Customer Reviews

Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

According to Terrence Hines, "The continued claims by proponents of pseudoscience constitute nothing short of consumer fraud," a fraud that costs the American public billions of dollars each year. In debunking the most widely believed contrary-to-fact beliefs, he devotes several pages to explaining how cold readings are accomplished in sufficient detail to satisfy all but the incurably giullible that the psychic scam relies on the Barnum dictum that there is a sucker born every minute. He shows that passages by Nostrodamus widely interpreted as foretelling the rise and fall of Napoleon could equally well be applied to Ferdinand II, Adolf Hitler, or any European ruler whose governance was less than beneficial. He also shows that a novel retroactively interpreted as a prediction of the sinking of the Titanic conformed to all of the circumstances that a book about an ocean liner sinking was virtually obliged to incorporate in order to be plausible.
Hines' chapter on psychoanalysis should be mandatory reading for all persons who still believe Sigmund Freud's imbecilic fantasy differs in any qualitative way from spilling one's guts to a bartender, taxi driver or hetaera, particularly TV scriptwriters who regularly portray psychoshrinks as something other than self-deluded humbugs.
Hines catalogues an abundance of evidence that polygraphs are no more effective as lie detectors than tossing a coin, "Heads it's the truth and tails it's a lie." He described an experiment conducted by "Sixty Minutes," in which polygraph operators from several firms were asked to determine which CBS employee was responsible for a series of thefts. Each operator was given a hint that a particular individual was the prime suspect. In fact there had been no theft, and each operator was pointed toward a different suspect -- and without exception each identified the individual touted to him alone as the guilty party. After such exposure on the world's most watched news magazine program, how in the name of science can polygraphs continue to be mistaken for "lie detectors" (there is no such thing) by law enforcement agencies and other unteachables? The answer is that believers in the validity of polygraphs are as impervious to falsifying evidence as believers in the other nonsense beliefs Hines falsifies.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to immunize themselves against irrational beliefs in the strange and unexplained. This is one of the better books on the subject, even though some entries are treated unfairly such as Chiropractic. In fact, some schools and colleges actually use this as a textbook and make it required reading.

The author covers many areas in this book and offers, for the most part, sound reasons for not believing in the subjects he is attempting to debunk. The book is very detailed, but still very readable.

Anyone who enjoyed this book should also check out the following: Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World, James Randi's Flim Flam, and Henry Gordon's Extra Sensory Deception. These books, along with the book being reviewed, are among the best available dealing with the subject of debunking paranormal claims. They should all be read to help build what Carl Sagan calls a "Baloney Detection Kit".

Entertaining and engaging, this book presents insight into widely accepted "bad arguments." Less stuffy than any Introduction to Logic text, Hines takes the reader on a guided tour of every illogically-supported belief in America, from UFOs to Christianity. Be warned, however; almost everyone has a personal "irrational belief" -- and none of them get kid-glove treatment here. A real eye-opener

A very complete way to review the sceptical/scientific approach to XX Century paranormal myths, hoaxes and scams. Highly commendable as a first book on the subject, and with the excellent bibliographic index, it would guide very well any reader interested on learning more on the matter, (although Hines' treatment of the subject, at over 300 pages, is quite thorough in itself). By the way, I found the other review (a reader, 1997) very useful, but I am not sure what I voted (boxes are not too clear as to which is which)

As a medical writer who has become more and more interested in alternative medicine, being able to think clearly and evaluate rationally has been one of my greatest strengths. I owe much of this to Dr. Hines, who deftly explains why so much pseudoscience is plain old junk, while keeping an open mind about things that are still under investigation. He even manages to do this in an interesting, amusing, and entertaining way.

People really want to believe in the paranormal, and rarely want to have their beliefs challenged with rational explanations. Why let the truth get in the way of a good story? But the truth is the truth, and sometimes, when Dr. Hines tells it, it's even better than the fiction.

Most people think that having an open mind means being receptive to strange and "unbelievable" things. I think that having an open mind means being receptive to all possibilities -- including those that indicate that some unbelievable things really shouldn't BE believed. If you consider yourself an rational thinker, take the time to read this book, and give it to others as a truly magical gift -- the gift of reason.

Books that give alternative views of the paranormal are few. From a visit to a new age bookshelf one might get the impression that acceptance of new age ideas is universal. (Probably this is because only believers are interested in reading about astrology, ESP, dream interpretations and all that). But for those of us who like to be open-minded enough to examine the evidence a book like this is a welcome find. Many people reject paranormal beliefs out of hand, but does this mean that an examination of the evidence will compel belief? The short answer is "no". This book explains why. He shows that new age claims and been examined, and found to be inadequate.

Some of the refutations of paranormal claims could have been more exhaustive, but most of us don't want that. He brings enough evidence to the table to show it for what it is. Some reviewers have claimed that the book is "one-sided". As if the truth is always in the middle of any dispute. (I suppose if there is a disupte as to if 2+2 is 4 or 5, decide on a compromise value of 4.5)

What recommends this book over some others similiar to it is it's wide range of topics. The author debunks polygraph machines, subliminal persuasion, and even pychoanalysis. This last one seemed especially surprising to me given that the author is a teacher of psychology! This is a good reference to have to debate with people who plead "just keep an open mind". Here is the evidence, it doesn't help their cause one bit. Ah, the waste of time and money a person can avoid by reading this book! I endorse it enthusiastically.

One reviewer inaccurately states that this book is nothing but a compendium of the author's "personal biases." Nothing could be further from the truth; instead this is a wonderful and highly readable work that exposes pseudoscientific charlatanry for what it is. Hines' work is concise and easy to understand. He cites numerous studies to support his assertions, enabling the reader to cross-reference additional material if desired. Perhaps most important are the concepts of the irreducible minimum and the irrefutable hypothesis, both of which are often used by pseudoscientists to justify otherwise unsupportable positions for which they lack sufficient data.

Hines makes the point that credulous 'believers' are more likely to ignore or twist evidence that doesn't fit their pre-conceived beliefs about a given subject, whereas 'non-believers' are generally more open to new material -- even if it contradicts what they've already learned. Surprisingly, studies have been performed that confirm this assertion, and thus it's not surprising (sad as it may be) that our world is full of people who continue to believe in Atlantis, psychic phenomena, creationism, channeling, and other pap philosophies despite all logic and evidence to the contrary.

The book also contains significant material describing the reasons that scientists are sometimes hoodwinked by charlatans and hoaxers; as James "The Amazing" Randi has also pointed out, often it takes a trained magician to catch someone who's attempting to deceive a researcher.

Highly recommended to anyone who's studying human behavior, folklore, or the difference between real science and pseudoscience. This book also should be required reading in public school science classes, and for legislators who are too often lacking in understanding where science is concerned.

Being a skepticism buff, I declare this book THE ABSOLUTE authority on the scientific aspect of debunking of the paranormal and pseudoscience!!! I have read nearly every book and publication on the subject, but this one takes the cake.

Book Quality:

Cover and back is soft paper that rolls up permanently.

There is a line down each page where the ink is faded but legible.

The book is riddled with typographical errors.

I read this marvelous book years ago, and I'm slightly amazed that it is still in print, because that means that it has sold many copies--or at least enough to keep going. Meanwhile, the entertainment industry, determined to continue the work of Scholastic Books, Weekly Reader, and Steven Spielberg, continues to push paranormal propoganda on children and cable-station "Ghosts, Part 500" installments on brainwashed adults. There will never be any kind of balance between the truth-tellers and the nonsense-peddlers, because the latter bring in far more money to publishers and producers, but it's nice to see the skeptics at least treading water. May this beautifully-written and thorough guide to reason-friendly thinking stay in print until, say, Fox fires Linda Blair, psychic hotlines go out of business, or the sun implodes--whichever comes first.

This book covers a wide range of paranormal topics and is an interesting read. My only mild complaint (why not 5 stars) is that it needs more illustrations/photos. Compare Flim Flam by James Randi (of which he borrows a couple of photos) and Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer (with non-paranormal stuff too like holocaust deniers). Anyway, since this book is targeted as a text for college critical thinking courses, it does cover topics well, but in your lectures you would need more example photos. I hope in a future edition, lots of photos are added, and not in a middle section like now, but in text near the topic - and Randi and Shermer do.