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Science and the Supernatural
Copyright 1980 by P. N. Taylor. Published by E. P. Dutton, New York, NY. State "First Edition" with number "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1". John Taylor is Professor of Mathematics at King's College in London.
180 pages, Hardcover
Published May 20, 1980
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John G. Taylor
45 books4 followersJohn Gerald Taylor was a British physicist and author.
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June 3, 2024
A PARANORMAL RESEARCHER TURNS SKEPTIC
John Gerald Taylor (1931-2012) was a British physicist, and Emeritus Professor and Director, Centre for Neural Networks, at Kings College in London.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1980 book, “This is a book about the paranormal, the supernatural or ESP… It is about the sixth sense, that faculty whose possession would enable one to take over the world if one possessed it to a high enough degree; and whose possession, even to a lesser degree, could smoother one’s way through life… I started my investigations into ESP because I thought there could be something in it. There seemed too much evidence brought forward by too many reliable people for it all to disappear. Yet as my investigation proceeded that is exactly what happened. Every supernatural phenomenon I investigated turned crumbled to nothing before my gaze… My present attitude seems to be a complete about-face… let me say quite bluntly that I am not trying to regain any lost scientific ‘respectability’ by my new position. Only through constant investigation of many sensitives over a number of years have my earlier positive views on the paranormal required to be so radically reviewed.”
He states, “only one force and set of constituents turn out to be a possible means of explaining the paranormal: electromagnetic forces acting on the normal constituents of our bodies… It might be claimed that there is an unknown ‘fifth force’ of nature causing paranormal phenomena … Such a force would have to transmit a great deal of energy, for example, to bend a spoon in the way achieved by Uri Geller. This energy would have to overcome the electromagnetic forces binding the metal atoms together… There is absolutely no scientific trace of such a force in atomic physics, down to many orders of magnitude, in comparison with the electromagnetic force. We may thus discard the idea of a fifth force if we wish to preserve the scientific viewpoint.” (Pg. 28)
He and colleagues performed tests during a faith-healing session: “we had not been able to explain the sensations of heat or cold reported as experienced in many healing sessions. We decided that we should make sure that heating or cooling really did occur in the faith-healing situation. We therefore measured the surface skin temperature of the healer and the patient during a test… The results showed quite conclusively that the experiences changes of temperature were purely in the mind and had no basis in fact.” (Pg. 42)
Of Kirlian photography, he observes, “There are various features of the process which require care and attention. One is the amount of pressure applied by the subject to the photographic plate or other surface… A second quantity … is the angle which the fingertip from which the sparks are being drawn makes with the surface on which it rests…. The moisture on the fingertip is also of importance, as is the length of time the finger is exposed. When all of these factors are carefully controlled, there is no change of the Kirlian photograph with the psychological state of the subject. It seems that the more important variable is the moisture content of the fingertip… A careful calculation by American scientists has shown that the process occurs by a well-understood physical process called a corona discharge. We can only conclude that Kirlian photography is irrelevant to paranormal investigations.” (Pg. 44)
Of telepathy, he notes, “The SRI results described in the previous chapter depend heavily on matching the scene described and drawn by a remote viewer with one of a set of possible places. The process of judging is clearly subjective, since for one of the subjects… six judges assigned scores to his results of 7, 7, 6, 5, 3, and 3… Due to the lack of consistency among the scores, it is clear that there are no precise criteria specified indicate what is to be regarded as a successful vision of a distant place.” (Pg. 69)
He recalls, “An occurrence that used to trouble me frequently was a premonition, as I sat working at my desk, that my telephone was about to ring. I would reach out my hand to pick it up and sure enough a few seconds later it would actually do so… I finally tracked down the cause of this phenomenon---I found that a brief warning ‘click’ occurred as the telephone was actuated a few seconds before the bell actually rang.” (Pg. 74)
He suggests: “There is another reason why the results obtained from die throwing must be treated with caution. The decline effect was cited as support for psychic control of the die. But this is not really so, since the decline effect may also be produced by taking too small a sample and expecting chance results to be valid there.” (Pg. 102)
He recounts, “Having set up a suitable test, and enlisted the aid of several colleagues, we invited various subjects to perform. The first to be put under scrutiny was Uri Geller himself, who happened to be in London launching a record he had been involved with. He came to the laboratory for one and a half hours. In spite of the very friendly atmosphere he did not succeed at all during that period. Nor has he returned to be tested again under these (or any other) conditions, in spite of several warm invitations to him to do so. One could suppose that his powers desert him in the presence of sceptics, but during that test at no time did I of any of my team express any form of skepticism; I do not we even THOUGHT a harsh thought! As far as I am concerned, thus endeth the saga of Uri Geller; if he is not prepared to be tested under such conditions his powers cannot be authentic.” (Pg. 118)
Of Near-Death Experiences, he comments, “Such experiences are similar in content to those involved in LSD trips or in sensory-deprivation studies. They may also occur in other out-of-the-body experiences. The details of the experiences are interesting in themselves. However, they give no evidence for the independent existence of the intelligences encountered by those experiencing the altered state of consciousness. They cannot therefore be used in any argument for survival after death in any form.” (Pg. 153)
Although nearly forty years old, this book will still be of great interest to those of a skeptical turn of mind---particularly since Taylor has changed so radically since his earlier “Superminds” book (which basically endorsed Geller).
John Gerald Taylor (1931-2012) was a British physicist, and Emeritus Professor and Director, Centre for Neural Networks, at Kings College in London.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1980 book, “This is a book about the paranormal, the supernatural or ESP… It is about the sixth sense, that faculty whose possession would enable one to take over the world if one possessed it to a high enough degree; and whose possession, even to a lesser degree, could smoother one’s way through life… I started my investigations into ESP because I thought there could be something in it. There seemed too much evidence brought forward by too many reliable people for it all to disappear. Yet as my investigation proceeded that is exactly what happened. Every supernatural phenomenon I investigated turned crumbled to nothing before my gaze… My present attitude seems to be a complete about-face… let me say quite bluntly that I am not trying to regain any lost scientific ‘respectability’ by my new position. Only through constant investigation of many sensitives over a number of years have my earlier positive views on the paranormal required to be so radically reviewed.”
He states, “only one force and set of constituents turn out to be a possible means of explaining the paranormal: electromagnetic forces acting on the normal constituents of our bodies… It might be claimed that there is an unknown ‘fifth force’ of nature causing paranormal phenomena … Such a force would have to transmit a great deal of energy, for example, to bend a spoon in the way achieved by Uri Geller. This energy would have to overcome the electromagnetic forces binding the metal atoms together… There is absolutely no scientific trace of such a force in atomic physics, down to many orders of magnitude, in comparison with the electromagnetic force. We may thus discard the idea of a fifth force if we wish to preserve the scientific viewpoint.” (Pg. 28)
He and colleagues performed tests during a faith-healing session: “we had not been able to explain the sensations of heat or cold reported as experienced in many healing sessions. We decided that we should make sure that heating or cooling really did occur in the faith-healing situation. We therefore measured the surface skin temperature of the healer and the patient during a test… The results showed quite conclusively that the experiences changes of temperature were purely in the mind and had no basis in fact.” (Pg. 42)
Of Kirlian photography, he observes, “There are various features of the process which require care and attention. One is the amount of pressure applied by the subject to the photographic plate or other surface… A second quantity … is the angle which the fingertip from which the sparks are being drawn makes with the surface on which it rests…. The moisture on the fingertip is also of importance, as is the length of time the finger is exposed. When all of these factors are carefully controlled, there is no change of the Kirlian photograph with the psychological state of the subject. It seems that the more important variable is the moisture content of the fingertip… A careful calculation by American scientists has shown that the process occurs by a well-understood physical process called a corona discharge. We can only conclude that Kirlian photography is irrelevant to paranormal investigations.” (Pg. 44)
Of telepathy, he notes, “The SRI results described in the previous chapter depend heavily on matching the scene described and drawn by a remote viewer with one of a set of possible places. The process of judging is clearly subjective, since for one of the subjects… six judges assigned scores to his results of 7, 7, 6, 5, 3, and 3… Due to the lack of consistency among the scores, it is clear that there are no precise criteria specified indicate what is to be regarded as a successful vision of a distant place.” (Pg. 69)
He recalls, “An occurrence that used to trouble me frequently was a premonition, as I sat working at my desk, that my telephone was about to ring. I would reach out my hand to pick it up and sure enough a few seconds later it would actually do so… I finally tracked down the cause of this phenomenon---I found that a brief warning ‘click’ occurred as the telephone was actuated a few seconds before the bell actually rang.” (Pg. 74)
He suggests: “There is another reason why the results obtained from die throwing must be treated with caution. The decline effect was cited as support for psychic control of the die. But this is not really so, since the decline effect may also be produced by taking too small a sample and expecting chance results to be valid there.” (Pg. 102)
He recounts, “Having set up a suitable test, and enlisted the aid of several colleagues, we invited various subjects to perform. The first to be put under scrutiny was Uri Geller himself, who happened to be in London launching a record he had been involved with. He came to the laboratory for one and a half hours. In spite of the very friendly atmosphere he did not succeed at all during that period. Nor has he returned to be tested again under these (or any other) conditions, in spite of several warm invitations to him to do so. One could suppose that his powers desert him in the presence of sceptics, but during that test at no time did I of any of my team express any form of skepticism; I do not we even THOUGHT a harsh thought! As far as I am concerned, thus endeth the saga of Uri Geller; if he is not prepared to be tested under such conditions his powers cannot be authentic.” (Pg. 118)
Of Near-Death Experiences, he comments, “Such experiences are similar in content to those involved in LSD trips or in sensory-deprivation studies. They may also occur in other out-of-the-body experiences. The details of the experiences are interesting in themselves. However, they give no evidence for the independent existence of the intelligences encountered by those experiencing the altered state of consciousness. They cannot therefore be used in any argument for survival after death in any form.” (Pg. 153)
Although nearly forty years old, this book will still be of great interest to those of a skeptical turn of mind---particularly since Taylor has changed so radically since his earlier “Superminds” book (which basically endorsed Geller).
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