The Soul of the Gaps

DISCUSSING PSYCHOANALYSTS, Ludwig Wittgenstein once quipped that "they have given up one way of thinking and adopted another." This diagnosis certainly applies to the authors of Irreducible Mind (henceforth IM), although reading through this 800-page volume makes it clear that they would take it as a compliment. The book is an ambitious work, as it explicitly purports to "justify and to some extent foreshadow what we anticipate will become a major and vitally necessary reworking of central parts of scientific psychology" (xiii). It is written by a group of researchers mostly associated by their belief in the paranormal and their involvement in a New-Age Californian think-tank called the Esalen Center for Theory and Research. Although each chapter was written by different authors, they insist that the book is really a common effort, hence I will refer to them as Kelly, et al.