Appendix 1:

Recommended Reading in Parapsychology

As I mentioned earlier, it’s best to read about parapsychology and related areas with discrimination, because the accuracy and quality of the material, and its adherence to basic rules of scholarship and essential science, vary a great deal. That’s a polite way of saying that some of what you’ll find is about as accurate as one can get with the present state of our scientific knowledge, some is considerably slanted and tailored to promote particular belief systems, some is just plain wrong, and some is fantasy pretending to be fact.

You can’t be very discriminating at the beginning, of course, when you’re just learning about the material and ways of studying it; you do have to depend on authorities to get started. Next is a list of books—some recent, some more classical, compiled by me and my parapsychologist colleagues—that we consider generally accessible to the nonspecialist, interesting, and accurate. My thanks to Alexander Imich, Bryan Williams, Andreas Sommer, Carlos Alvarado, Dean Radin, Eberhard Bauer, Gary Schwartz, Guy Playfair, Jim Carpenter, Larry Dossey, Loyd Auerbach, Michael Sudduth, Nancy Zingrone, Neal Grossman, Peter Mulacz, Ruth Reinsel, Sally Rhine Feather, Stephan Schwartz, Vernon Neppe, and William Braud. My colleagues were so enthusiastic about recommending good books that I had to eventually just call a halt to keep this list from getting out of hand.

This is in no way a “complete” listing of good books on parapsychology; that could take forever. But any of these books are good starts and overviews. Some of these books are out of print and some are reprints of the originals, but the Internet makes it so easy to find both used and new books now, not to mention the availability of interlibrary loan, that I haven’t worried about citing original printings versus reprintings and later editions. If you read several of these books, you’ll be much better informed about parapsychology than the vast majority of people.

Some of these books are older than I would prefer, but as we discussed, support for scientific parapsychology is so meager that progress is very slow, so there’s no change in much of what the older books say.

You can find other lists of reliable books on parapsychology at various websites, listed in appendix 2, as well as in the reference list.

At the end of the list I’ve referenced a few books that are “skeptical” of the findings of parapsychology. They do contain some valuable material on the ways in which we can fool ourselves, but they also tend to be in the pseudo-skeptic tradition discussed earlier; that is, there is often such a zealously strong commitment to materialism as the complete and final explanation of everything that they become scientistic rather than scientific.

(RL)Almeder, R. 1992. Death and Personal Survival: The Evidence for Life After Death. Lanham, MD: Littlefield Adams Quality Paperbacks.

Alvarado, C. S. 2002. Getting Started in Parapsychology. New York: Parapsychology Foundation.

Arcangel, D. 2005. Afterlife Encounters: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Experiences. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

Auerbach, L. 1986. ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook. New York: Warner Books.

———. 1996. Mind Over Matter. New York: Kensington Books.

———. 2004. Hauntings and Poltergeists: A Ghost Hunter’s Guide. Oakland, CA: Ronin Publishing.

Barrington, M. R., I. Stevenson, and Z. Weaver. 2005. A World in a Grain of Sand: The Clairvoyance of Stefan Ossowiecki. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Bauer, H. H. 2001. Science or Pseudoscience: Magnetic Healing, Psychic Phenomena, and Other Heterodoxies. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Beloff, J. 1993. Parapsychology: A Concise History. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Benor, D. J. 2002. Healing Research Volume I: Spiritual Healing—Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution. Southfield, MI: Vision Publications.

Blum, D. 2006. The Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. New York: The Penguin Press.

Braud, W. 2003. Distant Mental Influence: Its Contributions to Science, Healing, and Human Interactions. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

Braude, S. E. 1979. ESP and Psychokinesis: A Philosophical Examination. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

———. 1997. Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd.

———. 2003. Immortal Remains: The Evidence for Life After Death. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

———. 2007. The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Broad, C. D. 1962. Lectures on Psychical Research. New York: Humanities Press.

Broderick, D. 2007. Outside the Gates of Science: Why It's Time for the Paranormal to Come in from the Cold. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Broughton, R. S. 1991. Parapsychology: The Controversial Science. 1st ed. New York: Ballantine Books.

Cardeña, E., S. J. Lynn, and S. Krippner, eds. 2000. The Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Collins, H., and T. J. Pinch. 1979. The construction of the paranormal: Nothing unscientific is happening. In On the margins of science: The social construction of rejected knowledge, ed. R. Wallis, Sociological Review monograph 27. Staffordshire, UK: University of Keele.

———. 1982. Frames of Meaning: The Social Construction of Extraordinary Science. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.

Cornell, T. 2002. Investigating the Paranormal. New York: Helix Press.

Darling, D. J. 1995. Soul Search: A Scientist Explores the Afterlife. New York: Villard Books.

Dilley, F. B., ed. 1995. Philosophical Interactions with Parapsychology: The Major Writings of H. H. Price on Parapsychology and Survival. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Doore, G., ed. 1990. What Survives? Contemporary Explorations of Life After Death. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher.

Dossey, L. 1993. Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.

Duncan, L., and W. Roll. 1995. Psychic Connections: A Journey into the Mysterious World of Psi. New York: Delacorte Press.

Dunne, J. W. 1973. An Experiment with Time. London: Faber and Faber.

Eisenbud, J. 1989. The World of Ted Serios: “Thoughtographic” Studies of an Extraordinary Mind. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Feather, S., and M. Schmicker. 2005. The Gift: The Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Fenwick, P., and E. Fenwick. 2008. The Art of Dying. London: Continuum.

Fontana, D. 2005. Is There an Afterlife? A Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence. Hants, UK: O Books.

Gauld, A. 1982. Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigations. London: Heinemann.

Gauld, A., and T. Cornell. 1979. Poltergeists. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.

Graff, D. E. 1998. Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness: An Exploration of Remote Viewing, ESP, Precognitive Dreaming, and Synchronicity. Boston: Element Books.

Gregory, A. 1985. The Strange Case of Rudi Schneider. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

Griffin, D. R. 1997. Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Grim, P., ed. 1990. Philosophy of Science and the Occult. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Gruber, E. R. 1999. Psychic Wars: Parapsychology in Espionage—and Beyond. London: Blandford Books.

Hastings, A. 1991. With the Tongues of Men and Angels: A Study of Channeling. New York: Harcourt.

Henry, J., ed. 2005. Parapsychology: Research on Exceptional Experiences. East Sussex, UK: Routledge.

Hess, D. J. 1993. Science in the New Age: The Paranormal, Its Defenders and Debunkers, and American Culture. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Inglis, B. 1984. Science and Parascience: A History of the Paranormal, 1914–1939. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Irwin, H. J., and C. A. Watt. 2007. An Introduction to Parapsychology. 5th ed. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland.

Kelly, E. F., E. W. Kelly, A. Crabtree, A. Gauld, M. Grosso, and B. Greyson. 2006. Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

LaGrand, L. E. 2001. Gifts from the Unknown: Using Extraordinary Experiences to Cope with Loss and Change. Lincoln, NE: Authors Choice Press.

LeShan, L. 1974. The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist: Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal. New York: Viking.

MacKenzie, A. 1982. Hauntings and Apparitions: An Investigation of the Evidence. London: Heinemann.

Mayer, E. L. 2007. Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Power of the Human Mind. New York: Bantam Books.

McMoneagle, J. 1997. Mind Trek: Exploring Consciousness, Time, and Space Through Remote Viewing. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

———. 2002. The Stargate Chronicles: Memoirs of a Psychic Spy. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

Mishlove, J. 1975. The Roots of Consciousness: Psychic Liberation Through History, Science, and Experience. 1st ed. New York: Random House.

Mitchell, E. D. 1974. Psychic Exploration. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Monroe, R. 1985. Far Journeys. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday.

———. 1994. Ultimate Journey. New York: Doubleday.

Pilkington, R. 1987. Men and Women of Parapsychology: Personal ? Reflections. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

———. 2006. The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof: The Enigma of Séance Phenomena. San Antonio, TX: Anomalist Books.

Radin, D. 1997. The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena. San Francisco: HarperOne.

———. 2006. Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality. New York: Paraview Pocket Books.

Rhine, L. E. 1961. Hidden Channels of the Mind. New York: William Morrow.

Ring, K. 1984. Heading Toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-death Experience. New York: William Morrow.

Rogo, D. S. 1975. Parapsychology: A Century of Inquiry. New York: Taplinger Publishing Co.

Roll, W. G. 1976. The Poltergeist. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

Roll, W., and V. Storey. 2004. Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder—The Curious Story of Tina Resch. New York: Paraview Pocket Books.

Russell, R. 2007. The Journey of Robert Monroe: From Out-of-Body Explorer to Consciousness Pioneer. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

Schoch, R. M., and L. Yonavjak. 2008. The Parapsychology Revolution: A Concise Anthology of Paranormal and Psychical Research. New York: Tarcher.

Schwartz, G. E. 2003. The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death. New York: Atria Books.

Schwartz, S. A. 1978. The Secret Vaults of Time: Psychic Archaeology and the Quest for Man’s Beginnings. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. (Rev. ed., Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2005.)

———. 1983. The Alexandria Project. New York: Delacorte Press/Eleanor Friede.

———. 2007. Opening to the Infinite. Buda, TX: Nemoseen Media.

———. Forthcoming. Mind Rover: Explorations with Remote Viewing. Buda, TX: Nemoseen Media.

Shroder, T. 1999. Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Sidgwick, H. 1894. Report on the census of hallucinations. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 10:25–422.

Sinclair, U. 1930. Mental Radio. Preface by Albert Einstein. New York: A. & C. Boni.

Smith, P. H. 2005. Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Inside Star Gate, America’s Psychic Espionage Program. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

Stevenson, I. 2001. Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Stockton, B. 1989. Catapult: The Biography of Robert A. Monroe. Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company Publishers.

Stokes, D. M. 2007. The Conscious Mind and the Material World: On Psi, the Soul, and the Self. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Storm, L., and M. A. Thalbourne, eds. 2006. The Survival of Human Consciousness: Essays on the Possibility of Life After Death. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Swann, I. 1991. Everybody’s Guide to Natural ESP: Unlocking the Extrasensory Power of Your Mind. Los Angeles: Tarcher.

Targ, R., and K. Harary. 1984. The Mind Race: Understanding and Using Psychic Abilities. New York: Villard Books.

Targ, R., and H. Puthoff. 1977. Mind-Reach: Scientists Look at Psychic Ability. New York: Delacorte Press/Eleanor Friede.

Tart, C. 1975. Transpersonal Psychologies. New York: Harper & Row.

———. 1988. Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential. Longmead, England: Element Books. Currently in print through www.iuniverse.com.

———, ed. 1997. Body Mind Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

———. 2001. Mind Science: Meditation Training for Practical People. Novato, CA: Wisdom Editions.

Tart, C., H. Puthoff, and R. Targ, eds. 1979. Mind at Large: IEEE Symposia on the Nature of Extrasensory Perception. New York: Praeger.

Taylor, E. 1999. Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.

Tucker, J. B. 2005. Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Tyrrell, G. N. M. 1947. The Personality of Man: New Facts and Their Significance. New York: Penguin Books.

Ullman, M., S. Krippner, and A. Vaughan. 1989. Dream Telepathy: Experiments in Nocturnal ESP. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Vasiliev, L. L. 1962. Experiments in Mental Suggestion. New York: Dutton.

Warcollier, R. 2001. Mind to Mind: Studies in Consciousness. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

Skeptical Books

Alcock, J. E. 1990. Science and Supernature: A Critical Appraisal of Parapsychology. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Carter, C. 2007. Parapsychology and Skeptics: A Scientific Argument for the Existence of ESP. Pittsburg, PA: SterlingHouse Publisher.

Hansel, C. E. M. 1989. The Search for Psychic Power: ESP and Parapsychology Revisited. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Hyman, R. 1989. The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Kurtz, P., ed. 1985. A Skeptic’s Handbook of Parapsychology. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Wiseman, R. 1997. Deception and Self-Deception: Investigating Psychics. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Zusne, L., and W. H. Jones. 1989. Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.