The Hundredth Monkey and Other Paradigms of the Paranormal

edited by Kendrick Frasier

copyright 1991 - Prometheus Books

This book is another collection of articles originally published in Skeptical Inquirer, the publication from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal (CSICOP).  It has articles published between 1985 and 1990, and it includes follow up sections by many of the authors including new information since the original articles were published.  This book is broken into nine different categories, with several different articles in each category.  The two that I found the most interesting were the sections on Alternative Medicine and Controversies in Science.  These topics are both rather common items of news even today, and so the articles in those sections will be as timely today as when they were originally published.  In addition, the article by Carl Sagan, "The Burden of Skepticism" is worth the price of the book by itself!

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in topics of the paranormal, occult, or pseudoscience, as it has all the information that you will need to be able to debunk some claims right away, as well as providing the information that will help you to analyze claims you might hear in the future.

Below is a listing of all the articles in this book to give you an indication of the types of topics this book covers.

Asimov, I.  (1991).  The perennial fringe.  pp. 10-12  

Baker, R.A.  (1991).  The aliens among us: hypnotic regression revisited.  pp. 54-69  

Barrett, S.  (1991).  Homeopathy: is it medicine?  pp. 271-277  

Basil, R.  (1991).  Graphology and personality: "let the buyer beware".  pp. 206-208  

Beyerstein, B.  (1991).  The myth of alpha consciousness.  pp. 95-110  

Beyerstein, B.L.  (1991).  The brain and consciousness: implications for psi phenomena.  pp. 43-53  

Blackmore, S.  (1991).  The elusive open mind: ten years of negative research in parapsychology.  pp. 125-135  

de Camp, L.S.  (1991).  The uses of credulity.  pp. 17-19  

Dean, G.  (1991a).  Does astrology need to be true? Part 1: a look at the real thing.  pp. 279-296  

Dean, G.  (1991b).  Does astrology need to be true? Part 2: the answer is no.  pp. 297-319  

Ellis, B.  (1991).  The varieties of alien experience.  pp. 70-77  

Flew, A.  (1991).  Parapsychology, miracles, and repeatability.  pp. 136-142  

Frazier, K.  (1991a).  Ganzfeld studies: first detailed appraisal finds serious flaws, no evidence of psi.  pp. 143-148  

Frazier, K.  (1991b).  Improving human performance: what about parapsychology?  pp. 149-161  

Furnham, A.  (1991).  Write and wrong: the validity of graphological analysis.  pp. 200-205  

Gardner, M.  (1991a).  Psi researchers' inattention to conjuring.  pp. 162-166  

Gardner, M.  (1991b).  Relativism in science.  pp. 376-380  

Gardner, M.  (1991c).  Science, mysteries, and the quest for evidence.  pp. 372-375  

Gardner, M.  (1991d).  The obligation to disclose fraud.  pp. 167-170  

Gardner, M.  (1991e).  Water with memory? The dilution affair.  pp. 364-371  

Hyman, R.  (1991).  Assessing arguments and evidence.  pp. 40-42  

Jarvis, W.  (1991).  Chiropractic: a skeptical view.  pp. 262-270  

Jensen, D.D.  (1991).  Pathologies of science, precognition, and modern psychophysics.  pp. 111-124  

Kelly, I.W., Rotton, J., and Culver, R.  (1991).  The moon was full and nothing happened: a review of studies on the moon and human behavior.  pp. 222-234  

Klass, P.J.  (1991a).  Crash of the crashed-saucer claim.  pp. 323-326  

Klass, P.J.  (1991b).  New evidence of the MJ-12 hoax.  pp. 347-352  

Klass, P.J.  (1991c).  The MJ-12 crashed-saucer documents: Part 1.  pp. 327-335  

Klass, P.J.  (1991d).  The MJ-12 crashed-saucer documents: Part 2.  pp. 336-346  

Kurtz, P.  (1991).  Reflections on the "transcendental temptation".  pp. 13-16  

Kurtz, P., Alcock, J., Frazier, K., Karr, B., Klass, P.J., and Randi, J.  (1991).  Testing psi in China: visit by a CSICOP delegation.  pp. 235-246  

Leikind, B.J. and McCarthy, W.J.  (1991).  An investigation of firewalking.  pp. 182-193  

Lett, J.  (1991).  A field guide to critical thinking.  pp. 31-39  

Nickell, J. and Fischer, J.F.  (1991).  Incredible cremations: investigating spontaneous combustion deaths.  pp. 194-199  

Reuter, F.  (1991).  Folk remedies and human belief-systems.  pp. 256-261  

Rothman, M.A.  (1991).  Cold fusion: a case history in "wishful science"?  pp. 353-363  

Sabbagh, K.  (1991).  The psychopathology of fringe medicine.  pp. 247-255  

Sagan, C.  (1991).  The burden of skepticism.  pp. 1-9  

Skeptical Inquirer.  (1991).  Double-blind test of astrology avoids bias, still refutes the astrological hypothesis.  pp. 321  

Spanos, N.P.  (1991).  Past-life hypnotic regression: a critical view.  pp. 78-84  

Stevens, P., jr.  (1991).  The appeal of the occult: some thoughts on history, religion, and science.  pp. 20-29  

Thomason, S.G.  (1991).  Past tongues remembered?  pp. 85-94  

Watkins, A.J. and Bickel, W.S.  (1991).  A study of the Kirlian effect.  pp. 209-221