SCIENCE AND PSYCHIC POWER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040008-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 1, 2008
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: October 20, 1973
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/04/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100040008-6
THE NfITIONfIL OBSERVER
Week Ending October 20, 1973
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 Approved For Release 2008/04/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100040008-6
By John Paterson
Faux UW AL'rol, CALIR.
L T1115 Is not the tame stuff of science fiction.
It Is. Instead, the realm of the psychic, the
mystical world of the supernatural and the
paranormal that, its adherents may, may change
your life markedly in the next 5, possibly 10
years.
Some highly reputable scientists and philoso-
phers, undaunted by the scorn and skepticism
that such thoughts evoke, see ordinary folks
doing some amazing things as a profound psychic
revs adaa fogies them with extras:!i .ary
Ia w erst:
? It is the middle of the afternoon. Rather
than telephone your wife, you ease back In your
chair, compose your thoughts, and beam a tele-
pathetic message to her. That evening your fa-
vorite dinner is waiting.
When some disease or ailment strikes, you
head for the nearest spiritualist, acupuncture
practitioner, or faith healer. We will all realize,
of course, that our minds control our bodies and
that Illness Is merely the result of a disturbed
psyche. This peace of mind will also mean the
near-eradlcatlon of mental Illness.
? Those who really work at it will be able to
read books still on the shelf in the next room,
partal:o of astrotravel iwhere the soul leaves the
body and flits through the universe!, or commu-
nicate with deceased loved ones and our spiritual
guides. We may even learn of our previous re-
incarnations.
One hazard: insanity
Inevitably there will be broader, more signifi-
cant Implications to society because of these ex-
panted powers of our minds, but their definition
must wait until the nature of these now-inexplic-
ahle occurrences becomes clear. Former astro-
naut Edgar Mitchell contends we are now on the
verge of man's most Important scientific break-
tb c,t:gh, which will show these phenomena to he
"i'atttral events that can be as easily explained
as at,nlight bending around the moon." lie adds,
"anyone who Iti still doub'ful of psychic phenom-
ena Is simply i aorant."
Mitchell Is hardly a voice In the wilderness,
for Interest in psychic research Is booming.
Physicists at major universities and research
centers are attempting to measure the mind's
waves or energy levels that produce these phe-
nomena. Philos:,phers are trying to develop
theories that embrace and explain the inexplic-
able. No one yet has it true glimmering of the
at,awer-If Indeed there Is an answer.
But even while learned men try to unravel
the mystery, thwu.iands of persons ara flocking
to institutes, cl.,ss:3, and week-end sessions that
hold forth promise of psychic knowled^e and In-
sight. Some are finding it. And what's more,
drug-abuse experts are learning that the ex-
panded consciousness that comes with %pirltual-
istic or psychic experiences Is the best alterna-
tive to wean the young av,ay from drugs. It is,
perhaps, the greatest movement among young
people since the psychedelic revolution began
10 years ago.
Alan Vetu3lran, coeditor of the San Frpnclscn-
publLThed Essych,l': ntnpAne, says the news In
psychic I:;1?:1101ncl,n Iod.,y Is that science stray
have the toils to l:rrall., annlyre these powers of
the nilt,d. Indeed. literally satires of orVaulztt-
tiona art: involved in ii-searching arad teaching
the psychic. This work is an without Irs dangers.
Mitchell, founder of the institute for Nnetie.s In
Menlo park, Calif., an organizution he hopes
will lie the catoly..t and focal r.,iiit for th study
I,,to the Sch .n:e r.! the CDi, uU+Iii:Si, S;i}?S TOe-
fully, "In,::nt:y the oc. tiprttioual har.ard of this
business."
Scientists Tryy'to Detect,
Measure the Existence
Of Psyel,ic Phenomena
The Quest for insight
Explains Allen Cohen, a clinical psychologist
in lkri:eicy wha Is also director of a drug-abuse
institute at the John F. Kennedy University in
Martinez: "We're going to see some profoundly
disturbing events. I've scen more than 100 psy-
chic eruptions In people who have gotten in over
their heads. By the late 1970s we'll have the
same need for discrimination In these exotic
alternatives to drugs as we now have with drugs
? themselves."
The problem, he says, comes as people work
at altering their consciousness and opening their
minds to new forces. "Through Improper medita-
tion, serious illness, or attempts to astrotravel,
these people see mystical visions that they can't
Integrate properly into their view of life. There Is
a great sand building problem today with the
huge numbers who are becoming obsessed and
possessed. When you treat their mental disturb-
ance in a normal way they simply aren't
helped."
Eleanor Criswell, an educator-psychologist In
Sausalito, agrees with Cohen that psychic dis-
turbances may account for as much as 80 per
cent of all mental Illness. "I want people. to
know that they are normal when they hear
voices, when they experience visions," she says.
"We need a psychic liberation, an understanding
and acceptiuice that psychic experience is not
unnatural and Is not an Illness."
Most people who are excited about the psychic
yet Involved through such methods and practices
a,:t ,ransren.ient.t1 meditation, hypnosis, yoga,
tiro:-s, Sct,:UI.,l.,.y, anti several different inlind-
contt?l peogriuns. By altering their conscious-
ties.; they hope to afar, their minds to deeper
Insight Into the meaning of life.
Types of Phenomena
Most experts agree that most programs or
movements that end up with a coltish devotion
to the leader, trapping devotees to a dependence
up:,n the group, are harmful. "Ideally a person
should sumple the techniques used to open the
mind by etch of these organizations, and then
move on to another," says Mitchell. Adds Cohen:
"Some groups have learned how to open a per-
scan's mind up, but then they simply don't have
the S11101ual direction or depth to give the person
direction. ssttte end tip hurting a lot of people."
Elmer and Alyce Green, noted biofeedback
researeltel:. at the l:iet,ninger Foundation in
Top, k:... , s,!e the fait:d-iruisttrq courses as
tut.:.: rt ? ...? 'nts. In a r~.purt wiitten for the
Ac:id'::1- ?.r :',.:;,p.l';?l,ui?ti'y and hicdlelne, they
c:unlr::., :..,1,::? courses induce in snore persons
"a fu. in t `rt h r??uru is or ji'.;?eaosi;r,,often ?I
ft. T w Tliey eau- '
tion that uiib s ilic: a practitioners regulate
thernst?lvus, the Government "may summarily
hsur ni:u,y research and training programs that
otiu ra I. ,?. if a areitilly developed, might become
vt:iu: 1-1%.' i.L:;t:t:.:t:: to our educallon and health
System.:;."
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Cohen Says there are three traditional types
of psychic phenomena: mind-to-mind, mind-to-
matter, and matter-to-mind. "There really are
seven distinct phenomena," he says. "A person
usually only has one of them, though some rare
psychics have combinations of them."
His classifications: mind reading, or the abil-
ity to receive telepathic messages; clairvoyance
of the past, future, and present; vibrational em-
pathy, the most complex, includes the ability to
heal, read another person's aura, and perceive
others' spiritual guides; psychometry, the ability
to know the past of a person or object through
touching; and mind-force control, the most dan-
gerous ability, which includes both the projecting
of thoughts Into another person's mind-as in
voodoo---and the rare psychoklnetic power to
bend or alter metals and to make objects dema-
terialize and rematerialize.
These psychic powers have been chronicled
In literature for decades. But the same problem
exists today as always: The charlatan Is still.
difficult to disprove. As a result, most truly
gifted psychics and some not-so-gifted seers
spend much time proving their powers In scien-
tifically controlled tests, which also allow scien-
tists to seek the origin and nature of their power.
Audiences Gasp in Amazement
Such tests at the Stanford Research Institute
(BRI) In Palo Alto have created unusual Interest
because of the stature of the scientists involved.
But SRI, after spending weeks with two renowned
psychics, Uri Geller and Ingo Swann, carefully
guards Its words. "We do not claim that either
of these men has psychic powers," any Harold
E. Puthoff and Russel Targ. "We have observed
certain phenomena with the subjects for which
we have no scientific explanation. All we can
say at this point is that further Investigation Is
clearly warranted."
Geller, a 211-year.old Israeli now living in
Ossining, N.Y., apparently possesses unusual
powers, though his detractors, Including Time
magazine, contend he does nothing a magician
cannot duplicate. During a performance before
1,600 persons at Stanford University he per-
formed feats of telepathy and psychokinetic
power. "This is not a scientific laboratory," he
told the audience, "but I have done the same
kind of things at SRI."
He appeared twice at Stanford, each time
apparently exhibiting that he can receive others'
thoughts and that he can bend keys and start
up watches that had been stopped for years
merely by passing his hand over them. People
would gasp In an:arement as a ring ar key that
they clutched tightly in their hind began bending
and kept on betiding for nunutes utter Geller
had passed his hand over it.
"I first discovered that I had this power when
I was 7 years old," Geller says. "I could move
the hands on my watch. nut no one and no device
can measure my energies. I violate physical
Iowa that scientists say cannot be violated. litany
thousands of scientists still don't believe, so the
major thing I'm Ming now at 8111 and other
universities in the United States is proving to
them that my Ikiwers exist.
"America is the country where we can lift
our foot for the giant step that will let its under-
stand this. People are ready hert? and nowhere
else. But (7e1llfurilts. is more upon than New
York."
'What Can a Relit Key TWEE
lrn says he does not belleve that his 1'wer to
snap spe' its in two, Lend keys, real minds, and
fix Ketches cc,r::es frc:sn hie mind. "I believe It
l getiet?uledl thruulth inc by an intelligent power
in the ursiverse. I believe In God, but 1 do not
be'ie:'e this Is COM114, from Cod. 711?% pat apsy-
ehologists want to hear that my 1 o%crx come
from my mind b;:cauue they want to believe
that. But I c:rin't want to discredit people, and
I don't want 1.1 pet tub th?xie In..-ssel things.
I want to 1:e:ei, t:is.at I have pare. After all, what
can at bent key help?"
-Lin Gioduin
Geller holds a just-bent key.
"The Important thing today Is to learn to mate
psychic rc.wers work for us," says Robert Matt-
son of the Academy of Parapsychology and Med-
icine here. "Our goal is to convince medicine
that thtse powers exist and are helpful and
must be used. We've been gaining a lot of sup-
port lately." Mattson says some of the acad-
emy's p!?e..sentations on acupuncture and faith
healing have drawn more Inun 1,000 persons.
Another psychic, Bob Holtman in Oakland,
is working with 40 psychologists and psychia-
trist3 on psychotherapy. He says he has devel-
oped u psychic counseling method for the emo-
tionally disturbed that "brings these people and
the people around them to peace with them-
selves."
The activity In this burgeoning, exploding
field has received little support yet from Estab-
lishment Institutions and from government.
"'there is still little recognition from our intel-
lectual community of thy: tremendous importance
of this work," says Jeffrey Smith, emeritus pro-
fessor of humanities and philosophy at Stanford.
"We all have latent powers, and we all need to
wake up to what Is happen!ng around us."
Zrnderly ing nearly all psychic Investigation
and all attempts at improving man's spiritual
state is the attempt to further intuitive knowl-
edge. I'::yehics, humanistic psychologists, and
spiritualists agree that man can receive much
l.nowled:te mid can b.come much more creativa
thruui;h hts intuition. "i am not psychic," says
Cohen, "but I believe that through developing
my intuitive powers I can achieve more knowl-
edge and understanding than a psychic, who Is
really only using another sense or two beyond
the five we all already employ. I think maid has
to establish a balanno between his rational and
nonratitbial thought processes.
"We're In one of the few eras in are of the
few places In the world twist this hind of lihenom-
eniut is rc.t when for I;rsnted. There are d: lot
of pen03 !.i:,!th I for i:'cauhi; and tilt e Ginn
te:day. 1t':: ! e.slly M terribly healthy using."
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