EHE Book Reviews

Methodology Record Type: Review ID: 564
Reality and Empathy: Physics, Mind, and Science in the 21st Century Comfort, Alex
The first half of this book deals with world models from the viewpoints of physics, mathematics, and biology. The last half consists of a discussion of the role of mind in model-making. Chapter 5, "Singularities and the Unfamiliar," touches on psi. Comfort redefines parapsychology as "the detection and study of any phenomena which might suggest that mind is a primary, not a secondary explicate" (p. 211), and he advocates that such phenomena be studied from the standpoint of natural history rather than the empirical, laboratory approach. He notes that psychiatrists, in particular, are well-situated to observe these anomalous phenomena. He also thinks highly of the cross-correspondences. He suggests that the remembrance of a past life is perhaps "the only human religious intuition which might be experimentally verifiable" (p. 221), and he touches on Stevenson's reincarnation case work. In an Afterword he suggests that the next major world model "will involve the disciplined incorporation of introspection" (p. 250).
Publisher Information:	Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984. 272p. Bibliography: 261-265. 12 figs; Glossary: 257- 260; Index: 267-272

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Reality and Empathy: Physics, Mind, and Science in the 21st Century