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This is a remarkable book, written in an admirable scientific spirit, with encyclopaedic knowledge, without fear and reproach. In the past, Parapsychology had been called Psychical Research. Many books presented its facts by well known scientists but none of them compare in scope and methodical treatment to this. The author succeeds very well in one of his chief endeavors: to establish the points of contacts of parapsychology with other sciences and achieve a synthesis that has been the crying need of our day.
In this attempt he partially relies on the contributions of psychoanalysis pointing to Ehrenwald's findings that “telepathic occurrences are subject to the same psychological laws as dreams, neurotic symptoms, clumsy movement,” and so forth, and on Emilio Servadio's statement that the paranormal “seems to be produced only when certain defense mechanisms, psychological of parapsychological, of the physical or mental ego designed to integrate or to protect our individual life, do not fulfill their function; this allows temporary reversion at certain times to more primitive means of expression or communication.”
The many pitfalls encountered in the pursuit of parapsychological studies are exemplified by Sudre's opinion that
the experimenter's theory cannot be considered verified by this results, as the results will agree with his theory if conditions permit. We cannot, even as Claude Bernard would have liked, ‘try to prove the false in order to discover the truth’, for the false would become true. … If the experimenter should not himself believe in spirits, he should allows his mediums to believe in them. This increases their ability to produce phenomena, as they attribute them to powers greater than their own. They should be treated as psychiatrists treat mad people, encouraging them to believe that they are the Pope or the
Page 125President and gaining their confidence, so that they are in a better position to analyze their madness. This is a good method but must be use