FORBIDDEN UNWERSE: Mysteries of the Psychic World

There is parapsychology for the open-minded and parapsychology for people with holes in the head, and this is for the latter. In a loose way, Talamonti tries to identify and discuss the major kinds of psychic experience (clairvoyance, telekinesis, precognition, etc.), but any kind of analysis is swamped under an endless, shapeless flood of examples -- people suddenly canceling trips on trains that are later wrecked, premonitory dreams, experiments vaguely described as taking place ""under scientific supervision."" He predictably deplores the ""rationalistic bias"" of ""orthodox science"" and plumps for the use of heuristic rather than empirical methods in observing parapsychological phenomena. Yeah, heuristic -- meaning, in the case of this book, accepting (rather than verifying) any evidence that comes along. This results in confusion and repetition which prevents Talamonti from constructing any clear argument, while the labored and pompous style disqualifies the book from any pretensions to the chic of the occult.