Intrusions: Society and the Paranormal

First published in 1982, Intrusions examines a wide range of cases down through history, showing how ordinary people have regarded the paranormal in contrast with 'official' attitudes, and how society as a whole has attempted to deal with happenings that are inexplicable in terms of current scientific or religious theory. He discusses questions such as What did Shakespeare's audience feel about Hamlet's father's ghost? Why did a renewed interest in magic follow 'the age of enlightenment?' How did Victorian science respond to spiritualism, and why has scientific psychical research, when it finally came, encountered continued opposition? Drawing on reports and accounts of very kind, Mr. Evans gives an authentic account of prevailing attitudes, focussing for the first time directly on the experiences and points of view of ordinary people. He demonstrates that society has been, and still is, badly served by the intellectual establishment in matters relating to the paranormal. Although there are signs that the situation is improving, there is still a dismaying degree of reluctance even to investigate, let alone accept, these phenomena, yet they continue to occur, and people continue to seek explanations for them. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in the mysteries of the paranormal as well as to students of parapsychology, history and literature.