Wings of Illusion: The Origin, Nature, and Future of Paranormal Belief Hardcover – September 1, 1990

A nice, crochety, smartly argued book that explains how theism, and most organized religions, is a form of elaborate denial.

Let me first affirm my recommendation of this book for its "broad-ranging concerns" and "the challenging nature of its thesis", which should, indeed, be of interest to "everyone concerned with seeking to understand the human condition in an age of crisis" (from the editorial review), including evolution and human behavior professionals, philosophers, and lay persons alike. As an educated, enlightened naturalist, rationalist, atheist, and secular humanist, I generally applaud the author's unflinching, much needed revelations of humanity's life-long, deep-seated, and, indeed, evolutionary propensity for harboring paranormal beliefs - mythical, religious self-delusion and other man-made superstitions and illusions, the comforting, collective 'lies' and inculcated dogmas which essentially represent (for the author and other noted psychologists and philosophers) the species-wide, ignorance-and-survival-driven psychological retreat from the harsh, 'unacceptable, intolerable' truths of a forbidding objective reality, a reality devoid of supernatural gods, the spiritual 'soul' and afterlife, and any purposeful, predestined, creationist `intelligent design' in a natural, physical universe, or in the evolutionary processes involved in the accidental and probably exceptional rise of life.

The author further acknowledges that this great bubble of illusion, this self-induced enslavement to untruth - an 'escape from freedom', as psychologist and humanistic philosopher, Eric Fromm, expressed it - under which our kind has existed from its earliest emerging consciousness, and which continues to exist to this day, has become in the modern, technologically 'dangerous' world a critical liability that we can no longer safely and complacently afford. While such mass delusion regarding truth and reality, as the author indicates, may well have been a significant adaptive psychological condition of survival in our early evolution, by now it surely has outlived its usefulness and welcome, and can be seen as the single most pervasive and pernicious behavioral and intellectual flaw in humankind, as well as a serious potential threat to our continued survival in an increasingly complex and 'empirical' age of scientific inquiry, understanding, and 'living with reality' - or, at least, as much of it as science has been able to reveal to us so far, which, after all, is quite a lot for those of us with eyes and ears wide open. And this, too, the author concedes.

Yet, I have a serious reservation about the author's self-acknowledged profound pessimism regarding modern man's ultimate capacity for successfully overthrowing what may well be a deeply entrenched "biological imperative" for living in what he calls a perpetual state of self-induced "waking hypnosis" - in favor of living more honestly with the truth of a more stark, less comforting reality that is coming ever more clearly into focus for a growing population of informed and thinking humans. I might provisionally agree with the author's less optimistic assessment of a possible collective transformation away from paranormal belief as it applies to many living human beings, perhaps even the great majority of them, depending upon their individual history, cultural traditions, social cohesion, and personal beliefs, education, exposure to alternative thought, etc. But the author's deep pessimism, even objectionable cynicism, regarding long-term prospects for a successful, more enlightened rejection of conventional paranormal belief, and the positive, adaptive acceptance of a reasoned and comfortably assimilated rationalist view of reality seems highly questionable, to say the least. The author admits, 'contradicting himself', that it is "possible that certain people can live with less than optimal amounts of illusion." But he hedges that grudging positivity with the reminder that others have reported "that such tenacious people are more prone toward symptoms of psychological disturbance", and that cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker (upon whose writings the author appears to rely heavily), "diagnosed this as an 'ulcerous gnawing' that can sometimes spring from one's knowledge that one is a 'safe slave'". Becker "admitted that, to certain 'strong people', this may become intolerable to the extent that they fail to obtain the intended 'universal distortion of reality'"; and that "some of these 'strong' people break away from their prisons through suicide", and "others he saw 'drowning themselves desperately in the world'". The author goes on to assert, "... evolution did not intend for us to experience fully true wakefulness or, for that matter, life. Despite a few strong adventurers who battle on with neurotic partial wakefulness, the rest of us have no antidote to illusion."

But I happen to be, at 74, healthy, sound of mind, and reasonably happy (and a psychologist by education) -- what I comfortably consider to be a pretty good example of a "strong" person who suffers from no "psychological disturbance", "ulcerous gnawing", nor "neurotic partial wakefulness"; nor am I 'desperately drowning' myself in the real world -- much less eager to leave it in contemplation of suicide -- in some unconscious, misguided flight from the injurious and wholly unacceptable illusions and delusions which continue to permeate and guide so many people's lives. Evolution might not have "intended for us to experience fully true wakefulness" -- indeed, evolution does not 'intend' anything! -- but neither did it 'intend' for us to continue beyond our evolutionary infancy living so perilously out of touch with objective reality, eternally benumbed and misled, intellectually and pragmatically hamstrung by an elaborate, 'unholy', and mutually contradictory conglomeration of ancient ignorance, fear, superstition, myth, unquestioned dogma, deluded wishful thinking, anachronistic customs and behaviors, intolerant and inhumane practices, xenophobic impulses, racial conflicts, continuous religious wars, and a plethora of paranormal beliefs that increasingly defies reason, compassion, and common sense.

Perhaps, in the long view, naturalist, rationalist humanists like me will remain a minority, albeit a perfectly reasonable and comfortable one; and the human species as a whole may well prove to be hopelessly doomed to sink into quagmires of its own persistent illusions, never able collectively to finally outgrow the need for the fables and false comforts of its childhood, and to maturely embrace, and even welcome, a surer knowledge and understanding of the 'cold' reality of an endlessly wondrous cosmos and of our remarkable, if transitory, existence within it. But that is a reality which also is more honest, more liberating, and more noble. For my part, I consider it to be both safer and more dignified to walk, head up, eyes wide open into the future -- with all its unknowns, both exciting and challenging -- rather than be dragged, eyes tightly shut, kicking and screaming into it. And even though I don't expect to ever see it, I'll continue, while I can, to place at least a small, more optimistic bet on the potential of an ever-evolving and rationally enlightened human intelligence to triumph over any alleged and outmoded "biological imperative".

Regarding the importance of truth, and living with it (as if we should have to be reminded), the late Carl Sagan said: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." And, regarding the need to keep in touch with reality and its unavoidable 'ambiguities', wherever the truth may lead us, he also sagely reminded: "Science demands a tolerance for ambiguity. Where we are ignorant, we withhold belief. Whatever annoyance the uncertainty engenders serves a higher purpose: it drives us to accumulate better data. This attitude is the difference between science and so much else. Science offers little in the way of cheap thrills. The standards of evidence are strict; but, when followed, they allow you to see far, illuminating even a great darkness."

I've read Carl Sagan closely, as well as many other rationalist-humanist thinkers, and there is no doubt that he, like me and countless others, was quite sane and very much at ease with his own enlightened rejection of paranormal beliefs.

Understanding the nature of human belief systems is one of my principal preoccupations. I've read scores of books on this subject, and find John F. Schumaker to be in a league of his own in this discipline. He writes about beliefs with as much insight and clarity as Bryan Magee does with the complexities of philosophy. This book is timeless.