Reddit reviews Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There

This book seems like it would address a lot of the shit you're pontificating about. It's quite new and I must admit I haven't read it but I put it on my list after reading positive reviews.

Yeah, this is pretty much it. Our brains are wired for pattern recognition and will invent them if it can find any, just in case. Philhellenes talks about this on YouTube, as does Brian Dunning at Skeptoid. Hardly scholarly, but they're free. If you want more detail try a book such as this one.

Don't get me wrong, I still get creepy feelings at night when I walk around my apartment in the dark, but now that I know what's going on in my brain, I can also ignore them and go about refilling my glass of water.

ETA: I forgot to mention, there's also the fact that we're inundated with ghost stories and the like from childhood, so our brains already have a template to work with. Part of that template is the fact that ghosts are already dead, so unless you possess an unlicensed nuclear accelerator, there's not much you can do to defend yourself. It's a perfect storm, really.

An old colleague and good friend of mine has worked for many years in human sleep research. At his request I have spent a good amount of time validating methodologies and statistical soundness of various studies he has unearthed.

If you are interested in learning more about current and past research, here are some reasonable starting points.


Susumu Tonegawa, a neuroscientist at PILM, led an experiment that claims to have isolated a genetic characteristic involved in situational pattern-matching and memory:
News article

A recently published book by Richard Wiseman, a reputable psychologist and skeptic of precognition:
Amazon reviews

A recent publication on precognition by Daryl Bem, a researcher and psychologist at Cornell University:
Paper

Richard's review of Daryl's procedures, including an experimental design concern with rebuttal from Daryl:
Review

J. W. Dunne's historical case study research on precognition in dreams:
Amazon review

Long-term research at Princeton University led by Robert Jahn regarding a purported human affect on randomization experiments:
Main site

As with all disruptive research, my experience is that this is a field in which deep emotions from both "sides" interfere with effective discourse. Remarks such as the non sequitur "you must be religious" made by Rooster_Illusion are typical: many persons inappropriately ostracize those who hold an agnostic, skeptical, and scientific stance. My main interest in this thread was to give my experience in logical and reasoned discourse to Rooster_Illusion, which Rooster_Illusion seems to have mistaken for me believing coercion and psychological manipulation are positive actions.

Perhaps the book "Paranormality" would be a good book for you to read.

http://www.amazon.com/Paranormality-Why-What-Isnt-There/dp/0230752985