Ingo Swann (10Jan96)
One of the earliest sources which refers to remote viewing --faculties--
is found in the Yoga teachings of ancient India, with echoes of
them throughout the Far East.
There are also elements to be found in most early pre-Modern cultures
in lower Africa, Egypt, Babylon, Scandinavia, among the Amerindians,
among the ancient traditions of the Bushmen of Australia, in early
Greece, among Siberian and Persian shamans, and among the Polynesian
Islanders, including Hawaii. Elements of remote viewing were also
found in early Europe before the Inquisitions of the Middle Ages.
And elements of remote viewing again emerged early in the eighteenth
through and into the twentieth centuries.
*
The hypothesis now to be considered is this: if the fundamentals
of remote viewing exist within the hard drive of our species'
Biomind then it is to be expected that elements of it WILL manifest.
Indeed, such elements have manifested in the past, in the present,
and will continue to do so into the indeterminate future. The
formats of the manifesting may be different, but the essential
nature of what does manifest is the same.
*
The terms used among these many older cultures are very many.
But in English the general concept can be adequately rendered
as "distant-seeing" --- a hyphenated term not too difficult
to deal with.
We need only combine "dynamic-awareness" (of) "distant-seeing"
to get the general drift of what is meant. For unless distant-
seeing is expressed via dynamic awareness, then its fundamentals
will remain latent and invisible within the hard drive of each
human specimen's Biomind.
The historical background for the existence of distant-seeing
is quite extensive. But in large part it has been bowdlerized
(or "bleeped") from conventional modern history texts
utilized by science and academe. Thus the general public is unaware
that distant-seeing possesses a vital and substantial history.
*
In most of the cultures the elements that equate to distant-seeing
were passed down through the generations by word of mouth -- not
in writing.
The ancient Yoga texts differ in this regard. For there is evidence
that the methods for developing distant-seeing were in some kind
of brief written form perhaps from about 2,000 BC or even earlier.
Who the peoples were, though, is in question --- excepting that
they probably were not the Hindus of historical times.
Those earlier texts are lost, however, but versions of them were
compiled, lost, and compiled anew from about the sixth century
BC. In those and later texts, distant-seeing is listed among the
numerous "Sidhis."
*
Here is a term that is very difficult to render into English.
It won't do to say that a "sidhi" is a psychic power
because the modern connotations of "psychic" are neither
appropriate nor exact enough.
The ancient Hindu Yoga texts that consider the sidhis are in Sanskrit.
This is an extremely elegant language and far surpasses the Western
romance languages and English in containing terms having to do
with faculties and functions of the mind. It often takes a long
English paragraph to give approximate English definition to a
single Sanskrit term.
Furthermore, most past efforts to translate into English the Sanskrit
Yoga texts range from incompetent, to awful, to useless. This
is probably not the direct fault of the translators, but due to
lack of frames of reference in the English language.
But two additional problems are that contemporary Sanskrit speakers
no longer comprehend what the sidhis are except in a general way.
English translators themselves have no real idea. So the English
translators select what appears to be the nearest English equivalent.
The "sidhis" thus are equated to psychic powers.
But there is a problem here, too, in that the term "psychic"
has never achieved a good or stable definition in English.
*
It has been important to the substantive and technical concepts
of remote viewing to reconstruct what may originally have been
meant by "sidhis," especially the one having to do with
distant-seeing. Such a reconstruction is summarized below.
I accept that the reconstruction may be argumentative for a number
of reasons --- one of which is that scholars tend to be an argumentative
lot to begin with. Whatever the sidhis were in the distant past,
they have since taken on legendary status. Scholars therefore
deal with them as legendary --- and not as direct participants
in the dynamic-awareness phenomena involved.
In what follows I am not at all saying that "controlled remote
viewing" as researched and developed at Stanford Research
Institute during the 1970s and early 1980s, is the exact same
as the distant-seeing sidhi of the Yoga texts. But the working
assumption can easily hold that similar mind- dynamic fundamentals
are involved in both the sidhi format and the contemporary remote
viewing format.
Both formats have one distinct attribute in common, however. It
is generally accepted among scholars that a sidhi was NOT merely
a spontaneous manifestation of a superpower of mind.
This is clear from the fact that such spontaneous manifestations
are separately mentioned in the Yoga texts. In other words, the
sidhis were not spontaneous forms of psi. The sidhis therefore
cannot be equated with the spontaneous and randomly present forms
of psi which have been the topics of modern psychical and parapsychological
research.
The evidence is very good that the sidhis were controlled AND
enhanced forms of what we would call psi, whose potentials are
universally present throughout our species.
In any event, we must distinguish between a POTENTIAL that can
emerge spontaneously or temporarily, and a developed ABILITY that
is under cognitive control. And it seems likely that the developers
of the sidhis did so as well.
It may be that the Yogins saw the potential for the superpowers
as an innate manifestation of the Biomind hard drive -- to which
I have already referred to in speculation.
But it is quite possible that the ancient Sanskrit- speaking people
saw the natural and spontaneous presence of superpowers of mind
as the BASIS to build upon and perfect into highly organized functioning.
When this building was accomplished, the result was called The
Sidhis --- i.e., the spontaneous superpower was brought into a
cognitive and controlled state.
*
The CONTROLLED format of remote viewing emerged from similar
considerations. If it were not for this I would probably hesitate
to connect controlled remote viewing to the ancient sidhi of distant-
seeing.
The following might be somewhat difficult to cope with, even though
I try to be as clear and succinct as possible.
*
In the ancient Yoga traditions, the functional basis of the
sidhis belonged to the human species and elements of them were
to be found in every human.
Whether or not the ancient Yogins distinguished between mind and
body becomes more uncertain the deeper one goes into the Yoga
materials. The strong modern distinction between body and mind
as separate and different things appears not to have extensively
existed until about 1850.
We can roughly speak of the sidhis as superpowers of mind-body
that extend beyond the local limits of the physical senses, but
which senses were VERY NUMEROUS in the ancient Yoga frames of
reference. So there is a danger here because the Yoga traditions
held that the PHYSICAL senses themselves, were, in fact, very
extensive IF they were honed and "perfected."
It is important to establish that the Yoga traditions did not
distinguish between physical, mental functioning and superpowers
in the way the modern West has done. How they did distinguish
these is not clear.
But the traditions emphasized unity of the whole rather than breaking
it apart into separate functions --- and which breaking apart
would have brought about imbalances within the whole.
In the Yoga traditions, these three categories were not, and SHOULD
NOT BE, separated and divided. All of them were integral parts
of the human organism which contained all them interdependently.
*
The modern concept that has long prevailed held that the Biomind
human organism possessed only five limited physical senses, and
that how much we perceive is constrained within their limits.
The question is now pertinent whether there are more than five
physical senses. To save time and space here, I now refer you
to "Deciphering the Senses: The Expanding World of Human
Perception" by Robert Rivlin and Karen Gravelle (Simon and
Schuster, 1984). This book reports on SEVENTEEN physical senses
identified by bio-neurologists during the 1970s. And the book's
last chapter considers "Extra-Sensory Perception" not
particularly as a paranormal or "psychic" thing, but
as extensions of the bio-body's very many sensory receptors.
*
The historical evidence is very good that the ancient Yogins
taught that the abundantly-more-than- five physical senses could,
by practice, be so perfected as to achieve many hundreds of highly
specialized senses.
The distinction between the perfected MANIFOLD physical senses
and the superpower sidhis is thus very narrow -- because a highly-developed
physical sense might indeed be a sidhi. All highly-skilled martial
arts persons will immediately understand what is meant here.
*
In the ancient Yoga traditions, the sidhis are part and parcel
of the whole human organism and its manifold senses that could
be honed and perfected. But if we consider that the Yogins taught
Biomind holism, it then becomes curious why they singled out the
sidhis for special discourse.
There are between seven and twenty sidhis depending on which source
is consulted, and distant- seeing is always one of them. Yet the
Sanskrit texts comment on certain clearly PHYSICAL senses that
can be perfected so as to function as "distant senses"
-- such as sensing magnetic directions. This we might think of
as a mind superpower but it was not considered a sidhi.
There may be several explanations why the ancient Yogins particularly
identified the sidhis from among the many other extended senses.
But one explanation is that the sidhis probably would not have
been specially commented upon and identified unless there was
an essential difference regarding them that needed to be comprehended.
*
Something now depends on what a "sidhi" is. This
is quite complex and opinions have certainly differed through
the ages, among scholars, and even among Yoga masters.
To the best of my understanding, a sidhi is not exactly a thing
in itself to start with. But, with honing and development, it
can later become a thing in itself.
You will need to read through the papers ahead having to do with
sensory transducers and mental information grids to more fully
comprehend this. After you do so, you can come back to this point
better prepared.
In essence, a sidhi is something that needs to be put together
within dynamic-awareness in order to take on discrete identity.
In other words, the basis for distant-seeing might exist within
our bio- mind hard drives --- and from which source it might function
spontaneously some of the time.
However, in such a "natural" state, it functions in
the absence of cognitive dynamic- awareness. In other words, it
functions (when it does) AUTOMATICALLY --- while the experiencer
usually does not cognitively know when, how, or why it does.
In this sense, it can be said that the hard drive superpower is
functioning automatically, but that cognitive control of it is
absent. Or we can say that the potential is spontaneously manifesting,
but that the organized ability to call it up and sustain it under
direct control of cognitive will has not been developed.
*
It seems that the "direct control of cognitive will"
was what the ancient Yogins may have meant in reference to the
"sidhis."
If this is the case, then a "sidhi" is different from
all our other extensive physical senses --- all of which come
equipped with physical receptors born with the human bio-body
and which are fully encoded in our human genetic pool.
*
My understanding, which was proven at least somewhat correct
in the case of remote viewing, is that a sidhi results from a
very highly specialized organization of powers of mind/body.
This organization includes extensive and direct awareness of biological
and mental functioning, including knowledge of what Freud and
others called the subconscious and the supraconsciousness.
To the Yogins, a human person was born with a bio- mind that possessed
potentials. But it was born in a raw state, and was a disorganized
mind until it could become properly organized.
I believe that "properly organized" can be equated quite
nicely with "mind software programming" which is defined
as "installed information grids."
It is quite clear regarding the sidhis that CORRECT self-aware
information grids are being talked about here --- information
grids which PERMIT the recognition and integration of the vast
spectrum of body-mind faculties innate in our species.
*
Clearly, the installation of correct "software information
grids" would "organize" the Biomind into highly
efficient thinking patterns --- while incorrect ones would result
in the opposite.
Indeed, the Yogins held, even in ancient times, that mind can
be installed with incorrect or false or fake information grids
--- that yielded "illusion." The presence of "illusion"
among humans is, at any rate, a very big concept in most Far Eastern
philosophies.
Accordingly, life lived within illusion information grids was
predictably confusing, painful and awful.
Indeed, the escape from illusion is a major theme in all ancient
Yoga. The "escape" apparently meant to escape from faulty
mental information grids that deprived their carriers of dynamic-awareness
of real REALITY, so to speak.
Furthermore, the Yogins taught that the sidhis COULD NOT be developed
and "perfected" in the presence of incorrect information
software grids --- even though, as they noted, rudiments of the
sidhis might occasionally flare up spontaneously.
*
But this brings up the question regarding from where the rudiments
occasionally flare up.
The Yogins appear to be talking --three-- things:
1. a naturally existing base drive for the human bio-body/mind;
2. the fact that incorrect and correct mind software programs
can be inserted into the naturally existing base drive; and
3. the difference between illusion and reality.
If all this is thought of in the technological computer metaphor,
it seems that the Yogins were actually talking about a bio-body/mind
born as a HARD DRIVE --- but into which correct or incorrect software
programs could be installed that were derived from experience,
learning, indoctrination or misinformation.
If we utilize the computer metaphor, we can add to it the metaphor
of a program "virus" whose introduction can demobilize
and erode or distort all of the mind's software programs including
the bio- mind hard drive. An incorrect thought out of keeping
with real Reality thus can act like a virus throughout the entire
Biomind systems.
*
Several different kinds of Yoga practice were evolved to correct
different kinds of illusion information grids - -- and to install
(or "awaken") those more in keeping with what we today
would call "innate human potentials."
There was a central motto that was variously subscribed to within
different Yoga philosophies and practices:
that the correct way of life was that Way which was in keeping
with non-illusion, and thus in keeping with self-discovered true
life principles not only of the human species, but of the universe.
To the ancient Yogins, or at least most of them, each human specimen
was innately a self- perfecting "unit" within whom existed
the basic framework or faculties for enormous powers of body and
mind.
These powers could be located, developed and enhanced if the mind
AND self-aware BODY could be properly formatted to do so by constructing
information grids of self-awareness of potentials.
This was a process referred to by different metaphors such as
"the Unfoldment of the Lotus" --- a flower growing out
of water (the subconscious) and unfolding in perfect form in cognitive
consciousness. Another popular metaphor, especially favored by
later Buddhists, referred to the "Perfecting the Diamond
Consciousness."
*
The sidhis appear to have been selected out for special note
because it seems that it required MORE of Biomind recombinant
elements to achieve them.
It is especially important to note that the sidhis were neither
separated from the physical senses, nor held to be exclusively
mental in nature.
Rather it seems that the sidhis were additional extensions of
the physical senses that required the integration of a very large
number of mental and physical faculties.
But the faculties would not work together very well unless selectively
and increasingly integrated by the cognitive mind of the human
self-perfecting "unit."
They also held that while some of the faculties might function
spontaneously, others of them needed to be deliberately integrated
so as to achieve higher-order and more spectacular performance.
In this sense, the sidhis appear NOT to consist of A SINGULAR
FACULTY NATURALLY EXISTING WITHIN THE BIO- BODY/MIND, but need
to be artificially engineered within consciousness by combining
a number of faculties within dynamic- awareness. And this is what
CONTROLLED REMOTE VIEWING also consists of.
If this was the case, then indeed the sidhis needed special mention
as contrasted to all our other naturally- existing faculties and
senses. For a great number of our sensory and bio-processes (including
our urges and drives) function automatically or autonomically.
But the sidhis had to be engineered into existence within cognitive
dynamic-awareness in order to take on "perfecting."
*
But WHAT was it that had to be artificially engineered within
cognitive Biomind consciousness to achieve, for example, the sidhi
of distant- seeing?
There is only ONE concept that fills the bill. It is very well-known
in the modern physical sciences and technology. But it has never
been applied to the human bio-body/mind.
It is the concept of the TRANSDUCER --- the topic of Part Three
of these mini-essays.
Rather than thinking of distant-seeing as a psychic aptitude,
it is more to the point to think of it as a correct series of
sensory transducers that permit the integration of Biomind hard
drive faculties that result in cognitively controlled distant-seeing.
Thus, distant-seeing it is not at first a thing in itself, but
can become one (a sidhi) AFTER the needed sensory transducers
are cognitively located and integrated.
When it became possible, during the mid-1970s, to lift remote
viewing up and out of its spontaneous "psychic" nature
and to tutor others in it with increasing SELF-PERFECTION - --
well, remote viewing, as a format of distant-seeing, indeed seemed
to equate to one of the sidhis of ancient India.
Controlled remote viewing (CRV) was achieved by the cognitive
integration of the needed sensory transducers that resulted in
the installing of the correct cognitive software program --- exactly
as the ancient Yogins had determined. It was then seen that while
spontaneous remote viewing is an "experiencing," CRV
is a form of "controlled and directed meditation."
*
The concept of SENSORY TRANSDUCERS will be the most difficult
concept in these essays. Although you might not agree with the
terminology I've selected for them, we can see people walking
around with their frames of reference, mental information grids
and mindsets.
It is also not difficult to apply the concept of transducers to
technological equipment, such as telephones, televisions and radar,
etc. All of these utilize transducers to convert one form or energy
or signal into another form.
But it is difficult to apply the concept of the transducer to
sensory stimuli and to mind-dynamic functions. Yet it can be shown
that practically every cell, neuron, or synapse in our Biomind
bodies is a sensory transducer of some kind.
(End)
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