The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal

The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal PDF Author: Lynne Kelly
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781741140590
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Guaranteed to liven up any dinner party, this delightful, highly readable book offers color photos and scientific case-by-case explanations for 27 phenomena that appear to defy known science, including ghosts and poltergeists, the predictions of Nostradamus, and yogic levitation.

The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal

The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal PDF Author: Lynne Kelly
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781741140590
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
Guaranteed to liven up any dinner party, this delightful, highly readable book offers color photos and scientific case-by-case explanations for 27 phenomena that appear to defy known science, including ghosts and poltergeists, the predictions of Nostradamus, and yogic levitation.

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe PDF Author: Dr. Steven Novella
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1538760517
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
An all-encompassing guide to skeptical thinking from podcast host and academic neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine Steven Novella and his SGU co-hosts, which Richard Wiseman calls "the perfect primer for anyone who wants to separate fact from fiction." It is intimidating to realize that we live in a world overflowing with misinformation, bias, myths, deception, and flawed knowledge. There really are no ultimate authority figures-no one has the secret, and there is no place to look up the definitive answers to our questions (not even Google). Luckily, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is your map through this maze of modern life. Here Dr. Steven Novella-along with Bob Novella, Cara Santa Maria, Jay Novella, and Evan Bernstein-will explain the tenets of skeptical thinking and debunk some of the biggest scientific myths, fallacies, and conspiracy theories-from anti-vaccines to homeopathy, UFO sightings to N- rays. You'll learn the difference between science and pseudoscience, essential critical thinking skills, ways to discuss conspiracy theories with that crazy co- worker of yours, and how to combat sloppy reasoning, bad arguments, and superstitious thinking. So are you ready to join them on an epic scientific quest, one that has taken us from huddling in dark caves to setting foot on the moon? (Yes, we really did that.) DON'T PANIC! With The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, we can do this together. "Thorough, informative, and enlightening, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe inoculates you against the frailties and shortcomings of human cognition. If this book does not become required reading for us all, we may well see modern civilization unravel before our eyes." -- Neil deGrasse Tyson "In this age of real and fake information, your ability to reason, to think in scientifically skeptical fashion, is the most important skill you can have. Read The Skeptics' Guide Universe; get better at reasoning. And if this claim about the importance of reason is wrong, The Skeptics' Guide will help you figure that out, too." -- Bill Nye

Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

Pseudoscience and the Paranormal PDF Author: Terence Hines
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615920854
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
Television, the movies, and computer games fill the minds of their viewers with a daily staple of fantasy, from tales of UFO landings, haunted houses, and communication with the dead to claims of miraculous cures by gifted healers or breakthrough treatments by means of fringe medicine. The paranormal is so ubiquitous in one form of entertainment or another that many people easily lose sight of the distinction between the real and the imaginary, or they never learn to make the distinction in the first place. In this thorough review of pseudoscience and the paranormal in contemporary life, psychologist Terence Hines teaches readers how to carefully evaluate all such claims in terms of scientific evidence.Hines devotes separate chapters to psychics; life after death; parapsychology; astrology; UFOs; ancient astronauts, cosmic collisions, and the Bermuda Triangle; faith healing; and more. New to this second edition are extended sections on psychoanalysis and pseudopsychologies, especially recovered memory therapy, satanic ritual abuse, facilitated communication, and other questionable psychotherapies. There are also new chapters on alternative medicine, which is now marketed in our drug stores, and on environmental pseudoscience, with special emphasis on the evidence that certain technologies like cell phones or environmental agents like asbestos cause cancer.Finally, Hines discusses the psychological causes for belief in the paranormal despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This valuable, highly interesting, and completely accessible analysis critiques the whole range of current paranormal claims.

Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal

Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal PDF Author: Jonathan C. Smith
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444358944
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit provides readers with a variety of "reality-checking" tools to analyze extraordinary claims and to determine their validity. Integrates simple yet powerful evaluative tools used by both paranormal believers and skeptics alike Introduces innovations such as a continuum for ranking paranormal claims and evaluating their implications Includes an innovative "Critical Thinker's Toolkit," a systematic approach for performing reality checks on paranormal claims related to astrology, psychics, spiritualism, parapsychology, dream telepathy, mind-over-matter, prayer, life after death, creationism, and more Explores the five alternative hypotheses to consider when confronting a paranormal claim“/li> Reality Check boxes, integrated into the text, invite students to engage in further discussion and examination of claims Written in a lively, engaging style for students and general readers alike Ancillaries: Testbank and PowerPoint slides available at www.wiley.com/go/pseudoscience

The Ghost Hunter's Survival Guide

The Ghost Hunter's Survival Guide PDF Author: Michelle Belanger
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 0738722561
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
Chasing the unseen has become a popular pastime but most ghost hunters are unaware of the very real harm that can be done by malevolent human spirits, non-human entities, and a host of astral parasites. This guide from medium and paranormal investigator Michelle Belanger features proven protection techniques-and for the skeptics out there, highlights how the methods also work on a psychological level. You'll get straightforward instruction on arming yourself with an array of essential techniques: Perform psychic cleansings Remove attachments Protect dreams Shield spaces Ward to protect a home Remove and bind spirits Cope with spirit possession Woven through each chapter is a gripping, true account of a ghost investigation conducted by Belanger, which provides a framework for understanding when to use these potent defense strategies. Praise: "Michelle Belanger is without a doubt the go-to person for paranormal enthusiasts looking to learn more."—Ryan Buell, founder of the Paranormal Research Society "I highly recommend this book to all those who truly wish to gain respect as a ghost hunter of integrity."—Brad Steiger, author/coauthor of 170 books on paranormal and metaphysical subjects, including Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places "I certainly never thought I needed a book like this, but Michelle has lots of practical advice that even we skeptics can use to keep our heads in order."—Adam Selzer, author of Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps

Ultimate Paranormal Guide

Ultimate Paranormal Guide PDF Author: Edward W. Krietemeyer
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781494781910
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Today the entire world is at our fingertips, not too long ago libraries, and the knowledge inside books were our only source. Now we can carry the entire library, and more in a tablet lighter, and smaller than a single book. We have the tendency to rely entirely on our computers as our only source of knowledge; we take for granted that there will be electrical power as needed, and spoiled by the ease and availability of Wi-Fi or Wi-MAX wherever we go connecting our devices to the world. While doing research in the field, we are sometimes at locations where power is at a premium, or does not exist at all; then you have questionable or unreliable cellphone service without reliable power those devices are useless, and inevitably start to shut down. In these situations its time to break out the pencil and paper. This book contains paranormal terminology from different fields, historical facts, people and events for research and educational purposes. ISR created this book as a handy quick pocket reference guide when doing research in the field. If you needed one book to take with you that would come in handy in the middle of nowhere, this would be that book.

The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies

The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies PDF Author: Monte Cook
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1440504423
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Did the noble order of the Knights Templar guard a secret about Jesus’ birth? Was the moon landing faked in a Hollywood movie studio? Is the government keeping the remains of an alien spacecraft in the top-secret Area 51? Monte Cook takes a look at conspiracy theories—ranging from the historically complex to the seriously whacked out. With a disbelieving eye, he traces the history of some of the world's weirdest ideas and even includes a chart showing readers how to make up conspiracy theories for themselves. Scattered through the book are the paranoid "notes" of an anonymous reader who claims to know what's really going on. You can make up your own mind as to who's telling the truth!

Randi's Prize

Randi's Prize PDF Author: Robert McLuhan
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1848764944
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
James ‘The Amazing’ Randi is a stage magician who says he has a million dollars for anyone who can convince him they have psychic powers. No one has even come close to winning, proof, say sceptical scientists, that there is no such thing as ‘the paranormal’. But are they right? In this illuminating and often provocative analysis, Robert McLuhan examines the influence of Randi and other debunking sceptics in shaping scientific opinion about such things as telepathy, psychics, ghosts and near-death experiences. He points out that scientific researchers who investigate these things at first hand overwhelmingly consider them to be genuinely anomalous. But this has shocking implications, for science, for society and for even perhaps for ourselves as individuals. Hence the sceptics’ insistence that they should rather be attributed to fraud, imagination and wishful thinking. However, this extraordinary and little understood aspect of consciousness has much to tell us about the human situation, McLuhan suggests. And at a time when militants are polarising the debate about religion, its mystical, spiritual element offers an optimistic and enlightened way forward. Randi’s Prize is aimed at anyone interested in spirituality or those curious to know the truth about paranormal claims. It’s an intelligent and readable analysis of scientific research into the paranormal which, uniquely, also closely examines the arguments of well-known sceptics.

Secrets of the Psychics

Secrets of the Psychics PDF Author: Massimo Polidoro
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615925872
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
This intriguing examination of the bizarre and the strange by a topnotch investigator will interest both skeptics and believers alike. Illustrations.

Debunked!

Debunked! PDF Author: Georges Charpak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801878671
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
During the most scientifically advanced period in human history, belief in the paranormal and the supernatural is alarmingly common. Nobel Prize winner Georges Charpak and physics professor Henri Broch team up to show you the tricks of the trade and sleight of hand that keep astrologers, TV psychics, and spoon benders in business. Using only the simplest of science, the authors explore the effectiveness of horoscopes--the blander the better--and why, with a television audience in the millions, any strange, unlikely prediction is almost certain to come true. Not merely an exposé of magic tricks, this book demonstrates how pseudoscientists use science, statistics, and psychology to bamboozle an audience--sometimes for fun, sometimes for profit. Entertaining and enlightening, Debunked! is the antidote, vigorously asserting the virtues of doubt, skepticism, curiosity, and scientific knowledge.--From publisher description.