This book presents a provocative debate between parapsychological advocates who claim that Western science's worldview is incomplete, and counteradvocates who insist that parapsychological data is either spurious or can be explained by standard scientific principles. Despite ongoing and repeated attempts to prove or disprove the existence of parapsychological events, there are still no conclusive findingsand certainly no consensus across the worldwide community of scholars, scientists, and proponents of psychic phenomena. Still, there is no shortage of information about this fascinating topic to allow everyone to draw their own conclusions.
This book has been expressly written to make each chapter and topic accessible to a general audience, despite containing a vast amount of theoretical material. The book is organized into two parts: in the first section, proponents of the validity of parapsychological data and critics who reject that validity state their respective positions. In the second part, each group responds to each others' statements in the form of a debate. Other experts from the United States as well as from Australia and Great Britain provide overviews and conclusions.
Arvustused
Debating Psychic Experience deserves to become required reading for sociologists, historians of contemporary science, and anybody involved in any kind of psi research. * Skeptical Investigations * A fascinating read. . . . Recommended. * Choice *
Muu info
This book presents a provocative debate between parapsychological advocates who claim that Western science's worldview is incomplete, and counteradvocates who insist that parapsychological data is either spurious or can be explained by standard scientific principles.
Foreword: Pondering Exceptional Human Possibilities |
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Acknowledgments |
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xv | |
Introduction: An Invitation to a Debate |
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1 | (10) |
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11 | (100) |
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Chapter 1 A Brief History of Science and Psychic Phenomena |
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13 | (16) |
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Chapter 2 Attributions about Impossible Things |
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29 | (14) |
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Chapter 3 Parapsychology's Achilles Heel: Persistent Inconsistency |
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43 | (10) |
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Chapter 4 Reflections of a (Relatively) Moderate Skeptic |
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53 | (12) |
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Chapter 5 How I Became a Psychic for a Day |
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65 | (12) |
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Chapter 6 Persistent Denial: A Century of Denying the Evidence |
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77 | (34) |
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111 | (56) |
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Chapter 7 The Critic's Lament: When the Impossible Becomes Possible |
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113 | (16) |
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Chapter 8 Let's Focus on the Data |
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129 | (4) |
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Chapter 9 What's Wrong with Materialism? |
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133 | (16) |
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Chapter 10 Missing the Point? |
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149 | (4) |
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Chapter 11 The Devil is in the Details |
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153 | (4) |
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Chapter 12 Still in Denial: A Reply to the Critics |
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157 | (10) |
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167 | (38) |
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Epilogue: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: How Some Parapsychologists Nullify Null Results and What to do about it |
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169 | (10) |
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Epilogue: The Antique Roadshow: How Denier Movements Critique Evolution, Climate Change, and Nonlocal Consciousness |
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179 | (16) |
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Editors' Epilogue: Is it Time for a Detente? |
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195 | (10) |
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205 | (10) |
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Afterword: Explaining and Unexplaining: Parapsychology's Key Question |
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207 | (4) |
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Afterword: Why Parapsychology is not Yet Ready for Prime Time |
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211 | (4) |
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Glossary |
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215 | (6) |
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Index |
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221 | (12) |
About the Editors and Contributors |
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Stanley Krippner, PhD, is professor of psychology at Saybrook University, San Francisco, CA.
Harris L. Friedman, PhD, is research professor of psychology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.