Analysis of Rhetorical Devices in Psychical Phenomena and the Physical World by Charles McCreery

Analysis of Rhetorical Devices in Psychical Phenomena and the Physical World by Charles McCreery

In Psychical Phenomena and the Physical World by Charles McCreery, the author attempts to convince the reader of the existence of psychical phenomena (ESP, lucid dreaming, and out of body experiences) are not only real, but supported by science. The author’s approach is superficially scientific, listing vivid case studies and making complicated sounding philosophical arguments. This book is for the armchair philosophers/scientists and in many ways claims to be on the cutting edge of scientific progress. All of it is, quite obviously, false as fallacies and faulty logic abound, but not to such a point that it wouldn’t convince some.    

In analyzing this work I began by skimming the book in it’s entirety ,as it is a relatively short work, and marked down the pages that seemed to stand out as particularly far fetched or logically dubious. The first half of the book is where the bulk of my analysis rests because the second half is largely case studies intended to support the arguments made in the first half. The second half is still noteworthy, but it serves the purpose of supporting the author’s claims with “science” rather than making any major claims on their own, the exceptions to this being the chapter on birth order and the final chapter, though they are both predominantly “evidence” focused sections .

Table of Rhetorical Devices

Parts of the Argument	Specific Rhetorical Device Used	Definition	Example and Comments
Premises	Observed facts/truths	Concrete data.	The case studies in chapters 6 through 10 are the only observable truth or supporting data that is presented. While these cases are vivid they are far from reliable or representative of the entire population. Overall, these may be effective means of convincing some readers though the bulk of the author’s points are based on philosophical reasoning and the redefinition of words to suit his main arguments.
	Quality Loci	The rare and unique is better.	The author makes the argument that, because these “psychical phenomena” are rare they are more valuable than normal experiences, often seeing to belittle reality as “familiar” and claims that these phenomena are not accepted because they are not as common. (page 74)
Premise Modifiers	Presence in time	Making it feel urgent.	The foreword creates the sense that this is the cutting edge of science in using word like “significant contribution”, “great importance”, and “valuable” among others. This creates a sense of urgency and importance and also adds to the seemingly “scientific”-ness of the book. It is easy to tell that this book is intended for armchair psychologists and philosophers with a desire to believe in strange psychical phenomena
	Specific Choices of Interpretation	Choose between alternatives	The author seems to outline a choice between believing and not believing, as well as a choice between the “common” view that asserts that psychical phenomena are not real and the allegedly “scientific” view that asserts that psychical phenomena are real. According to the author, if you believe in science then you should believe this book.
Quasi-logical arguments	Normative definition	Prescriptive: what it should mean.	The author constantly redefines words to suit his argument (often using the no true Scotsman fallacy). The author attempts to redefine reality in order to bring the reader to the conclusion that one does not know if one is dreaming or not. The majority of the author’s arguments rest on such redefinitions and if one buys into his definitions then they will certainly believe most of this book. This is largely the crux of the entire book.
Establishing the Structure of Reality	Example	Event/s reveal/s a rule or reality.	The second half of the book is case studies, which document everything from out of body experiences, to lucid dreaming, and even psychic phenomena. They are vivid and have the appearance of being scientific. For the sceptic or armchair scientist these may be viewed as reasonable proof, though they are far from it.
	Illustration for Clarity	Event makes rule clearer.	The author uses illustrations in the philosophically based first half of the book usually to back up his redefinitions. These are relatively few, but they are present, namely in his chapter concerning lucid dreaming.