The Psychic Handbook: Discover and Enhance Your Hidden Psychic Powers
by Craig & Jane Hamilton Parker
Vermilion, £10.99, ISBN 978-0091790868
Do you finish people’s sentences for them? Have you ever tried to ring someone only to find they were trying to ring you? Do animals either love you or hate you for no reason at all? These are all signs of the untapped psychic abilities that everyone has. The authors came to ‘fame’ on The Big Breakfast and this is the cashing-in book; the fact that it is still in print after 13 years says more about its target audience than the quality of the contents. This book will “change your life” with instructions on how to unleash your inner psychic – open your chakras, read auras, do psychometry, crystal healing, precognition, read tea leaves, telepathy and so on. It is peppered with “Strange Psychic Stories of the Stars” – celebrity endorsements of psychic reality.
Not only will you be able to predict world events, you will be able to change the shape of clouds with the power of your mind! There is even a set of Zener cards at the end for you to cut out and colour in. There is a note of caution about not going too far until you have fully developed your powers, and a warning about bogus psychics, but the tone is gushing and uncritical throughout, with unqualified statements like: “The very same geophysical forces that destroyed Atlantis created crystals”, or “Simple laboratory experiments reveal that some people can influence the fall of dice” and “Hypnagogic dreams contain potent omens of the future”. Sai Baba is described as “a miracle worker”, while Edgar Cayce and Doris Stokes are heroes.The anecdotes and instructions blithely ignore things like confirmation bias, probability or just plain wishful thinking. If your psychic reading fails to hit the mark, what you see has symbolic rather than literal meaning. Handy. Should you be feeling sceptical at this point, bear in mind that “nothing infuriates traditional scientists more than claims of the paranormal… they resent serious paranormal experimentation for, if confirmed, the established basis of science would be threatened… I despair of their bigotry”. That’s told us, then.
Tessa Kendall
