Hood, Bruce - Supersense

False

True

29

At times I have felt that a professor’s lecture was meant especially for me.

False

True

30

I have sometimes felt that strangers were reading my mind.

False

True

Now add up all the boxes in the right-hand column that you ticked. The average score (based on 1,500 US students) was 9 for males and 10 for females. How did you score? Do you think the questions measure supernatural thinking?

WHAT PATTERNS DO YOU SEE?

In the book, I talk about how some of us with a strong supersense are more inclined towards seeing structure and patterns in the world. Test your self with the following set of images taken from the ‘Snowy Pictures task’ (© ETS) used to assess this capacity. Can you see any hidden patterns? Answers are at the bottom.

There are hidden patterns in images, 17, 19, 21, 22 & 24.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many of the ideas I am presenting are based on academic research but they have been road-tested in public lectures and informal gatherings throughout the UK. When you need to talk in a way that most people can understand, it forces you to cut to the chase: to stop waffling and get to the heart of the matter. Academics are trained to recognize weaknesses, but in doing so we can become preoccupied with hedging our bets, qualifying our assertions and being over-cautious in our interpretations, so that we often seem to be sitting on a fence of indecision. That’s why writing a book such as this one might make an academic nervous.

Thankfully, I have been helped along the way. I am indebted to colleagues, students, friends, and family who have read different versions, made suggestions and generally encouraged me to be less nervous about the book. In alphabetical order I would like to thank Sara Baker, Horace Barlow, Susan Blackmore, Paul Bloom, Peter Brugger, Zoltan Dienes, Katy Donnelly, Shiri Einav, Norman Freeman, Susan Gelman, Iain Gilchrist, Thalia Gjersoe, Richard Gregory, Charlotte Hardie, Hilary and Peter Hodgson, Loyale Hood, Alison and Ross Hood, Marjaana Lindeman, Neil Macrae, Peter Millican, Steven Pinker, Paul Rozin, Reba Rosenberg, Ali Smith, Elaine Snell, Andrew Stuart, Arno van Voorst, Alice Wilson and Stephen Woolley. I also want to thank all those working in the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre who have supported me in this project.

The thesis I present in this book is one that I have been developing over the course of my professional academic life. However, it really came to life after my arrival at the University of Bristol, which has proved a supportive and nurturing environment in which to work. I could not have maintained my research programme without the support of the UK agencies that fund my work. I would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council. In addition, I would also like to thank the private foundations that support me including the Leverhulme Trust (UK), the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (UK) and the Bial Foundation (Portugal).

For this UK edition, I am particularly grateful to the support, encouragement, and vision, of Andreas Campomar of Constable & Robinson.

I dedicate this book to my family.

SOURCE NOTES

PROLOGUE

1.

Sean Coughlan, ‘What Happens to the Houses of Horror?’, BBC News , 5 April, 2004, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/ hi/magazine/3593137.stm.

2.

Although the National Association of Realtors in the United States requires its members to reveal all physical factors that might affect the desirability of a house, there is no consensus when it comes to the psychological factors that may stigmatize a home.

3.

‘Couple Lose House of Horror Case’, BBC News , 7 February, 2004, available at: http:// news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi /england/west_yorkshire/ 3492936.stm

4.

There were several reports of the security surrounding the demolition; see ‘Soham Murder House Is Demolished’, BBC News , 3 April, 2004, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/cambridgeshire/3595801.stm; and Tony Thompson, ‘As Day Breaks, Huntley’s House Is Turned into Dust and Rubble’, the Guardian , 4 April, 2004, available at: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/ uk_news/story/0,,1185348,00.html.

5.

The outcome of the celebrity memorabilia auction at Christie’s is reported online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ newstopics/celebritynews/2282365/ Beatles-Sgt-Pepper-drumskin-in-record-sale.html

6.

The designers of Princess Diana’s wedding dress, David and Elizabeth Emanuel, are currently selling – for £1,000 – a book with a swatch of the wedding dress that she wore during fittings; available from http://www.adressfordiana.com.

7.

The word ‘fetish’ (from the Latin facticious , for ‘artificial’) was originally coined by Charles de Brosses in 1757 to refer to objects believed by West African tribes to have supernatural powers.

8.

James Randi discusses the cardigan stunt and tells readers about his own experience with Brother André’s relic at: http://www.randi.org/jr/ 2006–09/092206bad.html.

9.

For example, the Pan Fest, a pagan festival held on the prairies in Alberta, Canada, during Lammas in August.

10.

Tony Blair’s superstition about his shoes is reported in The Times online at http:// www.timesonline.co.uk/ tol/ news/politics/the_blair_years/ article1969242.ece

11.

J. Curl. ‘McCain channeling as his luck toward 2008 race; Keeps assortment of talismans to ward off a Democratic win.’ The Washington Times, 16 April 2008.

12.

I am indebted to Steven Pinker, who introduced me to Philip Tetlock’s work on sacred values that seeded the idea in my head that a supernatural sense makes such beliefs so powerful.

13.

http:// www.happynews.com/news/ 5132008/fans-long-ashes-scattered -sporting-sites.htm

CHAPTER ONE

1.

P. Le Loyer, introduction to IIII Livres des Spectres, ou, Apparitions et Visions d’Espirits, Anges, et Demons se monstrans sensiblement aux hommes , 2nd edn, translated by Zachery Jones (British Library, 1605).

2.

www .ted.com/talks/view/id/22.

3.

D. Clarke, ‘Experience and Other Reasons Given for Belief and Disbelief in the Paranormal and Religious Phenomena’, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 60 (1995): 371–84.

4.

A. Grimby, ‘Bereavement Among Elderly People: Grief Reactions, Post-Bereavement Hallucinations and Quality of Life’, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia 87 (1993): 72–80.

5.

This probability is based on any two people sharing a birthday. Conversely, if you were asked how many people would need to be at a party for you to meet someone who shares your birthday at half the parties you attend, the number seems unreasonably high at 253. Those of you unconvinced by these figures can check out Ian Stewart, The Magical Maze: Seeing the World Through Mathematical Eyes (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1997). Peter Milligan from Oxford University told me about the soccer example.

6.

M. Plimmer and B. King, Beyond Coincidence (Icon Books, 2005), p. 4.

7.

W. James, On Varieties of Religious Experiences (Basic Books, 1902), p. 58.

8.

Ibid., p. 510.

9.

S. Vyse, Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition (Oxford University Press, 1997) p. 60.

10.

Many Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter incorporate elements from earlier pagan ceremonies. For example, Yule logs can be traced back to Norse pagan festivals, in which they were symbols of health and productivity. Mistletoe was also used in Norse pagan ceremonies and is linked to fertility by the resemblance of the fruit’s content to semen.