A comparative, multi-disciplinary study of reflexivity is presented.  Examples are drawn from:

• Ethnomethodology
• Sociology of scientific knowledge
• Meditation
• Experimenter effects in psychology
• Mathematical logic

Theorists whose work is reviewed:

• Barbara Babcock
• Steve Woolgar
• Bruno Latour
• Kurt Gödel
• Malcolm Ashmore
• Douglas Hofstadter

    Barbara Babcock, the premier theorist of the trickster, did her doctoral dissertation on reflexivity.  She explained the trickster’s relevance to liminality and reflexivity. 

    Reflexivity blurs the distinction between subject and object.  Liminality and paranormal phenomena share this property.  When reflexivity is applied, there is often some aspect of the paranormal found in the vicinity.  It may appear to be a side issue or totally unrelated, but the conjunction  is sufficiently common that it is unlikely to be accidental.  For instance: Kurt Gödel had an interest in demons; Carlos Castaneda was the most famous person linked with ethnomethodology; sociologists of scientific knowledge have published a number of articles on parapsychology; many schools of meditation report psychic phenomena as side effects of meditative practice.

    Reflexivity is a source of paradox and ambiguity.  Scholars subtly avoid confronting its problems.  The reasons are explored.