#

Cap.

PP.

5.

Alfred Russel Wallace

101-32

6.

Matter, mind, and consciousness

133-242

7.

The cosmic hierarchy

243-328

8.

Apparitions

329-413

9.

Paranormal modification

415-481

p.

text

reference

102

"Wallace, the cofounder with Darwin of the theory of evolution by natural selection, became involved in paranormal research. ... Wallace concluded that the universe is populated with a hierarchy of spirit beings, some of whom are in contact with the human population on earth, usually through mediums. According to Wallace, the spirit beings lower in the hierarchy, acting through mediums, were responsible for a variety of paranormal phenomena, including clairvoyance, miraculous healings, communications from the dead, apparitions, ... levitations, etc. More powerful spirit beings may have played a role in the process of evolution, guiding it in certain directions."

103

"Wallace concluded that the universe is populated with various kinds of spirit beings, some of whom are in contact with the human population on earth, usually through mediums. According to Wallace, the minor spirit beings, acting through mediums, were responsible for a variety of paranormal phenomena, including clairvoyance, miraculous healings, communications from the dead, apparitions, ... levitations, etc. More powerful spirit beings may have played a role in the process of evolution, guiding it in certain directions."

104

"Wallace concluded that "... clairvoyance both as to facts known and unknown to the mesmeriser, have been established as absolute realities" (Wallace 1896, p. xi)."

105

Thomas Henry Huxley wrote to Wallace, commenting on " "disembodied gossip, such as these worthy ghosts supply their friends ..." (Wallace 1905, vol. 2, p. 280)." {I.e., typical remarks from ghosts as interlocutors in a se’ance, amount merely to personal trifles, of no more profound significance than ordinary gossip, however accurate those remarks may be.}

Wallace 1905 = Alfred Russel Wallace : My Life. 2 vols. London, Chapman & Hall.

115

(4) the patients act on these implanted suggestions, experience tangible cures ... (Wallace 1905, v. 2, pp. 308-309)."

116

"Wallace (1896, p. 8) gave levitation of the human body as an instance of a miraculous event for which there is abundant human testimony : "... So we all know that at least fifty persons of high character may be found in London who will testify that they have seen the same thing happen to Mr. Home.""

117

"Hume ... wrote in his book : "The curing of the sick ... were immediately proved upon the spot, before judges of unquestioned integrity, attested by witnesses of credit and distinction, in a learned age ..." (Wallace 1896, p. 9)."

118

"And to Wallace the facts suggested that modern spiritualism and primitive belief shared "at least a substratum of reality" and that "the uniformity of belief is due in great part to the uniformity of underlying facts" (Smith 1991, p. 83)."

Smith 1991 = C. H. Smith : Alfred Russel Wallace : an Anthology. Oxford U Pr.

126

"Wallace (1892, p. 648) stated : "The universal teaching of modern spiritualism is that the world and the whole material universe exist for the purpose of developing spiritual beings – that death is simply a transition from material existence to the first grade of spirit-life – and that our happiness and the degree of our progress will be wholly dependent upon the use we have made of our faculties and opportunities here.""

Wallace 1892 = "Spiritualism". Article in :- Chamber’s Encyclopaedia. London. pp. 645-9.

127

"If spirits were nonmaterial or made of "the most diffused and subtle forms of matter," (Wallace 1896, p. 44) ... the spirit beings would act upon the ether, ... through the forces of nature ... on the level of observable matter. Wallace (1896, pp. 47-48) further proposed : "Beings of an ethereal order ... would probably possess some sense or senses ... giving them ... proportionately increased intelligence to guide and direct for special ends ... . ... They might have a power of motion as rapid as that of light or the electric current. They might have a power of vision as acute as that of

Wallace 1896 = Alfred Russel Wallace : Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. London.

128

our most powerful telescopes and microscopes. They might have a sense ... enabled to perceive instantaneously, the intimate constitution of matter under every form, whether in organized beings or in stars and nebulae. ...""

131

"This led Wallace to conclude : "If, therefore, we have traced ... to an origin in our WILL, while we have not knowledge of any other primary cause of force, it does not seem an improbable conclusion that all force may be will-force; and thus, that the whole universe ... actually is, the WILL of higher intelligences or of one Supreme Intelligence" (Wallace 1870; in Smith 1991, p. 291)."

Wallace 1870 = Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection. London : Macmillan.

p.

text

reference

140

"Alex Didier’s explanation of the mechanics of his gift : "There passed within him, he wrote, something indefinable, tending to convulse ... his whole interior being. The interior vision of the spirit then became open to endless horizons and ... a feeling of well-being ... and material objects became transparent, so that vision was no longer obstructed. He could ... transport himself from one side of the earth to the other; talk with Africans, walk about in China, descend Australian mines and even enter the harem of a sultan. The soul only had to wish and it was everywhere; ... events of centuries become present to the interior vision, so that occurrences long past could be evoked for the purposes of description. For Alexis, lucidity, like mediumship, ... was innate ... . Belief in the soul was essential if lucidity was to be understood. The aim of somnambulism was to demonstrate the powers which primitive man enjoyed and in particular which the soul will possess when death liberates it from the body" (Didier 1856, p. 15; in Dingwall 1967, pp. 199-200)."

Dingwall 1967 = Eric J. Dingwall : Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena. Vol 1 : "A Survey of Nineteenth Century Cases". J. & A. Churchill.

147

"In Human Personality, Myers therefore began his progression of evidence with ... telepathy ... . He then gave evidence of phantasmal projection – cases in which people see apparitions of living persons. He then moved to death moment apparitions, and then to ... communications with the dead. ... Some of Myers’s research into apparitions of the living was carried out with ... Edmund Gurney and Frank Podmore. Their results were published in Phantasms of the Living".

Phantasms of the Living. London : Tru:bner & Co, 1886.

164

"Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) was a French astronomer, famous for his work on double stars and ... investigation into paranormal phenomena. ... Flammarion (1909, p. 302) ... said that any scientific investigator ... could assure himself of their reality. He himself had verified them through personal observation."

Flammarion 1909 = Camille Flammarion : Mysterious Psychic Forces. Boston : Small, Maynard & Co.

166

"Flammarion believed that some kind of vibration was transmitted ... to a sympathetic person, whose organism converted the vibration into a perception, just as a radio receiver conversts electromagnetic waves into sound. Flammarion (1922, p. 369) said : "All these observations prove that a human being ... consists ... of a psychic element that is imponderable, ... capable of functioning apart from the physical organism and of manifesting itself at a distance ... . psychic element is not subject to the every-day restrictions of time and space.""

Flammarion 1922= Camille Flammarion : Death and Its Mystery. Vol II : "Doubles". Transl by Latrobe Carroll. NY : The Century Co.

172

"Richet noted (1923, pp. 4-5) : "The forces that govern presentiments, telepathy, movements of objects without contact, apparitions, ... do not seem to be blind and unconscious forces ... . They have none of the fatality that attaches to the mechanical and chemical reactions of matter. They appear to have intellectuality, will, and intuition, which may not be human, but which resemble human will and intention. Intellectuality – the power of choice, intention, and decision conformably to a personal will – characterizes all metapsychic phenomena.""

Richet 1923 = Charles Robert Richet : Thirty Years of Psychical Research. NY : Macmillan Co.

177

"Richet himself concluded (1923, p. 421) : "I have insisted on the phenomena of telekinesis produced by Eusapia because there have perhaps never been so many different, skeptical, and scrupulous investigators into the work of any medium or more minute investigations. During

178

twenty years, from 1888 to 1908, she submitted, at the hands of the most skilled European and American experimentalists, to tests of the most rigorous and decisive kind, and during all this time men of science ... have verified that even very large and massive objects were displaced without contact.""

"Margaret Mead (1901-1978), a prominent American anthropologist, endorsed research into the paranormal. ... Throughout her life, Mead consulted various mediums, psychics, and healers. ... Mead ... asked, "Do you see more people in the room than we do? ... Do you see the tall one and the short one with me?" ... Mead explained that these were her spirit guides, and that seers in all tribes she had ever studied had noticed them (Howard 1984, p. 412)."

Howard 1984 = Jane Howard : Margaret Mead. NY : Simon & Schuster.

179

"Dr. John G. Taylor, a mathematical physicist at the University of London, appeared with Uri Geller ... . ... In his book ..., Taylor (1975, p. 49) said : "One clear observation of Geller in action had an overwhelming effect on me. I felt as if the whole framework with which I viewed the world had suddenly been destroyed. I seemed very naked ..., surrounded by a ... incomprehensible universe. ...""

Taylor 1975 = John Taylor : Superminds. NY : Viking Pr.

188

"Targ and Puthoff (1974, p. 607) concluded : "A channel exists whereby information about a remote location can be obtained by means by means of an as yet unidentified modality. ... Our observation of the phenomenon leads us to conclude that experiments in the area of so-called paranormal phenomena can be scientifically conducted ... .""

Targ & Puthoff 1974 = "Information Transmission". NATURE 251 (5476):602-7.

193

"a technique called the ganzfield (Radin 1997, pp. 69-72). The ganzfield technique grew out of dream telepathy experiments ... It appeared that if a waking person sent mental images to a dreaming person, the dreaming person would see those images in dreams."

Radin 1997 = Dean L. Radin : The Conscious Universe. San Francisco : Harper.

196

"New evidence supporting the existence of ... telepathy ... passed muster among skeptical peer reviewers and gained publication in a major, mainstream psychology journal" (Bower 1994)."

"Scientists Peer into the Mind’s Psi". SCIENCE NEWS 145(5):68.

199

"A study by the Congressional Research Service ... in 1981, said, "Recent experiments in remote viewing and other studies in parapsychology suggests that there exists an ‘interconnectedness’ of the human mind with matter" (U.S. Library of Congress 1983; in Radin 1997, p. 4).

C. H. Dodge : Research into ‘Psi’ Phenomena. Congressional Research Service.

A few years later, the Army Research Institute commission a report on the status of parapsychology. Published in 1985, the report stated that the data reviewed in the report were "genuine scientific anomalies for which no one has an adequate explanation or set of explanations" (Palmer 1985; in Radin 1997, p. 4).

Palmer 1985 = J. Palmer : "An Evaluative Report on ... Parapsychology".

205

William "James (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 290) though that the brain might have a transmissive rather than productive relationship to consciousness. ... According to this conception, the brain would transmit or obstruct consciousness to various degrees. James said : "... when the brain is in full activity ... a comparative flood of spiritual energy pours over. At other times, only such occasional waves of thought as heavy sleep permits get by. And when finally a brain stops acting altogether, ... the sphere of being that supplied the consciousness would still be intact; and in that more real world ... the consciousness might, in ways unknown to us, continue still" (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 292)."

Murphy & Ballou 1960 = Gardner Murphy & Robert O. Ballou : William James on Psychical Research. NY : Viking Pr.

William "James cited the following statement by ... philosopher F. C. S. Schiller (1891) : "Matter is an admirably calculated machinery for ... limiting and restraining the consciousness which it encases. ... If the material encasement be coarse and simple, as in the case of lower organisms, it permits only a little intelligence to permeate through; if it is delicate and complex, it leaves more pores ... for the manifestations of consciousness (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 300)."

Schiller 1891 = Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller : Riddles of the Sphinx. London : Swan Sonnenschein.

"Near death and out-of-body experiences (variously abbreviated as NDEs, OBEs, OOBEs) provide evidence demonstrating that consciousness may have an existence entirely apart from gross matter (the body) and subtle matter (the mind). Throughout history, people around the world have reported these experiences. ...

206

Sheils (1978, p. 697) stated : : "... Hence, it is possible that the specificity and generality of OOBE beliefs is simply a response to a genuine event; i.e., the actual occurrence of OOBE." By demonstrating that there is a conscious self that can experience sensations apart from the gross physical body, the OBE provides a foundation for the further conclusion that there is a conscious self that survives the death of the gross physical body."

Sheils 1978 = "Out-of-the-Body Experiences". JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 49.

208

"Ring (1980, p. 232) said that the near death experience is best explained as an out-of-body experience. ... He says (1980, p. 233) : "... On the basis of the separation hypothesis, ... I do endorse the proposition that consciousness (with or without a second body) may function independently of the physical body."

Ring 1980 = Kenneth Ring : Life at Death. NY : Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.

In Heading Toward Omega (1984), Ring documented the results of further research. The results yielded more confirmation of his interpretation of the NDE as an out-of-body experience."

Heading toward Omega. NY : William Morrow.

236

"Even the highly skeptical Carl Sagan ... in his book ... said ... : "... there are three claims in the ESP field which, in my opinion, deserve study : (1) that by thought alone humans can ... affect ... computers, (2) that people under mild sensory deprivation can receive thought or images ‘projected’ at them; and (3) that young children sometimes report the details of a previous life, which upon checking turn out to be accurate and which they could not have known about in any other way than reincarnation" (Sagan, 1995, p. 302)."

Sagan 1995 = Carl Sagan : The Demon Haunted World. NY : Random House.

237

"Some scientists suppose that consciousness may be a quantum mechanical effect. ...

238

Radin (1997, p. 287) points out : "An adequate theory of psi ... will almost certainly not be quantum theory as it is presently understood. Instead, existing quantum theory will ultimately be seen as a special case ... . ...""

239

Physicist "Schmidt said (1993, p. 367) : "The outcome of quantum jumps, which quantum theory attributes to nothing but chance, can be influenced by a person’s mental effort. This implies that quantum theory is wrong when experimentally applied to systems that include human subjects.""

"Observation of a Psychokinetic Effect". J. OF PARAPSYCH. 57.

240

"the philosophical doctrine of occasionalism. Griffin (1997, p. 105) explains : "According to this doctrine, on the occasion ... God causes my mind to feel pain ... . My mind, unfortunately, cannot cause my body to move any more than my body could cause my mind to feel pain. On the occasion of my deciding to move my hand, accordingly, God obliges, moving it for me. ...""

Griffin 1997 = David Ray Griffin : Parapsychology. Albany : State U of NY Pr.

241

"Benjamin Libet ... revealed that the brains of the subjects displayed activity a third of a second before the subjects consciously reported making a decision to move ... . Libet took this to mean that our conscious free will is not really free, but ... free will is largely an illusion (Libet 1994; in Radin 1997, pp. 283-284). But ... the Supersoul, on a deep level, is monitoring the soul, the actual conscious self. Anticipating the desire of the soul to move ..., the Supersoul could set the process in motion before the desire is manifested as a mental intention."

Libet 1994 = "A Testable Field Theory of Mind-brain Interaction". J. OF CONSC. STUDIES 1.

"Jahn and Dunne proposed that consciousness has a dual particle/wave nature, ...

242

that our normal individual embodied consciousness might be likened to "probability experience waves" that are "confined to some sort of ‘container,’ or ‘potential well,’ representative of the environment in which that consciousness is immersed" (Jahn and Dunne 1987, p. 242)."

Jahn and Dunne 1987 = Margins of Reality. Orlando.