Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Believe it..., March 11, 2009
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.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!, April 16, 2009
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!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Believable and Enticing - the History of Parapsychology, May 26, 2009
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.
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