The book takes influence from the works of
Frank Podmore,
Joseph Jastrow and
Ivor Lloyd Tuckett dealing with the "fallacies underlying psychical research". Rawcliffe critically examines claims of the
occult,
parapsychology and
spiritualism concluding that they are best explained by psychological factors such as
hallucination,
hysteria,
neurosis and
suggestion as well as "delusion, fraud, prestidigitation, and limitless credulity." Rawcliffe found possible naturalistic explanations for all parapsychological experiments he investigated, noting that there is no scientific evidence for any paranormal power. He suggested that many of the results from
ESP experiments can be explained by what he termed
endophasic enneurosis (unconscious
whispering). The book offers rational explanations for diverse phenomena such as
automatic writing,
dowsing, fire-walking, lycanthropy and
stigmata. ==Reception==