Annekatrin Puhle is a German philosopher, health consultant and psi researcher whose works bring cultural history, dreams, apparitions, magic and anomalous light experiences into dialogue. They combine archival investigation, case collection and personal-experience accounts, with particular attention to apparitions, lucid dreaming and other exceptional experiences.
- Puhle’s historical research on apparitions and poltergeists began in the 1990s.
- Her writings range from Goethe-era ghost reports and Shakespearean apparitions to lucid dreams, thoughtforms, magic and anomalous light.
- Puhle’s book Light Changes assembled more than 800 accounts of exceptional light experiences and set them within psychical research and cultural history.
Life and Career
Annekatrin Angelika Puhle is a German psi researcher with an interest in dreams, ghosts, magic and light phenomena. She was born in Berlin. She studied philosophy, comparative Indo-European linguistics and cultural anthropology at the Free University of Berlin, with a particular interest in ethics, which she explored in her published PhD dissertation.1Puhle (1987); Puhle (n.d.-a). She is also a medically certified health consultant (GGB Lahnstein).2Puhle (n.d.-a).
Puhle has always been fascinated by extraordinary experiences and has had striking dreams before school age. At age 10, while shaking her uncle’s hand, she had a premonition of his unexpected death a week before he died. Later she visited the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene (IGPP, the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health) in Freiburg, Germany, where she came into contact with Eberhard Bauer. When the IGPP began supporting projects, she applied in 1996, undertaking research into ghosts and poltergeists in the time of Goethe (late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries). The project included a comprehensive bibliography of German and some English literature stretching from the origins of book printing to the present day.3Puhle (n.d.-a); Puhle (1999); Puhle (2001).
Puhle was a visiting lecturer at Gothenburg University on the Consciousness and Psychical Research course in 2012 and has lectured at conferences, as well as making media appearances.4Puhle (n.d.-a). In addition to her academic work, she is interested in music and plays both classical guitar and piano.5Puhle (2024).
Puhle has carried out internationally funded research projects in psychical research and cultural history, including work on historical cases of apparitions in German-speaking areas that led to Mit Goethe durch die Welt der Geister (Through the World of Spirits with Goethe), first published in a single volume and later made available as a four-volume PDF edition.6Puhle (n.d.-a); Puhle (n.d.-b). These books contain current case reports as well as rare and hard-to-access historical texts about ghost encounters, including paranormal episodes described by Goethe. Puhle has also specialised in related subjects and written extensively about lucid dreaming, extraordinary light phenomena, thoughtforms and related topics.7Puhle (2013); Puhle (2017); Parker & Puhle (2018); Puhle (n.d.-c).
Puhle has published sixteen books and a large number of academic papers.8See, for example, Charman (2014); Puhle (n.d.-b). Her book Light Changes contains more than 800 cases of exceptional experiences involving light, ranging from ghostly apparitions to comforting balls of light and halos. These are discussed and elucidated within a historical context, with a foreword by Peter Fenwick.9Puhle (2013); Charman (2014). She has summarized her findings on light phenomena in an article for the Psi Encyclopedia, here.
Selected Works
Books (English)
Light Changes: Experiences in the Presence of Transforming Light (2013). Guildford, UK: White Crow Books.
Shakespeare’s Ghosts Live: From Shakespeare’s Ghosts to Psychical Research (2017, with Adrian Parker-Reed). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Books (German)
Persona: Zur Ethik des Panaitios (Persona: On the Ethics of Panaetius) (1987). Bern, Switzerland; New York; Paris: Peter Lang.
Mit Goethe durch die Welt der Geister: Geisterbegegnungen aus vielen Jahrhunderten (Through the World of Spirits with Goethe) (one-vol. ed. 2005; four-vol. ed. 2019). St. Goar, Germany: Reichl Verlag/Der Leuchter.
Heilpflanzen für die Gesundheit (Medicinal Plants for Health) (2013, with Jürgen Trott-Tschepe and Birgit Möller). Stuttgart, Germany: Kosmos.
Das große Buch vom Träumen (The Big Book of Dreaming) (2018). Saarbrücken, Germany: Neue Erde.
It’s Magic: Magie ist keine Zauberei (2021). Saarbrücken, Germany: Neue Erde.
Verbunden mit geliebten Verstorbenen (Connected with Deceased Loved Ones) (2022). Grafing, Germany: Crotona.
Articles
Puhle, A. (1999). Ghosts, apparitions and poltergeist incidents in Germany between 1700 and 1900. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 63, 292-305.
Puhle, A. (2004). Science in search of spirit. In Shaman to Scientist: Essays on Humanity’s Search for Spirits, ed. by J. Houran, 1-19. Lanham, Maryland, USA: Scarecrow Press.
Puhle, A. (2005). The message of the ghost. Christian Parapsychologist 16, March, 142-50.
Parker, A., & Puhle, A. (2008). The Ingeborg Dahl case revisited. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 72/3, 164-79.
Puhle, A., & Parker, A. (2017). An exploratory study of lucid dreams concerning deceased persons. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 81/3, 145-60.
Puhle, A., & Parker, A. (2021). Dark or paranormal tourism: a major attraction throughout history. Australian Journal of Parapsychology 21/1, 7-30.
Melvyn Willin
Acknowledgement: Annekatrin Puhle read over this article, made improvements, and added details not publicly available elsewhere.
Works Cited
Charman, R.A. (2014). Review of Light Changes: Experiences in the Presence of Transforming Light by A. Puhle. Society for Psychical Research. [Web page.]
Parker, A., & Puhle, A. (2018). Thoughtforms. Psi Encyclopedia. [Web page, last updated 17 April 2026.]
Puhle, A. (1987). Persona: Zur Ethik des Panaitios. Bern, Switzerland; New York; Paris: Peter Lang.
Puhle, A. (1999). Ghosts, apparitions and poltergeist incidents in Germany between 1700 and 1900. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 63, 292-305. [Full paper.]
Puhle, A. (2001). Learning from historical cases: Six selected poltergeist cases from the 1700s in Germany. European Journal of Parapsychology 16, 61-72. [Full paper.]
Puhle, A. (2013). Light Changes: Experiences in the Presence of Transforming Light. Guildford, UK: White Crow Books. [Web page.]
Puhle, A. (2017). Lucid dreaming. Psi Encyclopedia. [Web page, last updated 11 April 2026.]
Puhle, A. (2024). Personal correspondence with Melvyn Willin.
Puhle, A. (n.d.-a). Annekatrin Angelika Puhle. [Web page.]
Puhle, A. (n.d.-b). All books. [Web page.]
Puhle, A. (n.d.-c). Encyclopedia articles. [Web page.]
