{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Phenomena - Why Must It Always Be a Spoon?","description":"Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis By: Annie Jacobsen Published: 2017 544 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An exhaustive history of the government\u2019s attempts to systematize and weaponize paranormal abilities. It also covers the broader paranormal research landscape, with lots of discussion of Uri Geller.   What authorial biases should I be aware of? Jacobsen claims to be approaching the subject as a neutral observer, but I got a strong \u201cI want to believe\u201d vibe from the book. Her approach appears to assume what it claims to be investigating. The overarching question of the book is: \u201cWhy did the government spend so much time and effort on these areas if there\u2019s nothing there?\u201d As one example of bias, I grew up reading Carl Sagan, and in his telling the appearance of Uri Geller on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was the smoking gun. Carson went to great lengths to make sure that Geller couldn\u2019t influence the demonstration, and, what do you know? Geller failed to bend any spoons. I read about this when I was a teenager and it has loomed large in my memory ever since, so I was very interested to see how Jacobsen would handle it. She devotes one sentence to it: Geller was nervous, he said, having recently been unable to demonstrate psychokinesis on Johnny Carson\u2019s Tonight Show.   I\u2019m sure I\u2019m reflecting my own biases with this focus, but if she was truly being a neutral observer, I would have expected Geller\u2019s Carson appearance to have gotten several pages. Who should read this book? ... ","author_name":"We Are Not Saved","author_url":"http:\/\/wearenotsaved.com","html":"