Customer Reviews

A New Science of the Paranormal: The Promise of Psychical Research

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I must say that I've never heard of Lawrence LeShan earlier although, based on the book, he was researching paranormal for several decades. He was born in 1920, he's trained and published psychotherapist, and is the author of the best selling book How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery.

"A New Science of the Paranormal" consists of seven chapters and an appendix. Each chapter also includes one or two "case histories" - a paranormal case from Lawrence's career or another famous case. The chapters in the book are:

Psychic Research and the Consistency of the Universe.
What Do We Know About Psychic Phenomena
Normal and Paranormal Communication
Designing a Science of Psychical Research
Psi and Altered States of Consciousness
The Next Step: Implications of the New Science
What Dare I Hope
The Appendix in titled: "When is Uvani".

Chapter 1 tells some history of psi research, the concepts, why is it difficult, including psychological factors. One tidbit is his current disapproval of connecting psi and quantum physics which has become so popular lately.

Chapter 2 describes the 4 things that were proven about paranormal research and 9 which are almost certain to be true.

Chapter 3 tries to compare normal and paranormal types of communication. He gets away from the "paranormal" terminology into cleaner one in order to better understand the differences and similarities between regular and "paranormal" communication types.

Chapter 4 begins what I think was the main goal in writing the book in the first place. Lawrence explains how science approaches different subjects and argues which approaches would be best for psychical research. He writes that he now believes that psi research should be approached not with more laboratory testing, like exact sciences, but like social sciences which employ other methods of research and deduction.

In Chapter 5 Lawrence describes how theories about "reality" shape the worldview and how the conflicts between observed phenomena and what we think about reality should be handled, in science. It is quite a philosophical chapter, in the good sense of the word.

Chapter 6 starts with some more psychological effects of psi events. How people reject them after they happen. This chapter also has a call to scientist to bring psi research into the mainstream science and also explains how to do this.

In Chapter 7 LeShan hopes that the acceptance of the existence of psi by the public will bring change to the way people think of the world and how they behave, to the better.

The Appendix is like a chapter by itself. In it LeShan tries to continue his design of the new science of the paranormal. He explains how we might try to overcome some difficulties with psi research by asking the right questions and thinking of it all in more abstract way, like in mathematics, for example.

The case histories after each chapter are very interesting and diverse. I've never heard of any of them although they all seem very compelling. They are all what a skeptic of psi would call "anecdotal" but again, one of the main points that Lawrence LeShan tries to pass in the book is that psi research should be taken out of the laboratory and the focus should be on these unique and very strong cases, which he calls "need-determined". These are the cases where something "paranormal" happens because of a great need of some other person.

If you're serious about psi research, consciousness and want to get a wider point of view on the various difficulties of this research and how to approach it, you should read "A New Science of the Paranormal". It is quite different from many other books which are either too unscientific on one hand, or those which are heavy on statistics on another.

This review originally appeared on The Magical Buffet website on 4/21/09.

It's time for all my paranormal peeps to step up their game, and Lawrence LeShan is just the man to school you.

I recently finished reading LeShan's new book "A New Science of the Paranormal" and I have to tell you, I was blown away. Why wouldn't I be? He has twenty or so books published and he has been in the psi studying game since before I was born! This guy has probably forgotten more about psychic phenomena than I, or you for that matter, will ever know. Now LeShan is here to tell us all how to grow up and start studying it like the big boys, and let me tell you, it's simple and hard, all at the same time.

LeShan calls for an entire reevaluation as to how we look at science, and from this new perspective shows you how to apply it to studying psychic phenomena as a science. Let's be clear here, LeShan isn't telling us to forget about science, he asks you to really think about how science and scientific discovery work. Amongst many persuasive arguments, one suggestion is using the example of how physicists and mathematicians have accepted the idea that you have to change the system of reality you are using if you wish to solve certain problems as an approach to take in psychical research.

"A New Science of the Paranormal" is a fascinating read. LeShan uses passion and logic, and by the end of the book you find yourself asking, how can I help make this happen?

Lawrence LeShan has been working in psychical research for more than fifty years. With so much experience, one would expect him to have developed a view of the field that is considerably more informed than the view held by the causal observer. A New Science of the paranormal is written in a "this is what I have learned" tone that provides important lessons. As a person who is deeply involved in the study of trans-etheric influences, I am especially interested in his viewpoint about redefining what is appropriate science for the study of things paranormal. LeShan makes a distinction between psychical research (filed study of spontaneous events) and parapsychology (laboratory study of events under controlled environment of the laboratory). This echoes our experience that the parapsychological community conducts important human potential research but that it has not been effective in the study of actual human experiences.

On page 4, LeShan notes that "The scientific study of paranormal phenomena ... is in complete disarray," and then attempts to address why this is so. One of the suggestions he offers is the idea that different principles of physics might apply in different realms or viewpoints. For instance, applying Newtonian principles to the study of light may not make sense. In the same way, does it make sense to apply mainstream physical principles to the study of subtle energy?

This book is one of those rare looks into the heart of our struggle to turn what we sense is true into a well-established basis of empirical understanding.

This book included some interesting examples of paranormal events. Much of the book, however, was involved with pushing for psi researchers to act like other scientists and begin to study in earnest. The author spent too much time writing about issues of reality and such. So I did not gain too much knowledge from this book.

Lawrence LeShan's A New Science of the Paranormal is a very readable and excellent book. LeShan seeks to light the way forward for research into the paranormal and fringe areas of consciousness research. Lawrence LeShan is a veteran researcher in the field, and at just 125 pages, this book makes for a quick, enjoyable and thought-provoking read. I am a spiritual counselor (amongst other things), so it shouldn't surprise you then, that I am a "proponent" in the so-called "psi-wars."

One thing I like about LeShan is that he avoids a common trap of many researchers in the field, and he states this point very clearly. He makes no apologies for being a proponent, and strongly chastises many psi researchers for getting around with long faces, thinking that the world is against them. LeShan is right. This victim consciousness/siege mentality is far too prevalent amongst researchers in psychical research. Lawrence LeShan knows that he has an important contribution to make to science and knowledge, and he holds his head high. Younger researchers and proponents in general should follow his example.

In A New Science LeShan argues passionately for the argument that the paranormal is crucial to understanding our place in the cosmos. Contemporary science and philosophy have created an extreme distortion of experience which alienates us from our spiritual roots, and psi experience can help redress that imbalance. I am reminded of Susan Blackmore's 1996 paper "What can psi teach us about consciousness?" Blackmore concluded that it can teach us nothing, basically because it doesn't exist, and especially in lieu of her belief that consciousness does not have agency. LeShan's and Blackmore's perspectives are diametrically opposite, yet the question is crucial. Let me then be clear. My long experience in working with the intuitive mind leads me to conclude that LeShan is correct. Blackmore's position, although supported by mainstream establishment thinking in science, is simply wrong. As LeShan states, this is a question of monumental importance, and I believe that A New Science is a little step in the right direction. LeShan calls the quest to understand psi "a terribly important adventure" and "the wild card in our seemingly hopeless attempt to get the human race off the endangered species list." (p. 18)

LeShan lists four definitive ways "psychical research" can help move us forward. The following outcomes might occur if "the existence of large-scale psi events becomes part of the background assumptions in our culture." (100)

1. The idea that we are separate, isolated entities will change.
2. We will see ourselves both as individuals and as part of something much greater. This is in line with the teachings of many spiritual traditions.
3. As a result of the first two points, the way we behave towards each other and the planet will change.
4. These changes will be of a significant scale, such that they will help the human race survive its current critical evolutionary impasse. (p. 101)

These are all positive outcomes which I concur can happen. However in order for points one and two to shift towards points three and four, these understanding will have to move out of "the head" and become deeply embodied. Such an outcome may be more difficult than LeShan understands. This is because our minds are embedded within fields of resonance which have self-organising propensities, and these greatly influence our behaviour. For example, consciousness fields dominated by fear and shame are extremely `dense', and it is very difficult to consciously extract one's mind from them. I speak here from personal experience. However, for the human race as a whole, I believe these fields of resonance can be transcended over a greater expanse of time.

One of the key distinctions that LeShan makes in A New Science is that between normative-driven parapsychology and "psychical research". The former is, for example, the approach taken by Dean Radin, who has devoted decades to the statistical analysis of lab experiments which attempt to gather empirical data for such cognitive processes as ESP, clairvoyance, telekinesis, precognition and so on. Leshan's point is that while such work is vital, it should not come at the expense of a "softer" examination of psi. One of the prime foci of psychical research is the study of anecdotes, the extraordinary stories that people the world over have told for countless millennia, which seemingly point to the existence of paranormal human cognition and states of mind. LeShan suggests that a purely statistical and experimental approach to such things is not enough, for it would then preclude much of the most valuable and fascinating and meaningful data: the human experience of the paranormal itself. LeShan has come to this conclusion over many years, and in the wake of his early career, with its unbalanced focus upon measuring psi.

I am in full agreement with LeShan on this one. It is the human element that is the essence of the so-called paranormal, and it is our experience of it that is most deeply meaningful.

An interesting comparison that LeShan brings up is that of the explanatory gap in parapsychology, versus the explanatory gap in neuroscience. The explanatory gap in psi theory is obvious, and oft-quoted by skeptics. How does a `thought' pass from one mind to another? Speaking scientifically, we don't know yet, and no satisfactory mechanism has yet been identified. Yet in brain science a similar gap exists. How does the firing of the neuron produce conscious experience? How does, say, your thoughts about your mother within your mind, come from micro-machinations within physical, neural systems? It's the old mind-body problem. That we still don't know the answer to this suggests the need for some sobering humility within the neuroscience community, instead of the typical hyperbole of describing physical sub-systems and pretending that in doing so we "understand" consciousness.

Positive insights
As a person who works as a spiritual counselor, and having had countless experiences of many of the things that LeShan, writes about, I find LeShan makes some invaluable and valid insights in A New Science.

* Consciousness is not quantitative, and therefore it is a mistake to restrict ourselves to purely empirical investigations of its nature. What LeShan calls "structural entities" (the physical) can be studied empirically, while "functional entities" (which are relationship based and may not contain definitive space-time characteristics) such as many psi phenomena, necessitate a softer, more qualitative examination. Dominant Western science in the modern age is unnecessarily skewed towards empirical methodology, and the softer approach to science (once more widely practiced in some European nations such as Germany) has fallen away.

* LeShan points out that the state of consciousness in which the paranormal occurs is orientated towards "the perception of relationships rather than to the perception of structure" (p. 110). In other words the perception of structure is primary, and the physical structures secondary. This is indeed correct, and why so many paranormal perceptions are not "literal". What we often perceive in psi experience is a metaphorical representation of the energy or consciousness of the event. This is something I was told quite directly in a dream many years ago. It's a distinction that those wishing to understand these realms of experience should take careful note of.

* "...there is no such thing as a generally `correct' or `normal" state of consciousness, but various states, various origanizations of consciousness, that can be compared in the way they succeed in enabling us to solve our problems and arrive at our goals." (p. 66) LeShan is correct again. Whatever state of consciousness is deemed `normal' is culturally mediated. The proliferation of verbal/linguistic and abstract cognitive processes in the modern age of science has resulted in the establishment of a typical state of consciousness dominated by these "rational" modalities; but at the expense of intuitive and spiritual ways of knowing and being.

* LeShan hypothesises that "Psi occurrences tend to stabilize identity and maintain consistency of action and perception more often than they tend to destabilise identity." (p.48) This is both correct and incorrect, depending upon the agency involved. Conscious projections emerging from (or mediated by) the psyche (shadow) tend to be directed at maintaining stability. This is the ego's function: keeping things under control. However a prime function of information which emerges from spiritual guidance may be to destabilise the system, especially when the individual is unconsciously thwarting their own psycho-spiritual development by maintaining a delusion about self, the world, or the self's relationships with the world. The latter occurrence explains why the spiritual journey is often uncomfortable and just plain scary.

Distinctions
There are, however, a few distinctions LeShan makes which my experience leads me to believe are incorrect.

It is important that I point out the single greatest error relating to the paranormal that LeShan makes. LeShan writes:

Everything we know, including all the data from psychic healing, seems to indicate that psi effects have a positive, goal-directed orientation. (p.28)

Unfortunately this is incorrect. Much of the projection of consciousness from mind to mind is manipulative, and some plain destructive. The essence of this `dark' side of psi is fear and shame, which have strong psycho-spiritual energies associated with them. It is true that most psi events are goal directed, but the direction of influence is not necessarily `good." This is one domain that LeShan, like many investigators and paranormal buffs, prefers not to acknowledge. Needless to say it is part of the `shadow' side of A New Science.

At one point early in the book, LeShan identifies nine characteristics of psi phenomena which he says are almost certainly correct, but "a small doubt remains." (p 26) His sixth point is that "If a person has information that he or she very much desires to keep secret, it cannot be attained psychically by other persons." (p. 27). This is incorrect, and I have seen this quite clearly. A person with a high level of what I call Integrated Intelligence (spiritual intuition) can easily pick up whether another person is lying or withholding the truth. I was once kicked out of a spiritual training group when the clairvoyant leader correctly `read' that I was having a major problem dealing with an issue involving other group members. I desperately wanted to keep the issue secret because I had a strong motivation to stay in the group. That leader had not seen me for months at the time she `picked up' the information intuitively from a city hundreds of kilometers away (she phoned me to tell me). I could give many other examples from my own experience. The human `shadow' as Freud and Jung called it, can be easily read by an intuitive who understands how it functions.

It is for similar reasons that LeShan's seventh point is also incorrect. He writes that one cannot tell whether intuitive information comes from the other person's conscious or unconscious minds. (p. 27) Again, this is not difficult to ascertain in many cases. The shadow tends to operate in readily definable patterns (power and control over others, avoidance of pain) and information which emerges from it is thus readily identifiable. Further, the conscious mind has a shallow "feel" to it, and the information tends to come in short, predominantly verbal bursts. Information from deeper within the psyche is "heavier", and often has a powerful emotionality behind it. Most experienced clairvoyants can tell the difference between conscious and unconscious information.

There is also a pronounced "us vs them" orientation within LeShan in regard to mainstream science and strong skeptics. This is perfectly understandable, given his profession as a psychic researcher. Such an attitude is important though, as ultimately judgment ensnares us in the drama of conflict. In the long run, human beings will have to rise above binary conflict as a medium for knowledge acquisition. Binary conflict reflects an evolutionary predisposition in the human mind, and is currently the norm is modern science and philosophy. I developed a process of "Harmonic Circles to help overcome this tendency. My purpose in pointing this out is so that readers might avoid being "sucked into" the consciousness of binary conflict which is so dominant in discussions about psi phenomena. The simplest way to avoid this trap is to acknowledge judgments of `the other' as they arise, and then to release them.

Lawrence LeShan's A New Science of the Paranormal is highly recommended. It is an eloquently written and insightful look at the paranormal and its significance for the future of the human mind.

Marcus T Anthony (PhD), author of "Discover Your Soul Template" and "Extraordinary Mind"