Bruce Hood worked at Cambridge, MIT and Harvard, is chair of the Cognitive Development Center in the Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Bristol, and has received many awards for his work in child development and cognitive neuroscience. (See also book 314 by George Vaillant.)

In his Prologue, under the heading SUPERSENSE, Hood says, “This book is about the origins of supernatural beliefs, why they are so common and why they may be so difficult to get rid of. I believe the answer to each of these questions can be found in human nature and, in particular, the developing mind of a child. Humans are naturally inclined towards supernatural beliefs. Many highly educated and intelligent individuals experience a powerful sense that there are patterns, forces, energies, and entities operating in the world that are denied by science because they go beyond the boundaries of natural phenomena we currently understand. More importantly, such experiences are not substantiated by a body of reliable evidence, which is why they are supernatural and unscientific. The inclination or sense that they may be real is our supersense.”

“Why are humans so willing to entertain the possibility of the supernatural? As we will see, most people believe because they think they have experienced supernatural events personally, or they have heard reliable testimony about the supernatural from those they trust. I would argue that we interpret our experiences and other people’s reports within a supernatural framework because that framework is intuitively appealing. It resonates with the way we think the world operates with all manner of hidden structures and mechanisms. If this is true, we have to ask where does this supersense come from?” Bruce Hood then describes arguments for our having a supersense of belief in the reality of things that range from angels, demons, ghosts and spirits to paranormal abilities, psychic powers, telepathy and horoscopes. He also includes superstitions like lucky coins or gestures, which are by far the most amusing forms of supersense. He says our supersense may not be obvious, but can “lurk away in the back of our minds whispering doubt and warning us to be careful.”

He says, “In this book I expose a wide range of human beliefs and behavior that go beyond traditional notions of the supernatural. This book is not just about ghosts and ghouls. Rather it is about supernatural thinking and behavior in everyday human activity. In this way I hope to show you that we often infer the presence of hidden aspects of reality and base our behavior on assumptions that would have to be supernatural to be true.” …”This book is about the science behind our beliefs – not whether these beliefs are true or not. It should change the way you judge other people. When you understand the supersense, you will better understand both your own beliefs and more importantly, why others hold supernatural beliefs. It should give you insight.” …”I will show that common supernatural beliefs operate in everyday reasoning, no matter how rational and reasoned you think you are.” …”We believe what we are told on the basis of trust. However, this book offers another possible explanation for why we believe in the unbelievable and I think we need to look to children for the answer.” …”I want to propose a natural, scientific view based on mind design.”

His extensive study of children, from infants through puberty, forms the basis of his mind-design proposal. I learned very much from his studies – I was quite surprised at the very early age at which a child begins to build supersense. (In this regard, a child’s supersense can be regarded as intuitive or inherent response as opposed to rational thinking.) Hood then say, “If a supersense is part of our natural way of understanding the world, it will continue to reappear in every child born with this frame of mind. If so, then it seems unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernaturalism will be successful.” At the end of his Prologue, he has the heading SACRED VALUES that begins, “The human species may actually need a supersense – not simply because it promises something more than is available in this life, like a security blanket of reassurance for what happens to us when we die, but rather because the supersense enables us to appreciate sacred values while we are still alive.” …”Over the coming chapters I hope to show you how our supernatural beliefs can make sense of our sacred values.”

The book is structured as follows. Ch 1 begins with the notion of “mind design” – something organized in the way we interpret the world around us – and how it produces some surprising results. Then he turns to considering origins by tracing the first evidence of supernatural beliefs to the beginnings of culture and why supernaturalism remains despite the considerable strides science has taken over the last four centuries. After this, the next few chapters examine “natural thinking” and how children organize the world into different kinds of categories, prior to their developing rational thinking. The remaining chapters focus on sentimentality and “the irrational fears that we can so easily detect in others but often fail to recognize in our own reasoning.” … “By the time you get to the end of this book, I hope you will appreciate that the development of a child’s mind into that of an adult is not simply the case of learning more facts about the world. It also involves learning to ignore childish beliefs, which requires mental effort. We need to learn to control our childish beliefs.” In the final pages he returns to “the supersense and the notion of sacred values with an explanation for why human society needs to believe that there are some things in life that must be considered unique and profound.” …”What people choose to do with their beliefs is another matter. Whether religions are good or bad is a heated debate that I will leave to others. I just think that supernatural beliefs are inevitable. At least knowing where they come from and why we have them makes it easier to understand belief in the supernatural as part of being human.”

Although many feel sure that some beliefs, such as some religious beliefs, require “a suspension of rationality,” Bruce Hood explains such beliefs as the normal supersense that humans inherently possess, as a blessing, not a curse, for we possess more than the ability to think rationally. This idea of inherent thinking (some of which is described by Hood as our supersense) fits quite well with the major thesis of book 314 – Spiritual Evolution: How We Are Wired for Faith, Hope, and Love – in which author George Vaillant describes how our inherent thinking arises from the ancient limbic part of our brain, whereas our rational thinking comes from the later evolutionary development of our prefrontal cortex. That these two authors take quite different paths in their books, I find that they converge to a common truth since they both arrive at an inherent aspect of humanity. One focuses on our spirituality, the other on our supersense, with both being an intrinsic aspect of our human nature.

What seems remarkable to me is that Bruce Hood, because of his many years of studying child development, could learn as much as he has described in this highly enlightening and deeply insightful book. So I give this book my very highest recommendation. Think six stars!