What is Extrasensory Perception (ESP)?

Humans have been dealing with consciousness since time immemorial.  Each tribe had a strategy to deal with the forces of nature.  Witchcraft is in vogue in almost every culture.  Mysteries have astounded everyone and the more answers are found the more questions surface.

Sensation

Let us first understand the process of sensation.  According to the traditional approach in science, the only way we come across the world around us is through our senses.  When we consider the lower organisms we find that they can interact with the environment – sense danger, food, water, etc. – only through their senses though finite development of the sense organs has not happened in them.

How do we know about the environment around us?  All sensory processes involve transduction, which refers to the translation of one form of energy into another.  For example, light is converted into neural energy.  This is possible due to the receptors that convert stimuli from the environment into generator potentials, which in turn produce neural impulses.

Several types of receptors are present in the nervous system depending upon the situation we are referring to.  We see, hear, touch, and feel cold or warmth, smell, taste, feel pain, maintain balance, and move about because of sensations reaching our brains and being decoded in terms of the corresponding sensory experience.

The receptors are classified as chemoreceptors (responding to chemical stimuli), mechanoreceptors (responding to mechanical stimulation), and photoreceptors (responding to light energy).  While neurons are activated by neurotransmitters, the receptors are specialized cells that are triggered by stimuli, which could be external or internal.  External stimuli are light, sound, odors, taste, pressure, and changes in temperature.  Internal stimuli occur within the body and they include stretching of muscles and tendons and chemicals present in the blood.

The brain is localized for sensory experience.  There are specific areas in the brain known as visual area, auditory area, and somatosensory area.  It is not only important that the environmental stimuli are converted into neural information but also crucial that such neural information travels to the specific area of the brain where the sensory experience takes place.

Experiments in psychophysics have shown that there is a considerable difference between the physical continuum and the psychological continuum.  What we sense is exactly not what is there in the environment.

Perception

These sensory experiences are once again interpreted into perception.  We perceive based on several Laws of Organization.  Gestalt psychologists provided a clear understanding of the way we tend to learn to organize the parts into a whole, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  A study of illusions has given us an understanding that not all is well with what we perceive.  Our perceptions are very different from what is there in the environment and are completely dependent on the way we learn to perceive.

Thus, we need to sense and perceive the world around us to enable survival.  However, the question arises as to whether we can perceive everything around us to survive.  The answer is no.  Let us consider an example of driving a two-wheeler in a city.  Do we always perceive a vehicle that is about to cross the road at a tremendous speed in front of us?  We are walking on a busy road and suddenly we jump aside to find out that we are exactly on the path of a moving vehicle.

How did we know?  This cannot be brushed aside as reflex action because reflexes require stimulation.  What stimulated us to suddenly apply the brake or move aside?  Suppose we are lost in a deep jungle!  Are we able to come unscathed out of the jungle depending merely on our sensation and perception?

Probably not!

If all perceptions were to have sensation as the basis, then how do we perceive dreams?  Which sense organ is stimulated during dreams?  What about abnormal perceptions like hallucinations, where the object is absent but the perception is quite vivid?  A major hit on the head results in us seeing stars and where did the stars come from?

What can we say about some of the experiences known as synesthesia, where there is a jumbling up of sensations?  What can we say about subliminal perception, the perception that occurs below the limit of sensory experience?  How do we account for eyeless sight, where even totally blind can ‘see’ color?  How is it that a patient with one side of the brain damaged has blindsight where he does not know what images he is shown but can accurately distinguish between the images?  How come a person having conversion hysterical symptoms is blind despite an intact visual system?  Almost all doctors are aware of the ‘phantom limb’ phenomenon, where the patient has a sensation in the limb that has been amputated.

How about people walking in sleep?  Can we account for the experience of virtual reality?  All these should make us aware that we are not dealing with a simple world that can be explained away in terms of black and white.  Our consciousness is far more complicated than what we receive from the environment.

Perception without Sensation

Hundreds of experiences are beyond simple explanation.  Consider the following examples.

• The telephone rings and sometimes you know who is calling you even without seeing the number on the caller ID or lifting the receiver.

• When you are conversing with someone, you just seem to know what the other person is going to say.

• Suddenly you feel that you have previously experienced the same thing that is happening at the moment (déjà vu).

• Somehow animals are attracted to you and you can communicate silently with family pets.

• Some of your dreams come true or sometimes you can solve problems in your dreams.

• Suddenly you know that the phone or doorbell is going to ring and it rings.

• You sense that something is wrong and it comes out true.

• Have you ever had experiences where some entity is speaking to you or touching you?

• A close friend or a relative thinks the same thoughts and both of you speak the same as if you have prepared.

• Though your close friend or relative is far away, you are still able to communicate your thoughts and actions.

• You dislike some strangers and like some strangers - without knowing why!

• Some languages seem very familiar.

• You have a dislike for some foods without knowing the reason.

• While waiting for a bus, suddenly you sense that the bus is coming and it comes.

• You pray for something good and your prayers are answered.

What is happening in all these situations?

Extrasensory perception, ESP for short, is a term coined by J. B. Rhine in 1934 that emphasizes obtaining information about objects, thoughts, or events beyond the reach of the normal senses.  In addition, it is a response to an external event or influence without the use of known sensory channels.  ESP can be studied under laboratory conditions in one of three forms: clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition.

Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is the awareness of objects or events without the mediation of sensory channels.  According to Indian Psychology, Clairvoyance is called divyacaksus. Pathanjali yoga sutras deal with clairvoyance in detail where mention has been made of it in the vibhuthi pada.  The 26^th Sutra talks about the knowledge of the subtle, the hidden, and the distant.  The 37^th Sutra mentions intuitional hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell.  In the 42^nd Sutra, we find clairaudience or divyasrotram being explained.  The 50^th Sutra emphasizes sarvajnatrutwam or omniscience.  Pathanjali also mentions that there is no restriction in terms of the distance between the object and the perceiver as he talks about the knowledge of the solar system and stars.

Modern parapsychological investigations have tested clairvoyance where one can accurately see objects outside the visual purview significantly beyond chance scores.  ESP cards known as Zener Cards with 25 cards in a deck containing geometrical symbols of circle, square, cross, star, and wavy lines are described accurately by subjects when kept in a sealed envelope.  Sophisticated statistical techniques are adopted to verify the accuracy against the theory of probability.  Several psychics like Eileen Garret, Edgar Cayce, Jeane Dixon, and Gerard Croiset are legendary in their ability to see clairvoyantly.

Several applications of clairvoyance are manifested.  Aurvoyance is a study of aura.  The presence of aura was established especially after Semyon and Valentina Kirlian demonstrated in 1939 that the aura around the person’s body can be photographed.  Psychometry is a technique where a sensitive can garner information about a person or an event by holding an object belonging to that person.  The dowsing or bio-physical effect is a technique where the practitioner can locate the source of water or oil using a divining rod.

Telepathy

Telepathy refers to the awareness of the thought processes of another individual.  The Sanskrit term for telepathy is paracittajnanam.  The 19^th Surta of Pathanjali mentions the same.  Distance is not a hindrance for such thought transference as was established in 1966 by the grand test called the ‘Moscow-Siberia Telepathy Test’.  The receiver, Mr. Karl Nikolaiev was in Siberia, which is 1860 miles away from Moscow, where the sender Mr. Kamensky was seated.  Investigators were able to conduct a double-blind test and found that communication of objects and symbols did exist between the two.

Further tests have been conducted where communication was possible using cards, drawings, emotions, images, sensations, numbers, etc.  Telepathy is also possible with animals and plants.  Telepathic tracking has also been tried and tested.

Precognition

Precognition is awareness of events before their occurrence.  Premonition is awareness of a future disaster.  There is no other means of knowing what happens in the future yet some people can predict the same with considerable accuracy.  The 16^th Sutra of Pathanjali Yoga Sutras talks about athitanagatajnanam.  This includes both athita (past), also called retrocognition as well as anagata (future) awareness.  Ian Stevenson corroborates nineteen reports about the premonition of the Titanic ship sinking*.  Major disasters all around the globe seem to have been ‘witnessed’’ before they happened.  Famous personalities like Wolf Messing, Nostradamus, Jeane Dixon, and Vanga Dimitrova have been attributed with precognitive abilities.  Precognitive dreams are also a possibility, where people have seen in their dreams the events that happened afterward.

GESP

Though experimental investigation tries to isolate each form of ESP for a separate study, we need to understand that in reality, it is quite difficult to distinguish between clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition.  Due to the overlap between the three forms, a term called General ESP, or GESP has been used to study anomalous experiences or paranormal behavior.

Parapsychological Association was accepted as an affiliate in 1969 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  Several institutes in the USA offer courses and research opportunities in the field of parapsychology.  As St. Augustine puts it, “Miracles occur in contradiction not to nature, but what is known to us of nature”.

It is easy to reject both spontaneous occurrences as well as experimental studies.  However, the amount of information on such phenomena is abundant.  The need of the hour is to have what Danny Steinberg calls “open-minded skepticism”.  We neither should have to accept whatever we come across as strange phenomena nor should have to reject everything as false and baseless.  We need to develop a scientific attitude and verify these occurrences objectively and use them for the betterment of humanity.

References

Morgan, C. T., King, R. A., & Robinson, N. M. (1979).  Introduction to psychology (6th ed.).  New Delhi:  Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Ltd.

Stevenson, I. (1965). Seven more paranormal experiences associated with the sinking of the Titanic. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 59, 211–225.

Sujendra Prakash, B. S. (1995).  Parapsychological phenomena based on Pathanjali's Yoga Sutras.  In B. V. Subbarayappa (Ed.).  Facets of Humanism.  Madras:  Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd.  375-392.

Taimini, I. K. (1961).  The science of yoga.  Adyar, Madras:  The Theosophical Publishing House.

Wolman, B. B. (Ed.). (1977). Handbook of Parapsychology. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.

 Parapsychology

EXTRAOCULAR COLOR VISION (EOCV)

"Conscious Capture"

Parapsychological Phenomena Based on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

 

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