Book Review - Exposed!: Ouija, Firewalking, and Other Gibberish by Henri Broch
Category Book Review Henri Broch Exposed!: Ouija Firewalking and Other Gibberish
I received an advance readers copy of Exposed!: Ouija, Firewalking, and Other Gibberish by Henri Broch through the Amazon Vine program. On the surface, it sounded as if it had promise... the author promises to destroy these "mystical" happenings with ordinary science, showing that nothing paranormal is at play here. And to be fair, he does explain how it's quite easy to rig a "demonstration of the powers" so that "magic" happens. With minor alterations in the setup, Broch can make the powers completely disappear. All it takes is a skeptical eye and a willingness to change the ground rules for the experiment to rule out external influences.
So why did this book fail to deliver? How come it never grabbed my interest?
Part of the problem might be the "lost in translation" effect. Broch is French, and the book is translated from French into English. It may well be that the translation made the material sound much more labored than it was in the original French. Whatever the case, the writing doesn't seem to flow very well for readability and interest. There's also an issue with how the material within the chapters is organized. Historical examples of people claiming to have power are mixed with references to older non-English publications (often without much of a reason why). Alterations in the experiments that caused them to fail are mixed in with confusing mathematical and scientific explanations that all seem to be fighting for the reader's attention. Add in a liberal dose of what appears to be sarcastical and self-promoting rants on how well the researchers debunked the demonstration, and it all gets to be rather tedious.
In some of the chapters, there's really not even a reason presented as to why it might have worked in the first place. For example, ouija board activity is covered towards the end. He starts by having the people use a table and an overturned glass. If that seems to "work", then try something similar, only mixing up the letters around the edge of the board and covering their values. If true spirits are at work, that shouldn't confuse them. But funny how whenever the experiment is changed in this fashion, nothing but gibberish appears. No real reason why, other than it must not have been real in the first place. Still, the mixture of explanations, ranging from scientific proof to "we made it stop" leaves one wishing for more consistency.
I'll admit being spoiled by shows like Mythbusters that do some of the same types of experiments, but do it in a way that educates and entertains at the same time. Exposed! seems to be hit and miss on both those criteria, and I could have found other things to do with the couple hours I spent reading this book.
I received an advance readers copy of Exposed!: Ouija, Firewalking, and Other Gibberish by Henri Broch through the Amazon Vine program. On the surface, it sounded as if it had promise... the author promises to destroy these "mystical" happenings with ordinary science, showing that nothing paranormal is at play here. And to be fair, he does explain how it's quite easy to rig a "demonstration of the powers" so that "magic" happens. With minor alterations in the setup, Broch can make the powers completely disappear. All it takes is a skeptical eye and a willingness to change the ground rules for the experiment to rule out external influences.
So why did this book fail to deliver? How come it never grabbed my interest?
Part of the problem might be the "lost in translation" effect. Broch is French, and the book is translated from French into English. It may well be that the translation made the material sound much more labored than it was in the original French. Whatever the case, the writing doesn't seem to flow very well for readability and interest. There's also an issue with how the material within the chapters is organized. Historical examples of people claiming to have power are mixed with references to older non-English publications (often without much of a reason why). Alterations in the experiments that caused them to fail are mixed in with confusing mathematical and scientific explanations that all seem to be fighting for the reader's attention. Add in a liberal dose of what appears to be sarcastical and self-promoting rants on how well the researchers debunked the demonstration, and it all gets to be rather tedious.
In some of the chapters, there's really not even a reason presented as to why it might have worked in the first place. For example, ouija board activity is covered towards the end. He starts by having the people use a table and an overturned glass. If that seems to "work", then try something similar, only mixing up the letters around the edge of the board and covering their values. If true spirits are at work, that shouldn't confuse them. But funny how whenever the experiment is changed in this fashion, nothing but gibberish appears. No real reason why, other than it must not have been real in the first place. Still, the mixture of explanations, ranging from scientific proof to "we made it stop" leaves one wishing for more consistency.
I'll admit being spoiled by shows like Mythbusters that do some of the same types of experiments, but do it in a way that educates and entertains at the same time. Exposed! seems to be hit and miss on both those criteria, and I could have found other things to do with the couple hours I spent reading this book.
| Permalink |
