The Psychology of the Psychic is a skeptical analysis of some of the most publicized cases of parapsychological research by psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann. The first edition, published in 1980, highlights some of the best-known cases from the 1970s. The second edition, published in 2000, adds information from the intervening 20 years as well as substantially more documentation and references to the original material. Overview Marks and Kammann give detailed descriptions of experiments conducted by parapsychology researchers as well as performances by psychic entertainers outside of the laboratory during the 1970s. Many of these included some of the most widely known psychic performers of the time, including Uri Geller, Kreskin, and Ingo Swann. In their attempts to replicate the studies of other researchers, the authors discover methodological flaws in the original trials that lead them to the conclusion that no evidence for psychic phenomena has yet been produced. They then discuss psychological research that attempts to explain why people believe in such phenomena in spite of this lack of evidence. Background and second edition In the 1970s, many of the students in their University of Otago psychology lectures had suggested to both Marks and Kammann that psychics, particularly Kreskin, were genuine and represented the cutting edge of psychological research. As they put it, "(W)e began our studies on ESP after numerous students had suggested we 'wake up' to psychic reality". At the time, surveys were showing what seemed to the authors to be a startlingly large percentage of people who believed psychic phenomena were or might be real. Far from setting out to disprove psychic phenomena, "(W)e considered it entirely possible that the psychology of perception was about to go through a psychic revolution, and if so, we wanted to be included. But over the next three years of research, when we examined each dazzling claim of ESP, or psychokinesis (PK), we discovered that a simple, natural explanation was far more credible than a supernatural or paranormal one." Regardless of the preferences of the authors, they followed the evidence they found where it led them. As they state in chapter eight, "It is never the scientist’s own conclusion that is important but the quality of his evidence." 104 There were several changes to the book for the second edition. Marks eliminated the chapters on Kreskin, because "he is no longer considered relevant to serious study of the paranormal.