Supernormal: Science, Yoga and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities

by Dean Radin, Deepak Chopra (Foreword)

Can yoga and meditation unleash our inherent supernormal mental powers, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition? Is it really possible to perceive another person's thoughts and intentions? Influence objects with our minds? Envision future events? And is it possible that some of the superpowers described in ancient legends, science fiction, and comic books are actually real, and patiently waiting for us behind the scenes? Are we now poised for an evolutionary trigger to pull the switch and release our full potentials?

Dean Radin, Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and bestselling author of The Conscious Universe, presents persuasive new experimental evidence for the existence of such phenomena. He takes us on a thrilling scientific journey and challenges outdated assumptions that these abilities are mere superstition. Focusing on Patanjali's mysterious Yoga Sutras -- 2,000 year-old meditation practices believed to release our extraordinary powers -- Radin offers powerful evidence confirming that sometimes fact is much stranger, spookier, and more wonderful than the wildest fiction.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Spirituality, Psychology, Paranormal, Health, Self Help

369 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Dean Radin is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Associated Distinguished Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and cofounder and chairman of the neuroengineering company, Cognigenics. He earned a BS and MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 2022 he was awarded an Honorary DSc from the Swami Vivekananda University in Bangalore, India.

Before joining the IONS research staff in 2001, Radin worked at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, and SRI International. He has given over 830 talks and interviews worldwide, is co-inventor on 12 patents, and is author or coauthor of 350+ scientific and popular articles, book chapters, and five books, all of which have been translated into foreign languages, 15 so far: The Conscious Universe (1997), Entangled Minds (2006), Supernormal (2013), Real Magic (2018), and The Science of Magic (2025).

Reviews

[Alia Makki · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a reason why siddhis and sufis and mystics don't brag about their supernormal abilities. Silence is part of practicing respect and humility. If you already believe in the supernatural, you don't need scientific proof, and if you don't believe, well, ain't a man's job to enlighten his fellows.

This book tries too hard. The author is a scientist, so he speaks in statistics and data and meta-analysis. But his audience are not people who need this kind of jargon: What yogis and siddhis need that kind of literature?

So the parts where the language was not argumentative (a.k.a. scientific), was easier to read and follow through and find possible hints for enlightenment. Hindus have siddhis, Catholics have Charismas, Sufis have Karamat, and so on and so forth. Telepathy, remote viewing, clairaudience and things like that have been known to happen regardless to religion. Given the right personality, genetic setup and duration of practice, supernormal abilities can be attained and expanded.

But then, so what? If you're already a believer, great. If you're not, that's even better (because then you probably don't wonder too much).

If you actually have abilities, well, heck, shut up, quit bragging and get back to practice. Don't get hung up on the names and labels and measurements. Don't get hung up on the material and concrete aspect of mysticism, because that's like pouring gasoline on an already burning pyre. Ego is very tricky, mate; the moment you allow sense of entitlement and complecency is the moment you start taking backward steps to worse traps.

Whether a believer or a not, when it comes to practice, if it doesn't hurt, then there is no learning. If you're not going to learn, don't reverse what you've learned with vanity. Not learning means that you're on a break, not on a momentary lease to bring on the demons of bragging. Okay?

[Mahmoud Shehata · Rating 5 out of 5]

So i started reading this book because i get some PSI experiences every now and then. Also because claiming that humans can sense up to 3 seconds in the future was just so intriguing.
I love the way the book is structured to go from the yoga claims to proving them then moving on to what's next questions. However, I found the author exceedingly being caught up on proving, at least showing, that other scientists are wrong not to believe in such experimental data. I find it appalling that scientists can just look at such very real repeatable data and ignore them, although some theories can sufficiently explain the motives. Regardless of that, such focus made some parts of the book feel more of a scientific fight not an informative document.
I liked the last part quite a lot, although starting with money generating applications of PSI was quite disappointing. The part where the author start to discuss how the findings influence how we see the reality around us is mind blowing. I expected the author to indulge into the discussion about meditation and religion as it is very important to me, nonetheless the author kept a very scientific/philosophical discussion till the end.
[Update]
So I've read this book around a month ago. I've been thinking about it almost everyday. Here's my conclusion so far:
I'm confident now that there is something else behind the facade of reality. The ultimate truth, let's call it that. The ultimate truth is the only real thing in the world. Evenmore, our bodies seems to be made to be compatible with that fact. The more close you are to that Ultimate Truth, the better your body, soul and mind will function. The more you get attached to the facade the less happy you are. That's why rich people are not proportionally happy. That's why first world countries have higher rates of suicide. Even Psi abilities and siddhis are considered part of the facade. That's why Yogic don't get attached to it, it's not their ultimate goal. It's just a byproduct of getting close to the ultimate truth.

[Patrick Moore · Rating 1 out of 5]

The problem with this book is that it gives a patina of legitimacy to nonsense.

Radin acknowledges (not explicitly) that the evidence he is talking about is barely measurable, but couches it in clever jargon that hides this conclusion. He depends almost entirely on meta-studies, not adequately acknowledging the extreme limitations of drawing conclusions based on them.

The bulk of his "proof" is exactly what one would expect: baseless anecdotal claims credulously repeated.

Radin would do himself a favor if he would at least acknowledge that ALL -- as in 100% of -- popular "psychics" are either frauds or deluded. Then if he wanted to argue for his main point, that there is a tiny, barely measurable, but persistent anomaly between what was expected in the trials he cites and the actual outcome, he would be on firmer ground. He apparently can't do that, however, probably because then all the believers in abject foolishness like John Edward and Allison DuBois wouldn't buy his books.

And just to be clear, even Radin's tiny anomaly is fully explainable, though apparently not by Radin himself, as testing error, confirmation bias, statistical fluke, and wishful thinking.

Don't bother with this book. I managed to get all the way through it, but it was a sore trial. One question: how is it that Radin enthusiastically supports the power of mystical supermen (it's all men) to dematerialize into a vapor that can flow through walls and rematerialize on the other side? He simply accepts claims without any attempt at critical thought (much less actual analysis), and declares it to be true. Of course.

[John Corder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds, both by Dr Radin, I had no hesitation in buying this book. Once again, the phenomena he reports are quite remarkable, this time based on the results of some equally remarkable studies from around the world. Not surprisingly, as a Princeton University physicist, Dr Radin has no truck with anything not supported by good science or well-established statistical methods. I used the word ‘or’ rather than ‘and’ in the previous sentence because, as often happens in psychical research, the statistical evidence for a phenomenon can be overwhelming even though there is no known scientific theory yet known to support it.

In Supernormal, Dr Radin examines, among other things, the subject of meditation; intended here is a level of meditation so deep as to induce an Out of Body Experience. Examined too are the phenomena of clairvoyance and psychokinesis.

Science demands that extraordinary claims must furnish extraordinary proof. In this book, Dr Radin claims that if a probability of several billion to one against a phenomenon being down purely down to chance isn’t extraordinary proof then what is.

[Absinthe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a book that I would recommend to everyone. I firmly agree with the author that the line of inquiry in science is continuing to move closer and closer to quantum physics and the ability of psi in humans. I will definitely be checking out the long list of reference books as well.

[Amber Foxx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some people approach the topic of psychic phenomena from a standpoint of immoveable conviction. There are those who believe psi events happen, and no science or statistics would convince them otherwise. On the other side are those who believe such things do not happen, and no evidence from even the best quality research could convince them otherwise. It’s like politics. Minds seldom change. But that doesn’t mean they never do. Science progresses through study and replication and further studies, and the word “proof” is seldom used outside of mathematics. This book should interest readers who would like to assess the evidence with an open mind.

Having said that, I think it may be useful to preface this review with the author’s credentials:

Dean Radin, PhD, is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, and SRI International. He is author or coauthor of over 250 technical and popular articles, three dozen book chapters, and three books including the award-winning The Conscious Universe (HarperOne, 1997), Entangled Minds (Simon & Schuster, 2006), and the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award winner, Supernormal (Random House, 2013).
Taken from http://www.deanradin.com/NewWeb/bio.html


The author works hard to make statistical analysis and research methodology accessible to a reader without a background in those fields. Having spent the last ten years of my academic career helping first-year college students learn to comprehend the language of scholarly journals, I have mixed feelings about this “translation.” Would it have been better to teach his readers the terminology, or was paraphrasing it the right choice? I don’t know. Sometimes he tries too hard to funny, like a professor who attempts to lighten up his lectures with strained jokes, but that’s a minor issue. Overall, I found the book well-structured and thoroughly researched. (384 sources are listed in the back, exceeding the number of pages in the book.)

Supernormal is primarily about how scientists study psychic abilities, not about spectacular events, so anyone wanting to read amazing, colorful anecdotes won’t find them here. It’s not essentially about yoga, either, though it will have more meaning to a reader who has studied yoga philosophy, and Radin has some good quotations on that subject. In yoga, the siddhis are not, as I understand it, as important as simply achieving awareness and quieting the cravings and cluttered noise of the mind. The siddhis can happen, but they are not the purpose or goal of practicing yoga. Nonetheless, in Radin’s research and in studies by other scientists, subjects with a regular meditation practice performed significantly better in experiments testing clairvoyance, precognition, and other psi abilities, so there appears to be a correlation between meditation and being psychic. An impressive number of well-designed studies support this. (My own experience fits the pattern. When I began yoga and meditation at age twelve, I began to have precognitive intuitions and dreams.)

I’d recommend this book to a reader who wants to get “down in the weeds” in the labs where these studies are done and examine the designs, the methods, and the analyses without going to the original scholarly journals. It’s a solid summary of what’s been found so far. The questions raised about the nature of reality and the nature of mind and consciousness are intriguing. How did the future find a crack into my dream and appear in perfect detail? Some of Radin’s studies address the emotional aspect of psychic material. He set up one study using long-term couples with one partner who was ill as subjects, and included the emotional bond and loving intentions as part of the design. Why does this matter? As with any other sense, we may be constantly filtering out irrelevant information and focusing on what is salient. It’s only when we dream that a friend is about to die or hear a voice warning us of something dire for a loved one that we let the psi phenomena take central focus. Otherwise, our psychic sense’s input can be ignored as background noise, the way unimportant input from our hearing often is. Perhaps if we learned to tune into this sense and trusted that it was real, we might act with more awareness and wisdom.
Much of what happens in psi is small—a sense that something is about to happen, or that one is being stared at—so we pay no attention. Radin studies all of these phenomena in minute detail, even documenting patterns of brain activity. I could go on, but that would be a spoiler, if there can be such a thing in science.

Radin almost pulls the rug out from under himself when he drifts off into a page or two of speculation on unrelated phenomena such as UFOs and crop circles that the skeptics and debunkers (some who rail against his studies) have actually already done good job explaining. Even though he doesn’t say he believes in these things, and uses them as a take-off point for ruminations about reality, they have no natural connection with psi ability and probably don’t belong in in a book on that subject. (I suspect that editors sometimes don’t tell famous authors—whether they are novelists or established scientists—to “kill your darlings.”) Nonetheless, as a yoga teacher, a long-time consumer of the scholarly literature on psi research, an individual who has occasional psychic experiences, and the author of a mystery series featuring a psychic, I found this to be a worthwhile read.

[Graham Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book from a thorough, intelligent and fluid writer. The evidence is superb . This book ties in nicely with Rupert Sheldrake's work.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book resembles a meta-analysis of scientific research on the intersection of yoga with metaphysics. If veracity of a yoga practice (movement, breath, and/or meditation) is what you are looking for, this book is a good start for the overview and bibliography.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

With this controversial book, Dean Radin presents the scientific evidence for an array of psychic powers, but he frames the discussion in terms of yogic siddhis. “Siddhi” is a Sanskrit term for an ability that isn’t seen among the general population--at least not reliably so-- and for the most part these “accomplishments” correspond to the categories discussed in parapsychology (i.e. telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis, and clairvoyance.) [Note: As mentioned, this is a controversial book. I will attempt to provide as unbiased a review as possible. I am generally skeptical, but don’t believe in poo-pooing the study of subjects because they offend my skeptical sensibilities. Furthermore, I try to keep an open mind because: 1.) there is no scientific consensus about what consciousness is or how it works, 2.) quantum biology is a subject in its infancy and we may yet learn there is more quantum “spookiness” going on in the brain than we think. 3.) for all I know we are in an simulation and then it’s all a matter of programming.]

The yogic emphasis doesn’t change the book much from the pop psych literature review of parapsychology studies it would otherwise be, except to necessitate background information on yoga and siddhis. However, this emphasis may or may not have opened up a huge additional readership. Outside of a fringe, siddhis aren’t much in vogue among yoga practitioners these days. Among modern day yogis and yoginis, there are some who believe in them and some who think they’re throwbacks to an era of superstition, malnutrition, and wishful thinking. However, even among the former, siddhis are generally considered a distraction. The advice of most of the great yogis has been to not get lost in the pursuit of such powers because chasing siddhis can derail one from one’s ultimate objective (e.g. liberation.) Still, if even a small fraction of yoga practitioners take an interest, that’s a fairly large readership.

So what exactly is the controversy? Obviously, there are many divergent demographics with differing views on the topic. For hardcore skeptics, parapsychology is right up there with alien abduction, bigfoot /yeti sightings, and the anatomy of the Loch Ness monster with respect to being a legitimate topic for scientific study. On the other hand, there are believers who are offended by the mere notion of studying such phenomena with science, and who say such investigations are an assault on their beliefs.

But that’s not a very interesting controversy—i.e. there are some people who won’t believe in such abilities no matter what the evidence, and others who will believe in them no matter what science has to say. So let’s chop off the hardcore skeptics and hardcore believers and ask what the controversy is as it pertains to those of us who consider evidence when drawing conclusions.

The root of the controversy can be stated rather quickly and clearly. Here it is: the effect size is small but statistically significant. What does that mean? Say this study asks a subject to determine which of five randomly selected shapes has been chosen using nothing but his / her mind. Using pure guessing, one would expect to be right 20% (i.e. 1/5th) of the time. If a person happened to get 32% right in a given trial, that means nothing because small samples don’t give one a convergence towards a mean value. (i.e. Intuitively, you know that if you flip a coin 10 times and get 7 heads, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. If you repeat that 10-flip set 10,000 times, and still get 70% heads, then you probably have a trick coin or something else odd is going on.) So the issue is that even when experimenters repeat the experiment over and over again such that the average value should converge on 20%, it doesn’t. It stays at, say, 30% (exact effects vary but it’s on this order.)

At this point the reader might be thinking of all the factors that could result in this effect (i.e. cheating [insider or outsider], subconscious observation of facial expressions, random selection that is biased, etc.) Well, so have the scientists. In any study, one wants to account for alternative explanations to the utmost. Over the years, researchers like Radin have put all manner of protections in place from quantum random number generators to booths with extreme sound-proofing and Faraday cages (prevents radio signals from transiting.) Still they get this small positive effect that can’t be explained by alternative explanations.

There is also the issue of the filing drawer problem, which Radin devotes considerable space to discussing. It’s the idea that when drawing conclusions from many similar studies, one must accept that there may be many unpublished studies that sit in file drawers because they didn’t produced negative results. These filed / unpublished studies could negate the outcome of the body of studies of that nature. While this remains an open criticism, there is mathematics for determining how many negative studies would have to be turned up to make the results insignificant. Radin argues that the numbers calculated strain credulity.

So this “small but statistically significant effect” is generally agreed upon by all, excepting conspiracy theorists. Now we get to the controversy, which is how to explain this effect. Skeptics run the gamut from hot-blooded haters who claim that it’s all just a scam perpetrated by hoaxers with tenure, to more diplomatic challengers who provide thoughtful, plausible, and non-nefarious explanations for what they believe are false results. Said objections include file drawer problems, statistical “crud factor” (an observed effect in which large sample size studies can show a significant correlations between any two random variables—i.e. everything is correlated with everything else to some degree), and outlier effects.

The latter is a particularly revealing controversy. Say your study results in this 30% instead of 20% effect, and there’s one subject in the study who (over many trials) got the shape right 80% of the time. If you’re a skeptic, you call that an outlier and you want to cut it out of the study because it may be causing part, most, or all of the effect you see. Your assumption is that that this outlier could be anything from a data entry error to an outright cheater, but it’s obviously not a gifted psychic. If you’re a believer, not only do you want to keep that result, you want to find that person and study them to find out if the result was a one-time fluke, or if you have some rare, gifted person.

The book is arranged into three parts. The first part offers background on yoga and siddhis. The second part is the heart of the book and it presents an overview of results from studies of precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis (both of animate and inanimate objects), clairvoyance, and the effect of meditation on these abilities (which also shows a small positive effect, i.e. the general population outdoes probability by a little bit and experienced meditators outperform the general population by a little bit.) The last section is just a couple chapters about the future of parapsychology.

I found this book to be interesting and thought-provoking. Radin comes across as a reasonable investigator who is willing to accept that there is a lot of duplicity going on out in the world, but yet when one uses the methods of science one obtains results that would be generally accepted as successful across the social sciences. At times he does go on anti-skeptic rants. On the other hand, one can imagine his frustration in dealing with individuals unwilling to pin down how much higher the bar must be for parapsychology results over results in more mainstream topics. I think Radin’s greatest mistake was in discussing levitation. Besides at a quantum level, the effects of gravity are well-understood and non-negotiable. While our lack of understanding of consciousness leaves wiggle room to at least consider some unusual happenings, levitation seems a non-starter. Fortunately, as it hasn’t been studied, Radin just presents a couple historical anecdotes and moves on (while—to be fair--acknowledging the fundamental risk in relying on anecdotes.)

I’d recommend this book. I can’t say it swayed my belief on the topic, which tends skeptical, but it did inform my confusion. (It should be pointed out that not all these abilities are equally reviled by science. Precognition is the most fundamentally opposed because it seems to violate the fundamental cause and effect nature of the universe at our scale and larger [as opposed to the quantum level were all sorts of weird happenings transpire.]) I do agree with Radin that there shouldn’t be taboos in science in which scientists are afraid to study a subject of interest because the prevailing notion is that it probably doesn’t have merit. If there weren’t scientists with the cojones to study “crazy stuff” we’d no doubt be far behind our current understanding of the world.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to the audio book but did not finish it, so this goes into my "gave up on" shelf.

This is a rather long winded book. I guess if you are totally new to yoga history, philosophy and practise, this can be helpful. The author is trying to give a background to the scientific community's approach or non-approach to such abilities, and their scepticism. But I only read a quarter of this and am not sure where his argument converge at the end. So I am not able to give a good review.

But one useful reminder I got from reading this book was its specific reference of supernormal abilities as mentioned in the third section of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (Vibhuti Pada) and I went back to read it. There was also a special reminder at the end of this section in the Yoga Sutras where the ancient sage Patanjali highlighted the dangers of being attached to these abilities which are by-products of the spiritual path, and just signposts. In sutra 52, Patanjali said: "There should be avoidance of pleasure or pride on being invited by the super-physical entities in charge of various planes because there is the possibility of the revival of evil." This is wisdom.

Similarly, in Buddhism, special abilities are attained when one enters different levels of jhanas as the mind becomes luminous as the hindrances and defilements (including desires and attachments) are abandoned. So wisdom, and the ethical life, are critical pre-conditions for movement into jhanas, and supernormal powers are also signposts and we should not be attached to them but let them go as well.

[Trish]

Just heard a great interview with Dean Radin. Something is shifting. Can't wait to read more!

[May Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: On the one hand, a nice collection of studies and initial framework. On the other hand, it drove me a bit crazy, the research design and timing.

The Good:
Very clean description of the relationship between meditation, yoga, and what he's checking for as relates to supernormal. In that regard, I did not know such a framework existed.
P. 25: 4 types of siddhis which constitute psychic abilities: Telepathy (mind-to mind communication); clairvoyance (gaining information about distant or hidden objects beyond the reach of the ordinary senses); precognition (clairvoyance through time); psychokinesis (direct influence over matter by the mind).
P. 39 - I knew but did not register this. There is a part of the brain that makes people feel connected located in the posterior parietal cortex. If it is in disorder, people become hyper-religious. I hadn't thought that if you just have supreme control over this area of the mind, this might be a center for which some are able to access supernormal power. Intriguing. More to read on this for sure.
P. 51 they talk about the use of psilocybin found in a lot of hallucinogenic drugs for religious use. These are meaningful whether used for religious or not. See, I like it and yet, I know the body can produce it's own DMT. So, I kind of think that's what people ought to try to do for lasting impact.
P. 51 - he talks about the fact that extreme athletes also have this possibility.
P. 68 - He talks about the bias against psychic abilities. B/c the system frowns upon it, therefore no work is done, therefore there is no evidence, therefore the system frowns upon it. Hadn't thought about structural bias against psi. But it makes sense, as I have my own feelings of shame about it.
P. 73 - He talks about a common textbook that suggests that the reason psychologists no longer study supernormal is that there is no evidence and there are too many charlatans. In fact, that is complete propaganda as the data supports the reverse.
P. 78 - he talks about the Jaytee the dog, who knew when his owner was coming back even when other people that knew the guy did not.
P. 100-102 - He talks about the subcategories of exceptional mind-body control, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis.

The Bad
I'm giving this book 4 stars so take this how you will. My issue is the way he goes about proving the stats work was poor. At first I thought perhaps he was just poor at stats, but that's not true. Actually, he's quite good at stats, but his approach to proof is just different than I would do. For example, P. 150, he's talking about the null hypothesis hurdles that were chosen as too high. Ok, but the easier way to do that is to use actual sample size. It doesn't quite make sense the numbers he's using, when there is a real statistical way to do this, i.e. T-stat, R^2, and F-Stat. I think he's trying too hard. If we stayed within stats, we'd just say, you cannot reject the null, hence the test faile dto prove supernormal does not exist. If it is not set up this way, then the tests were poorly constructed and you move on.

Similarly, he presents studies where the test subjects are all placebo and you look for % incidence of supernormal ability. That's an INSANE way to structure a study. It would be like, let me look at a whole population and if cancer presents only among a few, I'm going to say that cancer doesn't exist. Why would ANYONE create a study like that? If anything all these studies did was identify appropriate test candidates and stop. That alone should have negate the studies under any scientific methodology.

Similarly, he's got this amazing study about those that meditate and the ability to shut off this photon stream. The problem is sample size. Why not do the same study and just bring in 10 or 15 meditators of different ability. I really want to see him succeed or fail, but just make it definitive, so it's tough as a researcher to watch it in writing like this.

Regardless, I'm invested enough to want to follow and possibly read his other stuff. I think this work is far more important than people think as we enter the new millenium. All this data and scientific advancement will ultimately lead to better sample collection and testing, IMO.

[Pashu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Radin, a prominent figure in parapsychology research, draws on his extensive background in electrical engineering and psychology to examine claims of extraordinary human abilities. The book focuses on the siddhis, or supernormal powers, described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, a 2,000-year-old text on meditation practices.

Throughout "Supernormal," Radin presents evidence from numerous peer-reviewed studies suggesting the reality of phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis. He argues that these abilities, far from being mere superstition, may be latent human potentials that can be developed through disciplined practice.

The book's strength lies in its comprehensive approach, combining historical context, scientific data, and philosophical implications. Radin doesn't shy away from addressing skepticism, acknowledging the controversial nature of his subject while presenting what he considers compelling evidence for psi phenomena.

The book challenges readers to consider the possibility that our understanding of reality and human potential may be more limited than we realize. Radin's writing style is accessible to a general audience while still providing enough technical detail to satisfy more scientifically-minded readers. He incorporates humour and personal anecdotes, making complex concepts more digestible.

"Supernormal" represents a bold attempt to legitimize the study of psychic phenomena within a scientific framework. While it may not convince hardened skeptics, it offers a thought-provoking exploration of human consciousness and the nature of reality. Whether one accepts Radin's conclusions or not, the book undoubtedly stimulates discussion about the boundaries of human potential and the role of consciousness in the physical world.

[Lucas Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciate the work that Dean Radin is doing. This book is probably the best book I've read at making me realize that society's current views will one day be old and antiquated with future generations discovering errors that we currently take as unquestionable facts.

In regards to the subject matter and questions Radin raises, I give the book 5 stars. However, from a pure literary viewpoint I give the book 3.5 stars. I felt like the beginning part on The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali went into too great of detail and went on longer than necessary. Since this book seemed to be aimed at the masses, I felt like more could have been done to make it more entertaining, especially when the book dived into the data. However, these are minor criticisms; overall I found the book very enlightening. It amazes me that so much evidence exists for things that the current pervasive world view seems to dismiss out of hand.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been a lot of studies on various human attributes which fall under the umbrella of paranormal. This book gathers these studies together and discusses what the findings mean. Unfortunately, science really doesn't allow room for the things we know to be, but cannot repeat at will while under a microscope.
Still, if you experience that sense of deja vu for instance, while not necessarily a repeatable experience in a lab, it is still a personal experience which—for you—needs no proof. It just is.
There appears to be enough material included here in this book to disprove the idea that such things do not exist. But there is still room for studies which prove various facets of human paranormal abilities actually do exist. There have been government programs which have utilized such abilities with fairly good results. So someone believes.
Now if I could just amp myself up to know the winning lottery numbers, that would do it for me!

[Audio Athena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audiobook duration: 11 hours 16 minutes
Narrator: Tom Perkins

So, I wouldn't really call this a "science" book. The author tries really hard to sound scientific and convince the listener that he's presenting a ton of scientific evidence, but it still felt full of bias. There was a lot of " see look, a correlation, this must mean causation" conclusions that just didn't sit well with the skeptic in me. The only part I truly believe is the part relating to Wim Hof and his ability to regulate his body temperature, something that's been studied and proven over and over by many scientists. The rest of the book felt a bit like wishful thinking.

[Dale Muckerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the good side, this book shows how many psychic abilities are being experimentally tested with positive if miniscule results. The negative side of the book is that a good knowledge of statistics is necessary to understand the results. The book seems to be directed toward convincing the scientific community that the current mainstream scientific worldview does not explain certain observed phenomena.

[Assyifa Humaira · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the studies about micro PK in the book found that when people are 'in the zone' or in the same wave (i.e after the hemi-snyc experience & observation on the global events), the RNG showed data that is not random at all. This explains that we are actually influencing things that happen around (or to) us.

I had crazy lot amount of synchronicities while reading this book. The answer to justify my experience can be explained by mind matter relationship which written in the psychokinesis part of this book. My synchronicities were not just random events I suppose - it explains that I actually meant to read this book, that I am align (or in the same wave) with my path :) Great book!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part of the book is informative and enlightening because it talks about the history and practices of meditation and people communicating with each other telepathically. The second half of the book deals with scientific clinical tests and experiments that prove or disprove the validity of meditation and humans communicating telepathically. Radin does have a good sense of humor which helped me to get through reading about the experiments. I thoroughly enjoyed the last chapter of the book in which he expresses an open minded hope for our possible future as human beings on Planet Earth.

[Letecia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dean Radin makes science readable and easy to understand while merging the edges of what some consider magic, woo woo, and or demonic. Radin extends the definition of what it means to be human and inspires us to step into the unseen realms.

Listened to three of his books and counting.

[Marlene M. Oaks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind Stretching

A little more technical than I expected, and also interesting. Personally I've had a number of extraordinary experiences, and find it rather funny that researchers think they can call forth these experiences by command so they can prove or disprove them.

[Pamela Flowerday · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It is playful yet packed with well researched information about extrasensory perception and the evidence for it's legitimacy. A must read for anyone interested in psychic perception. Great gift for the skeptic.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book talks about scientific studies to try to explain whether paranormal abilities are real or not. The author say yes, and the book explains why most of the studies that say otherwise are wrong.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart and thought-provoking!

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather heavy on the detail of experimental methods and statistical analysis employed, but overall fairly readable.

[Shireen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overall but a but dry and textbook. Still would recommend

[Bernadette Mallon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t like this book at all, gave up half way through.

[Welton Rodrigo Nascimento · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muito interessante, mas é um livro um pouco mais técnico, que discute pesquisa a respeito do tema Psi.

Mas vale a pena porque tem muita evidência interessante e inesperada sobre a yoga.

[Paññādhammika Bhikkhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocked me to learn that there's scientific evidence for psi phenomenon, even if just a little, and more for deep meditators!

[Gabriel J. Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is... scientifically accurate.
It is mostly evidence from countless experiments and studies proving phenomena of extraordinary abilities (I’ll admit it got very dry at some points, like reading a math/science textbook). It is also very philosophical and informative of the eastern yogis and some of their ways.