Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience

This book is very good. It tackles a variety of topics and attempts to explain them in a straightforward and balanced manner. The book deals with many topics in pseudo science, from the standard Bigfoot and UFO faire, through the crazy explanations of crop circles and hypnosis on to things that may be legitimate science in some cases, but where pseudo scientists latch onto them and turn them into something that isn?t as much science as an aspect of some kind of crazed religion. It also covers several religious and historical topics where they have been known to intersect with pseudo science over the years, such as The Church of Scientology and the stone megaliths of Europe. The largest flaw this book may have is at times it comes off as being too understanding of the topics it is attempting to, for lack of a better word here, debunk. It is a more scholarly version of what Robert Todd Carroll did with his excellent ?The Skeptic's Dictionary?.

Here's a book designed to fill a real need for worshipers of true science. It's an encyclopedia that discusses many of those shameful heretical theories, and includes biographies of those villains who propose them. But wait a minute. Why are there articles in here on Louis Pasteur, the big bang theory, biofeedback, continental drift, and Sir Isaac Newton? Half the book is filled with supposed charlatans and groundless theories while the other half reads like a who's who of science. Sir Isaac Newton? One brief sentence in a long biography of him mentions that he was interested in alchemy. Continental drift and Big Bang? The author states that when first proposed these theories were thought to be nonsense. Well, isn't that the case with a lot of theories? Alfred Wegener had a lot of evidence to support his 1915 theory of continental drift. You don't have evidence in pseudoscience (that's what makes it pseudoscience). The author praises biofeedback as effective, stating that it is based on sound scientific principles. So why is it in this book?Rest assured there are articles on pseudoscience in the book. You'll find sections on Theosophy, lycanthropy, kickapoo oil, the I ching, Hoxsey's cancer treatment, Our Lady of Fatima, fairies, dowsing, Madame Blavatsky, and Immanuel Velikovsky. I found almost all of the articles interesting to read regardless of subject.There is suggested reading material at the end of many articles, and, at the end of the book, an immense bibliography of books. I do wish that Mr. Williams had left out the articles on subjects that admittedly are real science, and used the space for more material on pseudoscience. In his discussion of parapsychology, for example, he mentions that experiments in the field have become more rigorous in recent years. Yet he says nothing either about the design problems of older experiments, or the results of the newer, better controlled studies. He also doesn't comment on the vast amount of material critiquing parapsychology - the 1987 study by the National Academy of Sciences, for example.I should stress that this is a book for true skeptics. If you believe in homeopathy, reflexology or astrology you will need your blood pressure medication when you read this. If you believe in all three of those above theories, well, you might suffer a cerebrovascular accident (stroke) by the time you reach page 46.