Arthur C. Clarke's World of strange powers

by John Fairley

On every page of this book there are stories to challenge credulity and imagination. Tales of ghosts and poltergeists.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, Science, Speculative Fiction, Cultural

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Ivana Books Are Magic · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of liked this book but I didn't like it a lot, if you know what I mean. It was interesting but in some ways also disappointing. I do like Arthur C. Clarke as an author, but this non-fiction book could have been better organized and researched. The writing felt a bit sloppy to be honest. It could have been better written and edited for sure. It is not a long book and I understand that it wasn't supposed to be detailed. While I get that the size of it doesn't allow for getting into detail too much, it still felt sloppy. The way it is written just seems rushed and unscientific. You feel like there is some effort put into being objective, yet all it manages to do is to let everything hang loose. Altogether, it all feels unconnected, vague...and for a want of a better word- sloppy.

At times it feels like a bunch of information just pilled up and thrown in there randomly. At times it did feel like precisely that. Interesting information on its own, but as I said neither organized nor presented in the right way. I enjoyed reading it, but not as much as I enjoy reading Clarke's other works. I do have this book at home so I had read it more than once and my final verdict is that is o.k. Nothing more. You won't miss something outstanding if you just skim trough it. Actually I would say it's perfect for skimming. It can also be a nice introduction into the phenomena described and the topic of strange powers. Don't expect to learn too much from it, though.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well after a little hiatus I am back (not that anyone noticed) and so are my observations (never really like calling them reviews since they really aren't).

Anyway here is a a blast from my past. I remember the TV series from the 80s, it used to captivated me every week. With the legendary Arthur C Clarke acting a narrator and commentator. Each week I would tune in and watch questionable TV footage about some mysterious power or long extinct monster - never stop to question the reality or the possibly - this was Arthur C Clarke after all!

So to discover that there were books which effectively followed the same TV format I was ecstatic. Here I am now able to relive the days of wonder and suspend my disbelief. I am not one to say that TV is better (with all the books stacked up I think they would all gang up and smother me in the night) but at that time there was nothing like it- and then I realised there is and this book is proof of it.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book that was meant to accompany a television series that I never saw or heard of being shown. The purpose is to examine and hopefully to debunk several types of mysterious phenomena: curses, poltergeists, foreknowledge of future events, contact with spirits, psychic communication, walking on fire, mediums, those who develop stigmata, and strange manipulations of physical objects. The book runs through a number of well-known examples of a variety of these odd occurrences and makes a serious attempt to explain them from a scientifically objective point of view. There are effective descriptions of how certain observers (such as scientists or Arthur Conan Doyle) could have been fooled by various types of charlatanry. By the way, has anyone noticed that we don't hear as much about magicians and psychics and the like as we used to? Perhaps the prevalence of video cameras has made their tricks harder to pull off.

The colorful menagerie of bizarre characters and incomprehensible events are the best thing about the book of course, and the pictures are very nice too. There are eerie stories of farewell appearances by people who have just died and psychic communications across the continents. There are appearances of ghosts and poltergeists who throw things around. But the emphasis here is on debunking, and for every story that could be true, there are a couple which the authors think are not, and a number in which con artists at work were eventually exposed. The name of the well-known debunker James Randi comes up several times. The writing is pretty dry and unexciting. This was a good subway book, except for its size and weight.

[Ivana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do like Arthur C. Clarke as an author, but this book could have been better organized (and researched... and written...and many things). I know that the size of it doesn't allow getting into detail but the way it is written just seems somehow unscientific. You feel like there is some effort put into being objective yet it all just manages to hang loose and it all feels unconnected.

Bunch of information just pilled up...At times it did feel like precisely that. Interesting information but as I said not organized and not presented in the right way. I had enjoyed reading it, but not as much as I enjoy reading Clarke's other works. I do have this book at home so I had read it more than once and my final verdict is that is o.k. Nothing more. You won't miss something outstanding if you just skim trough it. Actually I would say it's perfect for skimming.

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains some very good information and nice photographs. Seeing the accompanying show undoubtedly helps the material somewhat. unfortunately, the text skips over some things rather rapidly and without great detail, a necessity of the format of the concept and of the publication.

[Noor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers

By John Fairly & Simon Welfare

السير آرثر كلارك هو عالم وكاتب في الخيال العلمي ومستشرف للمستقبل، ومقدم تليفزيوني لبرامج العلوم المبسطة.

قام السير كلارك بتقديم عدة سلاسل تلفزيونية، كان من بينها السلسلة التي يتحدث عنها الكتاب، حيث تناول فيها عدداً من مواضيع "الظواهر الخارقة" وحاول تفسيرها من ناحية علمية. قام بعدها كل من جون فيرلي وسايمون ويلفير بتدوين جميع هذه المواضيع والقصص والتوسع في البحث فيها ضمن هذا الكتاب.

من الأشباح، إلى الأرواح المشاكسة، والبيوت المسكونة، إلى التحكم بالقوى الذهنية، وطي المعادن بقوة التركيز، الى التجارب الروحية التي تترك أثراً في الجسد... الكثير والكثير من القصص الحقيقية مع توثيقها تاريخياً حول كل موضوع... مع البحث خلف أسبابها، والوصول الى تفسيرها... وبالرغم من بقاء بعضها فعلاً بلا تفسير إلا أن الغالبية التي تم فكّ شيفرة غموضها اعادتني الى القناعة الأصلية التي بدأت بها: لا يوجد ما يسمى بالظواهر الخارقة، وهذا الكون يسير بنظامٍ محكم، وإنّ الله حين خلق الكون بقوانين ونواميس فإنه لم يترك للمخلوقات الحرية للعبث والتقافز من فوق قوانينه ارضاءً لنزواتهم!

[Tapani Aulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarke käy läpi paranormaaleja ilmiöitä poltergeisteista psykokineesiin ja kaivonkatsomisesta stigmoihin. Lopuksi hän vielä arvioi niiden todenperäisyyden mahdollisuudet omalla asteikollaan. Yllättävään moneen asiaan vielä 80-luvulla saattoi antaa jonkinlaista mahdollisuutta. Luultavasti tänä päivänä ei olisi enää mihinkään oikeastaan pienintäkään todennäköisyyttä antanut.

[Sehar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never thought my favourite type of subject matter could be turned into such dry drivel. It's like a badly written inventory more than a book. A very hard book to stick with till the end.

[Mike Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book dealing with things like clairvoyancy, mind over matter, medical miracles, stigmata, ghosts and lots of other things. This is a slightly more adult book than its predecessor, I haven't been able to get hold of the tv show it was based on either, but its still a great read, well worth checking out, if you can find a copy, as it is apparently quite rare.

[✶ Tia ✶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember browsing through this book and the pictures before I even knew how to read. It stayed interesting to this day.

[David Cozens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Series of accounts of telepathy, apparitions, dowsing, re-incarnation, poltergeists and stigmata.