Parapsychology: The Science of Unusual Experience [Book Review] PDF
Preview Parapsychology: The Science of Unusual Experience [Book Review]
Parapsychology This page intentionally left blank Parapsychology The science of unusual experience RON ROBERTS Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London and DAVID GROOME Department of Psychology, University of Westminster, London A member of the Hodder Headline Group LONDON Distributed in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Inc., New York First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Arnold, a member of the Hodder Headline Group, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH http://www.arnoldpublishers.com Distributed in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © 2001 Arnold All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without either prior permission in writing from the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the United Kingdom such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency: 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIT 4LP. The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the author[s] nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0340 76169 5 (hb) ISBN 0340 76168 7 (pb) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 Typeset in 1 Ipt Times by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby Printed and bound in Malta. What do you think about this book? Or any other Arnold title? Please send your comments to For Antje and Merry (RR) For Glenys, Alexander, Robin and Jenny (DG) It is not the spoon that bends, only yourself. (quoted from The Matrix) Contents Lists of tables, figures and boxes ix List of contributors x Preface xi Acknowledgements xi Preamble 1 Part 1 Myth and method 1 Science and experience 7 Ron Roberts 2 Probability and coincidence 19 Anthony E. Esgate and David Groome 3 The placebo efect 35 Christopher C. French Part II Beliefs 4 The psychology of psychic fraud 51 Richard Wiseman 5 Astrology 60 David Groome viii Contents Part III Unusual experiences 6 Unconscious awarenes 7 Tony Towell 7 Dreams 86 Antje Mueller and Ron Roberts 8 Alien abductions 102 Christopher C. French 9 Meditation 17 Stephen Benton 10 Paranormal cognition 130 Caroline Watt 11 Near-death experiences 141 Chris A. Roe 12 Gateways to the mind: society and the paranormal 156 Ron Roberts Glosary 163 References 167 Index 185 Tables, figures and boxes Tables 5.1 The 12 sun signs and their asociated birth dates 62 5.2 Characteristics asociated with the 12 sun signs 63 5.3 Sun signs predicted by astrologers as being appropriate for 10 ocupations 69 7.1 Stages in REM dream development 94 7.2 Pooled results from eight ESP dream studies 99 Figures 1.1 Science as an iterative cycle 12 1.2 The science of experience 15 5.1 Frequency of sun signs 68 7.1 Electrophysiological characteristics of REM sleep 87 Boxes 3.1 Should conventional medicine make more use of the placebo efect? 37 4.1 The Cotingley fairies 54 4.2 The psychology of the seance 56 7.1 Belief in paranormal dreams 97 7.2 A typical telepathic dream experiment 98 8.1 Exercise 102 8.2 False memories in other contexts 111 9.1 Correlates of transcendental meditation (TM) 127 10.1 The ganzfeld debate 134 11.1 Are people who have NDEs realy 'dead' ? 143 11.2 Key features of the near-death experience 144
The list of books you might like
