Official Review: Dirty Science by Bob Gebelein
Post by Momiji1987 » 16 Jun 2019, 22:00

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Dirty Science" by Bob Gebelein.]

Have you ever experienced the paranormal, had a prophetic dream, or expressed your belief in God? Have you also been threatened with intimidation, ridicule or dismissal for displaying these beliefs to anyone in the scientific community? You’re not alone.

Dirty Science by Bob Gebelein is written by a Harvard graduate who is fully aware of the bias against legitimate studies of the mental and spiritual realms. This bias is not only prevalent in science, but in the academic world at large. To him, it is an absolute travesty that unscientific methods are preventing our cultural advancement and understanding of these topics. Scientists regularly put forth refutations and criticism of what they refer to as “pseudoscience” and propagate the only accepted agenda that all must robotically parrot: there is nothing in existence beyond the physical world. The author strongly disagrees with this approach because of his own self-discoveries in psychotherapy and spiritual enlightenment. This book teaches you to spot the unscientific methods scientists use to discredit anything that doesn’t correspond to their worldview so that you too can help to change the culture by being aware of these techniques and exposing them to others.

What initially drew me to this book was the fact the author graduated from Harvard. I couldn’t believe that someone with an Ivy League education had actually escaped the mind-warping techniques that had almost corrupted me at my equally close-minded university. For someone with Harvard credentials to write a book in defense of the supernatural and maligned psychologists like Freud and Jung was intriguing.

This book is impeccably edited. I couldn’t find a single error, and every source is compiled in a lengthy bibliography at the back of the book. The author made every effort to approach this work as academically as possible without making the writing boring. Although I thought he focused a bit too much on his experience with psychotherapy, it is evident he feels passionate about the subject and truly believes in its merits and ability to help average people explore their innermost selves.

I was more interested in his spiritual experiences and dreams, since that’s something I can relate to. I didn’t agree with his conclusions on some spiritual matters regarding sexuality. My own spiritual experiences taught me the exact opposite of what he practices. Still, it was interesting to read his point of view on matters and how he came to believe them.

This book is designed to prove the existence of a world beyond the physical and expose the corruption of our institutions of higher learning and those that religiously deny its validity through unscientific means. Since the author absolutely achieves this aim to my satisfaction, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. This book will expose the establishment’s pitiful arguments against parapsychology that so-called “authorities” use to discredit their opposition. By the time you finish reading, you’ll be able to recognize a legitimate argument from an unscientific one. If you’re not willing to examine the flaws in scientific thinking, then this book probably isn’t for you. If you’re curious to learn more about verifiable proof of the supernatural, this book will certainly interest you.

******

Dirty Science, How Unscientific Methods are Blocking Our Cultural Advancement, by Bob Gebelein, Book Baby, 2019, 202 pages

As I read this book, I nodded in agreement with nearly everything the author had to say; at the same time, I read with a certain awe at the author’s observations and experiences that went beyond my own. I also read with sadness and frustration, knowing that the author is “preaching to the choir” and will not be heard by the offenders, those practicing “dirty science.” The few that might hear his words will simply snicker, scoff, and sneer in antagonistic self-righteousness. The subject matter is too complex, too convoluted, too abstract, too paradoxical, too vast, and too mindboggling for anyone without personal experience combined with years of dedicated study to properly grasp and appreciate.

What this book boils down to is that research into psychical matters – whether labelled psychical research, parapsychology, or consciousness studies – has offered a preponderance of evidence in support of the idea that there is a reality beyond the physical detected by our five senses and that this reality involves consciousness surviving beyond physical death. The evidence actually goes well beyond the preponderance threshold of our civil courts, reaching the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard of our criminal court system for those who have seriously delved into the subject. But both mainstream science and academia have ignored it or rejected it as “unscientific” and unworthy of consideration.

“The first sign of an extreme bias is that establishment scientists simply refuse to look at the evidence,” author Gebelein, a 1956 Harvard graduate in mathematics and career software programmer, writes. “They just assume, since they believe that psychic abilities and spirit entities do not exist, that the evidence is flawed – that there were methodological errors, ‘dirty test tubes,’ or actual cheating. And where scientists refuse to look at the evidence, they aren’t doing science.” These established scientists, he adds, parade their credentials, exploiting their status as ‘authorities’ by making authoritarian pronouncements in matter that go well beyond their field of expertise. They use smear tactics, including the classical ‘straw man,” ‘ad hominem’ and ‘red herring’ arguments. The closed-minds of those in the “in-group” results in what Gebelein, calls “hard ridicule,” where people are deprived of publication, funding or employment because they subscribe to what the authorities consider superstitious beliefs.

“It is as if everybody in the academic community were held in the grip of some mass-hypnosis,” Gebelein opines, adding that we seem to be dealing with an invisible Inquisition representing an unknown power.

Gebelein says that he didn’t have to go to India for spiritual enlightenment. He discovered it through psychotherapy and dream analysis. He gives much credit to pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung for his source of ideas and spiritual knowledge. “When I first read Jung, I thought he had not yet broken free from the religious beliefs of the pre-scientific era,” he explains, “but actually he was moving ahead into a new era, an era where people can believe in the spiritual not on the basis of ‘faith’ or somebody’s authority, but on the basis of EVIDENCE. His discovery of ‘original experience,” whereby one is able to see God for oneself, is potentially his most valuable (but not yet recognized) contribution to the culture.”

Gebelein devotes several chapters to parapsychology. He opines that parapsychological abilities are so sensitive that a researcher who is biased against them can block the perception through mind-jamming abilities or by just creating an aura of negativity. “It is like asking the subject to sing a tune while another tune is being played loudly in the room, or have a wine-tasting session in a kitchen where sauerkraut is being cooked. He laments the coverage given to parapsychology by Wikipedia, stating that its general tone has been one of minimizing, discrediting, slanting, smearing, insinuating, and accusing people of incompetence, cheating, or fraud. He sees much of this bias resulting from “guerrilla skeptics” who impose their ideological bias upon the subject.

“Physicalism, the assertion that there is no reality beyond the physical or what can be explained by known physical laws, dominates the academic community as if it were a hypnotic command,” he concludes, going on to say that this domination of physicalism is blocking our cultural advancement in the areas of the mental, the psychic, and the spiritual.” Gebelein sees no quick fix to the problem, but any fix begins with an awareness of the “dirty science” that is being practices by mainstream science and promoted by academia. To that end, Gebelein’s book is a must read.
 Michael Tymn