The term ‘Remote Viewing’ (RV) was coined by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff.
RV is the alleged ability to internally perceive objects and events at a distance beyond the range of the normal senses.
Remote Viewers (RVers) usually say they perceive objects and events in the past, present and probable future. But RVers don’t believe they psychologically time travel when seeing the past. Instead, they say they access a holographic cosmic memory bank that records all of the events that ever took place, somewhat like the Akashic Records of Theosophy and Anthroposophy.
With regard to the future, RVers apparently see possible outcomes but don’t claim to predict the future with any certainty.
One difficulty with RV is a margin of error that researcher Dale Graff calls “white noise.” RVers strive to scientifically verify their distance visions and apparently are developing new methods to increase accuracy.
On this point RVers differ from some psychics who remain convinced that their distance visions are accurate without ever attempting to verify them.
Interestingly, RV researcher Russell Targ says his team got better scientific results when they kept the research environment “fun” and relaxed.
Although Targ admits to making money from RVing future probabilities, he reports that human greed came to interfere with the success of his experiments.¹
Targ later introduced the term Remote Sensing because RV may also be accompanied by an inner sense of hearing, smell and touch.
The paranormal writer Rosemary Ellen Guiley says that Remote Sensing is a well-documented phenomenon, both in ancient and contemporary times.
According to Anthony C. LoBaido at WorldNetDaily.com and Steve Hammons at AmericanChronicle.com, the CIA has used RV for intelligence gathering. LoBaido also claims that the FBI has adopted RV for the same purposes.
Former Cambridge biochemist raised in a British Methodist family whose overall work attempts to integrate scientific and spiritual issues.
In Seven Experiments Which Could Change the World (1994) Sheldrake outlines low-cost experiments that he encourages readers to perform.
One experiment deals with ESP perception as a form of ‘looking.’ Sheldrake asks why we perceive somebody looking at us from behind or even at some distance (e.g. through a window).
Sheldrake suggests that some type of perception other than everyday eyesight is involved.
This idea is followed up in Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home, and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (1999).
In keeping with this hypothesis, his subsequent book was called, The Sense of Being Stared At, And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind (2003).
Sheldrake has recently conducted controlled experiments on telephone and e-mail precognition. He found significant results suggesting that people knew when others were about to call them on the telephone, with a sample size of 63. A similar kind of precognition was also found with e-mail, with a sample size of 50.
Most recently his website asks: Have you thought of someone who then sends you a text message? offering a link for visitors to report their observations.
Sheldrake continues to publish books containing his interviews and dialogues with other notables in the New Age / Holistic Health circuit, along with replies to numerous critics who say he’s lost touch with recent theories in neurobiology and, indeed, abandoned science in favor of so-called magical thinking.
Not all scientists are at odds with his views, however. The late physicist David Bohm said Sheldrake’s ideas were in keeping with his own about an implicate and explicate order.
Emanuel Swedenborg at the age of 75, holding the manuscript of Apocalypsis Revelata (1766)
Swedenborg, Emanuel (1688-1772)
Swedish scientist who, after recovering from a psychological crisis, became a mystic claiming to speak on a regular basis with angelic, alien and demonic beings.
Although interesting and presented in an orderly fashion, some of Swedenborg’s writings seem questionable.
He writes, for instance, that spirits told him people lived in wooden buildings and tents on the planet Jupiter:
Their dwellings were also shown me. They are lowly dwellings constructed of wood; but within they are lined with bark or cork of a pale blue colour, and the walls and ceiling are spotted as with stars, to represent the heaven; for they are fond of picturing the visible heaven with its constellations in the interiors of their houses, the reason being that they believe the constellations to be the abodes of the angels. They have tents also, which are rounded off above and extended in length, spotted likewise within with stars on a blue ground. They retire into these in the day-time, to prevent their faces suffering from the heat of the sun. They bestow much care on the fashioning of these tents of theirs, and on keeping them clean. In them they also take their repasts.†
Similarly, Swedenborg said that a spirit from the moon said that the voices of that satellite’s inhabitants “made a loud thundering sound.”
With no atmosphere on the moon’s surface, necessary for sound waves and hearing, one wonders how this could be possible.
It’s easy to assume that Swedenborg’s accounts merely reflect the popular imagination of his day, suggesting that he was a quack or charlatan. But one could argue that some of the problems with his far-fetched claims arise from translation and interpretation, along with his human limitations from living in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Swedenborgians could argue, for instance, that the beings on the moon weren’t physical but were composed of energy or spirit—likewise with regard to the apparent ‘sound’ they made.
Swedenborg's Flying Machine (via Thomas Roche)
Whatever the truth may be, the psychiatrist Carl Jung notes that Swedenborg did have an accurate precognition of a great fire in Stockholm.
Concerning Christianity, Swedenborg’s work presents a novel interpretation of that religion.
He suggests that everything occurring in this life corresponds to a cosmic body, which he calls “The Universal Human.” And the different races of mankind apparently correspond to different regions of The Universal Human.
Likewise, Swedenborg says individual merits during Earthly life correspond to favorable afterlife regions in the cosmic body, such as the brain or the eye. But those who lead evil lives end up in undesirable, filth-ridden regions, such as the liver or intestines.
Swedenborg wrote copiously about demonic beings whose sole intent is to draw the energy from the living, causing severe pain and distress.
With regard to the idea of the Trinity, Rev. Glenn “Mac” at GlennFrazier.com adds:
Since you mention Swedenborg, it might be worth pointing out that he explicitly spoke up against the idea of a trinity of persons. According to his theology (in, e.g., his book, True Christian Religion), Jehovah the Father and Jesus the Son were not only one God, but also the one and only one person of God. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is the activity of that person, and not a seperate person in its own right. This is somewhat similar to Michael Servetus’ ideas expressed a good deal earlier in his “Errors of the Trinity”. Swedenborg’s idea of a trinity of essentials, rather than of persons, should not be confused with modalism—the idea of there being one God that at various times takes on different functions or modes in sequence. To Swedenborg, the Father was literally God’s soul, the Son his body, and the Spirit his influence/activity, not by analogy, but actually. » See in context
Swedenborg was not only interested in the inner life. Like other past innovators, he tried to devise technological contraptions that would eventually appear in some other form, such as a flying machine (pictured above).
Swedenborg’s work has been compiled, edited and commented on by the Swedenborg Foundation.
A student of Swedenborg’s works, Judah, adds:
A final thought: while I enjoy pondering the existence of life on other planets, I find it more enjoyable – and meaningful – to explore the ideas in Swedenborg’s writings that have to do with wisely loving my fellow human beings and our creator – the Divine Human. » See in context
“Part 1 of 8: This week on Science and the Outer Streams, Andy Nesky, President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Theosophical Society, welcomes the Rev. Dr. Jonathan S. Rose. Dr. Rose discusses the life, legacy and works of Swedish philosopher, scientist, and theologian Emmanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg has been called one of the greatest thinkers Sweden has ever produced, and his theology sparked a Christian religious movement known as The New Jerusalem Church. Dr. Rose is the series editor and the translator for the “New Century Edition,” a series of annotated English translations of Swedenborg’s theological writings. He has been the Curator of the Swedenborgia Library and is now a chaplain and assistant professor of Religion and Sacred Languages at Bryn Athyn College of the New Church”
Rock and roll song dealing with Swedenborg’s ideas:
Chambre de glace dans le pays by De Giffted Artist
Synchronicity
Synchronicity is a scientific sounding term coined by the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung to represent the idea of meaningful coincidence. Whether or not synchronicity is a truly scientific concept remains open to debate.
Implicit to Jung’s idea of synchronicity is the belief that all of creation is somehow connected.
Synchronicity takes three main forms:
The coincidence of a psychological state with a corresponding, simultaneously occurring external event with no evidence of causality.
The coincidence of a psychological state with a corresponding, simultaneous external event that occurs at a distance, beyond the observer’s normal range of perception.
The coincidence of a psychological state with a corresponding event that will occur in the future and which may be verified after its occurrence.
Whether or not synchronicity is a causal or acausal phenomenon is also a point of debate. Jung says it’s acausal but also suggests that the archetypes of the collective unconscious can lead toward synchronicities, implying some kind of causality.
This uncertainty might result from different understandings about the nature of consciousness—particularly, what constitutes the locus of consciousness.
Concerning ethics, synchronicity is ambiguous. Because the concept of synchronicity bears some similarity to the notion of the religious sign, it’s not surprising that different attempts have been made to link this aspect of Jungian thought to theology.
seaorange by shannon kringen
The following represents an attempt to synthesize Christian belief with the concept of synchronicity:
The natural universe, in the Jungian sense of the term natural, contains physical and spiritual dimensions. A person who acknowledges only the reality of the physical realm is incapable of recognizing how synchronicity operates in the New Testament and in our world and cannot see the power of the spiritual. By contrast, a person who goes to the other extreme, who sees reality only in the spiritual realm and denies reality in the physical world, will not spend much time bettering the world and will fall readily into superstition (Morton T. Kelsey, Christo-psychology, New York: Crossroad, 1982, p. 131).
And Fausto Intilla adds, from the perspective of natural pantheism:
If we accept the idea that our Universe really is God, well, in a infinite Caos of Energy too, there must to be a logical (but not for human brain), exact, specific, and perfectly organized …Plan.
How many significant (important) coincidences can happen to a person in his life, living in a unorganizated and stupid Universe?…I think no-one. Every synchronism in our life, is like an open-eyes-dream (Jung taught)…and we can thank the fine intelligence of our Universe…if they happen. » See in context
Some philosophers dismiss the entire notion of synchronicity with the idea of “confirmation bias.” Confirmation bias is described in Wikipedia as
a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions and avoids information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs. » Source.
However, we can turn the idea of confirmation bias right back to those who adhere to it as if it were some kind of untouchable universal principle. While the idea of confirmation bias is certainly worthy of consideration, Jung stressed that one doesn’t look for synchronicity but simply witnesses it, ex post facto.
Moreover, some theologians consider the possibility that a biased mind, which we all most likely have, could be temporarily informed by influences superceding one’s psychological makeup, expectations and so on. Indeed, to reduce all synchronistic experience to a humanly constructed idea of “confirmation bias” seems limiting and even unscientific.
This is especially so since parapsychological phenomena tagged as synchronicity often involve the inner experience of numinosity and the outer observing person, and not just psychologically selected or filtered data gained by the senses.
The belief that the soul departs from the body at death and returns to another body to live another embodied life.
In Eastern religions, the equivalent term is reincarnation; within the Western tradition, the belief in transmigration first appears in Orphism (5-6th century BCE) and later with the Pythagoreans. Western philosophy also uses the equivalent term, metempsychosis.
Many people claim to have flashback memories that they assume stem from former lives. Documented cases tell of individuals in trance states, dictating precise details about homes and places, often in distant countries that they’ve never visited. Some claim to be drawn for no apparent reason to certain ideas, interests or historical sites such as the Egyptian pyramids.
Others strongly identify with a person who’s passed. The musician K. D. Lang apparently once toyed with the idea that she was a reincarnation of Patsy Cline. And John Lennon and Yoko Ono
It is often assumed that unusual experiences or strong identifications with the dead are ironclad proof of a past life. But there are other possible explanations for these types of experiences:
So-called vampiric or tramp souls influence and even possess individuals in the present, infusing their memories and past desires into the minds of sensitive or impressionable living persons. The upshot is that living persons uncritically believe they have reincarnated.
From the perspective of theology it is said that Satan uses supernatural trickery to deceive people into believing in reincarnation.
In a less malefic vein, it’s conceivable that some individuals pierce the veil of space-time and connect with other souls from other time zones but misinterpret the experience as proof of transmigration. This hypothesis assumes, of course, that the past still somehow exists. Considering the relativity theory of Albert Einstein, this idea might not be too far fetched.
Another view is that the living are not connecting with evil beings or those living in other regions of space-time but merely with ordinary persons who’ve passed.
While these alternative theories are no easier to prove than the idea of transmigration, many seem to uncritically embrace transmigration as if it were not just another theory but a fact. And if urged to consider alternative hypotheses, some believers in reincarnation condescendingly act as if they know it all and there’s nothing left to say on the matter.
» Mind Abuse, Pythagoras, Tramp Souls
On the Web:
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American physicist and laser engineer who became an advocate of non-local consciousness, remote viewing and the mystical awareness of unifying love.
The cosmological and transpersonal implications of Targ’s notion of living quietly in peace and love are reminiscent of the Catholic notion ofthe communion of saints.
His views on Jesus’ teachings as presented in the New Testament, however, are highly selective. And Targ seems to present a homogenized view of different world religions.
He also says that a belief in God is an unnecessary remnant of antiquated modes of reasoning, implying that anyone can know about God from direct experience.
By way of contrast, the New Testament says that those who believe yet have not seen are blessed.
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
Targ gives little if any mention to St.Anslem’s ideas of (1) fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding) and (2) credo ut intelligam (I believe so that I can understand).
Interestingly, however, Targ says that the writings of mystics worldwide could and should be taken as a kind of scientific data.
Psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann criticized Targ’s published support of parapsychology in their book The Psychology of the Psychic (1980). » Atheism
Clairalience is an alleged psi phenomenon, usually described as a type of clairsentience.
Clairalience is the apparent smelling of odors and scents beyond the usual range of human perception.
Reports of clairalience take three main forms:
Smelling a familiar odor or scent associated with a loved one who has passed. Often this will occur sometime shortly before, during or not too long after the loved one’s passing. In parapsychology it is hypothesized that this type of clairalience occurs to warn, prepare or possibly reassure friends and family that departed loved ones still survive but in another realm.
Smelling a hellish, rancorous odor (such as burning sulphur) or heavenly scent (such as roses). In parapsychology it is hypothesized that this type of clairalience occurs to warn of the dangers of hell and, conversely, to reassure of the joys of heaven.
Smelling another living person or thing at a distance beyond the range of the normal senses. This third form may be further differentiated into smelling at a distance (a) a physical body or ‘gross’ environment and (b) a spiritual body, essence or ’subtle’ environment.
Psychic Spell Breaker by Metrix X
In parapsychology it is hypothesized that type three occurs to teach human beings that all of creation is connected in some fundamental way, with the implication that we should strive to behave responsibly toward others, our planet and beyond.
As for the proposed connecting principle for the notion of clairalience, tentative explanations vary according to the worldview of the theorist.
For instance, a Catholic might talk of The Holy Spirit or Satan whereas a sub-atomic physicist might invoke concepts such as wormholes, quantum non-locality and quantum interconnectedness.
A psychiatrist would likely want to check for physiological factors contributing to so-called olfactory hallucinations (phantosmia) before considering the possibility of psi. And some with a strong materialist bias might entirely dismiss the idea of psi and prefer to explain according to a neuropsychological model.
To this Art Garza adds:
What sort of smells occur in your type three clairalience? And would the smells be all different or occur all at once? And as far as purpose goes, is there any purposed idea on what the individual smells mean? What are they smelling? the souls, essence, psyche… i know they are all related in some way but certainly there is a name which works best… personality? » See in context
Michael Clark replies:
I think you are pointing toward a distinction that could be made in type 3 between smelling at a distance (a) a living person’s spiritual essence or environment and (b) their physical body or environment. » See in context
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Hindu holy man – originally Narendranath Datta – who advocated worldly action to overcome the severe poverty of India.
He was the favored disciple of the Hindu saint Ramakrishna.
Vivekananda complained about the “emaciated” populace in India, a nation which he believed had become falsely proud and hypocritical.
As such, he downplayed parapsychology and siddhis (spiritual powers) in favor of what he regarded as practical development, emphasizing the basic building blocks of food, uncontaminated water and personal hygiene.
He founded the Ramakrishna Mission and was the first Hindu to be received by major audiences in the West.
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Legends about vampires or vampire-like beings have flourished throughout world folklore, to include the regions of India, China and Greece.
The current incarnation of the vampire is usually traced back to Eastern European myths and superstitions that inspired several vampire novels, the most enduring being Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).
In the eighteenth-century, Eastern European reports of vampirism ran high, taking two sometimes related forms of
Physical vampirism – robbing another person’s vitality by drinking their blood.
Spiritual vampirism – psychic possession of another person’s free-will and theft of their vitality.
Traditionally, vampires are said to reside in or around graveyards, having a strong aversion to daylight. They rise only at night to freely select their victims.
Repelled by the cross, these agents of darkness are known as the ‘undead.’
In the 1970s and ’80s moviegoers dressed up as characters and recited lines from the film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, perhaps entering into a state of consciousness which anthropologist Lévi-Bruhl called participation mystique.
A more recent newspaper report of alleged vampirism in Toronto tells of a man who forcefully cut and drank the blood of a young woman.
At first the woman was horrified and pressed charges, resulting in the aggressor’s imprisonment. Over time, however, she began to feel united and in love with him, visiting him in prison on a daily basis.
Paranormal researchers and psychics generally explain vampirism in terms of a restless earth-bound spirit or so-called ‘tramp soul’ that gains control of psychologically weak and vulnerable individuals.
By way of contrast, vampire nightclubs seem to be harmless, non-violent and socially acceptable outlets for individuals seeking to experience the numinous aura of the Jungian shadow.
A comparable situation might be the upstanding priest who enjoys horror movies during his off-hours.
But clearly not everyone can keep a mature, adult perspective on vampires. Violent murders have been committed by teens in vampire cults who take the Goth lifestyle to its tragic extreme.
» Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dracula, Lycanthropy, Swedenborg (Emanuel), Transmigration, Werewolf
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A fictional team of mutant superheroes with special abilities created by Marvel Comics writers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
The original comic series has been successfully translated into a film trilogy and an animated TV series.
There is also an American and Canadian science fiction television show called Mutant X that is based on the original Marvel comic strip.
The idea of X-Men compels us to remember that genetic mutation and recombination need not always be bad.
Society’s condemnation of the X-Men and their genetically enhanced abilities is unfounded, even paranoid, and might parallel present misunderstandings and tensions between those lying in the middle and at the extremes of the so-called normal bell curve.
Quite possibly some of today’s “freaks and geeks” represent a kind of precursor to the next stage of human evolution.
It has also been argued that X-Men is a symbolic protest against current forms of racism and discrimination that different religious, ethnic and status groups may hold toward one another. » Science Fiction
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