Most people believe that the soul lives on after death as an article of faith. Some people have attempted to test and study that belief through scientific means and this is the body of research that Mary Roach explores in Spook. As in Bonk, Mary Roach's writing is captivating. She writes with such humor and interest that I love reading her books and I come out of them having learned a great deal.
Roach does a thorough overview of historical research in to the supernatural and most of it, is... well, not very substantial. From studies of people who claim to be reincarnated, to psychics, to attempting to measure the soul, the key aspect of finding the research poignant seems to be whether or not you already accept the premise. But Roach doesn't just laugh at her subjects, she shows them as earnest people who truly believe and shows many who have extremely stringent scientific standards. She discusses fascinating scientific experiments that people are performing to test for the supernatural- like setting up a laptop close to the ceiling of surgical rooms that displays random images in the hopes that people who have near-death-experiences could report on what image they saw. There are others like this that would offer some level of true scientific creditiblity and I think it's wonderful that people are pursuing them- of course none have yielded results as of yet.
Roach also explores alternative explanations and is careful to try and give people the benefit of the doubt. She discusses theories that seeing ghosts might be related to electromagnetic impulses to the brain and offers pretty convincing evidence of this. Ever the trooper, she puts herself in one man's study where subjects are put in a sensory deprivation chamber and exposed to these electromagnetic impulses. And she has a bit of a supernatural experience from it! She also enrolls in a medium course to learn to become psychic. She finds that her fellow classmates aren't frauds, but genuine believers whose skills at reading people and making general guesses have convinced them of their psychic abilities.
Since this is about the science of the supernatural, it is certainly skeptical. But of course I'm a skeptic. I think someone with a different orientation would still come away from the book enjoying it, having learned from it, and perhaps with a few anecdotes that bolster their beliefs. I love that this book shows that science doesn't claim to have all the answers. There are some weird things that happen in this world and sometimes we just don't know why. I feel like lots of people want to insert an explanation that makes them happy and makes the world a little brighter, but the only thing really bolstering that belief is the desire to have the belief. I appreciate the world view that so fully embraces reality it says, "We don't know and that's okay. We'll try and find out if we can, but maybe we can't." And I have nothing but respect for the many scientists who are very much trying to find out.
