Product Description

Table of Contents

Forewordby Rupert Sheldrake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiii

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #557868 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 260 pages

Review
"A masterly guide to the frontiers of science, belief and exploration. Carter leads us through the interplays of dogma, speculation and empirical research in a stimulating way. The controversy is intense because the implications for the scientific understanding of nature and of mind are so far reaching. If you want to know the current state of play, this is the book for you." --Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., author of The Presence of the Past

"Chris Carter has put together quite a treatise. In thoroughly readable, engaging and clear prose, he provides an erudite and comprehensive review of the skeptical and scientific studies of events that don t fit present paradigms. Despite having researched the subject extensively myself, I found a deep well of new information. Carter's book, the first in a series of three, is both scholarly and entertaining; I eagerly await his next two works." --Robert S. Bobrow, M.D., Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine Stony Brook University, Author of The Witch in the Waiting Room

"The controversy surrounding psychic phenomena (psi) is both long and complicated. Chris Carter reviews the many elements of the controversy in great detail, but in a manner that is also readable and entertaining - a difficult feat. Carter adheres strictly to valid scientific and philosophical principles in arguing for the reality of psi and the legitimacy of parapsychology as a science, and he doesn't overstate his case. Any reader who can approach this controversial subject with an open mind will find Carter's book immensely rewarding." --John Palmer, Ph.D., Editor Journal of Parapsychology, co-author of Foundations of Parapsychology

About the Author
Chris Carter is a graduate of Oxford University in England with degrees in Economics and Philosophy. He currently teaches internationally.

Customer Reviews

Parapsychology and the Skeptics- a review
Chris Carter has put together quite a treatise. In thoroughly readable, engaging and clear prose, he provides an erudite and comprehensive review of the skeptical and scientific studies of events that don't fit present paradigms. Despite having researched the subject extensively myself, I found a deep well of new information. "Parapsychology and the Skeptics" contains abundant information about the history and current status of psi phenomena. It is easy to read, and most interesting.

Robert S. Bobrow MD (Author, "The Witch in the Waiting Room: a physician examines paranormal phenomena in medicine")

A Major Contribution
Chris Carter's "Parapsychology and the Skeptics" is a major contribution to the literature of the paranormal.

Carter ably recounts the history of ESP studies, covering telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and micro-PK. He shows how improved protocols and ever more sophisticated statistical analysis have answered skeptical objections. Then he looks at trends in quantum physics, demonstrating that the new post-Newtonian world-picture has ample room for psi phenomena. Finally, he dips into the philosophy of science and provides the clearest exposition of Popper's falsifiability principle I've seen.

His conclusions are that parapsychology has all the elements necessary to be seen as a serious branch of science; that psi phenomena have been proven by well-designed (and yes, repeatable) experiments; and that while no comprehensive theory of psi exists at present, there are provocative pointers in that direction.

His tone throughout is cautious, serious, and sensible. It is hard to see how any open-minded reader could come away from this book with any confidence in the skeptical position.

On a clear day
Like the title suggests, this book is two stories intertwined, one charting the scientific discovery of psychic powers (psi) over the last century and another castigating a misguided social movement known as skepticism for claiming to know better.

Chris Carter surveys the sea of anecdotal and statistical evidence for the existence of telepathy, clairvoyance (also known as remote viewing), precognition and psychokinesis. Skeptics, meanwhile, maintain that psi is incompatible with what we know about reality and therefore must be false. Yet psi phenomena do not violate any known principles of physics, a field which has undergone radical change since Einstein derided quantum entanglement as "spooky action at a distance."

Rather than face the evidence head on, self-proclaimed skeptics are engaged in a holy war, says Carter, "fueled by the fervent belief that they alone are the last defenders of the citadel of science." As to real scientists, most do not identify with organized skepticism.

Going all the way back to Herodotus, Carter examines the history of psi, including the findings of the Society for Psychical Research, JB Rhine, Daniel Home and Charles Honorton, whose "autoganzfeld" procedure was immune to charges of human tampering. He also discusses statistician Jessica Utts' claim that "psychic functioning has been well established" by ordinary scientific methods.

Carter contrasts the sober science of psi with the crusading fanaticism of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. CSICOP, an organization straight out of Orwell, completely avoids scientific investigation. James Randi, Richard Wiseman, Susan Blackmore and Ray Hyman all get singled out for extensive scrutiny. Needless to say, their methodology is found wanting.

In the face of skeptics who claim that all research into psi is pseudoscience, Carter charges that ideological skepticism represents a mutant form of science known as scientism, which is more concerned with absolute truth than such banalities as hypothesis, experimentation and theory. The only skeptic who emerges from Carter's analysis with a shred of integrity is Blackmore, who at least concedes she was biased and might have gotten it wrong.

For die-hard skeptics, this book will only irritate. For the more thoughtful among us, it will fascinate.