Reviewed by David Lorimer

A Wider Understanding

The author of this book is a trained physicist who is now emeritus professor of cellular immunology at Oxford. He sets out his understanding of life on the basis of a wide acquaintance with science and its history as well as with the literature of parapsychology and mysticism. His family background also plays a very significant role. His father was involved in Aeronautics but was also a trained hypnotist, while his mother was a highly sensitive psychic. In some ways the author’s agenda is similar to that of Raynor Johnson with his first classic book, The Imprisoned Splendour, which came out over 50 years ago and whose main parts concerned science, parapsychology and mysticism. Since that time, many authors have trawled in the same waters. I don’t think that Peter Leggett, one of the founders of the Network and a former vice-chancellor of Surrey University, would have disagreed with any of the substantial arguments of this book. I would go further: any open-minded and national person considering the same range of evidence as Don Mason would reach broadly similar conclusions.

The book is divided into two parts: the first considers the scope and limitations of science, with particular emphasis on the history of science, physics and the anthropic principle. The second, subtitled ‘the broader view’, investigates the nature of consciousness and human experiences that challenge a materialistic view of nature. Among those covered are hypnosis, telepathy, precognition, reincarnation, religious and near death experiences. Much of this evidence will be familiar to readers, but the author adds a number of fascinating case histories of his own. He also prefaces his discussion with three quotations from Sir James Jeans, Max Planck and Erwin Schrodinger in which they each state that consciousness is fundamental and matter in a sense derivative. It is striking to see these statements set out together.

. The case histories cited by the author provide some compelling evidence for genuine extrasensory communication. Two of these concern his brother Jack. In the first, Jack hears his father calling him and immediately leaves a social engagement to go straight home, where he finds his father with a large gash on his forehead, having discharged himself from hospital after a road accident. At the time of the crash, he had called out Jack’s name, just at the time that Jack had ‘heard’ it. The second case is even more striking in that Jack seems to take over his mother’s body at a time when he was reported missing during World War II. He confirms that he is all right and, as a means of establishing his identity, informs his father that he changed his will just before he left. The father did not know this, but it turns out to have been true. In addition, the author describes an experience of his own in which he suddenly at the thought that a cyclist in front of them is about to turn right across him say he slows right down and does indeed avoid an accident. His mother is also able to diagnose design faults in prototype aeroplane designs without knowing any technical details. Such case histories may not convince the sceptics, but they do nevertheless demand an explanation, which is impossible to provide within the purely materialistic framework.

Towards the end of the book, the author looks in detail at the arguments surrounding the evidence for reincarnation and the significance of religious experiences. He himself lost his eldest son to leukaemia and had a mystical experience of love at the time of his passing. Both his reading and experience have convinced him that ‘there is an abundance of evidence to enable us to completely dismiss the model of the universe that defines reality as that which is perceived solely by the five senses.’ It is clear that he draws some inspiration from Indian Scriptures, and quotes Rabinranath Tagore among the many references cited.

The author’s range of references is wide, and it is good to see some classic books like Dampier’s History of Science, Driesch’s Psychical Research and Ducasse’s Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life After Death cited, along with references to William James, Einstein, Sir Alister Hardy and Frederic Myers. However, there are some gaps in his reading. For instance, there is no reference to the more recent work of Ian Stevenson in which he discusses the evidence connecting birthmarks with memories of previous lives and builds up an even more impressive record of cases. Nor is there any reference to the work of Rupert Sheldrake or Thomas Kuhn. His discussion on scientific method and replicability could have benefited from the literature describing the experimenter effect. However, none of this would have altered the general structure of the author’s argument. The book gives a very readable and carefully argued account of some central issues in science, parapsychology and mystical experience.