"How can you talk to a complete stranger as if you have known them all your life? Is it really possible to read someone's thoughts and feelings within seconds of meeting them? In this..book ... explains the secrets of the oldest and most powerful psychological persuasion system in the world"--Back cover.

More and more people every day are visiting psychics for advice, guidance and a peek into the future. The industry is a moneymaker, with TV talk shows, Internet astrologers and corner store psychics available for the seeker's pleasure. Mediums, sages and astrologers have enjoyed a long and well-documented history, and can even be found in The Bible, while modern psychics have turned their readings into fame, fortune and celebrity. But what can a psychic really do? This book will examine the ways that psychics run their show. Readers will come to understand the basics of the "cold read," which is the psychic's main tool for convincing customers to return

Ian Mann's Hacking the Human highlights the main sources of risk from social engineering and draws on psychological models to explain the basis for human vulnerabilities. Offering more than a simple checklist to follow, the book provides a rich mix of examples, applied research and practical solutions for security and IT professionals that enable you to create and develop a security solution that is most appropriate for your organization.

An accessible and gratifying introduction to the world of paranormal beliefs and bizarre experiences. Ghostly encounters, alien abduction, reincarnation, talking to the dead, UFO sightings, inexplicable coincidences, out-of-body and near-death experiences. Are these legitimate phenomena? If not, then how should we go about understanding them? In this fascinating book, Chris French investigates paranormal claims to discover what lurks behind this “weird shit.” French provides authoritative evidence-based explanations for a wide range of superficially mysterious phenomena, and then goes further to draw out lessons with wider applications to many other aspects of modern society where critical thinking is urgently needed. Using academic, comprehensive, logical, and, at times, mathematical approaches, The Science of Weird Shit convincingly debunks ESP, communicating with the dead, and alien abduction claims, among other phenomena. All the while, however, French maintains that our belief in such phenomena is neither ridiculous nor trivial; if anything, such claims can tell us a great deal about the human mind if we pay them the attention they are due. Filled with light-bulb moments and a healthy dose of levity, The Science of Weird Shit is a clever, memorable, and gratifying read you won’t soon forget.

Comprehensive and engaging, this extensively revised edition of a student and instructor favorite introduces the basics of critical thinking using the claims of pseudoscience and the paranormal. Guides readers through the critical thinking process by considering different types of support (sources, logic, and scientific observation) and ruling out alternative explanations Allows students to practice and apply their new critical thinking skills on claims of extraordinary cures including energy treatments, complementary/alternative medicine and faith healing as well as four paranormal claims of consequence: astrology, spiritualism and the afterlife, parapsychology, and creationism. Couples a conversational, nontechnical narrative with student-friendly pedagogical tools, including critical thinking questions and a study guide for each chapter. Provides clear and open-minded discussions of the paranormal spectrum, belief justification surveys, the placebo effect, and the relationship between religion and critical thinking

The chapters in this book have their origins in papers presented at one of two conferences organised by the Global Science and Technology Forum (GSTF): the Annual International Conference on Human Resource Management and Professional Development (HRM and PD) 2012, and the Annual Conference on Cognitive and Behavioural Psychology (CBP) 2013, both held in Singapore. On the basis of these presentations, authors were invited to re-work their papers to fit within the theme of “enhancing human performance”. This theme was deliberately broad so as to include a wide range of research areas, and yet was sufficiently specific that the chapters would cohere as different perspectives on the factors that affect human performance. This collection of chapters reflects the disparate contexts in which human performance is examined, and the many factors that impinge on performance in a negative way, and the conditions under which performance can be improved. The book explores topics such as: the effects of a computer maths game on the acquisition of arithmetic skills in school children; the effects of exercise on cognition in children with autism spectrum disorder; the influence of bilingualism on visuospatial memory; the potential beneficial effects of beliefs in the extraordinary (e.g., paranormal phenomena); an examination of how attention to food-related images is affected as a function of food deprivation; the factors that affect the perceived effort of credit repayment; the impact of the emotional valence of faces on the spatial direction of attention; emotional eating in Thailand; the relationship between work roles, worker characteristics and work performance; the relationship between national culture and national innovation; and organisational preparation for Generation Y leaders.