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Beginner's Guide (Oneworld Publications)
Parapsychology: A Beginner's Guide
From premonitions to apparitions, spoon-bending to mind-reading, the paranormal has bemused and mystified humans for millennia.
In this Beginner’s Guide, renowned author and scientist Dr Caroline Watt explores the evidence behind such phenomena. In the last one hundred years, parapsychologists have tried to determine whether it is possible to examine paranormal activity using scientific methods. Packed full of interesting characters, surprising incidents and novel experiments, this book takes the reader on a journey through this fascinating research. A Beginner’s Guide traces the history and evolution of parapsychology as a science, and provides a thorough and critical analysis of the research and evidence in the field today.
In this Beginner’s Guide, renowned author and scientist Dr Caroline Watt explores the evidence behind such phenomena. In the last one hundred years, parapsychologists have tried to determine whether it is possible to examine paranormal activity using scientific methods. Packed full of interesting characters, surprising incidents and novel experiments, this book takes the reader on a journey through this fascinating research. A Beginner’s Guide traces the history and evolution of parapsychology as a science, and provides a thorough and critical analysis of the research and evidence in the field today.
240 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 1, 2021
Presentation is not read-worthy... It's more like "IELTS" preparation book...Lol
Rating: 2.5/5
Rating: 2.5/5
May 24, 2023
Despite the seemingly "sketchy" name and description of the book, I was pleasantly surprised that it was anything but. Instead of, as the title would to most people's ears sound like, being a beginner's guide on how to manifest some sort of paranatural powers within yourself and whatnot, it's a compact yet versatile summary of the university-level research on how the existence of various alleged parapsychological phenomena can be investigated scientifically.
The text goes through what sort of controlled environments have to be created in order for the tests to minimize various psychological/environmental bias factors, what types of frauds the research has uncovered, how people trick themselves into believing things, how misunderstanding the nature of statistics and probability cause people to interpret real-life events and phenomena as proofs of paranatural manifestations, and how research on all things psychology (not just para-) is fragile in the sense that it is very hard to take into account all the factors that could muddy your results.
There's also plenty of historical background and context given on how the systematic, university-level research on parapsychology has progressed during the years, starting from the 1800's, and how the research methods and attitudes around the research have morphed on the way.
In no way does the author ever push her own views on whether or not she thinks parapsychological phenomena are real or not. I wouldn't have finished the book if she had. The whole book is very clinical and matter-of-fact on the failures and successes of the research, and personally I found it very interesting to read about something so "out-there", written in such a sensible manner.
(I must also add that I ended up picking this book up because I finished playing Control, which heavily references a lot of parapsychological topics and research in the game lore. Highly recommend!)
The text goes through what sort of controlled environments have to be created in order for the tests to minimize various psychological/environmental bias factors, what types of frauds the research has uncovered, how people trick themselves into believing things, how misunderstanding the nature of statistics and probability cause people to interpret real-life events and phenomena as proofs of paranatural manifestations, and how research on all things psychology (not just para-) is fragile in the sense that it is very hard to take into account all the factors that could muddy your results.
There's also plenty of historical background and context given on how the systematic, university-level research on parapsychology has progressed during the years, starting from the 1800's, and how the research methods and attitudes around the research have morphed on the way.
In no way does the author ever push her own views on whether or not she thinks parapsychological phenomena are real or not. I wouldn't have finished the book if she had. The whole book is very clinical and matter-of-fact on the failures and successes of the research, and personally I found it very interesting to read about something so "out-there", written in such a sensible manner.
(I must also add that I ended up picking this book up because I finished playing Control, which heavily references a lot of parapsychological topics and research in the game lore. Highly recommend!)
February 26, 2017
The format is awkward at times (in a larger book, there might have been a value to the boxes, but in this they often broke up sections and some just repeated what was in the main text)
It's an interesting read, with a few oddly phrased/chosen elements, a weird determination to only sometimes give actual dates (in the late 1960s, late 1970s) followed on a few occassions by the actual dates.....writer bias (there is a lot of 'my research' dropping in the later sections) and inconsistant reporting, so a little frustrating.
It's a good introduction - very much focused on the author's areas, and split unnessecarily for some chapters, which then refer to each other almost word for word - if oddly structured for the format.
It's an interesting read, with a few oddly phrased/chosen elements, a weird determination to only sometimes give actual dates (in the late 1960s, late 1970s) followed on a few occassions by the actual dates.....writer bias (there is a lot of 'my research' dropping in the later sections) and inconsistant reporting, so a little frustrating.
It's a good introduction - very much focused on the author's areas, and split unnessecarily for some chapters, which then refer to each other almost word for word - if oddly structured for the format.
March 26, 2025
A somewhat dense but fascinating look into what is apparently a very meticulous field. It’s surprising to read that parapsychology has been the one raising the bar for general scientific research in mainstream psychology. That said, this book affirmed my suspicion that it maintains a somewhat limited approach to the unknown. Ironically, maybe the obsession over testing methods and bounds is hindering the discovery of what is, by definition, beyond (para) the normal.
Weirdly, for a topic so interesting, the book was written with the thrill of drying paint.
Weirdly, for a topic so interesting, the book was written with the thrill of drying paint.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews