Weird Science: An Expert Explains Ghosts, Voodoo, the UFO Conspiracy, and Other Paranormal Phenomena

Generally open-minded yet critical, this survey spanning the gamut of paranormal phenomena and unexplained mysteries will rattle enthusiasts and skeptics alike. White, who is the former science editor of British GQ and former director of scientific studies at d'Overbroeck's College, Oxford, dismisses near-death experiences as the dying brain's compensatory fantasies and interprets out-of-body experiences as self-induced visualizations. Ghosts, he contends, are not visitors from the hereafter, but apparitions or else ""record and playback systems"" spun from the energy of a deceased person that is somehow trapped by environmental conditions. The author demonstrates that Haitian Voodoo practitioners who seemingly resurrect a zombie actually use hallucinogenic poisonous compounds to put victims into a trancelike state resembling death. On a more accepting note, he contends that genuine faith healers may interact with bioenergetic fields; finds in quantum mechanics a theoretical basis for precognition; and speculates that persons gifted with telepathy utilize a not-yet-known form of information transfer. Although White believes there are ""almost certainly"" alien civilizations not far from Earth, and while he surmises that extraterrestrials may indeed visit our planet from time to time, he rejects the idea that vast numbers of humans are being abducted by aliens for genetic experiments--a belief he ascribes to mass hysteria, hypnotic suggestion and misplaced hunger for a spiritual dimension. White evenhandedly examines controversies surrounding time travel, the Loch Ness monster, Atlantis, cloning, religious visitations and the potential danger of a cataclysmic collision between Earth and an asteroid or comet. His opinionated, lively survey will challenge doubting Thomases, New Age believers and scientists doing borderline research. (July)