Ingo Swann (15Oct97)
At some level of their awareness, almost everyone who knows anything at all about the superpowers realizes that knowledge about them is surrounded by factors that seem to complicate almost every issue that might pertain to them.
One can, of course, read and study a great deal about the superpowers, about their psychic, parapsychological and intuitional correlates -- and do so without necessarily having to delve into the nature and disorder of the complicating factors.
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However, important distinctions can be drawn between merely reading up on something versus the processes necessary with regard to activating latent powers. It is quite well understood that the reading up on something might not also really activate a latent power -- if only because reading is an activity of the left side of the brain.
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But even in the reading one might encounter disorder and complicating factors without recognizing them as such -- in which case the complicating factors might be viruses having entered into mental information processes.
Additionally, our species long ago discovered many USES for disorder and cleverly disguised complicating factors. Thus, there is a rather long tradition of installing disorder among or around this or that for purposes best known to those who expect to benefit from the disorder.
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In our twentieth century time, misinformation might merely consist of innocent factual errors.
But disinformation is defined as deliberately installing misinformation in the guise of factual correctness, and doing so for an envisioned purpose.
However, both information and disinformation result in some kind of disorder.
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If it might be supposed that cognitive activating of one or other of the superpower sets of faculties might require some kind of systemic functioning relatively free of misinformation, disinformation and disorder, then the nature and dynamics of that trio really ought to achieve the status of worthwhile interest and inspection.
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One of the beginning points of take-off in this regard has to do with the differences between two easily recognized situations that have been established as historically existing in all fields of human endeavor.
- The traditional armchair approach to learning, theorizing, and accumulating "knowledge,"
and
- Working in the real and actual field of what has been learned in the more or less intellectualized security of the armchair.
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This, then, is to point up that important distinctions do exist between the armchair approach and entering into the realities of whatever is involved.
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In the above context, it might be mentioned, for example, that no matter how much one learns via the armchair route, the sum of it is almost certainly to be found as reductive, and smaller, than Life itself.
In this sense, it can be said that Life is a composite of all possible things, known and unknown, recognized and unrecognized.
Armchair approaches, even the most elegant and comprehensive of them, select among all possible things and study them as separate factors among the composite of all possible things.
Thus, just about anything can be honed to gem-like quality within the scope of armchair thinking. But when the gem-like quality is replaced into the environment of all possible things, it can encounter and undergo what, blithely put, are "challenging" factors -- sometimes also known as "reality checks."
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A major deficit in armchair approaches is that they tend to draw to themselves only what is thought to fit, and either reject what does not fit, or remain altogether unaware of it.
But by far and large this is typical of human behavior overall, in that people prefer not to deal with anything indicative of possible or probable discomfort. Many analysts have dubbed this the head-in-the-sand phenomenon.
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One of the great, but usually unrecognized, mysteries of the superpowers is WHY they are perpetually surrounded by trouble within the larger picture they represent and are part of.
In this context, for example, both psychical research and parapsychology have TWO histories.
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The first history has to do with the efforts at research and what has been discovered thereby. This history is fascinating to those interested in it, and several competent books have emerged detailing it.
It goes almost without saying it that it is via this first history that those interested seek to learn what they can -- not only with regard to what has been discovered, but with expectations that what has been discovered may enable an increase of functioning of their own superpower faculties.
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The second history is comprised of what has been termed, somewhat superficially, as the "Resistance to Psi." Although the existence of the "resistance" is occasionally noted, any extensive and detailed history of it is functionally absent.
Thus, anyone perchancing to have an interest in the nature, reasons and dynamics of this second history cannot find a concise source that details it.
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The second history, however, and in the long run, is as important, if not more so, than the first history.
The second history is the story and tale of how and why the first history has been assailed, deterred, and derailed within our present civilization's sociological formats -- resulting in a rather confusing sociological cocoon of disorder that seems to be self-perpetuating.
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Thus, if anyone should perchance to activate some of their superpower faculties, in the end they can assuredly depend not only on functioning among the possible benefits of the activating, but are going to have to deal with the ongoing, dynamic sociological elements characteristic of the second history.
If, then, one does not have an advance and comprehensive grasp on the nature and dynamics which comprise the assailing second history, then like the armchair traveler venturing into all the possibilities of Life, one might predictably find oneself "challenged" by unrecognized, unsuspected and unknown pitfalls.
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The central function of this Section 5, then, is to provide a larger overview of what, loosely speaking, comprises the assailing second history.
Some of the factors and elements to be pointed up are obvious, depending how perceptive and experienced one is. But others are not so obvious, and some of them are surprising.
The Superpowers and Their Relationship to Earthside Power Structures
In now reading what follows under the heading just above, this writer can only say that the context is NOT a matter of his fanciful speculating, or of unfounded conspiratorial imagining.
He has in fact been TOLD the context by a number of individuals highly placed with Agencies On High -- and whom thus presumably knew what they were talking about.
But as with all the contents of this database, each visitor to this website is invited to consider this context only in the light of what it might suggest.
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It is well known that organized research since 1882 regarding psychical phenomena and parapsychological experimenting rather consistently has met with organized resistance and skeptical ridicule.
It is also understood that the organizers of the resistance and ridicule have presented supportive reasons and justifications that seem logical and reasonable.
But there is more to this overall situation than the mere mix of Psi research and discovery versus mere resistance and ridicule. This is to say that there is a principal reason why the controversial mix exists in the first place.
This principal reason is easily understandable -- once it is delineated and given cognitive substance.
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My own interests in the Psi phenomena began very early. As this interest expanded, within my pursuit of reading it was possible to discover the existence of various resistive attitudes toward Psi.
Like most, I assumed these resistive attitudes were formulated at the individual level by those who merely felt that Psi did not fit into their philosophical or scientific realities.
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As many writers had pointed up (both in the pro and anti Psi camps), the chief factor here was that the so-called non-material aspects of Psi could not be made to fit with the philosophical and scientific contexts of Materialism.
I felt that this "conflict" was self-evident -- even understandable. But I, as well as most Psi researchers, felt that if parapsychology continued accumulating facts via confirmed experimentation and discovery, then the facts would automatically shift the picture more in favor of Psi.
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It was quite easy to accept this explanation in an unquestioning way, since THIS was what the explanation was said to consist of in many sensible statements and publications. And, I think, this is still the major prevailing explanation today.
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But even so, a slightly noticeable mystery remained.
Even when researchers and parapsychologists did present good evidence incorporated by scientific procedures otherwise accepted in all echelons of science and philosophy, the good parapsychology evidence was NOT accepted anyway.
In fact, it was derailed AS scientific evidence -- usually by means that equated, by any consideration, to rather dirty counterpropaganda tactics.
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The whole of this equated to unfair treatment. So when by fortuitous chance I had opportunities (beginning in 1971) to function as a Psi test subject, I was doubly enthusiastic about the Work.
I was soon to discover, however, the Work consisted of two situations.
The first situation consisted of the lab work and experiments with many leading parapsychologists of the time, and most of which went reasonably well.
The second part, however, consisted of how the Work was responded to in the larger domains of Life, specifically with emphasis on all possible domains of human activity -- otherwise known as the "open field" of all sociological human activity.
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This shift of venue, so to speak, from parapsychology-cum-science into the "problem" of general sociological activity tweaked my original interest in the latter.
After preliminary excursions into this "problem," it could be shown that the Resistance emanated, for the most part, from those sociological entities we refer to as mainstream ones -- especially including the hard and soft sciences, the major media, and the manufacturers of text books, encyclopedias and dictionaries.
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Whereas the so-called "average" citizen was prepared to consider the existence of Psi (as later polls confirmed), the mainstreams were not. In fact, it could be shown that the mainstreams seemed to work overtime to prevent easy access to real and solid Psi evidence.
And if not that, misinformation and disinformation tactics were utilized to make the real evidence appear either as questionable, ambiguous, or threatening to the sanity and welfare of the species.
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The nature and tactics of this resistance ranged from fatuous and silly to ugly and tragic -- the whole of which led to a most astonishing result.
Via this resistance, mainstream propaganda and spin doctors actually derailed discovery of the sensitivity mechanisms of our species that can account for psychical and parapsychological phenomena.
And this achieved, so it was said, to protect Science from so-called pseudoscience.
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At this point, it should be mentioned that where the existence and use of TACTICS can be identified, it is logical to suspect the existence of a centralizing STRATAGEM on whose behalf the tactics are deployed.
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Most dictionaries define STRATAGEM as "an artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemy." Of course, stratagems are also characteristic of business, competition, politics, and etc., the whole of which can also be referred to as needed or necessary strategy and so forth.
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In the sense of the resistance to Psi, the tactics could be identified (if only by astute observers), but the locus of the centralizing stratagem remained illusive.
Thus, an additional mystery made its appearance. It can be summarized via the following:
Since the early, basic, principal, and broadly announced goal of SCIENCE was to investigate and study ALL PHENOMENA, the scientific exclusion of Psi Phenomena actually constitutes a defacement by mainstream scientists, or their minions, of the principal purpose of mainstream science itself.
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However, this larger overview was not (and still is not) grokked by many, because since 1882 any number of pseudo-logical and pseudo-rational explanations have been put forth -- and accepted as reasonable by the most influential powerholders of the mainstream populations.
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As but one pseudo-logical example, mainstream science has rejected all connection to Psi research on the grounds, believe it or not, that Psi phenomena are unscientific to begin with -- and thus not a proper topic for science.
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This paltry excuse has been accepted as rational and logical not only within science proper, but within academe, and by the major media -- WHEN, in fact, EVERYTHING is found in an "unscientific" condition before the mighty organizing powers of science make scientific order of them.
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By late 1972, I had gotten this far with my "investigations." And at that point I still believed that the fundamental "explanation" had to do only with scientific and philosophical difficulties. I still felt that these difficulties would be cured or ameliorated in the future as discoveries about Psi continued to accumulate.
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However, and as time would soon tell, I had completely failed to incorporate into my investigations one significant strategic context.
And if certain important analysts at highest levels had not pointed out this overall strategic context, I might have wandered down through the years blissfully unaware of it.
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Before getting into this significant context, it is worthwhile at this point to reprise the general definition of what the superpower faculties appear to consist of, based on all available evidence.
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The "superpowers" have been discussed in other essays already placed in this database.
But to reprise them for convenience, they appear to consist of those faculties within our species and its specimens that can deal with the kinds of information transcending physical facts, and the "laws" of matter, space, time and energy (as so far understood).
The factual existence of the superpowers is determined by noting the spontaneous occurrence of them throughout history.
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However, spontaneously occurring and deliberate, controlled activation of the superpowers (as might occur via scientific knowledge of them) represent two different matters indeed.
Spontaneous occurrences of the superpowers can be considered merely as transient events in the general web or fabric of human sociological existence.
However, if certain superpower faculties could become activated and enhanced in controlled ways rather than just via spontaneous manifestations, then a number of human affairs considered normalized and controllable would have to undergo adjustments.
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And so the "arising," so to speak, of enhanced superpower activity would present unfamiliar difficulties -- especially to the average run-of-the-mill power structures that function within the known limits of normal powers.
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In November, 1972, I was invited to Washington for a sort of covert meeting. During that meeting a top analyst of a familiar intelligence agency in our nation's capital TOLD me (I paraphrase):
You know, no significant advance in Psi will ever be permitted by those who govern -- because it MIGHT upset or alter all power structures on Earth. Even if you and your colleagues at Stanford Research Institute succeed, even in part, ways and means behind the popular and open scenes will ultimately follow to erase and discredit the work.
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I clearly remember being stuck speechless, not only by the shocking statement, but because of my own abysmal ignorance in not recognizing what was immediately made SO OBVIOUS.
I immediately grokked the entire reason behind the "Resistance to Psi," along with all of its ramifications.
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For clarity here regarding only some of those ramifications, the first and principal one is that IF any of the superpowers could by volitional training be developed for so-called practical applications, then there would be vivid implications for almost all existing Earthside power structures and the way power games are played.
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In THIS context, as viewed from the heights of existing power structures and power makers, the deliberate cognitive enhancement of the superpowers would be viewed as a rather hideous development -- made doubly frightening upon the possibility that secrets and minds could be "read" and revealed.
At the very least, such enhancement could result in "competitive edges" in a number of human affairs -- such as within capitalistic forays, take-over plans, and transactions.
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In any event, from the perspective of invested POWER it is certainly understandable that a NEED could easily be perceived for the resistance to the emergence of enhanced superpower proficiency.
It is also easy to see that the perceived NEED for the resistance would trickle down from the most powerful top and infest all echelons of society involving power, who was to succeed in obtaining it, and why and how.
Another ramification concerns what is fondly referred to as "fair competition." Grok it, if you can.
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Now a factor needs briefly to be pointed up that dwells in consistent invisibility. It is this.
Practically everyone can intuit or imagine some kind of practical application for any of the superpower faculties. But at the same time, if there existed any reason to shoot down the superpower faculties, or to prevent their constructive germinating, this is surely the reason.
In a forthcoming essay in this Section 5, I'll review some illuminating aspects of this situation as revealed in the book EXECUTIVE ESP: THE PROVEN LINKS BETWEEN "HUNCHES" AND SUCCESS -- AND HOW BUSINESSMEN EMPLOY ESP ON A PRACTICAL BASIS (Dean, Mihalasky, Ostrander, Schroeder, 1974).
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The relationship of the superpower enhancement to Earthside sociological and power structures can briefly summarized as having five identifiable aspects. In the past, I read more than one overall assessment of "the implications and threats of Psi," and it is somewhat from these that the five identifiable aspects have been distilled.
- Our species possesses sentient attributes that are quite extraordinary -- among which are powers and superpowers of various kinds. These exist among all specimens of the species in some kind of innate and potentializable formats -- providing the requisite sensitivity parameters are "open" naturally, or nurtured into "openness" via some kind of tutorial-experiential methods that enlarge sensitivity contact.
- Also innate within our species are the contexts for constructing the various elements and formats usually referred to as "social organizing," ostensibly so that the specimens of the species can survive better as group-collective entities.
- However, the same collective social survival-goals usually turn out to be pyramidal "power structures." The greatest amounts and kinds of power are held by the relatively few power specimens populating the apex -- while the rest of the inhabitants of the pyramidal power structures are presumed to benefit and survive as a result of being led or governed by the power governing, decisioning, or dicta of the few.
- The most solidly accepted basis for acquiring and perpetuating power is very closely related to the physical aspects of everyone's existence. Thus, most formats of large power holdings usually come about by achieving dominion over obvious and subtle aspects of physicality (and/or via the dominion of the surrogate of physicality -- money).
- In a direct sense, power structures are almost always dependent on stability, predictability, and upon what is visible and tangible to the majority of everyone. Thus, most power-structure arrangements CANNOT permit Psi-determined "wild cards" of any kind, much less encourage them to come into existence. So, while the superpower faculties of our species can be seen as astonishing and marvelous, they also represent "threatening" wild cards to existing power structures.
The Superpowers as "Wild Cards" Within Sociological Power Systems
Considering the five aspects briefly enumerated above, it becomes quite easy to comprehend, at least theoretically speaking, why any REAL development of the superpowers cannot be permitted.
In the bigger power picture, then, the overall response MUST advocate the non-development and non-enhancement of the superpowers.
The General Superpower Problem and the Way It Is "Taken Care Of"
The ONLY problem regarding the superpower faculties is that they exist naturally and as concomitants of our marvelous species.
In this sense, they tend occasionally to emerge spontaneously through each successive generation, and as somewhat highly "developed" in certain individuals -- known, in the twentieth century as "psychics," if they are real ones.
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Analysts recognize this confirmed, "unfortunate" but natural occurrence. Since, then, the species does possess the superpower faculties, or at least rudiments of them, the (almost) only way to "contain" the superpowers is to make an impenetrable mess around any possible real knowledge of them -- especially as regards any constructive, and hence applicable, formats.
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And so it is thus, more or less anyway, that we find any accurate comprehending of the superpowers cocooned within various messes of distractions, deterrents, derailments, demolitions, deconstructions, pismires, and droolings.
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The making and maintenance of the messes is seen as necessary because many adhere to the concept that the introduction into power games of wild cards emanating from real superpower sources would not only put the usual concepts of power at a disadvantage, but also could shift the concepts and balances of power as well.
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To get a start-up grasp on this, we have only to consider the element of secrecy involved in all power structures.
If, for example, it is believed that all formats of secrecy can be penetrated by superpower "espionage," well, this is surely one reason to PREVENT any attempts to develop any superpower faculties in a predictable and proliferating way. No one really would want to develop any sources from which would flow a river of wild cards.
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So, the best way to prevent anything of the kind is to pollute the clear river of superpower understanding and infest it with log jams -- in the form of distractions, deterrents, derailments, demolitions, deconstructions and pismires -- all the while disguising these in formats of acceptable logic and reason and various kinds of droolings philosophical or otherwise.
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It is my personal suspicion, based upon many years of direct experience, that our mainstream social-power structures WILL NEVER permit much in the way of open mainstream supported research and development of real superpower proficiency -- with one possible exception.
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IF our species would find itself "threatened" by an extraterrestrial something or other which possessed active superpower functions, then OUR species superpowers would have to be developed to attempt to cope with the Spaceside "threat" in this regard.
In such a case, completely hypothetical to be sure, swift mainstream agreement would be reached to develop practical human superpower applications in order to add these to Earthside armaments.
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A number of loose ends have been left open in this first essay of this section -- because they are better dealt with via substantive contexts to be discussed in subsequent essays of this Section 5.