Natural and Supernatural

This history of the paranormal from earliest times to 1914 was very well received when it first came out, including by Bernard Levin and his friend Arthur Koestler, who described it as scholarly and readable. In the introduction, his son points out that his writings indirectly gave rise to the modern sceptical movement including CSICOP in 1976, and he had a vigorous correspondence with many sceptics. He surveys tribal communities, early civilisations including Greece and Rome, Christianity, alchemy and witchcraft, second sight, Mesmerism and its history, spiritualism in the late 19th century, including an excellent chapter on Daniel Dunglas Hume. Early psychical research is thoroughly covered, especially with reference to Sir William Crookes, Andrew Lang and Alfred Russel Wallace; also investigations into mediums like Mrs Piper and Eusapia Paladino. In commenting on the relationship between Swedenborg and Kant, he cites a remark from Kant to the effect that he doubts individual cases while still having a certain faith in the whole of them taken together. His reflections around 1900 are of particular interest in that he argues that psychical research as a scientific discipline had somewhat lost its way, spiritualism was discredited in the eyes of scientists and psychologists apart from William James were not that interested. In the last chapter, Inglis considers sceptical reactions more generally, including generalised fraud and hallucination, which have become a stock in trade - the phenomenal accumulation of facts was not and still is not sufficient to convince those whose minds are already made up.