okay, so I read a few more books for *Bogus Science*

[realthog]

I've been reading lotsa research stuff since my last report on this, way back on July 27. And here they are (although I've only just started the last one, which so far is, er, really quite differently good):

Daisie Radner & Michael Radner: Science and Unreason (1982)

Deborah Blum: Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death (2006)

Christine Wicker: Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America (2005)

J. Gaither Pratt: Parapsychology: An Insider's View of ESP (1966)

Sylvia Browne: Secrets & Mysteries of the World (2005)

Carol G. Wells: Right Brain Sex: Using Creative Visualization to Enhance Sexual Pleasure (1989)

Joseph Jastrow: Error and Eccentricity in Human Belief (1935)

James Randi: Flim-Flam: The Truth about Unicorns, Parapsychology, and Other Delusions (1980)

Brian L. Weiss: Many Lives, Many Masters (1988)

Wendy Kaminer: I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional (1992/3)

Willy Ley: Another Look at Atlantis (1969)

C.E.M. Hansel: ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Re-Evaluation (1980)

Jodi Dean: Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace (1998)

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison: Off Center (1980)

Christine Garwood: Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea (2007)

David Starr Jordan: The Higher Foolishness (1927)

John Michell: Eccentric Lives & Peculiar Notions (1984)

Robert J. Schadewald: Worlds of Their Own (2008)

Uri Geller: Shawn (1990)

Of this new batch, the Jastrow takes some beating, and likewise the Michell, but I think my favourite has to be the Schadewald.

Comments

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

What makes this volume so stand out for you?

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"What makes this volume so stand out for you?"

He was bright as hell, perceptive as hell, funny as hell. And his subjects (essentially, misguided thinking) interest me. What's not to love?

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Funny, as on purpose? That's always a plus.

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Funny, as on purpose?"

Yes. He had the nice ability to be able to laugh at the wacko ideas these people produce without actually laughing at the people themselves (unless they were coscious frauds, in which case he slammed them deliciously). The result was that, bizarrely, although he was debunking things like Creationism and Flat Earthism, some of the Creationists and Flat Earthers became his friends.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Uri Geller!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

My thought exactly. Though I also thought of his cousin, Uri Nator.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Even worse . . .

I've read a bit more of the book since last night, and, although it pains me to admit this, it may in fact be rather good. Still a long way to go, of course, but it's possible I may have misjudged the book when I was only a few pages in.

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

We sell the occasional "Many Lives, Many Masters." Hee.

Read any Gary Zukav? :-D

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I read his Dancing Wu Li Masters 'way back when. It didn't inspire me to read further. Why?

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

I wondered if his works, and maybe Seat of the Soul in particular (which title makes me laugh in inappropriate ways), counted as bogus science or just extrapolation.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly. The field is so enormous I can't hope to cover all of it.