First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life
This lengthy book offers a detailed and extensive examination of a new model of how the unconscious mind works, which Carpenter (psychiatry, Univ. of North Carolina) labels 'First Sight.' Carpenter’s argument is that abilities like extrasensory perception (ESP), parapsychology, psychokinesis, and paranormal experiences are neither unusual nor rare—in fact, humans use them, without knowing it, all the time. The First Sight model asserts that, first, all people have unlimited parapsychological potential and, second, that parapsychological behaviors and experiences occur unconsciously and purposefully. Carpenter supports these two statements by explaining how unconscious parapsychological activities help us make sense of the world, then covers areas of experience like anticipation, summation, intentionality, and frustration, among others. The book concludes with a presentation of research findings that support Carpenter’s theory, as well as suggestions for future directions of research.. . .Recommended for serious readers interested in a scientific theory for parapsychological phenomena that is supported by case studies.(Library Journal)Carpenter (psychiatry, Univ. of North Carolina) has presented a model of the mind that is both innovative and compelling. He proposes that so-called "psychic abilities" (such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition) do not comprise an esoteric "second sight" but are an adaptive and ubiquitous "first sight" that permits an immediate encounter with data not immediately available to the known senses. There are other subliminal or incidental factors that influence volition and decision making, and the author proposes that psychic abilities be added to this list. This book will challenge skeptical readers but his model has considerable explanatory power, something missing from most other parapsychological speculations. Carpenter is both a psychotherapist and a research scientist, and he has drawn from both these areas of expertise to illustrate his model with case histories and anecdotes; he also makes connections with the mainstream psychological literature in memory, personality, creativity, and emotionality. Carpenter's chapter on future research directions describes experiments that could put his proposals to the test. Readers may agree or disagree with Carpenter, but they will find his ideas provocative and challenging.Summing Up:Recommended.(CHOICE)Carpenter’sFirst Sighttheory integrates many previously scattered and little understood findings in psi research and is richly generative in suggesting new lines of research. Overall, the theory constitutes a transformational contribution to both psi research and the psychology of consciousness.(PsycCRITIQUES)First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Daily Lifemakes an enormous contribution to parapsychology—and an even greater contribution to psychology. It belongs in every medical and psychology library. I would love to use this book as a text in a graduate psychology course. Research ideas and hypotheses jump from the pages. . . . Carpenter’sFirst Sightis an intellectualtour de forcethat deserves a place in the pantheon of groundbreaking scientific works.(Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing)This book is an extremely stimulating alternative to current models of explanation for paranormal phenomena represent, and the book also offers a wide-ranging. . .overview of selected fields of experimental parapsychological research of the last half century. This alone makes it already a worthwhile purchase that should be in every bookcase a parapsychological interested reader.(Zeitschrift für Anomalistik)James C. Carpenter has presented a model of the mind that is both innovative and compelling. Psychic abilities, such as telepathy and precognition, fit easily into this model and are seen as not only ubiquitous but adaptive.First Sightwill challenge readers who are skeptical about so-called "extra-sensory" perception, as well as those who are convinced of its existence or those who are simply curious. Carpenter opens the book with a provocative summary of the assumptions underlying his model, and those who read the first page will have trouble putting the book aside until they are finished. Readers may agree withFirst Sight, or they might disagree withFirst Sight, but they will never forget it.(Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., co-editor Varieties of Anomalous Experience and professor of psychology, Saybrook University)Well-named as he is, Jim Carpenter proves himself a master carpenter of the mind in constructing a provocative new theory that integrates ESP and other psi phenomena into the overall edifice of human consciousness. According to this theory, ESP is not really the Second Sight that common sense has supposed it to be, but indeed is the very earliest information-gathering process of our being, the First Sight upon which all other perceptual and mental processes have become intricately overlaid. The ramifications of the First Sight theory are tremendous, leading to a whole new view of human consciousness and for its serious study by psychologists and parapsychologists alike.(Sally Rhine Feather, Ph.D., executive director emeritus, Rhine Research Center)Jim Carpenter has devoted many decades to study psi phenomena in the lab and the psychological clinic. InFirst Sighthe presents his bold integration of psi phenomena and contemporary cognitive, personality, and clinical psychology, and seeks to demystify phenomena that are part and parcel of what being alive is all about. William James wrote more than a century ago that psi influences at times leak into reality and Jim Carpenter provides a model of how these influences may be at the base of all of our psychological life. It has been decades since we had a comprehensive attempt to integrate psi phenomena into psychology and I hope that this tome will be seriously considered by everyone seriously interested in the nature of all mental processes.(Etzel Cardeña, Thorsen Professor, Lund University, co-author of Altering Consciousness and Varieties of Anomalous Experience, past president of the Parapsychological Association, Division 30 of the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis)In this engaging and beautifully crafted book Jim Carpenter shows in remarkable depth and detail how situating the paranormal in the context of other preconscious receptive and expressive processes allows us to understand a host of existing findings in a way that makes excellent psychological sense - a significant theoretical achievement that should command the attention of parapsychologists and mainstream psychologists alike.(Edward F. Kelly, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia)"InFirst Sight, Dr. James Carpenter shows that there is nothing 'para' about paranormal abilities; they are anormal,natural, and vitalpart of the human endowment on which we continually rely. In this important book, Carpenter has given us a new vision of what it means to be human. Highly recommended."(Larry Dossey, M.D., author, Reinventing Medicine and The Power Of Premonitions)“First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Lifeis written from James Carpenter’s unique dual perspective as both a respected research scientist and a practicing psychotherapist. It is an exciting and elegantly written book that simultaneously makes a major theoretical contribution to the science of psychic functioning while providing an accurate, non-technical overview of the field accessible to the interested general reader.”(Daryl J. Bem, professor emeritus of psychology, Cornell University)“Beyond the sixth sense and before second sight there simmers a more fundamentalFirst Sight. In this radical reframing of the meaning and mechanisms of psychic phenomena, James Carpenter proposes that where the edges of mind and matter meet all distinctions between inner and outer, subjectivity and objectivity, disappear.First Sightreigns in this strange place where everyday reality blurs, and it is here where extrasensory perception and other psychic effects suddenly make a good deal of sense. A refreshingly novel approach to understanding psychic phenomena.”(Dean Radin, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences)"Psychic abilities like ESP are usually treated as great mysteries, either to be desperately and illogically explained away since they don't fit into our predominant materialistic world view, or embraced uncritically as a prop for unexamined personal belief systems. While we still don't have (and perhaps won't ever have) a simple, physicalistic explanation for psychic abilities, we have a lot of psychological data on what effects it and how it fits in with the psychology of our minds. This data has been pretty scattered and unconnected, though, so Carpenter's book is a brilliant integration of what we know. I'm supposed to be an expert on the subject, but I know this book is going to take me in whole new directions!"(Charles T. Tart, professor emeritus of psychology, University of California-Davis and author of The End of Materialism and Altered States of Consciousness)