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

by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer

In 1991, when her daughter’s rare, hand-carved harp was stolen, Lisby Mayer’s 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 the dozens of colleagues who’d 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 “inexplicable” phenomena. From Sigmund Freud’s writings on telepathy to secret CIA experiments on remote viewing, from leading-edge neuroscience to the strange world of quantum physics, Dr. Mayer reveals a wealth of credible and fascinating research into the realm where the mind seems to trump the laws of nature.

She does not ask us to believe. Rather she brings us a book of profound intrigue and optimism, with far-reaching implications not just for scientific inquiry but also for the ways we go about living in the world.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Psychology, Paranormal, Spirituality, Philosophy, Audiobook

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, Ph.D., was an internationally known psychoanalyst, researcher, and clinician, the author of groundbreaking papers on female development, the nature of science, and intuition, and a contributor to Consciousness and Healing , published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences. In addition to her private practice, she was associate clinical professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and also taught at UC Medical Center, San Francisco. She died just after completing Extraordinary Knowing .

Reviews

[Hoại Băng · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is intriguing as well as challenging, although my professor could be upset if she knows I only give it 4 stars. Don't take me wrong, I love this books since I went through the very first pages. It's mind bending, but worth to consider, but I feel it's just not enough for me. I need more protocols, I need more ideas of how we can enter the world of anomalies.

Extraordinary Knowing opens a gate to the study of anomalous phenomena and parapsychology, while provides many information about studies, experiments, researches had been done in the past, it leads us to grasp things more profoundly about the way we look at ourselves and the reality. Questions keep come and come, but on top of everything, the crucial key is to reconsider the way we are living now as a part of this tangible and intangible at the same time world by using different rules to explain thing called "reality". Please, be conscious!

Where should we go after reading this?

Quantum physic. Absolutely.

[Sally Fouhse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave it a 3 because it seemed a bit repetitive and catty. I also question some of the statistics from various studies: a certain study reveals that, say, 60% of participants beat random odds of stating a color someone in another room is thinking of - but there are only 12 people in the study! Not enough for reliable data. However, I don't doubt the truth of may of the topics, such as the harp event or the remote viewing studied by the CIA. There are so many things we don't know about how the brain works.

[Heidi Wiechert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that the most amazing part of this book was that, if the author found someone's research to be intriguing, she would set up a meeting and go talk to that scientist/biologist/physicist/professor. Dr. Mayer was given access to the minds and private thoughts of leading researchers from all over the world- multiple private institutions and universities. For me, the glimpses behind the curtain of ivy league academia and private research facilities was reason enough to read this.

Her examination of "anomalous mental capacities" is fascinating and reflective of her status as a contributor to peer-reviewed journals, but it is very heavy in places. This isn't a pool-side summer read but it is informative and mind expanding if you can make it through it.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains fantastic and compelling subject matter, and I'm glad to have read it. I am convinced that telepathy, remote viewing, dowsing, answered prayer, and more are real phenomena and not just anomalies in our universe. However, this book was written not to educate general readers, but to make the case that scientists are so frightened of being written off as quacks that legitimate research has been ignored and unreported. I was able to skim a significant portion of the book. I wish she had written an edition for non-scientist readers with more personal accounts of "extraordinary knowing."

[Aditya · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book rambles and meanders a bit. In some ways, it reads like the author's attempt to put together a cohesive argument to convince herself. I was hooked but had to put the book down many times to check on the people, books and research she refers to in the book. I think she has put down a very good compilation of material. Its not as readable as a Gladwell book but the advantages of a scientist's POV over a journalist more than made it up for me. Immensely intriguing!

[Firdaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an amazing book. I listened to it on audible. It’s gripping and has altered and redefined some of my beliefs.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative research from an energetic soul, eager to seek out truth for her own self.

[Kimberly Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the personal stories delightful. Unfortunately, the majority of the book covers the history of research on paranormal topics. This was interesting, but my attention got lost in all the detail.

[Albus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid (but not great) entry-level book for those interested in the evidence for psychic/parapsychological/paranormal phenomena. The author writes well and in manner that I think will assuage readers with more mainstream ideas about the subject. She also provides a decent if non-comprehensive overview of the history of psychical/parapsychological research.

However, I can’t help but think the book would have been much stronger had the author focused solely on the evidence for psychic phenomena, leaving out her musings about why so many “skeptics” have such an aversion to considering the possible reality of that phenomena, her thoughts on the mechanisms behind psychic phenomena, and especially her own doubts about whether or not she believes in it. In the end, she leaves the reader with an extremely basic, highly tentative framework for understanding psychic phenomena in a “scientific” way (essentially, that our unconscious may interact with “intangible” quantum physical processes), a framework that could have been explained in a few pages. That payoff is not worth the large amount of material—which I’d estimate comprise about half the book—that the author devotes to her musings on the issue.

What makes this all the more disappointing is that the author is an academic who claims to have read thousands of articles on the subject over 15 years. She was in an excellent position to give a solid overview of the evidence for psychic phenomena (at least as of 2005), and yet the reader must instead make due with sifting her discussions of the quality of the evidence from the tedious and uninteresting discussions of the mechanics behind the phenomena, the reasons people reject the evidence, and the author’s own disbelief. As she herself notes, a very sizable portion of the scientific community refuses to acknowledge the strength of the evidence for psychic phenomena. Why not try to use her considerable knowledge and academic skills to make the best case for taking that evidence seriously?

Finally, I have a substantive critique. The author seems to think that belief in parapsychological phenomena (even a belief backed up by personal experience of inexplicable events and the reams of experimental evidence on the subject) is somehow “opposed” to rationality. She even spends an entire (wasted) chapter discussing how it’s only possible to think about parapsychological evidence by flipping between a “rational” and “nonrational” perspective. Of course, there is no inherently opposition between rationality and belief in the reality of psychic phenomena, especially when that belief is based on the kind of solid evidence the author spends most of the book describing. The author seems to be conflating “rationality” with “materialistic scientism”—a not-uncommon problem, but one that is surprising coming from someone so familiar with the actual evidence.

[James]

In 1991, when her daughter’s rare, hand-carved harp was stolen, Lisby Mayer’s 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’d 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 “inexplicable” phenomena. From Sigmund Freud’s writings on telepathy to secret CIA experiments on remote viewing, from leading-edge neuroscience to the strange world of quantum physics, Dr. Mayer reveals a wealth of credible and fascinating research into the realm where the mind seems to trump the laws of nature.She does not ask us to believe. Rather she brings us a book of profound intrigue and optimism, with far-reaching implications not just for scientific inquiry but also for the ways we go about living in the world.From the Hardcover edition.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book open-minded and wasn't disappointed.

Dr. Mayer discusses a bizarre topic with the same skepticism I had - hopeful, yet fearful of believing too much, should I lose my marbles completely. Her tone made it very easy to get involved in.

Not only does she give personal accounts of ESP, but also dives into the criticism, what experiments have been done, and more. She brings in anxiety in silence, religion, dowsers, and many other things you wouldn't necessarily tie to ESP.

My only disappointment was that the author died in 2005. I was hoping to find more of her work, or perhaps even e-mail her!

[Aarshin Karande · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich as a resource on the epistemology, philosophy, and history of consciousness studies, "Extraordinary Knowing" is, well, extraordinary in that its narrative form is wonderfully effective, simple, and engaging. Mayer has a wonderful ability to articulate scientific skepticism, insight, and ambiguity in ways that renders the reader feeling like a participant in a greater search for the underacknowledged yet banal capacities of the human mind. A life-changing book for me at an opportune time and, since, a wonderful guide and reminder of the power of curiosity and skepticism.

[Holly Hohenschuh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was interesting but took me a long time to get through. I have had the book for a while and I don’t remember why I bought it, but I wanted to put a nonfiction book in the mix. I have some belief in extraordinarily knowing and it’s nice to see it examined scientifically. Remove your skepticism before reading this book.

[Nathaniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, even listening to this couldn’t save it from my general grumping about non-fiction (there’s no point in reading beyond a non-fiction book’s introduction bc reading such books is largely an exercise in tedium). Better titled: ‘Man, I wish Science™️ wasn’t so rigid!’ I liked its thesis; its chapters, less so.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a psychoanalyst, but accessible to anyone interested. This book explores a much fuller range of human experience and relationships than traditional research. It provided the foundation for a lot of interesting, innovative research.

[Jake Blaha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book that presents a compelling case for extrasensory perception in a way not completely devoid of the mystic but removed enough from it to consider the possibility with a skeptical mind.

[Camilla McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So it's the science of all the things you thought science didn't confirm... And it's kinda dramatic. It's one of the books that changed some of my basic belief system, and it was a pleasure to read it again.

[Elizabeth Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting reading about things I take as truth by someone who is a scientist and a skeptic - never thought I would read about ESP and Quantum Physics in the same chapter. 4.5 stars rounded down.

[Elizabeth Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very thorough look at psi phenomena, including the scientific studies, successes and failures, and the reactions of the scientific community. Very interesting.

[Candice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't care for it -- too scientific and hard to follow.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging; yes. As it sounds, a little text-booky but was worth the challenge.

[Kateri Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

very enlightening and i would certainly recommend

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book written by a scientists who decided to look at all studies done on telepathy and report out on the ones that met the most rigorous scientific criteria for reliability.

[Lynn Somerstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder

Wondering about extraordinary knowing? Have you experienced feelings, intuitions, that guide you in perhaps unknown directions?
Perhaps that will lead you to this book.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book that covers the history of, and current scope of research into "anomalous mind-matter knowing." You and I think of that in terms of premonitions, remote viewing, ESP, etc. ("Anomalous mind-matter knowing" is henceforth referred to as "ESP.")

The author contends that it is impossible to hold Western scientific methods in mind concurrently with the reports of, and results of testing done on ESP because they are incompatible. Western science relies on data replicated in a controlled laboratory setting while a great deal of ESP occurs when the subjects are under great stress - something that doesn't lend itself to repeating numerous times in a laboratory.

The author did a fine job of keeping the tone of the book scholarly without burdening the average reader with research methods that would be irrelevant to them. However, this is not an "ESP lite" summer read. It is serious look at phenomena that Western scientific methods have little to offer in terms of explanation. Near the end of the book there is a brief discussion of the possibility of quantum physics to co-exist peacefully with ESP.

Don't be deceived into thinking this is simply a dry scientific discussion. The book contains current research which shows that test subjects were able to predict negative computer input 3-5 seconds before the computer had chosen the information to present to the subject.(!) This research has been replicated in laboratories all over the world with consistent results. Other studies included throughout the book contain information just as surprising and interesting.

[*Closed* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the manner she explores these ideas in (credible, scientific AND reflective).

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent presentation of a difficult subject. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that logical reasoning is the only legitimate way to use our minds. However, the evidence - both anecdotal and scientific - suggesting otherwise is compelling and vividly explored here. One insight I found particularly interesting is the author's application of Gestalt theory to anomalous knowing. She essentially argues that the capacities of the human mind go beyond logical analysis (and exposes the dogmatic bias that exists in scientific circles when it comes to paradigm-shifting evidence... as well as explaining WHY we fall prey to this bias). She compares the use of our human faculties to the way our brains process some well-known images (is it two faces or a vase? is it an old woman or a young woman?) - we can learn to see both images but our brains can't actually interpret both images at the same time. The same appears to be true of logical/reasoning thinking and "other ways of knowing." It's clear that humans possess ways of knowing that don't make "rational" sense (as do many animals) - Mayer suggests that we can indeed learn to think/know in these ways but that we cannot think both rationally and in these other ways at the same time. The best we can do is shift our awareness between the two - and she presents a few case studies of people who apparently have learned to do this. Fascinating read.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

After personally experiencing an instance of a phenomenon that went beyond what current science is willing to acknowledge, the author reports on her evaluation as a scientist of the scientific studies of anomalous findings, and how research on such findings that meet or exceed scientific standards are very often dismissed or inaccurately reported. She reports many scientifically inexplicable experiences of scientific colleagues that they had not reported publicly for fear of losing professional credibility, and explores ways science might be able to incorporate research and findings that currently fall outside the scientific paradigm of what can exist. I found particularly interesting the information on the many scientific studies that have validated various phenomena such as remote viewing and telepathy. This book represents the author's exploration of the "paranormal"; unfortunately, she died immediately after finishing the book, so there can be no follow up.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently reading this book that explores the unexplainable experiences individuals have connecting with others in their lives. It looks at quality research done in the areas of "ESP", distance viewing and records the significant experiences of highly skilled professionals in their interactions through a psychoanalist's perspective. Have you ever had a exceptional connection with someone else? If you have, then you will want to read this book. It is full of anecdotes and classifications that are helpful and provide reassurance to those of us who have had these experiences, dreams, intuitive cognition. Unfortunatley, Dr. Mayer has not lived to promote her work and the publication of her work occured posthumously. I would have liked knowing her.

[Tinika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer starts off Extraordinary Knowing by recounting the anomalous experiences of herself and other established scientists. If one is intrigued by that, she goes on to explain that there has been serious scientific research on these experiences ranging from Robert Boyle in the 17th C right up to the present. She goes into detail about the results, the criticisms and the defence of the experiments.

The first part is unlikely to turn a skeptic into a believer though it should cause the open-minded to wonder. The second part, while rich in detail, can be tedious. Either way, Mayer has chosen a fascinating subject.