Summary
Dr Alex Tanous was a prolific scholar and acclaimed psychic of the latter part of the twentieth century. Having created quite a career for himself internationally, and commanding a great deal of respect amongst scholars and the general public, he spent nearly twenty years as an active researcher, and research participant, for the American Society for Psychical Research. He reached an untimely end in 1990, but established the Alex Tanous Foundation for Scientific Research shortly before his death to preserve his memory and share his research and teachings.
Conversations with Ghosts was an idea for a fourth book for Dr Tanous, and it was intended to be written by Dr Karlis Osis and himself, outlining their various investigations of ghostly phenomena while working with the American Society for Psychical Research. The existing short manuscript – of no more than a couple of chapters – was archived by the Alex Tanous Foundation for Scientific Research, and left incomplete. Now, thanks to the Foundation’s support, the book has finally been completed using additional notes and writings of Dr Tanous, and interviews that were conducted with him on his thoughts and theories into ghosts and conscious survival beyond death. Additionally, this book provides not only a first-hand insight into the Tanous/Osis investigations, but also draws on people’s personal experiences with Dr Tanous during his various explorations of ghosts and hauntings. This is a rare insight into the work and mind of a psychic psychical researcher.
Praise for Conversations with Ghosts
‘‘Parapsychologists of a certain generation will know Alex Tanous as a talented psychic who spent years working with researchers to help understand his special abilities. Mr Cooper has done the field a great service by assembling this collection of Tanous’ own haunting investigations that reveal not just some good ghost stories but another dimension to Tanous’ talent.’‘
—Richard S. Broughton, Ph.D.
Author of Parapsychology: The Controversial Science
Dr. Alex Tanous was Dr. Osis’ favourite and most successful psychic in sophisticated out-of-body experiments, and in investigations of places of reported hauntings and apparitions. What was particularly prominent in this research was the emphasis on the importance of these phenomena for the question of survival of death. In this book Tanous describes and
reflects on his remarkable personal experiences.
—Erlendur_Haraldsson, Ph.D.
Author of The Departed Among the Living: An Investigative Study of Afterlife Encounters
It’s about time Alex Tanous was brought back into the public eye, and this book shows why he should be remembered as one of the best psychics of several generations. Tanous was an enormous influence on me, and I hope that readers of this book feel some of that influence as well.” Anyone interested in ghosts, spirit communication or paranormal investigation will gain much from reading this book and getting to know Alex Tanous.
—Loyd Auerbach
Atlantic University
This book chronicles the strategies used by Alex Tanous when he was interacting with entities and realms that mainstream Western society considers imaginary at best and hallucinatory at worst. But Tanous was a deep thinker and careful investigator who worked with scientists and kept meticulous records of his investigations. This is what makes Conversations with Ghost a valuable document, not only for advocates of so-called “psychic phenomena” but for anyone interested in the unexplored potentials of human behavior.
—Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
co-editor, Varieties of Anomalous Experience
In Conversations with Ghosts, Callum Cooper makes a very important contribution to survival research literature, by bringing to light one of history’s most gifted out-of-body projectors, Alex Tanous. Tanous described himself as a “pioneer, – testing, exploring, and discovering through (his own) ability.”
Cooper includes Tanous’ case notes: they offer an inside view into Tanous’ psychic abilities and insights regarding the out-of-body experience and the hauntings he investigated. One tantalizing account explains how he personally experienced his own body-double, which went out-of-body with Tanous, forming a “triangle” with Tanous’ inert body.
Cooper is to be commended for allowing readers to know about this most intriguing researcher and experiencer.
—Elizabeth E. McAdams, Ph.D.
President, International Foundation for Survival Research