Margins Of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World

Rating:
Summary: a future classic?
Review: Both scientist and layman will find a lot of valuable information in this book, which describes modern research, particularly at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratories, into how mind can influence the material world. It is at this point the premier academic text on this very controversial subject. There are some technical aspects to the book that, for a non-scientist like me, were admittedly tough going (...). However, the book is leavened by very readable prose and incredible illustrations, many from ancient Egypt, Europe and occult sources. To read a book from an engineering department that contains such illustrations is astounding, and shows how far we have come in taking this stuff seriously!

Rating:
Summary: Expanding on Ben Finn's Review...
Review: I think Ben Finn's review is spot-on, but I'd like to add a few things.

Section I of the book deals with a review of many paranormal topics and inquiry (scientific and otherwise) into their origins. The best thing I took from this section is that the authors were acutely aware of the criticism that has been made of such research, and were determined to exercise caution in designing their experiments.

The PK research --- that demonstrating the ability of human intent to influence a probable outcome --- seems to have been designed very carefully to address anticipated criticism. It's difficult to read through this section of the book and not come away believing that something has been proven. And whatever that "something" might be, it is distinctively weird: it's one thing to obtain operator-specific profiles of statistical influence over some random process, but downright bizarre that they were able to obtain similar results using a *pseudorandom* source. This research, detailed in section II of the book, is what makes this work really shine --- it's the strength of this section that really earned the four stars I gave it. This section is *worth* it, and does much to convince a skeptic (like me).

Section III deals with remote perception, and a system the authors devised to quantify the results of such experiments. The sample sizes and the data here are necessarily more sparse, but are still quite engaging. The anecdotal evidence at the end of the section made for some enjoyable reading, though stories of experiments where the subject completely missed the target seem conspicuously absent.

Sections IV proposes a theoretical framework for the anomolies demonstrated by the experiments, and comes off as quite silly. Sweeping metaphors are taken from the realm of quantum mechanics, to a level of detail that isn't remotely supported by the research. One does need to theorize *something* after such experimentation, but attempting to build a rich framework from a few targeted experiments is more than is necessary, and certainly more than is warranted. Furthermore, the authors' model attributes conciousness even to simple devices such as the "Random Event Generator" or a bunch of foam balls bouncing off pegs --- a truly embarrassing stretch, in my opinion. (For some much better theoretical ideas, I'd suggest a book called "The Physics of Consciousness" by Evan Harris Walker.)

Section V rambles in the authors' usual heavy prose about implications and applicability, and, unfortunately, builds upon section IV. If there was anything interesting in this section, I'm afraid it slipped past me.

My rating of 4 stars is for some genuine, solid research in section II and, to a lesser extent, section III. As a skeptic, the results of these experiments will compel me to dig deeper; barring outright fraud, the results cannot be dismissed as mere chance. It's too startling to rate it any lower, even if the closing sections of the book are rather goofy.

If you're already convinced that such paranormal effects are real, however, I doubt that this book has much to offer. Buy it for a skeptical friend, but give them a disclaimer about the stretch made on the theoretical side.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting research marred by embarrassing speculation
Review: This book recounts very interesting research into the ability of humans to influence random events such as coin-tossing. This is extensively documented in technical detail, with graphs of many hundreds of thousands of trials, over which strong statistical significance shows up even though the influence is less than 1% per trial and therefore not casually noticeable.

There is also an intriguing those less detailed section about remote viewing, in which one person can describe the surroundings of another person at a different location in space or even time. Again the statistics indicate a significant effect.

However, the credibility built up by this is severely dented by the rest of the book, which attempts to outline a theoretical basis for this in terms of a 'quantum mechanics of consciousness'. This eyewash is just embarrassing to read - e.g. many pages expended on arguing for the existence of physical analogs such as 'consciousness distance', 'consciousness mass' etc. on the grounds that we sometimes speak of being 'deep in thought', 'light-hearted', etc. The quality of this reasoning speaks for itself. A few pages later and these spurious variables are being incorporated into quantum-mechanical equations. Oh dear.

Unfortunately this shows the danger of scientists wandering out of their field into discussions of mind and metaphysics, which are topics in philosophy - a subject in which these authors are complete amateurs without appearing to realize it. Their blunders are so elementary as to be laughable to anyone with a knowledge of metaphysics.

The extensive bibliography cites endless references to Freud, Jung and other people in loosely related subjects without including a single mention of anyone who knows about philosophy, with the marginal exception of William James (who is a century out of date anyway).

So worth buying to read Sections 2 & 3, but don't waste your time on the rest.

Rating:
Summary: Best of its kind
Review: This is a courageous, humane, and highly provocative book. The
authors present evidence for the existence of ESP and PK
(psychokinesis), all of it generated by their own research.
They also work toward a new paradigm for understanding how
these parapsychological effects might be part of the natural
order, since the classical scientific world-view does not
offer space for such. In my mind, they put too much stress
on the role of consciousness in the world, and even cross over
into the suggestion that the world is observer-created. To
their credit, however, they work toward a more nuanced view
of what is entailed by consciousness (what happens as mind
interacts with matter) than most advocates of this position.
Still, in trying to bring mind and matter into a state of
solution, they seem to turn the world into "a great thought
thinking itself" (to borrow from James Jeans, one of many
scientists whom they quote). This seems to veer too closely
to Berkeley's idealism, and I wonder if in correcting the
materialistic emphasis of traditional science, they
overcorrected in the opposite direction. Is there a "middle
way" yet to be discovered? These comments notwithstanding, this
is a book very much worth reading, and it is obvious that much
rigorous thought and expansive feeling went into it.