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A Gallop poll surveyed 506 American teenagers, aged 13 to 18 and discovered the following:- 69% believe in angels - 59% believe in ESP- 55% believe in astrology - 28% believe in clairvoyance- 24% believe in Bigfoot - 22% believe in witchcraft- 20% believe in ghosts - 18% believe in the Loch Ness MonsterCarl Sagan has said that the wonders of real science far surpass the supposed and imagined mysteries of fringe science. Yet, as statistics show, the paranormal is still an endless source of fascination for people around the world.This collection of critical essays and investigative reports examines virtually every area of fringe science and the paranormal from a refreshingly scientific and clear-minded viewpoint. The authors are noted scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and writers. All bring to the task a determination to sift sense from nonsense and fact from fiction in an area notorious for misinformation, misperception, self-delusion, and wishful thinking. They do so in a way that highlights the differences between real science and pseudoscience. They've made special efforts first to find the actual facts behind numerous claims that have popular appeal, and then to explain and communicate what scientific investigation and reasoning reveal about them. Subjects treated to incisive and entertaining examination include astrology, ESP, psychic detectives, psychic predictions, parapsychology, remote-viewing, UFOs, creationism, the Shroud of Turin, coincidences, cult archaeology, palmistry and fringe medicine.There are also explorations of the implications of paranormal beliefs for science education.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction(p. ix)
• 1 Debunking, Neutrality, and Skepticism in Science(p. 5)
• 2 The New Philosophy of Science and the 'Paranormal'(p. 13)
• 3 Parapsychology's Past Eight Years: A Lack-Of-Progress Report(p. 20)
• 4 Sense and Nonsense in Parapsychology(p. 28)
• 5 On Coincidences(p. 43)
• 6 Fooling Some of the People All of the Time(p. 57)
• 7 Misperception, Folk Belief, and the Occult: A Cognitive Guide to Understanding(p. 65)
• 8 The Great Stone Face and Other Nonmysteries(p. 75)
• 9 Sir Oliver Lodge and the Spiritualists(p. 79)
• 10 Outracing the Evidence: The Muddled 'Mind Race'(p. 91)
• 11 Remote Viewing Revisited(p. 110)
• 12 Gerard Croiset: Investigation of the Mozart of """"Psychic Sleuths""""(p. 122)
• 13 Croiset and Professor Tenhaeff: Discrepancies in Claims of Clairvoyance(p. 133)
• 14 The Columbus Poltergeist Case(p. 145)
• 15 The Project Alpha Experiment(p. 158)
• 16 Lessons of a Landmark Pk Hoax(p. 166)
• 17 Magicians in the Psi Lab: Many Misconceptions(p. 170)
• 18 How Not to Test a Psychic: The Great Sri Die Mystery(p. 176)
• 19 Iridology: Diagnosis or Delusion?(p. 185)
• 20 Palmistry: Science or Hand-Jive?(p. 198)
• 21 Prediction After the Fact: Lessons of the Tamara Rand Hoax(p. 211)
• 22 Scientific Tests of Astrology Do Not Support Its Claims(p. 219)
• 23 Alternative Explanations in Science: The Extroversion-Introversion Astrological Effect(p. 222)
• 24 The Alleged Lunar Effect(p. 228)
• 25 The Moon is Acquitted of Murder in Cleveland(p. 235)
• 26 The Claim of a Government Ufo Coverup(p. 245)
• 27 An Eye-Opening Double Encounter(p. 251)
• 28 Hypnosis and Ufo Abductions(p. 255)
• 29 Hypnosis Gives Rise to Fantasy and is Not a Truth Serum(p. 263)
• 30 Deciphering Ancient America(p. 267)
• 31 American Disingenuous: Goodman's 'American Genesis'- a New Chapter in 'Cult' Archaeology(p. 274)
• 32 The Nazca Drawings Revisited: Creation of a Full-Sized Duplicate(p. 285)
• 33 Science and the Mountain Peak(p. 295)
• 34 Creationist Pseudoscience(p. 305)
• 35 Paluxy Footprints(p. 319)
• 36 The Shroud of Turin: A Critical Appraisal(p. 324)
• 37 Shroud Image is the Work of an Artist(p. 344)
• 38 Sonar and Photographic Searches for the Loch Ness Monster: A Reassessment(p. 349)
• Recommended Reading(p. 359)
• Dates of Original Publication(p. 361)
• Contributors(p. 364)

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CHOICE Review

This volume contains 38 reprints of articles from the last five years of the Skeptical Inquirer (a journal devoted to the scientific investigation of claims of the paranormal). Frazier, editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, has successfully compiled a useful cross-section of articles that are ``substantial in content while also general in their approach.'' The articles are categorized under two broad headings: ``Assessing Claims of Paranormal Phenomena'' and ``Evaluating Fringe Science.'' The first section includes articles about specific claims of ESP (e.g., a critical evaluation of Targ & Puthoff's ``remote viewing'' experiments), the psychological processes that make people prone to belief in the occult, and the philosophy of skeptcism in science. The second section contains articles that investigate the claims of believers in astrology, UFOs, ``fringe archaeology,'' and the shroud of Turin. For the skeptic this volume presents entertaining and informative reading. It is a useful sourcebook for anyone interested in the scientific investigation of claims or the paranormal of the psychology of belief in the occult. References are provided for each article. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-P. Glick, Lawrence University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Kendrick Frazier is a veteran science journalist and the longtime editor of the Skeptical Inquirer: The Magazine for Science and Reason. A former Editor of Science News, he is author or editor of ten books, including the anthology Science Under Siege: Defending Science, Exposing Pseudoscience. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Geophysical Union.He is a recipient of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's "In Praise of Reason" Award.