Mind Over Mind and Mind Over Matter

Abstract

The questions I want to discuss are not questions of fact or evidence, but questions of theory, and highly speculative theory at that. I think such a discussion is needed. The theoretical side of psychical research has lagged far behind the evidential side. And that, I believe, is one of the main reasons why the evidence itself is still ignored by so many, and especially by so many highly educated people — not rejected but just disregarded. It is because these queer facts apparently ‘make no sense’ and ‘don’t fit in anywhere’, that they tend to make no permanent impression on the mind, even if one has had firsthand experience of them.¹ If we could devise some theoretical explanation or interpretation in terms of which the facts did make sense and did fit into some kind of comprehensive conceptual framework, it would be a great gain. Such an explanation is needed for its own sake; and it is also needed to get the evidence attended to and considered.

Extracted from Enquiry, 2(1) (July 1949), pp. 29–7 and 2(3) (September 1949), pp. 5–14.