The Weiler Psi

Parapsychology Journalism: The People, The Theory, The Science, The Skeptics

Announcing the 2nd edition: Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet

PSI WARS: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet
Craig Weiler

Amazon  RRP £12.99 UK Paperback
Amazon  RRP $18. 99 US Paperback

Also available as an eBook

BACK IN PRINT! SECOND EDITION.

When TED, the global media platform, took down scientist Rupert Sheldrake’s lecture, “The Science Delusion,” deeming it not scientific, it ignited a fierce discussion around the globe. Bloggers, commenters, distinguished scientists, Internet trolls and even a Nobel Prize winning physicist all contributed to this once-in-a-lifetime debate. The subject? The most controversial question of all time—what is nature of reality?

In Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet, Craig Weiler, in journalistic fashion, demonstrates how science, the accepted arbiter of truth, is constantly being manipulated and propagandized in an effort to uphold prejudices and beliefs in the scientific community.

There is a division within the sciences about the nature of consciousness and the legitimacy of parapsychology as a science. Weiler examines how so-called guerilla skeptics and organizations lobby mainstream media, universities, colleges and scientific organizations, and use digital media such as Wikipedia to defend their point of view and discredit consciousness researchers and scientists.

The controversy over the nature of reality has a profound effect on our society and helps determine our thoughts and actions and how we view the world. Brainwashing and propaganda, thought by many to be the tenets of religion and totalitarian regimes, is alive and well in the world of science and influencing our daily lives.

Praise for PSI WARS

“Craig Weiler reports vividly from the front line. Like any good war correspondent he’s been in the thick of the action himself and shows how the dogmatic sceptics and psi deniers work both in public and behind the scenes.  He charts the recent online conflicts better and more topically than anyone else.  This battle is an inevitable part of the process of paradigm change, and Weiler’s book is an essential guide.”

~ Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., biologist and author of The Science Delusion / Science Set Free.

“Science is often portrayed as a dispassionate truth-seeking activity, but because scientists are human it has the same frailties and prejudices that can be found in any social context. Psi Wars deftly highlights this all-too-human side of science in a controversial domain, but the same story can be found in many areas of science. An important book for students of the sociology of science, and an especially eye-opening book for anyone interested in how science really works.”

~ Dean Radin PhD, Chief Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences, and author of Real Magic and other books.

“Craig gets it right from start to finish well, not “finish,” because the controversy still rages. He understands the sociocultural and academic issues clearly and has the guts to say so in this excellent book. “

~ Larry Dossey, M.D. Author of ONE MIND: Why Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters

“Since the initiation of the Parapsychology Foundation (est. 1951), its basic principle has always been for fair, honest and balanced scientific inquiry. This book exposes where such responsibility for science communication has been abused in the technological era.”

~ Anastasia Damalas, Director of Digital Media, Parapsychology Foundation
“Bad practice and hidden agendas which aim to sway the public’s views on science – and evidence surrounding psi – deserve to be exposed and debunked. This book achieves that! Since the beginnings of the Parapsychology Foundation (est. 1951), our most basic remit has always been for thorough and balanced scientific inquiry. Science should be communicated in no other way!”

~ Lisette Coly, President, Parapsychology Foundation

“Craig Weiler has compiled a compelling case … which delivers the evidence and certainly makes no apologies. The more people are aware of the controversies, the easier the fight will become for fair and balanced science communication. Psi Wars is certainly not fruitless – this book bears many fruits!”

~ Callum E. Cooper, Ph.D., author, Conversations with Ghosts.

10 comments on “Announcing the 2nd edition: Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet

  1. Tony Sandy
    April 2, 2021

    Surrendering to your desires means losing your mind – that is giving up sovereignty to other another’s rule, ideas, level of intelligence (subservience / compromise) be it as an individual or a nation.

  2. Tony Sandy
    April 2, 2021

    All censorship is murder of the mind (creativity / discovery of the truth). Having recently left Facebook because of its growing attempts at control, for which I don’t blame Mark Zuckerberg but the pressure put on him by puritan (hypocritical) elements in the American government, I can see its effects in my own life.

  3. Yannis T
    June 25, 2020

    Just ordered the book.

    As a journalist who on occasion did stories on the unexplained, I have seen the rabid bias. Case in point, there was a “Popular Science” article in the September 2015 issue on brain myths which discredited the CIA’s use of ESP.

    I wrote the author, Megan Scudellari, and provided substantial evidence from the book, “Miracles of Mind” that in fact shows the details of the CIA’s success use. Of course, she never wrote me back.

    We live in a deceitful world regardless of the truth. But there will be a reckoning and it won’t be pretty for the deniers. Let me know if you want copies of the source material.

    • craigweiler
      June 25, 2020

      Hi Yannis,
      I run a parapsychology space on Quora, which I use to promote all things parapsychology, so if you have links to your material I’ll be happy to share them. Here’s a link to the space so you can see what I’m doing: https://www.quora.com/q/parapsychology
      Having just finished the 2nd edition I’m not looking for new material at this time. A third edition would be years away.

      I know a lot of different things related to parapsychology and can direct you to proper sources for future articles if you think you might want the help. I am an expert on skeptics, so I can be a source for that.

      My take on it is that we live in a world where the truth is secondary to marketing. If parapsychology had better marketing, opinions would change.

      • Planetary Paul
        June 25, 2020

        => “We live in a world where the truth is secondary to marketing. If parapsychology had better marketing, opinions would change.”

        Still it is best to win with the truth.

        Although Donald Hoffman would argue that truth seekers will go extinct 😉

        BTW, digging deeper in Hoffman’s theories, I’m surprised his talk wasn’t banned. Maybe the TED science board didn’t get the portee of Hoffman’s argument, haha.

  4. Susanna Quinger
    June 20, 2020

    Hi Craig Weiler

    I have missed your blog. (If that was what it was called) How have you been? I hope all is well with you and your loved ones. 2nd edition! Congratulations. I have the first. I hope someone went over the editing glitches like some poorly laid out page brakes and a few such issues. This book really opened my eyes to system failures and bias in the machine. The times have changed since we last had any communication, and I don’t expect you to remember me. We had a couple of e mail exchanges. I’m now both a grandmother to a delightful wee girl, and a widow, which to me just means my husband could leave is damaged body and return to some other place. I’m good with that. Well, all the best for the second edition launch, and let me know if your blog comes up again

    Best regards and blessings from New Zealand Susanne Quinger

    ________________________________

  5. Planetary Paul
    June 20, 2020

    I put up this review at the Apple book store:

    *****

    Reads like a bullet train

    A very well written analysis of the TED Sheldrake/Hancock dust-up and its place in the larger context of the slowly progressing acceptance of PSI research in academia.

    Sticking with trains: its nigh impossible to keep your eyes from a developing train wreck, isn’t it? Somehow it is scary and entertaining at the same time.
    The TED affair was such a wreck. You could see from a distance where it was going and it was unstoppable.

    The fight of the media-skeptics is another developing train wreck, this time on a much larger scale but unstoppable and with a predictable outcome nonetheless. Chris Carter named that outcome “The Fall of the House of Skeptics”.

    The fight for acceptance of PSI-research in academia right now is like a two-prong strategy in a battle; on one front are the academics defending the scientific method and their right to practice it, on the other front is the general public having PSI-experiences en masse and looking for answers. The naysayers are stuck in the middle.

    This book clearly shows the media-skeptics failing on both fronts and slowly but surely relegating themselves to the shelves of irrelevance. At some point the two fronts will meet and merge and it will be all over for the party in the middle.
    Weiler predicts that this turning point in the battle will happen in his lifetime, after which things will move much faster.

    I sure hope to be there when it happens.

  6. Debby Schwartz
    June 19, 2020

    YAY, so nice to hear from you and your blog! I bought the kindle edition and I can’t wait to dig in. 🙂

  7. Planetary Paul
    June 18, 2020

    From the book, chapter 10:

    ““How could the TED science board be so far off the mark? Easy—they were giving their edicts on what they thought was in the presentations, not what was actually there. The original accusations were unconscionably sloppy. It is absolutely breathtaking that no one on the anonymous science board gave the slightest thought to performing basic fact checking before taking their accusations public.”

    I postulate that there was no TED science board to begin with; It would certainly explain all the sloppiness and the absence of fact checking. If I were on the TED science board, tasked with scrutinising these presentations, I would be looking at them many, many times over, sentence by sentence, word by word, while I was drawing up my verdict. That clearly didn’t happen here.

    Besides, if I were to hold such an important position with a notable organisation like TED, I’d take my job there very seriously and I’d want to be able to put it on my CV.
    Then again, if I were to display incompetence like described, I’d want to be anonymous too!

    But hey, I’m just a lowly science advocate, what do I know 😉

  8. Planetary Paul
    June 17, 2020

    Thanks for the tip, I went to get it from the Apple Book Store.

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This entry was posted on June 16, 2020 by in Uncategorized.