Best Evidence

"Best Evidence" takes you along on an investigative reporter's three-year quest to uncover the best scientific evidence for ESP, psychokinesis, mental healing, ghosts and poltergeists, dowsing, mediums, near-death experiences, reincarnation, and other "impossible" phenomena. A national Gallup Poll found that 93 percent of Americans believe in one or more paranormal phenomena that science can't explain and won't accept. Chances are, you're one of them. At the dawn of the 21st century, despite being reared on science and skepticism, people of every country and culture continue to experience and report paranormal phenomena that shouldn't exist. Investigative reporter Michael Schmicker tracked down the best scientific evidence for these phenomena that refuse to disappear. No National Enquirer nonsense here. Michael searched through sober parapsychology journals and monographs; puzzled over statistics-stuffed psychokinesis studies from Princeton University and reincarnation research from the University of Virginia; read through 140 books from the 1894 classic ghost study "Phantasms of the Living," to "Mindsight," a fascinating 1999 study of near-death and out-of-body experiences in the blind; discovered surprising endorsements of psychic research from light bulb inventor Thomas Edison and Xerox machine inventor Chester Carlson, psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle and Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell; tracked fiery academic debates on the Internet; exchanged email with poltergeist hunters; and even spent an evening at a mind-bending, spoon-bending party in Nevada. In the 14 years since it was first published, "Best Evidence" has emerged as a classic in the field of scientific anomalies research – praised for its balance and objectivity, its investigation of multiple paranormal phenomena; and its footnoted sources. "Best Evidence" has served as a textbook for courses at three different U.S. universities. If you're seriously interested in paranormal phenomena, start with this book.