Paranormal Skepticism

For books skeptical of UFO and alien claims.

Read by the author. One of the rare cases where the book-on-tape version is cheaper than the printed book. - Also listed on Looking for a Miracle.

By Ronny Martens and Tim Trachet. 1998, Prometheus Books, 276pp. A skeptical book on astrology. "The authors provide a unique combination of historical information and recent scientific work to allow readers to make their own intelligent and informed judgment about the value of astrology." (7/15/99) - Also listed on Astrology.

By M. Lamar Keene and Allen Spraggett and Ray Hyman and William V. Rauscher. 1976 (1997), Prometheus Books, 172pp. "M. Lamar Keene, who came to be known as the "Prince of the Spiritualists," enjoyed the riches and fame the accompany the life of a sought-after medium. He claimed to be clairvoyant and to produce objects out of thin air. He conducted seances in which participants talke with and even touched the dead. Yet every miracle Keene performed was a fraud, a lie, and a trick played on willing, gullible victims. In this powerful and brutally honest book, Keen exposes the secrets of the seance room, including ghostly apparitions, floating trumpets, "spirit sex," and other tricks used by mediums to exploit believers. Originally published in 1976 and long out of print, this classic work is a fast-paced autobiographical account of a confessed charlatan who was one of the first mediums to admit his deception. The Psychic Mafia offers an incredible look inside the world of fraudulent spiritualists by a man who rose to the top of a tawdry and lucrative business before he chose to renounce it all." (7/15/99) - Also listed on Profiles of Psychics.

By Elaine Showalter. 1998, Columbia University Press, 224pp. "Showalter takes on the history of mass cultural hysteria, from witch hunts to mesmerism, and discusses today's versions--ranging from chronic fatigue or Gulf War Syndrome to recovered memories--and the attendant publicity." (4/28/99)

By Michael Shermer. 1997, Freeman, 306pp. "UFO abductions...television psychics...creationism...Holocaust denial. Faced with the rapid changes and anxiety of modern life, many people are turning to the alluring comforts of pseudoscience and the occult. In Why People Believe Weird Things, science historian Mic hael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and director of the Skeptics Society, explores the very human reasons we find supernatural phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. Shermer also reveals the darker and more fearful side of wishful thinking, including Holocaust denial, creationism, the recovered memory movement, alien abduction experiences, the satanic ritual abuse scare and other modern witch crazes, extreme Afrocentrism, and ideologies of racial superiority. A compelling and often disturbing portrait of our immense capacity for self-delusion, Why People Believe Weird Things celebrates the scientific spirit and the joy to be found in rationally exploring the world's greatest mysteries even if many of the questions remain unanswered. Foreword by Stephen Jay Gould." (4/19/99)

By Alex Heard. 1999, W.W. Norton, 360pp, B+W photos throughout. "Over a ten-year period, intrepid cultural travleler Alex Heard has been sojourning among America's most intensely religious and political believers -- sometimes distrubed, sometimes euphoric, usually bizarre, and very occasionally deadly groups who bring their own all-American spin to the biblical idea of apocalypse. Among the amazing cast of character encountered: A UFO cult whose members look forward to the mass landing of angelic space-brothers in 2001; trembling New Age penitents who fear that our polluted planet is bent on taking highly conscious revenge; a born-again Christian determined, on God's orders, to carry a 12-foot cross accross every nation on earth; life-extensionists convinced that if they can only live long enough science will make sure they can life forever; separatists attempting to construct their onw man-made utopian countries far from the shores of corrupt and repressive AMerica; Bible literalists studiously preparing for the rapture; and a rich assortment of many other credulous, paranoid, and/or ecstatic fringe dwellers." (5/19/99)

By Charles Mackey. 1841 (1995), Tree Rivers Press, 740pp. "A complete repackaging of the classic work about grand-scale madness, major schemes and bamboozlement--and the universal human susceptibility to all three--this informative, funny collection encompasses a broad range of manias and deceptions, from witch burnings to the Great Crusades to the prophecies of Nostradamus." (4/20/99)

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