The Undergrowth of Science

Subtitled 'delusion, self-deception and human frailty', this is, as one would expect, a tendentious read. Some of the cases are classic ones familiar in the literature and the author marvels at ideas that take possession of a hitherto rational population such as 'UFO sightings, alien abductions, 'recovered memory' and probably chronic fatigue syndrome'. Here the author nails his colours to the mast, commenting that his colleagues become 'selectively uncritical and intolerant of unsought evidence'. He ends a chapter on the wilder shores of credulity by derisively quoting (unnamed) Arthur Ellison stating that paranormal phenomena have often been demonstrated - 'if you believe that', then (ha! ha!). Rhine's work 'has long since been consigned to oblivion', while psychic research has 'vanished into the refuse-heap of science'. Homoepathy 'is closer to a superstition than to an aberration of science'. Although there are some good chapters here, the author's overall view is tainted by his materialistic prejudices masquerading as critical rigour.