Notes - Paranormality - Richard Wiseman

Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There - Richard Wiseman (2011)

Notes

Introduction

1

My experiment with Jaytee is described in: R. Wiseman, M. Smith, J. Milton (1998). ‘Can animals detect when their owners are returning home? An experimental test of the “psychic pet” phenomenon.’ British Journal of Psychology, 89, 453-62.

Rupert Sheldrake has also conducted research with Jaytee and believes that the results provide evidence for psychic ability. This work is described in his book Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home. My response to these studies is available at www.richardwiseman.com/jaytee.

2

L. J. Chapman and J. P. Chapman (1967). ‘Genesis of popular but erroneous psychodiagnostic observations’. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72, pages 193-204.

3

D. A. Redelmeier and A. Tversky (1996). ‘On the belief that arthritis pain is related to the weather’. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 93, pages 2895-6.

1. FORTUNE-TELLING

1

Much of the information in this section is taken from:

M. J. Mooney (2009). ‘The Demystifying Adventures of the Amazing Randi’. SF Weekly News, August 26. (http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-08-26/news/the-demystifying-adventures-of-the-amazing-randi/1/)

2

For more information about this test, see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/12/psychic-claims-james-randi-paranormal

3

Patricia Putt later complained about the conditions associated with the test. Her remarks, and my commentary on them, can be seen here:

http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/patricia-putt-replies/

4

H. G. Boerenkamp (1988). A Study of Paranormal Impressions of Psychics. CIP-Gegevens Koninklijke, The Hague. This work was also published in a series of articles in the European Journal of Parapsychology from 1983 to 1987.

5

S. A. Schouten, (1994). ‘An overview of quantitatively evaluated studies with mediums and psychics’. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 88, pages 221-54.

6

C. A. Roe (1998). ‘Belief in the paranormal and attendance at psychic readings’. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 90, pages 25-51.

7

For more information about cold reading, see: I. Rowland (1998). The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading. Ian Rowland Limited, London.

8

For a review of this literature, see: D. G. Myers (2008). Social Psychology. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, New York.

9

A. H. Hastorf and H. Cantril (1954). ‘They Saw a Game: A Case Study’. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49, pages 129-34.

10

D. H. Naftulin, J. E. Ware and F. A. Donnelly (1973). ‘The Doctor Fox Lecture: A Paradigm of Educational Seduction’. Journal of Medical Education, 48, pages 630-5.

11

The Editors of Lingua Franca (2000). The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook the Academy. Bison Books, Lincoln, NE.

12

G. A. Dean, I. W. Kelly, D. H. Saklofske and A. Furnham (1992).

‘Graphology and human judgement’. In The Write Stuff (ed. B. Beyerstein and D. Beyerstein), pages 349-95. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY.

13

A. C. Little and D. I. Perrett (2007). ‘Using composite face images to assess accuracy in personality attribution’. British Journal of Psychology, 98, pages 111-26.

14

Figures reproduced with permission from The British Journal of Psychology © The British Psychological Society.

15

For more information about population stereotypes, see: D. Marks (2000). The Psychology of the Psychic (2nd Edition). Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY.

16

S. J. Blackmore (1997). ‘Probability misjudgment and belief in the paranormal: A newspaper survey’. British Journal of Psychology, 88, pages 683-9.

17

B. Jones (1989). King of the Cold Readers: Advanced professional pseudo-psychic techniques. Jeff Busby Magic Inc., Bakersfield, CA.

18

B. Couttie (1988). Forbidden Knowledge: The Paranormal Paradox. Lutterworth Press, Cambridge.

19

W. F. Chaplin, J. B. Phillips, J. D. Brown, N. R. Clanton and J. L. Stein (2000). ‘Handshaking, gender, personality and first impressions’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, pages 110-17.

2. OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES

1

C. A. Alvarado (2000). ‘Out-of-body experiences’. In Varieties of anomalous experiences (ed. E. Cardeña, S. J. Lynn and S. Krippner), pages 183-218. American Psychological Association, Washington D.C.

2

G. Gabbard and S. Twemlow (1984). With the eyes of the mind. Praeger Scientific, New York.

3

For further information about Mumler, see: L. Kaplan (2008). The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer. University of Minnesota Press, MN.

4

For further information about photographing the soul see: H. Carrington and J. R. Meader (1912). Death, its Causes and Phenomena. Rider, London.

5

M. Willin (2007). Ghosts Caught on Film: Photographs of the Paranormal? David & Charles, Cincinnati.

6

D. MacDougall (1907). ‘Hypothesis concerning soul substance, together with experimental evidence of the existence of such substance’. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 1, pages 237-44.

7

M. Roach (2003). Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. W. W. Norton, New York.

8

An account of the experiments carried out by Watters and Hopper can be found in:

S. J. Blackmore (1982). Beyond the Body: An Investigation into Out-of-the-Body Experiences. Paladin Grafton Books, London.

9

K. Clark (1984). ‘Clinical Interventions with Near-Death Experiencers.’ In The Near-Death Experience: Problems, Prospects, Perspectives (ed. B. Greyson and C. P. Flynn), pages 242-55. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL.

10

E. Hayden, S. Mulligan and B. L. Beyerstein (1996). ‘Maria’s NDE: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop’. Skeptical Inquirer, 20(4), pages 27-33.

11

This questionnaire is based upon work described in: A. Tellegen and G. Atkinson (1974). ‘Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences (“absorption”), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility’. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83, pages 268-77.

12

K. Osis (1974). ‘Perspectives for out-of-body research’. In Research in Parapsychology (ed. W. G. Roll, R. L. Morris and J. D. Morris, 1973), pages 110-13.

13

J. Palmer and R. Lieberman (1975). ‘The influence of psychological set on ESP and out-of-body experiences’. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 69, pages 235-43.

J. Palmer and C. Vassar (1974). ‘ESP and out-of-body experiences: An exploratory study’. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 68, pages 257-80.

14

M. Botvinick and J. Cohen (1998). ‘Rubber hands feel touch that eyes see’. Nature, 391, page 756.

15

G. L. Moseley, et al. (2008). ‘Psychologically induced cooling of a specific body part caused by the illusory ownership of an artificial counterpart’. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 105, pages 13169-73.

16

S. Blakeslee and V. S. Ramachandran (1998). Phantoms in the Brain: Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind. William Morrow, New York.

K. C. Armel and V. S. Ramachandran (2003). ‘Projecting sensations to external objects: Evidence from skin conductance response’. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biological, 270, pages 1499-506.

17

V. S. Ramachandran and D. Rogers-Ramachandran (1996). ‘Synaesthesia in phantom limbs induced with mirrors’. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 263, pages 286-377.

18

B. Lenggenhager, T. Tadi, T. Metzinger and O. Blanke (2007). ‘Video ergo sum: Manipulation of bodily self consciousness’. Science. 317, pages 1096-9.

19

E. L. Altschuler and V. S. Ramachandran (2007). ‘A simple method to stand outside oneself’. Perception, 36(4), pages 632-4.

20

S. J. Blackmore and F. Chamberlain (1993). ‘ESP and Thought Concordance in Twins: A Method of Comparison’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. 59, pages 89-96.

21

S. J. Blackmore (1987). ‘Where am I?: Perspectives in imagery, and the out-of-body experience’. Journal of Mental Imagery, 11, pages 53-66.

3. MIND OVER MATTER

1

For further information about Hydrick, see: D. Korem (1988). Powers: Testing the psychic & supernatural. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL.

‘Psychic Confession’, a documentary made by Korem about his time with Hydrick.

J. Randi (1981). ‘“Top Psychic” Hydrick: Puffery and Puffs’. The Skeptical Inquirer, 5(4), pages 15-18.

2

D. Korem and P. D. Meier (1981). The Fakers: Exploding the myths of the supernatural. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MN.

3

R. Beene (1989). ‘“Sir James” molest suspect says he’s misunderstood, but prosecutors insist he’s a con man’. LA Times, February 2006.

4

This test is based on a similar task described in: L. Wardlow Lane, M. Groisman and V. S. Ferreira (2006). ‘Don’t talk about pink elephants! Speakers’ control over leaking private information during language production’. Psychological Science, 17, pages 273-7.

5

J. Steinmeyer (2006). Art and Artifice and Other Essays of Illusion. Carroll & Graf, New York.

6

B. Singer and V. A. Benassi (1980-81). ‘Fooling some of the people all of the time’. Skeptical Inquirer, 5(2), pages 17-24.

7

R. Hodgson and S. J. Davey (1887). ‘The possibilities of malobservation and lapse of memory from a practical point of view’. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 4, pages 381-404.

8

A. R. Wallace (1891). Correspondence: ‘Mr S. J. Davey’s Experiments’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 5, page 43.

9

R. Hodgson (1892). ‘Mr. Davey’s imitations by conjuring of phenomena sometimes attributed to spirit agency’. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 8, pages 252-310.

10

Images reproduced by permission of J. Kevin O’Regan, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception CNRS, Université Paris Descartes.

11

R. Wiseman and E. Haraldsson (1995). ‘Investigating macro-PK in India: Swami Premananda’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 60, pages 193-202.

12

H. Münsterberg (1908). On the Witness Stand: Essays on Psychology and Crime. Page & Co., Doubleday, New York.

13

R. Buckhout (1974). ‘Eyewitness testimony’. Scientific American, 231, pages 23-31.

14

R. Buckhout (1975). ‘Nearly 2000 witnesses can be wrong’. Social Action and the Law, 2, page 7.

4. TALKING WITH THE DEAD

1

For further information about the Fox sisters, see: B. Weisberg (2004). Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco.

2

P. Lamont (2004). ‘Spiritualism and a mid-Victorian crisis of evidence’. Historical Journal, 47(4), pages 897-920.

3

For a comprehensive account of the confession, see: R. B. Davenport (1888). The Death-Blow to Spiritualism: being the true story of the Fox sisters, as revealed by authority of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken. G. W. Dillingham, New York.

4

P. P. Alexander (1871). Spiritualism: a narrative with a discussion. William Nimmo, Edinburgh.

5

N. S. Godfrey (1853). Table Turning: the Devil’s Modern Masterpiece; Being the Result of a Course of Experiments. Thames Ditton, UK.

6

D. Graves (1996). Scientists of Faith. Kregel Resources, Grand Rapids, MI.

7

M. Faraday (1853). ‘Experimental investigation of table moving’. Athenaeum, 1340, pages 801-3.

8

J. Jastrow (1900). Fact and Fable in Psychology. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.

9

For a review of this work, see: E. Jacobson (1982). The Human Mind: A physiological clarification. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL.

10

H. H. Spitz (1997). Nonconscious Movements: From Mystical Messages to Facilitated Communication. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Princeton, NJ.

11

D. M. Wegner and D. J. Schneider (2003). ‘The White Bear Story’. Psychological Inquiry, 14, pages 326-29.

12

O. P. John and J. J. Gross (2004). ‘Healthy and unhealthy emotion regulation: Personality processes, individual differences, and life span development’. Journal of Personality, 72, pages 1301-17.

A. G. Harvey (2003). ‘The attempted suppression of presleep cognitive activity in insomnia’. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, pages 593-602.

13

D. M. Wegner, M. E. Ansfield and D. Pilloff (1998). ‘The putt and the pendulum: Ironic effects of the mental control of action’. Psychological Science, 9, pages 196-9.

14

F. C. Bakker, R. R. D. Oudejans, O. Binsch and J. Van der Kamp (2006). ‘Penalty shooting and gaze International Journal of Sport Psychology, 37, pages 265-80.

15

J. Etkin (2001). ‘Erratic Pitching - performance anxiety of baseball players’. Baseball Digest, August 2001, pages 52-6.

16

W. F. Prince (1964). The Case of Patience Worth. University Books, Inc., New York.

17

D. Wegner (2002). The Illusion of Conscious Will. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

18

B. Libet, C. A. Gleason, E. W. Wright and D. K. Pearl (1983). ‘Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act’. Brain, 106, pages 623-42. B. Libet (1985). ‘Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action’. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8, pages 529-66.

19

Described in ‘Time and the Observer’ by D. C. Dennett and M. Kinsbourne, in The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical debates, (Ned Block, Owen Flanigan, et al., eds., 1997), The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, page 168.

INTERMISSION

1

For further information about Gef, see:

H. Price (1936). Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter. Putnam & Co. Ltd, London.

H. Price and R. S. Lambert (1936). The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap: A Modern ‘Miracle’ Investigated. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London.

5. GHOST-HUNTING

1

D. P. Musella (2005). ‘Gallup poll shows that Americans’ belief in the paranormal persists’. Skeptical Inquirer, 29(5), page 5.

2

R. Lange, J. Houran, T. M. Harte and R. A. Havens (1996). ‘Contextual mediation of perceptions in hauntings and poltergeist-like experiences’. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82, pages 755-62.

3

D. J. Hufford (1982). The Terror That Comes in the Night. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philidelphia.

T. Kotorii, N. Uchimura, Y. Hashizume, S. Shirakawa, T. Satomura et al. (2001). ‘Questionnaire relating to sleep paralysis’. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 55, pages 265-6.

4

C. Bron (2003). ‘The stubborn scientist who unraveled a mystery of the night’. Smithsonian Magazine, October 2003.

5

E. Aserinsky and N. Kleitman (1953). ‘Regularly occurring periods of eye motility, and concomitant phenomena, during sleep’. Science, 118, pages 273-4.

6

For additional information about this work, see:

R. Wiseman, C. Watt, E. Greening, P. Stevens and C. O’Keeffe (2002). ‘An investigation into the alleged haunting of Hampton Court Palace: Psychological variables and magnetic fields’. Journal of Parapsychology, 66(4), pages 387-408.

R. Wiseman, C. Watt, P. Stevens, E. Greening and C. O’Keeffe (2003). ‘An investigation into alleged “hauntings”’. The British Journal of Psychology, 94, pages 195-211.

7

G. W. Lambert (1955). ‘Poltergeists: a physical theory’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 38, pages 49-71.

8

A. Gauld and A. D. Cornell (1979). Poltergeists. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

9

A. Cornell (1959). ‘An experiment in apparitional observation and findings’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 40, pages 120-4.

A. Cornell (1960). ‘Further experiments in apparitional observations’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 40, pages 409-18.

10

V. Tandy and T. Lawrence (1998). ‘The ghost in the machine’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 62, pages 360-4.

11

V. Tandy (2000). ‘Something in the cellar’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 64, pages 129-40.

12

C. M. Cook and M. A. Persinger (1997). ‘Experimental induction of the “sense presence” in normal subjects and an exceptional subject’. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, pages 683-93.

C. M. Cook and M. A. Persinger (2001). ‘Geophysical variables and Perceptual and Motor Skills, 92, pages 447-8.

13

P. Granqvist, M. Fredrikson, P. Unge, A. Hagenfeldt, S. Valind,

D. Larhammar and M. Larsson (2005). ‘Sensed presence and mystical experiences are predicted by suggestibility, not by the application of transcranial weak complex magnetic fields’. Neuroscience Letters, 379, pages 1-6.

M. Larsson, D. Larhammar, M. Fredrikson and P. Granqvist (2005). ‘Reply to M.A. Persinger and S. A. Koren’s response to Granqvist et al. “Sensed presence and mystical experiences are predicted by suggestibility, not by the application of transcranial weak complex magnetic fields”’. Neuroscience Letters, 380, pages 348-50.

For additional information about this work, see: http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041206/full/news041206-10.html

14

C. C. French, U. Haque, R. Bunton-Stasyshyn and R. Davis (2009). ‘The “Haunt” Project: An attempt to build a “haunted” room by manipulating complex electromagnetic fields and infrasound’. Cortex. 45, pages 619-29.

For further information about the possible relationship between hauntings and electromagnetism, see:

J. J. Braithwaite (2008) ‘Putting magnetism in its place: A critical examination of the weak-intensity magnetic field account for anomalous haunt-type experiences’. Journal for the Society of Psychical Research, 890, pages 34-50.

J. J. and M. Townsend (2005). ‘Sleeping with the entity: A quantitative magnetic investigation of an English castle’s reputedly haunted bedroom’. European Journal of Parapsychology. 20.1, pages 65-78.

15

E. E. Slosson (1899). ‘A lecture experiment in hallucinations’. Psychology Review, 6, pages 407-8.

16

M. O’Mahony (1978). ‘Smell illusions and suggestion: Reports of smells contingent on tones played on television and radio’. Chemical Senses and Flavour, 3, pages 183-9.

17

R. Lange and J. Houran (1999). ‘The role of fear in delusions of the paranormal’. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 187, pages 159-66.

18

R. Lange and J. Houran (1997). ‘Context-induced paranormal experiences: Support for Houran and Lange’s model of haunting phenomena’. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 84, pages 1455-8.

19

J. Houran and R. Lange (1996). ‘Diary of events in a thoroughly unhaunted house’. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 83, pages 499-502.

20

Much of the information in this section is based on a report of Smyth’s work in the 1970s BBC documentary series, Leap in the Dark.

21

J. M. Bering (2006). ‘The cognitive psychology of belief in the supernatural’. American Scientist, 94, pages 142-9.

22

J. L. Barrett (2004). Why Would Anyone Believe in God? AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.

6. MIND CONTROL

1

For further information about Bishop, see:

H. H. Spitz (1997). Nonconscious Movements: From mystical messages to facilitated communication. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Princeton, NJ.

R. Jay (1986). Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. Robert Hale, London.

B. H. Wiley (2009). ‘The Thought-Reader Craze’. The Conjuring Arts Research Center. 4(1), pages 9-134. Gibeciere, NY.

2

For more information about Clever Hans, see: H. H. Spitz (1997). Nonconscious Movements: From Mystical Messages to Facilitated Communication. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Princeton, NJ.

O. Pfungst (1911). Clever Hans (The horse of Mr. von Osten): A contribution to experimental animal and human psychology. Henry Holt, New York.

3

R. Rosenthal and K. Fode (1963). ‘The effect of experimenter bias on the performance of the albino rat’. Behavioral Science, 8, pages 183-9.

4

R. Rosenthal and L. Jacobson (1968). Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher expectations and pupils’ intellectual development. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

5

G. L. Wells (1988). Eyewitness Identification: A system handbook. Carswell, Toronto.

6

H. B. Gibson (1991). ‘Can hypnosis compel people to commit harmful, immoral and criminal acts?: A review of the literature’. Contemporary Hypnosis, 8, pages 129-40.

7

M. T. Orne and F. J. Evans (1965). ‘Social control in the psychological experiment: Antisocial behavior and hypnosis’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1, pages 189-200.

8

For further information about Jim Jones, see: J. Mills (1979). Six Years with God. A&W Publishers, New York.

D. G. Myers (2010). Social Psychology (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill, New York.

9

J. L. Freedman and S. C. Fraser (1966). ‘Compliance without pressure: The foot-in-the-door technique’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, pages 196-202.

10

S. E. Asch (1951). ‘Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment’. In Groups, Leadership and Men (ed. H. Guetzkow). Carnegie Press, Pittsburgh, PA.

11

E. Aronson and J. Mills (1959). ‘The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group’. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, pages 177-81.

12

L. Festinger, H. W. Riecken and S. Schachter (1956). When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.

7. PROPHECY

1

J. C. Barker (1967). ‘Premonitions of the Aberfan Disaster’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, December 1967, 44, pages 168-81.

2

A. MacKenzie (1974). The Riddle of the Future: A modern study of precognition. Arthur Barker, London.

3

A. M. Arkin, J. S. Antrobus and J. Ellman (1978). The Mind in Sleep: Psychology and psychophysiology. Erlbaum, New Jersey.

4

J. Nickell (1999). ‘Paranormal Lincoln’. Skeptical Inquirer, 23, 127-31.

5

L. Breger, I. Hunter and R.W. Lane (1971). The Effect of Stress on Dreams. International Universities Press, New York.

6

Taken from: http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/politics/aberfan/dowintro.htm

7

D. M. Wegner, R. M. Wenzlaff and M. Kozak (2004). ‘Dream rebound: The return of suppressed thoughts in dreams’. Psychological Science, 15, pages 232-6.

8

H. A. Murray and D. R. Wheeler (1937). ‘A note on the possible clairvoyance of dreams’. Journal of Psychology, 3, pages 309-13.

9

C. K. Morewedge and M. I. Norton (2009). ‘When dreaming is believing: The (motivated) interpretation of dreams’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, pages 249-64.

10

K. M. T. Hearne (1978). ‘Lucid dreams: an electrophysiological and psychological study’. PhD thesis, University of Hull.

11

The information in this section is based on Stephen LaBerge’s ‘Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams’.

12

A. Revonsuo (2000). ‘The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming’. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, pages 793-1121.

13

F. Crick and G. Mitchison (1983). ‘The function of dream sleep’. Nature, 304, pages 111-14.

14

P. Mcintyre (2006). ‘Paul McCartney and the creation of ‘Yesterday’: the systems model in operation’. Popular Music, 25, pages 201-19.

15

J. A. Hobson and R.W. McCarley (1977). ‘The brain as a dream-state generator: An activation-synthesis hypothesis of the dream process’. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, pages 1335-48.

16

M. Solms and O. H. Turnbull (2007). ‘To sleep, perchance to REM? The rediscovered role of emotion and meaning in dreams’. In Tall Tales About the Mind and Brain (ed. Sergio Della Sala, 2007,) pages 478-500. Oxford University Press, US.

Conclusion

1

J. M. Wood, M. T. Nezworski, S. O. Lilienfeld, H. N. Garb (2002). What’s Wrong With the Rorschach? Science Confronts the Controversial Inkblot Test. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

2

R. Wiseman and C. Watt (2006). ‘Belief in psychic ability and the misattribution hypothesis: A qualitative review’. British Journal of Psychology, 97, pages 323-38.

S. J. Blackmore and R. Moore (1994). ‘Seeing things: Visual recognition and belief in the paranormal’. European Journal of Parapsychology, 10, pages 91-103.

P. Brugger, M. Regard, T. Landis, D. Krebs and J. Niederberger (1994). ‘Coincidences: Who can say how “meaningful” they are?’ In Research in parapsychology (ed. E.W. Cook and D. Delanoy, 1991), pages 94-8. Scarecrow, Metuchen, NJ.

P. Brugger and R. Graves (1998). ‘Seeing connections: associative processing as a function of magical belief’. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, pages 6-7. R. Wiseman and M. D. Smith (2002). ‘Assessing the role of cognitive and motivational biases in belief in the paranormal’. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 66, pages 178-86.

3

J. Jay (2010). ‘Martin Gardner: An Interview’. Magic Magazine, 19(11), pages 58-61.

For further information about this aspect of Gardner’s thinking, see:

M. Gardner (1983). The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener. Quill, New York.

The Instant Superhero Kit

1

B. R. Forer (1949). ‘The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility’. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 44, pages 118-21.

2

G. B. Caputo (2010). ‘Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion’, Perception, 39(7), pages 1007-08.