Psi Wars edited by James Alcock, Jean Burns and Anthony Freeman, Imprint Academic, 拢14.95, $24.95, ISBN 0907845487 Reviewed by Robert Matthews
IT鈥橲 late in the evening, the drink has been flowing, and the conversation veers towards the weird. Is telepathy possible? Does astrology work? You know the kind of stuff. Cue the ritual slanging match between the wide-eyed credulist (鈥淲ell, it works for me鈥�) and the sceptic (鈥淭here鈥檚 not a shred of scientific evidence鈥�).
Those who loathe such exchanges because of their sterile predictability now have a powerful antidote in this authoritative and accessible review of the state of scientific research into paranormal phenomena, based on a special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies. Almost all of the pieces are written by university academics with a track record of peer-reviewed research, and they cover paranormal phenomena thought by some to cast light on human consciousness, primarily telepathy (communication between minds), psychokinesis (affecting objects with the mind) and astrology (celestial effects on the mind).
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Psi Wars begins with a look at the sheer strangeness of paranormal phenomena and their implications. Then lead editor James Alcock of the University of Toronto argues cogently for scepticism based on evidence rather than ignorance. And as the bulk of the book shows, the evidence is far more extensive than you might think. Furthermore, some of it, notably in studies of telepathy, is strongly positive.
So are the sceptics wrong? Not necessarily, and one of the strengths of this book lies in showing why scepticism is such a useful approach. For example, the strength of evidence is typically assessed using standard statistical methods, but as some authors make clear, these can begin to creak under the strain of unconventional results. Then there is the problem of replicability: paranormal effects have proved hard to reproduce reliably in different laboratories. Some think this reflects their inherent weakness, but certainly some now widely attested 鈥渙rthodox鈥� effects, such as the efficacy of clot-buster drugs, initially proved dismally unreplicable. Sceptics, however, insist it proves they are non-existent.
Far from being the flaky obsession of nutcases, paranormal phenomena emerge as a valuable test bed for techniques whose reliability too often goes unquestioned. Anyone seeking something more sophisticated than the usual mud-slinging should buy this book.