REVIEW BY P.G. Nosachy (Herald: Philosophy of Theology, 1:3, pp. 153-158.)
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal. J. Hunter, ed. Bristol: Paranthropology, 2012. pp. 271.
July 2010 saw the release of a new magazine devoted an extraordinary subject - "Paranthropology". The articles feature professional studies by anthropologists in the field of what is called "paranormal" - altered states of consciousness, the religious experience of different cultures and tribes, the phenomena of clairvoyance, telepathy, etc. In 2012, the editor, Jack Hunter, published a collection of articles on research methodology for investigating paranormal phenomena. This is the material presented in this collection, and we would like to see more.
Why bother dealing with the subject of the paranormal? The scientific community looks at research in this area with great disdain, as the researchers themselves have long created their own alternative official community engaged in studying the paranormal. This collection is of interest for two important reasons. First, the authors - serious anthropologists working in leading institutions (Cambridge, Oxford), not theorists. Many have experience in the field, their interest in the paranormal starting with an observation, their articles are the result of experience. Second, the emergence of paranthropology as a separate domain of scientific research is evidence of a new trend in research in Western esotericism, which is primarily expressed in a desire to get inside the phenomenon under investigation in order to understand it completely, where previously it had been limited to external observation. The most complete expression of this tendency can be found in the work of American scholars such as Jeffrey Kripal and Arthur Versluis. But it also stands for a significant number of authors from America and the UK, who fully share this methodological approach.
The collection opens with an article by editor Jack Hunter, in which he gives an overview of anthropological approaches to the phenomena of the paranormal. Hunter notes that the term “paranormal” appears at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, replacing the theologically oriented term “supernatural.” The term refers to phenomena which cannot be explained by current scientific knowledge. The term “weird” in turn actively used in the classics of anthropology, such as Evans-Pritchard and Emile Durkheim. In his historical overview of approaches to the paranormal in anthropology, the author begins with the animistic theory of Tylor, and the work of Andrew Lang, which, as is well known, postulated the existence of genuine experiences of the supernatural, then proceeds to functional theorists (Evans-Pritchard and Emile Durkheim). The main problem of classical approaches (with some exceptions, e.g. Lang), according to Hunter, is that anthropological theory rejects the main factor of human nature “What understanding has really been gained...if these fundamental aspects are bracketed out and negated?” (p. 32). In contrast to the classical approach in the second half of the Twentieth Century, there is the so-called anthropology of experience (p. 34), the most prominent representative of which is Carlos Castaneda. There are various ways to treat this figure, but Castaneda was not the only anthropologist who became a shaman and thus eroded the boundary between the researcher and the researched phenomenon. In Hunter’s article Castaneda does not appear as an original researcher, but as the brightest example of a new trend in anthropology. The appearance of anthropologists who lifted the taboo on the description of the personal experience of the anthropologist, which he encountered while participating in various ritual and other practices.
Until the second half of the Twentieth Century, writing about personal experiences was in bad taste, and many anthropologists were forced to keep silent about them, which, in Hunter’s opinion, greatly impoverished their descriptions. Even in the classic texts of the discipline we stumble across descriptions of personal experiences, which, of course, are not focussed upon in detail. As examples of such, Hunter uses accounts from Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard. The next milestone in the history of anthropology, as it stands in relation to the so-called paranormal, was transpersonal anthropology, including the hypothesis of a transpersonal level of the psyche as a basis for the description of phenomena beyond the explanatory power of the modern scientific worldview. As a consequence, anthropologists have opened up to other areas of research, such as telepathy, telekinesis, out-of-the body experiences, etc, and focus groups for research not only amongst the tribes of New Guinea, or Africa, but also among representatives of Western civilization, who also, by their own admission, have similar experiences. It is in this direction that Hunter sees the future of anthropology.
In the second article of the collection Lee Wilson talks about the problem of excessive scepticism prevalent among researchers when it comes to phenomena that go beyond our ordinary understanding of the world. As a starting point, Wilson takes the story of a screening of a film of a healer at Cambridge University. The film portrayed the ability to heal at a distance. The audience reacted very violently to the material presented, their reaction was negative. The author does not understand the reasons for such an attitude to the paranormal, because they are part of the researcher’s lives. Later he suggests the possibility that paranormal phenomena exist, and that anthropologists have no right to discount their informant’s experiences. In support of his claim, he cites a story ostensibly indicating a hidden human potential, expressed as energies, which are employed by healer and martial artists. In particular Wilson focuses on one variety of Indonesian fighting known as Pencak Silat, aimed at drawing remote enemy attacks by concentration of inner energies without external contact. First, a detailed story describes a demonstration of the capabilities of a master, followed by the story of how the author (Lee Wilson) felt the force of energy. The master paired him with one of his students, and the author had to concentrate his energy to inflict a hit, oddly enough, it worked. Despite his best efforts the apprentice could not overcome Wilson’s energy. From this the teacher conclude that Lee Wilson possessed great potential, leading the author to accept the possibility of latent energy. This evidence, the author suggests, is enough for anthropologists to cease to doubt the existence of hidden human capabilities and to include them in their field of study.
The subject of hidden energies continues in the article “Reflecting on Paranthropology” by Mark A. Schroll, in which the author proposes to consider manifestations of this energy as the key to transpersonal psychology. Schroll is negatively disposed toward modern science, precisely because it is a strict ideological system, with its main purpose to transform all our best knowledge into weapons (p. 66).
The idea of the transpersonal approach in anthropology continues in Charles Laughlin’s article, where it is noted that in the middle of the Twentieth Century , anthropology underwent a turn from empiricism and mechanism towards the problem of human subjective experience. The first attempts to approach subjective experience, the author suggests, were with the Society for Psychical Research, which were of considerable interest to early psychologists - William James, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. In the context of this discussion, Laughlin highlights the main methodological problems faced by transpersonal anthropology, among which, in particular, we find the noted problem of comparability of extraordinary experiences in different cultures and religions. The problem that is primarily in the experiences- biological and physiological conditions of the body, knowledge, and the problem of interpretation of the symbolic nature of a number of transpersonal experiences.
Fiona Bowie explores ethnographic descriptions of the experience of life after death in her article. Bowie is the successor of the line laid by Raymond Moody, and in her research combines modern psychological approaches with the methodology of anthropological research. The author proposes that an honest investigation would not be possible if a scientist does not accept to a certain extent the beliefs and practices of those he investigates, if he does not have empathy and is not involved in that type of thinking, of living and seeing the world.
An interesting theory of the origin and development of paranormal abilities is proposed in James McClenon’s chapter. The author identifies three basic categories of anomalous perception: the spontaneous unplanned experience (dreams, out of body experiences, near death experiences), deliberately induced experiences of certain ritual practices of an individual or group (shamanism, mediumship), and “Tertiary experience” caused by psychological and physiological processes (spiritual healing). According to McClenon, the source of all of the above experiences is in the person’s ability to enter into a self induced state of hypnosis. The origin of it can be found amongst prehistoric people who, basking in the caves, looking at the fire and rhythmically swaying, and singing song induced them into hypnotic trance. As a consequence, there were various systems of trance ritual and beliefs about the world and spirits. In addition, given a placebo effect after people learned to use it not only on themselves, but also to induce such states in others, from which emerged the phenomenon of healing. Moreover, in this case, there is a division in humans between psychotics, who cannot control their trance experience, and normal people that this experience does not prevent from leading mentally healthy lives.
Fabian Graham’s paper is probably the best in this collection, as it is the most devoid of ideological fervor. It is a report on a field study conducted at two churches in Taiwan, where a cult of deities, spirits and so-called “money gods” who grant income has survived. The specifics of man’s relationship with them is that they do not need to pray, it is only necessary to come to their church and throw two divination blocks, the way the blocks fall affects the amount on behalf of the deities asking for sacrifices. Money received from the temple is considered sacred, they can not immediately spend it, and it is usually stored either on the family altars, or on a desk top, for about a week, and only then is it used for business. It is believed that this money can assist a person into material well being. In this case, it is not necessary to return the money taken from the temple, nor to thank the deities for their gifts. Despite this, Graham shows that the money god temples began to flourish because of donations left there by people who became wealthy thanks to the gift of money.
Serena Roney-Dougal’s chapter tells the story of an experiment to study meditation held in the high Tibetan monastery with the blessing of the Dalai Lama. With this blessing the experiment could involve not only the novices but also monks with many years of experience with meditation. The result revealed that by studyin brain rhythms and certain material, it is possible to measure the ability of clairvoyance in Tibetan monks. In fact, the experiment was limited to guessing images, and reading thoughts associated with these images. In the experiment it was found that the experiences monks have a much greater capacity for clairvoyance than the novices. Note that the experimental conditions and general conclusions do not look convincing to the reader.
David Young’s chapter continues the theme of telepathy. The article describes his personal experience on the effect of thoughts on some people’s dreams. The text contains a number of stories where the author discusses an experiment on the symbolic expression in the dreams of his daughter, who did not know that she was involved in the experiments. It seems unlikely that such a testimony, especially with such a small data set, can serve as a powerful argument, especially given all the tension of symbolic analogies between sleep and reality.
Rounding out the collection are two theoretical articles - David Luke and Michael Winkelman, summarizing the arguments against a positivist scientific approach to the paranormal, and highlighting the potential of Paranthropology as a discipline involved in the direct experience of research. One major drawback of these articles (especially Luke’s work), is the desire to conceal the arguments of the critics of parapsychology, when often these arguments are quite convincing.
After the analysis of this collection it can be concluded that we have here an informative and interesting book, especially in the case reports of anthropological practice. Unfortunately, no text presents any fairly reasoned or convincing evidence for the scientific reality of the paranormal. In fact, there are only lengthy arguments about how science does not accept such important things. When it comes to specific reasoning of the facts, they are either highly questionable (as in the article by Roney-Dougal), or uniformly interpreted broadly (as in David Young’s text). It all seems to rest on the matter of belief and unbelief. Authors of the book almost unanimously believe in the existence of the paranormal, and hence all of their pathos, but this believe they are translating into academic robes to safely enter it into the framework of academic research, which is their professional activity.
With all of the above noted, it is not to say that this collection is useless. It provides remarkable facts, and summarizes various theories through historical sketches. It does not matter if you believe in these things or not, but when you read, for example, the work on shamanism, whether specific works of ethnography, or popularizing books like Eliade’s, there is a question: if we no longer believe shamanism to be a mental disorder, how do we explain such a rich experience of unusual phenomena? It is simply inexcusable to fix these things without giving them an interpretation. On this basis, we not that the collection under review may be of interest to religious studies, cultural studies and anthropology, especially if they try to read and treat the estimated judgements of the authors critically.
P.G. Nosachy (HSE, PSTGU)
July 2010 saw the release of a new magazine devoted an extraordinary subject - "Paranthropology". The articles feature professional studies by anthropologists in the field of what is called "paranormal" - altered states of consciousness, the religious experience of different cultures and tribes, the phenomena of clairvoyance, telepathy, etc. In 2012, the editor, Jack Hunter, published a collection of articles on research methodology for investigating paranormal phenomena. This is the material presented in this collection, and we would like to see more.
Why bother dealing with the subject of the paranormal? The scientific community looks at research in this area with great disdain, as the researchers themselves have long created their own alternative official community engaged in studying the paranormal. This collection is of interest for two important reasons. First, the authors - serious anthropologists working in leading institutions (Cambridge, Oxford), not theorists. Many have experience in the field, their interest in the paranormal starting with an observation, their articles are the result of experience. Second, the emergence of paranthropology as a separate domain of scientific research is evidence of a new trend in research in Western esotericism, which is primarily expressed in a desire to get inside the phenomenon under investigation in order to understand it completely, where previously it had been limited to external observation. The most complete expression of this tendency can be found in the work of American scholars such as Jeffrey Kripal and Arthur Versluis. But it also stands for a significant number of authors from America and the UK, who fully share this methodological approach.
The collection opens with an article by editor Jack Hunter, in which he gives an overview of anthropological approaches to the phenomena of the paranormal. Hunter notes that the term “paranormal” appears at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, replacing the theologically oriented term “supernatural.” The term refers to phenomena which cannot be explained by current scientific knowledge. The term “weird” in turn actively used in the classics of anthropology, such as Evans-Pritchard and Emile Durkheim. In his historical overview of approaches to the paranormal in anthropology, the author begins with the animistic theory of Tylor, and the work of Andrew Lang, which, as is well known, postulated the existence of genuine experiences of the supernatural, then proceeds to functional theorists (Evans-Pritchard and Emile Durkheim). The main problem of classical approaches (with some exceptions, e.g. Lang), according to Hunter, is that anthropological theory rejects the main factor of human nature “What understanding has really been gained...if these fundamental aspects are bracketed out and negated?” (p. 32). In contrast to the classical approach in the second half of the Twentieth Century, there is the so-called anthropology of experience (p. 34), the most prominent representative of which is Carlos Castaneda. There are various ways to treat this figure, but Castaneda was not the only anthropologist who became a shaman and thus eroded the boundary between the researcher and the researched phenomenon. In Hunter’s article Castaneda does not appear as an original researcher, but as the brightest example of a new trend in anthropology. The appearance of anthropologists who lifted the taboo on the description of the personal experience of the anthropologist, which he encountered while participating in various ritual and other practices.
Until the second half of the Twentieth Century, writing about personal experiences was in bad taste, and many anthropologists were forced to keep silent about them, which, in Hunter’s opinion, greatly impoverished their descriptions. Even in the classic texts of the discipline we stumble across descriptions of personal experiences, which, of course, are not focussed upon in detail. As examples of such, Hunter uses accounts from Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard. The next milestone in the history of anthropology, as it stands in relation to the so-called paranormal, was transpersonal anthropology, including the hypothesis of a transpersonal level of the psyche as a basis for the description of phenomena beyond the explanatory power of the modern scientific worldview. As a consequence, anthropologists have opened up to other areas of research, such as telepathy, telekinesis, out-of-the body experiences, etc, and focus groups for research not only amongst the tribes of New Guinea, or Africa, but also among representatives of Western civilization, who also, by their own admission, have similar experiences. It is in this direction that Hunter sees the future of anthropology.
In the second article of the collection Lee Wilson talks about the problem of excessive scepticism prevalent among researchers when it comes to phenomena that go beyond our ordinary understanding of the world. As a starting point, Wilson takes the story of a screening of a film of a healer at Cambridge University. The film portrayed the ability to heal at a distance. The audience reacted very violently to the material presented, their reaction was negative. The author does not understand the reasons for such an attitude to the paranormal, because they are part of the researcher’s lives. Later he suggests the possibility that paranormal phenomena exist, and that anthropologists have no right to discount their informant’s experiences. In support of his claim, he cites a story ostensibly indicating a hidden human potential, expressed as energies, which are employed by healer and martial artists. In particular Wilson focuses on one variety of Indonesian fighting known as Pencak Silat, aimed at drawing remote enemy attacks by concentration of inner energies without external contact. First, a detailed story describes a demonstration of the capabilities of a master, followed by the story of how the author (Lee Wilson) felt the force of energy. The master paired him with one of his students, and the author had to concentrate his energy to inflict a hit, oddly enough, it worked. Despite his best efforts the apprentice could not overcome Wilson’s energy. From this the teacher conclude that Lee Wilson possessed great potential, leading the author to accept the possibility of latent energy. This evidence, the author suggests, is enough for anthropologists to cease to doubt the existence of hidden human capabilities and to include them in their field of study.
The subject of hidden energies continues in the article “Reflecting on Paranthropology” by Mark A. Schroll, in which the author proposes to consider manifestations of this energy as the key to transpersonal psychology. Schroll is negatively disposed toward modern science, precisely because it is a strict ideological system, with its main purpose to transform all our best knowledge into weapons (p. 66).
The idea of the transpersonal approach in anthropology continues in Charles Laughlin’s article, where it is noted that in the middle of the Twentieth Century , anthropology underwent a turn from empiricism and mechanism towards the problem of human subjective experience. The first attempts to approach subjective experience, the author suggests, were with the Society for Psychical Research, which were of considerable interest to early psychologists - William James, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. In the context of this discussion, Laughlin highlights the main methodological problems faced by transpersonal anthropology, among which, in particular, we find the noted problem of comparability of extraordinary experiences in different cultures and religions. The problem that is primarily in the experiences- biological and physiological conditions of the body, knowledge, and the problem of interpretation of the symbolic nature of a number of transpersonal experiences.
Fiona Bowie explores ethnographic descriptions of the experience of life after death in her article. Bowie is the successor of the line laid by Raymond Moody, and in her research combines modern psychological approaches with the methodology of anthropological research. The author proposes that an honest investigation would not be possible if a scientist does not accept to a certain extent the beliefs and practices of those he investigates, if he does not have empathy and is not involved in that type of thinking, of living and seeing the world.
An interesting theory of the origin and development of paranormal abilities is proposed in James McClenon’s chapter. The author identifies three basic categories of anomalous perception: the spontaneous unplanned experience (dreams, out of body experiences, near death experiences), deliberately induced experiences of certain ritual practices of an individual or group (shamanism, mediumship), and “Tertiary experience” caused by psychological and physiological processes (spiritual healing). According to McClenon, the source of all of the above experiences is in the person’s ability to enter into a self induced state of hypnosis. The origin of it can be found amongst prehistoric people who, basking in the caves, looking at the fire and rhythmically swaying, and singing song induced them into hypnotic trance. As a consequence, there were various systems of trance ritual and beliefs about the world and spirits. In addition, given a placebo effect after people learned to use it not only on themselves, but also to induce such states in others, from which emerged the phenomenon of healing. Moreover, in this case, there is a division in humans between psychotics, who cannot control their trance experience, and normal people that this experience does not prevent from leading mentally healthy lives.
Fabian Graham’s paper is probably the best in this collection, as it is the most devoid of ideological fervor. It is a report on a field study conducted at two churches in Taiwan, where a cult of deities, spirits and so-called “money gods” who grant income has survived. The specifics of man’s relationship with them is that they do not need to pray, it is only necessary to come to their church and throw two divination blocks, the way the blocks fall affects the amount on behalf of the deities asking for sacrifices. Money received from the temple is considered sacred, they can not immediately spend it, and it is usually stored either on the family altars, or on a desk top, for about a week, and only then is it used for business. It is believed that this money can assist a person into material well being. In this case, it is not necessary to return the money taken from the temple, nor to thank the deities for their gifts. Despite this, Graham shows that the money god temples began to flourish because of donations left there by people who became wealthy thanks to the gift of money.
Serena Roney-Dougal’s chapter tells the story of an experiment to study meditation held in the high Tibetan monastery with the blessing of the Dalai Lama. With this blessing the experiment could involve not only the novices but also monks with many years of experience with meditation. The result revealed that by studyin brain rhythms and certain material, it is possible to measure the ability of clairvoyance in Tibetan monks. In fact, the experiment was limited to guessing images, and reading thoughts associated with these images. In the experiment it was found that the experiences monks have a much greater capacity for clairvoyance than the novices. Note that the experimental conditions and general conclusions do not look convincing to the reader.
David Young’s chapter continues the theme of telepathy. The article describes his personal experience on the effect of thoughts on some people’s dreams. The text contains a number of stories where the author discusses an experiment on the symbolic expression in the dreams of his daughter, who did not know that she was involved in the experiments. It seems unlikely that such a testimony, especially with such a small data set, can serve as a powerful argument, especially given all the tension of symbolic analogies between sleep and reality.
Rounding out the collection are two theoretical articles - David Luke and Michael Winkelman, summarizing the arguments against a positivist scientific approach to the paranormal, and highlighting the potential of Paranthropology as a discipline involved in the direct experience of research. One major drawback of these articles (especially Luke’s work), is the desire to conceal the arguments of the critics of parapsychology, when often these arguments are quite convincing.
After the analysis of this collection it can be concluded that we have here an informative and interesting book, especially in the case reports of anthropological practice. Unfortunately, no text presents any fairly reasoned or convincing evidence for the scientific reality of the paranormal. In fact, there are only lengthy arguments about how science does not accept such important things. When it comes to specific reasoning of the facts, they are either highly questionable (as in the article by Roney-Dougal), or uniformly interpreted broadly (as in David Young’s text). It all seems to rest on the matter of belief and unbelief. Authors of the book almost unanimously believe in the existence of the paranormal, and hence all of their pathos, but this believe they are translating into academic robes to safely enter it into the framework of academic research, which is their professional activity.
With all of the above noted, it is not to say that this collection is useless. It provides remarkable facts, and summarizes various theories through historical sketches. It does not matter if you believe in these things or not, but when you read, for example, the work on shamanism, whether specific works of ethnography, or popularizing books like Eliade’s, there is a question: if we no longer believe shamanism to be a mental disorder, how do we explain such a rich experience of unusual phenomena? It is simply inexcusable to fix these things without giving them an interpretation. On this basis, we not that the collection under review may be of interest to religious studies, cultural studies and anthropology, especially if they try to read and treat the estimated judgements of the authors critically.
P.G. Nosachy (HSE, PSTGU)