[ExI] OUTSIDE THE GATES OF SCIENCE

[Damien Broderick]

I see that Publisher's Weekly has run a review on 
my book about psi. I'm quite happy with their 
assessment. Any of the (other) skeptics here had 
a chance to read it yet? (Of course, I do regard 
myself as a skeptic, even if a persuaded one in this case.)

Damien Broderick

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Editorial Reviews
 From Publishers Weekly
Broderick, best known as a science-fiction 
writer, returns to nonfiction (after 2001's The 
Spike) to evaluate various research programs 
investigating "psi phenomena." Divided into two 
branches, psi phenomena cover anomalous 
cognition, which includes telepathy, remote 
viewing and other forms of "non-material" 
communication; and anomalous perturbation, 
psi-mediated action or psycho-kinetics. Broderick 
remains analytical and objective throughout, 
reviewing the work of such laboratory programs as 
the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research 
group, the Science Applications Incorporated 
Corporation and the CIA-backed Stargate; 
recounting their experiments' designs, methods 
and procedures, Broderick then goes on to examine 
rigorously the resulting data. He concludes that 
while the evidence for various kinds of psi 
phenomena is strong, there are unknown (and 
possibly unknowable) factors that make classical, 
reductionist methods of testing it unpredictable 
and irreproducible (the reason, he suspects, that 
the CIA gave up on such research in 1995). 
Gratifyingly, Broderick connects the search for 
psi phenomena to larger philosophical questions 
while remaining skeptical and delightfully rational throughout.
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