This is the last post about reviewing Heath’s book on PK. The focus of the third part of her book remains on individual experience, as she proposes a psychological phenomenology of PK. Phenomenology is understood here as a description of the PK experience by people who are performing PK, from the point of view of the experiencers. As Heath states, “phenomenology is a rigorous method that was developed specifically for this purpose. It allows an investigator to scientifically examine experiences and boil them down to their fundamental essential features.”(p. 207). Phenomenology in psychology is often associated with the Gestalt school of thought.
Another important element of phenomenology is that it does not give the investigator a special observation standpoint that would be “superior” to the one of people experiencing. This constitutes a major difference with other approaches in psychology where it is implicit that the psychologist “knows better” than the subject. To put it in Heath’s words, this means “that the study was not concerned with either the magnitude, or the ultimate reality, of the [PK] event. It only focused upon the experience itself.” (p. 207).
The choice of phenomenology, however, appears to me as more than just out of convenience to document experiences from experiencers. As Heath notices, because PK appears to occur often in an altered state of consciousness (ASC), the description of the experience cannot use “normal” points of reference. Elements like the sense of time, the feeling of knowing something special that cannot be put into words, strange feeling of dissociation and unity with the environment, etc., cannot be adequately describe if ones remains attached narrow materialistic descriptions (which is a common problem in ETH ufology).
Phenomenology is also a well known approach in the social sciences. Hence, it is an interesting approach because both psychology and social sciences can work together using the same epistemological framework. Something to keep in mind for parasociology when reaching out to parapsychology.
For the purpose of “extracting” interesting findings and concepts for parasociology, the review will focus on those elements that could be replicated at the social level, assuming that the fractal arrangement between the individual and social level identified before is valid, and those who can apply more generally to UFOs (particularly to those elements involved in spontaneous PK).
Altered state of consciousness (ASC)
ASC is a common feature of PK. Heath found that the key elements of ASC and PK are (1) a feeling of being in another dimension or alternate reality; (2) awareness of discarnate entities, by accessing our spirit; (3) altered sense of time or of being “out” of the time; (4) a sense of vast complexity, difficult for the ordinary mind to understand; (5) a sense of flow, or being in the “zone”; (6) fusion between the conscious and the unconscious; (7) sense of meditation; and (8) subtle shift in the quality of the experience (pp. 220-222). These elements, of course, cover a wide variety of PK experiences from lab tests on random number generators to RSPK. But I would like to emphasize that the elements (1) to (6) describe very well many UFO close encounters, especially those described by the ufologist Jenny Randles (1983) known under the concept of the “Oz factor”.
When one keeps in mind the factors identified above and links them to Randles’ description of the Oz factor, one can only be struck by the similarities. For instance, she states that "the Oz factor certainly points to consciousness as the focal point of the UFO encounter...Subjective data that override objective reality could be internal [from our subconscious], external [e.g., from some other intelligent agency], or both...The encounter has a visionary component. You might interpret that as meaning it is all in the imagination. But it really means that there is a direct feed, if you like, from the source of the encounter to the consciousness of the witness...Some witnesses report a strange sensation prior to the encounter -- a sort of mental tingling as if they are aware that something is about to happen. They just have to look up and see what is there, as if it had called to them silently...Then time seems to disappear and lose all meaning." (Randles 2004).
This points strongly towards a common dynamics behind PK and UFO close encounters.
It is also interesting to note, however, that “ASC may enhance a sense of connecting to the universe or the transcendent realm, and allow us to let go of the belief systems that are of our individual identities. It is possible that this would explain [...] why a person’s belief and level of confidence did not appear to be important to PK performance. They may simply become irrelevant in a deeply altered state. Thus, it may be that they only become important factors when the state of consciousness is normal or only mildly altered.” (Heath 2003, 230). This statement from Heath is of course speculative, but this relates to a number of hypotheses put forward in previous posts.
For instance, could it be possible that the connection with the transcendent realm is a connection with the collective unconscious, as Carl Jung proposed? In such a case, and assuming that the actual content of the collective unconscious is filled with what is going on in a community, then it is possible to explain that UFO close encounters are an individual experience of the collective unconscious. And hence, the individual belief and inner state of being of the witnesses may not be a critical factor at that moment of the UFO experience. The beliefs and state of being, however, may play a significant role in the early stage of the experience when a night light or a day disc is perceived in a normal or lightly altered state of consciousness. From that point of view, the UFO experience would be a composite psi experience both “fuelled” by the individual and the collective unconscious. In turn, this would explain that the structure of UFO events tend to be quite similar from one account to the other, but their actual phenomenological content can vary considerably.
Emotions
Other factors that are more commonly found in spontaneous PK are strong emotions and a strong sense of playfulness. Heath notes that “peak levels of emotion can trigger PK, especially for spontaneous events. This seemed to be true for a wide variety of strong emotions, including anger, frustration with others, sadness, excitement, and love.” (p. 256). Heath also quotes an experiencer to illustrate the role of playfulness, “’play is very important in these sorts of things...it’s entertainment at a certain level...it has a thrilling quality”. (p. 258). Although it is a bit generic, there are clear links with the UFO experience where emotions can run high, including fear mixed with curiosity, which in a way connects both aspects of emotions in PK, i.e., the strong emotions and the thrilling aspect. The famous story of Barney and Betty Hill certainly fits quite well these elements found in spontaneous PK. However, Heath does not identify fear as a key emotion. Given the type of experience selected for her study, this is not surprising.
Heath also underlines that “spontaneous PK tended to be associated with high levels of emotion, physical activation, and a relative lack of awareness of an ASC compared to intentional PK experiences. Also, in spontaneous PK awareness was often focussed on something other than the target, such a thought, memory, emotion, or another person.” (p.264). Clearly, the lack of awareness that people are in ASC during an event is a common issue in the UFO experience. It is only in the 1980s with more astute UFO investigators, like Randles and Schwartz, that this aspect was brought to light. The lack of focus on the target is more problematic in the case of UFO close encounters as it is a very comprehensive event. It can be noted, however, that in the case of Barney and Betty Hill the thought and fear of being stopped by a group of men was the main focus of Barney’s consciousness (which in the context of the racial tensions of the early 1960s in the United States, this was not an unfounded fear), while for Betty it was the willingness to remember the event to prove the ET reality of UFOs (as she was a strong believer in the ETH before the events of September 1961).
Openness to the experience
Heath describes openness as “both something of a personality style and a lack of rigid beliefs that might prohibit PK. It seems to indicate a flexible worldview, which might allow the performer not only to do PK, but also to recognize and accept their experiences. [But...] belief systems seemed to play far less of a role than the literature would suggest.” (p. 307). This is an interesting distinction, but it can also cause quite a bit of confusion. For instance, studies that identified the belief in the paranormal as an important element of the UFO experience (Philips 1993; Spanos et al. 1993; Basterfield and Thalbourne 2001) used the concept of belief not meant to mean necessarily “belief system” but rather a positive attitude towards the paranormal in general. The word belief can therefore mean either “belief system” or “openness”.
In her summary, Heath reassesses somewhat her findings in stating that “in a way, openness to an experience is also a willingness to suspend disbelief, and to see what can happen without the interference of the intellect. It also suggests a lack of attachment to a rigid world view. Hence, it is possible that beliefs could act to modify PK performance either through encouraging the performer to be open to the possibility of PK, and/or willingness to open up to that state[...]”(p. 314). The relationship between belief systems and openness can be therefore more subtle than previously understood by parapsychologists. Here, I can think again of the different experiences of Barney and Betty Hill. Barney had a more rigid belief in “rationality” while Betty was quite open to have an extraordinary experience. Barney had no visual memories of being on “the ship”. It was Betty who provided the bulk of the story about the “Greys”, the medical experiment, the stellar map, etc. The Hill story fits well Heath’s findings about openness.
Sense of Knowing and Impact
Heath found that there is a general sense of knowing among experiencers. Knowing that the event will occur; knowing that the healing is working or not. The sense of knowing also manifests itself through ESP-like experiences. It is a well documented characteristic of UFO close encounters that the witnesses “know” that the light in the sky is “interested” in them, and they know what the alien entities are saying even when there are no sounds or spoken word uttered.
Heath also underlines that “impact appears to be a frequent consequence of the PK experience (Heath 1999). This may not be surprising, considering that the events often have intense personal meaningfulness. PK can bring up strong emotions and cause major shifts in world view—sometimes acting as a pivotal life event.” (p. 325). This issue of impact has been identified by Jacques Vallée about the UFO experience early on. However, I think Vallée is wrong in seeing the UFO experience as a control system by creating life changing events for people (for better or for worst). PK is a natural human ability (both individual and collective) and life changing events associated with PK are just a possible outcome of PK. There is no control system behind it. I think Vallée confused two different dynamics. The first one is the life changing capacity of PK/UFO events on one hand, and on the other hand the UFO belief system found in societies that may have been nurtured by intelligence agencies, as described by Bishop (2005). But the linkages between the two dynamics are unintended consequences. Unintended consequences are very common outcomes of complex societies and occur in a large array of issues and topics (bureaucratic miscommunications being the most common and obvious one).
Final comments
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the paranormal in general. Although the author does not touch upon UFO events or hauntings, the link between these phenomena and PK are very strong. It does not provide the proof that UFOs and UFO waves are essentially PK events, but the intense similarity in their dynamics offers a powerful indication that indeed we are dealing with some sort of PK phenomena.
Copyright © 2009 Eric Ouellet
Showing posts with label Altered state of consciousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Altered state of consciousness. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Monday, December 22, 2008
Reading Notes Various on Psi and the Collective Unconscious
Three articles from scholarly journals are reviewed. The three of them are linked, directly or indirectly to how psi phenomena and the notion of collective unconscious relate to each other. The three articles are:
Irwin, Lee. (1994). “Dreams, Theory, and Culture: The Plains vision quest paradigm”. American Indian Quarterly 18(2): 229-245.
Main, Roderick. (2006). “The Social Significance of Synchronicity”. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 11: 36-53.
Winkelman, Michael et al. (1982). “Magic: A theoretical reassessment”. Current Anthropology 23(1): 37-66.
Irwin’s article
This article is about the role that dreams play among Native Americans from the Plains and how dreams are integrated into their community. One of the key objectives of the author, however, is to integrate the explanation within a different framework than the one usually provided in Western psychology and science. Particularly, the author tries to avoid reducing the content of dreams to either the Freudian issue of repressed complexes, or to some sort of expression of Jungian rigid social archetypes. In other words, to understand Native people relationship to dreams, one has to step outside the usual Western ways of thinking. From this point of view, this article is interesting because it provides a different way of linking the individual’s unconscious and the collective unconscious, which can be useful to explain better psi events.
Irwin underlines that imagery (a key component of dreams) is an important element of any altered state of consciousness, and that it “has the capacity, unlike mental linguistic processes, to carry strong emotional intensity, linked with normally synthetic and integrative functions.” (p. 235) I am aware of other researches about symbolism, whereas symbols are understood as being fundamentally polysemic (having multiple meanings). The symbol’s capacity to carry knowledge (at several levels at the same time – emotional, moral, cognitive, chronological, etc) is much powerful than the linearity of rational language. It constitutes a different form of knowledge, and therefore requires an appropriate epistemology to capture fully all its richness. From that point of view, then, it is easier to understand that “for Native American visionaries, the vision cannot be accurately characterized as a purely psychological event or concept. Rather the vision is recognized as a form of encounter with mythically defined sources of personal empowerment and as a manifestation of the mysterious contents of a visionary world.” (p. 235). This is not that different from some Jungian psychologists who explain psi events as individuals accessing the collective unconscious, that they call the Absolute Knowledge. Remote viewing certainly fits this concept of Absolute Knowledge accessible to individuals.
Another point that author puts forward is that “in the Native American context, there is no separation between the world-as-dreamed and the world-as-lived. These are states integral to the unifying continuum of mythic description, narration, and enactment.” (p. 236). Then, Irwin underlines that in Western culture, there is a strict separation between the two. I am not sure it is so. To borrow from the anthropologist of science Bruno Latour book’s We Have Never Been Modern (Cambride: Harvard University Press, 2008) (originally written in French in 1997) this modern separation between the real and the fictional, between science and non-science, etc, exist mostly in the official discourse and in the academia. In the reality of ordinary Western people’s everyday life, such strict distinctions do not exist, or at least not with the same degree of force. Hence, I think that approaching the world-as-lived and the world-as-dreamed on continuum can be quite useful for assessing social psi events.
The key here is that these dreams are not only an individual’s affair. “Native American visions participate in a rich and vital process involving both creative transformation and cultural innovation as well as an affirmation of cultural continuity.” (p. 237) In other words, dreams are an expression of the imaginary, and this imaginary contributes to both cultural transformation and reinforcement of cultural patterns. Because “if the visionary dream expresses an awareness of a higher implicit order, then the explicit or manifest content of the dream would represent an ensemble or subtotality of the visionary order, particularly as embodied in dream images and objects. To enter the dream world means, in this sense, to alter consciousness and enter into an implicit dreaming order—the enfolded, psychic potential of the visionary dream—that has a structural, morphological effect on consciousness.” (p. 239)
It is a different way of expressing that the collective unconscious is both impacting the individual and impacted by individuals. The individual and collective unconscious cannot be reduced to one another, but they interact with each other through the language of symbolism, particularly when individuals are in an altered state of consciousness (such as dreaming). The question would then be: which conditions are more conducive for the collective unconscious to express itself (as it is a two-way construct)?
It is also interesting to see that the author explains the social role of dreams in a way that is reminiscent of von Lucadou’s model for poltergeists. “Members of a given community attain more powerful interpretive consistency through the continual generation of diverse interpretive frames. These frames emerge through the process of visionary experience and the subsequent integration of those experiences into unifying cultural enactments. This process allows for a fundamental pluralism at the heart of the organization of meaning in a dreaming culture and expresses a dialogical unfolding of implicit, potential forms of new or innovative order. [...] In the Native American context, the primary representation of unfolding new horizons of perception and awareness is through the manifestation of power, often as embodied in the use of dream objects.” (p.240)
In von Lucadou’s model, the focus person and the people in the environment discuss the poltergeist events and together develop interpretive frames to understand it. As the poltergeist continues to “act up” further interpretations confirming the first ones are put forward. Given that the frames are themselves symbolic by granting a status of living entity to the poltergeist, a pluralism of views about the same events can be generated without “damaging” the process of the unfolding poltergeist. When the so-called naive observes arrive, people who are sharing a paranormal culture oftentimes unknowingly, they integrate the events into a larger framework and thus provide further indeterminacy to the phenomenon (i.e., it becomes even more mysterious). It is only when the critical observers and the rest of the “Western society” gets involved that the indeterminacy is closed off by assigning a very narrow and specific meaning to the events (i.e., lies and hallucinations). In other words, the imaginary cannot act anymore.
It is yet another element indicating that the power of the imaginary is a key component of psi effects. Along the same line of thought, one can think about the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books, 2006), which describes a process of altering one’s unconscious in believing that he/she deserves what he/she dreams about, and then imagine it happening. In a sense, it is a diffused form of psi, yet observable, created by using the imaginary. In this case, it is rather a series of synchronicity getting the right people, events and information in one’s path at the right time. As well, one can think of the famous Philip experiment (Iris M. Owen and Margaret Sparrow. Conjuring up Philip: An Adventure In Psychokinesis. Harper & Row, 1976) that through imagination, a group of psychic researchers “created” a spirit leading to psi effects (PK among other things).
Such imaginary should also act at the level of the collective unconscious. In 1947, people in the United States collectively were unconsciously imagining new horizons (maybe caused by the emerging Cold War and the emerging possibility of nuclear annihilation), and Kenneth Arnold unintentionally gave them an interpretative frame, at the right time. The unfolding of events can then be understood with a macro-level use of von Lucadou’s model: i.e. the naive observers (the ETH ufologists) can shield the internal portion of the phenomenon from the critical observers (the authorities and the pseudo-sceptics). Society, in this case, plays a different role than in the original model as it is not that sceptical, as Latour has shown. Society can actually reinforce the naive observers’ impact on the phenomenon rather that weakening it. I would also add that as the naive observers get organized in a “scientific” way, the phenomenon is reduced in its indeterminacy as the range of possibilities is also reduced. Strange objects become flying saucers; various aliens become Grays, etc. Yet, the imaginary power of the collective unconscious is never fully “controlled” and new forms appear like triangular alien ships. It is likely that the “canonical” list of alien entities put forward by MUFON and the like will just be blown up by new types of “entity sightings”. The imaginary power of the collective unconscious will be “unleashed” as people get unconsciously “bored” of the Greys. (This is a reasoned predictive statement, should it occur, parasociology will be in good shape!).
Main’s article
In this article, the author tries to show that Jung’s concept of synchronicity can be useful to social sciences. Although it is clear that Jung was preoccupied by the state of Western societies, in particular the problem of modernity and its associated issues of materialism, mass-mindedness and collective neurosis, his approach remains essentially reductionist. Main provides a quote from Jung that could not be clearer: “The collective consciousness gives way to the collective unconscious, which is entirely psychical, not social. The end point of individuation is a pure and intensely privatized self, liberated from all obligations imposed from without by the social order” (p. 37). As discussed in previous posts, the individual unconscious is built on and with the social realm. The unconscious is filled with language, symbols, social rules, etc., that can only be meaningful if there is a culture existing independently from the individuals. Hence, the collective unconscious is much better understood as a social object, independent from the individuals. As well, Main underlines that Jung does not see his archetypes, the key foundation of the collective unconscious, as being socially constructed. This is also another important problem in Jung’s approach. The actual content of the collective unconscious is important, not only the structure that may hold it.
Main, an expert of Jung’s writings, confirms what was already discussed in previous posts. However, there are some elements of Jung’s approach that can be made useful through lateral thinking. As Main states, “synchronicity is socially significant here in two senses: first, it is a form of occurrence that reverses the historical process according to which ‘the symbolical unity of spirit and matter fell apart, with that result that modern man finds himself uprooted and alienated in a de-souled world’; and second, it provides a framework for understanding the manner in which symbols compensating social crises may emerge into both private and public consciousness” (p. 45). This is certainly reminiscent of Irwin’s approach to Native American views where there is no sharp distinction between the world-as-lived and the world-as-dreamed. The collective unconscious, in its non-reductionist and non-archetypical version, can be construed as expressing itself through various means such as synchronicity. For instance, one can make a clear connection between this view of synchronicity and Michal Ginach’s analysis of what the Israeli society is unconsciously dreaming about, as discussed in a previous post. The collective actions of the State of Israel, by their timing and their acasual symbolic impact can be construed as a synchronistic way of granting its unconscious wishes.
It is also interesting to note that synchronicity is an expression of the imaginary. As Jung wrote (quoted in Main), “ ‘Meaning arises not from causality but from freedom, i.e., acausality [synchronicity]’. [...] The related quality of creativity, also much valued by Jung, is similarly affirmed insofar as ‘synchronicity represent a direct act of creation which manifests itself as chance’. “ (p. 46) Once again, one can make a link with Irwin’s idea that “in the Native American context, the primary representation of unfolding new horizons of perception and awareness is through the manifestation of power, often as embodied in the use of dream objects”, and Byrne’s key ideas found in The Secret. It is in situations of “free-play” that new meaning can be generated (and by extension synchronistic and psi-related events).
One can also find an unusual concept of social responsibility in Jung. Main quote Jung stating that “anyone who has insight into his own actions, and has thus found access to the unconscious, involuntarily exercises an influence on his environment” (p. 47). For Main “this outlook has far-reaching ethical implications, for it implies that the psychic states of one person, whether positive or negative, can synchronistically ‘affect’ the states or actions of others.” (p. 47). In plain language, it means that every one of us should be careful for what we wish for, as it can be realized through synchronicity.
This relates once more to Ginach’s analysis of the Israeli social unconscious of wishing to be victimized through war. But I would go one step further. If synchronicity is the observable psi effect of what we are wishing for, either as individual or as a collective, it appears also that what we are wishing for is to be found at different levels of unconscious depth. What I mean here is that someone may be more or less consciously wishing something and this may happen by synchronicity. But in the case of poltergeists, what is wished for is deeply buried and it is expressed through much more ostentatious forms of psi effects (i.e., uncontrollable psychokinesis). Drawing the parallel with the social unconscious, is it possible that UFO phenomena are also expressions, through psi effects, of deeply buried collective creative wishes or imaginary forms? I think there is a direct relationship between the unconscious depth of the imaginary and the intensity of a psi effect. As it is buried deeper, the human imaginary capabilities can be unleashed with greater freedom from the inherent limiting role of consciousness. From a methodological standpoint, this can create a serious problem. As one needs to look deeper into the collective unconscious, the more difficult it is to access and interpret it. However, the symbolic content of the social psi remains available, and can be used to trace back some of imaginary processes at play.
For instance, someone pointed out to me an unusual UFO sighting that occurred on 24 October 2008 near Empire, Ohio. After some further thinking, I can see that there is a symbolic element to it. The key witness is quoted saying that: "When I saw it, I was trying to take everything in and that's immediately what I thought when I saw it – that it was organic. That's the feeling that I got. I didn't think it could be anything else. It just came across as something organic" (see link above). Empire, Ohio is not far from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh is actively engaged in a range of leading-edge biological research, including sponsoring a research centre on fighting bio-terrorism. Could it be that the witnesses saw a gigantic virus, as an expression of some deeply buried collective and unconscious fears and maybe premonitions? This is speculation, of course, but should a major viral issue emerge in the near future (like finding a highly contagious strain of the dreaded avian flu) and that the University of Pittsburgh would be somehow involved in such finding, this would constitute another reasoned predictive statement based on parasociology.
Winkleman’s article
This is an older article dating back to 1982. However, it is useful as it provides an interesting comparison between magic and psi, in the context of anthropological research. Winkleman provides a long list of anthropologists who studied magical rituals and observed what we would call psi effects. He identifies a series of common enablers between magic and psi, to include altered states of consciousness, visualisation (i.e., belief that the desired effect can be produced), positive expectations (i.e., disbelievers negatively impact the possibility of producing psi effects), and belief (general belief in a community about the existence of magic). These findings remain valid today.
One of the key differences, however, is that magic is construed as mana, emanating from non-human sources. “Psi lacks spirit, god, and personalized conceptions; it is characterized almost exclusively as an impersonal force, akin to electromagnetic energy. [But] both are used to refer to a non-physical power operating outside the known physical laws or normal courses of nature and outside of normal space-time constraints. Both are at once means of action and milieux as well as fundamental processes of nature.” (p. 39)
The author makes an indirect link with the notion of imaginary (i.e., as unbounded possibilities) when he compares how PK and magic are understood. “Mauss characterizes magical acts as placing objects or beings ‘in a state so that certain movements, accidents, or phenomena will inevitably occur’ or bringing them in a dangerous state; he emphasizes the role of chance and the necessarily indeterminate nature of the outcome” (p. 39). Then Winkelman states that “one of the principal early findings of PK research was that systems with a greater degree of randomness were more easily influenced [...] and that ‘changes in the state of the physical system may in some sense be opportunities for PK influence to occur’”(p. 40). This is an interesting statement as balls of light, and other plasma-related phenomena are actually objects in unstable physical conditions. Hence, I would say that balls of light are both enablers and carrier of psi effects, expressed in our modern days in the form of UFOs and alien ships.
Another important linkage between both magic and psi is the role of emotional bursts. “Spontaneous paranormal experiences generally occur during dreams, in response to strong emotional experiences of others, particularly accident of death, and between members of the same family or close friends” (p. 40). Winkleman adds that parapsychology found that the same process occurs with poltergeists phenomena, and during events of psychotic breaks or crisis. Then, he mentions that “Malinovski suggests that magic arises from spontaneous ideas and reactions when the rational processes and known means of resolving problems have been exhausted; this implicates unconscious (or primary) thought processes as basic to magic” (p. 40). Once again, there are good reasons to think that spontaneous psi effects, like UFO and UFO waves, should be related to some strong emotional tensions.
The author tries to develop a different perspective about magic, and in particular he tries not to explain magic as simply a ritualized expression of social forms, which is the common anthropological view of magic. And this is the other side of reductionism, i.e., individual thought and beliefs are reduced to social forms and social constructs implicitly imposing themselves to all. He does not attempt to introduce concepts such as the collective unconscious, but he nevertheless proposes that the “destruction of traditional social systems with the worldwide advance of industrial society has destroyed many magical systems, but numerous practices survive and require investigation to determine their possible empirical and experiential base” (p. 44). In a way, a collective unconscious that is conducive to psi-effect is a key enabler. As there are UFO sightings on a regular basis, and UFO waves at various intervals, one can think that there must be a social system supporting the phenomena. The ETH community is in a way a magical system, but a magical system “twisted” or adapted to our time, as it ascribes a technical and materialistic reality to something for which no positive proof exists of its material “nut and bolts” reality. As well, like the mana of magic, the origins of the phenomenon are assigned to n on-human entities (either ETs or inter-dimensional beings). The magical community, however, does not have to be the “focus person” to use von Lucadou’s model, but rather the “naive observers” shielding the inner system from the critical observers.
Break for the Holiday Season
I will take a break for the Holiday Season, with my next post in early to mid-January.
Santa is supposed to deliver some more good books for me. So there is more to come.
I wish you all a Good Holiday Season and a Happy New Year (and remember wishes might be more powerful than we think...)
Copyright © 2008 Eric Ouellet
Irwin, Lee. (1994). “Dreams, Theory, and Culture: The Plains vision quest paradigm”. American Indian Quarterly 18(2): 229-245.
Main, Roderick. (2006). “The Social Significance of Synchronicity”. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 11: 36-53.
Winkelman, Michael et al. (1982). “Magic: A theoretical reassessment”. Current Anthropology 23(1): 37-66.
Irwin’s article
This article is about the role that dreams play among Native Americans from the Plains and how dreams are integrated into their community. One of the key objectives of the author, however, is to integrate the explanation within a different framework than the one usually provided in Western psychology and science. Particularly, the author tries to avoid reducing the content of dreams to either the Freudian issue of repressed complexes, or to some sort of expression of Jungian rigid social archetypes. In other words, to understand Native people relationship to dreams, one has to step outside the usual Western ways of thinking. From this point of view, this article is interesting because it provides a different way of linking the individual’s unconscious and the collective unconscious, which can be useful to explain better psi events.
Irwin underlines that imagery (a key component of dreams) is an important element of any altered state of consciousness, and that it “has the capacity, unlike mental linguistic processes, to carry strong emotional intensity, linked with normally synthetic and integrative functions.” (p. 235) I am aware of other researches about symbolism, whereas symbols are understood as being fundamentally polysemic (having multiple meanings). The symbol’s capacity to carry knowledge (at several levels at the same time – emotional, moral, cognitive, chronological, etc) is much powerful than the linearity of rational language. It constitutes a different form of knowledge, and therefore requires an appropriate epistemology to capture fully all its richness. From that point of view, then, it is easier to understand that “for Native American visionaries, the vision cannot be accurately characterized as a purely psychological event or concept. Rather the vision is recognized as a form of encounter with mythically defined sources of personal empowerment and as a manifestation of the mysterious contents of a visionary world.” (p. 235). This is not that different from some Jungian psychologists who explain psi events as individuals accessing the collective unconscious, that they call the Absolute Knowledge. Remote viewing certainly fits this concept of Absolute Knowledge accessible to individuals.
Another point that author puts forward is that “in the Native American context, there is no separation between the world-as-dreamed and the world-as-lived. These are states integral to the unifying continuum of mythic description, narration, and enactment.” (p. 236). Then, Irwin underlines that in Western culture, there is a strict separation between the two. I am not sure it is so. To borrow from the anthropologist of science Bruno Latour book’s We Have Never Been Modern (Cambride: Harvard University Press, 2008) (originally written in French in 1997) this modern separation between the real and the fictional, between science and non-science, etc, exist mostly in the official discourse and in the academia. In the reality of ordinary Western people’s everyday life, such strict distinctions do not exist, or at least not with the same degree of force. Hence, I think that approaching the world-as-lived and the world-as-dreamed on continuum can be quite useful for assessing social psi events.
The key here is that these dreams are not only an individual’s affair. “Native American visions participate in a rich and vital process involving both creative transformation and cultural innovation as well as an affirmation of cultural continuity.” (p. 237) In other words, dreams are an expression of the imaginary, and this imaginary contributes to both cultural transformation and reinforcement of cultural patterns. Because “if the visionary dream expresses an awareness of a higher implicit order, then the explicit or manifest content of the dream would represent an ensemble or subtotality of the visionary order, particularly as embodied in dream images and objects. To enter the dream world means, in this sense, to alter consciousness and enter into an implicit dreaming order—the enfolded, psychic potential of the visionary dream—that has a structural, morphological effect on consciousness.” (p. 239)
It is a different way of expressing that the collective unconscious is both impacting the individual and impacted by individuals. The individual and collective unconscious cannot be reduced to one another, but they interact with each other through the language of symbolism, particularly when individuals are in an altered state of consciousness (such as dreaming). The question would then be: which conditions are more conducive for the collective unconscious to express itself (as it is a two-way construct)?
It is also interesting to see that the author explains the social role of dreams in a way that is reminiscent of von Lucadou’s model for poltergeists. “Members of a given community attain more powerful interpretive consistency through the continual generation of diverse interpretive frames. These frames emerge through the process of visionary experience and the subsequent integration of those experiences into unifying cultural enactments. This process allows for a fundamental pluralism at the heart of the organization of meaning in a dreaming culture and expresses a dialogical unfolding of implicit, potential forms of new or innovative order. [...] In the Native American context, the primary representation of unfolding new horizons of perception and awareness is through the manifestation of power, often as embodied in the use of dream objects.” (p.240)
In von Lucadou’s model, the focus person and the people in the environment discuss the poltergeist events and together develop interpretive frames to understand it. As the poltergeist continues to “act up” further interpretations confirming the first ones are put forward. Given that the frames are themselves symbolic by granting a status of living entity to the poltergeist, a pluralism of views about the same events can be generated without “damaging” the process of the unfolding poltergeist. When the so-called naive observes arrive, people who are sharing a paranormal culture oftentimes unknowingly, they integrate the events into a larger framework and thus provide further indeterminacy to the phenomenon (i.e., it becomes even more mysterious). It is only when the critical observers and the rest of the “Western society” gets involved that the indeterminacy is closed off by assigning a very narrow and specific meaning to the events (i.e., lies and hallucinations). In other words, the imaginary cannot act anymore.
It is yet another element indicating that the power of the imaginary is a key component of psi effects. Along the same line of thought, one can think about the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books, 2006), which describes a process of altering one’s unconscious in believing that he/she deserves what he/she dreams about, and then imagine it happening. In a sense, it is a diffused form of psi, yet observable, created by using the imaginary. In this case, it is rather a series of synchronicity getting the right people, events and information in one’s path at the right time. As well, one can think of the famous Philip experiment (Iris M. Owen and Margaret Sparrow. Conjuring up Philip: An Adventure In Psychokinesis. Harper & Row, 1976) that through imagination, a group of psychic researchers “created” a spirit leading to psi effects (PK among other things).
Such imaginary should also act at the level of the collective unconscious. In 1947, people in the United States collectively were unconsciously imagining new horizons (maybe caused by the emerging Cold War and the emerging possibility of nuclear annihilation), and Kenneth Arnold unintentionally gave them an interpretative frame, at the right time. The unfolding of events can then be understood with a macro-level use of von Lucadou’s model: i.e. the naive observers (the ETH ufologists) can shield the internal portion of the phenomenon from the critical observers (the authorities and the pseudo-sceptics). Society, in this case, plays a different role than in the original model as it is not that sceptical, as Latour has shown. Society can actually reinforce the naive observers’ impact on the phenomenon rather that weakening it. I would also add that as the naive observers get organized in a “scientific” way, the phenomenon is reduced in its indeterminacy as the range of possibilities is also reduced. Strange objects become flying saucers; various aliens become Grays, etc. Yet, the imaginary power of the collective unconscious is never fully “controlled” and new forms appear like triangular alien ships. It is likely that the “canonical” list of alien entities put forward by MUFON and the like will just be blown up by new types of “entity sightings”. The imaginary power of the collective unconscious will be “unleashed” as people get unconsciously “bored” of the Greys. (This is a reasoned predictive statement, should it occur, parasociology will be in good shape!).
Main’s article
In this article, the author tries to show that Jung’s concept of synchronicity can be useful to social sciences. Although it is clear that Jung was preoccupied by the state of Western societies, in particular the problem of modernity and its associated issues of materialism, mass-mindedness and collective neurosis, his approach remains essentially reductionist. Main provides a quote from Jung that could not be clearer: “The collective consciousness gives way to the collective unconscious, which is entirely psychical, not social. The end point of individuation is a pure and intensely privatized self, liberated from all obligations imposed from without by the social order” (p. 37). As discussed in previous posts, the individual unconscious is built on and with the social realm. The unconscious is filled with language, symbols, social rules, etc., that can only be meaningful if there is a culture existing independently from the individuals. Hence, the collective unconscious is much better understood as a social object, independent from the individuals. As well, Main underlines that Jung does not see his archetypes, the key foundation of the collective unconscious, as being socially constructed. This is also another important problem in Jung’s approach. The actual content of the collective unconscious is important, not only the structure that may hold it.
Main, an expert of Jung’s writings, confirms what was already discussed in previous posts. However, there are some elements of Jung’s approach that can be made useful through lateral thinking. As Main states, “synchronicity is socially significant here in two senses: first, it is a form of occurrence that reverses the historical process according to which ‘the symbolical unity of spirit and matter fell apart, with that result that modern man finds himself uprooted and alienated in a de-souled world’; and second, it provides a framework for understanding the manner in which symbols compensating social crises may emerge into both private and public consciousness” (p. 45). This is certainly reminiscent of Irwin’s approach to Native American views where there is no sharp distinction between the world-as-lived and the world-as-dreamed. The collective unconscious, in its non-reductionist and non-archetypical version, can be construed as expressing itself through various means such as synchronicity. For instance, one can make a clear connection between this view of synchronicity and Michal Ginach’s analysis of what the Israeli society is unconsciously dreaming about, as discussed in a previous post. The collective actions of the State of Israel, by their timing and their acasual symbolic impact can be construed as a synchronistic way of granting its unconscious wishes.
It is also interesting to note that synchronicity is an expression of the imaginary. As Jung wrote (quoted in Main), “ ‘Meaning arises not from causality but from freedom, i.e., acausality [synchronicity]’. [...] The related quality of creativity, also much valued by Jung, is similarly affirmed insofar as ‘synchronicity represent a direct act of creation which manifests itself as chance’. “ (p. 46) Once again, one can make a link with Irwin’s idea that “in the Native American context, the primary representation of unfolding new horizons of perception and awareness is through the manifestation of power, often as embodied in the use of dream objects”, and Byrne’s key ideas found in The Secret. It is in situations of “free-play” that new meaning can be generated (and by extension synchronistic and psi-related events).
One can also find an unusual concept of social responsibility in Jung. Main quote Jung stating that “anyone who has insight into his own actions, and has thus found access to the unconscious, involuntarily exercises an influence on his environment” (p. 47). For Main “this outlook has far-reaching ethical implications, for it implies that the psychic states of one person, whether positive or negative, can synchronistically ‘affect’ the states or actions of others.” (p. 47). In plain language, it means that every one of us should be careful for what we wish for, as it can be realized through synchronicity.
This relates once more to Ginach’s analysis of the Israeli social unconscious of wishing to be victimized through war. But I would go one step further. If synchronicity is the observable psi effect of what we are wishing for, either as individual or as a collective, it appears also that what we are wishing for is to be found at different levels of unconscious depth. What I mean here is that someone may be more or less consciously wishing something and this may happen by synchronicity. But in the case of poltergeists, what is wished for is deeply buried and it is expressed through much more ostentatious forms of psi effects (i.e., uncontrollable psychokinesis). Drawing the parallel with the social unconscious, is it possible that UFO phenomena are also expressions, through psi effects, of deeply buried collective creative wishes or imaginary forms? I think there is a direct relationship between the unconscious depth of the imaginary and the intensity of a psi effect. As it is buried deeper, the human imaginary capabilities can be unleashed with greater freedom from the inherent limiting role of consciousness. From a methodological standpoint, this can create a serious problem. As one needs to look deeper into the collective unconscious, the more difficult it is to access and interpret it. However, the symbolic content of the social psi remains available, and can be used to trace back some of imaginary processes at play.
For instance, someone pointed out to me an unusual UFO sighting that occurred on 24 October 2008 near Empire, Ohio. After some further thinking, I can see that there is a symbolic element to it. The key witness is quoted saying that: "When I saw it, I was trying to take everything in and that's immediately what I thought when I saw it – that it was organic. That's the feeling that I got. I didn't think it could be anything else. It just came across as something organic" (see link above). Empire, Ohio is not far from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh is actively engaged in a range of leading-edge biological research, including sponsoring a research centre on fighting bio-terrorism. Could it be that the witnesses saw a gigantic virus, as an expression of some deeply buried collective and unconscious fears and maybe premonitions? This is speculation, of course, but should a major viral issue emerge in the near future (like finding a highly contagious strain of the dreaded avian flu) and that the University of Pittsburgh would be somehow involved in such finding, this would constitute another reasoned predictive statement based on parasociology.
Winkleman’s article
This is an older article dating back to 1982. However, it is useful as it provides an interesting comparison between magic and psi, in the context of anthropological research. Winkleman provides a long list of anthropologists who studied magical rituals and observed what we would call psi effects. He identifies a series of common enablers between magic and psi, to include altered states of consciousness, visualisation (i.e., belief that the desired effect can be produced), positive expectations (i.e., disbelievers negatively impact the possibility of producing psi effects), and belief (general belief in a community about the existence of magic). These findings remain valid today.
One of the key differences, however, is that magic is construed as mana, emanating from non-human sources. “Psi lacks spirit, god, and personalized conceptions; it is characterized almost exclusively as an impersonal force, akin to electromagnetic energy. [But] both are used to refer to a non-physical power operating outside the known physical laws or normal courses of nature and outside of normal space-time constraints. Both are at once means of action and milieux as well as fundamental processes of nature.” (p. 39)
The author makes an indirect link with the notion of imaginary (i.e., as unbounded possibilities) when he compares how PK and magic are understood. “Mauss characterizes magical acts as placing objects or beings ‘in a state so that certain movements, accidents, or phenomena will inevitably occur’ or bringing them in a dangerous state; he emphasizes the role of chance and the necessarily indeterminate nature of the outcome” (p. 39). Then Winkelman states that “one of the principal early findings of PK research was that systems with a greater degree of randomness were more easily influenced [...] and that ‘changes in the state of the physical system may in some sense be opportunities for PK influence to occur’”(p. 40). This is an interesting statement as balls of light, and other plasma-related phenomena are actually objects in unstable physical conditions. Hence, I would say that balls of light are both enablers and carrier of psi effects, expressed in our modern days in the form of UFOs and alien ships.
Another important linkage between both magic and psi is the role of emotional bursts. “Spontaneous paranormal experiences generally occur during dreams, in response to strong emotional experiences of others, particularly accident of death, and between members of the same family or close friends” (p. 40). Winkleman adds that parapsychology found that the same process occurs with poltergeists phenomena, and during events of psychotic breaks or crisis. Then, he mentions that “Malinovski suggests that magic arises from spontaneous ideas and reactions when the rational processes and known means of resolving problems have been exhausted; this implicates unconscious (or primary) thought processes as basic to magic” (p. 40). Once again, there are good reasons to think that spontaneous psi effects, like UFO and UFO waves, should be related to some strong emotional tensions.
The author tries to develop a different perspective about magic, and in particular he tries not to explain magic as simply a ritualized expression of social forms, which is the common anthropological view of magic. And this is the other side of reductionism, i.e., individual thought and beliefs are reduced to social forms and social constructs implicitly imposing themselves to all. He does not attempt to introduce concepts such as the collective unconscious, but he nevertheless proposes that the “destruction of traditional social systems with the worldwide advance of industrial society has destroyed many magical systems, but numerous practices survive and require investigation to determine their possible empirical and experiential base” (p. 44). In a way, a collective unconscious that is conducive to psi-effect is a key enabler. As there are UFO sightings on a regular basis, and UFO waves at various intervals, one can think that there must be a social system supporting the phenomena. The ETH community is in a way a magical system, but a magical system “twisted” or adapted to our time, as it ascribes a technical and materialistic reality to something for which no positive proof exists of its material “nut and bolts” reality. As well, like the mana of magic, the origins of the phenomenon are assigned to n on-human entities (either ETs or inter-dimensional beings). The magical community, however, does not have to be the “focus person” to use von Lucadou’s model, but rather the “naive observers” shielding the inner system from the critical observers.
Break for the Holiday Season
I will take a break for the Holiday Season, with my next post in early to mid-January.
Santa is supposed to deliver some more good books for me. So there is more to come.
I wish you all a Good Holiday Season and a Happy New Year (and remember wishes might be more powerful than we think...)
Copyright © 2008 Eric Ouellet
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Reading Notes - various
I read an interesting book by Greg Bishop. (2005) Project Beta : The story of Paul Bennewitz, national security, and the creation of a modern UFO myth. New York: Paraview. If people still have a few hopes that maybe Roswell and the Majestic documents could be true, they will completely abandon the Roswell/Majestic conspiracy bandwagon after reading this book.
Believing as part of an objective phenomenon
Greg Bishop, in a journalistic type of book, tells the story of Paul Bennewitz who was victim of an influence operation by the US Air Force counter- intelligence in the early 1980s. Bennewitz unknowingly was getting too close to classified military research. Yet, even before the US Air Force got involved, he was convinced that he was tapping into alien signals used to exert mind control over humanity. In reality, he simply recorded signals from a research centre working on various projects in the context of the late Cold War. In a patriotic way, he approached the Air Force with his findings about alien signals, which in turn got the Air Force very worried; but not because of an alleged alien plot, but because there was a potential serious security breach about much more mundane research projects.
As Bennewitz could not be forcibly removed from his house near the base, and the counter-intelligence did not want Soviet agents to use Bennewitz as an involuntary spy, they organized a complex disinformation scheme to distract both Bennewitz and any potential Soviet handlers. The Majestic documents were released in part during this operation, and the story linking UFOs and alien nocturnal visitations was firmly established through the bogus signals sent to Bennewitz. It is also the story of Bill Moore who worked actively with the US Air Force to disseminate false information to the ufology community. Most of that disinformation was easy to uncover, or it was pure rumours without any verifiable references. The ETH ufological community was very much victim of itself by being so uncritical, so ready to believe anything that fits its worldview. For having worked within the defence establishment, and knowing people in the world of intelligence, I must say that Bishop’s book is very credible and plausible.
It is also interesting to note that Bishop, through interviewing the main people involved in that story almost 20 years after the facts, found a few instances where magnetized balls of light were noticed. Apparently, the US Air Force counter-intelligence and other intelligence agencies did not know what to make of these balls of light. Assuming this is not something added to spice up the story (hardly a first in journalist accounts of paranormal-related phenomena), this adds some more data to my project.
What is more interesting is that it tells how a bogus story can become a modern legend. Only one source, one receiver, a few distributors, and a story that feeds into what people are ready to believe, that’s all that is needed. The social dynamics of rumours, as Bishop’s book shows can be very powerful. As psi effects are more likely to occur if people believe in the paranormal in an uncritical way, and that socio-cultural contents tend to provide the basic material for many psi effects, I would say in a qualified way that Jung was right in choosing the title of his famous book: Flying Saucers: A modern myth of things seen in the skies.
The Bennewitz story certainly raises a number of ethical questions. Was all this necessary to protect sensitive military research in the context of the Cold War? Was there other more ethical ways to distract Bennewitz without revealing that top secret research was conducted? This hard to say, as each situation is unique. Certainly if Bennewitz would have been in the Soviet Union doing the same thing, he would have been arrested and sent to psychiatric hospital without explanations. The other question is: was it necessary to disinform the entire ufological community? This one is more problematic. I think that the counter-intelligence agencies were a bit too paranoid about possible infiltration of the ufological community by Soviet agents, and use it as a cover to spy on military research. It is true that Bennewitz with very limited means was able to uncover easily a lot of stuff (even if he did not interpret the information correctly – which a Soviet agent could have done by relaying the information to Moscow). In the end, I think that the counter-intelligence made things worse, as the distrust towards the US Air Force is such that the ufological community was able to get some politicians on the bandwagon, and forcing a few expansive investigations (e.g., GAO search for the Roswell documents, US Air Force own investigation on Roswell, repeated FOI requests).
As one can see, it is not possible to talk about “psychotronic” attempts to manipulate masses here, as Jacques Vallée and others have suggested. These events can be explained by a normal sociological analysis. In fact, if one needs a metaphor to describe this story, I would suggest the Greek tragedy: Bennewitz was victim of his own belief, the ufological community was victim of its own naivety, counter-intelligence agencies were victim of their own paranoia, and the tax payers had to foot the bill once again for little return on the investment.
Psi as the Fifth Dimension
Another interesting book I read recently is Karl Brunstein”s Beyond the Four Dimensions: Reconciling physics, parapsychology and UFOs (New York: Walker and Co., 1979). In spite of the title, however, this book is not really about UFOs. It is more in line with philosophy of science and sociology of science than with paranormal studies.
The author provides a very accessible description of the evolution of Newtonian physics into the Einstein’s physics. From this point of view, it is an excellent vulgarization book. Complex concepts such as non-locality, reversibility of time, relativity can be understood by people having little background in physics and mathematics. Also, the author is not naive and understands that science is a social construct and its evolution is intimately linked to social conditions. This is quite refreshing, as it comes from a physicist.
His book, therefore, is really an attempt to establish linkages between Einstein’s physics and parapsychology that is both cognizant of existing knowledge in both realms and of the social conditions necessary to make such a linkage. His main thesis is that psi effects are the observable, but extreme, outcome of the fifth dimension. What he proposes is essentially an analogy between physical sciences and parapsychology. In the normal physical world, we live in the four dimensions (the 3 physical plus time) of the Newtonian physics. But when we go to the extremes, the ultra small (e.g., sub-atomic particles, photons) or the ultra big (e.g., stars, black holes), then we need Einstein’s physics to explain the strange things happening. The analogy, then, would be that in the normal world of human affairs, regular psychology (and social sciences) are good enough to explain what is happening, but when we reach the extremes, different approaches are needed to explain the strange things happening. Brunstein sees parapsychology fitting such a role. I would add that the collective dimension of human affairs needs to be included, and that parasociology is therefore needed as well.
Brunstein goes a little bit further in stating that human consciousness constitutes the fifth dimension, interacting with the four others, and thus tries to provide an unified understanding of the universe. In the normal world, human consciousness interacts with the physical world by the application of human intent to the physical world (or to other human beings through the physical world – speaking is sound vibrations, gesture and writing are photons in movement, touch is physical force and electrical signals along the nerves, reproduction is bio-chemical reactions, etc), and this can be described by Newton’s physics, Jung/Freund’s psychology, Durkheim/Marx (and many others)’s sociology, etc. It is in the extreme world that we need to better understand how intent interacts with the physical world (and others’ consciousness). Brunstein proposes that psi is what can be measured when there are interactions in the extreme. From that point, he proposes that UFOs are psi “devices” of extra-terrestrial origin used to interact with us.
I am not so sure about UFO as “psi devices,” but he raises an interesting point about the extremes of human consciousness. I would propose that it is, indeed, the unconscious, where psi phenomena seem to originate according to most parapsychologists. The collective dimension of the extreme part of human consciousness would then be what is called the collective unconscious. This in turn provides further justification for a “special” discipline within sociology (or social sciences) to study the collective dimension of psi effects.
Brunstein’s book is very speculative, particularly the second part where he goes beyond scientific vulgarization. But it is an interesting read, and it can certainly provide some food for thought for those espousing the so-called “2nd degree ETH” (ETs are behind the phenomena but it is essentially a psi technology). I do not agree with the 2nd degree ETH, but it is in my view a step forward compared to the standard ETH.
Copyright © 2008 Eric Ouellet
Believing as part of an objective phenomenon
Greg Bishop, in a journalistic type of book, tells the story of Paul Bennewitz who was victim of an influence operation by the US Air Force counter- intelligence in the early 1980s. Bennewitz unknowingly was getting too close to classified military research. Yet, even before the US Air Force got involved, he was convinced that he was tapping into alien signals used to exert mind control over humanity. In reality, he simply recorded signals from a research centre working on various projects in the context of the late Cold War. In a patriotic way, he approached the Air Force with his findings about alien signals, which in turn got the Air Force very worried; but not because of an alleged alien plot, but because there was a potential serious security breach about much more mundane research projects.
As Bennewitz could not be forcibly removed from his house near the base, and the counter-intelligence did not want Soviet agents to use Bennewitz as an involuntary spy, they organized a complex disinformation scheme to distract both Bennewitz and any potential Soviet handlers. The Majestic documents were released in part during this operation, and the story linking UFOs and alien nocturnal visitations was firmly established through the bogus signals sent to Bennewitz. It is also the story of Bill Moore who worked actively with the US Air Force to disseminate false information to the ufology community. Most of that disinformation was easy to uncover, or it was pure rumours without any verifiable references. The ETH ufological community was very much victim of itself by being so uncritical, so ready to believe anything that fits its worldview. For having worked within the defence establishment, and knowing people in the world of intelligence, I must say that Bishop’s book is very credible and plausible.
It is also interesting to note that Bishop, through interviewing the main people involved in that story almost 20 years after the facts, found a few instances where magnetized balls of light were noticed. Apparently, the US Air Force counter-intelligence and other intelligence agencies did not know what to make of these balls of light. Assuming this is not something added to spice up the story (hardly a first in journalist accounts of paranormal-related phenomena), this adds some more data to my project.
What is more interesting is that it tells how a bogus story can become a modern legend. Only one source, one receiver, a few distributors, and a story that feeds into what people are ready to believe, that’s all that is needed. The social dynamics of rumours, as Bishop’s book shows can be very powerful. As psi effects are more likely to occur if people believe in the paranormal in an uncritical way, and that socio-cultural contents tend to provide the basic material for many psi effects, I would say in a qualified way that Jung was right in choosing the title of his famous book: Flying Saucers: A modern myth of things seen in the skies.
The Bennewitz story certainly raises a number of ethical questions. Was all this necessary to protect sensitive military research in the context of the Cold War? Was there other more ethical ways to distract Bennewitz without revealing that top secret research was conducted? This hard to say, as each situation is unique. Certainly if Bennewitz would have been in the Soviet Union doing the same thing, he would have been arrested and sent to psychiatric hospital without explanations. The other question is: was it necessary to disinform the entire ufological community? This one is more problematic. I think that the counter-intelligence agencies were a bit too paranoid about possible infiltration of the ufological community by Soviet agents, and use it as a cover to spy on military research. It is true that Bennewitz with very limited means was able to uncover easily a lot of stuff (even if he did not interpret the information correctly – which a Soviet agent could have done by relaying the information to Moscow). In the end, I think that the counter-intelligence made things worse, as the distrust towards the US Air Force is such that the ufological community was able to get some politicians on the bandwagon, and forcing a few expansive investigations (e.g., GAO search for the Roswell documents, US Air Force own investigation on Roswell, repeated FOI requests).
As one can see, it is not possible to talk about “psychotronic” attempts to manipulate masses here, as Jacques Vallée and others have suggested. These events can be explained by a normal sociological analysis. In fact, if one needs a metaphor to describe this story, I would suggest the Greek tragedy: Bennewitz was victim of his own belief, the ufological community was victim of its own naivety, counter-intelligence agencies were victim of their own paranoia, and the tax payers had to foot the bill once again for little return on the investment.
Psi as the Fifth Dimension
Another interesting book I read recently is Karl Brunstein”s Beyond the Four Dimensions: Reconciling physics, parapsychology and UFOs (New York: Walker and Co., 1979). In spite of the title, however, this book is not really about UFOs. It is more in line with philosophy of science and sociology of science than with paranormal studies.
The author provides a very accessible description of the evolution of Newtonian physics into the Einstein’s physics. From this point of view, it is an excellent vulgarization book. Complex concepts such as non-locality, reversibility of time, relativity can be understood by people having little background in physics and mathematics. Also, the author is not naive and understands that science is a social construct and its evolution is intimately linked to social conditions. This is quite refreshing, as it comes from a physicist.
His book, therefore, is really an attempt to establish linkages between Einstein’s physics and parapsychology that is both cognizant of existing knowledge in both realms and of the social conditions necessary to make such a linkage. His main thesis is that psi effects are the observable, but extreme, outcome of the fifth dimension. What he proposes is essentially an analogy between physical sciences and parapsychology. In the normal physical world, we live in the four dimensions (the 3 physical plus time) of the Newtonian physics. But when we go to the extremes, the ultra small (e.g., sub-atomic particles, photons) or the ultra big (e.g., stars, black holes), then we need Einstein’s physics to explain the strange things happening. The analogy, then, would be that in the normal world of human affairs, regular psychology (and social sciences) are good enough to explain what is happening, but when we reach the extremes, different approaches are needed to explain the strange things happening. Brunstein sees parapsychology fitting such a role. I would add that the collective dimension of human affairs needs to be included, and that parasociology is therefore needed as well.
Brunstein goes a little bit further in stating that human consciousness constitutes the fifth dimension, interacting with the four others, and thus tries to provide an unified understanding of the universe. In the normal world, human consciousness interacts with the physical world by the application of human intent to the physical world (or to other human beings through the physical world – speaking is sound vibrations, gesture and writing are photons in movement, touch is physical force and electrical signals along the nerves, reproduction is bio-chemical reactions, etc), and this can be described by Newton’s physics, Jung/Freund’s psychology, Durkheim/Marx (and many others)’s sociology, etc. It is in the extreme world that we need to better understand how intent interacts with the physical world (and others’ consciousness). Brunstein proposes that psi is what can be measured when there are interactions in the extreme. From that point, he proposes that UFOs are psi “devices” of extra-terrestrial origin used to interact with us.
I am not so sure about UFO as “psi devices,” but he raises an interesting point about the extremes of human consciousness. I would propose that it is, indeed, the unconscious, where psi phenomena seem to originate according to most parapsychologists. The collective dimension of the extreme part of human consciousness would then be what is called the collective unconscious. This in turn provides further justification for a “special” discipline within sociology (or social sciences) to study the collective dimension of psi effects.
Brunstein’s book is very speculative, particularly the second part where he goes beyond scientific vulgarization. But it is an interesting read, and it can certainly provide some food for thought for those espousing the so-called “2nd degree ETH” (ETs are behind the phenomena but it is essentially a psi technology). I do not agree with the 2nd degree ETH, but it is in my view a step forward compared to the standard ETH.
Copyright © 2008 Eric Ouellet
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