Book Review on The Noetic Universe

Dean Radin (1997, 2009) The Noetic Universe: The Scientific Evidence for Psychic Phenomena (London: Transworld Publishers)- originally published as The Conscious Universe (1997) by HarperCollins Publishers.

Noetic Science was mentioned in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol and is currently the context of J.J.Brahms' television series Fringe. Noetic science is the science of the paranormal. Popularly called PSI studies, noetic sciences studies the phenomenon of telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, precognition, ESP and OBE (out of body experiences). In this well documented book, Dean Radin relates the numerous research studies that have already been done on these phenomenon. These studies were done using the strict scientific criteria and tools as in other studies in physics and biology. In this book, Radin highlights the scientific methodology and its limitations. He laments the biasness of mainline scientists when it comes to noetic sciences.While the results of these researches in noetic sciences are not as clearcut as in other sciences, there is enough to show that there is something there that cannot be discounted or dismissed easily.

Personally I believe there are phenomena that cannot be explained because of the limitations of the scientific method and the scientific language. Another area of interest is whether some religious phenomena such as glossolalia (speaking in tongues),prophecy, spiritual gifts of word of knowledge, and spiritual (or divine) healing may be explained by noetic science. Prophecy may be some form of precognition and spiritual gift of word of knowledge may be some form of clairvoyance. It will be interesting to watch for further development in this field.