Difference between revisions of "Clairvoyance" - New World Encyclopedia
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
| − | In [[parapsychology]], '''clairvoyance''' (meaning "clear-seeing") denotes a form of [[extra-sensory perception]] in which a knowledge about a contemporary object, situation, or event is | + | In [[parapsychology]], '''clairvoyance''' (meaning "clear-seeing") denotes a form of [[extra-sensory perception]] in which a knowledge about a contemporary object, situation, or event is acquired by [[paranormal]] means. Clairvoyance is different from [[telepathy]] in that the information gained by a clairvoyant is assumed to derive directly from an external physical source, and not from another person's mind.<ref>http://parapsych.org/glossary_a_d.html Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved April 16, 2007</ref> The term "clairvoyance" is often used as a blanket term, incorporating concepts like [[second sight]], retrocognition, and [[precognition]], as well as prophetic visions and dreams. Colloquially, the term has also been used to refer to [[fortune tellers]]. In more scientific arenas, the ability to clairvoyantly see an object from a distance is known as [[remote viewing]]. |
As with all [[psi]] phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences as to the existence of clairvoyance and the validity and interpretation of clairvoyance-related experiments. | As with all [[psi]] phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences as to the existence of clairvoyance and the validity and interpretation of clairvoyance-related experiments. | ||
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
From the 1930's through the 1950's, a parapsychologist named [[J. B. Rhine]] conducted some of the most well known experiments in the history of clairvoyance, many of which made use of [[Zener cards]]. Rhine determined that differentiating clairvoyant phenomena from telepathic phenomena was difficult, if not impossible, and that both may be different manifestations of a single psychic function.<ref>[http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/t/telepathy.html "Telepathy"] The Mystica. Retrieved April 20, 2007.</ref> | From the 1930's through the 1950's, a parapsychologist named [[J. B. Rhine]] conducted some of the most well known experiments in the history of clairvoyance, many of which made use of [[Zener cards]]. Rhine determined that differentiating clairvoyant phenomena from telepathic phenomena was difficult, if not impossible, and that both may be different manifestations of a single psychic function.<ref>[http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/t/telepathy.html "Telepathy"] The Mystica. Retrieved April 20, 2007.</ref> | ||
| − | Another well known study of clairvoyance was the US government-funded [[remote viewing]] project | + | Another well known study of clairvoyance was the US government-funded [[remote viewing]] project during the 1970s through the mid-1990s, where clairvoyance was investigated as a means of acquiring covert knowledge about enemy operations. |
==Types of Clairvoyance== | ==Types of Clairvoyance== | ||
| − | Clairvoyance is often broken into three main | + | Clairvoyance is often broken into three main categories: [[precognition]], retrocognition, and spontaneous clairvoyance. Spontaneous clairvoyance refers to the ability to see an event while it occurs, no matter how far away it may be. Precognition refers to the ability to view events before they happen, and post/retro-cognition refers to clairvoyance of past events.<ref>Stokes, Shelly. [http://www.globalpsychics.com/enlightening-you/metaphysics/being-psychic/clairvoyance.shtml "On Being Psychic: Clairvoyance"] Global Psychics Inc. Retrieved April 17, 2007.</ref> |
| − | Within these | + | Within these categories, additional terms are often employed. For example, "clairsentience" refers to information clairvoyantly obtained primarily by means of feeling.<ref>http://parapsych.org/historical_terms.html Parapsychological Association historical terms glossary, retrieved April 17, 2007</ref> With "clairaudience", information is acquired through [[paranormal]] auditory means. This may include both "impressions of sound", or thoughts of words and phrases, as well as actual perceptions of sounds that are not apparent to others or any recording equipment. Clairaudience may be positively distinguished from the voices heard by the mentally ill by the revelation of information otherwise unavailable to the clairaudient person through normal means (including [[cold reading]]). Other terms, such as "clairalience" (psychic knowledge obtained through the sense of smell), and "clairgustance" (knowledge obtained through the sense of taste) are less commonly used. |
== Scientific Investigation== | == Scientific Investigation== | ||
| − | As with most other psi phenomena, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the scientific investigation of clairvoyance. Parapsychologists claim that numerous studies have produced favorable results significantly above chance | + | As with most other psi phenomena, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the scientific investigation of clairvoyance. Parapsychologists claim that numerous studies have produced favorable results significantly above chance. Critics, on the other hand, call [[parapsychology]] a "pseudo-science", and claim that experimental protocol is often flawed, statistics are not handled properly, and that any result that differs from the expected value of chance does not necessarily prove anything more than a chance deviation. |
| − | Clairvoyance was studied by parapsychologist Rhine using both Zener cards and [[ganzfeld experiments]]. | + | Clairvoyance was studied by parapsychologist Rhine using both [[Zener cards]] and [[ganzfeld experiments]]. To test clairvoyance using Zener cards, Rhine would have the subject attempt to guess which of five designs each card was as the cards were laid face down. Whereas chance would dictate that only five guesses out of twenty five would be correct, many subjects consistently scored seven, eight, or nine correct out of twenty five.<ref>Farrar and Rinchart. October 4, 1937. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,931659,00.html "Rhine Question"] Time Magazine. Retrieved April 23, 2007.</ref> |
| + | Many other parapsychological studies also claim to have produced results that were significantly above chance, and [[meta-analysis]] has often vastly increased the significance of such studies. For instance, at the Stanford Research Institute, 154 remote viewing experiments undertaken between 1973 and 1988 were analyzed by Edwin May and his colleagues in 1988, and the odds against the results being due to chance were more than a billion billion to one.<ref>Radin, Dean ''The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena'' pp91-109. Harper Edge, 1997. ISBN 0-06-251502-0</ref> | ||
| − | Parapsychologists claim to have discovered some interesting attributes of clairvoyance. Remote viewing experiments, for example, indicate that "right-hemispheric" functions, such as discerning shape, color, form, or texture are easier to do clairvoyantly than "left-hemispheric" functions, like reading words or numbers.<ref>[http://library.thinkquest.org/C0120993/clairvoyancefull.html "Clairvoyance"] Thinkquest. Retrieved April 20, 2007.</ref> | + | Parapsychologists also claim to have discovered some interesting attributes of clairvoyance. Remote viewing experiments, for example, indicate that "right-hemispheric" functions, such as discerning shape, color, form, or texture are easier to do clairvoyantly than "left-hemispheric" functions, like reading words or numbers.<ref>[http://library.thinkquest.org/C0120993/clairvoyancefull.html "Clairvoyance"] Thinkquest. Retrieved April 20, 2007.</ref> |
| + | ==Remote Viewing in the Military== | ||
| + | Around 1970, the [[CIA]] began to get concerned about the amount of research the Soviets were doing in paranormal subject areas. Concerns about the potential success of Soviet research prompted the United States to launch a series of programs themselves. The initial program, named "SCANATE" (scan by coordinate) was first funded in 1970 to research remote viewing. (Remote viewing is the ability to clairvoyantly observe a remote location.) Testing was limited to just a few promising individuals, who were taught to use their talents for "psychic warfare". Proponents claim that, particularly in the later stages of the training, the accuracy of remote viewing exceeded 65%.<ref>[http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/stargate.htm "Stargate"] FAS Intelligence Resource Program. Retrieved April 23, 2007.</ref> | ||
| + | Later codenames for the remote viewing program included "GONDOLA WISH", "SUN STREAK", "CENTER LANE", "GRILL FLAME", and "[[STAR GATE]]", which carried out hundreds of remote viewing experiments. Three main techniques for acquiring information were used: Coordinate Remote Viewing, where subjects were asked what they "saw" at designated locations, Extended Remote Viewing, which used a combination of relaxation and meditation, and Written Remote Viewing, which combined [[channeling]] and [[automatic writing]]. This last method was the most controversial and often regarded as the least reliable. Remote viewers have allegedly located lost aircraft, reported information on enemy submarine specs, and located [[SCUD missiles]].<ref>[http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/stargate.htm "Stargate"] FAS Intelligence Resource Program. Retrieved April 23, 2007.</ref> | ||
| − | + | In 1995, the CIA commissioned a report from two experts to evaluate the past performance of the STARGATE program. Various techniques used by the program were evaluated, such as the [[ganzfeld]] method and the "beacon and viewer" method, where the subject (viewer) consciously tried to retrieve images sent by an operative (beacon) who would travel to a location or look at a picture in [[National Geographic]]. One of the commissioned experts, Dr. Jessica Utts, a Professor of Statistics, found that such tests proved remote viewing to be a real and measurable phenomenon. The other expert, Dr. Raymond Hyman, a Professor of Psychology, asserted that Star Gate has proven nothing, and that deviations from a chance baseline do not constitute proof. Hyman also claimed that numbers can be shifted around to easily support a number of viewpoints. However, Hyman agreed that testing methods were sound, and that findings are promising enough to merit continued research.<ref>Trull, D.. 1998. [http://web.archive.org/web/20060501072612/http:/www.parascope.com/en/articles/starGate.htm "Operation Star Gate: U.S. Intelligence and Psychic Spies"] ParaScope. Retrieved April 23, 2007.</ref> | |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | </ | ||
| − | |||
== Developing clairvoyant abilities == | == Developing clairvoyant abilities == | ||
| − | + | One theory among proponents of clairvoyance posits that most people are born with clairvoyant abilities but then start to sublimate them as their childhood training compels them to adhere to acceptable social norms. Numerous institutes offer training courses that attempt to revive the clairvoyant abilities present in those early years. | |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | + | Another school of thought claims that our "sixth sense" grows when we do spiritual practice. With regular spiritual practice done according to basic spiritual principles, it is thought that one can raise his/her [[spiritual level]], and gain abilities such as clairvoyance. | |
| − | + | According to many Taoist- and Buddhist-related practices, abilities such as clairvoyance and many other 'supernormal' abilities are by-products of spiritual awakening and the elevation of human consciousness. Integral to spiritual and mind expansion is breathing meditation. The vast majority of people only normally use one-third of their brains and one-third of their lungs. In Taoist and Buddhist thought this is not a coincidence. By expanding lung capacity and learning to use the lungs as a 'bellows' to push qi (Chinese: meaning "air") around the body and open the energy channels, one naturally expands the mind and elevate consciousness. So called "paranormal" abilities are believed to be latent abilities that everyone possesses but need 'waking up.' Devout practicioners such as Nei Gong, Qi Gong, and yoga are said to achieve clairvoyance, as well as other abilities like [[telepathy]] and [[psychokinesis]]. In some schools of thought, such abilities are sometimes considered distractions from the true path of Enlightenment and can lead to the practitioner falling off the true path. | |
Revision as of 17:52, 23 April 2007
In parapsychology, clairvoyance (meaning "clear-seeing") denotes a form of extra-sensory perception in which a knowledge about a contemporary object, situation, or event is acquired by paranormal means. Clairvoyance is different from telepathy in that the information gained by a clairvoyant is assumed to derive directly from an external physical source, and not from another person's mind.[1] The term "clairvoyance" is often used as a blanket term, incorporating concepts like second sight, retrocognition, and precognition, as well as prophetic visions and dreams. Colloquially, the term has also been used to refer to fortune tellers. In more scientific arenas, the ability to clairvoyantly see an object from a distance is known as remote viewing.
As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences as to the existence of clairvoyance and the validity and interpretation of clairvoyance-related experiments.
The History of Clairvoyance
Most cultures throughout history have anecdotal reports of clairvoyance and claims of clairvoyant abilities. Often clairvoyance has been associated with religious or shamanic figures, offices, and practices. For example, ancient Hindu religious texts list clairvoyance as part of one of the siddhis, or skills that can be acquired through appropriate meditation and personal discipline. Additionally, a large number of anecdotal accounts of clairvoyance are of the spontaneous variety among the general populace. For example, many people report seeing a loved one who has recently died before they have learned by other means that their loved one is deceased. While anecdotal accounts do not provide scientific proof of clairvoyance, such common experiences continue to motivate research into such phenomenon.
Clairvoyance was one of the phenomena reportedly observed in the behavior of subjects put into a trance state by the Marquis de Puységur, a follower of Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer believed that forces he called "animal magnetism" could be manipulated to heal illness. In the 1780's, Puységur discovered a state he termed "experimental somnambulism" (later termed "hypnosis") in peasants that he had attempted to "magnetize". While in this state, patients demonstrated telepathic abilities, vision with the fingertips, and clairvoyance.[2] It should be noted that the early magnetists believed that the telepathy and clairvoyance demonstrated by the entranced subjects had a physiological cause, and were not paranormal in nature.[3]
Clairvoyance was a reported ability of many mediums during the spiritualist period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was one of several phenomena intensively studied by parapsychologists. The first scientific investigation of clairvoyance is often attributed to Britain's Society for Psychical Research (SPR)
From the 1930's through the 1950's, a parapsychologist named J. B. Rhine conducted some of the most well known experiments in the history of clairvoyance, many of which made use of Zener cards. Rhine determined that differentiating clairvoyant phenomena from telepathic phenomena was difficult, if not impossible, and that both may be different manifestations of a single psychic function.[4]
Another well known study of clairvoyance was the US government-funded remote viewing project during the 1970s through the mid-1990s, where clairvoyance was investigated as a means of acquiring covert knowledge about enemy operations.
Types of Clairvoyance
Clairvoyance is often broken into three main categories: precognition, retrocognition, and spontaneous clairvoyance. Spontaneous clairvoyance refers to the ability to see an event while it occurs, no matter how far away it may be. Precognition refers to the ability to view events before they happen, and post/retro-cognition refers to clairvoyance of past events.[5]
Within these categories, additional terms are often employed. For example, "clairsentience" refers to information clairvoyantly obtained primarily by means of feeling.[6] With "clairaudience", information is acquired through paranormal auditory means. This may include both "impressions of sound", or thoughts of words and phrases, as well as actual perceptions of sounds that are not apparent to others or any recording equipment. Clairaudience may be positively distinguished from the voices heard by the mentally ill by the revelation of information otherwise unavailable to the clairaudient person through normal means (including cold reading). Other terms, such as "clairalience" (psychic knowledge obtained through the sense of smell), and "clairgustance" (knowledge obtained through the sense of taste) are less commonly used.
Scientific Investigation
As with most other psi phenomena, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the scientific investigation of clairvoyance. Parapsychologists claim that numerous studies have produced favorable results significantly above chance. Critics, on the other hand, call parapsychology a "pseudo-science", and claim that experimental protocol is often flawed, statistics are not handled properly, and that any result that differs from the expected value of chance does not necessarily prove anything more than a chance deviation.
Clairvoyance was studied by parapsychologist Rhine using both Zener cards and ganzfeld experiments. To test clairvoyance using Zener cards, Rhine would have the subject attempt to guess which of five designs each card was as the cards were laid face down. Whereas chance would dictate that only five guesses out of twenty five would be correct, many subjects consistently scored seven, eight, or nine correct out of twenty five.[7]
Many other parapsychological studies also claim to have produced results that were significantly above chance, and meta-analysis has often vastly increased the significance of such studies. For instance, at the Stanford Research Institute, 154 remote viewing experiments undertaken between 1973 and 1988 were analyzed by Edwin May and his colleagues in 1988, and the odds against the results being due to chance were more than a billion billion to one.[8]
Parapsychologists also claim to have discovered some interesting attributes of clairvoyance. Remote viewing experiments, for example, indicate that "right-hemispheric" functions, such as discerning shape, color, form, or texture are easier to do clairvoyantly than "left-hemispheric" functions, like reading words or numbers.[9]
Remote Viewing in the Military
Around 1970, the CIA began to get concerned about the amount of research the Soviets were doing in paranormal subject areas. Concerns about the potential success of Soviet research prompted the United States to launch a series of programs themselves. The initial program, named "SCANATE" (scan by coordinate) was first funded in 1970 to research remote viewing. (Remote viewing is the ability to clairvoyantly observe a remote location.) Testing was limited to just a few promising individuals, who were taught to use their talents for "psychic warfare". Proponents claim that, particularly in the later stages of the training, the accuracy of remote viewing exceeded 65%.[10]
Later codenames for the remote viewing program included "GONDOLA WISH", "SUN STREAK", "CENTER LANE", "GRILL FLAME", and "STAR GATE", which carried out hundreds of remote viewing experiments. Three main techniques for acquiring information were used: Coordinate Remote Viewing, where subjects were asked what they "saw" at designated locations, Extended Remote Viewing, which used a combination of relaxation and meditation, and Written Remote Viewing, which combined channeling and automatic writing. This last method was the most controversial and often regarded as the least reliable. Remote viewers have allegedly located lost aircraft, reported information on enemy submarine specs, and located SCUD missiles.[11]
In 1995, the CIA commissioned a report from two experts to evaluate the past performance of the STARGATE program. Various techniques used by the program were evaluated, such as the ganzfeld method and the "beacon and viewer" method, where the subject (viewer) consciously tried to retrieve images sent by an operative (beacon) who would travel to a location or look at a picture in National Geographic. One of the commissioned experts, Dr. Jessica Utts, a Professor of Statistics, found that such tests proved remote viewing to be a real and measurable phenomenon. The other expert, Dr. Raymond Hyman, a Professor of Psychology, asserted that Star Gate has proven nothing, and that deviations from a chance baseline do not constitute proof. Hyman also claimed that numbers can be shifted around to easily support a number of viewpoints. However, Hyman agreed that testing methods were sound, and that findings are promising enough to merit continued research.[12]
Developing clairvoyant abilities
One theory among proponents of clairvoyance posits that most people are born with clairvoyant abilities but then start to sublimate them as their childhood training compels them to adhere to acceptable social norms. Numerous institutes offer training courses that attempt to revive the clairvoyant abilities present in those early years.
Another school of thought claims that our "sixth sense" grows when we do spiritual practice. With regular spiritual practice done according to basic spiritual principles, it is thought that one can raise his/her spiritual level, and gain abilities such as clairvoyance.
According to many Taoist- and Buddhist-related practices, abilities such as clairvoyance and many other 'supernormal' abilities are by-products of spiritual awakening and the elevation of human consciousness. Integral to spiritual and mind expansion is breathing meditation. The vast majority of people only normally use one-third of their brains and one-third of their lungs. In Taoist and Buddhist thought this is not a coincidence. By expanding lung capacity and learning to use the lungs as a 'bellows' to push qi (Chinese: meaning "air") around the body and open the energy channels, one naturally expands the mind and elevate consciousness. So called "paranormal" abilities are believed to be latent abilities that everyone possesses but need 'waking up.' Devout practicioners such as Nei Gong, Qi Gong, and yoga are said to achieve clairvoyance, as well as other abilities like telepathy and psychokinesis. In some schools of thought, such abilities are sometimes considered distractions from the true path of Enlightenment and can lead to the practitioner falling off the true path.
Notes
- ↑ http://parapsych.org/glossary_a_d.html Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved April 16, 2007
- ↑ Saraiva, Luiz. June 1998. [http://www.geae.inf.br/en/boletins/sm008.html "Bibliography of Scientific Research on the Spirit Phenomena" GEAE. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
- ↑ "Mesmerism" The Mystic. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
- ↑ "Telepathy" The Mystica. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
- ↑ Stokes, Shelly. "On Being Psychic: Clairvoyance" Global Psychics Inc. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
- ↑ http://parapsych.org/historical_terms.html Parapsychological Association historical terms glossary, retrieved April 17, 2007
- ↑ Farrar and Rinchart. October 4, 1937. "Rhine Question" Time Magazine. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ↑ Radin, Dean The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena pp91-109. Harper Edge, 1997. ISBN 0-06-251502-0
- ↑ "Clairvoyance" Thinkquest. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
- ↑ "Stargate" FAS Intelligence Resource Program. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ↑ "Stargate" FAS Intelligence Resource Program. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ↑ Trull, D.. 1998. "Operation Star Gate: U.S. Intelligence and Psychic Spies" ParaScope. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- "What is Sixth Sense" by Spiritual Science Research Foundation
- "Is there ESP" by David G. Myers
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
