See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/349053704

Book Review: Dean Radin (2013): Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence
for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities

Article in Journal of Scientific Exploration · June 2013

CITATIONS READS

0 930

1 author:

Gerhard Mayer
Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene
85 PUBLICATIONS 172 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Astrology and Science View project

DFG-Projekt: Die Inszenierung des 'Germanischen' im Neuheidentum der Gegenwart (2006-2009) View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Gerhard Mayer on 05 February 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 403–408, 2014 0892-3310/14

BOOK REVIEW

Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary

Psychic Abilities by Dean Radin. New York: Deepak Chopra Books,
2013. 400 pp. ISBN 978-0307986900.

“It’s only a matter of will . . . you just have to train, gentlemen.” Thus the
commentary of a fakir to the inquiring looks of baffled and curious medical
doctors who visited him backstage after his spectacular performances. Such
performances included an act where he hung himself with his unprotected
chin on a swinging trapeze using a razor-sharp sword as a bar. Other acts
consisted of various perforations of his body. His helpers, for example,
beat two meat hooks through his shoulders and heaved him up with the
help of a block and tackle. The fakir said that he is able to make his body
partly or absolutely pain-free and numb by extreme concentration and
autosuggestion. The newly afflicted wounds, added daily, did not bleed. He
said: “If they bleed it is a warning signal. Then the suggestion isn’t strong
enough.” All the wounds were healed the following morning and one could
only see tiny little white points.
It seems obvious what this ‘story’ has to do with the topic of the
book under review. We learn from a person with extraordinary abilities
performing actions that are commonly known in connection with East Asian
religious rituals, Indian sādhus, and yogic techniques. The latter build the
content framework of Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for
Extraordinary Psychic Abilities by Dean Radin. But why this little ‘story’ as
kind of an introduction? It should serve to point toward some particular issues
concerning the book and its topic. However, it is not a ‘story’ taken from
Radin’s work but found in an issue of the German weekly newsmagazine
Der Spiegel from 1949,1 and it does not deal with an Indian sādhu but with
German house-painter Anton Petersen who performed during the 1940s and
1950s under the stage name Carry Sunland. Although he developed interests
in psychology, occultism, yoga, and spiritism in Berlin in the 1920s, he was
certainly not in line with Indian sādhus and the yogic traditions, neither
culturally nor with regard to his worldview or spiritually. The crucial point
is: Could the extraordinary abilities of a German stage performer justifiably
be compared with the siddhis, the spiritual, supernatural powers which
can be acquired through certain spiritual practices? That remains an open
question to me—as do some of the issues mentioned in Radin’s book.
404 Book Reviews

It’s a quite common belief that human paranormal abilities are less
evident in modern Western societies, as a consequence of processes of
civilization (technologization, alienation from nature, etc.). Because of
this, the view on foreign cultures with a non-Western worldview is often
attractive for Western parapsychological researchers (and not only for them),
and winged by the hope that there is something new to be learned about the
possibility of studying paranormal phenomena. The anecdotal reports of
such phenomena occurring, for example, in shamanic societies, in South
American countries such as Brazil, or in Hindu and Buddhist cultures, are
fascinating and stimulating (cf. Bozzano 1941, David-Néel 1933, Playfair
1975, and many more). It was one of my expectations to obtain further
information—both ample and scientifically sound—about paranormal
phenomena in a non-Western culture. This was because the book’s title and
subtitle suggest this with its explicit reference to yoga, and to extraordinary
abilities. This expectation unfortunately was not fulfilled. The book is largely
about the results of Western parapsychological (experimental) research as
well as the particular problems with regard to how the scientific community
deals with the results of this research. First and foremost, the Yoga Sūtras
written by the Indian sage Patañjali, and particularly the siddhis, build a
contextual framework for the presentation of the above-mentioned main
issues.
The book is divided into three main parts entitled From Legendary Yoga
Superpowers (Part I, 7 chapters, 115 pages), To Modern Science (Part II, 7
chapters, 167 pages), and And Beyond (Part III, 2 chapters, 34 pages). This
sounds conclusive, and suggests a coherent line of development from the past
to the present age and into the future, which seems to be reflected in a clear
outline of the volume. But this association is slightly misleading because
the chapters of the first as well as the last part are much more heterogeneous
with regard to their content than the chapters of the second part. Chapters
2, 6, and 7 directly refer to the yogic tradition, and its transmission and
reception in the Western world during the 20th and 21st centuries. The latter
is a core chapter for the author, insofar as he lists the twenty-five siddhis,
describes them briefly, and tries to relate them to the well-known Western
categories of psi (telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, precognition,
retrocognition, and, as a less common category, exceptional mind–body
control). The other chapters deal with shamanism, psychedelics, and
extreme sports (“Other Realities”), with mysticism, marvelous stories,
medical miracles, and skeptics (“Mysticism and Miracles”), and with
current taboos and beliefs represented and promoted by mainstream science
as well as by skeptics (“Unbelievable”). The two chapters of the third part
are entitled “Pragmatics” and “Future Human.” The first chapter includes
Book Reviews 405

a description of a series of experiments

on precognition with a technique called
associative remote viewing. The pragmatic
aspect lies in the chosen field of application:
The Ironman triathlon competitor Gregor
Kolodziejzyk tried to “Beat Wall Street”
(p. 287) in these experiments (and he was
successful!). There is an account of a crime
being solved by a psychic detective in the
year 2012. These two short reports should
demonstrate that human psi capabilities
are not only of interest with regard to
ontological or spiritual issues but also could
be used to cope with everyday problems.
The last chapter of the third part takes up
some points mentioned in the first part of
the book: the faults and shortcomings of the dominant worldview of the
West based on the assumptions of mainstream science, as well as a ‘new’
view which takes the provocative statements of quantum theory seriously.
Radin systematizes his critique of the ‘mainstream approach to reality’ by
listing “eight doctrinal assumptions that underlie the present scientific view
of reality” (p. 298). He called them “the eightfold path of science.” With
this, he refers directly to the “Noble Eightfold Path” of the teachings of the
Buddha which contains eight elements of ‘right’ behaviour. In contrast, the
“eightfold path of science” is not noble at all but contains eight incorrect
doctrines, as Radin demonstrates, mainly by arguing with the results
of quantum-theory–oriented research. He speculates on the ‘function’
consciousness may have as a kind of glue: “. . . could consciousness be a
fundamental force in the universe that binds and shapes how the universe
manifests?” (p. 312).
The main part of the book which impressed me as most scientifically
sound and valid is dedicated to different areas of parapsychological
research: precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis in living and in inanimate
systems, and clairvoyance. Two further chapters deal with the question of
how siddhis could be scientifically tested (“Science and the Siddhis”), and
of the influence of meditation on the results of psi experiments (“Psi and
Meditation”). With the former, Radin associates different psi research areas
to yogic practices and presents cases of the investigation of “intermediate
big siddhis (. . .): the ability to raise the body’s core temperature to allow one
to comfortably remain in snow and ice without clothing, and to no longer
eat food” (p. 123). There are a few people who demonstrated such abilities
406 Book Reviews

and then underwent scientific investigation. Obviously, the overview on

parapsychological research with its different areas, methodological problems,
and experimental paradigms is not complete. The author doesn’t want to
bore the reader with the dry reading of a textbook with equally weighted
and structured chapters. So, for example, the chapter on clairvoyance is very
short. Radin refers to his earlier books The Conscious Universe (1997) and
Entangled Minds (2006) which include a more comprehensive description
of research in this area. In Supernormal he confines himself to two cases
of “extreme clairvoyance” (title of the subchapter), and to a case of remote
viewing. Areas that formed the focus of research of the author himself,
together with his collaborators, are described in more detail. And there is
a huge number of intriguing studies with interesting results. Radin belongs
to a group of successful and efficient experimental parapsychologists,
as most of readers of this journal already know. Despite the fact that he
focuses somewhat on his own research, it is not a self-congratulatory report.
For him, the content and issues of his work seem to be more important
than any image cultivation. In addition to experimental results, the author
explains methodological and statistical issues such as the method of meta-
analyses, the meaning of the effect sizes, and the use of Bayesian techniques
for analyzing experimental data. Part II of the book is primarily dedicated
to answering the question of whether there is “scientific support for the
ontological reality of the mystical realities underlying most religions” (p.
xxi) and whether the yoga superpowers, the siddhis, are actually real, or
only to be interpreted on a symbolic level.
Supernormal is a well-written, easily readable, and informative book
which provides a good overview on the major objectives of experimental
parapsychology. Sometimes the presentation of the results of the para-
psychological research sounds smoother and more streamlined than is
actually the case. But this does not alter the fact that it clearly shows how
much the evidence for the existence of paranormal phenomena has grown.
This can only be ignored by hard-nosed skeptics. Moreover, the book gives
a lively display of the problems that are encountered by serious researchers
in the field of parapsychology when they want to publish their significant
results, as well as the resistance encountered in getting the evidence
accepted, and the irrational reactions of most of the scientific community
when confronted with such results. Therefore, I can fully recommend it.
However, the question is: Who is the audience for this book?
Parapsychological researchers won’t find very much new information.
There is a considerable overlap with the two other mentioned books by
Radin. Maybe the style of the book gives the answer. We find little pictures
at the beginning of every chapter that remind me of fantasy comics. Deepak
Book Reviews 407

Chopra contributed a Foreword to the book, in which he quotes Einstein:

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” (p.
xiv), pointing toward the relationship of modern science and older spiritual
traditions which both provide visionary looks into the future of humanity. In
the case of Supernormal this is a fairly optimistic perspective. It promises
the possibility of the development of new psychical hidden human capacities
as well as a change in society. Radin speculates at the end of the book:

What might happen when this ancient–modern integration becomes a real-

ity? On the beneficial side we can anticipate improved health care through
a vastly better understanding of the mind–body relationship. We may see
development of technologies that treat aspects of the mind–body system
that are well understood in the wisdom traditions but are ignored by West-
ern medicine (for the most part). . . . We may see a substantial reduction in
interpersonal conflict through a broader recognition of the interconnected-
ness of all life. As the boundaries between subjective and objective realities
are better understood, the communications and energy industries may be
radically altered. On the other hand, we are likely to find that some aspects
of the wisdom traditions are seriously distorted and in some cases are dan-
gerously wrong. We may find growing societal resistance at the prospect
of being “absorbed” into an increasingly powerful collective mind. And we
may pass through a time when horrifically powerful weapons are created
that reshape space–time and possibly even alter history. . . . From what I’ve
seen in recent years, this transition has already begun. When it reaches frui-
tion, humanity may finally find itself at childhood’s end. (p. 319)

With this vision of the future, it can be put in line with ‘classic’ New Age
books such as, for example, Fritjof Capra’s popular scientifically written
The Tao of Physics (1975), reaching a similarly interested readership.
However, if the reader wants to learn something profound about the
particular relationship between psi and yoga, or better yet psi in yogic
techniques, he won’t find a lot of solid information. The two main questions
of the book are:

a) Are the siddhis actually real? Answer: partly. This can be proved by the results
of Western parapsychological research. Those ones that cannot be proved by
scientific experiments are pure fantasy.
b) How can it be that some of the siddhis are real? Answer: They are not miracles
but are understandable with a new worldview informed by quantum theories,
the relativity of time and space, and the meaning of consciousness.

A big question that remains unanswered is the one I quoted at the

beginning of this review, and I want to come back to the introductory example
of the German fakir: Could his capabilities be understood in line with that of
 408 Book Reviews

Indian sādhus? Further questions pop up: What role does the spiritual context
play with regard to a correct understanding of what really happens? Could
psi phenomena, detected in the laboratory of parapsychologists, justifiably
be identified with the siddhis of the Yoga Sūtras? Is it correct to adopt the
explanations found for such psi phenomena to explain the siddhis? Are such
siddhis, which are judged by Radin to be pure fantasy, based on the fact that
they don’t fit into the scheme and concepts of Western parapsychological
research? And what about the widespread assumption that psi capabilities
cannot be trained (based on quantum theoretical considerations), which
is contradictory to the Yoga Sūtras that “tell us that the development of
the siddhis is intimately related to yoga practice, and in particular to the
meditation component of yoga” (p. 274). Is a quantum theory model—the
only theoretical model the author mentions in his book—the one and only
one to explain the siddhis as well as psi phenomena in Western laboratories?
It is only possible to speculate on answers to these questions, of course. But
in this matter Radin largely leaves the readership alone regarding further
reflections and arguments—unfortunately (in my view).

Note
1
http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=44435235&a
ref=image036/2005/12/13/sp19490327-T2P-027.pdf&thumb=false
[Translation in the text of this review by the author]

GERHARD MAYER

References
Bozzano, E. (1941). Popoli primitivi e manifestazioni supernormali. Verona: L’Albero.
Capra, F. (1975). The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and
Eastern Mysticism. Berkeley, CA: Shambala.
David-Néel, A., & d’Arsonval, A. (1933). Magic and Mystery in Tibet. New York: Kendall.
Playfair, G. L. (1975). The Flying Cow. Research into Paranormal Phenomena in the World’s Most
Psychic Country. London: Souvenir Press.
Radin, D. I. (1997). The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena. New York:
HarperEdge.
Radin, D. I. (2006). Entangled Minds. Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality. New York:
Paraview Pocket Books.

View publication stats