Extra Sensory: The Science and Pseudoscience of Telepathy and Other Powers of the Mind

by Brian Clegg

Extra Sensory is a pop-science look at the untapped abilities of human beings, from ESP to Telekenesis and other real life sciences that are currently being studied today, from physicist Brian Clegg.
We'd all love to have 'psi' abilities like telepathy, telekinesis, and remote viewing. But is there any solid evidence to back up these talents, or are they nothing more than fantasy? We still only understand a small percentage of the capabilities of the human brain―and we shouldn't dismiss such potential powers out of hand. Although there is no doubt that many who claim these abilities are frauds, and no one has yet won James Randi's $1M prize for demonstrating ESP under lab conditions, we still have a Nobel prize winner suggesting a mechanism for telepathy, serious scientists researching the field and university projects that produced potentially explosive results. What's the verdict? By looking at possible physical mechanisms for ESP and taking in the best scientific evidence, the reader can discover if this is all wishful thinking and deception, or a fascinating reality. The truth is out there.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2013

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dashed hopes If you’re looking for proof of psi phenomena you won’t find it here. Instead, you’ll read a history of poorly designed research and questionable results. This is interesting in itself as an explanation of what constitutes good experimental design and what doesn’t. Although the author describes several theoretical mechanisms that could explain psi phenomena, he also notes that only minimal evidence supports its existence.
 
In his conclusion, Brian Clegg notes, “… coming at this with an open mind while frankly wishing that ESP did exist, I have to conclude that the existing experiments have demonstrated nothing more than coincidence, artifacts of the experimental design, misunderstanding, and fraud.”
 
Another physicist, Wolfgang Pauli, became a good friend of psychiatrist, C. G. Jung. The two collaborated together on a book with each contributing a section. In Jung’s section, the psychiatrist describes what he calls synchronicity, a phenomena consisting of meaningful coincidences, and considered to be an acausal connecting principal. Pauli himself experienced a type of synchronicity as the jocularly known Pauli Effect. Reputedly equipment malfunctioned whenever Pauli entered a laboratory in response to the Pauli effect. Jung’s synchronicity as well as Pauli’s Effect is largely based on anecdotal evidence and not achievable in a laboratory as a significant percent of correct guesses regarding the next cards in a deck.
 
Clegg feels that current methods of testing psi phenomena will never produce significant results. “What the researchers seem to have totally forgotten is that they are attempting to verify the validity of hundreds of years of anecdotal evidence. … Real-world ESP is not about small statistical variations; it is about clear, specific communication.”

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: my eyes tend to cross when people start discussing Schrodinger's cat or quantum entanglement (or anything having to do with physics, really), so fairly large chunks of Clegg's book were completely wasted on me. Lucid as his writing is, I still can't help finding those particular discussions dry.

Still, there was a great deal to enjoy here, particularly the section closely examining the work of Duke's Rhine Lab, or basically any story that involved James Randi in any capacity. Clegg's clarion call against para-psychological research could easily be "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics!", as he proves over and over again that what's really standing in the way of belief is scientists' inability to do the math, or even design a sufficiently rigorous experimental model.

I read this back to back with Horn's Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, and it was both fascinating and enlightening to see the difference in how each author viewed the same experiments and outcomes. In the end, I think Clegg's view was more compelling...but that's a decision every potential believer should make for themselves.

[Richard Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always had a keen interest both in hard science as well as the softer stuff. When I heard that one of my favorite science writers, Brian Clegg had released a book digging into the theoretical as well as the investigative background of the phenomena collectively called, E.S.P., I was in.

Mr. Clegg's book carries a great deal of cred, both in his impeccable academics and empirical approach, but also due to his balanced and open mind-set. There has been plenty of effort over the years in debunking spiritualism and other examples of stage performance E.S.P., from Harry Houdini to modern mentalists. A recent film starring George Clooney poked fun at a real, covert government program to measure and train agents in clairvoyant espionage, so this isn't just a subject to laugh off. The author follows the recorded laboratory research especially well, looking for weaknesses in experimental measurement techniques and in supposed blind studies and their often vague results.

He also investigates those areas of physics theory, in layman's terms, that may indeed provide explanation for some of the more nebulous processes of the mind. Time and space can be folded together in theory, but in the lab, can they be measured reliably and repeatably? The short answer is no, but the long answer? We simply do not yet have at our disposal, technology and techniques that can measure some of the more peculiar observed aberrations, which in the end, left me clinging to a scrap of possibility.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in E.S.P. and in its many children, from telekinesis to precognition. Author Clegg does a sterling job of illustrating that many of the questions we may have can't yet be fully answered -- and how many tricks of the stage trade have been laid bare.

[Archita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Talks more about how scientific investigation has failed wrt ESP than ESP itself. Good chapter on telepathy tho.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better books on the subject that I've read. Clegg does an excellent job of summarizing the research to date and suggests directions for future research. As he points out, it's an open question whether there's even anything there to research. In the course of surveying past research, he's quick to point out any flaws in methodology, statistical analysis, etc. He does a fine job of making some of the more esoteric aspects of statistics accessible to the layman. And, while he does raise the specter of quantum mechanics, he seems to have a much better understanding of its limitations on the macro scale than most ESP devotees. A fascinating look at an interesting topic. Clegg manages to be skeptical without being obnoxious about it.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, to be sure. Clegg begins with the idea that dismissing ESP powers out of hand is just as bad as accepting them without proof. He then begins looking for proof in the various "scientific" experiments that have tried to test for it over the past several decades. What he finds, instead of proof, is bad bad very bad science. That is, I think, the best part of this book: it illustrates how bad science is bad for everybody. Bad experimental design and bad controls can really wreck any serious inquiry into scientific phenomenon.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, level-headed introduction to "psi" and the practicalities and pitfalls of research in and of the field. The writing is so clear and straightforward that at times it almost reads like a text for children. But in a field as murky and as beset by sloppy thinking, wishful thinking, and downright fraud as psi, clear, simple writing is a good thing. Would have benefited from a bibliography and more in-depth notes.

[Samuel Lubell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit disappointing. It spent most of the book debunking past experiments into psi, much of which consisted of showing problems with the methodology that would have allowed the people to cheat. It then acknowledges that this does not mean that they did cheat (except in the case of Uri Geller whose cohorts wrote an article showing how they cheated).

[Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Uri Geller chapter was interesting, but the rest - not so much.

[Daria]

A little too scientific for me.

[Licking County Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by Kristine W. , Adult Services Department

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

liked it more than I expected at first. To my mind, it's basically a study in using apple criteria to talk about oranges, but it is essentially fair.

[Science For The People]

Featured on Science for the People show #225 on August 9, 2013, during an interview with author Brian Clegg. http://www.scienceforthepeople.ca/epi...