As we approach the impressively digited year 2000, it might be useful to consider perspectives linking Heaven and Earth - the true subject matter of psychic studies, for which I have been an enthusiastic Missionary for the last twenty years. Join folk cosmologically and they will co-operate terrestrially, say I.
I would think there are three ongoing viewpoints, and I see a fourth which may well com to umbrella current thought. To enumerate:
1) The Traditionalists
Here are to be found a host of different religions which bear the authority of antiquity in many cases and are buttressed by sacred texts, impressive rituals and, often, the support of those wielding political power. Many people of both formidable and modest education derive spiritual solace from the observance of prescribed worship: the Muslim taxi driver in Leeds, for example, seeks the solace of his mosque at times during the working day, and the piety of the Catholic mother comforted by her rosary beads is legendary. Holy masterpieces of architecture, music and art awe the faithful but leave the unbelievers indifferent to any spiritual impact.
2) The Mystics
Such a category would include a whole variety of individuals, from poets, nature worshippers and New Age gurus, who are inspired by inner faith. Cicero from Old Rome sets the tone: 'If any man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all' The Nature of Gods.
And then there is the Leo hearted Francis Thompson (1859-1907) whose lines are of the mystical essence: 'O world invisible, we view thee, Oh world intangible, we touch thee, Oh world unknowable, we know thee'.
3) The Parapsychologists
Here we focus sharply on 1998 with the patron saints of such an approach being my friends Bob Morris at Edinburgh and Richard Wiseman in Hertfordshire; also included might be the amiable psychologis Susan Blackmore, who has been my adversary for some fifteen years or more.
They are agog to cleanse the psychic stables by rooting out fake mediums and exposing sloppy methodology. They suffer heavy flak from other academics who accuse them of being pseudo scientists, and champions of Spiritualism point out that the sensitivities of clairvoyants should be respected and be given warm support and encouragement, if not research grants and academic prestige, rather than carping censure.
4) Soulful Social Scientists
(Be warned-this is my lot)
Prominent in such a group are the Canadians Joe Fisher and Ian Currie (slain in his fifties through overwork) and they worship at the old sociological gods of sound data, prudent argument and critical analysis. They maintain that a mountain of evidence has accumulated over the past century for survival, astral travel and telepathy and that the blinkered attitudes of critics are potent indicators of the need for a sociology of knowledge. (Who says what and who benefits or suffers from a public acceptance of belief systems?)
My own personal view, as I have often expressed in my previous writings, is that SOUL should be a basic research concept. It is the agent of the spirit and the body is its clay. At the level of vertical Spiritualism it inspires (Praise my soul, the King of Heaven) and in horizontal terms souls flow and intermingle whenever two interact face to face. Bales Interaction Process Analysis could be happily abstracted from social psychology to develop this theme.
May Heaven help us all, whatever our persuasions.