Between-ness - A New Theory of the Paranormal

[Guest guest]

EXPERIMENTS INVESTIGATING THE NATURE OF ESP and the paranormal have

been carried out in the West now for over 100 years. ESP abilities

have been demonstrated to the satisfaction of most but we still have

no inkling of how it operates. We do not know scientifically how

paranormal information is received or sent, and even more puzzling is

its unpredictable nature. In the laboratory no subject has been able

to consistently produce ESP results. Outstanding results may be

produced for a short period of time, only to have further efforts

bring nothing whatsoever. A certain serendipity is involved that

defies any conscious control.

 

Richard Rose, founder of the West Virginia based TAT Foundation, has

formulated a general theory of the paranormal that contains this

serendipity or " Between-ness " as its central facet. Rose's concept of

Between-ness is that it is a peculiar mental state that " causes

things to happen. " This idea is complex, but through intuition it can

be conveyed in simple terms. A radio show host once asked Rose to

describe Between-ness in the simplest manner possible. He replied

that it would take some time to explain it adequately, but that

perhaps an example in everyone's experience would help. " If you have

ever rolled dice, then you know what Between-ness is. Any man that

has ever rolled dice or played cards has had it in the back of his

mind that if he held his head a certain way, he'd win. "

 

The elusive nature of ESP phenomena becomes obvious in the laboratory

setting in which card guessing and other means are experimented with.

One curiosity has been labeled " psi-missing. " This has repeatedly

been observed and occurs when a subject being tested for ESP

consistently guesses below chance. That is, if 25 % right guesses can

be expected from chance, the subject may consistently get only 15 %

right answers. This is as great an indication of ESP as if he were to

score significantly above chance.

 

Another peculiar unpredictability that has turned up in ESP

experiments is that a subject may be " out of phase " with the series

of cards he is guessing. He may only get chance expectations on the

specific cards at which he is guessing, but if his guesses are later

matched to the next card or two cards ahead in the series, then his

guesses turn out to be highly significant. In these cases it would

appear that the subject is being precognitive even though he is not

trying to be precognitive.

 

Successful ESP scoring has been found to have very little to do with

amount of effort. It has been found that the best results occur when

the subject is relaxed and interested in what is going on. In many

studies belief in ESP has proven to have little to do with

significant results. Gertrude Schmeidler, in extensive tests in the

1950's, discovered that a negative but interested attitude toward ESP

favored significant scores below chance! In other words, it has been

found that the best subjects are in a state between making a

strenuous effort and not being interested at all, or making no

effort.

 

The " catch me not " nature of ESP has been described by

parapsychologist John Palmer as best attained in a mood of " relaxed

spontaneity. " Garrett has described it as a " playfulness, " a

mood between being serious and not serious. It is a mood of interest,

but not too much interest. Researcher Charles Honorton describes the

ESP-productive mood in the following way:

 

" The kind of mental relaxation described... seems to involve

effortless intention, or what some present-day bio-feedback

researchers call 'passive volition.' This is a mind-set which is

characterized by 'allowing it to happen' with a minimum of ego

involvement and conscious striving. "

 

" Effortless intention " or " passive volition " are paradoxical states

to our normal manner of thinking. They are mid-states or Between-ness

points to our normal emotions.

 

It has been established scientifically that there is no physical

medium for ESP. Experiments have been successfully conducted in

Faraday cages which eliminate all electromagnetic emanations such as

radio waves and the like. This would point to a non-physically-

detectable source as the carrier of ESP. Since - presumably - a

nonphysical mind is the receiver and sender of ESP, it would seem

dependent on the state of that mind to determine how receptive it is.

This state would seem to be an alert ambiguousness or Between-ness in

which mind is momentarily not chained to any obsessive or totally

occupying state of functioning as it normally is in the day-to-day

world. Moments of reverie, dreams, and hypnagogic or hypnopompic

states fit into this category, and all have been demonstrated as

conducive to ESP.

 

Garrett, probably this century's most outstanding psychic,

wrote that " ... I knew from experience that conscious effort was the

one thing which would produce no results that could be described as

supernormal. " Felicia Parise, the European telekinetic psychic, made

a discovery similar to Garrett's. She had been trying for several

weeks to move small objects with her mind and had given up in

failure. She had made great efforts of concentration but it had been

to no avail. One day the telephone rang and she answered it only to

discover the shocking news that her grandmother had died. After

hanging up, she reached for a plastic bottle and it scooted away from

her across the table.

 

The conscious ego and conscious effort seem to interfere with

paranormal results. As shown in an extensive study by Louisa Rhine,

the greatest frequency of valid ESP experiences is in dreams when the

conscious ego is not present at all. This ego-caused inhibition

apparently includes any attempt to use the powers for personal gain.

Katherine Craig writes in her book The Fabric of Dreams

that " ...psychically gifted persons know that when they attempt to

apply their powers of clairvoyance and of penetration to themselves

or for personal ends, these powers become void. " Uri Geller has tried

to use his abilities at Las Vegas several times only to lose his

shirt each time.

 

If the ego is inhibitory to psychic phenomena, it explains why a

subject cannot perform on demand in a laboratory. A certain egoless

or relaxed state is called for between trying and not trying. In our

normal ego state paranormal abilities are not considered possible or

likely. In our normal paradigm we simply do not believe that we can

tune in on someone's thoughts. It may be that the paradigm or belief-

status creates limits on reality and what is possible. Our belief-

status or paradigm may have a greater effect on our experienced

reality than we suspect.

 

I once observed my young brother repeatedly open a good quality

padlock with a paper clip. He seemed to think nothing unusual about

it and continued to amuse himself closing and then opening it again.

I asked him how he did it and he replied that " It's easy, " and did it

again for me. After I finally expressed my great amazement, it was

curious that he could no longer open the padlock. My postulation is

that he did not realize that people weren't supposed to be able to do

such things. After I expressed my amazement I succeeded in

indoctrinating him into the world-view that such things are

impossible. I convinced him that it was an extraordinary thing to do

and then he could no longer do it.

 

The very laws of what is possible and impossible may be controlled by

our belief systems in even more dramatic fashion than this minor

example. Many machines and techniques have been discovered or

designed which were thought to be physically impossible before their

employment. Often the inventor does not know that what he does is

supposedly impossible. It is only afterward that new " laws " are

discovered to explain the inventions.

 

I can reflect on another incident from my childhood that seems highly

improbable now but didn't at the time when I was seven years old. My

five year old brother had carved a wooden knife which probably

weighed no more than a few ounces. We were cleaning out a corn-crib

and, as anyone knows who has grown up on a farm, there were quite a

few mice and rats liberated in the process. I was standing by my

brother when a rat ran by about five or ten feet away. My brother had

been pretending that he was an Indian and had become totally involved

in the imaginary play-acting. When he saw the rat he hurled his paper-

weight knife at it and - amazingly - it went through the animal and

killed it! Under normal circumstances that knife would have bounced

off a balloon, let alone killed an animal. I believe that, in his

childish innocence, my brother caused another reality to momentarily

manifest - the reality of himself as a mighty Indian hunter.

 

In nearly every school of esoteric philosophy it is claimed that our

physical world is a projection or creation of a superior and

more " real " dimension. This physical world is seen as a sort of dream

or re flection of essences from another plane of existence. I will

not try to support this claim here, since there is ample literature

on the subject, but postulate the " dream-nature " of the world as a

basis in my explanation of Between-ness. In a Between-ness state one

momentarily gains access to this source of creation and produces an

actual alteration in manifestation on this physical level. What was

originally one way is altered and becomes something different. It is

as if the script is changed in a drama. One " deposits " a new idea

into the creative realm and it is " born " on this plane.

 

If being addicted and involved in our normal paradigm restricts the

mind's paranormal abilities, anything that weakens that paradigm and

makes it more remote may facilitate these abilities. If the normal

paradigm is escaped temporarily through hypnosis, sensory isolation

or meditation, a new paradigm may arise which makes more likely the

occurrence of the paranormal. In fact, this is exactly what occurs.

There are higher ESP results in these altered states. Charles

Honorton has compiled a review of over 80 studies performed in 26

different laboratories and the over-all ESP performance in these

altered states proves very significant. In these states there is no

conscious attempt to produce a new paradigm, but this automatically

occurs as a result of escaping or denying the exclusiveness of normal

reality. Between acceptance and doubt a new paradigm is born. This

new reality includes or is what we consider the paranormal.

 

The I Ching and Tarot are uses of ritual to occupy the conscious mind

with a certain controlled meaninglessness, in order for a non-ego

function to manifest. Such divination does not make sense in our

usual way of thinking, but at the same time we are hoping for

something else and telling ourselves that normal reality may not be

all there is. We are caught between normal reality on one hand and an

indefinite appeal to " something else " on the other. In this Between-

ness state access to paranormal information may exist. A new reality

is temporarily created and this new reality does not bow to normal

reasoning. The crucial state is the balanced tension between normal

reality and the consideration of the " impossible " or the paranormal.

 

There is a mass of evidence pertaining to the psychic powers of witch

doctors and shamans of primitive cultures. In anthropological

investigations there is much written about the shaman's understanding

of the Between-ness required in producing paranormal results. Paul

Adams, in his study of Huichol Indian shamans, writes: " There is a

doorway within our minds that usually remains hidden and secret until

the time of death. The Huichol word for it is 'nierika.' Nierika is a

cosmic portway or interface between ordinary and non-ordinary

realities. It is a passageway and at the same time a barrier between

worlds. "

 

While Between-ness is a mental balance and tension, shamans often

incorporate physical acts of balance into their rituals to induce the

proper mental state. Australian Aborigine shamans will stand balanced

on one foot all day in the desert sun in the state they

call " dreamtime. " Anthropologist Barbara Meyerhoff, in her

article " Shamanic Equilibrium, " describes the peculiar balancing

ritual of a Mexican Indian healer she met. The man had developed a

considerable reputation, and as he didn't accept money for his

services, he limited healing to weekends and worked for his living

during the week. On Friday people would begin arriving, some from as

far away as Europe. Every Friday afternoon the man would climb to the

roof of his shack and remain perched on one foot on the peak for the

rest of the day. Meyeroff originally thought it was his peculiar way

of observing people arriving, but later realized it was a mental

preparatory ritual of balance.

 

Meyeroff witnessed a unique display of balance by a shaman during her

own work with the Huichol Indians of North Central Mexico:

 

" One afternoon, without explanation, he interrupted our sessions of

taping mythology to take a party, Huichol friends and myself, to an

area outside his home. It was a region of steep barrancas cut by a

rapid waterfall cascading perhaps a thousand feet over jagged,

slippery rocks. At the edge of the falls, Ramon removed his sandals

and announced that this was a special place for shamans. He proceeded

to leap across the waterfall, from rock to rock, frequently pausing,

his body bent forward, his arms outspread, head thrown back, entirely

birdlike, poised motionlessly on one foot. He disappeared, reemerged,

leaped about, and finally achieved the other side. "

 

He later told Meyeroff that his display was to impress upon her what

extreme balance a shaman must have, and demonstrated this by marching

his fingers up the strings on his violin. He also implied that it was

dangerous to attempt this balance because one might " fall into the

abyss. " Meyeroff further describes the elusive Between-ness state of

shamanic balance:

 

" Shamanic balance is a particular stance. It is not a balance

achieved by synthesis; it is not a static condition achieved by

resolving opposition. It is not a compromise. Rather it is a state of

acute tension, the kind of tension which exists... when two

unqualified forces encounter each other, meeting headlong, and are

not reconciled but held teetering on the verge of chaos, not in

reason but in experience. "

 

Writers may sometimes place insights down in the form of fiction when

they do not have enough hard evidence to place them in a scientific

format. I believe Colin Wilson's The Mind Parasites is one case of

this guise. In it Wilson gives the best description of Between-ness

available in any popular book. Wilson's chief character finds a

peculiar way of " holding his head " to do unusual things:

 

" At this moment, a mosquito buzzed viciously past my ear with its

high pitched whine; a moment later, it came past again. My mind still

full of Heidegger, I glanced up at it, and wished that it would find

its way to the window. As I did so, I had a distinct sense of my mind

encountering the mosquito. It veered suddenly off its course and

buzzed across the room to a closed window. My mind kept a firm grasp

on it, and steered it across the room to the fan vent in the open

window, and outside.

 

" I was so astonished that I sat back and gaped after it. I could

hardly have been more astonished if I had suddenly sprouted wings and

started to fly. Had I been deceived in supposing that my mind had

guided that creature? I remembered that the washroom had a plague of

wasps and bees, for there was a bed of peonies underneath its window.

I went along there. It was empty, and there was a wasp buzzing

against the frosted glass of the window. I leaned my back against the

door, and concentrated on it. Nothing happened. It was frustrating -

there was a sense of doing something wrong, like trying to pull open

a locked door. I cast my mind back to Heidegger, felt the lift of

exaltation, of vision, and suddenly felt my mind click into gear. I

was in contact with the wasp, just as certainly as if I was holding

it in my hand. I willed it to move across the room. No, 'willed it'

is the wrong phrase. You do not 'will' your hand to open and close;

you just do it. In the same way, I drew the wasp across the washroom

towards me; then, just before it reached me, made it turn and veer

back to the window and out. It was so incredible that I could have

burst into tears, or roared with laughter. "

 

Wilson's character discovers a state of mind between trying and not

trying, pure mental will-power he finds will not work. " You do

not 'will' your hand to open and close; you just do it. " Wilson

compares the unused powers of the mind to that of a huge computer at

which we sit every day, only to perform simple arithmetic problems

instead of using the computer's other vast powers. In the last

chapter of his Mind Parasites, Wilson's keen imagination has fifty

minds " en rapport " being able to alter the orbit of the moon. While

this feat is proper to the realm of science fiction, such a sober

mind as philosopher Franklin Merrill-Wolff believes that similar

actualities are within the potential of the human mind, perhaps in

some far-off age. Once again Merrill-Wolff refers to the peculiar

mental balance in which the paranormal can occur:

 

" There is a hidden, as well as an obvious, meaning behind the 'lever

of Archimedes.' There is both a lever and a fulcrum, mastery of which

gives power to move the world. But these forces act solely at a point

of very fine balance, which is attained only with very great

difficulty, and which is also not easily maintained after having been

achieved. The violent wind of world-consciousness affords a most

serious obstacle to the realization of such a balance, and right here

lies part of the reason why humanity enjoys so restricted a portion

of the benefits that might accrue to it from the great Hidden Powers

of Man. "

 

The parapsychology of the future must in part be a subjective science

and investigate the subjective state that is conducive to ESP.

Paranormal information has been proven to be the result of no known

and measurable physical force and thus appears to be the function of

a non-physical domain and a peculiar mental state. The concept of

Between-ness is an effort to describe a peculiar subjective state

that has been alluded to throughout paranormal literature. It is

difficult to describe elusive, subjective states and an attempt to

describe Between-ness is no exception. It is not a state that can be

controlled, created and tested in the laboratory, but the concept of

Between-ness and its ramifications can be the beginning of a whole

new subjective science of the mind.

 

by Tom Mackay

 

 

posted April 3, 2006............bob