AUTHOR
Deborah Hyde
30 Articles
Deborah Hyde is former editor of The Skeptic and is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. She writes and lectures about belief in the malign supernatural, with special regard to the folklore, psychology and sociology behind belief.
Spellbound: magic, ritual and witchcraft
Deborah Hyde reports from the Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford.
Do ghosts exist? If not, why do we see them?
This is the deceptively simple question I ask at the beginning of every episode of the Haunted podcast. The show features ghost stories that...
Werewolves
A werewolf attacks a man
Hans Baldung Grien
From Die Emeis (1516)
Guest Contributor: Deborah Hyde
Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg (1445-1510), the ‘Doctor Keisersperg’ of the caption above,...
RIP Hitch
Anthony Burns ruminates on Hitch’s persistent preoccupations, and wonders aloud about that supposed move from left to right
“For a lot of people, their first...
Can You Catch Morgellons from the Internet?
Natasha Byrne investigates the role of a very modern medium in the proliferation of a very modern condition
It’s enough to make your skin crawl:...
Behaving Like Animals
Tessa Kendall looks at primatologist Frans de Waal’s work to muse upon the origin of our better natures
Is human nature a beast that needs...
Vampires
A Bohemian Vampire meets its end
From Les Tribunaux Secrets (1864)
By R. de Montaine
Guest Contributor: Deborah Hyde
The original vampire folklore came from central & eastern...
Kelpie
Kelpie & Lover
Warwick Goble
The Book of Fairy Poetry (1920)
Guest Contributor: Deborah Hyde
‘Water Horses’ of all varieties were usually reckoned to be male. Freshwater kelpies,...