Customer Reviews

Margins Of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I think Ben Finn's review is spot-on, but I'd like to add a few things.

Section I of the book deals with a review of many paranormal topics and inquiry (scientific and otherwise) into their origins. The best thing I took from this section is that the authors were acutely aware of the criticism that has been made of such research, and were determined to exercise caution in designing their experiments.

The PK research --- that demonstrating the ability of human intent to influence a probable outcome --- seems to have been designed very carefully to address anticipated criticism. It's difficult to read through this section of the book and not come away believing that something has been proven. And whatever that "something" might be, it is distinctively weird: it's one thing to obtain operator-specific profiles of statistical influence over some random process, but downright bizarre that they were able to obtain similar results using a *pseudorandom* source. This research, detailed in section II of the book, is what makes this work really shine --- it's the strength of this section that really earned the four stars I gave it. This section is *worth* it, and does much to convince a skeptic (like me).

Section III deals with remote perception, and a system the authors devised to quantify the results of such experiments. The sample sizes and the data here are necessarily more sparse, but are still quite engaging. The anecdotal evidence at the end of the section made for some enjoyable reading, though stories of experiments where the subject completely missed the target seem conspicuously absent.

Sections IV proposes a theoretical framework for the anomolies demonstrated by the experiments, and comes off as quite silly. Sweeping metaphors are taken from the realm of quantum mechanics, to a level of detail that isn't remotely supported by the research. One does need to theorize *something* after such experimentation, but attempting to build a rich framework from a few targeted experiments is more than is necessary, and certainly more than is warranted. Furthermore, the authors' model attributes conciousness even to simple devices such as the "Random Event Generator" or a bunch of foam balls bouncing off pegs --- a truly embarrassing stretch, in my opinion. (For some much better theoretical ideas, I'd suggest a book called "The Physics of Consciousness" by Evan Harris Walker.)

Section V rambles in the authors' usual heavy prose about implications and applicability, and, unfortunately, builds upon section IV. If there was anything interesting in this section, I'm afraid it slipped past me.

My rating of 4 stars is for some genuine, solid research in section II and, to a lesser extent, section III. As a skeptic, the results of these experiments will compel me to dig deeper; barring outright fraud, the results cannot be dismissed as mere chance. It's too startling to rate it any lower, even if the closing sections of the book are rather goofy.

If you're already convinced that such paranormal effects are real, however, I doubt that this book has much to offer. Buy it for a skeptical friend, but give them a disclaimer about the stretch made on the theoretical side.

The core of the book is a detailed description of the key experiments which the Princeton group has performed and which offers some of the first well documented and scientifically rigourous evidence for the reality of psychic phenomena. Indescribably thrilling to read how the authors and co-workers set out to show that there could be even a small effect (on average 1 in 10,000 trials may be 'unusual'). The descriptions of the statisical analysis lends credibility to the results. The discursive padding is interesting, but maybe a trifle too speculative. In general, though, a riveting read.

This is a beautifully written book about the interaction of mind and matter. It is science with a heart. Those of you who would like more information about the lab from which this came should check out their award-winning web site: http://www.princeton.edu/~rdnelson/pear.html

Both scientist and layman will find a lot of valuable information in this book, which describes modern research, particularly at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratories, into how mind can influence the material world. It is at this point the premier academic text on this very controversial subject. There are some technical aspects to the book that, for a non-scientist like me, were admittedly tough going (...). However, the book is leavened by very readable prose and incredible illustrations, many from ancient Egypt, Europe and occult sources. To read a book from an engineering department that contains such illustrations is astounding, and shows how far we have come in taking this stuff seriously!

This is a courageous, humane, and highly provocative book. The
authors present evidence for the existence of ESP and PK
(psychokinesis), all of it generated by their own research.
They also work toward a new paradigm for understanding how
these parapsychological effects might be part of the natural
order, since the classical scientific world-view does not
offer space for such. In my mind, they put too much stress
on the role of consciousness in the world, and even cross over
into the suggestion that the world is observer-created. To
their credit, however, they work toward a more nuanced view
of what is entailed by consciousness (what happens as mind
interacts with matter) than most advocates of this position.
Still, in trying to bring mind and matter into a state of
solution, they seem to turn the world into "a great thought
thinking itself" (to borrow from James Jeans, one of many
scientists whom they quote). This seems to veer too closely
to Berkeley's idealism, and I wonder if in correcting the
materialistic emphasis of traditional science, they
overcorrected in the opposite direction. Is there a "middle
way" yet to be discovered? These comments notwithstanding, this
is a book very much worth reading, and it is obvious that much
rigorous thought and expansive feeling went into it.

I don't think a reasonable person could seriously attack the methodology of these experiments, which makes their findings somewhat shocking. My only qualm with the book was that the final section wherein they proposed a theoretical model to explain the anomalous behavior they'd observed was disappointingly weak. While this shouldn't reflect badly on the validity of their experiments, one can hardly help making the illogical leap that casts doubt on their findings in retrospect.

Despite the flaws in their theoretical model, the book is still hugely important simply because it provides a basis for easily repeatable experiments which - if their results are indeed replicated - could radically alter the emerging sciences related to the mind and it's behavior.

There have been many studies of and books written about the workings of the mind. What most of these studies are doing, however, is studying the physical workings of the brain. Science can now tell with great accuracy where some process is occurring within the brain but knows practically nothing about what this means. Knowing what regions of the mind `light up' when we are thinking about some subject is not the same thing as knowing how all of this becomes an image in our mind. If, as the physicist's believe, the reality that we live in is a composite of the physical and the mental then we must understand the mental side before we can hope to understand that reality. Considering the importance that modern physics now gives to consciousness understanding its nature becomes more urgent

The authors of this book studied psi phenomena at Princeton and as such are probably as qualified on this subject as anyone. Herein lies the books greatest strength and also its greatest weakness. Being Princeton scholars they write in the manner of scholars with the result that much of the book comes off as sounding like an article submitted for publication to a scientific journal. For the average reader it can be heavy going. Having said that we must admit that here is some very original scholarship on a subject that is out of the main stream of academia and, if nothing else, one has to admire their courage in having written it.

Broadly speaking the book is in three sections. The first is an examination of consciousness itself. Just what is consciousness? Many people from many cultures have tried to answer that question with, so far, no solid answers. The book looks at not only how consciousness is viewed today but also how it has been viewed by other peoples in other times. The examples given are many, varied and well thought out encompassing a wide swath of the pertinent literature. These include the Chinese I Ching, the Hindu Vedas, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Pentateuch of the Bible ending with the Copenhagen Interpretation, which is modern physics contribution to the subject. By assembling this rather eclectic mass of data the authors have provided a valuable base for trying to understand the paranormal. The authors have enough grasp of their subject to understand that all of these attempts to understand the minds role in life is a quest that may have no answer.

The next section deals with some of the most noteworthy of the experiments that have been carried out so that it constitutes a sort of history of the field and its findings. The main part of this section, however, is devoted to one particular experiment that the authors carried out themselves. The details of this experiment are gone into in excruciating detail. This is by far the most technical part of the book containing the most math. In beginning their experiment they do what every other researcher who has studied psi by the use of statistics does and that is to see how well test subjects can handle randomly generated data. What they, or any other researcher in this field, seems to fail to understand is that they can only reliably say that their information was randomly generated if the subject they are studying is false. For if the psi ability is real then whose to say that the mind cannot influence the outcome of a random generating machine in the same way that it is said to be able to control the roll of the dice.

The advantage of a scientifically trained mind is the ability to keep to the point and to deliver your arguments in a concise and logical manner. Recognizing that the first step in understanding anything is to give it a name and that, in this situation, any name is a metaphor the authors have picked the language of quantum mechanics for those metaphors. By so doing they have chosen a path that many people follow today for quantum mechanics is now the most popular concept in use to try an understand the nature of the paranormal. They then try to use some of the more exotic aspects of quantum theory, such as entanglement, to understand how the paranormal operates. It would seem to be a perfect fit. Entanglement involves mysterious interactions at a distance and so does the paranormal. How well they have succeeded is something that each of us will have to decide for ourselves but they make a good case. Although this book is twenty years old its contents are just as relevant as ever and, if nothing else, gives a fascinating look at the inner workings of the psychic research community.

This book, published over 20 years ago, still stands almost alone in the field of scientists trying to understand the physical mechanisms behind consciousness, and how it shapes our world.

What sets this book apart? For one, it's written by scientists / engineers, at Princeton, none the less. So, the main arguments and writing style won't grate on the hard-nosed science types.

The first third of the book is essentially a review of existing ideas about the role of quantum mechanics in consciousness (or vice versa?), drawing heavily from the works of the early pioneers in the field.

The middle portion of the book is a detailed explanation of experimental results on mind-machine connection. So, it's not just vague statements; agree with the data and experiments or not, they're presented in a format that's at least amenable to analysis.

The last portion of the book is the most risk, where the authors opens speculate about what all of this could mean, and dare to extend the scope of science, and even propose theories which could well turn out to be wrong. Coming from the very intellectually conservative field of academic science, it's a breath of fresh air (even if it's not quite right).

This book predates the other works in quantum-mind types of connections, such as Penrose, by almost a decade.

That said, it's certainly not a book for everyone. It's somewhat technical, but only to the extent that's necessary to be clear about the experiments. And, it's somewhat speculative, which is of course necessary to advance these sorts of ideas, which are far from being proven or generally acceptable.

This book recounts very interesting research into the ability of humans to influence random events such as coin-tossing. This is extensively documented in technical detail, with graphs of many hundreds of thousands of trials, over which strong statistical significance shows up even though the influence is less than 1% per trial and therefore not casually noticeable.

There is also an intriguing those less detailed section about remote viewing, in which one person can describe the surroundings of another person at a different location in space or even time. Again the statistics indicate a significant effect.

However, the credibility built up by this is severely dented by the rest of the book, which attempts to outline a theoretical basis for this in terms of a 'quantum mechanics of consciousness'. This eyewash is just embarrassing to read - e.g. many pages expended on arguing for the existence of physical analogs such as 'consciousness distance', 'consciousness mass' etc. on the grounds that we sometimes speak of being 'deep in thought', 'light-hearted', etc. The quality of this reasoning speaks for itself. A few pages later and these spurious variables are being incorporated into quantum-mechanical equations. Oh dear.

Unfortunately this shows the danger of scientists wandering out of their field into discussions of mind and metaphysics, which are topics in philosophy - a subject in which these authors are complete amateurs without appearing to realize it. Their blunders are so elementary as to be laughable to anyone with a knowledge of metaphysics.

The extensive bibliography cites endless references to Freud, Jung and other people in loosely related subjects without including a single mention of anyone who knows about philosophy, with the marginal exception of William James (who is a century out of date anyway).

So worth buying to read Sections 2 & 3, but don't waste your time on the rest.

THE AUTHORS PROBABLY HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY BUT IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE

TO GET TO IT WITH ALL THE FLOWERY LANGUAGE AND BEATING AROUND THE BUSH.

IF THEY EVER LEARN TO COMMUNICATE I MAY TRY TO READ ANOTHER BOOK

WRITTEN BY THEM. HAVING A SKILL IN SCIENCE DOES NOT MEAN THERE IS

ALSO A SKILL IN BEING ABLE TO WRITE.