Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
Maybe there is no backstory. I couldn't find anything else on the subject, because every article just quotes his blog.
Wiseman effectively claims to dismiss the paranormal, vanish it like a ghost at cock crow; here is the real science that replaces our wacky world of the paranormal. So sayeth the book; yet in fact, it does nothing of the sort. Instead what it does is scout around the edges of the current parapsychological debate, taking potshots at the fatally wounded, the stragglers, but in the main just shooting up the corpses left by the onslaught of Hyman, Alcock, Blackmore, Randi et al. The huge column of psi researchers making positive claims and producing high quality papers are marching off unscathed off over the hills – nothing as complex as a real peer reviewed parapsychology paper is even assailed in this books first two parts.
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This is exactly what was going through my mind. I'm guessing that American publishers demanded better provenance for poorly substantiated claims and more hard science than he had to give. For instance, his so-called scientific look into "dream precognition." He would have a very hard time skirting John Dunne's work at Oxford during the 1920s which absolutely proved via qualitative analysis that a fairly good percentage of people have precognitive dreams on a regular basis. Or in the case of "mind control", if I were a perspective publisher, I would have asked him to show evidence against it in the case of what's known as "the measurement problem" pertaining to atoms. Atoms normally never stop moving, but if you try to take any measurement/readings of them, they very happily come to a complete stop to allow you to do so. Either atoms have minds (and the ability to read ours), or the minds of the scientists are controlling the atoms. Or how about "the double slit experiment" where an observation device thrown into the mix completely changes the outcome—as though the particles know they're being watched. (Some have suggested that ANY object brought into proximity will cause this to happen, but this is blatantly false. I've never found any experiments showing anything other than a measuring/observation device that have had a similar effect.) So again it would seem, either particles have minds, or the minds of the scientists are controlling the particles.
Skeptics are often quick to dismiss Rupert Sheldrake's work, but I've yet to see one come up with a real scientific rebuttal of his well documented experiments that showed certain dogs were able to tell when their owners were coming home from anywhere they happened to be, and at any time of day. He even invited members of London's Skeptic Society to repeat his work and they got the exact same results. If these dogs aren’t showing a paranormal ability, then what is it?
And concerning the OBE phenomenon: it's such a uncontrollable process that we only have personal accounts to go by. They can't be substantiated through science. But neither can they be rebutted scientifically. What we can have though are eyewitness testimonies that corroborate the testimony of the experimenter. For instance, I know a girl who had an OBE hit her out of the blue one day as she was resting. She felt herself pass out of body and through the front wall of her home and on down the street where she overheard a conversation between two neighbors a couple of blocks away. After the experience was over, she went down to where she had heard the conversation and found the two people still there talking, told them what she had heard them say earlier, and they confirmed that as being exactly what was said. There simply is no way to repeat the experiment (OBE travelers seem to have little or no control as to where they will go.) Since these experiences can neither be proven, nor disproved, it would seem foolish to write a book claiming to disprove them. If I were a publisher, I doubt that I would have taken on such a book either.