I'm after a book on the paranormal

Interesting Ian

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Hi,

I'm after a good objective book on various anomalous experiences to purchase. I've been doing some looking around and this looks like it might be a decent one. Here is an abstract and description of each chapter.

Abstract
Phenomena such as near-death and out-of-body experiences have often been ignored or ridiculed by mainstream psychology. In this volume, leading scholars explore these areas, as well as experiences of hallucinations, lucid dreams, alien abductions, mysticism, anomalous healings, psi events, and past lives, in an effort to explain the totality of human experience. In an accessible style, contributors review and discuss current research about unusual but important events, creating a mesmerizing account of activity at the boundaries of conventional psychology. The contributors examine current research and theories, methodological issues, related psychopathology, individual and cultural differences, aftereffects, and clinical implications of anomalous experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
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Has anyone read this book, and would they recommend it?
 
Hmmm . . it sounds pretty excellent. I think I will buy it. Here are some reviews by readers. http://www.phil-books.com/Varieties...ining_the_Scientific_Evidence_1557986258.html

eg
Books surveying anomalous experience have tended to come from the skeptic side of the fence and have leaned toward the debunking end of the spectrum. While they have their uses, theres always the nagging suspicion that they might not be fair to all the evidence. While this book isnt as easy reading as those of the skeptics, it really shoots at being a balanced examination of the evidence, pro and con, with intelligent discussion about where the weight of what we know falls. Each chapter tackles one anomalous phenomenon and follows a consistant structure. First, the experience is clearly defined so that we know what is and is not being addressed. Then, the actual phenomenology of the phenomenon out in the field is surveyed. Since the book is geared toward those in the psychological and helping professions, the emotional, physical, and mental aftereffects of having the experience are then examined. The range of differences between experients is presented,then issues involving psychopathology, clinical assessment, background theories, and methodology of research are shown. Each chapter is written by an authority on that specific phenomenon and they provide a summation conclusion at the end where they render their professional judgment on the topic. If youre looking for a sensational or spooky handling of the subjects, this isnt your book; but if you want a very level headed analysis of what is happening in these fields of research, you need to be familiar with this work. Even better, each chapter provides pages worth of bibliography, pro and con, on each subject, that will keep you going for years.
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Damn thing will take 4 to 6 weeks to arrive though, and will be charged an additional £1.99 handling charge! :mad:

Anyone got any suggestions where I can purchase it without waiting so long, but at more or less the same price??
 
Ian,

When you get the book, do tell what it says about Gary Schwartz and Uri Geller!
 
steenkh said:
Ian,

When you get the book, do tell what it says about Gary Schwartz and Uri Geller!
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It is published by the APA which has been sorta reliable. The problem is that they are getting either trendy or crooked. I say this because the number of "recognized" conditions that a therepist might treat has sky rocketed. The cynic notes that unrecognized disorders are not elegable for insurance .... Hmmmm.
 
Interesting Ian said:

Anyone got any suggestions where I can purchase it without waiting so long, but at more or less the same price??
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Try the link Ed gave, and you can also try barnesandnoble.com Used and Out of Print section and abebooks.com, which has a lot of UK bookdealers. I find most "used" books for sale, especially if they're new like this one, can be purchased for a nice discount and are still in great shape. FWIW, I never buy books new unless they're just off the press and I really have to get them now.
 
dharlow said:


Try the link Ed gave, and you can also try barnesandnoble.com Used and Out of Print section and abebooks.com, which has a lot of UK bookdealers. I find most "used" books for sale, especially if they're new like this one, can be purchased for a nice discount and are still in great shape. FWIW, I never buy books new unless they're just off the press and I really have to get them now.
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OK thanks. I'll check the links out. I normally just order books from the library that I'm interested in reading. Most of the time they can get hold of them . .eventually! But if I think a book is going to be decent then I might buy it.
 
Interesting Ian said:


OK thanks. I'll check the links out. I normally just order books from the library that I'm interested in reading. Most of the time they can get hold of them . .eventually! But if I think a book is going to be decent then I might buy it.
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Dunno. American Psychological Association (APA) is sorta a governing body for psychology in the US. They publish all of those Journals that we say woo research ought to be published in if the findings were real.

http://www.apa.org/journals/journals_list.html

Knowing nothing else other than it is a publication of theirs I would tend to think that the quality would be good. I'd be curious to hear what you think.
 
Miracles of Mind:
Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing
by Russell Targ and Jane Katra

Relying on their strengths - he a pioneering physicist and she a highly respected spiritual healer - Targ and Katra reveal scientific evidence and gripping stories to prove the innate psychic power of the human mind. This collaboration first began when Katra helped Targ miraculously cure himself of metastatic cancer. Skeptics will probably find themselves impressed by the thoroughness of Targ's research as well as his highly plausible conclusions. For example, Targ reveals for the first time the startling results of declassified CIA experiments in psychic spying during the Cold War. Believers in spiritual healing will find support in Katra's impressive credentials and rich storytelling. The authors share a gift for engaging but spare prose, which makes for highly palatable reading, despite the density of ideas and information.
 
Ian quoted the following passage from a Reader's Review of a book:

Books surveying anomalous experience have tended to come from the skeptic side of the fence and have leaned toward the debunking end of the spectrum.
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Really? You could've fooled me! I see books about guardian angels and near-death experiences and "everyday miracles" and such all over the New Age (and even the Self-Help!) section of Barnes and Noble, but the number of skeptically-oriented books on anomalous experiences I could probably count on one hand.
 
Lucianarchy said:
Miracles of Mind:
Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing
by Russell Targ and Jane Katra

Relying on their strengths - he a pioneering physicist and she a highly respected spiritual healer - Targ and Katra reveal scientific evidence and gripping stories to prove the innate psychic power of the human mind. This collaboration first began when Katra helped Targ miraculously cure himself of metastatic cancer. Skeptics will probably find themselves impressed by the thoroughness of Targ's research as well as his highly plausible conclusions. For example, Targ reveals for the first time the startling results of declassified CIA experiments in psychic spying during the Cold War. Believers in spiritual healing will find support in Katra's impressive credentials and rich storytelling. The authors share a gift for engaging but spare prose, which makes for highly palatable reading, despite the density of ideas and information.
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Yeah, and their "healing" worked so well on his daughter, another fraud that the world is better off without. Be sure to read up on how that bitch "demonstrated" that prayer works on AIDs patients. For that lieing piece of crap alone she should now be burning in the 7th Circle of Hell, if there were justice.

Nice people.
 
tracer said:
Ian quoted the following passage from a Reader's Review of a book:


Really? You could've fooled me! I see books about guardian angels and near-death experiences and "everyday miracles" and such all over the New Age (and even the Self-Help!) section of Barnes and Noble, but the number of skeptically-oriented books on anomalous experiences I could probably count on one hand.
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Well you know, you shouldn't spend all your time with your nose stuck in the occult and paranormal section of Barnes and Noble, then you might notice other books :D
 
Ed said:


Dunno. American Psychological Association (APA) is sorta a governing body for psychology in the US. They publish all of those Journals that we say woo research ought to be published in if the findings were real.

http://www.apa.org/journals/journals_list.html

Knowing nothing else other than it is a publication of theirs I would tend to think that the quality would be good. I'd be curious to hear what you think.
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You can read the first few pages here.
 
Interesting Ian said:


You can read the first few pages here.
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Fascinating. I might pick up a copy. Only problem is that the Psi chapter was co-authored by Targ who perpetrated a fraud/hoax/massive error in judgement. Generally in science such people, when they have the good taste to die, stay dead and do not offer their questionable opinions. Fraud in science is usually punished by banishment, it is only in the world of woo where rehabilitation takes place. Recall, she lied because she "believed" and would not let something as trivial as facts interfere with support for her pet beliefs. How can she be trusted on anything?
 
Hi,

I red that book.

Cardena, E., Lynn, S. J., & Krippner, S. (2000). Varieties of Anomalous Experience – Examining the Scientific Evidence. Washington D.C. : A.P.A.

It's from de A.P.A. (American Psychologist Association) and it's really a handbook about anomalous experience. But it's not always skeptic... An it really focus on a psychologist point of view.

I'm a post-graduate student in psychology and I did this year one research about belief in the paranormal and fantasy-proneness, so it was really a must-read for me...

In Cardena, E., Lynn, S. J., & Krippner, S. (2000), I found that they didn't have a very critical perspective about some people like... says... Kenneth Ring (in the NDE chapter)...

The British Psychologist Association published also a handbook about anomalous experience (almost at the same time than the APA):

Roberts, R., & Groome, D. (2001), Parapsychology – The science of unusual experience, Londres : Arnold.

This one is really really more skeptic (with, for exemple, Richard Wiseman as contributor), but it's a smaller book and it's more introductory...

See you,
 
JMA said:
Hi,

I red that book.

Cardena, E., Lynn, S. J., & Krippner, S. (2000). Varieties of Anomalous Experience – Examining the Scientific Evidence. Washington D.C. : A.P.A.

It's from de A.P.A. (American Psychologist Association) and it's really a handbook about anomalous experience. But it's not always skeptic... An it really focus on a psychologist point of view.

I'm a post-graduate student in psychology and I did this year one research about belief in the paranormal and fantasy-proneness, so it was really a must-read for me...

In Cardena, E., Lynn, S. J., & Krippner, S. (2000), I found that they didn't have a very critical perspective about some people like... says... Kenneth Ring (in the NDE chapter)...

The British Psychologist Association published also a handbook about anomalous experience (almost at the same time than the APA):

Roberts, R., & Groome, D. (2001), Parapsychology – The science of unusual experience, Londres : Arnold.

This one is really really more skeptic (with, for exemple, Richard Wiseman as contributor), but it's a smaller book and it's more introductory...

See you,
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Ummm . .I don't know if I'm happy about Wiseman being a contributor. He says some pretty stupid things. His argument on TV against reincarnation was a clear logical fallacy. No better than the sort of things people say on here.

I'm not after a Skeptical book on parapsychology, but rather a good hard-headed objective and honest look at the various phenomena which might or might not come to sceptical conclusions.

And I'm not aware of there being any question mark over Kenneth Ring. I've read a couple of his books.
 
Ed said:


Dunno. American Psychological Association (APA) is sorta a governing body for psychology in the US.

[snip]

Knowing nothing else other than it is a publication of theirs I would tend to think that the quality would be good. I'd be curious to hear what you think.
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Unfortunately, the APA aren't quite the arbiters of sound, rational and scientific objectivity one might assume - not all the time, anyway.

Lilienfeld, Lynn & Lohr (2003: 463) in their Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology point out that the in-house APA journal Monitor on Psychology regularly publish advertisments for training in various barmy treatment modalities (e.g. Thought Field Therapy, which involves tapping various bits of a patient in order to remove perturbations in their energetic "Thought Field").

They also run workshops for which practitioners can gain Continuing Education (CE) credits in similarly poorly tested techniques, such as calligraphy therapy (probably fun, but unvalidated as a psychological treatment), neurofeedback (in which patients monitor their own brain waves on EEG in an attempt to rectify anomalous signals - evidence base is very flawed, and the assumption that people can consciously 'train' themselves in this way is groundless at present), Jungian sandplay therapy (again, probably fun, but...) and "the use of psychological theater to 'catalyse critical consciousness'" (riiiight...). They even offer CE credits in critical incident stress debriefing, which has been shown several times to be a harmful and counterproductive intervention.

So yeah, I wouldn't take the simple fact that the APA have published or endorsed something as a guarantee of quality or validity; I'd be more inclined to look up each individual author's other work, and decide on that basis. Personally :p
 
Interesting Ian said:
Well you know, you shouldn't spend all your time with your nose stuck in the occult and paranormal section of Barnes and Noble, then you might notice other books :D
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The very fact that Barnes and Noble even has an "occult and paranormal" section, but not a "skepticism" section, kinda proves my point. Woo-woo-ism sells. Skepticism doesn't.
 
Ed said:


It is published by the APA which has been sorta reliable. The problem is that they are getting either trendy or crooked. I say this because the number of "recognized" conditions that a therepist might treat has sky rocketed. The cynic notes that unrecognized disorders are not elegable for insurance .... Hmmmm.
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The A Psychological A has little to do with which disorders are eligible. The A Psychiatric A publishes the DSM which provides diagnostic categories for that.
 
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