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The Paranormal Equation: A New Scientific Perspective on Remote Viewing, Clairvoyance, and Other Inexplicable Phenomena
Most of us think science is incapable of explaining supernatural phenomena. This would include everything from ghosts and communication with the dead to extrasensory perception (ESP), precognition, and telekinesis. Scientists are generally highly skeptical of the existence of such phenomena because of the lack of the rigorous documentation that science requires. Nevertheless, many great scientists have believed—and do believe—in the supernatural.
The Paranormal Equation presents an argument for the existence of supernatural phenomena based on the mathematics and science discovered during the last century. It also explains why supernatural phenomena must exist if the universe satisfies certain conditions—conditions which are accepted by many working scientists.
The Paranormal Equation explores such questions Anyone interested in how science is beginning to understand and even explain the seemingly unexplainable will want to read this fascinating new title.
The Paranormal Equation presents an argument for the existence of supernatural phenomena based on the mathematics and science discovered during the last century. It also explains why supernatural phenomena must exist if the universe satisfies certain conditions—conditions which are accepted by many working scientists.
The Paranormal Equation explores such questions Anyone interested in how science is beginning to understand and even explain the seemingly unexplainable will want to read this fascinating new title.
- GenresParanormal
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2012
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
James D. Stein
12 books4 followersDr. James D. Stein graduated from Yale in 1962 with a BA in mathematics and received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967. He is the author of more than 30 research articles on mathematics and the co-author of textbooks on mathematics and strategic management, as well as several books on mathematics and science for the general public. He has served on state and nationwide panels on mathematics education, blogged for Psychology Today and the Huffington Post. It was during the writing of How Math Explains the World that he had the idea that led to his writing The Paranormal Equation.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 11, 2013
I really wish I had my hands on a copy of mathematician’s James Stein’s book Paranormal Equation when I wrote my own Extra Sensory, as there is some fascinating material here taking a whole new slant on the supernatural that I have never seen before. It wouldn’t be too much to say that Stein has developed a whole new theoretical approach for dealing with supernatural phenomena (with a proviso), based on his mathematical background – and that is quite a feat.
Having said it would be useful, the two books are actually addressing almost unconnected areas of thought – ‘non-overlapping magisteria’ as Stephen Jay Gould might have put it. I deal with aspects of the paranormal that could have a natural explanation – I don’t cover the supernatural at all – where Stein is focussed on events that don’t have a possible natural explanation.
After giving us a fair amount of information as to how most paranormal events can’t happen, Stein provides a loophole with a fascinating conjecture that I’ve never seen before. Since the mid twentieth century, mathematicians have been aware that there are some propositions in the mathematical system we use that can never be proved. We think some of them are true, but it has been proved that they can’t be proved. This is a bit like a mathematical version of the logical knots that arise from dealing with the statement ‘This statement is false.’
The great Alan Turing came up with a similar concept to Gödel’s incompleteness theorem for computing – but Stein goes further. He considers the possibility that in an infinite universe (something that may well be the case), there could be a similar concept in physics. There could be phenomena that it is impossible for physics to explain. Ever. And these arguably would be supernatural by definition. This doesn’t mean, of course, that this makes telepathy, say, possible – and Stein doesn’t say this. But it is a truly fascinating bit of thinking on his part.
There are two reasons that this important book doesn’t have more stars. One is that much of it is more about the philosophy of science than science itself, and some of the content is as airy and difficult to pin down as a paranormal event. The other is that it isn’t the easiest of books to read, although it is well worth the effort. (And one or two of the facts quoted outside the main thrust of the book are a little iffy. Stein comments ‘It is certainly true that humans generally use about 10 percent of the brain.’ This is a myth so well established it has its own Wikipedia page.)
However this is without doubt the most original and fascinating book I have read about supernatural phenomena in many years and a highly recommended work for anyone who wants to take an open-minded scientific view of the paranormal.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
Having said it would be useful, the two books are actually addressing almost unconnected areas of thought – ‘non-overlapping magisteria’ as Stephen Jay Gould might have put it. I deal with aspects of the paranormal that could have a natural explanation – I don’t cover the supernatural at all – where Stein is focussed on events that don’t have a possible natural explanation.
After giving us a fair amount of information as to how most paranormal events can’t happen, Stein provides a loophole with a fascinating conjecture that I’ve never seen before. Since the mid twentieth century, mathematicians have been aware that there are some propositions in the mathematical system we use that can never be proved. We think some of them are true, but it has been proved that they can’t be proved. This is a bit like a mathematical version of the logical knots that arise from dealing with the statement ‘This statement is false.’
The great Alan Turing came up with a similar concept to Gödel’s incompleteness theorem for computing – but Stein goes further. He considers the possibility that in an infinite universe (something that may well be the case), there could be a similar concept in physics. There could be phenomena that it is impossible for physics to explain. Ever. And these arguably would be supernatural by definition. This doesn’t mean, of course, that this makes telepathy, say, possible – and Stein doesn’t say this. But it is a truly fascinating bit of thinking on his part.
There are two reasons that this important book doesn’t have more stars. One is that much of it is more about the philosophy of science than science itself, and some of the content is as airy and difficult to pin down as a paranormal event. The other is that it isn’t the easiest of books to read, although it is well worth the effort. (And one or two of the facts quoted outside the main thrust of the book are a little iffy. Stein comments ‘It is certainly true that humans generally use about 10 percent of the brain.’ This is a myth so well established it has its own Wikipedia page.)
However this is without doubt the most original and fascinating book I have read about supernatural phenomena in many years and a highly recommended work for anyone who wants to take an open-minded scientific view of the paranormal.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
December 9, 2020
Lettura pressoché inutile. Libro inconcludente, pieno di aneddoti personali discutibilmente interessanti e di parti di divulgazione scientifica che trovate, fatte meglio, in altre opere. Del paranormale solo l'odore. Titolo pretenzioso, altisonante e pretestuoso per un'opera di dubbio valore e non all'altezza dell'argomento. Non gli do una stella solo per la scelta felice di alcune delle citazioni che contiene. Investite il vostro tempo in letture più edificanti.
August 19, 2020
A physicist tries to prove a hypothetical possibility or impossibility of some well known paranormal occurrences. Well, I felt, he went nowhere in his evidence, which anyway hardly is presented in the book. Unimpressed.
April 20, 2016
Disappointing work. Discusses the concept of an 'paranormal equation' but never gets close to introducing an idea for one.
Dismisses remote viewing because the military abandoned it, failing to note that the military needs VERY high accuracy. Never allows that some individuals (e.g., Joe McMoneagle) achieved statistically high results.
Similarly, never comments of the life work of Edgar Cayce, presumably because no scientist was present to validate his readings.
Dismisses remote viewing because the military abandoned it, failing to note that the military needs VERY high accuracy. Never allows that some individuals (e.g., Joe McMoneagle) achieved statistically high results.
Similarly, never comments of the life work of Edgar Cayce, presumably because no scientist was present to validate his readings.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews