Paranormality – Why we see what isn’t there – Richard Wiseman

Britain’s most charming and lovely psychologist Richard Wiseman will not be a stranger to the people on this blog. He’s appeared on several of Derren’s shows and his last book is a constant reference for all of us.

For the past twenty years, he’s immersed himself in the weird world of supernatural science; testing telepaths, spending nights in haunted castles and attempting to talk with the dead.

In Paranormality he cuts through the hype and goes in search of the truth behind extraordinary stories of poltergeists, possession and second sight.  And along the way he shows us some really rather remarkable things about how our brains work, how it is possible to have an out-of-body experience or lucid dream of our own, and just why we feel the need to believe. .

Following up from his extremely successful 59 Seconds Wiseman has tapped in to the reasons why our minds dictate reality to us even when the message it’s giving us has no scientific basis.

As usual it’s written in standard bullshit-free Wiseman style but manages to tap in to fairly complex ideas and subjects with beautiful ease. Throughout the book are various QR codes linking to external content and untrusting exercises and the short sharp chapters make it very easy to pick up and delve in to, or just read from front to back. Learning psychology isn’t supposed to be this much fun, Mr Wiseman’s managed to make it so.

Covering subjects such as fortune telling, out-of-body experiences, talking to the dead and ghost hunting, it’s also the perfect skeptics guide with solid science to back it up. For me the obvious favourite is chapter 6 about the world’s second greatest mind reader – Washington Irving Bishop. There’s even a little guide in there on how to read minds and tips on how to play tricks on your friends and get in to some light-hearted but effective mind trickery.

95% of all pop-psychology books can easily be reduced down to a fraction of the content without losing any of the message, often there’s a lot of fluffing around these subjects to prepare you for the really meaty bits in the middle and you can find yourself switching off a little after 20 pages and 19 repeats of the same message. But like Quirkology and 59 Seconds, Wiseman has managed to visit multiple topics, look at them from several angles and make this an invaluable book with plenty of content.

59 seconds took me 2 reads. One to get through it and the second to go back and absorb the content in detail. I’ve only just finished my first read of Paranormality and will be going back through it again to try out some of the tests myself. It’s certainly one to leave on the coffee table and is a guaranteed conversation starter anywhere.

Available now from Amazon – Click Here