"Psi, cognition, & communication"

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pp. 127-142 Water Greist : "Psi-Speech Communication and Cognition".

pp. 127-128 remarks by editor (Long)

p.

remark

127

"speech enhances telepathy".

"non-human forms of life, from one-celled plants and animals to the ... language-less Pliocene or Miocene apes which were man’s ancestors, probably have greater extrasensory facilities than humans."

128

"Wallace ([: Culture and Personality. NY : Random House,] 1970) has discussed the relation of cognitive mazeway resynthesis in individual humans, naming it as the central factor in culture change."

 

"The data relate directly to Kroeber’s discussion of language in his modification (in The Nature of Culture) of Durkheim’s "superorganic," and thus have ... relevance to primate ethology".

pp. 128-131, 140 psi-experience & speech

p.

psi

128

"Conversation appears to be psi-structured by bursts of coded, verbal references ... A linguistic code increases the ability of a speaker to ... invoke a series of specific psi patterns, enabling people who have learned a common language to share more complex and subtle psi patterns of thought."

129

absorption by a "participant observer" of "sensitivity to psi processes" from an "empathic friend" : "the researcher ... was becoming aware of psi itself -- ... he observed that thoughts with a psi component possessed the same subjective feeling or quality as thoughts he always had, opening up the logical probability that he normally interacted with others on a psi level without realizing it. ...

the researcher learned ... the tendency for psi stimuli to become manifest through the existing cognitive concepts of one’s personal mazeway."

130

"the sculpturing of psi stimuli to fit one’s personal cognitive system allows one to maintain a consistent world view and an integrated pattern of action during psi interaction. Although psi is a major component of our ordinary thinking, the world is not consequently transparent, ... for culture is a series of mazeways which open paths for selected, structured psi interaction, while simultaneously erecting walls that render opaque the world of psi at large. To be shared in an undistorted form, a telepathic bond must simultaneously find congruent cognitive constructs in different mazeways."

 

"In verbal exchange, the speaker offers the listener a gestalt which the speaker thinks will stimulate the listener to interpret their psi exhange ... Speech would have provided a coded general reference for the communication, with psi filling in the feeling and detail."

131

"Raw psi stimuli must be classified, interpreted, and integrated into the percipient’s existing mazeway ... This reorganization of the pure stimulus to fit the percipient’s habits ... during gestalt formation facilitates the integration of novel stimuli into the constructs of his world view".

140

"linguistic codification of psi measures reduces distortion during mazeway classification."

pp. 140-141 further comments by editor (Long)

p.

comment

140

"ESP and the spoken word act synergistically."

"psi is a part of the human mazeway involving language" : "psi is probably used more or less continuously in conversation, ...

141

the psi factor in speech, and not just language itself, is of the essence in personal relationships."

"the critical point ("not a link in a chain, not a step in a path, but a leap to another plane") ... is not merely the appearance of some crude or metalanguage but is in fact the simultaneous juxtaposing of two mutually complementary facilities : psi and speech."

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pp. 143-154 Alexander Randall : "The Sapiential Circle and Recognition of Visionaries."

p. 143 comment by editor (Long)

"an amalgam of visionaries with diverse backgrounds – scientific, technical, mystical, metaphysical, religious – is particularly harmonious with the idea of parapsychological studies within anthropology. The value of interdisciplinary research and the holistic method has been appreciated by anthropologists for many years ..."

pp. 144-145 mutatant ideas

p.

idea

144

"mutant ideas are central to the study of culture. Culture is a compilation of successful mutant ideas. Mutations in the belief systems of a culture occur when single individuals generate new perceptions of their existing reality".

"there is no simple pattern recognition system built into cultures for the recognition of insight".

"Mutant ideas can be novel and dependent upon new technology, very old and resurfacing from obscurity, or even latent in a culture in the form a cult based upon a mutant idea."

145

"mutant ideas are classes by the receivers." "The insightful person is one who tells us tales of possible futures that are just on the fringe of our grasp. The slightest stretch beyond our imagination plunges his tale into words and phrases we are unable to comprehend. We are left confused and call him mad while it may be we who fail."

pp. 147-148 temperospatial perception

p.

spacetime

reference

147

"Osmond, Osmundsen, and Agel (1974), working with Jung’s (1971) theory of psychological types and Von Uexku:ll’s (1956) theory of Umwelt or individual timespace experience,

H. Osmond; J. Osmundsen; J. Agel : Understanding Understanding. NY : Harper & Row, 1974.

C. G. Jung : Psychological Types. Princeton U Pr, 1971.

J. Von Uexku:ll : "A Stroll through the Worlds of Animals and Men." In :- Instinctive Behavior. NY : International University Pr, 1956.

148

suggest that ... there is a topology of our positions in paranormal time and space. Our unique perceptions of the universe permit some people access to certain energy transformations which are inaccessible to others. The implication is that parapsychological phenomena exist as normal energy transformations within the larger timespace sphere, which in totality is inaccessible to each of us, but which, in part, is accessible to everyone."

 

147-8, fn. *

Unwelt : "(meaning milieu or environment) ... means the individual’s unique perceptual world. This bubble-like time-space world limits the way each of us experiences the matter-energy of the large reality, or "mind at large" (Huxley [: The Doors of Perception. NY : Harper], 1954)."

A. Huxley : The Doors of Perception. NY : Harper, 1954.

pp. 149-151 inventing the "Sapiential Circle"

p.

Circle

149

"What is needed is a system that will :

(a) be conducive to the generation of novel and unknown future visions; ...

(c) be the tool to translate future visions into terms that are comprehensible and usable to individuals with different temperospatial perceptions; and

(d) be open to possible insight in mutant ideas from novel sources."

 

"Because the group would be composed of individuals of different temperospatial orientation and different abilities, the synergy of their own communication would yield variations on the insight that would be acceptable and understood by others on all levels of temperospatial perception. The group would extend the imagination of a culture to such a point that extremely novel ideas could be understood.

We may call such a group the Sapiential Circle."

150

"As a new idea emerges, we need a way to recognize it, nurture it, preserve it, and diffuse it. Such is the task of the Sapiential Circle – it is an invention to reduce the randomness, condense time, expand our imagination, and permit our expeditious evolution as a species."

151

"An example which approximates a Sapiential Circle is ... that the conferees represented a wide spectrum of temperospatial points of view, as well as their different fields of study."

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pp. 155-192 Henry Reed : "Dream Incubation."

pp. 155-157 comments by editor (Long)

p.

comment

157

"LeShan ([: Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal. NY: Parapsychology Foundation,] 1969 : 72-80) has described ... a relationship between the "sensory individual reality" and the "clairvoyant individual reality." LeShan and others have documented that a disproportionately large number of historic inventions, discoveries, and insights ... come, by the very admission of the inventors, from flashes of insight which bear no relationship to background data ... Some even disclaim any knowledge of the source of their thoughts, which often have come during dreams or hypnogogic flashes. ...

157-8

Hence, the differences between some of the more bizarre psychological phenomena ... and peak experiences in the lives of the more productive individuals of society (its creators) becomes less real than obvious.

158

In the same sense, the operations of the primitive shaman and the operations we view as precipitating cultural change fuse into one."

pp. 158-159 traditional dream-incubation

158

"A person ... would go to sleep in the temple, where Asklepios would appear in a visionary dream ... and the person would awaken healed."

"Among the Ojibwa of the Great Lakes, ... In his dream, some representative of the spirit world would appear and bless the boy ...

159

and would instruct him in the use of supernatural aids which might be available to the boy in the future. Having been blessed by the dream, the boy would also incur the responsibility of applying his gifts in a prescribed manner for the benefit of his community".

p. 172 instance of incubated dream (of false-awakening) by a woman

"She awoke, startled to find that a strong wind was blowing, and that the tent had blown away. A small, old woman appeared, calling out the incubant’s name ... The woman said that she was preparing the incubant’s body for death, and that the winds were spirits which would pass through her body to check the seven glands. ... During this time, the incubant saw before her a large luminous tablet, containing many columns of fine print, detailing her experiences in her past and future lives. The vision ended abruptly, and the incubant found herself lying within the tent, ... awakened from a dream."

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Joseph K. Long (ed.) : Extrasensory Ecology. The Scarecrow Pr, Metuchen (NJ), 1977. pp. 127-192.