The Psychology of Belief with James E. Alcock

James E. Alcock, PhD, is professor emeritus of psychology at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is a fellow and member of the executive council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is author of Parapsychology: Science or Magic, Science and Supernature: A Critical Appraisal of Parapsychology, and Belief: What It Means To Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling. He is also coauthor of An Introduction to Social Psychology.

Here he points out that belief systems can and do result in both murders and suicides. We may pay a very high price for our beliefs; so making sure that they accurately reflect factual circumstances can be a matter of life and death. We rarely have the opportunity to conduct original research to support any of our beliefs. So, generally, we form our belief systems based on trust of various sources. Furthermore, we are all vulnerable to holding ungrounded and irrational beliefs. Periodically, it is very useful to question our beliefs.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is past-vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that association for his contributions to the study of consciousness.

(Recorded on December 17, 2018)

[markangelagirard]

As always Jeffrey, your work is outstanding. It takes courage to include a parapsychology "skeptic" and sincere professionalism to find intriguing common ground. This episode gave some good insights and shed new light on some old concepts. Thank you for your work.

[joolsner]

This was fantastic! Many thanks for your hard work in making these, please keep them coming. Cambridge, UK.

[martynspooner]

A really eye opening discussion that I thoroughly enjoyed thankyou. Everyone from time to time must question the basis of their trust is very good advice and applicable in many areas.

[matthewmartell]

Thanks for this Jeff. My first exposure to your enthusiastic smile was during a Terrence Mckenna interview, in which a greater appreciation of you both was realized. I wish you a continued amazing experience of potential realities. Great haircut by the way.

[aeonian]

Thanks so much for doing this wonderful dialogue

[clarekuehn]

I'm glad, Jeff, that you let James explain what he truly knows, but a bit more challenge to him on his mistakes would be nice. 😍

[LeeGee]

Hart gold! (sic)

Thank you for creating! This is superb. I'll get a t-shirt when I get paid!

[PATTHECATMCD]

So, who believes in psychology? A touchy subject for psychologists... Enjoyed the discussion though, one of the more positive exploration of experience. :)

[benbishop]

I'm reminded of a woman who was a comparative religion scholar and she said 'belief' originally meant love. Somewhere along the line the term belief became the acceptance of a proposition. Makes a lot more sense, given what we know, that it means love. You believe in what you love.

[clarekuehn]

We have to be most careful when we think something is mind boggling. We have to break down how something would work and look at it that way as well.

[peggyharris]

13:05 false memory...interesting. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus has some great lectures on utube about this subject. I enjoyed them...but then it might not support everyone's belief system.
Waiting for part 2.

[prospero]

Really good to see this...The Mishlove had him a half step from a sticky wicket....but he caught himself and sured up his suit while extricating himself...I think he did it unconsciously....waiting with “fishhook baited breath” for “Part Deux”. :>

[clarekuehn]

Regarding memory, highly emotionally important and detailed memories do not change in salient details. Mistakes happen, but certain things are not false memory.

[clarekuehn]

The sex assaults issue is, in some cases very obviously not false memory, especially when the kids had gonorrhea, as in the Presidio & McMartin cases. They also knew many details which they could not have known. So we have to be careful not to help cover-ups.

[clarekuehn]

Good going, J & J. If only he treated his attitude to parapsychology as another aspect of life that one's belief can bias. Religion extremes are not the only material in parapsychology. By the way, Jonestown was mass shooting. Ask the coroner for Guyana.

[seanparnelleverett]

Well, at that start up till 15minutes in i was reminded of the situation of when " a woman tries to have a meaningful conversation with a man. " ... ( Especially if the television is on in the background & only one is interested in the program whilst the other detests the show.) then for the rest of the interview I tried to see if I could tie each concept discussed with such a " meaning conversation " in one sentence of less... Or subbing one or two words from a sentance. .. & of course from both points of view male and Female.... Hahahahaha. Exellent interview on many different levels. Thumbs Up !!!

[leslietaylor]

Jeffrey, I love your work although I am not comfortable with some of the material ( e.g. the use of psychedelics). Nor do I agree with Alcock's skeptical, materialist, brain is consciousness position. Rather, I hold the same views as you of the importance of acknowledging and further discovering the great [creative] power of human consciousness. I'm also with you in that I think the world is dream-like which you have stated in the past.
      When I was a child in the 1950s my parents would have anything playing on the TV and not at all concerned with its effects on their children's psyche. They played the Nuremburg trials and other holocaust footage which I can honestly say, I was somewhat traumatized by. I could not understand how adults could rationalize and engage in such horrific behavior. Another thing I could not understand, in my simplistic thinking,  was why so many Jews would not leave Germany before they did and save themselves and their families. What also had a considerable impact on me was a visiting 6th grade German immigrant teacher (he seemed very sad) who stated the rise of the Nazis was largely due to group think which he explained.
      Group think [a collective consciousness] - its potential for good or ill.
      What I'm getting at here, and for the sake of brevity not particularly clearly, is that humans are at the point of a complete, or massive anyway,  annihilation due to over population, military, and technological developments. Yet, to so many it is business as usual: women having more and more babies, men are praised for being soldiers [killers] and numerous problems associated with spying, weapons and communication technologies.
We could save ourselves by overtly, honestly and fearlessly addressing these three concerns. And not with charitable giving, ecology minded purchasing, reading and listening to the power of positive thinking materials, etc.. But rather using our collective mentality to fearlessly and directly grapple with these ominous developments and reign them in through public discourse in programs like yours.
      What good are precognitive dreams, telepathy, remote viewing, spiritual experiences, etc. if not used specifically to save the world before it's too late? Government,  military, scientific,  corporate and economic leaders are not interested in saving the world. It's up to the rest of us.
You are older than me (I'm 67), don't you want to leave the world having fearlessly given your gifts and your best to [creatively] save it for generations to come?
      I believe that saving the world is why we are here; what we are supposed to be doing above all things.

[aphysique]

Believing or disbelieving in PSI, Data show's it can alter & or make or break the outcomes of experimental projects taking place! If I'm not mistaken? Someone correct me if I'm wrong on my hypothesis.

[clarekuehn]

Some OBEs don't fit James' points. This is the problem with most SCICOPs (renamed CSI now).

[clarekuehn]

The amoeba in the healing studies you did an interview about, were not having a belief-system response. Some of these things are related to belief; some are not.