Sunday, August 4, 2013

How to Read Your Mother’s Mind


“How to Read Your Mother’s Mind” by James M. Deem Illustrated by True Kelly, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston © 1994

This is a young reader’s book that caught my eye as I read over the suggested reading list of the American Society for Psychical Research. I also defiantly recommend it to young readers. It is well illustrated and provides a good introduction to the wide field and its need for controls during research. It may serve to enlighten a student interested in psychology or parapsychology.

The first part of the book describes the essentials of ESP. Here James M Deem attempts to answer the questions like “Is ESP always a dramatic event?”, “Does ESP always happen in dreams?” Here he also introduces some of the testing techniques used by parapsychologist and gives warnings about alternate explanations for some test results.

The second half suggests some ideas about how to develop your ESP potential. Suggestion number one: be young. The illustrations are lively and fun. I personally like the one age about the personality of psychics. It seems to be a good summary of the topic. He covers a variety of testing situations and targets and evaluates them for the likelihood of success.

He goes on to suggest ways to evaluate ESP stories and suggests keeping a diary of your experiences.

It is still available used form Amazon for pennies (plus shipping and handling of course)