The Hidden Power

I was looking back on earlier issues of this journal/newsletter and found my original review of this book after it first came out in 1986. Brian Inglis wrote a number of well researched books on aspects of the paranormal and here he begins with some reflections on the menace of scientism, which is still with us as an underlying philosophy 30 years later. The first part looks at the evidence for psi across a number of fields – physics, botany, ethology, biology, shamanism, history and psychical research itself. Much of this is quite well-known, including the exploits of Daniel Dunglas Home in the Victorian era. He then examines and deconstructs the main sceptical arguments: that there is no theoretical basis for psi, that psi phenomena cannot exist because they are contrary to accepted scientific laws, that the experimental evidence is fatally flawed and that historical and anecdotal evidence is best accounted for by fraud. One example is the Nobel physiologist Charles Richet – one cannot simply write off such investigators as likely to be duped or as liars.

The third part make the case against scientism, usefully identifying a number of syndromes: Festinger's syndrome illustrates cognitive dissonance and reversals of opinion, for instance in Prof John Taylor in the late 1970s who rejected his own experience on the grounds that he could find no fifth force. Scientists like Sir William Crookes were hailed for their courage investigating physical phenomena, but then written off when they published positive results. As Inglis observes in a later chapter, discrediting something by smears is not the same as disproof. Then there is Polanyi's syndrome where contradictions between a popular scientific notion and the facts of experience are explained in terms of other scientific hypotheses or simply dismissed as insignificant. Medawar's syndrome is the scientist not asking questions until they see the outline of an answer – if phenomena cannot be understood from a materialistic angle, then they should be denied or ignored. The Gregory/Mayo syndrome goes back to the 19th century and derives from the split between the natural and supernatural, the latter considered to be non-existent. Then the lid-sitters suppress and ignore contrary evidence, partly for fear of a return to what they consider superstition. More active are scientism's 'hit-men' such as CEM Hansel and James Randi, whose arguments are dismembered by Inglis. He points out that, although these are a small number, the silent majority is still responsible for maintaining 'temple psychology' effectively conditioning students to conformity or excommunication if they espouse unfashionable ideas. Well worth a re-read.