Paranormal Beliefs: A Sociological Introduction. - Review - book review

PARANORMAL BELIEFS: A SOCIOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION by Erich Goode. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 2000. Pp. 310. $17.95 (paper). ISBN 1-57766-076-5.

Paranormal Beliefs would make an excellent textbook for a college course on the sociology of the paranormal. It is concise, complete, and well organized. It is also sufficiently "light" that it might be read for entertainment by someone interested in the social phenomena surrounding unusual claims. Goode's writing style is lucid and his review of the sociological literature pertaining to "paranormalism" is virtually complete. This book provides a good source of references.

Goode defines paranormalism as "a non- or extra-scientific approach to a phenomenon--a scientifically implausible event is believed to be valid and literally and concretely true" (p. 20). This definition is sufficiently broad to include Goode's main examples: astrology, creationism, parapsychology, and UFOs.

Although Goode advocates a relativist position with regard to paranormal claims, he does not regard the issue of scientific truth to be completely irrelevant. He states his "bias" clearly: "While I do not see science as infallible, I do believe that, empirically, the scientific version of reality is more likely to be factually correct than the paranormal version" (p. 42). This position coincides with his social science orientation: The goal is not to evaluate unusual claims but to determine why people believe the way they do.

Paranormal Beliefs seeks to identify the conflicts and differences between paranormalism and science. Paranormal thinking tends to reject uniformitarianism, the argument that forces within the universe operate everywhere in the same manner all the time. Paranormalists tend to be more sympathetic to the idea that "anything is possible," a principle that science emphatically rejects (p. 56-61). Scientists attempt to frame their hypotheses so that they can be falsified, while paranormalists are less concerned with this constraint (p. 61-64). Paranormalists often accept the theory that most phenomena in the world can be explained in terms of purpose or intention, while scientists are more willing to accept chance processes (p. 64-67).

Paranormal Beliefs analyzes four major belief systems: astrology and psychic powers, creationism, parapsycholocy, and unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Each area has unique characteristics. Although Goode sometimes portrays science as a "monolithic" community, he acknowledges that scientists are divided regarding the claims of parapsychologists. My own research indicates that it is the scientific Aelite@ rather than average scientists who are most resistant to anomalous claims (McClenon, 1984). Goode portrays parapsychologists as legitimate scientists who are stigmatized as deviant. He also summarizes Susan Blackmore's autobiographical description of her progression from parapsychological believer to skeptic.

Additionally, this book discusses paranormalism's relationship to religion, the media, and social movements. Each paranormal perspective is associated with its own distinctive social processes and epistemology or "way of knowing." Creationism, for example, "is much more than a narrow doctrine extrapolated from a handful of biblical verses. It represents a broad cultural discontent, featuring fear of anarchy, revulsion for abortion, disdain for promiscuity, and endless other issues, with evolution integrated into those fears" (p. 116). In similar fashion, astrology, parapsychology, and UFO research have unique patterns of support within the general society.

Of interest are the various social correlates to paranormal beliefs. "Women, African-Americans, southerners, the least well-educated, and the political conservative, are significantly more likely than men, whites, northerners, the well educated, and the politically liberal to believe in angels, the devil, heaven and hell, and divine creation" (p. 169). Nonreligious paranormal beliefs sometimes reveal alternative patterns. Although women are more likely to believe in quasireligious supernatural claims, men are more likely to believe in extraterrestrials. Hispanics are more likely to adopt paranormal belief systems than are African-Americans, who, in turn, are more likely to do so than whites (p. 171). Whites are more likely to believe in the reality of UFOs (41%) than are Blacks (24%) or Hispanics (37%). Westerners (particularly in California) are more likely to believe in the paranormal and UFOs than people from other parts of the country.

Goode uses a standard social scientific orientation to "explain" paranormal beliefs:

A given belief may seem to work ... from a psychological and sociological point of view ... it may serve personal or social functions. Certain beliefs are more appealing than others because they make "common sense." Within a given widely accepted framework, a belief may be perceived to be true simply because it resonates with the way we and others like us think in our everyday lives. A practice may be believed to be effective in achieving a given goal, again, because it seems to work; we imagine that good things happen when we engage in it (pp. 229-230).