Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, And The Inexplicable Powers Of The Human Mind

Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind

From BooklistPrompted by a personal experience she interpreted as evidence for extrasensory perception, the late author embarked on an exploration into research on the subject. Mayer, who was a psychoanalyst by profession, in this work recounts her journey, which involved collecting ESP anecdotes, interesting her professional peers in the subject, and sifting through formal research into psychic phenomena. The latter process extends back over a century, to investigations supported by philosopher William James, as chronicled in Deborah Blum's Ghost Hunters (2006). Mayer summarizes the work of James' Society for Psychical Research, delves into one researcher's projects in the 1930s, describes the CIA's interest in "remote viewing" in the 1960s, and paraphrases research papers of more recent vintage. She never crossed the scientific Rubicon to announce QED on ESP but was bravely enamored of the possibility of its existence. How else to explain the recovery of her daughter's stolen harp, whose location Mayer said was pinpointed by a psychic dowser? Mayer's catalog of personal experience and seemingly rigorous research into "anomalous cognitive events" should inveigle those similarly intrigued. Gilbert TaylorCopyright ? American Library Association. All rights reservedIn 1991, when her daughter? rare, hand-carved harp was stolen, Lisby Mayer? familiar world of science and rational thinking turned upside down. After the police failed to turn up any leads, a friend suggested she call a dowser-a man who specialized in finding lost objects. With nothing to lose-and almost as a joke-Dr. Mayer agreed. Within two days, and without leaving his Arkansas home, the dowser located the exact California street coordinates where the harp was found.Deeply shaken, yet driven to understand what had happened, Mayer began the fourteen-year journey of discovery that she recounts in this mind-opening, brilliantly readable book. Her first surprise: the dozens of colleagues who? been keeping similar experiences secret for years, fearful of being labeled credulous or crazy.Extraordinary Knowing is an attempt to break through the silence imposed by fear and to explore what science has to say about these and countless other ?nexplicable