Reality Check

A review of

Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical

Thinkers Toolkit
by Jonathan C. Smith
Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. 410 pp. ISBN 978-1-4051-8123-5
(hardcover); ISBN 978-1-4051-8122-8 (paperback). $94.95, hardcover;
$41.95, paperback

Reviewed by
David Ludden

I had saved Jonathan Smiths Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal:
A Critical Thinkers Toolkit for my Chicago-to-Shanghai flight.
So, youre interested in paranormal phenomena, said the woman next to me, clearly
interested in what I was reading.
This book explains the psychological processes that lead people to fall for
paranormal thinking, I told her.
Then you dont believe in ghosts or ESP?
No.
She turned away and put on her headphones; I never heard another word from her for
the rest of the flight.
Id had a similar experience several years ago when I offered a special topics course
called Science, Pseudoscience, and the Paranormal. A dozen students showed up the first

day, many of them already very knowledgeable about ancient astronauts and astral
projection. Only five stayed for the rest of the semester; these students were already
skeptical of paranormal claims and wanted to learn how to defend their position.
In that course, we read Terence Hiness (2003) Pseudoscience and the Paranormal
and Carl Sagans (1996) Demon-Haunted World as well as materials Id culled from various
skeptical websites. Had Smiths text been available, I definitely would have chosen it for the
course. It has generally the same coverage of paranormal claims as Hiness book while more
fully elaborating Sagans Baloney Detection Kit, integrating this set of critical thinking tools
into the structure of the text.
Smith divides his book into three parts. In Part I, he examines the range of paranormal
claims and explains why it is important to study them. Here he introduces his Continuum
Mysteriosum. On the borderline end of the continuum, he places pseudoscientific claims
such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, which do not violate the laws of physics but
lack hard evidence in support of them. On the other end of the continuum are supernatural
claims such as faith healing and life after death, which are simply not in accord with the
known laws of the physical universe.
The author also explains his two-fold purpose for writing this text. First, he wants to
examine why some people are prone to paranormal thinking; second, he wants to use
pseudoscientific case studies to demonstrate how the scientific method provides us with a
tool kit for critically examining any claim. Furthermore, Smith emphasizes that the skeptic
should not summarily dismiss pseudoscientific claims, especially those at the borderline end
of the Continuum Mysteriosum, and he gives two examplesmeteors and hypnosisthat
were once dismissed by scientists as impossible but are now accepted as real.
In Part II, Smith elaborates his Critical Thinkers Toolkit. This tool kit consists of two
components: one for evaluating support for a claim and another for generating alternative
explanations. In evaluating support for a claim, the critical thinker needs to evaluate the
credibility of the source, the logic of the argument, and the scientific merit of the claim.
Many paranormal claims are made by laypersons, but even highly trained scientists can fall
for pseudoscientific thinking when they investigate phenomena outside their field of
expertise.
Moreover, even experts in the field can get things wrong. Then again, it is in the
nature of science that it changes and develops as new data are acquired, as opposed to
ancient wisdom, which is either static over centuries or else varies according to the whims
of individual practitioners.
Chapters on the fundamentals of logic and the scientific method are presented in this
section as well. Logic does not come to us naturally; rather, we evaluate claims intuitively,
accepting what fits into our belief system and rejecting everything else. However, to be
intellectually honest, we must consider the logical support for ideas, even our most cherished
beliefs, and the only way to avoid the pitfall of intuition is to learn the rules of logic and
apply them in a conscious manner.

It is also important to understand that, while a scientific claim must be logically

sound, the ultimate measure of scientific validity is careful observation. The average person
is not a good judge of what constitutes solid empirical evidence; thus, Smith provides a
chapter on how to evaluate observational data. Here, he introduces two helpful tools,
Sagans Balance (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence) and the FEDS
Standard (Fraud, Error, Deception, and Sloppiness), which serve as useful mnemonics when
one is evaluating the quality of the data supporting a claim.
Most people will readily accept any explanation that is intuitively sound, but the
hallmark of a scientific thinker is the ability to entertain alternative explanations for an
observed event. The key here is to know where to look for alternative explanations, and
Smith devotes five chapters to this. This section of the book will be familiar territory to any
psychologist, as paranormal phenomena can usually be explained in terms of cognitive
errors. For example, peoples intuitions about probability and randomness are flawed,
leading them to detect patterns where none exist. Likewise, people do not understand the
constructive nature of perception and memory and instead trust that what they see, hear, or
remember is accurate. The placebo effect and its relationship to complementary and
alternative medicine are also considered in this section.
In Part III, Smith examines five classes of paranormal phenomena. The approach in
this section resembles that of Hines (2003), but Smith does not cover the full range of
pseudoscientific claims the way Hines does. Instead, Smiths purpose is to provide a few
examples of how his Critical Thinking Toolkit can be used to evaluate extraordinary claims.
Specifically, he devotes a chapter each to spiritualism, parapsychology, complementary and
alternative medicine, faith healing, and creationism, all of which have wide currency in
contemporary American society. Each chapter is supplemented with critical thinking
exercises, and Smiths active engagement of the reader makes this book superior to others in
the field. Smith concludes the book with the outline for a culminating project in critical
thinking, and he even includes a sample term paper examining urine therapy (the claimed
benefits of drinking ones urine).
One of the greatest strengths of this book is its active engagement of the reader. Every
few pages, Smith interrupts the text with a Reality Check box, a set of discussion questions
that challenge students to think more deeply about the implications of what they have just
read. Furthermore, the examination of pseudoscientific claims as a means for teaching
critical thinking skills is clever. There are other critical thinking texts on the market. For
example, Schick and Vaughns (2005) How to Think About Weird Things is a solid textbook,
but the examples tend to be dry. However, many college students are interested in the
paranormal. They are exposed to it in the media, and they talk about it among themselves.
As they work through this text, they will find their pet paranormal phenomena debunked,
forcing them to examine their own beliefs and attitudes.
If there is a weakness in this text, it is one that is common to most books in this field,
namely the treatment of religion as a paranormal phenomenon. While it is true that many of

the foundational beliefs of religious systems, such as virgin birth and reincarnation, clearly
violate the laws of physics, there seems to be, at least to this reviewer, a qualitative
difference between believing that J. Z. Knight can channel the spirit of the prehistoric
warrior Ramtha and faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem our sins in that the
latter is a shared belief that binds a community together.
Perhaps Richard Dawkins (2006) was right when he asserted that most people simply
accept the tenets of the faith they grow up with, never considering whether those beliefs
make sense; however, religion also serves an important social function that other paranormal
beliefs, whether in telekinesis or cryptozoology, do not. To Smiths credit, though, he does
urge his readers not to be aggressive in challenging the pseudoscientific beliefs of others but
rather to ask questions in a respectful manner. No doubt many people will find Smiths
magnanimous approach more palatable than Dawkinss evangelical atheism.
Smiths work is a valuable contribution to the field. It will certainly be of interest to
psychologists interested in the consequences of cognitive errors, and it is no doubt the best
textbook on the market for a course on the psychology of paranormal belief. Although Smith
explains paranormal thinking in terms of cognitive errors, his presentation of psychological
issues is not technical; thus, this text would be especially useful in a freshman seminar, so
popular now on American campuses, whose purpose is to help entering college students
develop critical thinking skills. Students will either love or hate this text, but they will not be
left unchanged by it. And that, after all, is what college is all about.

References
Dawkins, R. (2006). The God delusion. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
Hines, T. (2003). Pseudoscience and the paranormal: A critical examination of the evidence.
Amherst, NY: Prometheus.
Sagan, C. (1996). The demon-haunted world: Science as a candle in the dark. New York,
NY: Ballantine.
Schick, T., & Vaughn, L. (2005). How to think about weird things: Critical thinking for a
new age. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

PsycCRITIQUES

April 21, 2010, Vol. 55, Release 16, Article 1

1554-0138

2010, American Psychological Association