by Robert T. James, J.D., C.Ht.
Robert James Fights Back! In this well-researched article, James discusses the “Anything Else But” syndrome, a mental state that seems to afflict many critics of all things parapsychological, including past-life regression work. He makes some solid criticisms of his own in this astute analysis of some of our critics’ own research. Let the critics beware!
In a recent talk given in Colorado, Dr. John Mack (1995), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and author of the controversial book Abductions: Human Contact with Aliens (Mack, 1994), commented on the vigorous efforts on the part of his detractors to find that the alien abduction phenomenon is due to a cause other than that the experiences of the abductees are real. He described the efforts of his detractors as seemingly being affected by an “Anything Else But” Syndrome. A review of the literature indicates that the “Anything Else But” Syndrome is also an excellent description of the behavior that seems to motivate many of the detractors of the past-life phenomenon.