Elements of Biological Science - William T. Keeton - Hardcover Book

I learned a number of interesting things reading Mary Roach's survey of the historical and scientific efforts to prove the existence of a soul.

Her discussion of the scientific inquiries into stories of reincarnated children provides an excellent example of the difficulties of trying to objectively prove something when your main resource is the shaky memories of those who are already convinced of whatever it is you're trying to prove.

Though I was already familiar with the theory that infrasound (sound at a frequency too low for humans to hear) can cause the experience of ghostly phenomenon, I was intrigued to learn that a tiger's roar contains infrasound and some theorize that the fear we feel in the presence of infrasound is left over from days when escaping tigers was a high evolutionary priority.

I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about the various ways spiritualist mediums faked the extrusion of ectoplasm.

Despite the interesting nature of the topic, however, I didn't love this book as much as I hoped. There were moments in which the narrative got bogged down as the author detailed a few too many historical efforts to prove the existence of the soul.

In addition, I struggled with the tone of the book. Roach admits to being a skeptic, but she said her goal was to explore this topic with an open mind. In this I don't think she really succeeded. Though she does acknowledge some inexplicable events, she spends more time poking cheap fun at many of her subjects. In some circumstances, I can imagine the temptation was hard to resist, but this semi-snarky tone felt a little too easy. A few moments of genuine humor combined with her generally readable style, however, made me want to seek out her first book, which I've heard is much better.