Customer Reviews

Explaining the Unexplained

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Unfortunately, the book cover and the title poorly reflect what the book is all about. It is actually reporting on scientific investigations into a variety of paranormal effects by a leading - although controversial - professor of psychology (first author). These investigations cover several decades of increasingly more sophisticated laboratory research by many researchers and they represent an effort to elevate parapsychology to a science and to get it recognized as such. The book makes a convincing case for the reality of parapsychology even if the actual mechanisms as to how the effects occur are still speculative (In that sense the book does not explain the unexplained). The authors do not shy away from controversial issues, such as life after death and out-of-body-experiences, but they make it clear that in some specific areas evidence is not yet sufficient to draw conclusions, and, the authors caution us not to assume that because paranormal effects are fact that every spontaneous paranormal effect is what it is claimed to be.

The research results are highly significant because they demonstrate that mind power exists and that it can no longer be wiped off the table with some sarcastic remarks because of a supposed lack of scientific evidence. Considering the importance of the issues for us, such as understanding consciousness and life changing and even life saving effects, we aught to applaud progress with regard to the acceptance of the phenomena and the continuing search for explanations. Unfortunately, peer recognition had still not been fully granted at the time of publication (1997).
However, testimony that those efforts were not in vain is presented for instance by the more recent work by Dr Emoto on mind influence on water.

Another part of the book deals with the notorious problem of convincing the scientific establishment about new findings. Although the recounting of the battle with opponents is a bit tedious at times, it reflects the scientific thoroughness of the authors and it lead to some useful general insights. It prompted the authors to cite an intriguing and most revealing experiment about the acceptance or rejection of scientific research findings by magazine publishers. From this it is frighteningly clear that some publishers base their decisions on criteria which have nothing to do with the facts of the matter, but with politics, economic interests, and prejudices. This obviously has implications for today as well.

Although this book was published some time ago it deserves more attention than it appears to have been getting.

Good book, but could use a little bit more details, although the book would probably be much thicker. Some of its finer points are a bit vague at times. It reads kind of like a super long research paper or magazine article with readers invited to followup on the finer details near the end. But overall a good overview of paranormal science (at least from a non-American point of view).

There are many books on the paranormal, but not many are this scientific. The chapter on the possible physics behind paranormal phenomena alone is worth the price of the book: this is newer stuff than you'll find in almost any other book on the paranormal. I can only think of The Scientifization of Culture coming close, in one of its last chapters, in trying to explain paranormal phenomena through physics, but it is still a different kind of effort, and not as good in my opinion.

I would say this book is one of the best introductions to the paranormal: it touches on everything from ESP and psychokinesis to reincarnation and why parapsychology isn't widely accepted as a valid science, and it does so in a way that will convince anyone worth convincing that there is something to this stuff. As Lawrence LeShan wrote about his introduction to parapsychology:

"To my intense surprise, as I began to read the scientific journals and serious books in the field, it became obvious that the material was valid. The standards of research were extremely high, and the evidence scientifically valid. The only alternative explanation to the hundreds of carefully studied 'spontaneous' incidents reported, and the hundreds of scientifically controlled laboratory experiments, was that the greatest conspiracy in history had been going on for more than eighty years."

Read it. Your mind will be opened, guaranteed.