Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable—And Couldn't

Although paranormal events have been with us since recorded history yet relatively little has thus far been done to unravel some of the mysteries associated with these events or phenomena. Defined as scientifically unexplainable events or features, the term paranormal has been applied mostly to ghosts, UFO's, NDE's (near death experience) "Lucid Dreams", as well as placebos, telepathy and few others.The author takes us through a tour in an attempt to bring the reader up to date on the background and development, if any, in the different fields of paranormal activities. This tour is valuable especially for those readers who have not kept up with the progress in this discipline.Surprisingly, there is no mention in the entire book about one of the early pioneers in this field, Dr. JB Rhine, a psychologist who was the first to conduct scientific and controlled experiments in this field from the 1930's to the 60's. Since studies in this science depended for years on anecdotes, Dr. Rhine, established a parapsychology department at Duke University where he conducted extensive experiments into the area of telepathy and ESP (extra sensual perception). As mentioned in an earlier review, I participated in some of these experiments in the 50's and 60's and became interested in this field ever since as a hobby.In most of the above areas researched by the author he tried to explain the probable causes behind the paranormal. Almost invariably, he ended up with the same unhappy conclusion: We just don't know. One exception has been the case of meditation in all its forms but especially "transendental meditation" (TM). Although the exact mechanism is not well understood, yet this form of meditation is known to bring feelings of calm and quiet to our hectic minds as well as a sense of bliss. Here, researchers using brain scans were able to demonstrate how the brain area concerned with relaxation lights up during the meditation period. This remarkable result led one writer to issue a well known book titled: "Cure without Drugs" in which he explains the healing process using TM. {This reviewer tried TM for several years and can attest to its efficacy in dealing with stress.}Discussions of the paranormal invariably lead to other questions about our lives, in particular those of a philosophical or psychological nature: How do we explain NDE's? Why does telepathy work for some people? Why is a placebo effective? What is reality, and is this world real or is there much more to it? What exactly is consciousness?It seems everywhere we turn there is a mystery associated with paranormal events. To add to the list, recent research by Dr. Stephen LaBerge showed how in what he calls "Lucid Dreams" the dreamer can interfere in, and even control, his own dreams for healing purposes. On the other hand, Dr. Alan Botkin demonstrated how a patient could communicate with a dead person and even carry on a conversation with him/her.Although more research is needed to verify and confirm many of the findings resulting from paranormal studies, yet, one cannot help but wonder what should be done about these outcomes and the mystery they leave behind. Some scientists have gone as far as predicting that a sixth sense is in the making and will mature with the further growth and development of the human brain. Only then, it seems, will the fog clear up and all these mysteries dissolve.Fuad R QubeinNov. 2015

Steve Volk, in this compelling read, points out an obvious yet oft overlooked piece of human psychology- we just plain don't like to be confused. We simply dislike anything liminal. We shrink at the borderlands, cringe at the crossroads. We want our reality to be straight ahead, with no annoying ambiguity.But, experts disagree. About everything. They make a living selling certainty. And so, we find our favorite ideology and sign right up, joining 'our' crowd, finding our folks, coalescing our crew. And, the truth suffers- because as the old adage goes, 'WE CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!' And the truth is a slippery beast indeed.Volk is really a great guide to the best exhibits of high strangeness currently available. Telepathy, UFOs, ghosts, all the topics that reasonable people avoid at cocktail parties. He's a journalist, and in it's best tradition, he shows us the facts, and points out the very human reactions to these facts- denial, confabulation, exaggeration, mass hysteria. And he's using this fringe stuff to make a much greater point.Deliciously, this book should be annoying to the Debunker as well as the True Believer. Actually, it's going to be a little bit tougher on the Debunker, as the facts tend to support some kind of truth, however misinterpreted, of these phenomena described.In the interests of full disclosure, I've had personal confirmation of some kind of truth to many of these topics Volk discusses, so for me the beauty of the book was in how well Volk points out what we do with information that challenges our world views, how we squirm and project our best paradigms onto them. The highest honor is given to those who can say with certainty that they don't know, and those who pretend that they have all the answers, or even most of them, are exposed for the cowards they are in this highly readable book.Maybe that's a bit harsh- but the harshness with with many of the proponents of said paradigms try to shove them down all our throats deserves a bit of the same batted back their way. Having said that, I'm enjoying greatly humanity's opportunity to escape the dogmas of both Science and Religion with tales such as these. Great stuff!Here's a quote by celebrated atheist Sam Harris, quoted in the book, and repeated here:"For millennia, contemplatives have known that ordinary people can divest themselves from the feeling they call `I' and thereby relinquish the sense that they are separate from the rest of the universe. This phenomenon, which has been reported by practitioners in many spiritual traditions, is supported by a wealth of evidence- neuroscientific, philosophical, and introspective. Such experiences are `spiritual' or `mystical', for want of better words, in that they are relatively rare (unnecessarily so), significant (in that they uncover genuine facts about the world), and personally transformative. They also reveal a far deeper connection between ourselves and the rest of the universe than is suggested by the ordinary confines of our subjectivity........A truly rational approach to this dimension of our lives would allow us to explore the heights of our subjectivity with an open mind, while shedding the provincialism and dogmatism of our religious traditions in favor of free and rigorous inquiry."Amen!

This book resembles very much a book called "Will Storr versus the Supernatural". Even both authors meet the same person claiming to be a demon hunter. The author very clearly hints that he isn't a believer in ghosts at the end of the book and one feels like that was his whole point entirely. Do not recommend because of the strange parallels with that other book supposedly unconnected.

Excellent. Volk elegantly exposes the flawed arguments of the 'skeptics', without the need for faith in religion or the paranormal. He gives us a glimpse of areas of the supernatural that may one day be within the grasp of scientific understanding, and summarises how and why science currently has no clear answers to questions about, for example, the nature of consciousness. Read it, and lend it to your friends.

Excellent read. Very compelling, well-researched book.

The author is trying to be impartial in the treatment of the following subjects because of his being a journalist. However, he is obviously on the side of defenders of paranormal phenomena, and rather because of so, this book is educational in understanding current ideas of scientists on the not-normal subjects below:(1) Paranormal events such as NDE, OBE(2) Consciousness, explained or yet-to-be explained & a scientist’s thought about afterlife(3) UFO(4) Haunted house(5) Lucid dream(6) And moreCarl Sagan stated several times in his book, “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996),” the following essential: “One of the reasons for its success is that science has built-in, error correcting machinery at its very heart.” And the “built-in, error correcting machinery” may include the following mind-set: “Unexplained cases are simply unexplained. They can never constitute evidence for any hypothesis (John A. Wheeler, 1979).” This may be a secure, wise way of thinking for a scientist not to jeopardize his/her career as a mainstream scientist. However, this mind-set is in conflict with the spirit of scientific research.If I add one more comment, all these subjects have been treated also by the late American writer, poet, and trance channeler, Jane Roberts (1929-1984), in her books on the Seth material. For example, the old unexplainable story of UFOs: they are coming not from outer space but from inner space, i.e., from other dimensions, just as we are getting out of our physical dimension to other universes in dreams every night.