And I thought (some) UFO peers were mean and duplicitous

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Stephen E. Baude, a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, in his 2007 University of Chicago Press book The Gold Leaf Lady and other parapsychological investigations apprises readers, in the Preface, of how mean-spirited and nasty his academic colleagues became when he seriously took up interest and investigation(s) into paranormal phenomena.

He was shunned, received sarcastic remarks in social settings, and generally became anathema in scholarly circles.

The book, which I am scouring for information helpful to Jose Caravaca in explicating his Distortion Theory, presents Professor Baude’s experiences with several persons, among them Ted Serios, who proclaimed psychokinetic (PK) abilities and effects that either assaulted them or were produced by them.

I’m not into the meat of the book yet, so taken aback by the despicable behavior of academics – something that I knew from other castigations against obtuse thinking – that I thought I’d note it here, for those who think that only the UFO topic is rife with mean and petty (or worse) commentary and people.

I also grabbed, from the University of Chicago’s ongoing book sale, Michael D. Gordins’ 2012 The Pseudoscience Wars, which I thought was a disparaging account of Velikovsky but which, I was happy to learn, turns out to provide many encomiums for the great man.

I’ll have more to write on both books, but suggest that some of you put some of your monies to use for edification, by buying a few U of C tomes rather than dispersing funds for lost causes, many of which flood the UFO universe.

RR