 Cover ofIllusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult, 1959. | |
| Author | Donovan Hilton Rawcliffe |
|---|---|
| Subject | Occult,psychology |
| Publisher | London: Ridgway / New York:Dover Publications |
Publication date | 1952, 1959, 1988 |
| Media type | psychology |
The Psychology of the Occult is a 1952 skeptical book on theparanormal by psychologist D. H. Rawcliffe. It was later published asIllusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult (1959) andOccult and Supernatural Phenomena (1988) byDover Publications. BiologistJulian Huxley wrote a foreword to the book.[1]
The book takes influence from the works ofFrank Podmore,Joseph Jastrow andIvor Lloyd Tuckett dealing with the "fallacies underlying psychical research". Rawcliffe critically examines claims of theoccult,parapsychology andspiritualism concluding that they are best explained by psychological factors such ashallucination,hysteria,neurosis andsuggestion as well as "delusion, fraud, prestidigitation, and limitless credulity."[2] Rawcliffe found possible naturalistic explanations for all parapsychological experiments he investigated, noting that there is no scientific evidence for any paranormal power. He suggested that many of the results fromESP experiments can be explained by what he termedendophasic enneurosis (unconsciouswhispering).[3]
The book offers rational explanations for diverse phenomena such asautomatic writing,dowsing, fire-walking, lycanthropy andstigmata.
Daniel Loxton has described the book as an important skeptical work written many years before the founding ofCSICOP. He noted that "Much asMichael Shermer has done in recent decades, Rawcliffe attempted not merely to debunk these claims, but to explain the underlying psychology of why people believe weird things."[4]