Review: Spook
Paningin na pang Editoryal - Kirkus ReviewsScience writer Roach, having told all about cadavers in Stiff (2003), progresses to the logical next step: What happens after death? Her journey begins in India, where she tracks down stories of children purported to be reincarnations of dead relatives. Lots to debunk here. Then on to all-but-unbelievable experiments to weigh, see or tape-record the soul, as well as tales of celebrated mediums, spirit guides and ectoplasm. Did you know there are mediums being tested in university labs today, and that you can attend medium school in England? While researching this, Roach learned a good bit about human psychology of the "if you wanna believe it it's true" variety. She makes the point that, historically, investigators of the afterlife often capitalize on the latest scientific discoveries of new sources of energy so that they can be invoked to power a soul or, alternatively, explain away a phenomenon. Thus, the perception of ghosts might be due to some people's sensitivity to very low frequency "infrasound." One of her best ghost stories concerns a revised last will and testament whose discovery was attributed to a ghost telling his son where it could be found. The case went to trial and the ghost won. (There's a neat follow-up.) For all Roach's skeptical and often hilarious accounts, she is an eager volunteer and ready to accept evidence if evidence there be. Thus she reports that experiments are under way to study near-death experiences in which patients are briefly "killed" during surgery to implant defibrillators. If even one person reports seeing an image on a ceiling-mounted laptop in the O.R., whose screen faces the ceiling, she might be convinced. As it is, she admits to not "knowing," but sort of believing in ghosts. Throughout, she is critical and witty—e.g., speaking of postmortem "recordings," she says there is one of Chopin, "who has, we learn, resumed composing following a short stint of decomposing." Truly deft handling of the (mostly) daft.
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin na pang Editoryal - Bookreporter.com - Robert FinnPerhaps it's best to try defining this oddball book by what it is not. It is not a serious scientific study; it is not a piece of gallows humor; it is not a work with religious implications; it is not an exercise in debunking; it does not champion one consistent point of view. Yet it contains elements of all these approaches. The publisher has not provided much information about Mary Roach's ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - Karen - GoodreadsGiven the title, I expected a little more actual science and less mockery of fringe and historical science. The last two or three chapters came the closest to what I'd actually expected this book to ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - Diana Sandberg - GoodreadsRoach does a nice line in not-meanly-skeptical investigation and she is clearly a research junkie. She does have a dry wit, bordering in some cases on the snarky, but also a certain willingness to be ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - Claire - GoodreadsThis is a humorous but informative and though-provoking look at the ways in which science has attempted to prove or disprove whether or not there is any kind of afterlife. This is such an interesting ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - Ashley - GoodreadsI read the book "Spook" because one of my friends wanted to read it with me. She fully believes in life after death, but with me I was a little on the fence about it. There has been things in my life ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - Michele Martin - GoodreadsLike "Stiff", another book by the same author I read previously, this was an extremely entertaining look at the subject of, psychics, reincarnation & scientific searches for evidence of a soul. The ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - Kyla - GoodreadsI heard good things about Mary Roach's writings, so I thought Spook would be a good one to try first. I like Roach's sense of humor for social situations (as in, if we were having lunch somewhere ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - Sean Mccarrey - GoodreadsI initially started reading this book about a year ago for an anthropology class I had. I liked it but got too busy and put it down until now. Despite, or perhaps because of my unorthodox reading of ... Read full review
Review: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Paningin ng isang mambabasa - GoodreadsIn her follow up to Stiff, Mary Roach expands some of her first book's tangents into a fuller account of more-or-less (usually less...) scientific attempts to connect with the afterlife. All the ...
