Provides clear and open-minded discussions of the paranormal spectrum, belief justification surveys, the
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Part I Introduction 1
1 Critical Thinking: Your Survival Kit 3
2 The Paranormal Spectrum 13
3 What’s the Harm? Why Study These Things? 25
Part II The Critical Thinker’s Toolkit 47
4 Sources 49
5 Logic (Bonus: The Big Four Informal Logical Fallacies) 61
6 Logic and Language: Fallacies of Ambiguity 79
7 Science 93
Part III Alternative Explanations 115
8 Oddities of Nature and the World of Numbers 117
9 Perceptual Error and Trickery 135
10 Memory Errors 155
11 The Placebo Effect 167
12 Sensory Phenomena, Hallucinations, and Psychiatric Conditions 189
Part IV Paranormal Challenges 211
13 Claims of Extraordinary Cures 213
14 From the Paranormal Sampler: Four Claims of Consequence 229
Appendix A: Why Do You Believe? 255
Appendix B: Belief Justification Survey 261
Notes 271
References 273
Index 295
