Parapsychology and Spiritual,,,
Introduction
I
t is instructive and disturbing to but a fifth of them so deluded that they credence to a generally spiritual view of
compare the following two ex- think they have actually had a personal the world.
cerpts, one the results of a 1994 revelation from God in the last year! We This issue of Revision presents a
Newsweek survey of Americans' must be not only fearful, vanquished, detailed exploration of the spiritual
religious experience, the other a and vaporous, many of us must be rather implications that can be drawn from
quote from an article by chemist Peter psychotic! modern research in parapsychology.
Atkins, published in the prestigious Questions about what, if anything, is The scientists and scholars writing here
British scientific magazine New Scien- valid about religion and, more impor- are leading figures in scientific parapsy-
tist (1992). Atkins is commenting on an tantly, spirituality (the more pure and chology. The discussion is unusual, for
article by well-known author Mary powerful experiences underlying the parapsychologists usually prefer to stick
Midgley (1992) in which she voiced social organizations we call religion) close to rigorous laboratory findings
concern about the way science appears have been important to me (and many and say little about the implications.
to have undermined religion. others) since I was a child. If all spiritu- The reason is that there is so much emo-
ality is nonsense, then where do we find tionally intense opposition to parapsy-
In a Newsweek Poll [of 3-4 Nov. 1994)l a
majority of Americans (58 percent) say
a basis for a morality that goes beyond chological findings from the defenders
they felt the need to experience spiritual "looking out for number one"? Such of scientism against what they treat as
growth. And a third of all adults report questions came into sharp focus for me heresy. Our contributors have decided
having had a mystical or religious experi- when I was invited to give an address on that the importance of the findings for
ence. . . . 20% of Americans have had a science and religion at the historic sec- issues of spirituality is greater than that
revelation from God in the last year, 13%
have seen or sensed the presence of an
ond Parliament of the World's Religions of the conservative, defensive strategies
angel. . . . Outside church, 45% sense the in Chicago in 1993. The paper present- that it was hoped (in vain) might lead to
sacred during meditation, 68% at the birth ed there begins this issue. wider acceptance of parapsychology in
of a child, 26% during sex. . . . 50% feel a I am convinced, through both my pro- the mainstream scientific community.
deep sense of the sacred all or most of the fessional work as a scientist and my per- The result is exciting reading!
time in church or at worship services. . . .
(52-61) sonal attempts at personal and spiritual I am proud to call myself both a sci-
growth, that this wholesale undermining entist and a spiritual seeker, and I am
Fear. Fear seems to me to be what moti- of spirituality by orthodox science is not not being unscientific in doing so. I
vates authors to write . . . about the only unhealthy but scientifically, factu- hope that you will share this feeling
encroachment of science on the tender
patches of the soul. . . . There is indeed ally wrong. The traditional conflict after reading these contributions and
room for some people to fear, for those between science and religion is really that unnecessary conflict will be elimi-
who seek to found their lives on the one between scientism-a dogmatic nated in your personal and professional
vaporous precepts so favoured by religion hardening of belief systems, rather than interest in the spiritual.
now find themselves teetering on the brink basic science-and "religion" in the
of an abyss wherein lies truth: the truth of --Charles T. Tart
our mortality, the truth of the absence of worst sense of the word, rigid and
soul and the truth of the ultimate insignif- unhealthy belief systems that belie the
icance of all human activity. These truths spirituality they claim to be founded on. REFERENCES
are so consuming as to inspire subcon- When relevant solid, scientific research Atkins, P. 1992. Will science ever fail? New
scious fear and to generate the only resort is studied, rather than scientistic dogma, Scientist No. 1833 (8 August): 32-35.
of the vanquished and the disarmed: the Midgley, M. 1992. Can science save its
stridency of protestation. (32) we discover a solid, scientific base for
seeing human beings as potentially far soul? New Scientist No. 1832 (1 August):
24-27.
If Atkins is right, our civilization is more than mere material animals and Woodward, K. 1994. The search for the
very sick indeed, with a majority of find that humans can occasionally exer- sacred: America's search for spiritual
Americans not only believing in God, cise various psychic abilities that give meaning. Newsweek, 28 December.
2 Revision VOL. 18N0. 1
