Brian Inglis on answers to The Times questionnaire on the paranormal

The controversial and the problematical

But at least, he felt, the answers would give some idea of how those readers looked upon “this controversial and problematical field “.

The results surprised the deeply sceptical Dr Evans; and they are worth recalling, as they provided the first indication that scientists’ century-old scepticism was on the wane. It was an unusually large sample and, so far as could be judged, reasonably representative. Yet 25 per cent, replying to the first question, held extra-sensory perception to be an established fact, and a further 42 per cent held it to be a likely possibility. Only 3 percent held it to be an impossibility.

A poll of academics in the United States has since shown how far scepticism there, too, has been eroded. Of more than 2,000 people holding positions in universities, half replied; and of those who were involved in the sciences, 9 per cent thought ESP an established fact and 45 per cent a likely possibility:

Academics in general put the proportions at 16 percent, an established fact; 50 per cent, a likely possibility. And the proportions would have been decidedly more favourable had psychologists been omitted: it was the ” hard ” scientists, notably the physicists, who were most in favour.

This may persuade those readers – a tiny proportion – who have complained that The Times was making itself look ridiculous by running such a questionnaire. After the best part of a century when no scientific journal would consider a paper giving the results of trials of ESP or psychokinesis (except if they were negative, or revealed fraud), they are at last being accepted.

Even so, one of the surprises from this questionnaire is the high proportion of the samples who have become acquainted with phychic phenomena through the literature of scientific studies. Extensive though that literature now is, little of it has been allowed to appear in journals like Nature or Science.

The chief value of the questionnaire, to my mind, is that it provides a kind of league table to what people who are interested in the subject are prepared to accept. Unluckily we do not have an equivalent for most of the questions from – say – 1970, to judge how opinions have changed; but some phenomena have surely come up in the world. Ten years ago, I suspect, few readers would even have heard of “out of the body experiences”; now, more than half the sample believe them to exist, a slightly higher proportion than believe haunting to exist (though admittedly ” haunting” is a loose term, which may have caused some confusion).

Reincarnation, too, has surely been given a boost by the recent television publicity for regression to “past lives” under hypnosis. I doubt whether it would have mustered even 10 per cent before.

It should be stressed that the questionnaire came into being not simply to provide a base, as it were, for future comparisons here of this kind. Much of it was devised by Dr Karlis Osis, in the United States, in collaboration with Dr Erlunder Haraldsson of the University of Iceland; the intention being to use it in countries all over the world, to find what differences there are – and what similarities.

There were, however, some additions to the Osis-Haraldsson list, including dowsing. The fact it was included riled L. J. Latham, vice-president of the British Society of dowsers, who claimed in a letter that dowsers were “appalled” at their inclusion. He would probably have been even more irritated at the reason dowsing is commonly ignored by United States parapsychologists: they assume that “water-witching”, as it is called there, is bogus.

Clearly it is not regarded as bogus here. I suspect that it would get a high vote in its favour even among people who are not interested in the subject. But Mr Latham’s complaint was unjustified. The question that was asked in the questionnaire was about experiences which “do not always have a ready scientific or natural explanation at the present level of knowledge” – this being, in fact, the definition of paranormal phenomena. If Mr Latham has a scientific explanation for dowsing, it will come as a surprise to most members of his organization – and, I would guess, as a Nobel Prize for whoever has provided it.

There was another purpose behind the questionnaire: to enable people who have had strange, unaccountable and sometimes deeply disturbing experiences to describe them and to say whether they would like further investigation.

Outright scepticism has become a rarity, but many people now take the “so what!” line: perhaps the paranormal exists, but does it matter? To those who experience it, it clearly often matters a great deal. Many of them would welcome advice and reassurance of a kind they clearly have not had.

Several of the letters attached to returned questionnaires tell of hallucinatory experiences, poltergeist-type manifestations, or disembodied voices. As they appear to be from eminently sensible people, naturally puzzled or disturbed by their experiences, it is absurd to try to explain them away in stock sceptics fashion as a compound of lies, distortions and incipient insanity.

Other letters tell a different story: of the potential value of readers’ experiences, such as hearing warnings of impending danger when driving a car – the “sixth sense” in operation.

Socrates used to go into trances, the better to listen to the voice of his “daemon”; it would frequently interrupt to check him, he told his judges at his trial, when he was going to make some mistake. This, surely, is a faculty worth exploring; not just treating as a psychiatric condition.

Following up the letters will take time; but it should help to a better understanding of this still inadequately explored territory, so that better advice and help can be given in future to those who are in need of them.

Total 1,314

Q 1. Unusual experiences do not always have already scientific or natural explanation at the present level of knowledge. Do you believe that psychic experiences

 Q 2. For those who believe that they do, here is a list of the major psychic phenomena reported. Would you say whether you believe the following exist or not?

 Q 3. Which of the following sources of information acquainted you with ESP or other psychic phenomena?

 Q 4. In your opinion, is extra sensory perception (ESP)

 Q 5. Do you believe in pre-cognition, that is, experiencing knowledge of some-thing that has not yet happened?

 Q 6. Have you had any previous experience?

 Q 7. Have you ever had a dream that came true concerning events which you did not know about, or expect before the dream?

 Q 8. If you have had an ESP dream, did the real life event happen?

 Q 8A. Was the dream about?

 Q 9. Have you ever had, while awake impression, haunches or visions concerning events you did not know about or expect, but which turned out to be true?

 Q 10. Did, the events happen?

 Q 11. Were your impressions about?

 Q 12. How did you experience it?

 Q 13. Have you ever experienced telepathy that is awareness of what is going on in another person’s mind-when you had no normal means of knowing and verified it with that person afterwards?

 Q 14. Have you had any contact with someone who has died?

 Q 15. If it happened, how did you experience it?

 Q 16. Was anyone else with you and in a position to observe?

 Q 17. Was a pet with you at the time?

 Q 18. Did it show any sign of stress or unusual behaviour?

 Q 19. Have you ever seen or heard while you were awake someone who you were later able to ascertain was elsewhere at the time?

 Q 20. It happened, how did you experience it?

 Q 21. Was anyone else with you and in a position to observe?

 Q 22. Was something special happening to that person at that time?

 Q 23. Was a pet with you at the time?

 Q 24. Did it show any sign of distress or unusual behaviour?

 Q 25. Have you ever felt, while awake and not dreaming, that your consciousness was outside of your physical body so that you perceived your environment from a point away from your physical location?

 Q 26. Have you ever had any experience which has convinced you that you must have had a previous life, or lives?

 Q 27. While awake, have you had the impression that you are witnessing some scene or event in the past?

 Q 28. Do you believe in haunting?

 Q 29. Have you ever lived in or visited a house in which you personally experienced haunting phenomena?

 Q 30. If yes, how did you experience it?

 Q 31. Has anyone else observed it?

 Q 32. Have you ever observed an object being moved, disturbed or bent without any apparent physical cause?

 Q 33. If you have, were these movements associated with any particular person?

 Q 34. Were these disturbances also observed by somebody else?

 Q 35. At the time, were there any children in the house?

 Q 36. Have you ever tried to “dowse” to find either water, oil, minerals or some hidden object with the aid of a forked hazel twig, pendulum or other object?

 Q 37. If you have, did you feel the dowsing reaction such as a “Twitch” of the twig?

 Q 38. Have you participated in, or witnessed, successful dousing in circumstances which have convinced you that the faculty is genuine?