Abstract

Those familiar with the history and the literature of parapsychology will recognize the name of K. Ramakrishna Rao, director of the Rhine Research Center after Rhine’s retirement, and a decades-long contributor to the literature of parapsychology. Now head of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Rao is a natural choice to produce a book on the topic of yoga and parapsychology. The 19 papers (plus the Preface to the book) come from a 2006 conference at Andhra University. A helpful glossary is also included. The theme of the connection between yoga and parapsychology is a natural one, as several authors point out, since, on the one hand, Indian philosophy takes paranormal powers (siddhi) to be a natural outcome of yoga practice, and on the other hand, meditation and other noise reduction exercises have proved to be psi-conducive in Western empirical research. Yet, there has been too little cross-cultural fertilization, so a conference on the subject and the subsequent book are welcome.