Dean I. Radin - The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena

N onsense! barked the man in the pin-striped suit. There isnt a shred of evidence for psychic phenomena! The clacking sound of the rails punctuated his blunt dismissal.

His companion, a young woman with luminous eyes and an immense halo of hair, was unimpressed. Harry, she said, glaring at him, the evidence is staring you in the face.

When I had boarded the commuter train a few minutes earlier, I was looking forward to an uneventful trip. But as the train started to move, two latecomers rushed in and took the seats next to me. Their argument had clearly been percolating for some time.

Harry was an advertisement for Brooks Brothers, complete with attach case and Wall Street Journal tucked under one arm. She was dressed in saffron and carried a well-worn book bag.

In my meditation last night, she said, pouting, I received a message from Zeron.

Harry rolled his eyes and, voice dripping with sarcasm, said, Would that be the Zeron from the planet Pluto or the Zeron from Atlantis?

Oh, the one from Atlantis, of course. You know the Plutonians arent telepathic! We communed mentally through his dolphin friends. He said my psychic abilities would improve if I got my aura cleaned.

Harrys smirk at lifes stupidity had permanently creased his forehead with an angry gash, but this last remark caused a vein to leap forward. Exasperated, he caught my eye, leaned over, and said in a stage whisper, Shirleys gone off the deep end with all that New Age crap. I uttered a noncommittal grunt, not wishing to get sucked into what appeared to be a long-standing disagreement.

But I did not have the luxury of remaining neutral, for Shirley overheard the remark and righteously replied, If you just listened to Zeron for once, you wouldnt be such a skeptic. His words are pure truth!

More like pure bull, he grumbled. There isnt a shred of evidence for ESP, telepathy, or any of that hokum. Not one shred.

She protested: If you feel it, thats proof enough. You just live in your head too much.

Sensing a concession, Harry bellowed, Your belief about ESP doesnt mean its true! It just says that you believe its true. If science hasnt proved it, then it isnt true! Its just superstitious, mythological, folkloric, mumbojumbo, mystical crap.

I couldnt stand this anymore, so I said, Excuse me, but I couldnt help but overhear your conversation. Actually there is quite a bit of scientific evidence for psychic phenomena. They really do exist.

Shirley smiled beatifically, pressed her palms together, and said Bless you with a bow. At the same time, Harrys expression snapped into such a stupendous grimace, with one eye squeezed tight and the other twitching like a guppy out of water, that I was a little concerned that his head might explode. I quickly added, On the other hand, regardless of how persuasive your personal psychic experiences may be, science has shown time and again that personal beliefs are often mistaken.

After my little speech, both of my new acquaintances adopted scowls for different reasons. Shirleys face wavered between awe and bewilderment, while Harry narrowed his one functioning eye and said suspiciously, What makes you think you know anything?

I sighed, realizing that I had just made a mistake. From past experience, I knew that it would take about six hours of discussion about science, history, psychology, and physics just to reach the starting ground of educated opinion.

I wanted to explain to Harry and Shirley that what many people think they know about psychic phenomena aint necessarily so. I wanted to de scribe how scientists have essentially proven that psi exists, using the same well-accepted experimental methods familiar to scientists in many disciplines. I also wanted to explain why hardly anyone knew this yet. But no one likes a lecture, so instead I wished I just had a book I could hand to them that would explain all this for me.

This is that book.