Review by Booklist Review
Psychic power has had trouble gaining scientific respectability, but Powell makes a game effort to propose serious consideration of its existence. Powell, who has a medical degree, soberly approaches the controversial subject, summarizing research in four areas of extrasensory perception: telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance, and precognition. Powell provides many startling stories about premonitions and dreams that seemed to come true and acknowledges the dominance of anecdotal evidence in ESP research. Researchers have accordingly attempted to put things on the less subjective footing of controlled experiments. Powell discusses these frankly, noting statistical support for psychic abilities yielded by some trials or ambiguities in results, as the case may be, as in those obtained by CIA researchers on remote viewing. Not about to compromise her credibility by claiming that mind power can levitate tables, Powell adheres to the possibility that human consciousness might affect matter at the quantum mechanical level. Incorporating Powell's knowledge of neuroscience, this work should appeal to those open to the idea that ESP exists.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In science it is axiomatic that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Powell, a neuropsychiatrist who has taught at Harvard Medical School, certainly makes extraordinary claims about "the four basic psychic abilities": telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance and precognition. But her evidence is consistently below par. She relies on self-reported claims by psychics, hundred-year-old newspaper accounts and the results of studies published by organizations like the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research rather than in reputable, peer-reviewed scientific journals (and sometimes she cites no source at all). Powell is woefully short on mechanisms to explain the phenomena she claims are so common, although she does turn to quantum physics to assert that molecular resonance and the space-time continuum are likely responsible, and she finds evolutionary explanations for the existence of psychic phenomena. She claims, for instance, that psychic events are related to dreaming, which may have evolved so babies, who mostly sleep, can detect threats and communicate them psychically to their parents. Undaunted by the weak evidence, Powell asserts that she is on the forefront of a "Copernican revolution" of the mind. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Neuroscientist Powell claims that psychic abilities can be validated by modern physics. Human history is rich with mythology about extrasensory perception, most famously employed by the seers at the ancient oracle of Delphi, but its relationship to the brain remains unexplained. Is consciousness a surrounding force that we are capable of tapping into, or is it a result of the billions of synapse connections occurring in our brains? Can mere coincidence explain the vast number of Jung's "synchronicities," or is consciousness a virtual medium for universal interconnectivity? Powell's theory of consciousness seeks to resolve some of these mysteries. Einstein and Hawking, she reminds us, wrote about time being malleable, existing totally and simultaneously. This would explain prescient visions and telepathic instinct shared by loved ones during crises even when they're located far from each other. In easy-to-understand language, the author describes carefully controlled studies involving telekinesis, clairvoyance and precognition, presenting the results as evidence of the brain's latent psychic tendency. She also theorizes that dreams, near-death experiences and out-of-body sensations may be manifestations of our inherent ability to relax the constructs of three-dimensional perception. Perhaps even memory is an instance of our minds accessing outside psychic information from "all of space and time." Powell dubs this intertwined, inextricable relationship between the individual's internal world and the external world "the Mobius mind," named for its cyclical and symbiotic nature. This concept persists in Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism; meditation is one technique to reach a state of collective enlightenment. Particle physics, too, relies on underlying theories of resonance and symmetry, notes the author. She makes a persuasive argument that with the spectacular advances in particle physics will come a scientific revolution of thought, and with it a deeper understanding of the brain. Phenomenal brain abnormalities, such as the unexplained expertise of the savant, demonstrate incredible feats of brainpower that can't be described or explained. A cogent argument offering many striking examples of the power and potential of the unconscious. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
