Inside the Supernatural
Out of body? Out of mind? Reality or unreality?All of us have experienced the inexplicable, have known elements of the unknown. but is there really anybody out there? What is the evidence to support the theory of life after death, telepathy or psychokinesis? Do scientists believe in crisis visions, ghosts and mediums? Is there a rational explanation for even the most mysterious of ghostly apparitions?INSIDE THE SUPERNATURAL takes nothing for granted, neither believes nor disbelieves; it is quite simply the most comprehensive and readable analysis of the evidence for and against. containing a riveting account of the latest scientific evidence and research – and the latest case histories – it is compelling reading for anyone with an interest in the supernatural.
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A Fontana Original 1992
Copyright © Jean Ritchie 1992
Jean Ritchie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Pictures by Emma Cattell
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Source ISBN: 9780006378099
Ebook Edition © MAY 2016 ISBN: 9780008192082
Version: 2016-05-12
Tell anyone that you are researching a book about the paranormal and they will tell you an anecdote from their own life or one from the experiences of their family and friends. It may be something fairly insignificant: a dream that came true; a strange feeling of a ghostly presence; a clock that, in the words of the song ‘stopped, dead, never to go again, when the old man died’. Or it may be a full-scale haunting with clanking chains, footsteps and headless nuns; a disruptive poltergeist that hurled objects around; a vision of a dying relative many miles away.
The majority of people believe in the supernatural. Sixty per cent believe it is possible to communicate telepathically; fifty-nine per cent believe that some houses are haunted; fifty-nine per cent believe it is possible to dream the future; forty-five per cent believe in reincarnation and thirty per cent believe that we can receive messages from the dead (statistics from a poll carried out for Channel Four in 1987). The word ‘believe’ implies that they have faith in the fact that these things are possible. What this book attempts to do is find out what factual basis there is for their belief.
An anecdotal story, the sort everyone seems to be able to tell about things that go bump in the night, has no scientific worth. It cannot be investigated, bottled, analysed or dissected. It’s like Samuel Goldwyn’s verbal contract: not worth the paper it’s written on. Yet over the many months I was researching this book I came to realize that the sum of all this experience has to be worth something. If every family has within its culture a story of this kind, the sheer volume and universality of the material must amount to a matter of substance. Sure, the sceptics will say that man has demonstrated his need for mystery and that supernatural stories cater for this need. But there are easier ways to inject mystery into life: religion, for a start. The paranormal is a subject that invites scorn: many of the people who have confided their personal experiences to me have done so diffidently, and in confidence: ‘I’ve never told anyone this before in case they thought I was mad,’ is a fairly common fear.
This is not a book about the assorted unconfirmed experiences of all these people. But it is a book for them because it is a book which attempts to explain, in lay person’s language, just what is happening in the serious pursuit of the paranormal.
Are we any nearer today to understanding what ghosts are? What causes poltergeists? Why some people come back from mediums feeling that they have been in close commune with their dead loved ones – and others feel that they have been ripped off? Is there such a thing as telepathy – and, if so, why can’t we harness it and use it?
Research into the paranormal is regarded with some suspicion by the scientific establishment. One eminent American parapsychologist recently estimated that there are no more than fifty scientists worldwide involved in investigating the supernatural on a full-time basis. Fortunately, to counterbalance this, there are some brilliant part-time investigators (several of them, coincidentally, highly-regarded scientists in their own fields) who give their free time and energy to the subject.
Serious psychical research began here in Britain more than a hundred years ago. Although America hhas thrown more money at the subject over the past fifty years, international researchers still look to Britain for good examples of ghost stories: this is the most haunted country in the world.
