Page 179 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

160 Mysteries of the Mind

their moods and psychic needs, are able to almost completely spontaneous in nature, and
draw upon their latent ESP abilities. Some ungovernable elements of mood and emotion
gifted individuals are even able to make regu- play enormously important roles in any type of
lar and practical use of the seemingly rare paranormal experience. As researcher G. N.
powers of psi. M. Tyrrell commented, a percipient is never
It is interesting to note how many psi activ- aware of a telepathic, clairvoyant, or precog-
ities are experienced while the percipient is nitive process at work within him. He is only
either asleep or in the sleeplike states of trance aware of the product of that process. In fact, it
or hypnosis. This may indicate that each indi- seems apparent from laboratory work that
vidual, in his or her subconscious, has the fac- conscious effort at determining any psi process
ulties necessary to focus on the consciously at work within oneself will either completely
unperceived world of ESP. Dr. Montague Ull- destroy it or greatly diminish its effectiveness.
man has observed that many persons who are Therefore, laboratory experiments have some-
incapable of effective communication in nor- times established, by incredibly laborious tests
mal ways can communicate at a telepathic and veritable mountains of statistics, only
level and surprise the therapist with a telepath- slightly better-than-chance evidence of the
ic dream of rich awareness even of the physi- validity of telepathy, clairvoyance, precogni-
cian’s problems. The same laws of psychody- tion, and psychokinesis.
namics that apply to the dream also appear to Parapsychologists suggest that their col-
apply to psi phenomena. Both the dream and leagues in the physical sciences resist becoming
psi are incompatible with currently accepted dogmatic. Each generation seems to forget that
notions of time, space, and causality. scientists have had to admit some seemingly
impossible facts in the past. Electricity, for
example, was unknown except through a few
sporadic events completely devoid of explana-
tion, such as lightning and the mysterious
TELEPATHY may have been the
attraction of bits of paper to rubbed amber. As
original archaic method by which individuals facts became gradually accumulated, the theory

understood one another. of an electromagnetic field pervading all space
was evolved. Perhaps one day, psi phenomena
will be recognized as another kind of energy
that pervades time, space, and matter.
More conventional scientists, who work
within the confines of those currently accept- M Delving Deeper
ed boundaries of known physical laws, insist Consciousness Research Laboratory. “Frequently
that parapsychologists satisfy the requirements Asked Questions About Parapsychology.”
demanded of all other sciences and that they [Online] http://www.psiresearch.org/para1.html.
do the following: (1) produce controlled and Krippner, Stanley, with John White. Future Science:
repeatable experiments; (2) develop a hypoth- Life Energies and the Physics of Paranormal Phenom-
esis comprehensive enough to include all psi ena. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1977.
activity from telepathy to poltergeists, from Krippner, Stanley, with Montague Ullman and Alan
water dowsing to materializations. Vaughan. Dream Telepathy: Experiments in Noctur-
The enormous difficulty in fulfilling these nal ESP. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland Publishers,
requirements can be immediately grasped by 1989.
anyone with the slightest knowledge of psi Rhine, J. B. The Reach of the Mind. New York:
phenomena. It would be impossible, for exam- William Sloane Associates, 1947.
ple, to repeat the apparition of a man’s father Targ, Russell, and Harold E. Puthoff. Mind-Reach: Sci-
as it appeared to him at the moment of his entists Look at Psychic Ability. New York: Dela-
father’s death. This sort of crisis apparition corte Press/Eleanor Friede, 1977.
occurs only at death, and the man’s father is Tyrell, G. N. M. Science and Psychical Phenomena.
going to die only once. Psi phenomena is New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938.

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