windowIf you search carefully you can find documents here that deal with many paranormal subjects.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowThere are several excellent folklore journals available here with articles on a broad range of topics such as ghosts, monsters, and UFOs.
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Orlando Sentinel: ProQuest Historical Newspapers (1913 - ) This link opens in a new windowThe Sentinel runs the occasional paranormal story and sometimes stories are useful for researching the history of a potentially haunted site.
E-Books
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Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics
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This fascinating work provides a complete overview of paranormal phenomena, including the beliefs, attitudes, and notable figures who have attempted to explain, defend, or debunk the mysteries behind the unknown.Recent interest in the paranormal as pop culture fodder belies its historical status as an important subject of cultural, philosophical, and scientific significance. This book traces the trajectory of paranormal studies from its early role as a serious academic and scientific topic studied by mainstream scientists and eminent scholars to its current popularity in books, film, and TV. This compelling reference work details the experiences, encounters, and ideas that make up this controversial field of study. The contributed entries examine the broad phenomena of the paranormal, addressing the history of scientific investigations along with its contemporary media depictions to illustrate the evolution of cultural attitudes about the paranormal. A selection of primary documents provides real-life accounts and contributions from noted experts that explore the full scope of themes from spiritualism to poltergeists to astrology. Accompanying images, timelines, quotations, and sidebars make the content come to life and encourage alternative explanations of these events.
ISBN: 1610696840Publication Date: 2015-07-28 -
Haunted: on ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies, and other monsters of the natural and supernatural worlds
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An award-winning scholar and author charts four hundred years of monsters and how they reflect the culture that created them Leo Braudy, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, has won accolades for revealing the complex and constantly shifting history behind seemingly unchanging ideas of fame, war, and masculinity. Continuing his interest in the history of emotion, this book explores how fear has been shaped into images of monsters and monstrosity. From the Protestant Reformation to contemporary horror films and fiction, he explores four major types: the monster from nature (King Kong), the created monster (Frankenstein), the monster from within (Mr. Hyde), and the monster from the past (Dracula). Drawing upon deep historical and literary research, Braudy discusses the lasting presence of fearful imaginings in an age of scientific progress, viewing the detective genre as a rational riposte to the irrational world of the monstrous. Haunted is a compelling and incisive work by a writer at the height of his powers.
ISBN: 9780300203806Publication Date: 2016-10-25 -
Project Blue Book
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A new edition of the blockbuster book that revealed the top-secret findings of the US government about UFOs. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, while publicly dismissing the existence of UFOs, the United States Air Force was engaged in a secret program for evaluating every report of unidentified flying objects. Under the code name, Project Blue Book, the Air Force analyzed over 13,000 incidents. The goal of this enterprise was threefold: To determine the cause for each UFO sighting, to assess the security threat for each incident, and to determine how the United States could obtain or create the technology used by UFOs. This book, based on secret files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, includes accounts of seven of the most important USAF enquiries-- among them the story of the nights the White House was buzzed by UFOs, the mystery of the Lubbock Lights, the full story of Captain Mantell--Ufology's first martyr, and the startling conversion of the prominent astronomer, J. Alan Hynek from UFO skeptic to believer. This is startling and fascinating book that uncovers not only the anatomy of a government cover-up, but also provides stark and chilling evidence that we are not alone. It is all here, government documents, the testimony of scientists, the military, pilots and citizens all over the country who have witnessed UFOS.
ISBN: 1633411508Publication Date: 2019-01-03 -
Spirituality and the Occult
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Spirituality and the Occult argues against the widely held view that occult spiritualities are marginal to Western culture. Showing that the esoteric tradition is unfairly neglected in Western culture and that much of what we take to be 'modern' derives at least in part from this tradition, it casts a fresh, intriguing and persuasive perspective on intellectual and cultural history in the West. Brian Gibbons identifies the influence and continued presence of esoteric mystical movements in disciplines such as: * medicine * science * philosophy * Freudian and Jungian psychology * radical political movements * imaginative literature.
ISBN: 1134541481Publication Date: 2013-07-04 -
The Troll Inside You
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What do medieval Icelanders mean when they say ¿troll¿? What did they see when they saw a troll? What did the troll signify to them? And why did they see them?The principal subject of this book is the Norse idea of the troll, which the author uses to engage with the larger topic of paranormal experiences in the medieval North. The texts under study are from 13th-, 14th-, and 15th-century Iceland. The focus of the book is on the ways in which paranormal experiences are related and defined in these texts and how those definitions have framed and continue to frame scholarly interpretations of the paranormal.The book is partitioned into numerous brief chapters, each with its own theme. In each case the author is not least concerned with how the paranormal functions within medieval society and in the minds of the individuals who encounter and experience it and go on to narrate these experiences through intermediaries. The author connects the paranormal encounter closely with fears and these fears are intertwined with various aspects of the human experience including gender, family ties, and death.The Troll Inside You hovers over the boundaries of scholarship and literature. Its aim is to prick and provoke but above all to challenge its audience to reconsider some of their preconceived ideas about the medieval past.
ISBN: 1947447017Publication Date: 2017-07-19
Streaming Media
These databases offer a rotating selection of film that offer a variety of classic to modern horror films for your personal viewing.
Please note: Swank videos do not have public performance rights, so they cannot be shown at public events. If you have questions about video performance rights, you can ask a librarian.
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Horror & Thriller on KanopyKanopy provides access to a variety of videos that can be streamed and viewed instantly, including feature films, educational documentaries, and rare archival footage.
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Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowKeywords to search: Horror, Classic Horror, Paranormal, Parapsychology
With over 26,000 titles and counting, Films on Demand includes Oscar, Emmy, and Peabody award–winning documentaries and A-list performances spanning the arts. -
Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new windowYou can filter these feature films by: Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction and Thriller
Swank Digital Campus provides the Rollins community with a legal streaming resource on and off campus, for a limited number of films. Public performance rights are not included.
The Rollins College Archives in Olin Library
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Rollins Online CollectionsIf you're researching the history of Rollins or Winter Park, the Archives has a wealth of information available.