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OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS I HAVE BEEN ADVISEDby several of my readers that my acceptance of SamHams--author of The EndofFaith-mightbe unwise, notbecause of his writings about religion, but because of hisapparent acceptance of some paranonral phenomena. Towit, the University of Central Lancashire professor of psy-chology Michael Eslea cautions: "When Harnis rails againsttheistic religions, TheEnd ofFaith is a terrific read and apowerful argument, but when in the final chapter he turnsapprovingly towards Eastern mysticism and spirituality, heveers into woo-woo territory." Here is what Harris writesin this vein:

There also seems to be a body of data attesting to the realityof psychic phenomena, much of which has been ignored bymainstream science. The dictum that "extraordinary claimsrequire extraordinary evidence" remains a reasonable guidein these areas, but this does not mean that the universe isn'tfar stranger than many of us suppose. It is important to real-ize that a healthy, scientific skepticism is compatible with afundamental openness of mind.An open mind, yes, but not a gaping hole throughwhich reason leaks out and blind belief seeps in to replaceit. In a footnote to the above paragraph, Harris refers us toDean Radin's The Conscious Unitmre: The Scientific TruthofPsychicPhenomena Rupert Sheldrake's The Sense of

Being StaredAt And OtherAspectsof the ExtendedMindand to other books, as his authority for having such abelief. Yes, "mainstream science" has ignored this materialbecause it does not stand proper examination, as Mr.Harris can discover by looking into it in more detail. Th efact that something gets published does not necessarilyvalidate it. Mr. Harris adds to his comment this astonish-ing--certainly for him-suggestion: "There may even besome credible evidence for reincarnation."Let me here remind readers that if the Sheldrake andRadin declarations were really true and properly derived,then they would stand as good evidence for the reality ofparapsychology and would make them eligible for the JREFmillion-dollar prize. But Sheldrake has directly refused toapply for that prize, and Radin has made the same decisionby choosing to ignore it. One has to wonder why...That aside, it is evident to me that Mr. Harris has not

carefully examined either Radin's book, or anything writ-ten by Sheldrake. If he had subjected that material to thesame proper scrutiny that he applied to religion and the"God" question he so well handled, I'm sure he'd havecome to the same conclusions that I have-that there'snothing in it, that there's no "reality" to psychic phenome-na, nor to reincarnation, other than the conviction ofsome incautious or seriously deluded individuals who canattract publishers who understand and thus exploit thenaivety of the book market.Mr. Harris also has an attraction to mysticism, particu-larly to Eastern aspects of it, and appears to give credenceto some of its tenets. To my mind, metaphysical claimsand notions that result from mystical "experiences"-which can take place entirely within the individual'sminds-cannot be accepted without accompanying, sup-porting, strong, empirical evidence. Surely that is not toomuch to ask for?To be fair to Mr. Harris, however, if he does accept"psi" as real, we should not be too surprised. Many timesfollowing one of my lectures I've been approached by anacademic who says something like: "While I agree withyour assessment of Sylvia Browne, UFOs, and homeopa-thy, Mr. Randi, I saw a book written about the BermudaTriangle, and it was very convincing Surely they wouldn'tpublish an entire book about it if it weren't real "Oh yes they wou ld...Sam Harris RespondsIn response to this, my initial assessment of Harris' posi-tion on the paranormal in Swift, the weekly newsletter ofJREF (randi.org/jr/2007-06/062207.html#i8) Harris waskind enough to promptly submit this response:

You really haven't understood my point of view. I have neversaid that I believe in PSI reincarnation, etc. I have taken aposition that there seems to be data on these subjects whichshould be evaluated. You may think that the claims of Radin,Stevenson, et a. have been thoroughly vetted and demol-ished. If so, please tell me where this demolition occurred.(I remember the back and forth in Nature with BrianJosephson, which did not seem to lay the matter to rest).In any case, there has long been a clarification of my posi-tion on these and other controversial matters on my website:

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samharris.org/site/fulltext/response-to-controversy2/

The relevant excerpts are these: yvkms on the pamnoimal-ESP rencnotaon tc-While there have been many frauds in thehistory of parapsychology, I believe thatthis field of study has been unfairly stigma-tized. If some experimental psychologistswant to spend their days studying telepa-thy, or the effects of prayer, I will be inter-ested to know what they fird out. And if itis true that toddlers occasionally startspeaking in ancient languages (as IanStevenson alleges), I would like to knowabout it. However, I have not spent anytime attempting to authenticate the dataput forward in books like Dean Radin'sThe Conscious Univense or Ian Stevenson's20 Cases Suggestive ofReincarnation.Thefact that I have not spent any time on thisshould suggest how worthy of my time Ithink such a project would be. Still, Ifound these books interesting, and I can-not categorically dismiss their contents inthe way that I can dismiss the daims ofreligious dogmatists. (Here, I am making apoint about gradations of certainty: Can Isay for certain that the last hundred yearsof experimentation proves that telepathydoesn't exist? No. It seems to me that rea-sonable people can disagree about thedata. Can I say for certain that the Bibleand the Koran show every sign of havingbeen written by ignorant mortals? Yes. Andthis is the only certainty one needs to dis-miss the God of Abraham as a creature offiction.)My views on Eastern mysticismBuddhism, etc.There is simply no question that peoplehave transformative experiences as aresult of engaging contemplative disci-plines like meditation, and there is noquestion that these experiences shed somelight on the nature of the human mind(any experience does, for that m atter).What is highly questionable are the meta-physical claims that people tend to makeon the basis of such experiences. I do notmake any such claims. Nor do I support

the m etaphysical claims of others.There are several neuroscience labs

now studying the effects of meditation onthe brain. While I am not personallyengaged in this research, I know many ofthe scientists who are. This is now a fertilearea of sober inquiry, purposed towardunderstanding the possibilities of humanwell-being better than we do at present.

While I consider Buddhism almostunique among the world's religions as arepository of contemplative wisdom, I donot consider myself a Buddhist. My criti-cism of Buddhism as a faith has been pub-lished, to the consternation of manyBuddhists.I thank Mr. Harris for this prompt,

informative, and very welcome outlineof his thoughts on these matters. I'll saythat concerning books on parapsycholo-gy, I, too, cannot "categorically dismisstheir contents." I have given many yearsof my life to carefully examining thematerial they have offered, and I havepublished my findings in my ownbooks. Attempted rebuttals of my workhave not served to establish the parapsy-chologists' claims, to any extent. Ibelieve that Sam Harris should findsome time to examine my research, andI think he would agree with me: theirclaims are no better than Papal Bulls orCatechisms.Now, I know that Mr. Harris is ade-quately supplied with tasks that com-mand his attention. He has even lesstime than I to spare for breathing andperforming other vital functions.However, I shipped off to him-and hehas now received-a selection of mybooks that I hope he might have anopportunity to look through. I'll not waitfor the phone to ring announcing hisexpected epiphany, but I trust that hewill eventually discover that the honeyedphrases of the paranormalists--even ofthe Nobel Laureates among them-turnsour when the evidence is in and is sum-moned up in opposition. Sam Harris is asinterested in, and as dedicated to truthand logic, as I am, I'm quite sure. V

EducationalFoundationTwo (2)Amaz ng Meetings in 81

Special one-day event at theBest Western in Plantation, FL,near Ft. Lauderdale. We'll havethe entire hotel to ourselvesOptional workshops and toursof the JREF office to round outthe weekend. More intimatemeetings-not to be missed

The Amazing Meeting willbe held at the Flamingo Hoteland Casino in delightfullydecadent Las Vegas, NV Thistime, TAM is right on the "strip,'and right in the middle of theaction. We'll be doing thingsa bit differently this year, withnew guest speakers and newactivities. Prepare to be"amazed" once again... James RandiEducational Foundation201 S.F 12th Street; Lauderdale, FL 33316ph: 954-467-1I112'nwww.randi.org

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