In 1861, less than two years after the publication of Charles Darwin’s _The Origin of Species_, in a session before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a critic claimed that Darwin's book was too theoretical and that he should have just "put his facts before us and let them rest." In a letter to his friend Henry Fawcett, who was in attendance in his defense, Darwin explained the proper relationship between facts and theory:

About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!

Thankfully, intellectual trends, like social movements, have a tendency to push both ends to the middle, and these two extremist views of science are now largely passé. Physics is nowhere near that noble dream of explaining everything to six decimal places, and as for the social sciences, as a friend from New Jersey says, “fuhgeddaboudit.” Yet there is progress in science, and some views really are superior to others, regardless of the color, gender, or country of origin of the scientist holding that view. Despite the fact that scientific data are “theory laden,” as philosophers like to say, science is truly different than art, music, religion, and other forms of human expression because it has a self-correcting mechanism built into it. If you don’t catch the flaws in your theory, the slant in your bias, or the distortion in your preferences, someone else will. Think of N-Rays and E-Rays, polywater and the polygraph. The history of science is littered with the debris of downed theories. Throughout this encyclopedia we explore these borderlands of science where theory and data intersect. As we do so, let us continue to bear in mind what I call Darwin’s Dictum: _all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service_.

Using the Encyclopedia

One important tool in finding the right balance between theory and data, ideas and facts, is a broad base of knowledge tempered with balanced wisdom in making judgments about knowledge claims. Without the facts you can’t “judge for yourself” (as television documentaries often suggest viewers do) in any objective manner. What we hope to accomplish with this encyclopedia is a thorough, objective, and balanced analysis of the most prominent scientific and pseudoscientific controversies made in the name of science, mixing both facts and theory. The encyclopedia entries are written at a level for high school and college students conducting research in science and pseudoscience, the media looking for a balanced treatment of a subject, and the general public desiring a highly readable yet trustworthy resource to go to for the most reliable assessments of the most controversial and interesting mysteries involving our universe, our world, and ourselves. As the subjects span all manner of claims from around the world, audiences and markets from around the globe will be interested in reading and references these volumes. In addition, the media desperately needs a reference resource in order to quickly get their minds around a subject, book guests on both sides of an issue in order to properly set up a debate, and get “just the facts” needed for a soundbite story often demanded in the hectic world of journalism. Every newspaper, magazine, radio, and television producer and interviewer should have a copy of this encyclopedia on their shelf of reference works, right between the dictionaries and reference works on contacting experts.
This two-volume encyclopedia encompasses claims from all fields of science, pseudoscience, and the paranormal, and includes both classic historical works and modern analyses by the leading experts in the world who specialize in pseudoscience and the paranormal. The encyclopedia is heavily illustrated (and these subjects lend themselves to both historical and contemporary images) and each entry includes a respectable bibliography of the best books on that subject from both the skeptics’ and the believers’ perspective, allowing readers to conduct additional research on their own after reading what the encyclopedia’s expert author has had to say on the subject.

No Ordinary Encyclopedia

To make this encyclopedia original and different from other encyclopedias, and to provide readers with a variety of subjects and analytic style in order to properly follow Darwin’s Dictum of getting a healthy balance of data and theory, there are five different categories of analyses of pseudoscience:

1. A-to-Z. The Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience includes an A-to-Z section of subject analyses conducted by scientists and researchers, of phenomena such as alternative medicine, astrology, crop circles, handwriting analysis, hypnosis, near-death experiences, reincarnation, seances, spiritualism, subliminal perception, UFOs, witchcraft, and many more. These are more straight-forwardly written encyclopedia entries of moderate length and depth with some theoretical foundation, but not to the extent as those articles in subsequent sections.

2. Investigations. Articles in this section consist of research investigations carried out by scientists and scholars that were originally published in the pages of _Skeptic_ magazine, and republished and repackaged here for the first time. These are more than a brief summary of a subject as presented in the A-to-Z section; they are also skeptical analyses of the subjects, and include much more extensive research and bibliographies. Such analyses include acupuncture, Atlantis, chiropractic, facilitated communication, homeopathy, immortality, and a several critical pieces on the pseudoscience often found in psychology and psychotherapy. These latter pieces are especially important because while some forms of pseudoscience are seemingly harmless--astrology and crop circles come to mind--other forms can be exceptionally dangerous, particularly those dealing with the mind and behavior.

3. Case Studies. The Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience includes a special section of in-depth analyses of very specific case studies originally conducted for _Skeptic_ magazine and used here as part of a larger phenomenon under investigation. For example: Anastasia: A Case Study in the Myth of the Miraculous Survival, Police Psychics—Noreen Renier as a Case Study, Pseudoarchaeology—Precolumbian Discoverers of America as a Test Case, and three special articles on Recovered Memory Therapy and False Memory Syndrome—a psychiatrist’s perspective as a test case, a patient’s perspective as a test case, and a father’s perspective as a test case. From these case studies the reader will be given a complete analysis of a subject. These case studies can be read by both amateurs and professionals in a field, and are ideal for research papers by students or backround research by scientists and professionals. Journalists and interested readers wanting details on a case study need go no further than this section of the Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience.

4. For and Against. The Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience will include the most original section ever compiled in any encyclopedia in the form of a “Pro and Con” debate between experts, allowing readers to judge for themselves by hearing both sides of an issue. For example: “Memes as Good Science,” by experimental psychologist Susan Blackmore will be contrasted with “Memes as Pseudoscience by cognitive psychologist James W. Polichak. Even more controversially, the study of “Race and Sports as Good Science” by author Jon Entine will be contrasted with the study of “Race and Sports as Pseudoscience” by myself. Similarly, “Race and I.Q.—Good Science” by anthropologist Vince Sarich will be contrasted with “Race and I.Q. as Pseudoscience” by cognitive psychologist Diane Halpern. Also included are pro and con evolutionary psychology, pro and con on the question Is science at an end?, and pro and con on the science wars. These articles, originally published in _Skeptic_ magazine have been used extensively by high school teachers and college professors around the world as supplemental reading material for students in search of the terms of a debate on one or more of these vital and controversial issues.

5. Historical Documents. The encyclopedia includes classic works in the history of science and pseudoscience, for example, the first scientific and skeptical investigation of a paranormal/spiritual phenomenon in history—mesmerism. It was entitled “Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King to Examine Animal Magnetism, Printed on the King’s Order Number 4 in Paris From the Royal Printing House,” and was published in 1784, five years before the French Revolution. It is the first attempt to put to the test (including under controlled conditions), a quasi-scientific phenomenon. What made this report so special was that the test was conducted by none other than Benjamin Franklin and Antonie Lavoisier.

So as you work your way through this encyclopedia, either start to finish or, more appropriately for this genre, skimming and scanning and plucking out what is needed or wanted, remember Darwin’s Dictum that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service, as well as the words of wisdom from the Harvard paleontologist who has inherited Darwin’s mantle, Stephen Jay Gould, from a 1998 essay entitled “The Sharp-Eyed Lynx, Outfoxed by Nature”:

The idea that observation can be pure and unsullied (and therefore beyond dispute)—and that great scientists are, by implication, people who can free their minds from the constraints of surrounding culture and reach conclusions strictly by untrammeled experiment and observation, joined with clear and universal logical reasoning—has often harmed science by turning the empiricist method into a shibboleth. The irony of this situation fills me with a mixture of pain for a derailed (if impossible) ideal and amusement for human foibles—as a method devised to undermine proof by authority becomes, in its turn, a species of dogma itself. Thus, if only to honor the truism that liberty requires eternal vigilance, we must also act as watchdogs to debunk the authoritarian form of the empiricist myth—and to reassert the quintessentially human theme that scientists can work only within their social and psychological contexts. Such an assertion does not debase the institution of science, but rather enriches our view of the greatest dialectic in human history: the transformation of society by scientific progress, which can only arise within a matrix set, constrained, and facilitated by society.

Michael Shermer