ACADEMY OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES, INC.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2010 PROCEEDINGS

RATIONALIZATION, SECULARIZATION, AND THE PARANORMAL:

ON THE “ELIMINATION” OF MAGIC FROM THE WORLD

George P. Hansen

________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT: Rationalization (Max Weber’s sense) and secularization reduce societies’

acceptance of paranormal (supernatural) phenomena. Rationalization involves
disenchantment, i.e., the “elimination” of magic from the world. Standard definitions of
magic from sociology and anthropology are equivalent to, in parapsychological terms,
the intentional use of psi. Both religious and secularizing forces work to suppress and
marginalize magic, but it is not eliminated. Practice of, and opposition to, magic are
influenced by social position, with opponents of magic and parapsychology often found
among intellectual elites. Intellectual elite culture is essentially disenchanted.
________________________________________________________________________

Parapsychology remains marginal. It gets little respect, and within the U.S., it is
worse off now than it has been in many decades. Its major institutions (e.g., American
Society for Psychical Research, Parapsychology Foundation) are moribund. The field
has almost no presence whatever in U.S. colleges and universities. Any comprehensive
and effective theory of the paranormal must explicitly address the continued marginality
of the phenomena as well as the scientific research into them.

The phenomena themselves have been recognized for millennia, and traditionally they
have been the province of religion. Within religious studies the term supernatural is
more commonly used. Yet Merriam-Webster’s is clear—the terms supernatural and
paranormal are essentially equivalent.

su•per•nat•u•ral...1 : of or relating to an order of existence beyond the

visible observable universe; esp : of or relating to God or a god, demigod,
spirit, or devil 2 a : departing from what is usual or normal esp. so as to
appear to transcend the laws of nature b : attributed to an invisible agent
(as a ghost or spirit) (2003, 1254)

para•nor•mal...: not scientifically explainable : SUPERNATURAL (2003,

899)

Parapsychologists generally shun the term supernatural, because any explicit

association with religion would only exacerbate the stigma among many scientists.
Within professional parapsychology, religion has been a marginal topic, at best. But by
avoiding religious scholarship, parapsychologists miss important properties of the
phenomena, and they remain oblivious to reasons for their own marginality.

DEFINITIONS—Religion & Magic

Scholarly disputes have raged over the definition of religion, but sociologists of
religion commonly, though not universally, require it to include a belief in supernatural
Suggested citation: Hansen, George P. (2010). Rationalization,
117 Secularization, and the Paranormal: On the “Elimination” of Magic
From the World. Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies,
Inc. 2010 Annual Conference Proceedings: Spirituality, Science
and the Paranormal (pp. 117-128). Bloomfield, CT.
forces. Steve Bruce is typical, saying, “Religion, then, consists of beliefs, actions, and
institutions which assume the existence of supernatural entities with powers of action, or
impersonal powers or processes possessed of moral purpose” (1996/2006, 7). Similar
definitions have been given by Rodney Stark (1981, 159) and Bryan Wilson (1987, 159).

Likewise, there have been extensive debates over the definition of magic. Many
sociologists define it as compulsion of supernatural forces, in contrast to religion, which
involves supplication to the gods. Max Weber explained that “those beings that are
worshipped and entreated religiously may be termed ‘gods,’ in contrast to ‘demons,’
which are magically coerced and charmed” (1922/1978, 424). Similar positions are
adopted by others (e.g., Stark 2001, 110; Flint 1991, 8).

Weber accepted the magic-religion distinction, but he clearly understood, and

described how, the two categories blurred together. Activities such as possession trance,
animal and human sacrifice, petitionary prayer, rituals of exorcism, prayers to angels and
saints, and use of relics, icons, and statues can be interpreted as either magical or
religious.

Earlier cultures’ concept of magic often included an impersonal power that pervaded
the world, with some humans and spirits having more access to it than others. Words
used to designate that power include mana, orenda, and wakanda, among many others
(Weber 1922/1964, 2; Lessa & Vogt 1958, 206). The distinctions between personal
(spirits) and “impersonal” power were actually quite blurred (Norbeck 1961, 36-51).
That irresolution is also seen in psychical research debates as to whether macro-PK
effects in seances are best attributed to spirits or to unconscious powers of sitters, or
whether mediums obtain information from spirits of the dead or by using their own ESP.

I will use the word magic to mean the intentional attempt to directly use, or influence,
supernatural (i.e., paranormal) forces to affect, or gain knowledge of, the world. In
parapsychological terms, magic can be defined as the intentional use of psi. (An
operational definition of psi need not make any reference to mechanism or source and
thus can include effects attributed to noncorporeal entities as well as to living beings.)

LOCUS OF THE DEBATES—Elite Culture

The supernatural, magic, and the evolution of religion are addressed in discussions of
rationalization and secularization. Though the issues involve entire societies, the
theoretical discussion of them resides primarily in academe, i.e., within elite intellectual
culture.

As I will explain, intellectual elites are largely products of, and agents for,
rationalization, secularization, and disenchantment. Their mental and social worlds are
somewhat apart from more general society, and they often seem unaware of the
consequences of that fact. Consider just one example—the very first two sentences of
Keith Thomas’s Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971). He addressed contemporary
magical beliefs, claiming that they, “no longer enjoy much recognition today. Astrology,
witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts and fairies, are now all
rightly disdained by intelligent persons” (1971, ix). As Wouter Hanegraaff points out,
“Thomas wrote these words in a period when the secularization thesis was still widely
accepted among sociologists and historians of religion, in spite of the fact that new forms
of magic were flourishing widely in the context of the counterculture. Indeed one
wonders whether he had ever left his study and his archives to take a look around in the
real world” (2003, 357-358). The Thomas example is just one among countless others.

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To his credit, Thomas made his view explicit and stated it immediately. It is much more
common for such positions to be unacknowledged and simply assumed.

Intellectual elites’ characteristics, inclinations, and assumptions are central to

understanding discussions of rationalization and secularization and, consequently, to
comprehending the position of the paranormal in today’s culture.

RATIONALIZATION

Max Weber (1864-1920) is one of the founders of modern sociology, and his The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-05/1958) is a widely recognized
classic. His larger work Economy and Society (1922/1978) is cited less frequently, but it
gives important insights into the position of the supernatural in society, especially in
regard to charisma.

Rationalization is a seminal concept in sociology. Weber used the term to designate a

millennia-long process affecting a wide range of interrelated ideas, social relationships,
obligations, practices, and institutions. As human culture becomes rationalized, political
authority may slowly change from tribal chiefs, to feudal lordships, to large government
bureaucracies. Written laws and legal systems are slowly developed, with a growing
body of codified rules and regulations. Occupations become more diverse and more
specialized.

Rationalization fosters permanent institutions that use routine, methodical processes to

meet recurrent needs. Government, academe, industry, and religion become bureaucratic.
Weber explained that bureaucratic departments are independent of individual persons and
have an existence apart from the persons who serve in them. Bureaucratic organization
typifies more rationalized cultures.

Rationalization is a broad concept, and it’s best understood as occurring over the
entire development of human societies, from hunter-gatherer groups to the information-
based economies of the present day. It is not a steady, uniform process. Often stagnation
and even reversals occur, but viewed over a sufficiently long time frame, rationalization
is unmistakable.

The aspects outlined above are commonly mentioned in discussions of secularization,

modernization, and rationalization, but Weber identified two serious impediments—
magic and charisma. He explicitly referred to: “That great historic process in the
development of religions, the elimination of magic from the world” (1904-05/1958, 105).
He adopted the phrase the disenchantment of the world to describe that development.
Talcott Parsons, translator of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, noted
that: “This process is for Weber one of the most important aspects of the broader process
of rationalization” (p. 222, note 19). Weber specifically differentiated priests from
magicians, commenting on “the rational training and discipline of priests from the
different preparation of charismatic magicians” (1922/1978, 425).

Michael Winkelman (1992) illuminated the process of disenchantment. He examined

a representative sample of 47 cultures, analyzing magico-religious practitioners’ statuses
in relation to the complexity of their societies. Hunter-gatherer societies are the least
complex. More complex societies are typified by agriculture and political integration
beyond the local level. Winkelman differentiated the roles (among others) of shaman,
priest, and medium. (His distinctions are very useful, but many writers do not make the
same ones.)

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 Shamans use altered states of consciousness (ASCs) in which they command spirits to
do their bidding. They display a variety of paranormal powers, such as divination,
healing, and finding game animals through magical means. They generally hold high
status in their societies and are regarded as healthy, charismatic leaders. Shamans are
found in hunting and gathering societies with no social classes and with little or no
political hierarchy beyond the local level.

Priests make little or no use of ASCs in their roles. Much of their work involves
ritual, worship, and propitiation of the gods. They have no control over spirits. Priests
are selected through social inheritance or political appointment and generally enjoy high
status. Their profession typically has hierarchically ranked positions. Priests are found
in agricultural societies with political integration beyond the local level.

Mediums use ASCs, specifically possession trance, during which spirits communicate.
Mediums’ primary functions are healing, divination, and worship and propitiation of
spirits. They are found in complex societies that also have priests. Mediums have very
low status and are the only category here consisting primarily of women who are often
described as crazy, neurotic, or hysterical. They frequently receive no remuneration for
their efforts.

A graphical summary of Winkelman’s findings is presented in Figure 1.

HIGH SHAMANS PRIESTS

ASC No ASC
Command Spirits Propitiate gods
SOCIAL STATUS

LOW MEDIUMS
Note: ASC indicates use of ASC
altered states of consciousness Controlled by spirits

LOW HIGH
COMPLEXITY OF SOCIETY

Figure 1. Status of magico-religious practitioners as a function

of societal complexity (Based on Winkelman 1992).

Shamans and mediums use ASCs; they directly and intentionally engage supernatural
powers. The laboratory findings of parapsychology show that ASCs can facilitate psi
functioning. But our society has essentially no shamans, and mediums are lowly
regarded, as is parapsychology.

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Charisma

Charisma is an important part of Weber’s theory of authority. In fact, he identified

three types of authority: charismatic, traditional, and bureaucratic. Of particular interest
is pure charisma, which he directly linked to the supernatural, saying that it is
“guaranteed by what is held to be a proof, originally always a miracle” (1922/1978, 242).
The leader “gains and retains it solely by proving his powers in practice. He must work
miracles, if he wants to be a prophet” (p. 1114). Weber mentioned “producing certain
effects in meteorology, healing, divination, and telepathy” going on to say “We shall
henceforth employ the term ‘charisma’ for such extraordinary powers” (p. 400). He cited
St. Francis of Assisi as an exemplar of pure charisma.

Weber described attenuated kinds of charisma, which allowed its accommodation by

more stable, bureaucratic cultures. Some of the more rationalized versions are referred to
as pseudocharisma, lineage charisma, charisma of office, and manufactured charisma. In
contrast, pure charisma is opposed to permanent structures, routine, and methodical
accumulation of wealth; although it’s temporary and ephemeral, it is often crucial for
change. (It has the properties of anti-structure and liminality. See Hansen 2001.)

The attenuation of charisma and the suppression of magic did not occur only at the
transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. It was, and is, ongoing. The process
did not stop. Roman authorities outlawed certain (but not all) magical practices (Graf
1994/1997); now the Catechism of the Catholic Church expressly prohibits the practice
of clairvoyance and psychic healing (1994, 513). This year Islamic authorities in Saudi
Arabia decreed a beheading for psychic practices (CBS News 2010). Religion was, and
is, a primary force for the suppression of magic.

The Reformation

Weber saw the Protestant Reformation as a major force for rationalization and
disenchantment. Though the Renaissance and Enlightenment were also periods of
rationalization, they primarily involved elites. The Reformation engaged the general
culture and was thus more significant.

Protestants’ and Catholics’ differences regarding the supernatural, mysticism, and

miracles are illuminating. Many Protestants believe in the cessation of the charismata,
the doctrine that miracles ceased with deaths of the apostles. Catholics accept modern
miracles; in fact miracles are among the criteria for sainthood. Protestants downplay
mysticism and largely eliminated monastic orders, but among mystics and monastics are
found accounts of some of the most powerful paranormal phenomena ever reported.
Catholics pray to saints; Protestants typically do not. Protestant churches generally
employ married ministers rather than celibate priests. Protestants give more emphasis to
God’s transcendence, Catholics to his immanence. In short, Protestants rejected many
magical elements of Catholicism. John Cerullo, in The Secularization of the Soul:
Psychical Research in Modern Britain, commented that “much of Protestant thought
itself can be said to contain a secularizing motif” (1982, 5). (Cerullo’s approach is
somewhat more psychological and theological than my own, which, comparatively, is
more anthropological and parapsychological.)

SECULARIZATION

The term secularization is generally taken to refer to a set of closely related processes
and trends, such as erosion of religious practices, beliefs, and values; the lessening
importance of religion in culture; the retreat of religion from the public sphere into more

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private domains; reduced influence of religious institutions; and diminished church
attendance. Secularization theories posit that as societies become more complex,
scientific, rational, and modern, they become more secularized. During the twentieth
century this view was very widely held in the social sciences (Norris & Inglehart 2004,
3).

The theories often draw from Weber, and in fact secularization is a manifestation of
rationalization. Eisenstadt explains that disenchantment “denotes the demystification and
secularization of the world, the attenuation of charisma” (1968, liv). Sociologist William
Swatos concurs, saying that secularization was “a term of lesser importance for Weber
but very popular currently, is best understood as the institutional manifestation of
disenchantment” (1981/1986, 131).

The notion of secularization has become the subject of extensive, contentious debate.
The growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of the Christian Right in the U.S., and the
flourishing of evangelical Christianity in Latin America pose powerful challenges to the
theory. Rodney Stark (1999b), Jeffrey Hadden (1989), and others have mounted
effective attacks on secularization theory. Sociologist Peter L. Berger, a strong
proponent of it during the 1960s, has reversed his position, even publishing a book titled
The Desecularization of the World (1999). The arguments against secularization theory
are compelling, but it might be too soon to jettison the idea entirely. Some are attempting
to reformulate and redefine secularization in order to salvage some part of it.

Although the secularization of the general culture continues to be debated, there is no

dispute about the secularization of academe. In The Secularization of the Academy
(1992), George Marsden describes how until about 1870 most U.S. college presidents
were clergymen who taught courses in moral philosophy with applications of Christian
principles. In 1939 almost one-fourth of state-supported universities held voluntary
chapel services. Obviously there has been a substantial erosion of religious influence
since (see also Smith 2003).

Academe is highly bureaucratized. Powerful segments of it have long held an

antipathy toward magic and often toward religion. Rodney Stark (1999a) has
documented how, for over a hundred years, the agenda of many social scientists has been
explicitly antireligious (see also Evans-Pritchard 1959/1964).

The secularization debates themselves show the influence of rationalization and

secularization. Much of the literature today makes no mention of the supernatural; in fact
there are lengthy books on the topic with no index listings for supernatural, miracle,
prayer, providence, magic, or charisma—thus ignoring the crucial aspect of the common
definition of religion. Some major contributors to the debate do acknowledge the issue of
the supernatural (e.g., Bruce 1996/2006, Stark 2001, Wilson 1987), but as a general rule
it garners little attention. Likewise with rationalization, academics almost always ignore
Weber’s writings on pure charisma, especially its relation to prophecy, miracles, and
telepathy.

ELITE INTELLECTUAL CULTURE

Theories of rationalization and secularization have been primarily articulated within

academe—the primary home of elite intellectual culture today. But intellectual elites
have rarely recognized the effect of their own social positions upon themselves and their
theorizing. Their social positions require they be status conscious and attentive to
concerns of hierarchy. But pure charisma (as well as liminality, anti-structure, and
communitas [Hansen 2001]) undermines and collapses status and hierarchy.

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 Scientific elites’ anti-supernatural and anti-paranormal sympathies have been revealed
in several surveys. In 1914, and again in 1933, Bryn Mawr psychology professor James
H. Leuba polled physical and biological scientists about their belief in God and human
immortality. He selected names from American Men of Science, which had designated
18.2% as “distinguished.” In 1933 he repeated the study using a comparable group, and
in the 1990s Larson and Witham repeated Leuba’s work, polling a sample from American
Men and Women of Science (AMWS) and also members of the National Academy of
Sciences (NAS), a group more elite than Leuba’s “greater scientists.” As shown in Table
1, the percentages of elite scientists who believed in God and immortality were
substantially lower than the non-elites.

Leuba’s own view of religion seemed similar to that of the elites, and the very last
sentence of his Harper’s article mentioned “discredited supernaturalism” (1934). By the
way, his son Clarence was a critic of J.B. Rhine.

1914 1933 1996 1998

Lesser Greater Lesser Greater AMWS NAS
Scientists Scientists Scientists Scientists Scientists Members
n ≈ 420 n ≈ 280 n ≈ 600 n ≈ 260

Belief in God 48.2 31.6 37 15 39.3 7

Belief in
Human 59.3 36.9 39 18 38.0 7.9
Immortality

Table 1. Percentage of lesser and greater scientists holding beliefs in God and immortality
(Leuba 1916, 1934; Larson & Witham 1997, 1998).

1973 1981
College Professors of Administrative Elite
Social & Natural Science Scientists
n = 533 n = 339
ESP an
Established Fact 9.6 3.8
ESP a Likely
Possibility 46.2 25.4

Table 2. Percentage of college science professors and administrative elite scientists

with beliefs in ESP (Wagner & Monnet 1979; McClenon 1984).

James McClenon (1984) found a similar pattern in relation to ESP. In 1981 he

surveyed “administrative elites” of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS), specifically, Council members of the AAAS and members of section
committees. Table 2 presents McClenon’s data, along with that from an earlier survey of
college science professors by Wagner and Monnet. The elites were decidedly less
accepting of ESP. (McClenon presented the findings in his Deviant Science: The Case of
Parapsychology, a title reflecting the status of the field.)

Though academic elites constitute a small portion of society, they are influential, and
they extended their influence during the expansion of higher education in the second half
of the twentieth century. Peter Berger has explained that: “There exists an international
subculture composed of people with Western-type higher education, especially in the
humanities and social sciences, that is indeed secularized. This subculture is the principal

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‘carrier’ of progressive, Enlightened beliefs and values. While its members are relatively
thin on the ground, they are very influential, as they control the institutions that provide
the ‘official’ definitions of reality, notably the educational system, the media of mass
communication, and the higher reaches of the legal system. They are remarkably similar
all over the world today. . .what we have here is a globalized elite culture” (1999, 10).

I suspect that for most of those elites, issues of religion and the supernatural have little
impact on their day-to-day lives. But there is a group for whom the issues are salient. It
is among self-identified, publicly vocal, academic secular humanists that we find some of
the most overt opposition to claims of the paranormal. CSICOP (Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) was officially founded at the 1976
meeting of the American Humanist Association. In 2006 CSICOP changed its name to
the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), partly to avoid the stigma of the word
paranormal (Frazier et al 2007, 6). (Ian Stevenson, Marilyn Schlitz, and Robert Jahn
have avoided using the word parapsychology for the same reason.) Today CSI is the
most prominent institution consistently attacking claims of paranormal phenomena.

CSI strives to associate itself with intellectual elites. Its letterhead lists names of
many prominent academics who are Fellows of the Committee, including Nobel laureates
(though the vast majority have published no scientific research on paranormal
phenomena).

Prometheus Books, founded by Paul Kurtz (former Chairman of CSICOP), is a

prominent publisher of secularist, atheist, and anti-paranormal works. Gordon Stein, who
became an employee of CSICOP, edited the American Rationalist and The Encyclopedia
of Unbelief (1985). Today both CSI and the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH) are
housed in the Center for Inquiry (CFI) in Amherst, New York. CSI and CSH extensively
overlap in terms of personnel, office facilities, meeting space, library, etc. (see Hansen
1992, 2001). (As a side note, although CFI and Prometheus Books are generally opposed
to religion, Prometheus reprinted John Calvin’s Treatise on Relics, with an appreciative
introduction by Joe Nickell.)

The conjunction of secularist sympathies and anti-paranormal attitudes is also seen in

CSI’s constituency. During question and comment periods at CSICOP conventions, I’ve
observed as people introduced themselves, and those who proudly announced their
atheism were greeted with cheers. Newsletters of local skeptic groups often carry
meeting notices for secularist organizations. The Amazing Meetings of the James Randi
Educational Foundation and conferences of the Freedom From Religion Foundation have
had prominent atheists and CSI members as featured speakers.

Elites and Margins

The secularist, antireligious tendencies of elites are nothing new. One may recall
Friedrich Schleiermacher’s celebrated speeches to the cultured despisers of religion in
1799, after the philosophes of the Enlightenment had disparaged religion and the
supernatural. At the time of Christ, the Sadducees opposed ideas of human resurrection
and immortality. They drew primarily from aristocracy associated with the priestly
classes, and culturally they were influenced by Hellenism.

Anti-supernaturalist tendencies of elites are not limited to Western culture. Rodney

Stark commented that intellectual followers of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism
have claimed that they are godless religions. “But, it also must be recognized that
Godless religions are unable to gather a mass following, always being limited in their
appeal to small, intellectual elites. Thus, in Imperial China, the forms of Taoism,

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Buddhism, and Confucianism practiced in various monasteries and among court
philosophers and the Mandarins of the civil service, were (relatively) Godless. But the
common people always associated an abundant pantheon of Gods with the Taoist,
Confucian, and Buddhist ideals” (Stark 2001, 108).

In contrast to elites, openness to, and manifestations of, the paranormal are more often
found in the lower orders and in the margins of society. This has been true historically,
and it continues today. Many examples can be cited. The Jansenists were out of favor
with both ecclesiastical and political authorities of France. They produced striking
miracles in the parish cemetery of St. Medard after the 1727 death of Francois de Paris;
for a description see Dingwall (1947/1962). (Dingwall was a member of both the
Rationalist Press Association and CSICOP.) Hasidic Judaism drew heavily from the poor
and uneducated, and it had many accounts of miracles (Woodward 2000). Please note
that both the Jansenist miracles and the rise of Hasidism took place during the
Enlightenment. Ronald Knox’s book Enthusiasm (1950/1961) describes a number of
cases of dissident religious groups often reviled by ecclesiastical authorities as well as by
secularists, but which produced miracles. Pentecostalism began among the lower classes,
and its 1906 Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles generated reports of miracles. In my
limited observation, as modern-day witchcraft has strived for greater respectability in the
past four decades, it seems to have reduced its concern about the efficacy of magic.

CONCLUSIONS

Supernatural powers have been recognized for thousands of years. Yet when societies
become complex, those who attempt to directly engage them are shunted to the
margins—by both religious and secularizing forces. Throughout history, intellectual
elites have often been hostile to paranormal/supernatural claims. Any comprehensive and
effective theory of the paranormal must explain these facts.

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George P. Hansen was professionally employed in parapsychology laboratories for eight

years—three at the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina, and five at
Psychophysical Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. His experiments
included remote viewing, card guessing, ganzfeld, electronic random number generators,
séance phenomena, and ghosts.

George P. Hansen
59 Princeton Arms North
Cranbury, NJ 08512

609-426-0927
[email protected]
http://www.tricksterbook.com
http://twitter.com/ParaTrickster
http://paranormaltrickster.blogspot.com/

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