This is an important book. It deals with one of the most significant and enduring fault lines in science and philosophy. For well over a century, there have been strongly divided opinions about the existence of psychic phenomena, such as telepathy. The passions aroused by this argument are quite out of proportion to the phenomena under dispute. They stem from deeply held worldviews and belief systems. They also raise fundamental questions about the nature of science itself.

This debate, and the present state of parapsychology, are brilliantly summarized in this book. Chris Carter puts his argument in a well-documented historical context, without which the present controversies make no sense. The kind of skepticism Carter is writing about is not the normal healthy kind on which all science depends, but rather it arises from a belief that the existence of psychic phenomena is impossible; they contradict the established principles of science, and if they were to exist they would overthrow science as we know it, causing chaos and confusion. Therefore, anyone who produces positive evidence supporting their existence is guilty of error, wishful thinking, self-delusion, or fraud. This belief makes the very investigation of psychic phenomena taboo and treats those who investigate them as charlatans or heretics.

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