SuperSense by Bruce M. Hood

ON SALE NOW! Browse Inside the book: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061452642

John McEnroe notoriously refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points. Wade Boggs insisted on eating a chicken dinner before every Boston Red Sox game. Presidential candidate Barak Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary, and continued the tradition the day of every following primary. Superstitious habits are common. Do you ever cross your fingers, knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, or step around black cats? Sentimental value often supercedes material worth. If someone offered to replace your childhood teddy bear or wedding ring with a brand new, exact replica, would you do it? How about $20 for trying on a sweater owned by Jeffrey Dahmer? Do you believe in an afterlife?

Innate belief in things beyond whats rational or natural are common to humans. In fact, according to award-winning cognitive scientist Bruce Hood, this super sense is something were born with and essential to the way we learn to understand the world. We couldnt live without it! Therefore it is unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs, or the superstitious behaviors that accompany them, will be successful. Moreover, these beliefs are essential in binding us together as a society. We are inclined from the start to think that there are unseen patterns, forces and essences inhabiting the world. (Creative types rely upon this ability to see patterns in the world.) This way of thinking is unavoidable, and it may be part of human nature to see ourselves connected to each other at this deeper level.

SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable
Author: Bruce M. Hood
ISBN: 9780061452642

Produced, Shot, and Edited by Abby Berendt

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Bruce
• M.
• Hood
• SuperSense
• Book
• Trailer
• Supernatural
• Belief
• Superstition
• Science

[ksmith1164]

I just finished reading this book and I enjoyed it very much.

[JuliiannaCh]

I LOVE YOU ♥ and your book ..



[gregmuffinman]

where is their any other information about these supernatural beliefs, it seems like this book is the only research

[blueeye007]

supernatural or not... what is supernatural? Is remote viewing supernatural??? Many would say it is. I learned it from a man teaching it for 20 years in FBI. I am not supernatural but after i learned his technique I saw and heared as well as smelled things which where my target I literarly described it and painted it. I belive in remote viewing because I suprised myself that those abillities are learnable by everyone.

[eoosen]

cogito2, you're supporting Hood's thesis.

[cogito2]

Some people are working on such a revision -- such things do happen, and fundamental physics is in quite a state of disarray at this time. Taking up your argument though, since what is commonly characterised as 'falling in love' is something that is hard to reproduce reliably, should we conclude that people who believe that it does happen are deluding themselves? Or do different rules apply there?

[brucehood9]

They might but I doubt it as it would require a complete revision of our current scientific understanding. Simply put these demonstrations do not reliably replicate. If they did, there would be a Nobel Prize in it for the discover, not to mention a huge wad of cash. No I wonder what I would remote view?????

[cogito2]

Re supersense: When the BBC tried to replicate remote viewing, in a programme in which I had a part, the drawings and narratives produced by their research assistant as viewer seem to fit remarkably well what was at the actual location, picked out of 4 in just one trial (to see a clip, search at Google Video for Successful Remote Viewing Experiment on TV). How do you explain that, Bruce: illusory correlation, fluke, fraud by the BBC? Or might some people actually be able to view things remotely?