Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief [Paperback]

Many people hold some remarkable beliefs about the soul: it is said to be the spark of the divine, the immaterial part of man, not subject to evolution, and yet the essential human part of us that survives the body after death. Others believe that Uri Geller can bend spoons and repair watches with the power of his mind. For the rest of us who don't share these beliefs and wonder at the confidence of those who do, Nicholas Humphrey has written a compelling antidote to their wishful thinking. "Soul Searching" is rare in the long tradition of writing about the soul in that its conclusions are grounded in empirical science and logical argument, and not ready made by either religious or medical dogma.

Humphrey acknowledges that "scientific materialism is regarded by many, even by some of its own prophets, as deeply unsatisfying". We all know people who insist that there "must be something else" apart from our material existence, that "mere" matter cannot be ultimately responsible for the feelings of love and the "miracle of human consciousness". Such misgivings are deeply ingrained in our culture. So why, Humphrey asks, do "most people most of the time actually behave as if they were thoroughgoing materialists" while wishing "that they themselves do possess a soul"? What on earth is going on?

One of the things going on, of course, despite the advance of science and reason, is religion, one purpose of which is "to nurse people's hopes of transcending physical reality". Humphrey then makes the link between "soulfulness and paranormal power" and challenges any modern believer who bravely maintains that their conception of religion does not involve anything so vulgar as paranormal miracles "to have another think about just what it is they really believe in". And, just as few Christians will relish his description of Jesus as a "major paranormal practitioner", few people of any or no religion who believe they possess an immaterial soul will think of its ordinary operation as being paranormal in character. But that is precisely what Humphrey successfully argues, and the key concept is dualism: the belief that there are two different realms or worlds. Once you accept dualism, then the normal interactions between mind and matter "are therefore, strictly speaking, paranormal."

Parapsychology at its inception was meant to be "a vindication of the essentially spiritual nature of man", but as a scientific discipline it has consistently failed to come up with any credible evidence for psi phenomena. This failure relegates belief in ghosts and spoon bending to the realm of end-of-the-pier entertainment or anomalous psychology, and hardly challenges the social order. The implications for religious belief, which has long clung to the "dualist model of what it is to be a human being", however, are more serious. If Uri Geller has no role other than as an entertainer, then the same is true of the Archbishop of Canterbury and every other priest in the land. Referring to Joseph Wright's "Experiment with an Airpump", Humphrey suggests that we reinterpret it as "a picture of the vanity of the paradise promised by religion and the paranormal. For it is they, not science, which if they had their way would pump from the world the elements on which life has taken wing." "Soul Searching" is very solid ground for anyone tired of sinking into mumbo jumbo.

A very good book on our belief in the supernatural. Very well written, full of logic and reason, it delves deeply into the roots of our need for a higher reality beyond the material. A good book to give anyone who has fall prey to any claim of the supernatural. A very good read indeed.

Many people hold some remarkable beliefs about the soul: it is said to be the spark of the divine, the immaterial part of man, not subject to evolution, and yet the essential human part of us that survives the body after death. Others believe that Uri Geller can bend spoons and repair watches with the power of his mind. For the rest of us who don't share these beliefs and wonder at the confidence of those who do, Nicholas Humphrey has written a compelling antidote to their wishful thinking. "Soul Searching" is rare in the long tradition of writing about the soul in that its conclusions are grounded in empirical science and logical argument, and not ready made by either religious or medical dogma.

Humphrey acknowledges that "scientific materialism is regarded by many, even by some of its own prophets, as deeply unsatisfying". We all know people who insist that there "must be something else" apart from our material existence, that "mere" matter cannot be ultimately responsible for the feelings of love and the "miracle of human consciousness". Such misgivings are deeply ingrained in our culture. So why, Humphrey asks, do "most people most of the time actually behave as if they were thoroughgoing materialists" while wishing "that they themselves do possess a soul"? What on earth is going on?

One of the things going on, of course, despite the advance of science and reason, is religion, one purpose of which is "to nurse people's hopes of transcending physical reality". Humphrey then makes the link between "soulfulness and paranormal power" and challenges any modern believer who bravely maintains that their conception of religion does not involve anything so vulgar as paranormal miracles "to have another think about just what it is they really believe in". And, just as few Christians will relish his description of Jesus as a "major paranormal practitioner", few people of any or no religion who believe they possess an immaterial soul will think of its ordinary operation as being paranormal in character. But that is precisely what Humphrey successfully argues, and the key concept is dualism: the belief that there are two different realms or worlds. Once you accept dualism, then the normal interactions between mind and matter "are therefore, strictly speaking, paranormal."

Parapsychology at its inception was meant to be "a vindication of the essentially spiritual nature of man", but as a scientific discipline it has consistently failed to come up with any credible evidence for psi phenomena. This failure relegates belief in ghosts and spoon bending to the realm of end-of-the-pier entertainment or anomalous psychology, and hardly challenges the social order. The implications for religious belief, which has long clung to the "dualist model of what it is to be a human being", however, are more serious. If Uri Geller has no role other than as an entertainer, then the same is true of the Archbishop of Canterbury and every other priest in the land. Referring to Joseph Wright's "Experiment with an Airpump", Humphrey suggests that we reinterpret it as "a picture of the vanity of the paradise promised by religion and the paranormal. For it is they, not science, which if they had their way would pump from the world the elements on which life has taken wing." "Soul Searching" is very solid ground for anyone tired of sinking into mumbo jumbo. (From Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief.)