Mind Myth

Is mind reading a real skill? What about being able to move things with just your mind? Listeners will be captivated by claims of psychic powers while also learning the facts about each story. Which tales could be true, and which myths are busted?

Science is the most powerful method of understanding the world that human beings have ever devised. It splits atoms, sequences genomes, and photographs black holes. But it is also performed by brains—brains that think in metaphors, organize experience into stories, and coordinate collective action through ritual. What happens when we take that fact seriously? In Science and Taboo, Boris Kriger draws on the predictive processing revolution in cognitive science to reveal the hidden architecture of scientific thought.

"It's like talking to a brick wall" and "We'll have to agree to disagree" are popular sayings referring to the frustrating experience of discussing issues with people who seem to be beyond the reach of argument. It's often claimed that some people - fundamentalists or fanatics - are indeed sealed off from rational criticism. And every month new pop psychology books appear, describing the dumb ways ordinary people make decisions, as revealed by psychological experiments.

“When we call someone lazy, we condemn a human being,” writes Mel Levine, M.D. In The Myth of Laziness, the bestselling author of A Mind at a Time shows that children dismissed as unproductive or “lazy” usually suffer from what he calls “output failure”—a neurodevelopmental...