Paranormal Phenomena and Berkeley's Metaphysics
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PARANORMAL PHENOMENA AND BERKELEYS METAPHYSICS Peter B Lloyd Ursa Software Ltd Psi Informatics Series Rep ort Published byUrsa Software Ltd Sumatra Road London NW PN England email ursaeasynetcouk web wwwursasoftcom c Ursa Software Ltd All rights reserved No part of this publication maybe repro duced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photo copying recording or otherwise without the prior p ermission of Ursa Software Ltd ISBN This edition published July A Set by Ursa Software Ltd in L T X E Printed by Biddles Ltd Wo o dbridge Park Estate Wo o dbridge Road Guildford Surrey GU DA England For Deborah Acknowledgements This b o ok arose out of a study of the mindb o dy problem which I havebeen working on for a few years I have written up that work in the accompanying volume in this series Consciousness and Berkeleys Metaphysics As in that volume I am indebted to my partner Deb orah MarshallWarren for her encouragement supp ort inspiration and love without whichthisbookwould not have happ ened In ad dition Deb orah and her friends tarot readers mediums spirit healers mystical and religious p eople of dierent traditions and p ersp ectives have confronted me with their daytoday engage ment with spiritual and paranormal worlds that mybackground in science and engineering had previously excluded from my men tal horizons While my philosophical investigations had led me to believe in the p ossibility of the paranormal world but only as an abstract academic prop osition these folk have broughtme face toface with the lived realityofaworld much bigger than the one recognised by con ventional science I am therefore pleased to recognise the insights I have gained through conversations and exp eriences with Janyce Welch Car oline and Peter Sherwo o dRob erts Peter Kingsley and Maria Kat ramidou Alan Sanderson Eileen Watkins Seymour and Clive Digby Jones Sally Thomson Una Sykes and many others What nally pushed me over the edge of the worldview of mainstream science and into the twilight zone of psi however was myencounter with Marilyn Schlitz in Flagsta Here was someone as sane and rational as any mainstream scientist I had worked with and who was well scho oled in the disciplines of science but who was rigorously and imaginatively investigating phenomena that blasted a gaping ragged hole in the accepted scientic picture of the world we inhabit i Contents What are paranormal phenomena Sup ernatural paranormal or psi Need for a new scientic paradigm Ontological myopia Berkeleys Metaphysics Berkeleys vision and its context A short biographyofBerkeley The nature of ob jects to be is to be perceived Matter simply do es not exist Occasionalism Berkeley versus Malebranche Berkeley and common sense Berkeley and science Berkeley was not a solipsist Mathematical ob jects The nature of the spirit Existence of the spirit The p erceiving and willing of the spirit The Will is the essence of the spirit Human spirit is Go ds spirit Go ds spirit has a mind Why are natural phenomena mechanistic Berkeleys arguments Unintelligibility of absolute space Argument from the unintelligibilityofmatter The ctive nature of the physical world Argument from mediacy Argument from primary qualities Argumentfromintentional reference Why did so few share Berkeleys vision Berkeleys view of angels iii Berkeley versus Eastern philosophies Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism Background to the Vedanta Vedantic ontology Ethical stance Buddhism After Berkeley Hylas and Philonous revisited Psi phenomena The shifting sands of terminology Evidence Traditions anecdotes and data US Governmentinvestigations University research Characteristics of telecognition Theory and structure Range of sensory mo des Schematic impressions Vicarious p erception The format of psi data Lo comotion Co ordinates Psychometry Mental access and dialogue Intentions memories of buildings Outofb o dy exp erience Characteristics of telekinesis Microtelekinesis Macrotelekinesis How the mind accesses psi Subliminal knowledge Leftbrain disablement Accuracy through rep etition InadvertentPK Psi versus physics Evidence against physical mechanisms Psi and relativity theory Psi in time precognition and retrokinesis Precognition Retrokinesis Dierences in psivisibility Heightened psivisibility Hyp othesis link strengthening Hyp othesis symb ol p otency Hyp othesis c hange of entropy Prop osed exp eriments Disemb o died entities Remoteviewing disemb o died entities Exorcism and spirit release Mo delling psi The energy mo del Wo o dhouses energy monism Dosseys critique DeQuinceys critique The eld mo del A Berkeleian mo del of psi A Berkeleian mo del of mind The metamind Metamental ob jects Metamental dmons Metamental language Justintime ob ject generation Psi phenomena Telepathy and telecognition Synchronicity Strange manifestors Strange manifestors as rogue entities Ufos Background Ufos as paranormal phenomena Mo delling the ufo phenomenon Vallees accountofufos Metamental dmons as strange manifestors Rob otlike ufos Transp ortation of ab ductees Physical eects of strange manifestors Physiological eects of strange manifestors Synchronicity as a strange manifestation Psi lo ci Carl Jungs theory of ufos Ufos pro jected from the collective unconscious What do ufos mean Hildegard of Bingen The problems of interpretation Jungs doubts A Berkeleian p ersp ective on Jungs theory Jungs theory versus physicalism Coordinating ufo visions Implementing the collective unconscious Exteriorisation of ufo visions Angels in religious traditions Traditional accounts of angels Berkeleian view of traditional angels Angels in Swedenb orgs work The Angelic World Angelic communication Exp erience and volition light and heat Degrees of angelic minds Angels in the mo dern era Psi Technology Imp ossibility of psi machines Psi receivers A p ossible psi technology Programmable telekinesis Psi informatics Ethics Should we use psi at all Dangers from psi entities Dangers from psi use Prop osals Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter What are paranormal phenomena Sup ernatural paranormal or psi The rst recorded use of the word sup ernatural was in and was derived from the medieval Latin term sup ernaturalis coined by the theologian Thomas Aquinas It denotes according to the Oxford English Dictionary what is ab ovenature transcending the ordinary course of nature A key word in that denition is ordinary Sup ernatural phenomena are not necessarily law less and chaotic they may be sub ject to their own regularities and laws alb eit dierent ones from those that govern the normal world For this reason the word paranormal has come into use emphasising that the phenomena in question are characterised by their lying outside of the normal course of events It denotes a nomological or lawgoverned realm alien to what is recognised in everydaylife What is wrong with denitions of this kind however is that they assume that the phenomena in question are freakish that they are rare isolated instances of no imp ortance This implicit assumption may bias our thinking toward the view that while the paranormal may cause us to marvel they will never haveany b earing on the practical concerns of everyday life From an engin eers p oint of view this is an extraordinarily limiting p ersp ective The phenomena that are rep orted to occur under the rubric of the paranormal imply an enormous p otency and moreover p oint toward the need for so deep a revision of our understanding of the nature of the world that it is imp ossible to tell where the ramica tions would end If and when the pro cesses and laws that underlie and govern paranormal phenomena are understo o d and harnessed they may b ecome incorp orated into our lives in ways that wecan not even