Thanks to rdeck I took this amazing book, EXTRAORDINARY KNOWING out of the public library. Like so many speculative fiction readers, I've been fascinated with the topic since childhood, and it's remarkable to read an account by a serious scientist of events unexplainable by conventional science. Elizabeth Mayer was a Ph.D. psychologist who had an experience she couldn't understand, and in true scientific fashion, set out on a journey to try to sort it out.
Non-sf people turn up their noses at all our books and stories about psi, which as far as I know is our own word for psychic phenomena. I explored the topic thoroughly in both my Nevya books and in THE GLASS HARMONICA. But as I read this book, I'm convinced there are many, many people who have had or who believe such experiences, but they're afraid of admitting them because they're afraid of being ridiculed or losing their credibility. I wish I'd known of Dr. Mayer's work when I was writing "Gathering Genius".
I've always said, about my own psychic experiences and those of my friends and family, that they can't be repeated in a lab because there's an emotional component. Dr. Mayer supports that same thesis in this remarkable book, from a rigorously scientific perspective. I think all of us sf/f folks should feel vindicated!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
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