In 1991, when her daughter’s rare, hand-carved harp was stolen, Lisby Mayer’s familiar world of science and rational thinking turned upside down. After the police failed to turn up any leads, a friend suggested she call a dowser—a man who specialized in finding lost objects. With nothing to lose—and almost as a joke—Dr. Mayer agreed. Within two days, and without leaving his Arkansas home, the dowser located the exact California street coordinates where the harp was found.

Deeply shaken, yet driven to understand what had happened, Mayer began the fourteen-year journey of discovery that she recounts in this mind-opening, brilliantly readable book. Her first surprise: the dozens of colleagues who’d been keeping similar experiences secret for years, fearful of being labeled credulous or crazy.

Extraordinary Knowing is an attempt to break through the silence imposed by fear and to explore what science has to say about these and countless other “inexplicable” phenomena. From Sigmund Freud’s writings on telepathy to secret CIA experiments on remote viewing, from leading-edge neuroscience to the strange world of quantum physics, Dr. Mayer reveals a wealth of credible and fascinating research into the realm where the mind seems to trump the laws of nature.

She does not ask us to believe. Rather she brings us a book of profound intrigue and optimism, with far-reaching implications not just for scientific inquiry but also for the ways we go about living in the world.

From the Hardcover edition.

伊麗莎白‧羅伊‧梅爾（Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, Ph.D.）

國際知名的精神分析師、研究者、臨床執業人員，同時對女性發展、臨床技巧、科學本質和直覺等主題，發表過許多突破性的論文。畢業於雷德克里夫學院（Radcliffe College），在史丹佛大學獲得博士學位，並在舊金山精神分析研究中心（San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute）受訓及擔任督導。

曾於加州大學柏克萊分校和舊金山加州大學醫學中心精神醫學部擔任臨床副教授，也是普林斯頓大學「國際知覺研究實驗室」（ICRL）和「加州太平洋醫學中心」（California Pacific Medical Center）健康與療癒研究院的研究學者。

除此之外，她還在柏克萊設立私人診所並執業長達三十年。梅爾博士曾參與許多相關研究領域重要期刊的編輯委員會，這些期刊包括《美國精神分析學會期刊》、《精神分析國際期刊》、《性別與精神分析》、《精神分析季刊》、《當代精神分析》等。她還是「美國精神分析學會」聲望極高的「梅寧哲獎」（Menninger Award）首位獲獎人。

梅爾博士同時也是一位女低音，對傳統民俗樂和古典音樂有歷久不墜的興趣。她創立了「加州狂歡慶典」（California Revels），並在當中任職藝術總監多年。身為兩個女兒的母親，她還製作過一系列獲獎的兒童音樂教育錄影帶，並於1995年獲選為阿拉梅達郡藝術與文化類傑出女性。

梅爾博士於2005年元旦辭世，就在剛完成《不可思議的直覺力》不久之後。