Tag Archives: Paranormality

Re-Investigating Un-Haunted Houses

Abstract Eight couples who had never experienced any ‘haunting’ activity in their houses and had no reason to expect they would experience ‘ghosts’ were asked by the author to keep a diary for one calendar month from 17th October – … Continue reading

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The Science of Flirting and Other Curiosities: Cheltenham Science Festival 2011

So yesterday I managed to spend my first whole day at this years Cheltenham Science Festival. having no money is always an issue, but I still found plenty to do, and meeting up with three friends we enjoyed the sunshine … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews and Past Events, Science, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Richard Wiseman’s Paranormality: A good, but fundamentally limited book?

I guess people who pay attention to my writings elsewhere will know they I am currently reading Richard Wiseman’s latest book, Paranormality: . I have read and enjoyed The Luck Factor, which I always saw as a response to Broughton’s suggestion that psi could hide in plain sight in every day life as luck; I recently enjoyed 59 seconds, or whatever the title was, and intriguing hotch-potch of modern psychology research a bit like the BPS homepage, where unlikely sounding research findings that are demonstrably true (at least among a population of second year psychology undergrads –so predominantly middle class white women aged 19-21???– seeking course credit) are entertainingly presented in the worlds first under a minute self help book with some degree of empirical justification. While I much prefer Wiseman’s interesting academic papers, these pop-science self help potboilers (there is another one equally good, I forget the title) are splendid reads where Wiseman’s impish sense of humour is given free rein. Yep, you should buy and read them. I bought Paranormality from Waterstones for £13 – you can get it on Amazon for £6.49; if what follows appears grouch, unreasonable and ill argued, then paying twice the cost I could have bought it for may be a significant factor. Continue reading

Posted in Debunking myths, Paranormal, Reviews and Past Events, Science, Social commentary desecrated | Tagged , , | 16 Comments