COMMENT:This book is only implicitly a defense of psi, since the author, a well-known parapsychologist, believes "the evidence for psi has become so strong that evaluating it would not be a challenge." Schmeidler even claims psi has a theory: "psi is a psychological process," though this apparently means no more than that experimental results of psi should depend on psychological variables. This includes things like the familiar "experimenter effect," and it is really difficult to see why Schmeidler thinks this answers to psi's perpetual problems with theory. The way she uncritically lists some fringe physical speculation as an indication that psi does not go against the natural sciences certainly does not help. A readable book, but valuable mainly for understanding one prominent researchers perspective, not getting any solid answers.
DATE:19980922
KEYWORDS:paraphysics:defense psi:defense
MISC:228p.
PUBLISHER:McFarland
SUBMITADDR:bibliographer@csicop.org
SUBMITNAME:Taner Edis
TITLE:Parapsychology and Psychology: Matches and Mismatches
