The book, Outside the Gates of Science: Why It’s Time for the Paranormal to Come in From the Cold  by Damien Broderick, is chock full of information. Let me repeat, chock full of information. Broderick is a writer, mostly science fiction with a collection of non-fiction, and it only takes the first several pages of the book to really grasp that literature is his craft. Broderick definitely gets caught up in the wording and jargon of the paranormal field and takes great pains to get and give details.

I have to give it to Broderick, he packs a lot in but the book doesn’t feel like a heavy read. What the book does feel like is dense. He packs in so much information about key players in the paranormal research field.  Broderick goes through the last 50 years of psi research, through his study of the field and personal interviews.

I need to take a minute and clarify. The research that is described in the book is what is referred to as parapsychology and the thing they are researching is psi. Paranormal phenomenon, which is something (a phenomenon) outside of what we consider common, is what parapsychologists study. Psi phenomena could be ESP, or telepathy, or clairvoyance or anything similar. Ghost investigation is not really considered parapsychology. Please note that I am making sweeping general statements, definitions and descriptions in the field are not so neat and tidy. I just want to give those people who are not familiar a basic idea.

Despite the name and date dropping, this book is very read-able; probably due to the fact that his is a seasoned fiction author. It also helps that he has a somewhat inviting personality and innate curiosity which he is able to convey in his writing. I would recommend this book to someone who is already acquainted with the paranormal field. Even thought Broderick does a good job of explaining the history for novices, the amount of information (dates, names, programs, places) packed in this book would probably be too much for someone not familiar with the field. I really liked this book for its one stop shopping on people to know and why you should know them.