Psychic and Psychological

Milarepa

Adept
In the periods of half-light at dawn and at dusk the everyday world becomes transformed into strange and fascinating shapes. Ugly things soften their outlines and sink into the background of subtle shades. Ordinary objects become invested with a new grace, and for a brief spell acquire certain transient qualities which fade once more into practical realities as morning breaks, or if darkness falls and blots them out.

Some people find the half-light either alluring or frightening and in either case are liable to lose their ordinary sense of proportion; while others accept these times as part of the day's cycle and think no more about them.

This is because these periods of between-lights have a strange affinity with the psychic world; and to those who are familiar with with psychic life there is nothing unnatural about this affinity, ant more than there is about the dawn and the dusk in the physical world.

What happens at this point?

Why should a half-light – a few moments of transition – be more puzzling than darkness in which one sees nothing or daylight when there is so much more to be seen?

It is because of a change from one phase to the next, values are being shifted. Certain physical characteristics are lost, color is replaced by black and grey, well-known outlines fade into the general mass of shadow, and new perspectives emerge as night takes command.

Yet these new and passing values are not merely products of the imagination but they are just as real as those of daylight. It is as if while the scene is being changed from day to night, one had a glimpse of another world behind the familiar stage.

This backstage world is in every way as valid as that immediately behind the floodlights. Those from whom the world of the theater holds no secrets know that the real life of it takes place out of sight of the crowd and that the play itself is only the outermost phenomenon of a large and complex scheme.

It is the same with the psychic background to physical and psychological life.

It is this hidden world we wish to discuss because its influence, though usually unrecognized, permeates the substance of daily life and experience. If at our present stage of evolving consciousness it remains unchanged, it seems to be the cause of problems as baffling and bewildering in their own way as those dealt with in the part of the psychological field which is concerned with studying and analyzing the psychic reactions to physical experience.

A psychic experience cause psychological reactions just as does a physical experience. It is axiomatic that the psychological reaction to a physical experience must be related to the physical object which has provoked it, before it can be properly understood.

Similarly the psychological reaction to a psychic experience must be related to its own origin before it can be assimilated. Psychology has explored a vast field from academic deserts to green lands of live human material, but there still exists the Gobi desert, virtually unexplored and uncharted concerning which books say nothing.

This is the field of the psychic or extra-sensory perceptions, considered not as an unusual phenomenon but as a constant part of daily life. The psychologist either steers his patient careful around it as if its a dangerous area or else deals with it, if he must, as something purely symbolic with no real existence. But even if he has an inkling of it as part of a real experience he is inclined to gloss over its importance. Such an attitude is clearly inadequate.

Many careful students have been led to the conclusion that a great deal of imaginary psychological material is not satisfactorily explained when looked on as subjective, fantastic, and therefore unreal.

It may be so, and the first line of analytical approach must always be to see whether the mental images of patients are not the product of their own minds.

We are accustomed to consider that mental images are always the result of personal thought, and no doubt this is mostly correct. Yet this is by no means always the case, for there is a class of material which, on analysis, is found not to emanate from the depths of the mind but to represent perception of non-physical things outside oneself.

It scarcely seems necessary to offer proof that such a thing as psychic perception exists. There are many excellent books on the subject and the reader is referred to them if he wishes to study the question for himself.. It is enough to say that many strict tests have been made which prove beyond a doubt, the possibility of a individual extending their senses further than the range ordinarily attributed to them.

People have apparently seen things happening at the other end of the world, or objects locked in opaque boxes; they have received messages and information from people miles away; they have described events in detail before they have occurred or seemingly likely to occur.

These and other recorded messages are so numerous and well attested that there can be little doubt about them. They seem to take place through some faculty beyond the ordinary physical senses, which makes the individual capable of perceiving objects and sounds out of the range of sight and hearing.

There is however no hard proof of this; no apparatus exists to prove this; only psychic experience and tradition.
 

Milarepa

Adept
There is less definitive proof of perception of another type of object, generally considered to be abstract. To perceive the thoughts and feelings of another person, for instance, is quite a different thing from seeing that person's physical body writing at his desk, even though he be half a continent away.

Nevertheless, though proof is rare, it is a commonplace experience, especially for people having close ties of affection, to be aware of one another's moods and thoughts, even though they may be out of reach of the physical senses.

Careful observations with give proof that this is so; not perhaps as strict a proof as the most skeptical scientist will ask for, but nevertheless sufficient for the open-minded investigator. Moreover, the lack of laboratory proof is probably more than made up by the universality of such perceptions.

In this case, it is not a matter of the perception of physical objects but of a different class of things, we term psychic. This does not mean however, that psychic objects are not material.

On the contrary, their behavior when perceived through the psychic sense suggests that they are material, albeit the matter of which they are made up is of a far more tenuous and finer kind than that which makes up the familiar physical world.

Only personal experience, tradition, and the testimony of psychic investigators can tells us anything about it.

If we preface our discussion with the saving phrase 'It looks as though......' and use the idea as a working hypothesis, it is not unreasonable or unscientific to assume that psychic phenomena in fact take place in matter of a particular kind which has properties of its own and is responsive to psychic and mental functions.

If we remember that thoughts and feelings reach us through space, and often across vast distances, it is logical to suggest they are probably carried in some suitable medium; other forms of radiation such as light and sound, need suitable matter to convey them from place to place; so why should not the same principle apply equally to thought and emotion?

Moreover, though psychic people differ on many points of detail, their observations all agree on main points and suggest that the psychic, as distinct from the physical world, has all the appearances and characteristics of being material.
 

Milarepa

Adept
Psychic objects then are seemingly material but when they are perceived by individuals though the general appearances are the same to the majority of psychics, these appearances vary greatly in their details. This immediately raises the question as to how much of the appearance of a psychic object belongs to the object itself and how much of it is due to the contents of the mind of the person perceiving it.

A correspondent in a rather flippantly worded letter sums the situation up so neatly that it is worth quoting as he wrote it:

“The apparently real form of the psychic fact perceived by the sensitive person may be contributed by that person and may therefore be subjective. An angel appears to Ms. Higgins and tells her that her son is this, that, or the other. Now some will take the line that it was a real angel because it appeared like an angel, it had white wings etc. Others will disbelieve for the same reason and say that Ms. Higgins contributed to the white wings. Whereas the truth would seem to be that Ms. Higgins contributed towards the white wings or that the visitant chose a garb that Ms. Higgins would recognize it for what it was and respond to it otherwise its visit would have been wasted. The angel was a psychic reality but did not necessarily have in eternity the form under which it appeared to Ms. Higgins.”

There are three possibilities:

a) That there are inhabitants of the non-physical worlds; that they alter their appearance at will; and that they have the intelligence to choose a suitable form to present themselves to those who see them.

b) That our conventional representations of these psychic entities are intuitive reproductions of their appearance.

c) That the percipient translates what he or she perceives into the form in which he is used to thinking of that particular kind of entity – fairy, angel, and such-like.

The third point is one which is certainly true We know very well that, where familiar physical objects are concerned, no two people ever perceive them exactly alike. Moreover, that if a leading question is asked such as; 'Was the lamp in the picture you are describing one the table or hanging from the ceiling?', most of the people who are trying to describe the picture will say that it was one place or another, whereas the rare individual who has observed the picture clearly may say, quite rightly, that there was no lamp shown in it at all.

The distortion increases when one is concerned with unfamiliar objects and the individual mind contributes a larger subjective proportion to his description of the object than when he is dealing with something he knows well.

In the psychic sphere not only is clear psychic perception still rare and unusual – so that the percipient is dealing with objects he is not used to seeing – but the actual process of perception is usually uncertain and imperfect.

These two factors easily account both for the discrepancies in the descriptions of psychic objects by clairvoyants and for the fact that they so often fit into a mould which convention has made habitual to the percipient.

Thus, if we allows ourselves to suppose that the psychic world contains a fauna and a population of its own – a fact which cannot be proved but which is suggested by masses of experience both among sophisticated and primitive people – we can be almost certain that what the psychic describes is not a photographic image of the creature he has seen.

If it is perception of an external and independent entity at all and not merely a figment of the imagination, he will have distorted the original sense-impression in his own mind if nowhere else. In addition to this, psychic forms appear to be mobile and if the entity is intelligent it may add an additional distorting factor by adapting itself to what is expected of it by the mental cast of the person to whom it shows itself.

Consequently, when it comes to a description of psychic objects and apparitions it is impossible to be dogmatic as to their form, even though one may fell oneself reasonably certain of their existence in any given case.
 

Milarepa

Adept
All of this may seem far-fetched but it is a matter which lends itself to research and experiment. In research it often becomes essential to make the assumption that the thing which is to be studied may exist; only then can one start looking for it. Nothing would be known abou the atom, the law of gravity, of the theory of relativity; if investigators had not had in their minds some such thought as 'I wonder whether the fact is.....?'

With this, one can examine an idea, collect data, and see whether it holds good or not. In other words, creative research can only be done with an open mind which is prepared to play lightly with a new idea for the purpose of finding out whether or not it is true.

To start with pure negation and to demand positive proof before even considering a theory is the surest way of preventing oneself from obtaining any proof. Briefly if one denies absolutely the possibility of a seam of coal existing under the ground of one's backyard and takes no steps to look and see; this is the sure way of never finding out whether or not it is there.

Thus, before asserting common psychic experience does not occur, one must, as a first step, assume that there may be such a thing.
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
Interesting observations, Milarepa. Do you have an artistic background? You descriptions of light sound like something an impressionist artist might say.
 

Milarepa

Adept
If one then decides to set to work and investigate the psychic matter it is useful to have someone who can suggest methods, ask pertinent questions, criticize intelligently, and in general give a lead. This applies to any branch of research but more especially to research about oneself ot one's possible capacities and abilities, since in this field it is so particularly difficult to be detached and unprejudiced.

In absence of a teacher, co-operative work with another person in the same line has a curious way of enhancing and stimulating one's own faculties; and even if that person is no more clear and objective than oneself it is still a help in checking one's research and experiments. Where neither has the psychic side of himself in focus only confused and inconclusive results are to be expected. The reasons for this are not far to seek.

Imagine two young children alone in the engineering section of a Museum; they would be completely at sea as to the meanings and purpose of such machines they saw for the first time; their speculations would be very strange and fantastic unless some adult with more expert knowledge came to the rescue.

It is in any case not an easy task to learn the technique of accurate observation. People need to be taught, not only how to look at a thing, but also what to look for. This needs long and arduous training, repeated experiments and above all, that one should not be deterred when one has made a mistake.
 

Milarepa

Adept
Interesting observations, Milarepa. Do you have an artistic background? You descriptions of light sound like something an impressionist artist might say.

I am but a simple man, these impressions are presented to me from spiritual experience.
 

Milarepa

Adept
The psychic view is that man has indeed a dense physical body in which psychological processes take place; but to the psychic the psyche also is objective; it exists as a body in space and not only as an abstraction without real existence. Since there are psychic senses corresponding to the physical, but functioning at non-physical or psychic levels; and since one is apt to confuse these two levels, it looks as if, in point of fact, man's mind or psyche is very much like the physical body; a body with organs and functions of its own kind.

Within this body, psychological processes occur just as physiological processes occur at the denser level. Moreover, the psyche appears to have its own channels of contact with the psychic world in which it inhabits. That is, it has sense-organs of its own.

This suggests also that there is a division between the psychic world outside and the inner psychological organism. Therefore, it appears as if the psychic, like the physical body, has a skin of its own with sense-organs in it which, like the physical skin, separates the individual form the external psychic world and connect him with it.
 

Milarepa

Adept
It is useful to define the words 'psychic' and 'physical'; the latter being the world of solids, liquids, and gases. The word 'psychic' and its derivatives are used to refer to the realm in which psychic and psychological, or mental, processes occur.

It would be well to add two more terms; 'cognition' and 'perception'. Cognition is becoming aware of a thing; this thing may be subjective – i.e. a mood of one's own or an imaginary pain – or may be of an object outside oneself: a color, a form, a sound. In the latter case it is called perception.

The psychologist who considers awareness of psychic things as subjective will therefore label it as subjective cognition. The psychic, on the other hand, considers awareness of another person's thought or of the atmosphere of a house, as becoming known to him through special sense-organs. To him such things are not only cognized but perceived, in much the same way as material objects.

That which cognizes can be called the 'I' or the Self and it remains in all cases as a spectator, no matter how much the circumstance change. It is by learning to recognize the 'I' as a constant factor in experience that we become aware of real relationship.

For the sake of clarity, psychic and physical perception have been defined as if each were separated from the next by a hard line of demarcation. In practice this is not so and there is considerable overlapping between the physical and psychic levels.

There is, as it were, a region of twilight between them, just as there is a period where day and night overlap and one fades into the other. Some people are at times very much aware of this half-way state, which they are conscious of using their ordinary physical senses but with something added which changes the values of their perceptive power. It is as though they stood between two worlds and were able to observe simultaneously two aspects of the same thing.
 

Milarepa

Adept
In the physical world we recognize the world outside as having its own life and existence. Rivers flow, the Sun rises and sets, the Wind blows, without reference to us. We can observe this world, register what it shows us and when we know how, we can produce changes in it by action.

The relationship between the physiological and the external physical world is so familiar that it need not be stressed. Considered from this angle the psychological world is seen as being our own property. It is a compound of personal feelings and memories; on the other hand, it is sequential, though the sequence may not be immediately obvious; and if we analyze deeply enough, every part is in some way linked with the rest by associations of thought and feeling, making up a whole – though not always a tidy well-shaped whole.

The psychic world, however, is like the physical in that what is observed in it is independent of us. It does not originate in our own history or memory, our likes or dislikes, but has a spontaneous life and activity of its own. Moreover, what we see of it may be, as often is, quite unrelated to ourselves. It is impersonal.

In the present stage of our development it appears erratic and ungovernable, but as we can observe the physical world through the physical senses so we can learn to observe the psychic world by using our psychic or extra-senses; and, if we learn how, we can also produce changes in it, just as we can produce changes in the material world. This is called magic; for real magic is but the active or willed aspect of psychic activity, just as our action in the physical world is the active side of physical functions.

The overlap between psychic and physical perception is particularly clear when one comes to study the nature of what is perceived by the psychic senses. Two main classes of objects perceived by them become evident:
  1. Physical objects seen in a way in which the physical senses cannot see them. Thus, it is possible to see an object enclosed in an opaque box, a stone in a kidney, to read and unopened letter, to see or hear things taking place at the other end of the world.

  2. Psychic objects, which do not exist concretely in the physical world; such things as the thoughts and emotions of other people, the past or future history of events in certain places and suchlike. These form a sub-division of this class, and they associate with physical occurrences or with human activity.
Another and more mysterious sud-division is that of psychic objects and beings which are not related to humanity or to physical objects at all, but which seem to persist per se in the psychic worlds as fish do in the sea. They appear to live their own life, and exist according to the laws of these worlds, just as other creatures live and exist in the physical world.
 

spacecase0

earth human
There is however no hard proof of this; no apparatus exists to prove this; only psychic experience and tradition.
hard proof use to be out there
don't for a moment underestimate how deep the control grid is
(I finally get why the digital world was pushed so hard)
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Even a really skilled psychic has his Achilles heel.

Indeed true, I think that as long as we are connected to the human form and human life here, each one of us and even the likes of Jesus and Buddha have an Achilles heel, a weakness, a point of vulnerability no matter how slight and unique to each individual too according to their essence...

Excellent thread here too, I've just begun to read it...

...
 

nivek

As Above So Below
hard proof use to be out there
don't for a moment underestimate how deep the control grid is
(I finally get why the digital world was pushed so hard)

There is still some proof, but difficult to find, especially if one is seeking without help...

It seems to me the digital world gave an excuse to wipe out many documents and sources of material they did not want to be out in public any longer...The material isn't destroyed but is in the wrong hands, at least more of it they cannot even comprehend themselves or we would be in serious trouble...

...
 

Milarepa

Adept
To continue:

In an ordinary way our dreams consists of figures and objects known to the physical senses; people, houses, places, and the like. But psychologists know that we unconsciously adapt and select things seen physically and build them into our dreams using them as symbols and giving them values which express certain situations and processes taking place within our own minds.

It is therefore logical to suggest that when the symbols are of a different order, the images of mythological animals and beings built into these dreams may be used like those of physical objects – material selected from things in an external world – in this case the psychic, not the physical world, used as symbols and given psychological values and meanings.

If this should not be so, it would be difficult to account both for the nature of the creatures imaged in the dream or vision, and for the universal similarity of these images among people of all races, all psychological types and of quite different experiences.

The real solution to the problem can however, only come as the psychic improves his or her technique and learns to use the powers of observation objectively. Most people are still at the stage where they do not know the frontiers of their own mind and where to draw the line between their own thoughts and ideas and those of others.

Still less can they be objective in determining what are the contents of this mind and what are the things outside of it and existing on their own account in the external psychic worlds. Only training and analysis can clarify the situation and this training in clear psychic perception must be linked with training in psychological technique – to know the world outside oneself one must know the world inside oneself.
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
Well...

Have reason the believe that what you are is independent of your body but anchored to it (most of the time) while you are alive.
 

Milarepa

Adept
The following story is one which illustrates clearly the objectivity of a purely psychic experience. It is one which, by its very nature, cannot be confused with psychological experience – i.e. processes taking place within the mind of the observer and having a meaning and value personal o himself or herself.

It is related by a friend who was a natural-born psychic and took psychic visits for granted, as part of his everyday life. It is a characteristic psychic episode because it has no relationship to any previous experience or to any desire of the percipient, and was as casual as if one were accosted by a stranger in the street.

The story:

“I was staying with friends and one night about 1 a.m. I was beginning to feel drowsy when I became aware of someone in the room. I knew it was not a person in a physical body but a very live and innocent 'ghost'. I had the impression he was blundering about because the room was strange. At first I was too drowsy to bother, but the blundering went on, until at last, in a fit of irritation I sat upright in the bed to see what was happening.”

“In the middle of the room stood a dark man, young and alert, dressed as an airman. I particularly noticed the way his hair grew, and various personal things about him, notably that he had only one arm, and the artificial arm ended in an old-fashioned hook. Then I said crisply and feeling rather cross; 'What do you want?'. In a quick, imperative voice he shouted out; 'Tell my wife....', then gave several clear business instructions and ended with saying; 'Tell her in am doing my damnedest for her and the kids'. Then in a flash he was gone.”

“I realized at once he was a complete stranger. I had no idea of his name, where he came from, nor anything about his wife; so I promptly lay down, consigned him to oblivion and went to sleep.”

“Next morning I told my hostess and completely forgot the whole incident. Three or four weeks later my telephone bell rang to summon me to go visit a stranger. As I sat talking to her my glance wondered about the room. With a huge surprise I saw on the mantelpiece a large head and shoulders photograph of the man I had seen in my room weeks prior. In this photograph he was dressed in ordinary clothes, but the likeness was indisputable. The artificial arm was not visible.”

“The woman I was with was pouring out a stream of rather hysterical talk, as man badly shocked people do, when I broke in; 'Forgive me, but I must take a risk in talking to you in an unconventional way. Have you by any chance, just lose your husband and did he die in an airplane crash?'. She immediately sat upright with a jerk and exclaimed; 'Yes!! But how did you know this, I did not tell you about him?'. I said to her; 'I did not know until I came into this room with you. Is this a good likeness of your husband?', pointing to the photograph in the mantelpiece.”

“Then in minute detail, I gave her a description of the husband, his voice, his curious manner of shooting out words like shots out of a gun, and ended with saying; 'There is one test which either puts this into court or throws it out completely'. Then I told here about the artificial arm. At that revelation she went deathly white in the face and said; 'That proves it. He lost his arm in the war but was such a keen airman that nothing could keep him out of the air, so a special machine was made in which h e could use an iron hook instead of a hand to fly'."

“I then gave her the business instructions related to me by her husband that night in my room and the end of his message, at which a look of relief came over her face and she replied; 'I have been worried to death about my finances and my children and the last part of his message is exactly what he would have said'. This story was that the man was engaged in flying and had crashed, leaving all his affairs in a muddle. It was obviously his job to try and do something about it which he did by using me as a sort of telephone to send a message to his wife.”

___

This experience I just related is unusual, First, because of its rather dramatic nature, and Second, because it was significant to a person other than the one who received the actual psychic experience. As a rule, these things are usually of no importance or value to anyone else but the person who experiences the psychic event. In this case however, the transmitter, having been consciously psychic his whole life, had taken the experience itself as an everyday thing and did not see anything unusual in it until he saw the photograph.

A Third point is that it appeared to anticipate certain events and arrangements which had not yet been considered. This is not unusual however, because some part of us does appear to be able to look ahead and around corners at any rate at times. There are too many precognitive experiences recorded to list but the example above is an unusually convincing one to illustrate what we mean when we say psychic – as distinct from psychological – experience is quite impersonal and detached from oneself.
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
The following story is one which illustrates clearly the objectivity of a purely psychic experience. It is one which, by its very nature, cannot be confused with psychological experience – i.e. processes taking place within the mind of the observer and having a meaning and value personal o himself or herself.

It is related by a friend who was a natural-born psychic and took psychic visits for granted, as part of his everyday life. It is a characteristic psychic episode because it has no relationship to any previous experience or to any desire of the percipient, and was as casual as if one were accosted by a stranger in the street.

The story:

“I was staying with friends and one night about 1 a.m. I was beginning to feel drowsy when I became aware of someone in the room. I knew it was not a person in a physical body but a very live and innocent 'ghost'. I had the impression he was blundering about because the room was strange. At first I was too drowsy to bother, but the blundering went on, until at last, in a fit of irritation I sat upright in the bed to see what was happening.”

“In the middle of the room stood a dark man, young and alert, dressed as an airman. I particularly noticed the way his hair grew, and various personal things about him, notably that he had only one arm, and the artificial arm ended in an old-fashioned hook. Then I said crisply and feeling rather cross; 'What do you want?'. In a quick, imperative voice he shouted out; 'Tell my wife....', then gave several clear business instructions and ended with saying; 'Tell her in am doing my damnedest for her and the kids'. Then in a flash he was gone.”

“I realized at once he was a complete stranger. I had no idea of his name, where he came from, nor anything about his wife; so I promptly lay down, consigned him to oblivion and went to sleep.”

“Next morning I told my hostess and completely forgot the whole incident. Three or four weeks later my telephone bell rang to summon me to go visit a stranger. As I sat talking to her my glance wondered about the room. With a huge surprise I saw on the mantelpiece a large head and shoulders photograph of the man I had seen in my room weeks prior. In this photograph he was dressed in ordinary clothes, but the likeness was indisputable. The artificial arm was not visible.”

“The woman I was with was pouring out a stream of rather hysterical talk, as man badly shocked people do, when I broke in; 'Forgive me, but I must take a risk in talking to you in an unconventional way. Have you by any chance, just lose your husband and did he die in an airplane crash?'. She immediately sat upright with a jerk and exclaimed; 'Yes!! But how did you know this, I did not tell you about him?'. I said to her; 'I did not know until I came into this room with you. Is this a good likeness of your husband?', pointing to the photograph in the mantelpiece.”

“Then in minute detail, I gave her a description of the husband, his voice, his curious manner of shooting out words like shots out of a gun, and ended with saying; 'There is one test which either puts this into court or throws it out completely'. Then I told here about the artificial arm. At that revelation she went deathly white in the face and said; 'That proves it. He lost his arm in the war but was such a keen airman that nothing could keep him out of the air, so a special machine was made in which h e could use an iron hook instead of a hand to fly'."

“I then gave her the business instructions related to me by her husband that night in my room and the end of his message, at which a look of relief came over her face and she replied; 'I have been worried to death about my finances and my children and the last part of his message is exactly what he would have said'. This story was that the man was engaged in flying and had crashed, leaving all his affairs in a muddle. It was obviously his job to try and do something about it which he did by using me as a sort of telephone to send a message to his wife.”

___

This experience I just related is unusual, First, because of its rather dramatic nature, and Second, because it was significant to a person other than the one who received the actual psychic experience. As a rule, these things are usually of no importance or value to anyone else but the person who experiences the psychic event. In this case however, the transmitter, having been consciously psychic his whole life, had taken the experience itself as an everyday thing and did not see anything unusual in it until he saw the photograph.

A Third point is that it appeared to anticipate certain events and arrangements which had not yet been considered. This is not unusual however, because some part of us does appear to be able to look ahead and around corners at any rate at times. There are too many precognitive experiences recorded to list but the example above is an unusually convincing one to illustrate what we mean when we say psychic – as distinct from psychological – experience is quite impersonal and detached from oneself.

The only problem with stories like this is they aren't explained by the conventional understanding of physics.
 
Top