Extra Sensory
The Science and Pseudoscience of Telepathy and Other Powers of the Mind
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Extra Sensory is a pop-science look at the untapped abilities of human beings, from ESP to Telekenesis and other real life sciences that are currently being studied today, from physicist Brian Clegg.
We'd all love to have 'psi' abilities like telepathy, telekinesis, and remote viewing. But is there any solid evidence to back up these talents, or are they nothing more than fantasy? We still only understand a small percentage of the capabilities of the human brain—and we shouldn't dismiss such potential powers out of hand. Although there is no doubt that many who claim these abilities are frauds, and no one has yet won James Randi's $1M prize for demonstrating ESP under lab conditions, we still have a Nobel prize winner suggesting a mechanism for telepathy, serious scientists researching the field and university projects that produced potentially explosive results. What's the verdict? By looking at possible physical mechanisms for ESP and taking in the best scientific evidence, the reader can discover if this is all wishful thinking and deception, or a fascinating reality. The truth is out there.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
By examining numerous major studies of supposed psychic powers including telepathy, telekinesis, remote viewing, and precognition Clegg (Inflight Science) swiftly kicks the science out of his subtitle. To do so, he brings a careful and critical eye to classic experiments involving psychic powers, conducted by the likes of Joseph Banks Rhine at Duke University starting in the 1930s and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory beginning in 1979. In each case, Clegg, who holds a degree in physics from Cambridge, meticulously explains how the experiments were poorly designed and poorly controlled, and demonstrates how easily unscrupulous test subjects or researchers might have manipulated experimental conditions to produce misleading results, as when one of the moderators at Rhine's lab claimed to have "proved" that chicken eggs could control the heat lamps above them. Clegg also demystifies all of spoon-bending Uri Geller's supposed psychic powers, showing them for the parlor tricks they are. Through it all, however, the author remains somewhat of a believer especially in the possibilities of telepathy and oddly calls for more research into the matter. As of press time, no scientific evidence exists for extrasensory phenomena, but if you can prove it, talk to magician James Randi he's offering a million bucks for that proof.
