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Science, Myth Or Magic?

A Struggle for Existence

Allen & Unwin

Fashions in Fairy Tales

This is the excellent foppery of the world that when we are sick in fortune,...we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon and stars; as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence...

SHAKESPEARE, King Lear

Once upon a time, an English medical man, William Withering, fell in love with a woman who liked painting pictures of wild flowers. So he took up botany. He then learned of an old countrywoman in Shropshire, who had a secret cure for dropsy containing more than twenty herbs. A famous philosopher, Bertrand Russell (1872 — 1970), has written about such folklore.

The study of anthropology has made us vividly aware of the mass of unfounded beliefs that influence the lives of uncivilized human beings. Illness is attributed to sorcery, failure of crops to angry gods or malignant demons ... Eclipses and comets are held to presage disaster.

I do not know whether those herbs were gathered by the light of a full moon but, obviously, the old woman's remedy was an example of magical practices and primitive superstition — the opposite of science.

Or was it? Dropsy is an old word for oedema, which can be a sign of one kind of heart disease: congestive cardiac failure. Among the magical herbs was foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). In 1775, from his findings in folklore, Dr Withering was able to add foxglove to the pharmacopeia. Later, a nineteenth century poet, Sarah Hoare, in verses on the pleasures of botany, wrote appropriate lines:

And DIGITALIS wisely given,
Another proof of favouring Heaven Will happily display,
The rapid pulse it can abate,
The hectic flush can moderate,
And blest by him, whose will is fate, May give a
happier day.

The original observation was itself, in an acceptable sense, scientific: it was rational and derived from experience; it may have been gradually developed, by lengthy trial and error, before success. Digitalis can be paralleled by many other 'ethnic' drugs, such as cocaine (analgesia), curare (muscle relaxation) and quinine (treatment of malaria).

Today, more such drugs are being searched for and found. Correspondingly, the disrespect shown by Europeans toward tribal people (called 'uncivilized' by Russell) is being corrected. A leading French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, writes of their 'disinterested, attentive, fond and affectionate lore' concerning the animals and plants around them. He quotes comments by Canadian indigenes on the ignorance of visitors who have been only briefly in their country. The 'white man', they say, knows little about the animals; whereas they, the 'natives', know what the animals' habits are, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, the salmon and others. Newcomers become confused when indigenous Canadians present their very real knowledge against a background of stories about the past: long ago, they say, their ancestors 'married' the animals and so learned their ways.

All human groups combine objective, practical knowledge with ancient myths. A famous example is the Egyptian 'Edwin Smith papyrus', from the seventeenth century BC, which appears to be a copy of an even earlier text. It deals accurately with anatomical and surgical matters but it also includes a portion on charms and magical practices. Familiar examples of ancient myths which are still influential can be found in Genesis, the first book of the Bible: there we have an account of a flood which probably happened, and the miraculous rescue of the animals of a large ecosystem.

Modern science, founded on the classifying and testing of the world begun by our ancestors, has become clearly separated from myth and magic only during the past four centuries. Today, foxglove leaves are known to contain cardiac glycosides which influence the action of the heart: among them are digitoxin and digoxin. These take us from folk medicine to complicated, life-saving chemistry and physiology. In some countries, people live more than twice as long as they did a century ago: many (among them, the author) are alive and active owing to use of drugs originally derived from plants or fungi. Other substances provide millions with relief from chronic pain. But the original, unsophisticated finding is still valid. If the discoverer began with a hypothesis, then the finding was scientific in a quite formal sense.

Psychic Magic

We are therefore sometimes said to live in a scientific world. But in fact Russell's comments on 'unfounded beliefs' should not have been confined to tribal people. Plenty of nonscience continues to make obstacles to understanding. In 1997, a satirical newspaper columnist announced that, on 31 December 1999, as a preliminary to the Olympic Games, the 'Psychic Spiritual Olympic Grand Finals' were to be held in Canberra. The thrilling program included walking on water as well as the usual telekinesis and animal telepathy. The winners would get gold medals. Presumably the gold would be produced by alchemy. In the world of the occult, one can acquire gold, or develop some useful ability, without exertion. One gets something for nothing: no difficult mining or refining of ores; no blood, toil, tears or sweat at the laboratory bench. Certainly, no science, only magic.

The reader may suspect that the enthusiasts for 'Paranormal Olympics' are just a tiny group of eccentrics — or, more likely, that they do not exist. Yet a study of Canadian university students found a majority to believe in three major items from the paranormal repertoire: astrology, reincarnation and extrasensory perception (or ESP — which includes telepathy). Similarly, in Australia, in 1987, Vernon Tupper and Robert Williams questioned 161 undergraduate students of psychology. About forty per cent accepted the astrological notion that personal character is influenced by the planets. Evidently a higher education does not interfere with liking for the occult. (For more, see C.E.M. Hansel on ESP.)

In America and elsewhere the heavens are watched for flying saucers or UFOs. In the USA, one out of every four adults believes that aliens have landed on earth. Many Americans are convinced that they have been kidnapped, while asleep, by extraterrestrials, inspected and returned — thrown back, you might say. The extraterrestrials are commonly sexually active, which suggests wishful thinking as one source of these stories; but a support group has been set up for people who say that they have been raped by alien visitors. Unfortunately, despite many attempts, no convincing photographs of the aliens have yet been published.

Similar beliefs in the paranormal have been revealed by systematic enquiry in other countries, including Britain, Germany, Ghana and India, and among older people as well as students. When scepticism is expressed, it may be attributed to jealousy on the part of bigoted scientists helpless to explain phenomena outside their scope.

In 1988, Australia made a special contribution to the paranormal, for there 'Carlos' made his sensational tour. 'Carlos', a two thousand-year-old spirit, intermittently entered the body of a young American who then fell into a deep trance. Through him, cheering messages were uttered. The spirit had plenty of sympathetic coverage in the media; but, when the host of one broadcast program dared to ask sceptical questions, 'Carlos' put him under a curse. This caused consternation: dire warnings were uttered by believers. A stage show, however, before a large audience, was a great success.

Then a TV program revealed the whole thing as a hoax concocted by a famous American stage magician and sceptic, James Randi. His dupes, in the media, were furious.

The experiment with 'Carlos' may be regarded as a contribution to research in social psychology. It tested a hypothesis: that many people can be fooled, including some in responsible positions. The findings matched the hypothesis. The experiment also brought out something quite typical of psychics. Even if they refrain from uttering maledictions on unbelievers, they permit investigation only in conditions chosen by them. Their achievements are announced with authority and must be taken on faith. In this, they are the opposite of science.

Even in the academic world, scientific rejection of authority has been resented. When, in the nineteenth century, laboratories for teaching science were proposed in Cambridge University, a professor objected: undergraduates, he said, need not see experiments, for the results could be guaranteed by their teachers, all of whom were persons of the highest character. Bertrand Russell, who tells this story, adds that many of them were, moreover, clergymen of the Church of England.

But, eventually, as we see throughout this book, dogma and arbitrary authority fail to meet the tests applied to them.

STELLAR MAGIC

Testing the occult has to be energetic and resourceful, for preferences concerning the paranormal change with time. As Carl Sagan has described, before the days of UFOs, incubi were popular — alarming beings who mount you, when you are in bed, and do frightful things. Nowadays (unless we include extraterrestrial rapists) we hardly hear about them. Nor do we often hear of the elves, formerly numerous — especially in wet, lowlying districts — who shot people with darts of disease. So we have fashions in fairy tales.

Some tall stories, however, have survived for millennia. The Greek hero, Ulysses, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, tells Agamemnon how, in orderly times, the planets

Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form.

But when the planets

In evil mixture to disorder wander,
What plagues and what portents, what mutiny,
What raging of the sea, shaking of earth,
Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixture.

The magic of heavenly bodies and animals, combined in an Egyptian painting of about 1300BC. Astrology is still influential even in our own day; but it rarely takes such a decorative form. (From L.T. Hogben & M. Neurath, From Cave Painting to Comic Strip.)

The form of astrology adopted in Europe emerged in Mesopotamia in the seventh century BC. It became a feature even in the affairs of that headquarters of the intellect, ancient Greece. In classical Rome, although prosecuted, it influenced the policies of emperors. (The word influence, derived from Latin, itself originally signified 'emanation from the stars'.)

Astrologers made precise records of the most readily observed heavenly bodies, especially the sun, the moon and five planets — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury. Unlike what goes on around us on earth, their movements, though complex, are predictable. Astrological studies were therefore, in some aspects, scientific: they encouraged the growth of mathematics and helped to found modern astronomy.

Each planetary name, however, is of a classical deity: among them, Mars stands for war, Venus for love, Mercury for trade. Correspondingly, the positions of the planets in the sky were held to influence, even to predict, wars and other political events; and the pattern of the heavens at the moment of birth (the horoscope) was believed to identify a person's abilities and prospects, including the outcome of legacies. Everyday speech still echoes these ideas. A volatile, optimistic, ready-witted person, we say, is mercurial. Joviality we associate with Jupiter, the largest planet and the father of the Roman gods: to be born under Jupiter was held to make a person joyful and happy.

In the European middle ages and later, astrology pervaded society. Herbs were of great importance both for medicine and for cooking, hence some were planetary plants. A reader who still adheres to this doctrine should gather hazelnuts and olives only on Sundays.

Alchemy, which preceded modern chemistry, was more serious and in part an authentic study of metals. It also included many attempts to convert 'base metals', such as iron, into gold. Each metal was under the aegis of a heavenly body. An alchemist would have carried out experiments on the element tin (Sn, from the Latin stannum), only when Jupiter was in the ascendant. Eventually, however, when chemists decided to ignore the gods, they found their experiments to be unaffected.

Scepticism in other social circles came later. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Antwerp in the Netherlands became a centre of trade of unprecedented power. Financial speculations, however, were precarious and financiers, then as now, mercurial. Hence astrological prediction flourished. Attempts were made to include astrology in the curricula of Dutch schools and universities.

Belief in the occult is especially influential in times of 'dire combustion and confused events'. That phrase, addressed to Shakespeare's Macbeth, can also be applied to our own period. Yet, according to the historian Keith Thomas, as early as the seventeenth century astrology had ceased, in all but the most unsophisticated circles, to be regarded as either a science or a crime: it had become 'simply a joke'. He tells us how it had been inadvertently put to the test among prominent persons. In 1669, the French king appointed an astrologer, the Abbé Pregnani, as his agent in England. Pregnani duly attended the horse races at Newmarket but, despite his efforts, the English king ended with no winners. This deplorable diplomatic incident was, in a sense, a scientific test of a hypothesis. The hypothesis was disconfirmed.

Not long before that royal fiasco, Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam, 1561–1626), statesman, lawyer and philosopher of science, wrote this.

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; ... but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.

Science deposes that absolute monarchy. Many tests of astrology, more elaborate than Pregnani's, have given negative results. Modern astrologers cannot predict a person's fate or qualities: they fail, for instance, when tested on twins — who are born 'under the same stars'.

A French investigator recently discovered the times and places of birth of ten men who had been convicted of especially horrible crimes. The diagnoses and predictions in their horoscopes did not match their actual lives: one Marcel Petiot had committed 63 murders for gain. So an offer was advertised of a complete, free, ultrapersonal horoscope; and each of 150 people, who responded with their date, time and place of birth, received a copy of Petiot's horoscope. Here it is, abbreviated:

As he is a Virgo-Jovian, instinctive warmth or power is allied with the resources of the intellect, lucidity, wit. He may appear as someone who submits himself to social norms, fond of property and endowed with a comforting moral sense ... that of a worthy, right thinking citizen. His affections toward others find their expression in total devotion to others, redeeming love, or altruistic sacrifices.

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Excerpted from Science, Myth Or Magic? by S. Anthony Barnett. Copyright © 2000 S. Anthony Barnett. Excerpted by permission of Allen & Unwin.
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