Powers of the Mind | |||||
John and Anne Spencer | |||||
TV Books, 301 pages | |||||
A review by Thomas Myer
I also liked some of the brassy hypotheses for precognition/premonition. Instead of trying to
explain it, I'll elaborate with an example. The Titanic, the unsinkable ship, hits an iceberg
and goes to the bottom. Along with this catastrophe you have hundreds of deaths (among them some
very wealthy and powerful people) and also a slap in the face of modern man's arrogant assumptions
about their mastery over nature thanks to progress and technology.
This event sends a blast through our collective consciousness, leaving an indelible psychic impression
that somehow exists beyond the confines of time and space. In addition, the sinking of the Titanic
is, in the future (our present), discussed, thought about, becomes the subject of countless books and
movies; all of this activity adds to the psychic impression to such an extent that some people have
premonitions about the sinking before it occurs, because they are somehow able to tap into this
psychic impression caused by the sinking and which exists beyond the boundaries of linear time.
Throughout the book, the authors maintain that the human brain, and specifically, the right side of
the brain -- with its more intuitive nature -- is highly attuned to what is otherwise deemed
paranormal. For instance, in the case of mediums, they are either (a) using some part of their brain
to pick up telepathic signals about a client's deceased loved ones, (b) using a part of their brain
to contact some part of the mind/personality that somehow survives after death, or (c) just plain guessing.
Although there are plenty of charlatans for whom (c) above corresponds, the most likely candidate for
the authors is probably (a), as the authors do have some skepticism concerning the survival of
mind/personality beyond physical brain death (and I have to admit that I too share this view). Even
reincarnation and near-death experiences can be explained away as physiological events inside the
brain (you'll have to read the book to get the whole skinny).
What didn't I like about the book? Well, there's no index, which is a crime. With a well-crafted index,
this book would not only be a good read, but a good future resource. The bibliography, although long,
is not annotated, which would have required little effort for a big payoff.
Thomas Myer is a technical writer for Cisco Systems, Inc. He is currently taking classes in jeet kune do, which probably doesn't match up well with his vegan pacifistic lifestyle, but what the hey. |
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