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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit provides readers with a variety of "reality-checking" tools to analyze extraordinary claims and to determine their validity. * Integrates simple yet powerful evaluative tools used by both paranormal believers and skeptics alike * Introduces innovations such as a continuum for ranking paranormal claims and evaluating their implications * Includes an innovative "Critical Thinker's Toolkit," a systematic approach for performing reality checks on paranormal claims related to astrology, psychics, spiritualism, parapsychology, dream telepathy, mind-over-matter, prayer, life after death, creationism, and more * Explores the five alternative hypotheses to consider when confronting a paranormal claim< * Reality Check boxes, integrated into the text, invite students to engage in further discussion and examination of claims * Written in a lively, engaging style for students and general readers alike Ancillaries: Testbank and PowerPoint slides available at www.wiley.com/go/pseudoscience
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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Contents
About the Author
Preface
The Critical Thinker’s Toolkit
What This Book Is Not
This Book’s Perspective (and Bias?)
A Look Inside
Acknowledgments
Part I Introduction
1 The Continuum Mysteriosum
Making Sense out of Mysteries: The Continuum Mysteriosum
Extraordinary, Nonparanormal Mysteries
An Invitation
2 Why Study These Things?
The Dangers of Unexamined Paranormal Claims
The Risk of Paranormal Passion and the Critical Thinker’s Toolkit
Eight Reality Checks: The Critical Thinker’s Toolkit
Part II The Critical Thinker’s Toolkit
EVALUATE SUPPORT FOR A CLAIM
3 Reality Check
Astrology
Questionable Sources
The Question of Authority
When Experts Get It Wrong
An Invitation to Question
4 Reality Check
Basic Logic
Informal Logical Fallacies
Premises, Logic, and Hypothesis Testing
5 Reality Check
Observations
Tests
Theories
Sagan’s Balance and the FEDS Standard
Science and Alternative Hypotheses
Consider Alternative Explanations
6 Reality Checking for Oddities of Nature and the World of Numbers
Probability Estimates and Bias
Math Ignorance
Coincidences
The Clumpiness of Randomness
The Law of Very Large Numbers
Science and Chance
Summary: Psychic Bias
7 Reality Checking for Perceptual Error and Trickery
Top-Down Processes and Perception
The Galleria Pareidolia
Manipulations of Magicians and Psychics: The Cold Reading Toolkit
Hypnotic Suggestion Enhancers
Perceptual Bias in the Mental Health Professions
8 Reality Checking for Memory Errors
Memory Myths
What Is Memory?
Memory Errors
Déjà vu
The Déjà vu Reality Check
9 Reality Checking for the Placebo Effect
What are Placebos?
Weak and Strong Placebos
How Placebos Work
Placebos and Superstitious Beliefs
Placebo Controversies
Placebos and Performance
10 Reality Checking for Sensory Anomalies and Hallucinations
Sensory Phenomena
Migraines
Tunnel Experiences
Hallucinations
Hallucinations and the Critical Thinker’s Toolkit
Dissociation and the Paranormal
Part III The Paranormal Files
11 Spiritualism and the Survival Hypothesis
Spiritualism
Research on Life after Death
Research on Channeling and Mediums
Conclusion
12 Parapsychology
The Language of Parapsychology
Research on Psi
Conclusion: The State of Psi Research
13 Energy Treatments and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Contemporary Views of Energy: The Scientific Perspective
Concepts of Energy in Children and Western History: Vitalism
Chinese History and Energy: The Yin–Yang School
Chinese Energy Treatments
Western Energy Treatments
Conclusion
14 Supernatural Cures and Faith Healing
The Varieties of Healing Experience
The Evidence
Conclusion
15 Creationism, Intelligent Design, and God
The Great Debate
Things Great and Small
16 The Reality Checkup
The Reality Checkup
How to Carry on a Civilized Discussion about the Paranormal
Parting Words: Pandora’s Challenge
Appendix A Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Appendix B Critical Thinking and Paranormal Resources
Appendix C Susan Blackmore on Paranormal Research
The Paranormal
Notes
References
Name Index
Subject Index
Praise for Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal
“This book, particularly in regard to its discussion of memory errors and its insistence on the value of real science, takes a place of prominence on my personal library shelf.”
James Randi, Chairman of the James Randi Educational Foundation
“I am astonished by the excellence of this book. Smith has produced a highly readable and very entertaining yet critical examination of virtually the entire gamut of paranormal claims, and he demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of the field in doing so. While drawing extensively from psychology, physics, logical analysis and history, he always manages to keep things clear and straightforward, so that one is never lost in complexity. Moreover, the tone is light-hearted throughout, and never becomes pedantic or condescending. And the book offers much more than an evaluation of extraordinary claims. It provides a refined set of critical thinking tools that the reader will find invaluable in everyday life. I strongly recommend this book to everyone who values the pursuit of truth in all things. And I can only wish that those who know that they already have the truth would read it as well, for they need it the most.”
James Alcock, York University
“Can you be both a critical thinker and a believer in the paranormal? The ‘reality checks’ in Jonathan Smith’s Critical Thinker’s Toolkit will guide you to your answer.”
Robert Todd Carroll, author of The Skeptic’s Dictionary
“An excellent, engaging, and highly readable introduction to the paranormal and to the distinction between science and pseudoscience. A superb student-friendly guide to extraordinary claims. Chock full of interesting and fun examples, not to mention humor. Should become a favorite in undergraduate psychology courses.”
Scott O. Lilienfeld, Emory University
Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe, Rowan, and Al
This edition first published 2010
© 2010 Jonathan C. Smith
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Jonathan C.
Pseudoscience and extraordinary claims of the paranormal: a critical thinker’s toolkit/Jonathan C. Smith.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-8123-5 (hardcover: alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-8122-8 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Parapsychology. I. Title.
BF1031.S635 2010
130–dc22
2009017134
About the Author
Dr. Jonathan C. Smith has written extensively on stress, relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness as well as spirituality and skepticism. He is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at Chicago’s Roosevelt University, and Founding Director of the Roosevelt University Stress Institute. Dr. Smith has published 17 books with major international publishers and has authored more than three dozen articles. His innovative approaches to relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness have won wide professional acclaim. Dr. Smith has taught his approaches to thousands and has served as consultant for government, business, educational, medical, and health organizations around the world.
For nearly a half century, Dr. Smith has had an enduring and deep interest in teaching critical thinking and exploring the paranormal. His doctoral dissertation, completed at Michigan State University in 1975, was one of the first professionally acclaimed double-blind placebo studies on the then popular transcendental meditation (he found no therapeutic effect). This work led to three APA articles and his first two books. In 1984 he founded the Roosevelt University Stress Institute primarily to combat pseudoscience and quackery in the field. His manuals and textbooks on meditation, mindfulness, and spirituality take a distinctly skeptical perspective toward popular extraordinary claims often associated with these approaches. More recently he has written reviews of paranormal books for the American Psychological Association journal PsycCRITIQUES. In addition he has created classroom and online classes at Roosevelt University specifically designed to teach critical thinking skills and evaluate extraordinary claims of the paranormal.
Preface
I confess I am a bit passionate about the paranormal. I truly believe that claims of astrologers, psychics, spiritualists, mind-readers, spoon-benders, practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine, acupuncturists, faith healers, and creationists should be taken very seriously. Not because these claims may be true or false. Instead, I believe that extraordinary claims can have extraordinary consequences.
Think about it. A paranormal event magically violates the laws of physics, what we know about matter and energy. If demonstrated true, a paranormal phenomenon could require rewriting the textbooks of science. Furthermore, it could require a massive emergency research effort that would dwarf historical efforts to create an atom bomb or land a man on the moon. Why? What would be the consequences if a rabbit’s foot worked, really worked—and terrorists figured it out first? Seriously, what if people could indeed predict the future; influence the past; read minds; cure illness through touch, thoughts, and prayers; secretly observe hidden events; and move and manipulate objects and devices from great distances through simple intention? What if, as claimed by some paranormal researchers, they’re all true? Think about it.
It is a mistake to discount the paranormal as the foolish obsession of tabloid newspapers. Seventy-three percent of Americans are paranormal believers (whereas 27% have no paranormal belief), and this number is growing. More people believe in astrology today than in the Middle Ages. In the United States, most of us belong to a religion, and for the vast majority faith is built on the rock of paranormal claims. However, this book is for a select audience, those who have chosen to step back and, for a brief precious moment, to question. I have written this book for:
College students. This book is an appropriate core reading for three types of college courses: Critical Thinking, Research Methods, and Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Courses need not be restricted to the paranormal; the tools I offer work for evaluating a wide range of extraordinary nonparanormal controversies such as Freudian psychoanalysis, graphology, polygraphy (lie detectors), and conspiracy theories.
Health professionals. Nurses, social workers, counselors, psychologists, and physicians encounter paranormal claims in courses and workshops on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM includes nontraditional treatments such as those from nonwestern cultures (Chinese acupuncture, Indian yoga chakras, shamanistic healing, etc.), mind–body techniques (healing touch, tai chi, meditation and prayer), and bio-energy treatments. Health professionals need to know to what extent these treatments work because of claimed undetected energies and powers or through suggestion and the placebo effect.
Journalists. The paranormal is a perennial topic of great interest to the media. A responsible journalist often must consider extraordinary claims in face of pressing publication deadlines that preclude exhaustive investigation. This book is designed to be a useful quick guide.
Public officials. Yes, government officials must consider paranormal claims. Should taxpayer revenue be spent for energy treatments (acupuncture, healing prayer, tai chi) based on forces not detected by physics? Should the CIA and FBI investigate the national security implications of flying saucers and mind-reading (and worry about a possible “psychic gap” with Russia)? Should the state prosecute faith healers who, in the name of Jesus, charge huge sums for bogus cures? Should the law permit parents to give their children magical alternative treatments instead of standard medicine? Who is responsible if such treatments don’t work and children are injured or die? Should biology classes be required to teach paranormal-based creation myths along with the science of evolution?
Religious seekers and educators. The spiritual journey is a search for transcendent realities and possibilities hidden in the fog of selfishness, superstition, and ignorance. Every major religion teaches the importance of avoiding “false gods,” idols, and narrow-minded temptation. This book offers the seeker and educator assistance in evaluating the credibility of claimed divine revelations, magic relics, miracle cures, healing shrines, exorcisms, resurrections, reincarnations, prophecies, visions, spontaneous combustions, spontaneous creation of matter, virgin births, and so on. It should be noted that such paranormal claims are not the sole property of any one religion, but characterize most, if not all.
Paranormal investigators. Scientists who study paranormal claims face special challenges. It may not be easy to tease out a subtle paranormal effect from coincidence, suggestion, and ordinary natural phenomena. Perhaps even more challenging is the task of conducting a study that skeptics take seriously. This book summarizes scientific standards advocated by both skeptical and believing researchers.
The Critical Thinker’s Toolkit
Here is my perspective and plan. Overall our goal is to consider and apply a systematic approach for performing reality checks on paranormal claims, The Critical Thinker’s Toolkit. The Toolkit begins by asking “Why believe a paranormal claim?” We consider three basic types of support: Is the claim from a credible source? Is it based on clear logic? Is it the product of good scientific observation? Then we look at five alternative explanations for any apparent paranormal event:
1. Is this event an oddity of nature or the world of statistics?
2. A perceptual error or trick?
3. A memory error?
4. The placebo effect?
5. A sensory anomaly or hallucination?
For Toolkit practice I present a selection of paranormal claims. I deliberately focus on claims of consequence, phenomena with historical, individual, social, philosophical, and political significance. Astrology (Chapters 3–5) is important because it is the “grandfather” of paranormal beliefs, offers a prototype for prophecy and psychic readings popular to this day, and provides a vivid contrast to the view of the universe offered by the science of astronomy. Historically, spiritualism and channeling with the dead (Chapter 11) helped trigger and shape current interests in the paranormal. The best methodology for studying paranormal claims is used by parapsychologists. Indeed, they have come tantalizingly close to providing evidence for some extraordinary claims (Chapter 12). Energy treatments such as acupuncture and tai chi (Chapter 13) cost individuals millions of dollars each year and have attracted millions of government research funds. The healing power of prayer is by far the most popular paranormal belief and faith healers (Chapter 14) have persuaded critically ill patients to forgo life-saving medical treatment. The debates over creationism and evolution (Chapter 15) have influenced American politics for decades and provide a lesson in the importance of separating science and religion.
What This Book Is Not
You may not find your favorite paranormal topic in this book. There are simply too many and my goal has not been to write yet another encyclopedia of the paranormal (see Appendix B for a listing of some excellent online resources). We do not devote much time to the many paranormal curios found in Halloween shops or circus sideshows. These include pixies, fairies, ghosts, haunted houses, flying saucers, UFO crop circles, alien abductions, Atlantis, werewolves, Bigfoot, dowsing, the Shroud of Turin, the Bermuda Triangle, and tens of thousands of quaint everyday superstitions. Fun and popular as these topics may be, ultimately they are of lesser consequence and perhaps are best left to the tabloids, B movies, and cable television faux documentaries. However, even if you are a true believer in fairies, pixies, or whatever, I invite you to practice your reality-checking skills and apply the Critical Thinker’s Toolkit. Once again, I have attempted to limit focus to paranormal claims of consequence.
Also, this is a book on the paranormal. We do not consider pop psychology, psychoanalysis, humanistic therapies, “New Age” philosophy, questionable or “crazy” psychotherapies, or debated assessment strategies such as the Rorschach inkblot test, graphology (handwriting analysis), or lie detectors. First, some are legitimate topics of scientific debate, with qualified scientists arguing for and against. This is particularly true for psychoanalysis, humanistic therapies, the Rorschach test, and lie detectors. Good scientists disagree, and they are not pseudoscientists or paranormalists. Also, to include such topics would require that we include a discussion of every current controversy in psychology, which is not the task of this book.
This Book’s Perspective (and Bias?)
Studies of the paranormal are fraught with accusations of bias. Quickly you will find examples of skeptics and believers who unfairly discount each other’s “prejudiced” work. In this climate, I suspect that my efforts will be tagged as tainted. But let me make this clear: Bias consists of ignoring or distorting reality. My commitment is to embrace fact over fiction, even when this proves discomforting. Unlike a few skeptics, I am more than willing to accept a solid finding that challenges what science tells us is “possible.” Indeed, I would take some delight in thumbing my nose at prevailing popular opinion. Anyone who has read my work will discover that I’ve shamelessly done this in the past. However, we aren’t there yet, and I take greater delight in living in the world as it is. I don’t like to be tricked or fooled.
In sum, there is one point I hope my book makes:
If we accept one extraordinary paranormal claim that fails to meet a few sensible reality checks, we are obligated to accept all paranormal claims that have equivalent support.
If you believe in ghosts, you must also believe in astrology, reincarnation, TV psychic superstars, prophetic pets, alien abductions, communication with the dead, fortune-telling, mental spoon-bending, and a Pandora’s box of other treasures. Why? All have sincere, honest, sane, intelligent, educated, articulate, famous, and passionate proponents. All are based on the same types of support. And for all, the evidence might at first seem quite convincing. But rather than falling victim to an exploding box of troublesome surprises, I offer a systematic way of taking thoughtful pause.
A Look Inside
This book offers something new for students, scholars, and those who are simply curious. I share a few scholarly inventions which I hope my colleagues will pursue. In addition, I’ve done some things to make this book useful and engaging.
Conceptual Advances
This book attempts to integrate evaluative tools used by both paranormal believers and skeptics. Although key elements of our Toolkit are standard fare in careful considerations of the paranormal (logic, use of the scientific method), I introduce a few innovations not present in any other text. These include:
The Continuum Mysteriosum, an eight-part hierarchy for organizing paranormal and supernatural claims (Chapter 1). The Continuum not only helps us rank paranormal claims but provides criteria for evaluating their implications if true.A detailed discussion of the costs of erroneously accepting (or rejecting) paranormal claims. I introduce an extended and novel approach to subjective relativism (Chapter 2).A discussion of criteria for evaluating sources, including why we should question sources even considered to be reputable (Chapter 3).A new and practical system for categorizing logical errors. There are many ways to organize fallacies of logic. This text presents an approach my students have found useful. I introduce the error of mistaking science with jargon, technobabble, and science fiction (Chapter 4).Elaboration of how scientific thinking is, as Einstein has suggested, common-sense thinking at its best (Chapter 5).Introduction to the FEDS Standard, an expansion of Carl Sagan’s widely quoted advice, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (Chapter 5). Here it is:The FEDS Standard
To be fully credible, a paranormal study should include expert independent and impartial supervision and replication to minimize:
Fraud: The investigator makes up or changes data, reports only positive results, fails to report compromising design features, or claims to have done something that was in fact not done.
Error: The investigator misuses experimental tools, methods, or statistics.
Deception: Research participants, assistants, or colleagues trick the investigator.
Sloppiness: The investigator does not take into account the research problems outlined in this text.
Instructional Highlights
I have attempted to make the Toolkit short, clear, and organized. For the Critical Thinker in a hurry, I recommend Chapter 2 (Why Study These Things?), Chapter 5 (Evaluating Scientific Evidence), Chapter 7 (Perceptual Errors), and Chapter 10 (Sensory Anomalies and Hallucinations). For those facing a paranormal emergency, I recommend Chapter 2. Our final Chapter (16) outlines key points and suggests how to perform a full reality checkup using the Toolkit. I have attempted to keep things brief so that instructors can provide their own favorite supplementary readings or elaborate upon topics I note.
Although I am a psychologist, I recognize that many users and instructors come from other areas, including philosophy, religion, journalism, and the health professions. For this reason, I have attempted to minimize technical discussion of such topics as neurophysiology, cognitive theory, psychopathology, logic, and statistics. If a user requires elaboration of any of these or other topics, many excellent specialized texts are available. For example, a course on research methods could include this text along with a core text on statistics. Seminars on medical diagnoses could supplement primary medical texts with this book.
In addition, through Wiley-Blackwell I offer an extensive bank of multiple choice questions, PowerPoint chapter summaries, sample syllabi, links to online university instruction, current video links, and a variety of tested instructional aids. For a sample syllabus, course description, and free online video library, visit my website: http://faculty.roosevelt.edu/jsmith
I have favored content and quality primary sources that are readily accessible without charge on the internet. The reader who wishes to explore a topic I briefly note can readily explore my sources. These, supplemented by the many excellent DVDs available on topics such as astrology, psychics, healing, creationism, and the supernatural, should spark considerable discussion.
In sum, here you will find an assortment of scientific studies, discussions of history, philosophical debates, a touch of theology, and a bit of humor. I challenge you to take it all seriously. Whether I am explaining, philosophizing, joking, or attempting parody, my goal remains the same—to inspire and provoke critical thinking. Enjoy the journey!
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the good and patient folk at Wiley-Blackwell, including Chris Cardone, Annette Abel, the marvelous art staff, and, alas, those forthright anonymous reviewers. It has been a unique pleasure working with Wiley-Blackwell. I thank my many colleagues and co-conspiring scientists, including André Aleman, Marjaana Lindeman, Scott Lilienfeld, and Samuel Moulton for their extensive and thoughtful feedback. Finally, I thank Jim Choca, Lynn Weiner, as well as friends, colleagues, and students at Roosevelt University. Their support made this project possible.
The author and publisher wish to thank the following for permission to use copyright material:
Figure 2.1Jörn Koblitz, MetBase Library, BremenFigure 2.2Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Image Partnership (HIP)Figure 2.3Bettmann/CorbisFigure 2.4Tony Korody/Sygma/CorbisFigure 2.5Marian Zygmunt/Franciszkanie.plFigure 3.3NASA/JPL-Caltech/R.Hurt (SSC)Figure 3.4NASA/ESA/V.BeckmannFigure 6.1Paignton Zoo, Devon, UKFigure 7.1aNASA/Viking ProjectFigure 7.1bNASA/JPL/MSSSFigure 7.1cAFP/Getty ImagesFigure 7.1dBill Steber/AP/PA PhotosFigure 7.1eScott Olson/Getty ImagesFigure 7.1fMarie Travers/www.ibrrc.orgFigure 7.1gNASAFigure 7.1hNASAFigure 7.1iNASAFigure 7.2akg-imagesFigure 11.1Library of Congress Photographic ArchiveFigure 11.2AP/PA PhotosFigure 12.3Figure 1 from Using Neuroimaging to Resolve the PSIDebate by Samuel T. Moulton and Stephen M. Kosslyn. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE 20:1 pp 182–192 © 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Techology. Reprinted with permission of MIT Press JournalsFigure 12.4Courtesy of James Randi Educational FoundationFigure 13.2Used with permission of Skeptic magazine at skeptic.comFigure 14.1Rex FeaturesFigure 14.2Francis Miller/Time-Life Collection/Getty ImagesFigure 14.3akg images/Erich LessingFigure 15.1Courtesy of Zach StrausbaughFigure 15.2Library of CongressQuotation in Chapter 7 from Hyman, R. (2003) ‘How not to test mediums: Critiquing the afterlife experiments’, Skeptical Inquirer, 27. Reprinted with permission.
‘The Paranormal’ by Susan Blackmore, from www.edge.org 2008. © Susan Blackmore. Reprinted with kind permission of the author.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The author and publisher will gladly receive any information enabling them to rectify any error or omission in subsequent editions.
Author photo by Bruce Jamieson
Part I
Introduction
1
The Continuum Mysteriosum
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Hamlet (I, v, 166–167)
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Famous Anglican Hymn (Monk, 1875)
‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’
Popularized by Carl Sagan (Truzzi, 1976)
Have you ever made a wish that came true? Perhaps you carry a rabbit’s foot or read the daily horoscope. Maybe you avoid walking under ladders, stepping on sidewalk cracks, or spilling salt, comforted by the thought that you are still alive and kicking. Nearly everyone has a habit or belief that others might call a bit superstitious.
Then there are the bigger mysteries. People spend millions for energy manipulation cures, psychic readings, and faith healings. Terrorists commit history-altering acts of suicide and murder driven by promised rewards in the afterlife. What are we to make of this world of extraordinary and strange claims? Why do they persist in the face of science? Is it possible some are true? Does it matter?
Decades ago, I started looking into things paranormal and supernatural. I was a teenager and my interests were not quite those of a scholar. My childish and magical wish was to become famous, build time machines, develop superhuman powers, or find a secret way to get good grades or hot dates. Before long I realized I had opened a treasure chest of claims, too many to fully understand. Overwhelmed, I turned to the more manageable study of psychology. But my curiosity about the mysteries of life never completely went away. In fact, it is difficult to avoid the world of the paranormal and supernatural. Like the proverbial elephant, it sits conspicuously in the middle of the living room of life. If you ask the right questions, you will find that most of your friends, professors, doctors, or preachers harbor at least one secret superstition.
Making Sense out of Mysteries: The Continuum Mysteriosum1
This book tries to make sense out of the strange and unexplained. I have two goals, first to map the vast heavens of mysterious claims, and second to explore reality-checking tools for determining which are true or false. My mission is not to convert you into a true believer or true skeptic. Instead, the goal of this book is simple: Question fearlessly and honestly. I invite you to apply this challenge to all life’s mysteries, bright and beautiful, great and small.
What is the realm of the paranormal? This is a question of considerable interest to scholars. Clearly, mind-reading, astrology, and seeing into the future are paranormal claims. But what about acupuncture? Yoga? Space aliens? I prefer to begin with a very simple definition: paranormal claimscontradict what we know about matter and energy2as discovered throughthe science of physics. Put differently, a purely paranormal claim states that explanations consistent with the science of physics are not enough (see page 16).
Consider the following:
When playing the lottery, use the year of your birth and you are more likely to win. If this were to really work, with no tricks, it could not be explained in any way by science. The claimed event is paranormal.
A psychic can look at you and read what you are thinking. This is true, even if you are separated by a brick wall, the psychic doesn’t know you, and you deliberately think of cards randomly selected from a deck. This claim appears to rule out natural-world explanations such as reading body language and making good guesses based on what you are wearing. So it’s a genuine paranormal claim.
A nurse at a local hospital claims she can heal through therapeutic touch and cure your backache by gently waving her palm over your spine. Such cures could be due to many things. People get over backaches on their own. Expectation can play a large role. Once you rule out these other explanations, you may have something paranormal.
Some mysteries are bigger than others. Cherishing a magic rabbit’s foot isn’t as dramatic as going to war over an astrological reading. I find it useful to organize paranormal and supernatural claims into eight groups placed on a continuum mysteriosum (continuum of mysteries) according to the degree to which they challenge naturalistic views of matter and energy identified through physics. Minor or low-level paranormal claims are on the left while high-level paranormal claims are on the right. You can see that higher-level claims are more encompassing, complex, and organized. More aspects of the natural world are brought into question, with greater diversity, and organized into an abstract belief system, itself divorced from the natural world. Claimed low-level processes have limited impact on our world, whereas high-level claims have greater potential impact.
It should be noted that all truly paranormal claims by definition involve a fundamental violation of what we know about matter and energy. In that sense they are all equal. However, high-level paranormal claims are more elaborated than low-level claims. They more fully elucidate the implications and applications of a paranormal assumption, and posit additional parallel, perhaps equally improbable, assumptions. The belief that possessing a rabbit’s foot will help you win the lottery violates what we know about matter and energy. Nothing about the chemistry and physics of a disembodied and dried piece of mammal anatomy should affect the random selection of winning lottery tickets thousands of miles away. If this could happen, then why not assume that lines in the disembodied foot say something about your personality and future? Or that the foot possesses an energy that can cure warts? Or that the foot is indeed conscious and wants you to win the lottery and be wart-free? Or that the dead foot possesses the ghost of the recently deceased rabbit, a reincarnation of an ancient sage who is now your guardian angel and who wants you to be healthy, wart-free, and rich? All of these are equally improbable. All violate what we know about the properties of matter and energy. They differ primarily in their elaboration.
Flying saucer
Table 1.1 The Continuum Mysteriosum
* Many paranormal claims come in several varieties each of which might be classified differently. For example, the claim that acupuncture evokes brain endorphins is not paranormal. A vague claim that acupuncture triggers nebulous body energy can be classified as a simple energy claim. A claim that the arrangement of stars at the time of one’s birth contains information about one’s personality and future is a paranormal pattern. However, it is an energy claim to state that the stars contain some mysterious force that can influence life on earth.
Borderline and Gratuitous Paranormal Claims
Borderline paranormal claims concern mysteries that need not violate the world of physics; however, true paranormal explanations are not ruled out and are often entertained. For example, we have no clear evidence that flying saucers have visited the earth, but nothing in physics says that flying saucers from a different planet could not visit us. It might take a spaceship thousands of years using conventional rocket propulsion. Perhaps such a ship would be directed by robots or beings in hibernation. Or, to entertain a paranormal explanation, space aliens might slip from their home in the 13th dimension and instantly (and invisibly) appear on earth. Such a paranormal explanation invokes a claimed phenomenon (travel from the 13th dimension) that runs counter to the physical world we know.
Closer to home, acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical procedure that involves inserting needles in precisely defined points on the body. Acupuncture patients claim relief from a wide range of problems ranging from pain to hypertension. The traditional paranormal explanation is that acupuncture frees the flow of a mystical vital energy, qi (or chi), resulting in healing. Qi has never been detected and does not operate by the known laws of physics. A variety of contemporary nonparanormal explanations exists, including that the slight discomfort of inserting needles distracts one from pain, triggers the release of peaceful brain endorphins, reinforces expectations of cure, and so on. Thus, acupuncture represents a borderline paranormal claim.
Cryptozoology is the study of “hidden animals” (“cryptids”), claimed creatures whose existence is controversial (Heuvelmans, 1962). Examples include the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and various dragons of antiquity. Strictly speaking, there is nothing paranormal about cryptids because their existence would not violate the laws of physics. However, a few psychics have made additional paranormal claims, for example, that Bigfoot and Nessie are from some other dimension and can be conjured up psychically (Bauer, 1996). In such cases one might classify cryptozoology as a borderline paranormal claim.
Gratuitous paranormal claims offer a nonphysical explanation when there is no mystery to be explained. Why do leaves fall from trees? Because little fairies pluck them off. Why did you fail your exam when you didn’t bother to read the textbook? Because Fate is punishing you for your irresponsibility. Why did your headache go away when you took the aspirin tablet? Because you unblocked the qi flowing to your brain. In each case there is nothing to be explained, no need for a paranormal hypothesis.
Rabbit’s foot
Note the difference between pure, borderline, and gratuitous paranormal claims. Pure paranormal claims imply that an extraordinary event can be explained only by going beyond current basic science. No alternative explanations are sufficient. Borderline and gratuitous paranormal claims accept that current scientific explanations may work just fine and paranormal explanations are simply alternatives. The remaining claims we consider are purely paranormal.
Simple Superstitions
Simple superstitions refer to everyday events that seem to violate the laws of physics. Generally, they are based on coincidence, folklore, as well as “similarities,” or “contagion” (Frazer, 1911–1915). If you coincidentally won a card game while wearing a red shirt, you might wear this lucky shirt whenever playing cards. If your great-grandmother warned you never to peek at birthday presents, you might honor this rule because it is a bit of family folklore. Perhaps you think you are a bright and sunny person because of this similarity—you were born on a bright and sunny day. Maybe you shouldn’t wear your great-grandfather’s ring. After all, he wore it just before falling into the well, and you don’t want to “catch” his unfortunate luck. Simple superstitions are not encompassing, complex, and organized. Generally their broader implications are ignored or not elaborated. People do not devote careers to the risks of stepping on sidewalk cracks or avoiding the number “13.” There are no rumors of secret Russian labs studying the feet of rabbits.
Paranormal Patterns
Are there secret messages embedded in the creases of your palm, tarot cards, tea leaves, entrails of sacrificial lambs, I Ching symbols, special combinations of numbers, the Bible code, and heavenly constellations? A relatively simple paranormal claim asserts that certain patterns contain special information that cannot be explained through any means consistent with contemporary physics. Palmistry claims that the wrinkles in the palm of your hand contain vast information about your history, personality, and future. There is no physical way this could be the case. Similarly, ancient tarot picture cards, particles of tea at the bottom of a tea cup, and the arrangement of intestines in a slaughtered lamb can be equally revealing. And of course astrology claims that the patterns of heavenly bodies present at the moment of your birth can say much about your life and future. Although such patterns may possess paranormal information, typically an individual with no paranormal ability can “read” the messages contained. Anyone with a book on palmistry can discover the secrets hidden in the wrinkles of a hand, and the message of a long “life line.”
Open palm with lines (for palm-reading)
Paranormal Powers
Paranormal powers are limited human (and possibly animal) capacities that violate physics. However, few people possess or have cultivated such powers and these gifted individuals appear to be able to use them only in highly restricted circumstances. Examples include reading thoughts through extrasensory perception or bending spoons (or influencing the roll of a casino slot machine) through psychokinesis. People have devoted their careers to these topics. Libraries of books and articles have been written.
Zener cards
Simple Life Energies
Unlike paranormal powers, which may be limited and appear in select individuals at select times, simple life energies are enduring and more pervasive. Furthermore, they have the potential for affecting physical health and biological processes. For example, many practitioners of acupuncture believe that a mysterious paranormal energy, qi (chi), permeates the human body and can be “unblocked” through the strategic insertion of needles. Unlike fate or karma, such forces do not guide, direct, or provide a purpose for actions. And unlike ghosts or spirits, they lack psychological characteristics such as thoughts, feelings, and intentions. However, simple life energies can be tapped and directed by individuals with paranormal powers. A skilled acupuncturist claims to use qi to heal.
Acupuncturist inserting needles in patient
Intelligent Forces and Entities
Intelligent forces are also enduring and exist beyond the natural world. However, they have a complexity not possessed by life energies—an “intelligence” of their own that does not require the assistance of someone with a paranormal power. Such forces may be impersonal sources of guidance or direction, such as fate, yin/yang, the powers of prophetic astrology, karma, some nonphysical evolutionary principle that pushes toward “goodness” or “higher consciousness.” Alternatively, intelligent forces may have psychological characteristics, such as consciousness, thoughts, feelings, and intentions, all internal complexities that enable us to call them entities.3 Examples include living objects possessed by spirits that wish us well.
Afterlife Entities
Afterlife entities are intelligent forces with one spectacular additional characteristic—they exist in this world and the world after death. They might include reincarnated souls as well as ghosts and some spirits. The existence of such entities permits communication with the dead.
Ghost over tombstone
Supernatural Entities
Supernatural claims are “superparanormal” and go beyond challenging naturalistic views of matter and energy identified through physics. As we have noted, they are encompassing, complex, and organized. More aspects of the natural world are brought into question, with greater diversity. Supernatural beliefs are often organized into an abstract conceptual system, itself divorced from the natural world. Supernatural entities have vast potential impact on our world. What does this mean?
Some World Religions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism)
The natural world consists of things we can conceivably detect with our senses, or sense-based tools like telescopes, microscopes, or x-ray machines. So, everything you see, hear, touch, smell, or taste is part of the natural world. And anything you could conceive of someone else seeing, touching, smelling, or tasting is also part of the natural world. Apples on the trees of Maine are part of the natural world. Apples on a planet in a different solar system are also part of the natural world, because they could conceivably be detected if we were there.
Is there anything else? Anyone with a fertile imagination can conceive of many types of possible supernatural entities, including the Pantheon of ancient deities, universe-sized supercomputers, beings in the 13th dimension, time-traveling voyeurs, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and so on. (Curious? See page 17.) Each is equally possible.
Note that some supernatural entities may never intrude in the observable universe. Such a being would never make itself known, and would be forever unknowable. We may never know the private life of the great entity in the 13th dimension, why we’ve been dumped in a cosmic lunatic asylum, or who set the clockwork universe into motion and stood aside. Such purely supernaturalideas are off limits to science, but discussed extensively in various forms of literature, including personal accounts and diaries, Holy Scriptures, theology texts, science fiction and fantasy novels, and comic books. In contrast, some supernatural ideas claim a specific and measurable impact on the observable world. Claims of such miraculous phenomena are fair game for questioning.
REALITY CHECK
Do you have a friend or relative with a paranormal belief? Where does it fit on the continuum? How seriously does it challenge what we know about the physical universe?
Extraordinary, Nonparanormal Mysteries
One type of claim does not merit placement on our continuum of mysteries. Extraordinary mysteries include scientific anomalies, strange observed events for which currently there is no scientific explanation. However, scientists assume that an explanation is possible once science develops. Sometimes an event seems mysterious simply because of our ignorance. I do not understand how laser pointers work, but I choose not to invoke a premature paranormal explanation. Other phenomena are mysterious even to experts.
Consider the notion of dark energy. Recently, astronomers discovered that the universe is expanding more rapidly than expected. No existing form of matter or energy, no existing physical process, can explain this anomaly. So scientists use a special term, a causal placeholder, as a kind of sticky note to remind them that there’s a mystery here that needs to be explained. The term “dark energy” is such a sticky note. The mysterious cause of the universe’s expansion isn’t actually dark and it may not actually be energy as we know it. However, it is easier to give it a name, “dark energy,” rather than some boring code like “unexplained phenomenon #325.112A.”
For another famous example, we turn from the universe to the world of atoms. Quantum physics is one of the most powerful theories ever created and has led to television and hydrogen bombs. However, much of quantum physics is very strange. For example, electrons are both particles and waves. Even more strange is the notion that some attributes of particles can appear to exist in several places at the same time. Under certain circumstances, if a particle of light, a photon, is split, each half will have an opposite polarity (“vertical” vs. “horizontal”). Now imagine you split a photon in such a way that one part stays in your home lab and the other shoots off into the universe. If you check the polarity of the home photon, then you automatically know the polarity of the distant photon, even without checking. In itself this might not seem particularly odd. After all, if you split a bag of 13 marbles so that one part has 4, you immediately know the other part has 9, no matter where it is. But quantum particles aren’t marbles. Quantumcharacteristics exist at all possible states until the moment they are obser ved. Every photon, whether or not it is split, is like a spinning little slot machine, with all possible scores, or polarities, whizzing by randomly. But the moment you look at a photon, it freezes, the slot machine stops, and you know the result, that is, whether its polarity is “horizontal” or “vertical.” It gets even stranger. After you split your photon, the distant photon may be millions of miles away. However, its polarity is fixed at the very moment you check the polarity of the home photon. Checking the polarity of the distant photon won’t “fix” it, because it was fixed, apparently the instant you checked the polarity of its home partner. This is called “entanglement,” which Einstein mocked as “spooky action at a distance” (Einstein, Podolsky, & Rosen, 1935). Remarkably, research has actually demonstrated entanglement and shown Einstein to be wrong. The term “entanglement” is a placeholder, a label for complex mathematical equations that seem to apply to the subatomic world, and not the everyday “macro” world of molecules, bacteria, cats, chimpanzees, or us. There’s a reason why I have burdened you with this strange and complicated explanation. If my explanation doesn’t make much sense, good. The smartest physicists don’t fully understand entanglement either. More important, physicists don’t make the mistake of thinking their causal placeholder fully explains what they have observed.
There is a risk in labeling mysteries. Sometimes a causal placeholder has excess meaning that is actually irrelevant. For example, a string of unsolved murders might involve a common clue—the murderer leaves a magic token, usually a rabbit’s foot, horseshoe, or four-leafed clover, in the hand of the victim. For convenience, the police name the suspect “The Magic Killer.” This name is simply a convenience, something easier to discuss than “Suspect No. 32-881-B.” If you were to ask someone who the suspect is, they might reply, “Oh, the Magic Killer.” That might conjure up all kinds of surplus meaning, such as someone who delves in the occult. People might suddenly become very suspicious of local psychics and astrologers, but when pressed, “Who is the Magic Killer,” the only answer would be “That killer who leaves magic tokens at the crime.” Thus, a careful reality check reveals that place-setters are by definition circular.
One can get into considerable trouble by counting too much on the excess meaning of causal placeholders. Once again, the terms “spooky action at a distance” and “entanglement” are simply ways of describing complicated mathematical equations that work in describing what happens to some subatomic particles, not objects in the everyday world. One famous example of reading too much into a placeholder is Dean Radin’s (2006) claim that psychics can transfer thoughts because their minds are “entangled” at the quantum level. As we shall see throughout this book, notions of “quantum consciousness” are currently in vogue in paranormal circles. However, such ideas are like saying that ghosts use “spooky action” to open doors in haunted houses or that psychics use “dark energy” to bend spoons.
Causal placeholders and paranormal claims illustrate a difference between the scientist and the paranormalist true believer. A scientist can tolerate the ambiguity of not knowing an answer; indeed, if there were no mysteries there would be no science. The journey of science is paved with promises and sticky notes. A scientist has faith that the methods of reasonable and scientific inquiry can conceivably uncover the truth. The true believer takes a bigger step and has faith in a specific explanation beyond science, even though natural-world explanations may eventually emerge.
Finally, I do not include as paranormal the millions of mistaken claims that stay within the boundaries of normal science. For example, you may believe that your Hummer gets 100 miles per gallon. As long as you do not claim your Hummer uses a special miracle fuel, or runs on ghosts, you are simply mistaken. You may claim that eating nothing but rice and beans will cure all illness. For a known biological process to achieve this, a few laws of physics would have to be broken and your claim would be paranormal. However, if you claim that the human body, and the physics on which it is based, can currently explain the curative powers of rice and beans, your claim is not paranormal. It is simply wrong.
There are many extraordinary claims that are the center of considerable controversy. Freud thought all men had latent homosexual urges. Is this true? How would you ever test this? Is Freud’s long and tedious approach to psychoanalysis any better than simple 10-session therapies based on learning theory? Should evidence from lie detectors, and hypnosis, be accepted in courts? Can graphologists really read your personality from your handwriting? Is the government really conspiring to hide the truth about UFOs, the Kennedy assassination, or 9/11? Is the medical community conspiring to hide evidence of simple and inexpensive cures available to everyone? Controversial as these claims may be, none are paranormal. None require that we abandon physics. (However, all can be evaluated using the tools of this text.)
An Invitation
In this book we take a strange journey into the unknown. In Part II we introduce a Critical Thinker’s Toolkit and use it to perform reality checks on a variety of examples, most prominently astrology and psychic readings. It is fitting that we start with these paranormal topics, given their popularity and persistence over the millennia. In Part III, The Paranormal Files, we review the main categories of paranormal claims. At the end of the Civil War, spiritualism and its concern with the afterlife and ghosts marked the beginning of contemporary interest in the paranormal. We move to scientific parapsychology, a field of study that evolved from spiritualism to focus on basic paranormal powers to read minds and move or alter objects with thoughts. Then we switch to the practical and consider the application of healing life energies in complementary and alternative medicine, and healing through faith and prayer. Our final topic is perhaps the most controversial paranormal debate of our time: Darwin, creationism, and intelligent design (with honorable mention to the Flying Spaghetti Monster). Our journey concludes with a tutorial on performing a formal reality checkup using the Critical Thinker’s Toolkit.
The Paranormal, Ontological Fusion, and Category Errors
Paranormal claims can also be viewed as category errors (Ryle, 1949). You make a category error when you give something a property which it cannot logically have. “Colors” are properties of objects. “Ideas” are mental phenomena. Consider this famous illustration:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
This statement has no meaning because it makes a category error. Ideas can’t be green.
Lindeman and Aarnio (2007) offer a useful elaboration. At an early age children acquire ideas on what the world is like. These ideas constitute “core knowledge” and apply to the worlds of physics, psychology, and biology. These worlds are also termed “ontological categories.” The physical world consists of material objects that have volume, occupy space, and can affect (technically, transmit physical energy to) each other if they touch (collide and bounce, for example). The psychological world is one in which living beings have choice, make decisions, and have a conscious mind. The mind has “content” such as thoughts, beliefs, and desires that are not “substantial” and objective. Biological entities are living, require food, reproduce, transmit disease, get sick, and die. The characteristics of these three ontological worlds are distinct and separate. Rocks do not have thoughts. Thoughts can’t move rocks. You can’t get sick by standing next to a broken rock, or make a person sick by thinking about them. During an eclipse the sun does not eat the moon. The setting sun does not die.
A paranormal claim mixes ontological categories, and inappropriately applies attributes that belong to one world or ontological category to another. Your thoughts and intentions can move and change physical objects (psychokinesis) or cure disease. The ancient Chinese system of feng shui teaches that arranging furniture (physical world) can affect your health (b iological world) and psychological well-being (psychological world).
This ontological fusion (or confusion) perspective shows some promise. Young children also mix ontological categories, and talk to thinking frogs, wish problems away, and so on. Perhaps studying the core ontological confusions of children will yield insights for adults.
The 10 Gods of Planet Paranormia: A Fable
Supernatural claims are “superparanormal” and go beyond challenging naturalistic views of matter and energy identified through physics. In addition, they are encompassing, complex, and organized. More aspects of the natural world are brought into question, with greater diversity, and organized into an abstract belief system, itself divorced from the natural world.
People sometimes have the narrow view that their preferred supernatural entity is the only one. In fact, hundreds of supernatural entities are possible beyond the currently popular local deity. Virtually every ancient culture had a great family of colorful and lively higher powers. The famous myth-writers of the past have enriched our universe with additional ideas. Today’s science fiction or comic book author might be tomorrow’s prophet or mystic. Scientology, a government-recognized religion, was invented by a science fiction author. Today the phrase (from the Star Wars series) “May the force be with you” is sometimes used as a spiritual invocation. It can be enlightening to contemplate the full range of supernatural entities, each equally possible. Let me share with you a brief fable that attempts to make this point.
Not so far away in a rather ordinary solar system Planet Paranormia orbits a modest sun. Planet Paranormia serves as home for no fewer than 10 continents, each completely isolated by ocean. The inhabitants of the continents are unaware of their neighbors and have developed separate cultures and beliefs. In some respects, their religions are remarkably similar. Religious insights came from a single visionary who had direct contact with the supernatural. This visionary was martyred, although his followers eventually prevailed. Common core beliefs include the importance of compassion, helping the less fortunate, self-control, free inquiry and choice within the framework of faith, and total obedience. Although disbelievers were once put to death or ostracized, now they are simply prohibited from running for political office. In spite of these similarities, each continent’s vision of the supernatural is unique. Indeed Planet Paranormia has no fewer than 10 gods, one for each continent. Here they are:
1. God the Great Supercomputer. A huge supercomputer encompasses the entire universe. Everything is just a computer simulation, and the universe is a great computer game on some gigantic laptop. We can never figure this out because we are “programmed” to be not quite intelligent enough.
2. God the Universal Mind/Consciousness. A great mind or consciousness underlies and unites everything. You can’t detect it because it is everywhere, and is everything. Here’s why. If Mind is everything, there’s nothing left for it to observe; because Mind is everything, you are Mind; therefore there’s nothing left for you to observe; therefore you can’t see Mind. Get it?
3. God in Another Dimension. A 13th dimension is inhabited by powers and entities that often communicate with powers and entities in the 12th dimension. They could control our lives, but aren’t interested.
4. God Beyond the Edge of the Universe. Beyond the edge of our universe is another universe populated by wise and ancient beings. They are more powerful than we can imagine. However, we can never see them because they are outside of our universe.
5. God the Infinitely Small Entity. Smaller than the smallest atom, and smaller than we can ever detect, is another world of strings. Stringbeings think about us a lot. They keep subatomic particles together and control everything. But we can’t see them because they slither between atoms.
6. The Time-Traveling Voyeur Gods. Far in the future is a race of time-traveler voyeurs. Their laws forbid interfering in the past (except for entertainment). However, it is OK to peek. For amusement they observe what’s happening in our world. Shades are useless. Don’t even think about calling the police.
7. God the Great Invisible Spirit. Invisible ghostly entities walk through us every day. We can never measure them, because they are clever enough to avoid detection. However, they scare us, play tricks, and randomly do things in the world that can’t be studied scientifically (like cracking mirrors and making strange noises in empty houses).
8. God the Fleet-Footed Entity. There are entities amongst us who travel so fast that we can never detect them. Actually, they aren’t particularly intelligent. However, what they lack in sophistication they make up in speed.
9. God the Shape-Shifting Entity. A huge shape-shifting creature walks and rules the earth. Whenever someone is about to notice her, she changes shape to avoid detection. She can instantly become a frog, tree, or university professor. We are sometimes mystified, but remain clueless.
10. God the Super-Smart Prankster Entity. A very intelligent being reads and controls our thoughts. He lets us ask probing questions, but tricks us into getting the wrong answer.
I end this fable here. It could go in many directions. What wars might erupt when the inhabitants of Continent #2 meet and try to convert the inhabitants of Continent #9? What if they all met at once and tried to convert each other simultaneously? Perhaps a grand cosmic visionary discovers a universal truth that binds them all together.
Note: Kuhn (2007) has offered a less colorful, and perhaps more scholarly, catalog of nonphysical causes beyond the constraints of physics: The Theistic Person, The Ultimate Mind, The Deistic First Cause, The Pantheistic Substance, Spirit Realms, Causal Consciousness, Being and Non-Being as Cause, Causal Abstract Objects/Platonic Forms, and Principle or Feature of Sufficient Power.
2
Why Study These Things?
The unexamined life is not worth living.
(Socrates, Apology 38a)
Why study the worlds of the paranormal? First, if you believe in such things you are not alone. Most people (73–76%) have at least one paranormal belief not derived from Judeo-Christian tradition (Moore, 2005; Newport & Strausberg, 2001) and 80–96% hold a religious-based paranormal belief (Bader, Froese, Johnson, Mencken, & Stark, 2005). More people believe in astrology today than in the Middle Ages (Gilovich, 1991; Vyse, 1997). Belief in the Devil appears to have increased over the decade (Table 2.1). At the very least it is important to understand what our friends, neighbors, politicians, doctors, and preachers believe.
If you have a paranormal belief, surely it is valuable to know more about it. If you read the daily horoscope, do you really know how it was calculated? If you enjoy a good ghost story, do you know why some Christians are so opposed to Halloween (and Harry Potter), and why the United States government has officially recognized a witchcraft-based tax-exempt religion? If you go to an acupuncturist, did you know that this treatment is based on a form of energy which, if detected, could revolutionize physics?
There is a deeper reason for exploring strange and extraordinary claims. They might be true. History shows us many cases of disputed beliefs once considered crazy and then accepted as true. Two such phenomena are meteors and hypnosis.
Meteors
In 1492, the year Christopher Columbus arrived in America, a 12-yearold boy in Ensisheim, Austria heard a loud thunderclap and saw a stone fall from the sky and land in a field of wheat. He led townsfolk to the fallen rock, and quickly the excited crowd began chipping away the relic sent from God. Maximilian I, King of Austria, believed it was God’s message that his battles against the French would succeed. (The Austrians did win.) This belief was typical. For millennia people had believed that meteorites were rocks from heaven and signs from God. Three hundred years later, about the time of the American Revolution, this thinking was to change.
Table 2.1 Percentage of population who believe paranormal claims
ClaimPercentageSuperstition and witchcraft Witches28%1 26%2 26%3 Superstitious (“very or somewhat”)24%4Spiritualism and ghostly experiences Ghosts40%1 38%2 39%3 42%4 32%5 Haunted houses42%2 40%3 37%5 37%6 Spirit possession15%2 Communicating with dead28%2 16%3 21%5 20%6 Reincarnation21%1 25%2 14%3 25%4 5%7Fortune-telling and psychic readings Psychics (etc.) foresee future, clairvoyance, prophecy32%2 13%6 Astrology25%1 28%2 17%3 33%4 25%5 Astrology impacts one’s life and personality12%6 Dreams foretell future/reveal hidden truths52%6 Déjà vu69%4Scientific parapsychology Telekinesis28%6 Extrasensory perception50%2 28%3 60%4 41%5 Telepathy36%2 24%3 31%5 Clairvoyance, (psychic seeing)24%3 26%5Healing energies and faith cures Psychic/spiritual healing54%2 56%3 59%4 55%5 Efficacy of alternative treatments75%6
