Nuggets from Occult Invasion—A New Respectability

Shamans in primitive societies, and witches in Europe and America, have long demonstrated the apparent ability to “see” events and acquire knowledge separated form them by impossible distances of space and time. Recent laboratory demonstrations by psychics of “remote viewing” have been a major contribution to the acceptance of such powers today.

In 1993 the Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American Psychological Association, published a report by Cornell University social psychologist Daryl Bem and the late parapsychologist Charles Honorton. It reviewed 20 years of research and concluded that subjects were able my mental telepathy to “receive” at a rate far above chance an image being transmitted mentally from a distant location. Nevertheless, many scientists still seek a physical explanation. Some think that Bell’s theorem (which allows for correlations between apparently unconnected distant locations and events) together with quantum theory could be the answer. As we shall see, however, such a theory cannot explain the phenomena.

While many scientists were still trying to find some way to maintain their denial of the reality of the occult, a number of enterprising scientists were moving forward in what would become the most amazing development in the entire history of psychic research. In the forefront of this investigation was SRI International, located in Menlo Park, California, south of San Francisco. Formerly known as Stanford Research Institute, SRI now operates independently of Stanford University. It began research involving a new concept called “remote viewing,” in which the viewer was able to gather required information without the help of anyone at the distant target site attempting to send a mental image or message.