Book recommendation request

[Mancunian]

Can anyone recommend a good book to buy for a non-sceptical friend? He believes in astrology, auras, mediums, homeopathy and no doubt lots of other paranormal stuff, and I want him to start thinking a bit more critically.

 

[Scoobmaster]

Either Mr Randi's FLIM-FLAM,
or....
"The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan

 

[Darat]

Can anyone recommend a good book to buy for a non-sceptical friend? He believes in astrology, auras, mediums, homeopathy and no doubt lots of other paranormal stuff, and I want him to start thinking a bit more critically.

Flim Flam! is always a good one to try. (You can buy it via the JREF website.) And "Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan.

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

I second (or, I suppose, third) the above picks, and add Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer and Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins.

 

[Mancunian]

Thanks.

 

[Interesting Ian]

Re: Re: Book recommendation request

Flim Flam! is always a good one to try. (You can buy it via the JREF website.) And "Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan.

Is that Flim flam the book by Randi which is choc-a-block with errors? If so I really don't think it is a good idea to recommend it. The Sagan book is good, but doesn't actually address the evidence.

Although they might not cover a lot of what your friend believes in 2 excellent objective impartial books are:

An Introduction to Parapsychology by Harvey J. Irwin


Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence: Etzel Cardena (Editor), Stephan Jay Lynn (Editor), Stanley C. Krippner (Editor)

 

[TLN]

Is that Flim flam the book by Randi which is choc-a-block with errors?

Really? What errors?

The Sagan book is good, but doesn't actually address the evidence.

No, it addresses the scientific method which is systematically ignored by you and parapsychological researchers.

 

[Dr Adequate]

Anything which explains how science is actually done, preferably a detailed, careful study of one particular case or a few particular cases, rather than A History Of Science, which just confuses people.

An encyclopaedia of human psychology. (Interesting, but unsurprising, to notice that psychologists are the most sceptical people in academia.)

Martin Gardner's Science, Good, Bad and Bogus.

And yes, Demon-Haunted World.