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                                          Clairvoyant Perception and Light

                                                            By Donald H. Wolfraim PhD.

One of the paradoxes challenging scientific materialism today is the increasing number of published reports of perceptual experiences that extend beyond the normal limits of the physical senses. As a result, there is an increasing acceptance of the possibility that a nonphysical dimension of reality might exist, which can be perceived using extrasensory or clairvoyant vision.

How do we explain clairvoyant vision? How do we account for the ability of the mind to perceive the same objective world either by either ‘looking out’ using the physical senses, or by ‘looking within’ using one's inner vision? How is it possible for the mind to experience inner images that accurately reflect real physical objects and events taking place anywhere in the external world?

David Bohm, a quantum physicist, once suggested that the content of our thought does not represent some kind of reflective correspondence with ‘real things’ but that thought and thing arise simultaneously from a common source - from an underlying implicate order that contains both. Could it be that my perceptual experiences and the objective reality I experience are simply two inseparable aspects of a single process simultaneously manifesting from this implicate order?

Bohm’s theory suggests that clairvoyant perception of the objective world, particularly at remote distances, cannot be due to neurological processes or the participation of our physical sense organs. Rather, it is the mind that ‘sees’ and not our physical eyes. But how is this possible unless both ‘image’ and ‘object’ arise from a common underlying implicate order, similar perhaps to the Alchemist’s concept of the Unus Mundus in which mind and matter form a single unity?

But what is the missing link that unites these seemingly distinct realities – the physical world perceived with the physical senses and clairvoyant reality perceived through inner vision? One of the research findings presented in this article is that light itself is the medium that unites the spiritual and physical world!

Based on both my personal experience and the research findings of many others, I believe that the spiritual nature of man is always present and perceptually active in our daily affairs, and that our inner perceptual faculties are able to see, hear and know things which are beyond the normal ability of the physical senses to acquire. Consequently, the existence of extrasensory perception is both a celebration and an acknowledgment of our spiritual nature.

Remote Viewing and Light
Remote viewing, also know as traveling clairvoyance, refers to a nonsensory mode of perception in which the external world can be perceived through inner vision, even thousands of miles away. As it has been demonstrated that the energies involved in this perceptual process are not electromagnetic in nature, remote viewing is not subject to the same restrictive physical laws of space and time that are encountered in normal sensory perception.

But if remote viewing is possible, then we are immediately faced with the problem of explaining how a point of consciousness can become aware of geographical locations and events taking place far beyond the reach of the physical senses. How is it possible to perceive, for example, events taking place within an operating room from a point near the ceiling? How do we begin to explain how the perceiving mind is able to travel beyond terrestrial space and time to experience different dimensions of existence? As perceiving at a distance appears to involve some form of conscious projection, perceptual awareness cannot be entirely confined to a physical body or necessarily depend on the same cognitive energies and processes utilized by the physical senses.

Remote Viewing Experiments
In January, 1972, Ingo Swann conducted a series of remote viewing experiments for the Society for Psychical Research, during which he was asked to identify a series of colored symbols placed inside a lighted box suspended on a platform near the ceiling. While sitting in a chair with his eyes closed, Swann was asked to perceive these images through a small hole in the front of the elevated box. This he was able to do repeatedly, except on one occasion when he couldn't see anything in the box at all. Using a ladder, the individual supervising the experiment examined the box and found that the light was out; a fact that clearly demonstrates the dependence of inner vision on the presence of light.

At other times, Swann had complained that reflections from glossy surfaces within the box were obscuring his vision. After experimenting with different lighting setups, it was found that the use of light absorbing construction papers and diffused overhead lighting worked best. It was also found that the use of primary colors of Red, Green and Blue were more clearly perceptible than pastels.

These facts clearly demonstrate that for successful remote viewing the presence of light is required, however, it is not electromagnetic energy that is being perceived. Rather, particle of light called photons are continually absorbed and emitted from matter in the form of a secondary emission of etheric energy, which the experiments of Reichenbach, Reich and others have clearly demonstrated. Therefore, if the materials used in the viewing box are too reflective then this absorption-emission process is unable to take place, consequently obliterating the target being remotely viewed.

But, we might ask, why is the emission of a nonmagnetic etheric energy necessary? Is it not possible that the clairvoyant perceptual process is able to ‘see’ light, just as our physical eyes do? Is this interaction of light and matter really necessary to explain this visual phenomenon?

According to this theory of quantum electrodynamics two entirely different images are created - an electromagnetic image perceptible to the physical eyes and an etheric image of the same external world perceptible through clairvoyant vision. Although this duality of images is a byproduct of a single interaction they actually exist in different energy dimensions and therefore perceptible through different cognitive mechanisms.

Reichenbach and Odic Energy
The important pioneering work of Baron von Reichenbach contributed greatly to our understanding of the energy dynamics of both sensory and inner modes of perception. Reichenbach discovered an unknown energy which he called ‘Od’, which was found to manifest due to the interaction of sunlight and matter. This energy, although associated with light was not perceptible to the physical senses but could be perceived clairvoyantly by sensitives while in total darkness.

The idea of being able to perceive through inner vision, phenomena taking place in the external world, may appear at first to be a rather strange notion, but this ability to observe physical events - even at a distance without using the physical senses, constitutes a perfectly normal mode of perception that we all possess although individually developed to a different extent.

Between 1840 and 1844, Baron von Reichenbach, a prominent Industrialist, chemist and member of the Prussian Academy of Science, conducted over a thousand experiments in his own laboratory in Germany, during which sixty individuals reported seeing energy emanating as streams of light from a wide variety of objects, including magnets, crystals and copper wires, while sitting in a completely dark chamber. Reichenbach called this energy ‘OD’ which he claimed was a hitherto unknown universal force.

These experimental observations were however ridiculed and scoffed at by fellow professors who supported more conservative views. After more than twenty years of struggling to have his discovery recognized by his peers, he finally obtained a hearing in Berlin during which he was given an opportunity to prove the existence of ‘Odic’ energy by conducting experiments before a committee of seven fellow scientists.

This committee was certainly not impressed for several reasons. Firstly, although this energy was expected to be some unknown physical force, it was neither electromagnetic nor electrostatic in nature and consequently was not subject to conventional methods of scientific observation and measurement. Consequently, being nonphysical, there was no way to experimentally verify its existence in the same way as the presence of heat or electromagnetic light could be demonstrated.

Secondly, because this energy was not visible to physical sight, it could only be perceived subjectively by ‘sensitives’ who were reported to be able to observe ‘Odic’ energy by means of inner vision while confined to a totally darkened room. Consequently, the evidence for the existence of "OD" appeared to be purely subjective as it was inaccessible to normal physical observation essential in order for other scientists to be able to duplicate Reichenbach’s experimental findings and thereby scientifically confirm that ‘Odic’ energy actually exists.

Thirdly, if Odic energy was nonphysical as Reichenbach claimed, then how could its presence possibly be explained? Within the materialistic world of the physical sciences, there is no current theory that could accommodate the existence of an invisible nonphysical energy, nor was there ever likely to be. Is it possible that a nonphysical energy could exist, undetectable by our physical senses and measuring instruments, and yet perceptible to the inner vision of gifted clairvoyants?

The Interaction of Matter and Sunlight
One of the key experiments conducted by Reichenbach clearly demonstrates that the interaction of matter and sunlight produces secondary emissions of energy that is perceptible to inner vision. Reichenbach attached a wire to a copper plate that was exposed to bright sunlight with the other end of the wire suspended in the total darkness of a ‘Camera Obscura’. The resulting effect was immediate, as luminous flame-like emanations were observed rising from the unexposed end of the copper wire.

Reichenbach discovered that the Odic energy conducted along a copper wire traveled slowly at 13 feet per second rather than 186.000 miles per second, which is the approximate speed of light. The actual speed that the Odic energy traveled appeared to depend on the density of the wire rather than its conductivity. He also demonstrated that this energy was similar to light as it could be focused through a lens, while at the same time flowing around it, like water being displaced by an object placed in its path.

In attempting to interpret his findings, Reichenbach, in spite of his scientific ingenuity, had difficulty in resolving serious contradictions pertaining to the phenomena being observed. On the one hand, he experimentally ascertained that Odic energy was nonphysical as it did not have the familiar electromagnetic or electrostatic properties of light or heat, properties which would in fact be essential for perceiving Odic energy with one's physical eyes

On the other hand, he observed that depending on one's degree of innate sensitivity, a period of several minutes or hours must be spent sitting in the darkened chamber before any phenomena could be observed. He also reported that Odic energy could produce sensations of coolness or warmth as well as other pleasant or disagreeable sensations, depending on the polarity of the energy. Here again, Reichenbach is at a loss to explain how these sensations could possibly arise from exposure to a nonphysical energy, an energy which other scientists of his day could not understand either, and which they firmly believed could not possibly exist.

Since the 1800's many other scientists have contributed through their research to solving the controversial problems encountered by Reichenbach- such as the nature of secondary energy emissions occurring when solar energy and matter interact, as well as advancing our understanding of how it is possible to observe phenomena or events taking place in the external world without using the physical senses.

Today, in spite of the materialistic skepticism of scientists in the 1800's, as well as many in the present, Reichenbach's research is now recognized by many prominent philosophers and scientists throughout the world as being immensely important in providing us with an awareness of the existence of nonphysical energies in nature as well as stimulating the development of the paraphysical sciences that is presently ushering in a new age of enlightenment for us all.

Light in a Black chamber
It is generally believed that if we were to physically construct a light-excluding chamber, that we would only experience total blackness if we attempted to perceive anything within it. But actual experiments have shown that after sitting in a sealed chamber for a period of time, the expected blackness gradually yields to a discernible gray and eventually is bright enough to see various objects in the room. As this has consistently taken place during repeated experiments, we might ask where this light is coming from? As it is not possible for ordinary light to have entered our sealed chamber, we must look for another explanation. Could it be that the sensations of light we experience in the chamber are not perceived by the physical eyes at all but instead are due to the presence of an unknown subtle form of energy, which is perceptible using another form of vision - clairvoyant sight?

Physicists claim that they are familiar with this light phenomena and refer to it as ‘intrinsic light’ believing that all such sensations are due to retinal noise or random neurological activity and therefore devoid of any possible relevance to any external phenomena. In other words, any reported sensations of light experienced in the chamber are considered to be entirely subjective, arising not from anything present in the chamber but rather from the nervous system of the observer. However, even if we attribute these sensations of light to the firing of retinal nerves, the fact remains that the observer can see the walls, furniture and other individuals within the chamber with his physical eyes open or closed. If electromagnetic energy in the range of visible light is not present within the chamber, then this ‘seeing’ is not taking place with the physical eyes. Rather this subtle energy is being perceived clairvoyantly, whether the physical eyes happen to be open or not.

Blind Vision and Light
Ingo Swann once remarked that although many experiments have been conducted with subjects who could see, many experiments have been conducted using blind individuals. According to Swann, sixteen totally blind volunteers at Rosary Hill College in Buffalo, New York, undertook an ESP experiment in colour perception. After eight weeks, upon the completion of the experiment, most of the blind volunteers could perceive the difference between white and black as well as red and green. One of the volunteers actually began to see outlines of doorways and furniture.

Douglas Dean, a Parapsychologist and former president of the Parapsychological Association, and a teacher at Newark College of Engineering, statistically evaluated this research with blind people and found that the results far exceeded what could be expected due to pure chance. He also found that there was a learning process taking place in which the subjects, although blind, learned to discern the different colours of these targets.

The question that arises from this research is this. How is it possible for a completely blind person to learn how to perceive different colours and even distinguish the outlines of furniture and doorways unless human beings also possess a nonsensory (spiritual) faculty of perception, which like sensory perception is equally dependent upon the presence of light?

C. B. Nash published an article in The Journal for Psychical Research in which he reported a case of eyeless vision, which is also referred to as Synesthesia or Dermo-optical perception. A subject had a box placed around his head to prevent him from picking up visual clues and was able to consistently distinguish different coloured paper, such as black and red but only if there was a light on them. The different colours could still be detected when the papers were covered with thin plastic but not when covered by glass. It was concluded that the subject’s sensitivity was due to the cutaneous perception of infrared light (heat) and was not due to physical touch or any ESP ability on the subject’s part. But it was not the presence of heat that was essential for blind vision but rather ultraviolet light.

As previously noted, whenever the target material was covered by a glass plate, ultraviolet light was filtered out preventing it from reaching and interacting with the paper's surface and consequently no clairvoyant image of the test papers was being emitted and therefore there was nothing for the blind subject to perceive.

The failure of physicists and parapsychologists to correctly understand the paranormal phenomena they study is largely due to a prevalent misconceptions regarding the nature of light. When science begins to recognize the subtle, nonlocal, nonphysical aspects of light and the role it plays in spiritual cognition, then the mystery regarding phenomena such as remote viewing and blind vision will vanish.

Jung and Ultraviolet Light
As ultraviolet light was discovered to play an important role in the Blind-vision experiments mentioned above, I would like to include some background information on ultraviolet light and its importance in the perceptual process.

Carl Jung, the founder of analytic psychology (1875-1961) was deeply interested in establishing a scientific foundation for his psychological theories regarding the nature and dynamics of the psyche. Through collaboration with physicists' Wolfgang Pauli and Heisenberg, Jung intuitively sought to unify the ancient concepts of alchemy with the emerging theoretical findings of quantum physics, both of which he found useful in developing his psychological theories.

One of the startling conclusions that Jung and Pauli came to was that an archetypal or divine energy existed which was capable of operating in a meaningful way in organizing both the inner and outer world, and which adequately accounted for the manifestation of synchronistic events. At this archetypal, psychoid level of existence which Jung called the Unus Mundus, psyche and matter were only different aspects of this divine energy. The surprising thing however is that Jung and Pauli claimed that this archetypal energy linking spirit and matter was located in the invisible ultraviolet end of the electromagnetic spectrum, emanating from our sun and the cosmos. If this were true then both mind and matter existed objectively at this quantum level which Jung called the objective unconscious. This tendency to try to discover a physical explanation for psychological phenomena was not surprising, as Pauli was a professional physicist and Jung was eager to establish scientific recognition for his analytic work.

Although Jung was deeply involved in studying alchemical texts and using alchemical concepts to develop his analytic psychology, he failed to mention that Akhenaten, an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from 1347 to 1364 B.C.E. had provided a solution to this ultraviolet mystery. Akhenaten recognized the visible sun as the ‘one thing’ the source of all creative energy, which he called Aten. But more importantly, he recognized that the underlying nature of the world we live in was multidimensional. He realized that the electromagnetic energy emanating from the sun, manifesting as light and heat, also contained subtle energies which were not only invisible and intangible but Divine and everlasting. In other words, solar energy was perceived as having a physical and spiritual polarity that simultaneously manifested in the physical world. Thus for Akhenaten and his followers, the solar energy of the sun represented the ‘one thing’ or ultimate source from which everything both spiritual and physical manifested.

Consequently, everything that exists on earth reflects both a physical and an etheric or spiritual image of itself, created by the absorption and emission of light from matter. A flower, for example, can be either viewed from a physical perspective using the physical eyes, or from a spiritual or astral perspective using clairvoyant or inner vision. The same etheric reflection of the physical world is also perceptible during an out-of-body experience or astral journey. Both polarized dimensions of spirit (mind) and matter exist together sharing the same cosmic origin, which is the sun.

Our knowledge of the intimate connection that exists between clairvoyant perception and light would suggest that Jung was indeed headed in the right direction by concluding that the unity of ‘inner and outer’ and ‘spirit and matter’ were somehow associated with ultraviolet light. We previously discovered that objects and distant geographical locations could be perceived clairvoyantly when they were suitably illuminated and that during blind-vision experiments the target object was not clairvoyantly observable if it was shielded from ultraviolet light by placing a sheet of window glass over it.

We also previously mentioned the fact that Barron von Reichenbach was able to produce an energy he called ‘Od’ that was clairvoyantly perceptible as a result of the interaction of solar energy with a copper plate. Reichenbach discovered that when light interacts with matter it emits a subtle nonphysical energy that is not electromagnetic or electrostatic in nature. All these experimental facts together provide additional support for Jung and Pauli's theory that a spiritual archetypal energy linking spirit and matter was associated in some mysterious way to the invisible ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Radiesthesia and Light
Radiesthesia is defined as sensitivity to radiation from any source, living or inert. These include subtle vibrations beyond the normal perceptual range of the physical senses and are generally concerned with the hidden natural forces of nature.

One of the earliest and most remarkable radiesthesists in Europe during the early 1900’s was Abbe Mermet, a French priest who specialized in distant prospecting using a map or detailed plan of an area and could solve crimes, locate water, oil and mineral deposits with uncanny accuracy. And like Ingo Swan, he found that in order to obtain this kind of psychic information, a source of light was required. For Mermet, any kind of illumination, such as a lamp or the sun was perfectly satisfactory for carrying out prospecting when either using a map or while at the actual location.

Mermet came to the conclusion that radiesthetic rays are similar to ultraviolet and infrared light, with the main difference being that electromagnetic radiation is impeded by the presence of matter whereas radiesthetic rays are not. He is therefore claiming that these radiesthetic rays, although similar to light, are not electromagnetic in nature - a fact that was confirmed later by other investigators.

Let’s look at an example of Mermet’s clairvoyant abilities as he attempts to find out what happened to a missing person. Mermet was asked to find a missing boy using a pendulum and a map and was able to discern the following facts: an eagle with a known wingspan had carried the small boy away and he identified two possible locations where the boy could have been dropped.

Another case involved the distant investigation of a murder in which Mermet, using a pendulum and a map, was able to discern that the victim was stabbed in the back and thrown over a precipice at a particular location. However, I do not believe that simply moving a pendulum over a map could provide such detailed images of this crime without actually clairvoyantly seeing what had happened.

Mermet in searching for a possible explanation of how Radiesthetic rays are produced surmised that they were due to light being reflected from the magnetic field that surrounds the surface of every object. One of the reasons for this conclusion was due to the phenomena of signal fading. The emission of Radiesthetic rays was always found to be directly dependent upon the presence and intensity of light. As the amount of solar radiation decreased, so did the strength of these rays, which suggests that this fading effect proves that the emission of radiesthetic rays depends on the presence and intensity of light. As the amount of solar radiation decreases, so does the strength of the radiesthetic energy. Without light there are no radiesthetic rays or images. Mermet concluded that radiesthetic rays are similar to ultraviolet and infrared light, with the main difference being that normal light is impeded by the presence of matter whereas radiesthetic rays are not.

It is my contention that radiesthetic rays of energy are merely secondary emissions of energy produced by the interaction of light and matter. So in our attempt to describe the nature of radiesthetic rays or Odic energy, we are merely talking about a particular attribute of photon emission. If that is true, then photons must possess both electromagnetic and radiesthetic attributes, particularly in the ultraviolet range of visible light. As real visible photons are always accompanied by invisible virtual photons, virtual photons could very well account for the radiesthetic qualities of light while real photons, which are measurable, exhibit the electromagnetic qualities associated with the visible spectrum of light.

Every so-called physical object exists in both energy dimensions - that is, light interacts with matter as if it had both electromagnetic and ethereal properties. This perception of a dualistic multidimensional world is not mere idle speculation but, as we have seen, is based on actual experimental evidence. All matter, being composed primarily of photons, exists in both energy dimensions simultaneously. When solar radiation is absorbed and emitted by matter, dual images of objects are radiated out into space - one consisting of an electromagnetic image of the external world that can be perceived with our physical senses and an etheric image of the same world perceptible using ones inner clairvoyant vision.

Thousands of years ago cultures of the Far East, such as the Chinese, were well aware of the twofold nature of energy, which they referred to as ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ or heaven and earth. They saw quite clearly that although energy such as sunlight originated from a common source, all creation originates from the interactions taking place between these two energy dimensions. In the West, particle physicists are at a loss to explain the nature of the world without the necessity of reverting to invisible nonexistent entities, such as virtual particles and imaginary numbers - which exist theoretically but are nowhere to be found. Perhaps they have still failed to see that they are dealing with coexisting multidimensional aspects of the same reality.

Particle physicists are now faced with the dilemma of a disappearing physical dimension and the awesome discovery that vast energy resources manifesting as the physical universe actually consists of an empty vacuum devoid of all measurable matter. How must they now deal with their own discovery – the realization that as they approach the microcosmic limits of the physical world there is only a vacuous dimension of virtual energy that is the very source of all creation? Perhaps they have scientifically rediscovered what Eastern cultures have known all along – that light is the very foundation of all possible worlds and that it is multidimensional.