Here’s a book summary, based on decades of impeccable scientific research that explores what our minds are actually capable of doing. “Sustainability” seems part of a “transition” that’s happening – and perhaps the most significant part. A shift in – and expansion of – our capacities is part of this transition.
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Mind-Reach
Russell Targ
Harold E. Puthoff, Ph.D.
(P. xxiv) Mystics for years have smiled mysteriously and told us that we are limited by the world only because we believe that we are limited by it. That it is all illusion for our eyes to accept.
(P. 16) It is … this dilemma that has led us to ask visitors to our laboratory to personally generate a psychic event, rather than observe one. They are then faced with the decision of accepting what they have just done, or denying their own experience. This can often be very stressful because it can force a person to face a contradiction within his own belief structure.
By and large, the Western world has a materialistic world view … that things that can’t be touched, tasted, seen, smelled, etc., do not exist.
(P. 35) The constant incredulity – although not universal – we faced for even being involved in such experimentation made it clear that positive results would not be welcomed by everyone. Scientists and non-scientists alike often find it difficult to confront data that appear to be greatly at odds with their world view. Entrenched belief structures die hard, even in the face of data.
(P. 40) … functioning in an arithmetic mode, requires specialization characteristic of the brain’s left hemisphere, while evidence mounts that remote viewing is a function channeled through the right hemisphere.
(P. 100-1) … the principle difference between experienced and inexperienced subjects is not that the inexperienced never exhibit the faculty, but rather that their results are less reliable, more sporadic. Although the results may have been boosted by the “first-time effect” … individual transcripts from the inexperienced are among the best obtained. Such observations support a hypothesis that remote viewing is probably a latent and widely distributed perceptual ability.
… each person tended to focus on certain aspects of the remote target complex and to exclude others, so that each had an individual pattern of response, like a signature.
Swann … frequently responded with topographical descriptions, maps, and architectural features of the target locations. Elgin often focused on the behavior of the remote experimenter and the sequence he carried out at the target. Hammid … gave the feel of the location, and experiential or sensory gestalts – for example, light/dark elements in the scene; indoor/out-door and enclosed/open distinctions. Prominent features of Prince’s transcripts were detailed descriptions of what the outside experimenters were experiencing, seeing, or doing – for example, standing on asphalt, or blacktop, overlooking water; looking at a purple iris.
… we … urge our subjects simply to describe what they see as opposed to what they think they are looking at. … their unanalyzed perceptions are almost always a better guide to the true target then their interpretations of the perceived data.
(P. 103-4) If you are interested in making use of your own … psychic ability, here are … pointers …
1. Ask yourself, “Is it okay with me if the world should be constructed in such a way that psychic functioning does exist?” If that is all right with you, then ask yourself, “Is it okay with me if I have ESP ability?” In an experimental vein, say to yourself: “I can view a remote location.”
How does that feel? If you have any resistance to the idea of your describing a scene beyond your normal senses, then sort out the various reasons that might account for such a feeling. Has someone in authority said it was impossible or nonsense? Do you find it difficult to explain? Repeat the questions in Step #1 until you feel comfortable with each statement, even though you may suspect that the suspension of disbelief is only temporary.
To carry out the experiment, it is useful to have the cooperation of a friend.
2. As your friend to pick a location – preferably unknown to you, to prevent educated guessing – and agree to be there at a particular time, and to remain there for 15 minutes. The only requirement for the person at the target site is to pay attention to where he is, to observe. It is not necessary to try to “send” you any information.
3. At the appointed time, you … should be … in a quiet, perhaps dimly lit place where you are comfortable. Sit up and remain alert. About one minute before the time the experiment is to begin, relax and calm your thoughts, quieting the internal dialogue. It is not necessary to do more than this; no special routine or meditation is needed.
4. Now is the time for you to describe the target location – to yourself or, preferably, to a second friend who does not know what the target is and is free to ask you questions as you go along. Describe the mental images that seem to be associated with where the outbound friend has gone. What do you see? What are the colors? What kind of shapes come to mind?
… avoid trying to figure it out by analysis, or trying to name the place. Just relate the basic images and feelings. The extent to which you are able to capture basic impressions is the extent to which you will probably be correct in your description of the remote place. … analysis appears … antagonistic to the functioning of remote viewing …
5. Try sketching the various aspects of the scene that come to mind. Even when erroneous interpretations creep in, drawings often remain true to the basic patterns of the remote scene. Be willing to draw what pops into your mind, even though you don’t know what it is that the drawings represent. When you see the remote target in person, the significance of the drawings may become clear.
6. … visit the remote target as soon as possible after the end of the 15 minute interval allotted for remote viewing. In this way, feedback takes place while the images are still fresh in your mind, and you can make an internal comparison that will be useful in future events.
… so far we have not found a single person who could not do remote viewing to satisfaction. … there are differences in each person’s ability – as there are in the ability to sing or play the piano: some subjects are more consistently reliable, others get better faster. The indications are that this is a widespread human talent, and chances are that you will be amazed at your own psychic ability.
(P. 110) In another instance, a … subject working with a four-state random number generator felt that she not only could tell what the target stored in the machine was, but the next target as well. To test her claim in a rigorous fashion, we modified the machine so that it would make its selection one fifth of a second after she pressed the button to indicate what she thought the machine’s selection was going to be.
Therefore, at the time the subject made her choice, the machine had not yet made its choice. In … 672 trials … she successfully guessed the upcoming machine choice more often than expected by a chance at odds of 250:1.
These examples fall into the category … known as precognition: the perception of a future event that could not be known through rational inference. Precognition, telepathy (mind-to-mind communication), and clairvoyance (perception of an event hidden from the ordinary senses) comprise the three major categories of paranormal perceptual phenomena.
(P. 162) … inhibit the impulse to think things about the object, to examine it, or appraise it, or to allow memory trains to attach themselves to it. The average person has never heard of such a form of concentration and so has to learn how to do it. Simultaneously, we must learn how to relax, for strangely enough, a part of concentration is complete relaxation.
(P. 201) … the ratio of … corporation presidents who considered ESP to be a fact to those who felt otherwise was typically in the range of three-to-one to five-to-one, well above the national average of the 53 percent belief in ESP reported in a recent Roper poll, a belief … strongly correlated with increasing levels of education and income.
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Many of us have had Deja vu experiences, which fall into the precognition category. Rather than dismissing such occurrences as oddities to be ignored, this research suggests we may be capable of much more. Once we’re aware of how far we might go, we might develop what they see as existing, but latent, abilities. Then …
We can see how far our human abilities can actually take us, and how great an impact that can have for our quality of life experience.
We do live in interesting times!
