Pick of the paperbacks; The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s, by Marilyn Ferguson. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher Inc. 448 pp. $7.95.

Author Marilyn Ferguson has given a sustained, concrete account of her decade-long search into the areas of psychology, consciousness, and the ''network'' of people involved in these subjects. The result is a remarkable portrait of what Ferguson relates as a silent but powerful new undercurrent of thought cutting across American society. Of this ''new perspective'' she writes, ''The social activism of the 1960s and the 'consciousness revolution' of the early 1970s seemed to be moving toward a historic synthesis: social transformation resulting from personal transformation -- change from the inside out.''

Ferguson handles a panorama of subjects such as, politics, culture, science, fear, and synchronicity with considerable grace. She also deals with an extraordinary range of thinkers from William James to Einstein.