Parapsychology and Scientific Inquiry

After exhausting all conventional methods available to her in order to retrieve her daughter's stolen harp, Dr. Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer decided to enlist the services of a dowser. She mailed him a street map and within a few days he called her back with the location of the harp. It turned out the dowser was correct. This single event changed the focus of the psychoanalyst's research for the next fifteen years. After trying to rationalize the experience and explain it away, Dr. Mayer decided to accept the experience and that this type of anomalous knowing could exist within individuals. Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind is the story of Dr. Mayer's quest to answer the question: What if anomalous experience could be studied in a scientific manner?

Dr. Mayer started by collecting the anomalous experiences of her colleagues. She collected hundreds of stories from people about their out of the ordinary experiences including: dreams that came true and spontaneous healing. Dr. Mayer found that people were eager to share their stories once they realized their stories would receive a respectful hearing from another professional. One of the problems with studying anomalous experiences is most people either keep these experiences to themselves or disavow them - keeping this subject from consensual, open and public scrutiny.

When Dr. Mayer delved further into the subject, she found credible research into anomalous knowing did exist. Among the research cited by Dr. Mayer was a 20 million dollar research project funded by the CIA into remote viewing. Remote viewing is the ability of an individual to identify and describe an object that is hidden from their view. The CIA was exploring remote viewing as a way to spy on the Russians. This project went on until 1995. Officially, the CIA has declared there is no value to remote viewing. This has been disputed by the scientists involved and independent reviewers of the data involved.

However, even with the research that exists the inquiry into anomalous experience still remains scientifically elusive. Science demands a simple, replicable experiment that proves these anomalous mental capacities exist. This is difficult because the processes involved in anomalous experience are not clearly known. Dr. Mayer turned towards other similar "beyond the intellect" experiences such as peak experiences experienced by creative individuals; prayer and healing; and other similar studies in order to see how these issues were dealt with by the scientific community. In addition, Dr. Mayer explores psychological studies into unconscious mental processing, specifically associative implicit memory. Dr. Mayer hypothesizes this research could serve as a model for studying anomalous mental capacities. In the end, Dr. Mayer also turns towards quantum physics where ideas are explored even if they are beyond ordinary space and time.

Did Dr. Mayer answer her question? Not entirely, but she did manage to cohesively explore the problems and potential solutions to the existing scientific impediments to studying anomalous experiences. This exploration is done in a very easy to read manner with interesting studies and anecdotes regarding anomalous knowing. Dr. Mayer struck a good balance between skeptic and believer and presents a book that serves as a good conversation starter between the two viewpoints.