10 Books That Will Shatter Your Understanding of Reality

Beyond fiction and superstition, a vast body of serious research explores paranormal phenomena. This article shines a light on the nature of reality through ten surprisingly little-known books, bringing visibility to the extraordinary events they document and honoring the authors who risked their reputations to study what others avoid. It offers rich material for the curious and a gateway for those ready to expand their understanding — and possibly awaken abilities of their own.

1. Dean Radin's "Entangled Minds"

 

Dean Radin (born 1952) earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, followed by both a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in educational psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. After completing his studies, he worked as an engineer at Bell Labs and later held research positions at Princeton University, GTE Laboratories, the University of Edinburgh, SRI International, Interval Research Corporation, and the University of Nevada. He currently serves as Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Petaluma, California.

If you believe that rigorous scientific research into paranormal phenomena either does not exist or is of poor quality, this book will challenge that assumption. It offers a systematic overview of parapsychological research, describing its theoretical foundations, experimental approaches, accumulated findings, and the historical and sociological factors that have contributed to its marginalization within mainstream science.

 

2. Ingo Swann's "Everybody's Guide to Natural ESP: Unlocking the Extrasensory Power of Your Mind"

 

Swann was a photographer and painter, but he became most notorious as a psychic. His apparent success in demonstrating clairvoyance drew the attention of Stanford Research Institute physicist Harold Puthoff, who at the time was in discussions with the U.S. military about initiating research into psychic phenomena as part of the Cold War competition with the USSR. After Swann reportedly telekinetically influenced a shielded magnetometer, Puthoff secured military funding for the first project in what became the psychic intelligence program later known as Star Gate. Swann subsequently developed a remote-viewing method that proved sufficiently compelling for the projects to be renewed repeatedly; the program ultimately ran for over twenty years and received billions of dollars in funding from multiple U.S. government agencies.

The book presents a simple, non-military method for obtaining information clairvoyantly and emphasizes that this ability is not unique to a select few but can be learned by anyone (a claim I can personally attest to).

3. Schrenck Notzing's "Phenomena of Materialization"

Albert Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing (1862–1929) was a German physician, psychiatrist, and psychical researcher who conducted systematic investigations into mediumship, telepathy, and hypnosis. In this book, he presents an extraordinarily detailed account of his research on the medium Eva Carrière, richly illustrated with photographic documentation. The experiments are described with such precision that the reader is left in little doubt about the professionalism and scientific rigor with which they were conducted. Although the work does not provide any compelling evidence for spirit survival, it documents in exhaustive detail the production of ectoplasm—described as a form of unstable matter—generated by the medium, a phenomenon also reported in experiments involving several other subjects.

4. Jule Eisenbud's  "The World of Ted Serios"

Jule Eisenbud (1908–1999), a psychiatrist who earned his M.D. in 1934 from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and his D.Med.Sc. in 1939 from Columbia University, became sufficiently convinced by Ted Serios’s claimed abilities to study him intensively over several years. He conducted thousands of sessions and documented hundreds of instant camera photographs that Serios allegedly produced with his mind. Eisenbud carefully controlled experimental conditions to rule out trickery. The World of Ted Serios presents detailed case studies, photographs, witness accounts, and Eisenbud’s analyses of Serios’s behavior and mental state. Through this case, Eisenbud explores broader themes, including:

• the nature of consciousness and the boundaries of perception;
• whether unexplained phenomena can be investigated within conventional science or require new paradigms;
• and the psychological, philosophical, and scientific implications of purported psychic abilities.

5. Jeffrey Mishlove's "The PK Man: a True Story of Mind Over Matter"

Jeffrey Mishlove earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California’s School of Criminology and later completed a Ph.D. in Parapsychology at the University of California, Berkeley (1973–1980). Since 1988, he has hosted a popular YouTube channel on paranormal research, originally titled Thinking Allowed and later renamed New Thinking Allowed. In The PK Man, Mishlove recounts his investigation of Ted Owens, an American who claimed to possess extraordinary psychokinetic (PK) abilities. Owens asserted that he could influence hurricanes, earthquakes, UFO sightings, lightning strikes, civil unrest, and more. Mishlove compiled this account through correspondence, interviews, newspaper reports, and firsthand investigation into Owens’ life and claims. Far from dismissing Owens’ abilities, Mishlove found them remarkably credible.

6. Paul Dong's "China's Super Psychics"

Paul Dong is a Chinese emigrated to USA, author of several books and qigong instructor in San Francisco. The book describes the surge of interest in psychic phenomena by the Chinese government during the 1980s and the scientific research conducted on numerous subjects, including many children. Reported abilities include telekinesis, teleportation, burning materials through focused mental energy, “eyeless sight,” telepathy, healing, and other forms of extrasensory perception. These phenomena were viewed as having potential applications in defense, intelligence, and medicine, and as possible avenues toward major scientific breakthroughs. Reflecting this enthusiasm, some gifted individuals were treated as national treasures and granted privileges such as stable research appointments, personal security, transport in government vehicles, and priority access to facilities and controlled experimental settings. In some cases, subjects were encouraged to practice qigong in order to further develop or stabilize their abilities. The book also provides an extensive bibliography of related research and sources.

7. Luc Bürgin's "Das Letzte Geheimnis von Mirin Dajo"

 

Luc Bürgin (1970 – 2024) was a Swiss writer, publicist, and journalist. In this book, he recounts the extraordinary story of the phenomenon Mirin Dajo. He allowed swords and other sharp objects to be thrust through his body—chest, abdomen, and even head—without sustaining apparent injury. In similar demonstrations, he was pierced with needles, spikes, and large metal rods, again reportedly without serious harm. Medical examinations conducted under controlled conditions, including X-rays, confirmed that the objects passed through his body without damaging vital organs, yet experts were unable to explain how this was possible.

8. Jacobo Grinberg's "Pachita"

Born in 1946, Jacobo Grinberg‑Zylberbaum studied psychology at the Faculty of Psychology of UNAM (Mexico) and psychophysiology at the Brain Research Institute in New York, obtaining a Ph.D. at the E. Roy John Laboratory. He enigmatically disappeared in 1994. His book Pachita is a nonfiction account in which he documents his years of direct experience with Bárbara Guerrero — better known as Pachita — a famed Mexican shaman and healer whose extraordinary abilities challenged conventional scientific understanding. Pachita was reputed to perform astonishing “surgeries,” including transplanting organs and healing tissues, using only a simple knife and her focused intent, without anesthesia or conventional medical tools. Grinberg approaches these phenomena through the lens of his broader scientific inquiry into consciousness, proposing that her abilities stemmed from an unusual mastery over her neural field and its interaction with the structured network of space‑time (the “lattice”), a concept tied to his theory of how consciousness interfaces with reality. Through detailed first‑hand observations and reflections, the book blends empirical documentation with speculative interpretation, inviting readers to reconsider the boundaries between mind, matter, healing, and the nature of reality itself.

9. Jules Romains' "Eyeless-Sight, A study of Extraretinal Vision and the Paroptic Sense"

 

Jules Romains (1885–1972), born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule, was a prominent French poet, novelist, and playwright. Eyeless Sight is one of the earliest and most detailed accounts of the phenomenon he called extra-retinal or paroptic vision. In this work, Romains reports that blindfolded subjects—even some individuals without sight—could learn to perceive objects, colors, and text without using their eyes, suggesting a sensory capacity beyond conventional visual organs. He proposed that this faculty might represent a latent human sense, mediated by microscopic receptors in the skin—though modern understanding interprets such effects not as skin-based perception but as a form of clairvoyance. Romains presented his research on extra-retinal vision at an international ophthalmology congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1927, where it was honored with an award. Additionally, at Cochin Hospital in Paris, a specialist committee tested and certified the authenticity of his results with blind subjects, formally endorsing his findings.

10. Claude Swanson's "The Synchronized Universe, New Science of the Paranormal"

 

Claude Swanson (1946–2022) earned a physics degree from MIT and a PhD in physics from Princeton University. His research evolved from plasma physics to theories of everything and unconventional physical models, eventually extending into the study of paranormal phenomena, which he viewed as an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the universe. In The Synchronized Universe, Swanson presents a framework connecting modern physics with the paranormal through his Synchronized Universe Model (SUM). He proposes that particle interactions are governed by an underlying synchronization, and when this balance shifts, phenomena often considered paranormal—such as telepathy, psychokinesis, and out-of-body experiences can arise. Drawing on parapsychology research, Swanson argues that consciousness can influence quantum processes and bridge between dimensions, offering a perspective that links physical reality with aspects of consciousness traditionally beyond the scope of conventional physics. The book also provides a detailed review of scientific studies on phenomena including remote viewing, telepathy, out-of-body and near-death experiences, precognition, mind-over-matter effects, and even teleportation.

Published: 2026-02-22