Now, I invite you to visit my website, http://www.williamjames.com.
       There
       you will learn about my forthcoming book, THE PK MAN: A TRUE STORY
       OF MIND
       OVER MATTER, to be published in a few weeks by Hampton Roads
       Publishing
       Company.

       The foreword is written by Harvard University psychiatrist John
       Mack.

       THE PK MAN is the story of Ted Owens whose claims I researched for
       over ten
       years.  He provided more than 150 demonstrations supporting his
       contention
       that he was in telepathic contact with alien entities whom he called
       the
       Space Intelligences.

       These demonstrations involved climatic changes, lightning strikes,
       control
       of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanos, UFO appearances, power
       blackouts,
       airplane crashes and many other unusual events.  PK is the
       parapsychological abbreviation for psychokinesis or
       mind-over-matter.  While I believe that Ted Owens did, indeed,
       evidence
       abilities of some sort that cannot be readily explained via
       conventional,
       rational means -- I have, once again, done my best to articulate the

       skeptical position.

       The website contains several essays about the Ted Owens case,
       written by
       independent observers.  It also contains illustrations supporting
       the
       remarkable claims made in the book.  In addition you will find a
       link to a
       web-archived, audio monolog I created about my experiences with Ted
       Owens.

       I believe that our understanding of the issues raised by Ted Owens
       will be
       enhanced by honest discussion between researchers of paranormal
       phenomena
       and their critics.

       Sincerely,
       Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD

    Well, while I don't believe that Parapsychology is a science,
 

The Parapsychological Association is an affiliate of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.  Do you question this fact?

 
    I will say that I have Roots Of Consciousness sitting in my lap while I
    type this.
 

I'm delighted.

 
      It took me a minute to remember where I knew the name from until you
    mentioned it, and then I realized that I had it in my library.  It has
    many many pages in different sections dedicated to Uri Geller, but only
    a
    tiny mention of James "The Amazing" Randi, the man who proved beyond a
    shadow of a doubt that Geller was a fraud.
 

I have known both Geller and Randi for a quarter of a century.  I have
investigated both the claims and counter-claims in great detail.  It is
clear to me that the evidence offered in behalf of the hypothesis that
Geller uses fraud does not begin to account for all of the well-documented
reports of authentic paranormal events.  For example, my close friend and
associate, physicist Saul-Paul Sirag, conducted an experiment with Geller
in which he surprised Geller.  He handed him a bean sprout.  Then he said,
"make the movie run backwards."  Geller closed his hand over the
sprout.  When he opened his hand, there was no sprout.  It was a mung
bean.  Since Geller did not have a clue about what was going to be
presented to him, there was no opportunity for him to have prepared a trick.
 

But, frankly, the debate between parapsychologists and researchers is not
limited to the Randi-Geller circus.  There is a large body of serious
literature in this field.  The Roots of Consciousness (second edition) went
to great length to fairly summarize this dialog.

 
      (Yes, he did.  I hope that at this age you have come to grips with
    this, like most of the believers.).  I'm sure you already know about
    Geller's attempted come back, including his promise to re-charge all of
    the crystals sold in his "pschic power kit" every year.  I hope you can
    come to grips with the fact that Geller has lost his marbles.
 

The fact that Geller is engaged in business ventures involving silly claims
hardly means he has "lost his marbles."

 
    I mention this because, in today's media terms, this is a
    non-story.  Geller made front page news for the time when he was "in",
    but
    little follow up was done after he was discredited.
 

I have been following the case very closely.  The sham, in my view, is the
notion that he has been "discredited."  It would be equivalent to saying
that Bill Clinton has been totally discredited.

 
    Your story may also be a non story from the start, if the discrediting
    pours in fast enough.
 

I welcome honest efforts to discredit THE PK MAN.  Everyone will benefit if
the critics are thorough and careful in their work -- and not, as usual,
out to do a hatchet job hoping that the uncomfortable evidence will thereby
go away.

 
    In Geller's case, he was allowed to get famous first.
 

Maybe it is more important to be accurate in one's criticisms than to be
quick in damaging the reputations of others.  I was at a meeting of the
AAAS when James Randi stood up and accused my friend, Jean Mayo, a research
associate at SRI International of being in cahoots with Geller and helping
him to cheat.  That was a bogus accusation.  It is such over-reaching that
has given James Randi a terrible reputation among unbiased people who take
the time and trouble to look carefully into these disputes.

 
    I haven't read your new book, but, as I said, I have Roots Of
    Consciousness and I'm going to re-read it thoroughly in the next few
    days
    before buying the new one.
 

I appreciate your thoroughness.  I do hope that you have the second
edition.  Since major revisions were made from the original.

 
    I can't respond to your claim, or even look up responses to your claim,
    until I can say I understand it as it was written.  I'll give it that
    much.
 

Thank you.

 
    But, after having read "Search For Noah's Ark", and seen the
    documentary,
    which claims that pieces from the Biblical boat have been found, having
    been raised by Christian parents who made me and my brothers read Mike
    Warnke's "The Satan Seller" after having found a Dungeons And Dragons
    charactar sheet in one of our rooms, and having believed in numerology,
    crystal powers, and alot of other crap while in my early teenage years,
    I
    would like to point out my obvious bias from the start.
 

Fair enough.  It's good to get those biases out on the table.  From what
you have said, you seem to have a penchant of going from one extreme to the
other.  I think there is more of a balanced view in the middle -- rather
than being either a true believer of either camp.

 
    It's not quite enough to say that you give skeptics a fair voice in your

    works.  On Search For Noah's Ark, the "documentarians" did interview
    skeptics, but they just edited out the more convincing arguments.  You
    sort of use a similar tactic.
    I'll give it as fair of a reading as I possibly can.
 

I think I really made an effort to put forward the strongest, legitimate
arguments of the skeptics

 
    I should mention, I originally borrowed Roots Of Consciousness from the
    library, before decided to actually buy it because, for all of it's
    faults, was a very good book.
    Daniel Johnson
 

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to respond to my e-mail.  I
appreciate your feedback.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

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