Psychic Connections - Softcover

Duncan, Lois; Roll, William George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385320728 ISBN 13: 9780385320726

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1995

Synopsis

"A few centuries ago," said Bill Roll, "natural science museums threw out their collections of meteorites, because astronomers were convinced there were no stones in the sky.  And it wasn't too long ago that physicists asserted that the atom was the smallest bit of matter.  Now there is a whole science called quantum physics based on the study of subatomic particles.  It's incredible the number of 'miracles' we accept today without question that yesterday's teachers of science told us were impossible."

When I considered that statement, I realized he was right.  There was a time when the idea of the telephone seemed impossible, yet today few people are without one.  The same holds true of a radio.  And as a child I would have found the concept of television too ridiculous even to contemplate, yet now I take it for granted that, at the punch of a button, a blank screen will come alive with all sorts of activity.

If we can accept our ability to communicate with friends from a distance through the use of telephones and radios, and the fact that a picture can be broken into bits and transported invisibly through space to reassemble itself in our living room, why should we find it hard to accept the possibility that a thought might be transmitted from one mind to another as in telepathy?

--Lois Duncan, from Psychic Connections: A Journey into the Mysterious World Of Psi

Past our ability to obtain information by using the five basic senses--sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste--lies...what?

Psychic Connections: A Journey into the Mysterious World of Psi is a nonfiction work about parapsychology which introduces readers to the fascinating world of ESP, or extrasensory perception.  Based on laboratory research and documented case histories, it addresses such subjects as astral projection (out-of-body experiences); NDEs (near-death experiences); apparitions and hauntings; poltergeists; psychokinesis; channeling and mediumship; clairvoyance; levitation; precognition; telepathy; psychic healing; and practical applications of ESP, such as the use of psychic detectives by law enforcement agencies.

Containing photographs, a glossary, an index, and a list of sources, Psychic Connections is the basic book on parapsychology.  Compelling and thought-provoking, it belongs on every thinking person's bookshelf.

About this title

About the Author:

Lois Duncan is the author of forty books, most of them young adult suspense novels involving psychic phenomena.  She has received fifteen young readers' awards worldwide; six of her books have been Junior Literary Guild selections, and three have received Parents' Choice awards.  She has received five Special Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award presented by School Library Journal and the Young Adult Library Services Association to honor a living author for a distinguished body of adolescent literature.

William Roll, Ph.D., is project director for the Psychical Research Foundation and chairman of the Parapsychological Services Institute.  He is a former research associate at the Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University, past president of the Oxford University Society for Psychical Research, and past president of the Parapsychological Association.  He has published more than a hundred papers in professional journals and has been featured six times on the television series Unsolved Mysteries as an expert on hauntings, poltergeists, and psychics.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7 Up?To give it its due, this is a very good book. The coverage is complete and the material is well organized; all the major areas of psychic phenomena are discussed and evidence for them is presented. The explanations are basic but not oversimplified and the tone is a fine balance of personal revelation, scientific inquiry, and factual narration. Duncan also provides an interesting introduction to the fine art of statistics and their interpretation; readers are bound to discover that numbers are both more and less than they seem. Additionally, the interviews with practicing psychics are a great strength. They not only reveal fascinating information about how these phenomena are perceived by those who experience them, but also are a model of how interviewing can be used to enrich a factual presentation. The author's own experiences are compellingly related and she convincingly conveys her own sense of confusion as she finds herself backed into the corner of belief. So what's the beef? As in many books on the subject, this volume piles up incident after incident, but because the field itself has yielded so little in the way of conclusions, few are offered here. Maybe the facts mean this, but maybe not...or maybe they aren't even facts. Although Roll adds academic credentials to the team, Duncan's adoption of his vocabulary and interpretations are occasionally confusing in the light of her open-ended conclusions. Her prose is utilitarian rather than graceful. Overall, this title is a lot like the world of psychic research itself?a tantalizing, engaging, frustrating, inconclusive look at?what? Maybe we don't yet understand psychic phenomena well enough to do more than dabble. Maybe some young person teased by reading Psychic Connections will be able to discover some explanations.?Cathy Chauvette, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0385320728
• ISBN 13: 9780385320726
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272