Richard Wiseman. Paranormality. ISBN 978-0-956-8756-2-4 Amazon Kindle EBook, June 2011. $8.99.
Richard Wiseman, as the book bio helpfully tells us, began as a professional magician and segued into psychology. Intrigued by reports of paranormal events and people, he began to specialize in testing and investigating the unknown, the eerie, the weird, and sometimes the downright crazy. He has spent nights in haunted castles, interviewed psychic dogs, attempted to talk to the dead, and probably tried to bend spoons with mind power. The Times of London reports that he is the psychologist most frequently quoted in the British press, and no wonder. Most psychologists are concerned with mundane matters, and so they are comparatively boring. Wiseman is also a fellow for CSICOP and is a popular speaker on psychic and other paranormal concerns, giving the topic a skeptical interpretation.
Paranormality is his latest book, and sadly it is not available in the United States as a hard-copy book (barring imports from the UK or Canada). Why? American publishers are pleased to present the other side of the paranormal, cranking out hardcovers and paperbacks alike that promise faith healing, wish granting, ghost communication, brotherhood with space aliens, and having bigfoot as a friend. Woo sells. The skeptical take doesn't, and so Wiseman has taken the step of self-publishing the EBook.
Good for him.
First the good news: Paranormality is a very amusing book. Wiseman writes well and treats paranormal claims and claimants if not with full respect, at least with indulgence and a certain amount of tolerant affection. Don't expect a lot of new ground here, though. Among the topics covered in the book are fortune-telling, out-of-body experiences, telekinesis, communicating with the dead, Gef the talking mongoose, ghost-hunting (with and without high-tech equipment), mind control, and "prophesy" (sic). I have to say I do wish an editor had alerted Wiseman to the differences between the verb prophesy and the noun prophecy. No one did.
As you can probably tell from the list, the tales of paranormal people, animals, and events are pretty much the usual suspects. Familiar names pepper the book: Susan Blackmore (for whom Wiseman has a high esteem), Harry Price (ditto), James Randi (Wiseman despises him. No, just kidding, lots of respect for the Amazing One) ,Jaytee the psychic dog, medium Patricia Putt, William Mumler (the first known "ghost photographer"), the Fox sisters, and so on. The anecdotes are for the most part familiar. However, Wiseman offers much interesting content surrounding these stories. Boxes have step-by-step instructions on how to explore the odd corners of perception—how to fool your brain into thinking you've projected yourself out of your body, how to conjure up an apparition in a mirror, how to cold-read well enough to persuade the gullible that you yourself are psychic. QR codes scattered throughout lead those with smartphones to websites that include videos of Wiseman and others demonstrating the mundane truth behind many apparent miracles.
To sum up: Little new here in accounts of the paranormal, but an interesting skeptical take and many, many intriguing DIY activities. Though Paranormality is by no means a cornerstone book of the skeptical viewpoint, it's a fast, fun, and informative read.
Richard Wiseman, as the book bio helpfully tells us, began as a professional magician and segued into psychology. Intrigued by reports of paranormal events and people, he began to specialize in testing and investigating the unknown, the eerie, the weird, and sometimes the downright crazy. He has spent nights in haunted castles, interviewed psychic dogs, attempted to talk to the dead, and probably tried to bend spoons with mind power. The Times of London reports that he is the psychologist most frequently quoted in the British press, and no wonder. Most psychologists are concerned with mundane matters, and so they are comparatively boring. Wiseman is also a fellow for CSICOP and is a popular speaker on psychic and other paranormal concerns, giving the topic a skeptical interpretation.
Paranormality is his latest book, and sadly it is not available in the United States as a hard-copy book (barring imports from the UK or Canada). Why? American publishers are pleased to present the other side of the paranormal, cranking out hardcovers and paperbacks alike that promise faith healing, wish granting, ghost communication, brotherhood with space aliens, and having bigfoot as a friend. Woo sells. The skeptical take doesn't, and so Wiseman has taken the step of self-publishing the EBook.
Good for him.
First the good news: Paranormality is a very amusing book. Wiseman writes well and treats paranormal claims and claimants if not with full respect, at least with indulgence and a certain amount of tolerant affection. Don't expect a lot of new ground here, though. Among the topics covered in the book are fortune-telling, out-of-body experiences, telekinesis, communicating with the dead, Gef the talking mongoose, ghost-hunting (with and without high-tech equipment), mind control, and "prophesy" (sic). I have to say I do wish an editor had alerted Wiseman to the differences between the verb prophesy and the noun prophecy. No one did.
As you can probably tell from the list, the tales of paranormal people, animals, and events are pretty much the usual suspects. Familiar names pepper the book: Susan Blackmore (for whom Wiseman has a high esteem), Harry Price (ditto), James Randi (Wiseman despises him. No, just kidding, lots of respect for the Amazing One) ,Jaytee the psychic dog, medium Patricia Putt, William Mumler (the first known "ghost photographer"), the Fox sisters, and so on. The anecdotes are for the most part familiar. However, Wiseman offers much interesting content surrounding these stories. Boxes have step-by-step instructions on how to explore the odd corners of perception—how to fool your brain into thinking you've projected yourself out of your body, how to conjure up an apparition in a mirror, how to cold-read well enough to persuade the gullible that you yourself are psychic. QR codes scattered throughout lead those with smartphones to websites that include videos of Wiseman and others demonstrating the mundane truth behind many apparent miracles.
To sum up: Little new here in accounts of the paranormal, but an interesting skeptical take and many, many intriguing DIY activities. Though Paranormality is by no means a cornerstone book of the skeptical viewpoint, it's a fast, fun, and informative read.