-Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
JVol. 57, No. 822
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Notes
Scholz and Koestler to argue that there are integrative forces working to achieve
meaningful coincidences.
The integrative forces run from the simple ‘like attracts like’—hypothesis of
Kammerer, to a more teleological version. For many years, Rietdijk has collected
meaningful coincidences in his own experience. To facilitate their explanation he
puts forward
three
further
hypotheses: The
first
is
introducing
a
dualistic
element, namely that consciousness is just as primary as matter and playing a
role
in
super-local
pattern
formation. The second
is about God
as
pattern
forming agent with the whole universe as a body and human beings possibly
playing the role of cells. The third hypothesis is building upon Jung’s collective
unconscious, stating that cultures, nations or other smaller or larger groups of
human beings may act to some extent as integrated ‘supersouls’.
In the following chapters of Part 2, the role of super-local pattern formation is
related
to
parapsychological
concepts,
like
goal-orientedness,
the
psychical
inductor, voodoo, experimenter
effects, psi-missing and the cross-correspon-
dences described by W. H. Salter. The main thrust is that quantum mechanical
randomness propagates
into
real-life events and
this provides room
for the
‘orchestration’ of events. The findings of parapsychology support
this view.
Coincidences can be seen as exemplary to the fact that the integrative forces
produce events that show likenesses, often of a meaningful character. Moreover,
Rietdijk sees a sense ofpurpose in all this, at the level of the individual, the group
and the universe.
When
Rietdijk
introduces
religiosity,
morality and the Grand
Pattern
of
events in which we all take part, this reviewer
is subject to mixed feelings. Of
course, religious experiences and feelings are known to exist widely and morality
may be founded as
I suggested in the introduction of this review. Nevertheless,
moral judgments cannot logically be derived from existential judgments. Here
Rietdijk is not clear. His religious notions are of a general Christian nature and
bear some similarity to Einstein’s. However, as he tries to convince the reader
that scientific and religious world views are part of the same pattern, apparently
it becomes difficult to stick to his own ‘No water in the scientific wine’.
In the last part of the book Rietdijk gives his view on trends in society and how
this
relates
to
his view on
religion. Of course,
he
turns
against
nihilism,
relativism and the like, but nowhere does he become dull. His ideas bear much
resemblance to the Enlightenment, but with an underlying religious foundation
which implies a continuing ‘creation’ and an increasing degree ofintegration and
organization.
He is wise enough to see that the ‘orchestration’ of events may well play a role
in less beneficent developments, like, for instance, that of Nazism. Such might be
seen as a consequence of operating within the limits ofquantum uncertainty and
the course of development from primitive to more integrated forms of matter.
I have to criticize the book on a few points: Unlike other assumptions made,
there is implicit in the proof of the retro-active effect the hypothesis of realism,
namely of unobserved quantum mechanically random events.
I take issue with
this hypothesis. In its place, I have advocated the hypothesis of indefinite reality
(2), from which a very different world-view might be developed. Most valuable is
the fact that we have an unobvious choice between two alternatives which might
be settled by experiment.
January 1991]
RDP96-00792R000700830001 -9
,
.
,
.
,
t
Furthermore, about the Grand Pattern,
it might be asked what
it has to say
about humanity that
is different than could be sa.d about the dodo. But that
mere uneasiness with the result, not an argument against it.
_
More problematic are the introduction of consciousness as a primary concept,
which is in my opinion unnecessary, and the introduction of morality which is
^Concluding,
I cannot resist to borrow from the book a citation of Giordano
Bruno-
‘Si non
e vero,
e bene
trovato.’ That
is
to
say,
Rietdijk s choice o
hypotheses
is
not
necessarily
that
of the
reader. The book
argues
for an
enlightened form of Christian
belief, which
is maybe nothing new
but
it
is
appfaudable that the assumptions needed are so clearly d'stmgmshed as s^cfo
This makes the book a pleasure to read, even while disagreeing with.it. The
arguments, primarily developed from modern physics, are such that they
understandable to the interested lay-person.
For parapsychologists, the book contains interesting connotations to. real-1
events
like meaningful coincidences, but also to observational theory, such as
the above-mentioned hypothesis of realism. Rietdijk suggests alHxis
are experimentally testable. The crucial experiment, determining whether there
is an omniscient observer looking over our shoulder, stilhhas to be inventec
.
I hope this book will be translated into English soon and on that occasion an
index would be a welcome addition.
It will provoke profound discussions and
deserves a wider readership.
Houtkooper Software Engineering
De Maalkom 7
1191 LP Ouderkerk aan den Amstel
THE NETHERLANDS
NOTES
Sbbcn! Live clean!' From ‘It ain’t necessarily so’, from ‘Porgy and Bess’, m: The bestofGeorgc
ScfS^Tm: Houtkooper^. R. Gissurarson and E. Haraldsson. Why the ganzfeld
is
conducive to ESP: A study of observational theory and the percipient-order e
ec
.
urop
Journal of Parapsychology, 7(nr.2-4), 169-192, (1989).
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