On a slow day in Northampton, Mass., after they had seen the only movie in town, Stephen Braude’s friends convinced him to play “this game called table-up”—or, in other words, to have a seance. Thus began the “sordid and complicated tale” of Braude’s exploration of the paranormal in everyday life—-a story whose most recent chapter is The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations.
In a conversation this week with his colleague Rennie Short—currently airing on the University of Maryland Baltimore County YouTube channel—Braude discusses his evolution from a hard-nosed materialist to a president of the Parapsychological Association. Along the way, he discusses some of the most fascinating case studies from The Gold Leaf Lady—including, of course, the book’s namesake. After watching the video, you can learn even more in this excerpt.