| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Supersense: From Superstition to Religion - The Brain Science of Belief for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Bruce Hood s fascinating, timely and important book..Hood s presentation of the science behind our supersense is crystal clear and utterly engaging ....perhaps the millions who read and loved that book (Dawkins' God Delusion) can also read and learn to love - Supersense. - New Scientist
An intriguing look at a feature of the human mind that is subtle in its operation but profound in its consequences. - Steven Pinker
A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley
Marvelous … chock full of real-world examples reinforced by experimental research, Hood builds a theoretical model to explain how the mind comes to sense that there is something beyond the natural world, something supernatural …. This book is an important contribution to the psychological literature that is revealing the actuality of our very irrational human nature. - Michael Shermer, Science
A fun and thought-provoking read … you will find something here to challenge the way you see yourself and others. --BBC Focus magazine
A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley
A fascinating and readable book, and one of the best books on the subject of why everyone sometimes believes weird things. --Fortean Times
A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley
An intriguing look at a feature of the human mind that is subtle in its operation but profound in its consequences. - Steven Pinker
A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley
Marvelous … chock full of real-world examples reinforced by experimental research, Hood builds a theoretical model to explain how the mind comes to sense that there is something beyond the natural world, something supernatural …. This book is an important contribution to the psychological literature that is revealing the actuality of our very irrational human nature. - Michael Shermer, Science
A fun and thought-provoking read … you will find something here to challenge the way you see yourself and others. --BBC Focus magazine
A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley
A fascinating and readable book, and one of the best books on the subject of why everyone sometimes believes weird things. --Fortean Times
A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley
Book Description
A fascinating and engaging examination of why we believe in the supernatural.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Compared to some of the books of the same genre, which often seem to unravel into an angry rant against God/gods, this book is rational and scientific. Professor Hood's tone is gentle, endearing, and witty. He exposes and explains the evolutionary reasons for human superstition and religion, without any moral judgement, but with a lot of sense! I can't recommend highly enough to skeptics and believers alike.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
... for our openness to supernatural beliefs of all kinds, religious "psychic", or simply superstitious. Prof Hood develops his argument with repeated appeals to common experience and to experimental data.
The author, a professor of developmental psychology, relates these to the way our minds work, just as optical illusions are related to the way our visual cortex works. For example, from early in life, we regard physical objects as being moved by mental forces. That is the way we inevitably continue to feel about our own bodies, even if philosophically we know that this is absurd. Hence the supernatural belief that events must have a "why" as well as a "how".
This is only one of several important ideas developed here, but I won't go into more detail for fear of spoiling your pleasure in reading this book. Whether you are a believer or an unbeliever is not going to be changed by reading this book, nor is that the intention, but what will be changed is your degree of insight into your own mind and the minds of others.
The author, a professor of developmental psychology, relates these to the way our minds work, just as optical illusions are related to the way our visual cortex works. For example, from early in life, we regard physical objects as being moved by mental forces. That is the way we inevitably continue to feel about our own bodies, even if philosophically we know that this is absurd. Hence the supernatural belief that events must have a "why" as well as a "how".
This is only one of several important ideas developed here, but I won't go into more detail for fear of spoiling your pleasure in reading this book. Whether you are a believer or an unbeliever is not going to be changed by reading this book, nor is that the intention, but what will be changed is your degree of insight into your own mind and the minds of others.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Fascinating book I really enjoyed it! It is quite a page turner from Chapter 1 but could also be dipped into for witty anecdotes throughout. There is no need to be a scientist as it is aimed at the general public and if you have an interest in why humans behave in the way they do, particularly around the superstitious and religion, then you will definitely want to read this book. I found it a very balanced view and smoothly written with excellent examples. A fascinating and accessible book that ought to be a best seller!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A lack of insight
Like a lot of psychology, this book is befuddled. There has never been a clear demarcation link between philosophy and pscyhology and I wish this blurr could be properly... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Vincent Van Wyk
A brilliant read for anyone who's interested
The book was a very informative and educational read with lots of new information, even to someone who has read a lot of books about the paranormal and parapsychology. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Joey
A most unjudgemental, unfundamentalist, atheism
I found this a most absorbing read, particularly because though I agreed with the rationale behind much of it I did also find myself arguing, enjoyably rather than angrily, as... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lady Fancifull
Fascinating unputdownable and 'essential' magical read
Loved this book and brilliantly argued and wonderful introduction to human 'magical thinking' which 'makes you think!!!! Read more
Published 5 months ago by L. Farrell
Excellent service.
The book didn't take quite as long to come come from Canada as I'd expected. A very good price for a brand new hard back
Published 18 months ago by MR T ROBERTS
interesting but...
I'm not going to go into a great depth here - overall this book is written in a friendly and nice manner,
but there are a couple of things which had caught my eye:... Read more
but there are a couple of things which had caught my eye:... Read more
Published 19 months ago by bookwormkin
The rationale behind intuitive thinking
I don't know why sceptics/scientists have to be congratulated for their indulgence by the author in the introduction for "reading this far" because I consider this to be a... Read more
Published on 28 April 2010 by SAP
The sense there is something more to reality
William James thought it natural to think that there was more to reality, something unknown, unseen and unmeasurable, in other words something beyond natural explanations: the... Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2009 by Sphex
A must read book. Hats off to Bruce Hood!!
I purchased this book this couple of days back, and since then I have never looked back, I am almost coming to the end of a remarkable and informative journey. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2009 by H. Goswami
Promises much but delivery a bit thin
I heard Bruce Hood talking on Radio 4 and was sufficiently interested in what he had to say to buy his book - after all, a popular science writer engaging on the question of *why*... Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2009 by O. Buxton
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
