But if this is the case, I think you have to wave good-bye to ever achieving”proof” – at least the kind that will stand up, statistically and methodologically, to the standards of peer review and academic orthodoxy. If paranormal insights occur rarely, and largely outside of voluntary control, then perhaps it makes sense to focus on isolated moments – when the energy is right, whatever that might mean, and the medium is in fine fettle. She also points out, in light of these ‘dazzle shots’ of mediums, that perhaps it isn’t even something science can deal with: I think Schwartz falls short of that territory, and he feels the same way about me. “Both Gary Schwartz and I believe ourselves to be neutral, unbiased inhabitors of the middle ground. Roach sums up with a good insight into the difficulties of finding ‘who is right’ in their approach to finding the truth: “Here is the funny thing,” she says. But then she confesses to being gobsmacked when ‘super-medium’ Allison Dubois off-handedly mentions that she was being shown something about Roach’s brother and an hourglass – he is a collector of hourglasses. When visiting the mediumship research program conducted by Dr Gary Schwartz, she takes issue with his overly keen attempts to see ‘hits’ from mediums. That is not to say that she presents the entire book from a skeptical viewpoint. The book entertains the reader primarily by laughing at researchers’ (and our own) overzealous attempts to find something beyond death.

It soon becomes apparent when reading the book though that Roach is more interested in the ‘follies’ of science. Gary Schwartz’s mediumship research, technological attempts to talk with the dead, and Michael Persinger’s ‘sensed presence’ research with electromagnetic fields. During the book, written as a travelogue, she tours through topics such as reincarnation, attempts to weigh the soul, ectoplasm, Dr. That approach has its positives (less likely to align to one side or the other on pure bias – although no doubt there were some), but also negatives (in that she is bound to miss some important research in the vast literature).

In the introduction, Mary Roach makes clear that she started her research from absolute zero – she knew nothing about the topic. Roach’s previous book, Stiff, had received very good reviews, so it was likely the new book would be perfectly suited to me. So I was eager to read Mary Roach’s book Spook (Amazon US and UK), with its subtitle “Science tackles the afterlife”. I have a soft spot for research into the possibility of an afterlife.There’s some fascinating evidence out there that deserves closer inspection, and yet it is basically a heresy for any scientist to become involved in doing so.

Spook by mary roach summary