1212. KRECHMAL, ARNOLD. FIREWALKERS OF GREECE.

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Approved For Release 2001/04/02 Cp~-F[P9C 0792R0007008600?2108217 1210. Warner, Lucien. Is "extra-sensory perception" extra- sensory? Journal of Psychology, 1939, 7, 71-77. -- The'reluctance of many scientists to accept the evidence submitted in support of "extra-sensory perception" arises from two distinct and unrelated causes. The first concerns the authenticity of the data themselves. The second relates to the interpretation which is currently placed upon these data. It is within the realm of possibility that the evidence may prove to be genuine, even though an extra-sensory interpretation is eventually abandoned as unsuitable. A person may occasionally respond to a stimulus which does not affect sensory end organs in a way now understood. In fact, it is highly probable that this is true. It is far less probable that a person can react to a stimulus without the mediation of a sensory process. Unless redefinition of these terms is permitted, this appears logically impossible. In any case, the evidence for the existence of phenomena now grouped under the heading of ESP, is far more weighty than the argument that these phenomena are not sensory in nature. - DA IV. ARTICLES ON PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN GENERAL INTEREST MAGAZINES 1211. A conversation with Keith Harary: "Almost everyone has psychic abilities." U.S. News and World Report, 1984 (May 7), 96(18), 73. 3 illus. Harary gives his views of the nature of psychic functioning, and describes the basic procedure involved in remote viewing. He also touches briefly on U.S. and Soviet government interest, research at SRI International, and military implications of psi. - R.A.W. 127a 7,'A ~`--Travel, 1957 rechm 1, rnold. Firewalkers of G reece. (Oct), 108, 46-47. 4 illus. - While in Greece as a Fulbright professor, the author heard of a village in Northern Macedonia, Langedah, where firewalking was still practiced in a three-day ceremony in the spring. After some difficulty with the authorities, he managed to gain entrance. He reports on his observations, including several pictures he took. Some people, in a trance-like state, were able to walk barefoot on the hot coals, which the author tested periodically, finding them unbearably hot. - R.A.W. 1213. Lang, Andrew. Psychical research. Harper's, 1905 (Nov), 109(654), 878-882. 1 ref. - Psychical research is a more sophisti- cated field than the public might think. It is more involved than merely collecting and swapping ghost stories. The study of psychical phenomena actually reaches back to anthropology, as primitive people refer to psychic phenomena and other expressions of the psyche. Modern psychical research, however, began with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882. The main problem today is in sifting the genuine phenomena from spurious psychological events which can mimic them. Current research is being devoted to the study of thought-transference, mediumship, and apparitions - which in themselves might be expressions of telepathy. Proof of life after death has not thus far been demon- strated. - D.S.R. 1214. Truzzi, Marcello. China's psychic savants. Omni, 1985 (Jan), 63-64, 66, 78-79. 1 illus. - Quite detailed account of exceptional human functions in China, such as seeing with the ear or the armpit, beginning with the story of the 11-year-old Tang Yu, the first of the many so-called psychic children of China to receive public attention. Truzzi describes the reception of these children, officially and by Chinese researchers. A first-hand account is provided of his visit with a group of parapsychologists who went to China to study the children. They were not able to do so under good conditions. Those they did observe were unable to demon- strate the phenomena. Although the Chinese research is sanctioned Jy the government, more recently the Communist Party has ordered that the research be done quietly. - R.A.W. Summary of recent evidence for psi. The author discusses the problem of repeatability and the experimenter effect in parapsy- chology. He emphasizes remote viewing and the majority vote technique and other methods of psychic consensus, illustrated by the psychic archaeological work of Stephan Schwartz and the Moebius Group in Alexandria, Egypt. The problem of funding, including government funding, is discussed. In closing, he deals with the critics, singling out John Wheeler and the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, empha- sizing the positive effects criticisms have had on the field. - R.A.W. V. CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS 1216. Warcollier, Rene. A new test for studying the psi-missing problem in ESP. In Proceedings of the First International Conference of Parapsychological Studies. New York: Parapsy- chology Foundation, 1955, 112-113. - Psi-missing appears not to be an exclusively parapsychological phenomenon, but seems also to be psychological, physiological, and even physical. Low scores reached with Zener cards may often result from preferences or aversions felt by the subjects towards one or more of the figures. To eliminate emotional content from images, we have created a test constituted of a series of similar but slightly varying figures. All are visible to the subject constantly, in heterogeneous sequence. He does not realize exactly which of them he crosses out, so that the process remains unconscious. One stimulus is used, as compared with five in the Zener cards. This test is intended to determine whether ESP is an accumulative process, whether repetition of the same stimulus in eight lines manifests itself by an accumulation of hits at the end of the test. The subjects are told only that they will be taking a psychological test. The stimuli of this "crossing" test, although apparently similar, are evidently not so to the unconscious or subconscious, which is affected by the rest of the figure. Use of a single symbol seems to exclude pre- and post-cognition, since there is no accumulation of hits at the beginning or end of the test, but quite the contrary. Not informing the subjects that they are being examined for ESP, however, is unfavorable, because directing the subject's thoughts toward the stimulus or the agent is an indispensable condition. And the ease and speed with which group trials can be made fails to demonstrate "polypsychism." Consciousness can undoubtedly prevent the working of sub- conscious activities, including the supernormal. Gardner Murphy has rightly observed that it is in dreams, hypnosis, and automatism that the paranormal appears because normal inhibitive functions have disappeared. In certain intermediate states, however, the subconscious opposes conscious activities, and may oppose the supernormal. Yet in certain passive moods the separation between the conscious and unconscious states is not clear-cut. This may lead to a mingling of introspective effort and imaginative projection. Subtle fluctuations in states of consciousness between waking and waking-sleep are sufficient to influence ESP favorably or un- favorably. - DT/ R.A.W. 1217. Walther, Gerda. A plea for the introduction of Edmund Husserl's phenomenological methods into parapsychology. In Proceedings of the First International Conference of Parapsy- chological Studies. New York: Parapsychology Foundation, 1955, 114-115. - Phenomenology was developed by Edmund Husserl and is essentially a gnoseological method characterized by two fundamental steps: (1) the so-called eidetic reduction; and (2) the phenomenological reduction. By the eidetic reduction everything is reduced to its essential, irreducible content, quite independent of its genesis in the outer world, its existence, etc., e.g., Tyrrell's classical analysis of apparitions or H.H. Price's "Idea of Another World." According to Husserl, by this method we can establish many kinds of so-called regional ontologies, containing the fundaments of all kinds of sciences. 1215. Vaughan, Alan. Toward a technology of psi. Analog In the phenomenological reduction, every "object" in the widest of th reduced science Fiction/scignpeproved For~F elease 2001/04/02 : CIAe word 00792R000700860001 6 ess,