I invariably find it fascinating the sheer weight of cultural baggage associated with areas deemed fringe or edgy in research.  Often I find it is to the point where analysis is crippled to a level akin to the possibility of a web debate on Palestine/Israel doing anything but descending into acrimony and name calling.  Subjects like phantom Black Dogs, Ghosts, Witchcraft etc become marginalised and then become this site of unease marked by bizarrely aggressive scepticism on the one hand and naïve New Age credulity on the other.  Generally this pattern continues until a figure like Prof’ Ronald Hutton or the like brings an area of research in from the cold and to the realms of academic respectability.