"Do you believe in magic?"
I was one of those strange kids who liked writing book reports. So, I figure I’ll start to write more about what’s on my bookshelf, if only to have a biblio-biography.
This week, I bought and devoured “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife,” by Mary Roach. (I also got “Cien Años de Soledad” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but it will take me about a hundred years to read it in Spanish.)
I’m trying to cut back on my book purchases, but I liked the first seventy pages I read at Borders so I shelled out. Quite possibly it was that I recognized some of my own writing style in her humor and penchant towards irrelevant asides and puns that are nevertheless amusing.
The title is the usual marketing-inspired misnomer and the book is not really going to satisfy the serious souls who would take the title literally.
Taken as nothing more than a handful of journalistic vignettes of Roach’s encounters with historical and present-day seekers of the soul, it is very entertaining. It does not stake out a strong position on the question in so much as take a gander at the cast of characters who seek and have sought to claim to examine the afterlife question in a manner analogous to any other scientific topic.
She points out the methodological flaws of much of that research, most notably the work of Duncan MacDougall, famous for “ascertaining” that the soul weighs 21 grams, when he had only six test subjects and was not able to replicate his initial result with any consistency. While pointing out the often ridiculous hypotheses and research methods that can be hilarious, she doesn’t try to decide whether the given individual is acting in the spirit of science, or the spirit, well, of the spirits.
Although it was a bit tedious on occasion, it was interesting to learn about the origins of “ectoplasm” and the mechanisms for medium-ship. (Hint: Variants of “ectoplasm” ranging from lamb organs to wool were sometimes hidden by mediums near where the sun doth not shine. "Tainted" evidence for the supernatural, I guess.) If for nothing else, there’s great trivia to be learned.
In terms of jumping off points that I’d like to learn more about, she mentions that the rise of Spiritualism corresponded to the development of inventions we now take for granted, such as the telephone and radio (explaining why some notable inventors and scientists were involved in the movement).
But most of all, if two of her interviewees are correct, they have the formulas for creating the most awesome haunted house possible. One, an engineer named Vic Tandy thinks that some visual apparitions are explained by sounds in the 19 Hertz infrasound-range, which may cause interference with the aqueous fluids of the eye as well as the balance organs (which might create artifacts in the peripheral vision and feelings of unease). Another tries to initiate hallucinations using focused magnetic fields. Hopefully, these will both be a part of the Disney Haunted Mansion circa 2020.
What’s disappointing about reading the book is precisely what’s disappointing about the subject matter. I still remember my disappointment when I was a kindergartner and excitedly ordered a magic book from the books they sold at school, only to find that I couldn’t really make anything disappear. Magic consisted of sleights of hand and not the fantastical, so I lost all in interest in it. Likewise, if the characters canvassed in “Spook” are representative, there’s nothing of great interest in psychic or afterlife research at second or third glance other than for comic material. And yet, I think most hold that great curiosity for a genuine phenomenon to be found, because it’s just more fun to think “the truth is out there.”
This week, I bought and devoured “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife,” by Mary Roach. (I also got “Cien Años de Soledad” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but it will take me about a hundred years to read it in Spanish.)
I’m trying to cut back on my book purchases, but I liked the first seventy pages I read at Borders so I shelled out. Quite possibly it was that I recognized some of my own writing style in her humor and penchant towards irrelevant asides and puns that are nevertheless amusing.
The title is the usual marketing-inspired misnomer and the book is not really going to satisfy the serious souls who would take the title literally.
Taken as nothing more than a handful of journalistic vignettes of Roach’s encounters with historical and present-day seekers of the soul, it is very entertaining. It does not stake out a strong position on the question in so much as take a gander at the cast of characters who seek and have sought to claim to examine the afterlife question in a manner analogous to any other scientific topic.
She points out the methodological flaws of much of that research, most notably the work of Duncan MacDougall, famous for “ascertaining” that the soul weighs 21 grams, when he had only six test subjects and was not able to replicate his initial result with any consistency. While pointing out the often ridiculous hypotheses and research methods that can be hilarious, she doesn’t try to decide whether the given individual is acting in the spirit of science, or the spirit, well, of the spirits.
Although it was a bit tedious on occasion, it was interesting to learn about the origins of “ectoplasm” and the mechanisms for medium-ship. (Hint: Variants of “ectoplasm” ranging from lamb organs to wool were sometimes hidden by mediums near where the sun doth not shine. "Tainted" evidence for the supernatural, I guess.) If for nothing else, there’s great trivia to be learned.
In terms of jumping off points that I’d like to learn more about, she mentions that the rise of Spiritualism corresponded to the development of inventions we now take for granted, such as the telephone and radio (explaining why some notable inventors and scientists were involved in the movement).
But most of all, if two of her interviewees are correct, they have the formulas for creating the most awesome haunted house possible. One, an engineer named Vic Tandy thinks that some visual apparitions are explained by sounds in the 19 Hertz infrasound-range, which may cause interference with the aqueous fluids of the eye as well as the balance organs (which might create artifacts in the peripheral vision and feelings of unease). Another tries to initiate hallucinations using focused magnetic fields. Hopefully, these will both be a part of the Disney Haunted Mansion circa 2020.
What’s disappointing about reading the book is precisely what’s disappointing about the subject matter. I still remember my disappointment when I was a kindergartner and excitedly ordered a magic book from the books they sold at school, only to find that I couldn’t really make anything disappear. Magic consisted of sleights of hand and not the fantastical, so I lost all in interest in it. Likewise, if the characters canvassed in “Spook” are representative, there’s nothing of great interest in psychic or afterlife research at second or third glance other than for comic material. And yet, I think most hold that great curiosity for a genuine phenomenon to be found, because it’s just more fun to think “the truth is out there.”
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