Bertrand Méheust’s Work in Progress: “…from the ecology of anomalous experiences, to a political ecology”

Abstract

The retired professor of philosophy Bertrand Méheust (1947-) is a major French author in the areas of both ufology and parapsychology, but since 2009 he has also published essays on political ecology. While some of his readers know him only for one of his specialties, Méheust overtly establishes complex links between ecology, politics and anomalistics. All his work over the past decade describes the common properties of social groups integrating charisms (including Jesus’ so-called miracles), especially their orientation toward a natural and cosmic solidarity. These groups are usually confronted with an ecocidal and organized denial which successfully manages to avoid any overheating which would take the system to tipping point. Méheust relies on his expert knowledge on institutional rejection of psychical research seen in past centuries, especially French metapsychics and its qualitative and “ecological” approach to psi experiences. But he has also applied political ecology to anomalistic theories like those on elusiveness and on the Trickster archetype. This article is an attempt to summarize his gateway concepts which were based on the functions of anomalous experiences, in particular their ability to “generate religions” that reorganize the links between man and his environment.