Title: Book Review: Paranormal Experience & Survival
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Blog Entry: A comprehensive look at the state of serious paranormal study! Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death by Carl B. Becker Looking for a book on the paranormal? Well, you certainly have some choices, some good and some not so good, but if you really want an honest look at the state of paranormal research, there really is only one, Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death by Carl B. Becker. But don’t look for this title at Barnes & Noble’s, it is a product of the State University Press at Cornell University. Becker is not a field researcher, as most paranormal authors are; he is a academic fellow and Fulbright Scholar who has spent years researching this 257 page report, 50 odd pages of which are filled with references and endnotes. As stated before, there are a lot of books on the paranormal out on the bookshelves, but this one is comprehensive, possibly the best effort at explaining things that go bump in the night since the original ASPR papers over a hundred years ago. As academically fine tuned as this book it, it is also very readable. There is little in the way of academic speak, just clear references and stories and most important a look at the facts from every possible side. That being said, Becker is not afraid to say what he thinks and when the evidence is in favor of the existence of a phenomenon, he says so. The book is well organized and can offer the reader concrete “empiric” evidence for the survival of the human spirit after death. Some of the theoretical material in this book is outstanding, showing years of research that others could only hope to dedicate to such a project, the four corners of our world have been included and the real pressures from both science and organized religion is considered. Becker reviews many well substantiated accounts of demon-possession, of memories of past lives, of ghostly apparitions and Out of Body experiences with remarkable fluidity. Carl B. Becker is a Professor of Comparative Thought at Kyoto University, Japan and has written several other outstanding books on some of the topics covered in Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death, but none have been so all inclusive. He has given the devils their due, liberally quoting some of the most outstanding skeptics of our age and always comes away with a clearer view of the goals at hand. If you are going to read just one book this year on the Paranormal we strongly suggest taking a look at this one. It is well worth the time. Paranormal Experience and the Survival of Death By Carl B. Becker, Ph. D. State University of New York Press and Cornell University Press ISBN 0-7914-1476-0 A Review by Rick Moran, Founder, The Association for the Study of Unexplained Phenomenon, Inc.
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