From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 1 - May 1991
The Encyclopaedia of the Paranormal
Reviewed by Leonard Dunn, England
Lynn Picknet: "The Encyclopaedia of the Paranormal: the Complete Guide
to the Unexplained". Gould Publishing. 1990
The author, who is also a healer, is a leading authority on the
paranormal and there are also contributions from other well respected
workers in their specialist fields.
The work is divided into eight sections after an introduction: The
power of belief. Secrets of the mind. Extraordinary people. The
unpredictable world. UFO phenomena. PSI research. Frontiers of
science. Life after death.
The book is well illustrated with a good index.
There are over 400 entries which are all dealt with in a very rational
way, neither accepting everything at face value nor, like so many
scientists, rejecting anything out of hand without investigation. It
covers such diverse subjects as Healing, Witchcraft, UFO's, the more
obvious aspects of the paranormal.
I was especially interested in part 7, dealing with Quantum mechanics
and Formative Causation in their relationship to the paranormal. This
was quite new to me although I have a fairly comprehensive knowledge
of much of the paranormal as it has long been a strong interest of
mine.
It is the best and most comprehensive work on the subject that I have
seen and each subsection is fully cross-referenced to other
comprehensive bibliography for further reading since with over 400
entries in less than 300 pages some of the entries are, of necessity
rather briefer than could be desired. Nevertheless this is a work that
I can fully recommend to interested people.