A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
This American Psychological Association volume surveys research on unusual subjective experiences including synesthesia, hallucinations, lucid dreams, out-of-body and near-death experiences, anomalous healing, mystical experience, psi reports, past-life reports, and alien-abduction narratives. It studies the experiences and evidence without assuming that every report shares one cause.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
The Library needs a rigorous reference for experiences that are often either sensationalized or dismissed too quickly. This volume helps travelers distinguish the fact of an experience, possible psychological mechanisms, available evidence, and larger claims about what the experience ultimately means.
Good starting place if…
You want a research-oriented examination of unusual experiences and are comfortable with an academic reference work rather than a spiritual or self-help guide.
Know before you begin…
This is a dense multi-author scholarly collection, and the evidence differs substantially by phenomenon. Studying why an experience occurs does not settle its personal meaning; taking an experience seriously does not establish its paranormal interpretation. It is not a crisis-care or diagnostic manual.