Originally published: New York : Random, 1995.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [439]-448) and index.

Preface: My Teachers -- The Most Precious Thing -- Science and Hope -- The Man in the Moon and the Face on Mars -- Aliens -- Spoofing and Secrecy -- Hallucinations -- The Demon-Haunted World -- On the Distinction Between True and False Visions -- Therapy -- The Dragon in My Garage -- The City of Grief -- The Fine Art of Baloney Detection -- Obsessed with Reality -- Antiscience -- Newton's Sleep -- When Scientists Know Sin -- The Marriage of Skepticism and Wonder -- The Wind Makes Dust -- No Such Thing as a Dumb Question -- House on Fire -- The Path to Freedom -- Significance Junkies -- Maxwell and the Nerds -- Science and Witchcraft -- Real Patriots Ask Questions.

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience, New Age thinking, and fundamentalist zealotry and the testable hypotheses of science?

Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies as witchcraft, faith healings, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning, with stories of alien abduction, "channeling" past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.