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The Psychic Tourist: A Voyage into the Curious World of Predicting the Future
Can someone's life be predicted? Are physicists on the verge of discovering the first time machine? And why does a Nobel prize-winning scientist believe that humans are capable of sensing danger before it happens? Following a prediction of his sister's death, William Little sets out to find the truth about the power of fortune telling and prophecy. On a journey that takes him to a witches' coven in a haunted wood, on the hunt for murderers with psychic detectives and to the doorsteps of the world's most powerful and revered psychics, William Little goes on a quest to find out whether people can see into the future - or if the many millions who consult horoscopes, listen to psychics on TV, or who read Nostradamus are simply being sold a lie.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 10, 2014
This book was terrible. It was a credulous romp with him talking to psychics/TV personalities (though he did have a Wiccan interlude when he started to run out of steam) on a tenuous premise with some "balance" with experts and skeptics at the end. The book was all about him, and he was a very boring personality. I thought perhaps, with the predictions he was totting up, we would get a scorecard of what predictions came true (did his girlfriend get pregnant?) but no. That would be interesting. I regret wasting my time except for he obviously spent a little bit of money on one trip to California and spent most of that time in the strip malls of my hometown. As a Californian living in England, it was incredibly amusing reading a Brit try to big up the Pruneyard Inn and attempt to frame walking on Bascom Avenue seem like some type of life event. Also, the number of psychics who set up shop in cheap office buildings in the downscale part of the South Bay is surprising. Like, if you're going to be in that part of San Jose could you not afford to even get a little closer to Santana Row?
Sadly the answer to this, and any other interesting questions raised in The Psychic Tourist, remain hidden beyond the veil.
Sadly the answer to this, and any other interesting questions raised in The Psychic Tourist, remain hidden beyond the veil.
April 24, 2010
If this book was a movie, the author would be played by Hugh Grant as he bumbles his way through this supposed journalistic investigation in that foppish English manner that doesn't represent the majority of society. It wasn't terrible but as soon as I'd finished reading it I couldn't recall anything I'd just read about.
October 19, 2012
Started off fine but the author clearly got a bit bored in the middle it went downhill from there. A five minute interview with Psychic Sally and Richard Dawkins is not exactly in depth research is it? Good idea, badly executed.
January 7, 2015
Read like a really long magazine article.
February 25, 2025
Spoilers. Kinda.
As with many aspects of my life, I have conflict. I can hold and entertain two opposite ideas, or beliefs, or desires, and be most frustrated by this, especially as I flip flop between them.
An early example was around the topic of ghosts. On one hand, how awesome an idea that there was some form of connection between the living and the deceased?! How reassuring to think that this short time we have might be extended in another realm… On the other hand, ghosts just don’t make sense. And no amount of thinking this through helped it make sense. Then I read Paranormality by Richard Wiseman, who gave an utterly sensible and scientific account of human psychology and how it accounts for ghosts, and was finally able to lay that topic to rest. No more flip-flopping.
William Little’s book has done exactly the same for me on the topic of psychics and psychic-ness. For 35+ years the rational part of my brain has been going ‘it makes no sense!’ while the romantic part of my brain (the part that loved and still loves the X-Files) goes ‘but it would be so cool if it was true!’
Through a sensible, very inclusive and very in-depth exploration of psychic phenomena, the author has done what I always wanted to do - asked interesting questions and gathered information from an open position of genuine curiosity. The process was methodical, the experts as expert as they come, whether sceptic or believer. Importantly for me, the author has not only reached a sensible conclusion (again, based largely on the human brain and psychology), but also accounts for why psychics believe they are psychic…(which is much better place for me than thinking they are all lying).
This book won’t be for everyone. Staunch sceptics may be frustrated by the authors continual grasping at straws. Staunch believers may not appreciate the scientific method by which their experiences are unpicked. But for the people like me, the flip-floppers, this has been a godsend. I can lay this topic to rest now, in my mind, satisfied with the answer. And for that I am grateful.
As with many aspects of my life, I have conflict. I can hold and entertain two opposite ideas, or beliefs, or desires, and be most frustrated by this, especially as I flip flop between them.
An early example was around the topic of ghosts. On one hand, how awesome an idea that there was some form of connection between the living and the deceased?! How reassuring to think that this short time we have might be extended in another realm… On the other hand, ghosts just don’t make sense. And no amount of thinking this through helped it make sense. Then I read Paranormality by Richard Wiseman, who gave an utterly sensible and scientific account of human psychology and how it accounts for ghosts, and was finally able to lay that topic to rest. No more flip-flopping.
William Little’s book has done exactly the same for me on the topic of psychics and psychic-ness. For 35+ years the rational part of my brain has been going ‘it makes no sense!’ while the romantic part of my brain (the part that loved and still loves the X-Files) goes ‘but it would be so cool if it was true!’
Through a sensible, very inclusive and very in-depth exploration of psychic phenomena, the author has done what I always wanted to do - asked interesting questions and gathered information from an open position of genuine curiosity. The process was methodical, the experts as expert as they come, whether sceptic or believer. Importantly for me, the author has not only reached a sensible conclusion (again, based largely on the human brain and psychology), but also accounts for why psychics believe they are psychic…(which is much better place for me than thinking they are all lying).
This book won’t be for everyone. Staunch sceptics may be frustrated by the authors continual grasping at straws. Staunch believers may not appreciate the scientific method by which their experiences are unpicked. But for the people like me, the flip-floppers, this has been a godsend. I can lay this topic to rest now, in my mind, satisfied with the answer. And for that I am grateful.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
October 14, 2025(c. June 2012) I tried to convince my fellow bookcrossers at the meet-up that this was better than it looked, a ‘grower’, but I had no takers :( Not a Kindle edition.
William Little starts off in an annoying shallow investigative journalist style, at the Louis Theroux end of the spectrum, but turns it around in the end with some more in-depth analysis. Early episodes include obvious targets in the fortune-telling world; such as astrology, gypsies, psychic detectives, innocents and con artists. Little even made a vain attempt to learn the art himself, although he was more successful adopting counselling and cold-reading tips from Derren Brown and others. However, towards the end I think WL started to take it more seriously, trying to get a quantifiable feel or any real evidence, of an under-developed latent human skill (even getting Dawkins to grudgingly accept that it may exist, of course assuming it can be scientifically tested), or even the possibility of time travel at a quantum level. Alas, no real ground-breaking discoveries here, but a pleasant enough read for all that.
William Little starts off in an annoying shallow investigative journalist style, at the Louis Theroux end of the spectrum, but turns it around in the end with some more in-depth analysis. Early episodes include obvious targets in the fortune-telling world; such as astrology, gypsies, psychic detectives, innocents and con artists. Little even made a vain attempt to learn the art himself, although he was more successful adopting counselling and cold-reading tips from Derren Brown and others. However, towards the end I think WL started to take it more seriously, trying to get a quantifiable feel or any real evidence, of an under-developed latent human skill (even getting Dawkins to grudgingly accept that it may exist, of course assuming it can be scientifically tested), or even the possibility of time travel at a quantum level. Alas, no real ground-breaking discoveries here, but a pleasant enough read for all that.
October 17, 2021
This has picked up some mixed reviews on here and Amazon, which did give me some hesitancy before reading. I now realise that much of the negativity appears to come from 'true believer' types who have taken offence to the author not finding evidence for the supernatural. This is actually a well written book which deals with the supernatural and those who believe in it in a fair and compassionate manner. I am, like the author, unconvinced by the psychics but don't feel the need to label them as stupid or what have you. Rather I am interested in why they will believe in irrational things when there is so much evidence to the contrary. Very enjoyable and kind book.
January 30, 2017
What's not to love? Wicca, psychics, even pointers and a quick chat with Derren Brown!
This is a fun book, quite a tour through the history and present state of future telling and mind reading. If you want to believe you can, and if you don;t believe it's ok too, either way the book is interesting and in parts laugh out loud ( 258 especially !)
I recommend this, great beach book or a rainy day couch book.
This is a fun book, quite a tour through the history and present state of future telling and mind reading. If you want to believe you can, and if you don;t believe it's ok too, either way the book is interesting and in parts laugh out loud ( 258 especially !)
I recommend this, great beach book or a rainy day couch book.
November 7, 2021
The author did lots of research and conducted many interviews, but much of the book just fell flat.
December 5, 2024
Very enjoyable read
December 17, 2015
Only mildly entertaining and informative, which I suppose I should have foreseen!
This proved to be a mildly enjoyable bit of fluff, which looks at our seemingly endless capacity for self-delusion regarding fortune telling, astrology, remote viewing and the like. Following in the word-steps of Jon Ronson (e.g. ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’) and Will Storr (e.g. ‘Will Storr Vs The Supernatural, and ‘The Heretics’), William Little, motivated by the unforeseen implications of a well-meaning but ultimately traumatic gift given to his sister, seeks ‘the truth’ amongst a welter of ‘witnesses’ expert or otherwise. These range from Nobel Prize winning scientists to those who claim to see your future in the palm of your hand.
I’ll admit, the opening chapter had me hooked. However, it’s a solid three stars but no more: compared to Storr and (to a lesser extent), Ronson) its author tries a bit too hard to be the funny, irreverent kind of cheeky chappie you just can’t help liking – and, albeit marginally, fails. However entertaining Storr and Ronson are, you get the impression that, there is just enough of an underlying seriousness to make it worth the effort. With this I was just glad to get to the end.
This proved to be a mildly enjoyable bit of fluff, which looks at our seemingly endless capacity for self-delusion regarding fortune telling, astrology, remote viewing and the like. Following in the word-steps of Jon Ronson (e.g. ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’) and Will Storr (e.g. ‘Will Storr Vs The Supernatural, and ‘The Heretics’), William Little, motivated by the unforeseen implications of a well-meaning but ultimately traumatic gift given to his sister, seeks ‘the truth’ amongst a welter of ‘witnesses’ expert or otherwise. These range from Nobel Prize winning scientists to those who claim to see your future in the palm of your hand.
I’ll admit, the opening chapter had me hooked. However, it’s a solid three stars but no more: compared to Storr and (to a lesser extent), Ronson) its author tries a bit too hard to be the funny, irreverent kind of cheeky chappie you just can’t help liking – and, albeit marginally, fails. However entertaining Storr and Ronson are, you get the impression that, there is just enough of an underlying seriousness to make it worth the effort. With this I was just glad to get to the end.
October 8, 2011
I love books on crop circles, dreams etc thus when I read from this book that the idea of psychic intuition is merely our brains being pesky and providing info that was filed away in some corner of our vast grey matter store,I can't help but feel upset and disconcerted.
According to this book, gut instinct is merely our unconscious brains telling us things that we may have read or heard before, but forgotten. So, if we have dreams in which we dreamt of a certain scene, and later in real life, we end up at the exact same place(deja vu!), that is merely our brains superimposing a scene that we dreamt onto the place we visit!
I think I prefer to believe that some things can never be explained through logic, and the world(and the universe) is still full of surprises.
I give the author 3 stars for writing style. He writes for the Telegraph, but for a book written on font size 12, the fact that it took me two days to read means it's not going to set the world on fire any time soon.
According to this book, gut instinct is merely our unconscious brains telling us things that we may have read or heard before, but forgotten. So, if we have dreams in which we dreamt of a certain scene, and later in real life, we end up at the exact same place(deja vu!), that is merely our brains superimposing a scene that we dreamt onto the place we visit!
I think I prefer to believe that some things can never be explained through logic, and the world(and the universe) is still full of surprises.
I give the author 3 stars for writing style. He writes for the Telegraph, but for a book written on font size 12, the fact that it took me two days to read means it's not going to set the world on fire any time soon.
December 21, 2011
This is a light romp through the psychic world and the scientists who think about this phenomenon (or believe it is false). The author comes off entertaining and a bit of a nebbish at times but his good intentions shine through as he meets with each person. Each chapter is another visit with someone (or several people at once) as he explores the world of psychic phenomena and those who believe (or don't). My favorite chapter was with the physicist exploring whether we could go back in time. I occasionally winced as I saw my younger self in many of the characters in this book but he treated everyone as equally fascinating human beings. It is nice to read a book that looks for the good in people.
This is beach reading or reading when all of life is crazy and demanding too much of one. This book demands very little and offers light entertainment. I enjoyed it.
This is beach reading or reading when all of life is crazy and demanding too much of one. This book demands very little and offers light entertainment. I enjoyed it.
June 28, 2012
Kindle edition
It started out well, but didn't come to any real conclusion.
William Little's sister had an astrological chart drawn up for herself and her daughter which both predicted that they would die in a water related accident.
This prediction started to rule their lives and so William Little set out to debunk astrology, psychics and the rest.
It's an entertaining read, well, and amusingly written - but I wasn't satisfied with where it ended up.
It started out well, but didn't come to any real conclusion.
William Little's sister had an astrological chart drawn up for herself and her daughter which both predicted that they would die in a water related accident.
This prediction started to rule their lives and so William Little set out to debunk astrology, psychics and the rest.
It's an entertaining read, well, and amusingly written - but I wasn't satisfied with where it ended up.
September 14, 2012
99p is not a lot of money for the effort that went into this book, but still just under a quid too much. It's a bit of a wet blanket, too small to douse the fire or fan any flames. Niceness is the way with William Little and it sounds like he had a lot of fun putting it together. Richard Dawkins makes a brief disinterested cameo along the way which was... nice.
September 16, 2012
I really enjoyed this book.
William's sister and niece are told they will drown by water after having astrology charts done, so, he sets out to see if psychics really exist or if they are all fakes.
William interviews many well known psychics including Sally Morgan, amongst others.
A good book to read whether you believe or not.
William's sister and niece are told they will drown by water after having astrology charts done, so, he sets out to see if psychics really exist or if they are all fakes.
William interviews many well known psychics including Sally Morgan, amongst others.
A good book to read whether you believe or not.
June 9, 2013
I was drawn to this book and a part of me wanted it to be a great read. Parts of it are great and hilarious however overall I found the consistency lacking and towards the end the book became tedious for me. I enjoyed the chapter on time machines and the chapter around the 'Senses' program and how we unconsciously take in more than we are consciously aware.
September 17, 2012
I thought that this was going to be an interesting read and i would learn something around the phsycic world. unfortunatly i found it a bit rambling and was willing myself to the end so i could move on.
July 2, 2011
Fairly interesting but lost interest towards the end - made me question a few of my beliefs but not especially ground breaking
April 11, 2013
Interesting read
October 1, 2013
Interesting stuff.
February 10, 2014
It started to well, showing a lot of promise, before ultimately failing to deliver. A bit of a disappointment in the end!
November 3, 2013
light read exposing the charlatans who prey on vulnerable, gullible people.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews