Bøker av Brian Inglis

Science and Parascience is a history of psychical research between1914 and 1939. It's a sequel to Natural and Supernatural: A History of the Paranormal from the Earliest Times to 1914. This book explores the phenomena of mediumship, spontaneous cases and experimental investigations during WWI and the post-war period, in the UK, USA and European continent.Along with eminent physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, who researched the subject extensively during the early twentieth century, Inglis concludes that the evidence is overwhelming stating: "I accept the evidence for the paranormal on precisely the same basis as I accept the evidence for, say, meteorites, or lightning, both of which were once in the supernatural category, but were taken out of it because the quantity of the evidence for them, and the quality of the sources, made continued scepticism impossible."The Postscript chapter deals with its lack of acceptance, and in summing up, Inglis writes: "Psychical research had taken a wrong turning, in seeking academic recognition, if it meant losing contact with the public; an understandable but disastrous error of strategy which vitiated much of the valuable research undertaken between the wars, and unfairly destroyed the reputations of some of the most dedicated researchers. If I have done nothing else, I hope I have done something to rehabilitate them, at least in the eyes of their successors".

What exactly is psi? Why has the paranormal consistently been condemned by the scientific establishment? Why have its manifestations - ESP, psychokinesis, poltergeists and so on, which have been reported from every era, from every part of the world and all its walks of life - been so scathingly dismissed by supporters of scientism? Brian Inglis was bought up to regard science 'almost as a religion'. Such, he now fears, is precisely what it has become. Like other faiths, 'scientism' has developed dogmas which are founded, the faithful believe, on scientific facts, but which in reality are derived largely from the materialist assumptions of the Victorian physicists. Many of these assumptions, he argues, have now been revealed as fallacious, yet the scientific establishment clings to them tenuously. In this fascinating and remarkably clear study of attitudes, Inglis is concerned principally with the massive accumulation of evidence - historical, anecdotal and experimental - for the existence of action and communication at a distance of a kind which does not fit materialistic preconceptions. The force, all forces involved - for convenience labeled psi - can be observed in operation, at all biological levels, in the behaviour of plants, insects, animals and people, and Inglis has collected a striking body of evidence to illustrate the fact. He also examines how the force has been demonstrated in recent times - to the satisfaction of eminent quantum physicists. Yet, as the author shows, scientism's reaction has been either to ignore the evidence, pointing to some kind of extrasensory perception at work, or to explain it away with the help of far-fetched scientific theories which, however implausible, at least accord with prevailing scientific dogma. More alarming than this, Inglis reveals how some of the defenders of the faith have used their authority to stamp out heresy and discredit those, past and present, who have been courageous enough to explore this territory, in defiance of scientism's edicts. Heretics (and their works) may no longer be burned, but their academic prospects can be blighted and their reputations damaged. That the public should have been so misled by distorted versions of facts which would tend to support the case for psi is the most alarming disclosure to emerge from Inglis's investigation. The Hidden Poweris far from being merely a debunking of the debunkers. There has been no comparable survey of the psi evidence, including the flaws, to date, and none which so effectively removes the subject from its former murky associations. Bernard Levin said of Inglis's earlier book, Natural and Supernatural, 'I believe it to be an extraordinary important and valuable work, sensational in what it contains and even more so its implications … he has piled up a mountain of evidence, searchingly examined and scrupulously evaluated. Arthur Koestler praised that work for being 'both scholarly and readable'. Now, in this book, Inglis points to a clear way forward in our understanding of the hidden power which is universally denied any useful application in everyday affairs.

In 1981 British Rail had a call from a woman who claimed to have had a vision of a fatal crash in which a freight train had been involved. So clear had it been, she said, that she not merely saw the blue diesel engine, but could read the number: 47 216. Two years later, an accident of the kind she predicted occurred, all the details matching - except one: the engine's number was 47 299.That would have been that, but a train spotter, Howard Johnston, happened to have noticed that 47 299 was not the engine's original number. It had been renumbered, a couple of years before, from 47 216. Diesels, he knew, were ordinarily renumbered only after major modifications, which this one had not undergone. When curiosity prompted him to ask why, he was told about the prediction. Apparently British Rail officials had been sufficiently impressed (they had checked with the local police, and found that the woman who had provided it had given them some useful information from her visions) to try to ward off fate by changing the number. The ruse had failed, and 'they had officially logged it all as an "amazing coincidence".'Life is full of coincidences, some are minor, but often, like the one above, they are extraordinary. Whether they are random events or meaningful cosmic moments which have a purpose, we don't know-it remains a mystery. But what is certain is, a lot of people have them, and they never cease to amaze us.In Coincidence: A Matter of Chance - or Synchronicity? Author and historian, Brian Inglis has compiled a collection of fascinating accounts that will uplift, confound, and leave the most committed sceptics scratching their heads.

Did Moses turn rods into serpents? Does Uri Geller bend spoons? Did Socrates and Joan of Arc have spirit guides? Did Daniel Home levitate? The 1970's provided a striking revival of interest in the paranormal which has continued unabated into the twenty first century.Telepathy ESP, clairvoyance, premonitions, and psychokinesis - the action of mind upon matter - it was not long ago that orthodox opinion, both scientific and religious, rejected the possibility of such things out of hand. Today, their reality has been demonstrated and tested in laboratories all over the world and the results are published in serious scientific journals. Natural and Supernatural is the first full survey of the subject for over a century. With scrupulous thoroughness and a wealth of extraordinary detail, Brian Inglis presents his evidence, drawing on anthropological studies of primitive tribes and records of classical antiquity and taking his story to the outbreak of the First World War, when the first phase of scientific psychical research came to an end. He pays particular attention to the work of the mesmerists and of the early psychical researchers in the last century. He deals, too, with related aspects such as hauntings, poltergeist outbreaks:, scrying and dowsing.Contrary to popular belief, the evidence for psychic phenomena and non-locality, and the mass of material available to researchers is huge. Inglis meticulously sifted the genuine from the false., singling out such episodes as may reasonably be identified as historical and allowing the reader to make up his own mind, on the basis of the fullest and soundest knowledge, whether to accept paranormal phenomena or not. If they are accepted - and informed opinion is more and more moving that way- then a real revolution in our way of thinking is due to follow. For if mind can communicate with mind at distance, or move objects without contact, not merely will there have to be extensive revision of science textbooks. History, too, will need to be re-written, to allow for the possibility that reports which have long been dismissed as myth or illusion may have been accurate after all.The implications of the subject are great, and Inglis does them full justice.Praise for Natural and Supernatural.'I believe it to be an extraordinarily important and valuable work, sensational in what it contains and even more so in its implications. . . he has piled up a mountain of evidence, searchingly examined and scrupulously evaluated.' Bernard Levin, The Times'It has the two basic qualities which make books on history endure: it is both scholarly and readable.'Arthur Koestler, the Guardian'A tour de force. . . one of those works, like H. G. Wells Outline of History, that fires the imagination and leaves the reader feeling stunned, but excited.'Colin Wilson, Evening News'Brian Inglis is eminently sensible and sane. In this massive survey, the evidence is presented in a sober and scholarly way. . . Natural and Supernatural is hard to fault.'the EconomistInglis bring to this book the same thoroughness and care that he shows in his other books... while I have not been converted, it has intensified mental conflict, and I admire and respect him for writing it.'Karl Sabbagh, New Scientist'Cool, authoritative and highly readable - a service to science and society.'Ray Brown, Psychology Today