Bibliography

Afterlife
100 Things to Do When You're Dead Rob Bailey (2008). Michael O’Mara Books
A silly book about uses of a corpse, written by yours truly.

Astrology
Quirkology: The Curious Science Of Everyday Lives Richard Wiseman. (2007). Macmillan.
Scientific exploration of a variety of interesting themes. See pages 1-41 to see how the month of your birth might influence your personality.

Arsetrology: How Your Poo Can Predict Your Future Harry Holland with Oliver Scheidt. (2009). Platkus.
A silly book about poo.

Critical Thinking
Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole Steven Law. (2011). Prometheus Books.
This contains very accessible writing on the methods used by believers to defend beliefs unsupported by evidence. Law looks briefly at homeopathy, conspiracy theories, psychic powers, alien abduction, and other examples but examines religious belief in most detail. Although I’m less interested in the religious aspect and more in the tangible frauds found amongst alternative medicines, politics, marketing and the paranormal, the principles of the book can be applied widely to counter arguments made for all sorts of bullshit.

Truth, Knowledge, Or Just Plain Bull: How To Tell The Difference : A Handbook of Practical Logic and Clear Thinking Bernard Patten. (2004). Prometheus Books.
Guidance on how to think in a critical way and avoid being suckered.

How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions Francis Wheen (2004). Harper Perennial.
A look at how superstition has altered the course of politics and history.

Freud
Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and Psychoanalysis Richard Webster (2005). The Orwell Press.
A heavy-weight book about how Freud made mistakes in his thinking, and how they are perpetuated by therapists and the media. Unfortunately many people associate psychology with Freud and believe his writings to be credible; this book thankfully takes a critical approach to his mixed contribution to our understanding of the human mind. Sadly Richard Webster died suddenly in June 2011, I had hoped to persuade him to deliver lectures with me on the topic of Freud. I'll think of him every time I consult this book and will remember him fondly for his analytical skills, great intellect, enthusiasm and sense of humour. I was looking forward to sharing many more laughs with him; he will be sadly missed.

House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth Robyn Dawes (1994). The Free Press.
The mistaken practises and assumptions behind misguided therapies.

Healing with hands
Hands-on Spiritual Healing Michael Bradford (1994). Findhorn Press.
Written for believers, this is a guide to how to heal with spiritual energy through the hands (and sometimes how to beam healing energy from the eyes). This is my favourite passage, where Michael explains how a friend asked him for healing to be given over a distance: “[Bonnie] asked for my help in clearing her energy field. I agreed, telling her I would start working on her as soon as we got off the phone. Later that evening she called to say thank you, adding that she had felt the energy shift shortly after we hung up. To this day, I have not told her that I was distracted shortly after the phone call and did not ‘consciously’ work on her. Apparently my agreement to participate allowed my subconscious and superconscious mind to proceed with the healing. Bonnie’s request and her receptivity to the healing energy, in addition to her trust and expectation, made it possible for the healing to occur.”

Reiki for Dummies Nina Paul. (2006). Wiley.
Written for believers, this is a comprehensive guide to the basic principles of Reiki, with sections on crystal healing.

Homeopathy
Bad Science Ben Goldacre (2009). Harper Perennial.
An informative and amusing rant against poor science and shameful reporting of quackery. His focus is mostly on medical pseudoscience.

Humour and the mind
Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett and Reginald Adams, Jr. (2011). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Unfortunately this started life as a psychology PhD dissertation and still reads much like one; the turgid, academic writing style means it’s a bit of a project to read. However, the theory behind it is fascinating. I look forward to finishing this when I have the time to devote to it.

Rude World: 100 Rudest Place Names in the World Rob Bailey and Ed Hurst (2006). Boxtree.
What’s this doing here? Surely just a shameful plug? Not entirely – there’s an important way that the book features in this year’s show.

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy For Dummies Mike Bryant and Peter Mabbutt. (2006). Wiley.
A guide to the main principles of hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis. Please note, however, that I don’t use hypnotherapy on stage.

Illusions (visual and cognitive)
Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Mind Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, M. (1994). Wiley.
A fascinating book about everyday illusions and why it is so hard to overcome them.

The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuition Deceives Us Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons (2010). Crown.
Looks at mistakes and assumptions we commonly make; authoritatively written by psychology researchers. It shows how often we might be wrong about things we believe we’ve seen with our own eyes.

Sleights of Mind: What the neuroscience of magic reveals about our brains (2011). Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde with Sandra Blakeslee. Profile Books.
A fascinating book looking at how magicians exploit loopholes in our minds in order to fool and entertain us. You’ll learn a lot about magic techniques and about the brain from this book.

Inkblots
The Redston Inkblot Test. Redstone Press. (2010).
A publicly available, new inkblot test and guidebook.

Levitations
Confessions of a Medium Anon (2005). Elibron Classics.
A how-to guide for séances from the late 1800s. It exposes a number of fraudulent practices that were used at the height of this era’s brand of spiritualism.

Memory
Tricks Of The Mind Derren Brown (2007). Channel Four Books.
Fascinating facts, critical thinking, and tips on how to improve your memory.

Misc
13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Intriguing Scientific Mysteries of Our Time Michael Brooks. (2009). Profile Books.
Essays on dark matter, the placebo effect and homeopathy.

59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot Richard Wiseman (2009). Macmillan.
Self-improvement tips based on scientific findings.

The book of great mysteries.
Colin Wilson and Christopher Evans (1986). Robinson Publishing.
Probably out of print. A favourite book of mine as a teenager – it includes spontaneous human combustion, the Lochness monster and a picture of a young naked witch, but although you can see the bountiful curve of her bosoms you can’t quite see her nips (there was no internet when I was growing up).

The Paranormal Caught on Film: Amazing Photographs of Ghosts, Poltergeists and Other Strange Phenomena Dr Melvyn Willin (2008). David and Charles.
This book was donated by a kindly stranger to my neighbour a couple of days after she generously put a poster up for my Oxford show in her front window. On behalf of me and my neighbour – thank you (genuinely felt), as we’ve both enjoyed the book. Although an interesting read, the book contains blurry and distorted photos with sloppily-written innuendos of supposed paranormal happenings. For example, it says, “There are many examples of levitation from historical and folkloric sources and if just one of them is correct then we are left with a phenomenon that is not meant to exist… but does!” This quote appears next to two photographs of magicians levitating young women – using ILLUSIONS.

Psychics
The Psychic Adventures of Derek Acorah: Star of TV's Most Haunted Derek Acorah (2004) Harper Collins.
Silly stories from an ex-footballer.

The Psychology of the Psychic David Marks (2000). Prometheus Books.
A piece-by-piece debunking of various psychic claims, including Uri Geller, remote viewing and cold-reading.

Spirit Guides
Contacting Your Spirit Guide Sylvia Browne (2005). Hay House.
Written for believers, it includes a free relaxation CD to really get you into the mood when contacting the other world.

How to See Your Angels: A Guide to Attracting Heavenly Beings That Heal, Help and Inspire Theresa Cheug, (2010). Simon & Schuster.
Written for believers.

Structure of the brain
The Evolving Brain: The Known and the Unknown R. Grant Steen (2007). Prometheus Books.
The final book the in bedside-table queue; I look forward to reading this one.