Customer Reviews

Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really enjoyed this book. I've read quite a few books on the paranormal, and this is one of the best. Ms. Horn manages to present a smart and fair overview of decades worth of research in an entertaining and readable way. She reports - but leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusion about Rhine's work. She's also included a number of stories from the Duke case files from people who reported some pretty weird experiences (a number of which appear to have a reasonable amount of corroboration). While I consider myself to be an open-minded skeptic regarding claims of ghosts, I have to confess that at a couple of points in the book the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Bottom line, whether you are interested in the science or just looking for fun and creepy, this book has it covered. Highly recommended!

I don't believe in ghosts, but I wouldn't want to offend one. If you suffer from a similar ambivalence, you should check out Unbelievable by Stacy Horn. An indefatigable reporter, Horn, takes a hard-nosed look at the research done over five decades by scientists at Duke University into the paranormal. The team, headed by Dr. J. B. Rhine, seemed to conclude that telepathy, at least, is quantifiable, leaving it it open to strafing from colleagues in more conservative disciplines. Along the way, Horn produces a trove of fascinating anecdotes, the jewel in the crown being the case of Eliza Jumel, prostitute turned heiress, who was accused, unjustly Horn feels, of having killed her wealthy French husband in order to marry Aaron Burr. Her unquiet soul purportedly haunts their former New York domicile, the Morris-Jumel mansion. Well, I won't give away the story and spoil a jucy read. Beyond entertaining, Unbelievable, poses thoughtful questions about the soul and the form it might take in an afterlife, one of the most trenchant observations on the subject being rasied the British Anthropologist Ashley Montague. In an editorial published by Time Magazine he castigated the hubris of humans clinging to the idea of reincarnation."Not knowing what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon...[they] nevertheless, want to live forever." (Good point. I for one, will settle for oblivion.) If you enjoy Unbelievable, you should also check out Horn's Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad and her darkly hilarious memoir, Waiting for My Cats to Die.

I stumbled upon this book in the science section of my favourite bookstore. When I saw the words "ghosts", "poltergeists" and "telepathy" in its subtitle, I thought that it had simply been misplaced from another section. But upon browsing it, it became clear to me that this was really a history of serious scientific research into the paranormal. So, out of curiosity, I bought it and read it - and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book's main focus is the professional life of Dr. J.B. Rhine, a botanist by training, who, along with his associates, performed decades of serious scientific research into the psychical abilities of humans. In particular, he and his team concentrated on ESP/telepathy, but they also delved into psychokinesis and, to a much lesser extent, various ghostly phenomena (although these are also extensively discussed). The book follows Dr. Rhine from the mid 1920s to his death in 1980, and concentrates on his work before, especially during, and after the creation (and his directorship) of the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory (which existed from 1935 to 1962).

Thanks especially to the author's clear, friendly and engaging prose, but also due to the interesting social climate of the period covered and the subject matter itself, I found this book to be absolutely fascinating and very difficult to put down. This book should be of great interest to anyone fascinated by the history of serious, scientific research into the paranormal. Since the author does not "take sides" in this controversial subject but reports the events in a seemingly very objective manner, the book should prove to be quite enjoyable to both "sceptics" and "believers" alike.

Having grown up reading J.B.Rhine's books on paranormal experiments at Duke University, I am grateful that Ms. Horn has provided this lively, detailed chronology. After plowing through hundreds of Rhine's boxes at the Duke Archives, she has unearthed his correspondence with Upton Sinclair, Carl Jung, Albert Einstein, Timothy Leary and a host of other top thinkers of the 20th century, all contributing their perspectives about the paranormal. Conversational in tone, Unbelievable is extremely believable and enticing if you're intrigued about what is known and unknown in the world of parapsychology.

Virtually everyone has had a psi experience; we usually just conveniently tag them coincidences. How did we know when the phone would ring and the caller's name? Why does everyone have at least one story of a premonition which later took place or a feeling that a friend had died? But for those who stop to question how things happen and sometimes why, logic becomes the best ally. Rhine applied scientific theory and testing to telepathy, clairvoyance, and remote viewing, and published his findings in scholarly journals. Ms. Horn details Rhine's battles with mainstream psychology, statisticians, and other scientists to gain credentials for this fledgling branch of science.

It is not unusual for Hollywood directors and actors to stop or call the Rhine Research Center (formerly the lab at Duke) for consultation on what is known about a certain aspect of the paranormal as they work on a film. Think of the number of blockbusters dealing with ghosts, intuition, precognition, telepathy or dreams. The lab is the birthplace of the term Extra Sensory Perception, where science meets magic. If this is your passion, this is your book.

When I graduated from college with a psychology degree I seriously considered parapsychology as a profession, but ultimately many of the downsides Horn mentions in this book put me off it. But in my research I came across the Duke lab, of course, as well as most of the others mentioned in this book. Already having an interest in the field, I've done some research on the subject myself, so was already basically familiar with a lot of what is talked about in this book. I was disappointed that it didn't seem to go much further than what I'd read already about the lab, so I'd say this is a good book for someone with no previous knowledge on this topic, but doomed to be a bit of a disappointment to someone wishing for some more intimate tidbits of information or scientific details. Like another reviewer mentioned, I felt like not enough detail was given into the actual experiments taking place in the lab itself over all those years, just a watered-down summary and side stories.

It's well written in a fairly dispassionate journalist's style, and speckled with enough ghost stories to keep it entertaining, even if (as another reviewer points out) a lot of them had only a very tangential relationship to Duke. So I can't say I didn't enjoy reading this book. I don't know if there just wasn't in fact enough variety of research going on at the Rhine lab to fill a whole book without resorting to anecdotes that were pretty much dismissed by Rhine, and without much actual research on his part, but it felt superficial to me, like it glossed over the work going on at the actual lab and then padded out the rest of the book with more 'entertaining' ghost stories of the day. I love a good ghost story as much as the next person, but Horn says several times that Rhine wasn't interested in studying ghosts, so to say this book was supposed to be about solely the research going on at Duke is a little misleading.

The author mentions in her additional reading section that she wishes more detail could have been given to Louisa Rhine and Gaither Pratt. For such a relatively short book (I read it in basically a day), I think she could have afforded to flesh out some of the key players a bit more, as well as some of the scientific experiments, and spend a little less time on unimportant and uninteresting details and people.

It's clear that Ms Horn has done a LOT of research for this book, and she can definitely write, but I felt it was a bit too distilled. In general, I think the problem is one of editing. I found multiple spelling and punctuation/grammar errors throughout that one last final read-through by an editor could have eradicated, and the same could be said for some of the details included and possibly some of those that were axed before publication.

So, in essence, a well-written, entertaining, decent introduction to the Duke lab for people coming to this field without any prior knowledge, but not enough detail for anyone with any scientific background or prior familiarity with the field.

I would recommend her blog though, which is continually being updated with more of the stories that obviously didn't make it into the book. Interesting stuff: []

Very interesting reading paranormal activity. Always love to learn new things and am a believer in this stuff. So must Duke University! Love her writing! Check out her other books - very different topics but great reads!

Stacy Horn's latest and long awaited book about the paranormal was an excellent read. Stacy has a gift for weaving a story without sounding clinical. I admire Stacy's thourgh researching of this topic and her fairhandedness of this subject. I've had fun asking friends about their beliefs in ESP (a major subject in this book).

This book essentially tells the story of parapsychology research (e.g. telepathy, remote viewing, poltergeists) at the Duke Parapsychology Lab under J.B. Rhine. I was pretty much unaware of this body of work so the book proved informative. It shows, quite clearly, how mainstream science is 'resistant' to this sort of research. However, rather than seeing it as a weakness, I take it as a strength of science in ensuring that proponents of new, challenging ideas are more rigorous and convincing in their work. Science is ultimately very practical and if you have a good case for something you will typically not be 'refused' (admission into the AAAS, for instance). Wishful thinking, however motivational or paraphrased, is a weak argument. Sometimes, amidst all this talk of the 'supernatural' it helps to remind ourselves that we probably share a common ancestry with chimps (something also accepted in science). The book has no table of contents but eleven somewhat long chapters with an index at the end. I found, about one-third into the book, that there were so many names and places being mentioned that it was hard to keep track of who was who and where was where (especially true if you don't read the whole book in one sitting). By the end, I was focusing on just the 'substance' of what happened rather than who was involved or where it took place. A recommended casual read.

I loved this book. Stacy Horn is a wonderful writer, clear, concise and engaging. The book uses the Rhine Lab at Duke University as a jumping off point into all things paranormal. A picture of a group of serious researchers, to the right of center (open minded but still focused on what could be supported by evidence) emerges from the various tales. It's not an academic history of the laboratory, but a glimpse into its work and attitudes towards a difficult subject. My favorite chapter was the one on the Seaford poltergeist case. Stacy's familiarity with police work shines through, and the depiction of the case is a great illustration of the relationships of investigators of different types, the trauma families suffer and the attitude of the media. I couldn't put it down! You won't be able to, either!

Stacy Horn takes a little known slice of history, the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, and turns it into a fascinating yarn. She writes with both healthy skepticism and genuine respect for the subject matter and the people involved in these investigations into the paranormal, no mean feat.

This book will keep you up at night, and whatever you believe or don't, it'll make you think.

Simply wonderful.