Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries - Softcover

Benjamin Radford

Softcover

ISBN 10: 093645511X ISBN 13: 9780936455112

Publisher: Rhombus Publishing Company, 2010

Synopsis

What is it like to travel the world investigating the paranormal? To not just sit back and wonder about the world's famous unexplained mysteries, but actually go out and solve them? To investigate haunted houses, searching for evidence of ghosts and spirits? To search the world's lakes for giant, fearsome monsters? To investigate and create the mysterious phenomena of crop circles? To talk to people who speak to the dead, solve crimes for police, or use ESP? Scientific Paranormal Investigation is the first book to give the public an inside look at the life, methods, and work of a real-life scientific paranormal investigator. Author Benjamin Radford has investigated unexplained phenomena for over a decade, not just read or written about them, but actually gone out to see what's there. Unlike most other books and reality TV shows on the supernatural or paranormal, Radford strictly adheres to scientific methods. In a nutshell, Scientific Paranormal Investigation is the equivalent of The X-Files meets CSI: Crime Scene Investigations: applying scientific methods and principles to real-life mysteries, and coming up with explanations when it seems none are possible. Whether the subject is a crime scene or a haunted house, the questions are the same: What did eyewitnesses see? What does the evidence show? If the paranormal ghosts, psychics, or Bigfoot really exist, there should be valid scientific evidence for them. Scientific Paranormal Investigation draws from dozens of cases and mysteries, explaining step-by-step the science-based methods Radford used to solve them.

About this title

About the Author

Benjamin Radford is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and a Research Fellow with the non-profit educational organization the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He has written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including urban legends, the paranormal, critical thinking, and science literacy. Radford is author of five books: Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking (with Bob Bartholomew); Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us; Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World s Most Elusive Creatures (with Joe Nickell); Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries; and Tracking the Vampire: Chupacabra in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore (out in Spring 2011 from the University of New Mexico Press). Radford is a columnist for LiveScience.com and Discovery News. Radford created Playing Gods: The Board Game of Divine Domination, the world's first satirical board game of religious warfare. He is also a filmmaker, and released two short films in 2007 and 2009. Radford is one of the world's few science-based paranormal investigators, and has done first-hand research into mysterious phenomena including psychics, ghosts and haunted houses; exorcisms, miracles, Bigfoot, stigmata, lake monsters, UFO sightings, reincarnation, and crop circles, and many other topics. He is perhaps best known for solving the mysteries of the Santa Fe Courthouse Ghost in 2007, and the Hispanic vampire el chupacabra in 2010. Radford has appeared on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the Learning Channel, CBC, CBS, BBC, CNN, ABC News, and other networks with three letters. He also served as a consultant for the MTV series The Big Urban Myth Show and an episode of the CBS crime drama CSI. Radford has appeared in many publications including the Wall Street Journal, Wired, The New York Times, Kansas City Star, Vanity Fair, and Ladies Home Journal.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rhombus Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 093645511X
• ISBN 13: 9780936455112
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Lisa Jong-Soon Goodlin