Sunday, December 6, 2009

Remote viewing and OBEs

In the earlier books which I have read on OBEs, quite a few speak of the ability of individuals undergoing an OBE, to travel to a remote location and come back with some information they should not know by normal means.

The other day it struck me that this was also the claim for "remote viewing" - the ability to somehow go to a remote locality and return with information unobtainable by other means. I wondered if remote viewing was similar/the same as an OBE?

This explains why I have just read a book by Paul H Smith called "Reading the enemy's mind" published in 2005 by Forge, NY. ISBN 0-312-87515-0.

The blurb for the book states that the author is "...a retired Army intelligence officer and Operation Desert Storm veteran, spent seven years in the Department of Defence's remote-viewing program."

Description of a remote-viewing session. The person "...lay quietly, relaxing, slowing breathing and heart rate, approaching sleep..." A second individual read the tasking and took notes. p130.

"In ERV we tried to suppress noise by helping the viewer maintain hypnagogic state-the state at the edge between consciousness and sleep." Sometimes the monitor asked "Describe the target in question." Other times used geographic coordinates. Some times a photo was used but it was in a sealed envelope. The session could last an hour. p132.

Chapter 10 of the book is about the Monroe Institute named after Robert Monroe an OBE pioneer. In Monroes's OBEs some part of him separated from the body and went elsewhere.

There are two hemispheres to the human brain. By playing sound into both ears Monroe found the best frequency for getting the two hemispheres top become synchronised. "Thus hemi-sync (for "hemisphere synchnonization") was born." p140. "While the process couldn't directly cause an out-of-body experience, it was possible to set up a state of mind that was conducive for one."

"Some people confuse bilocation in remote viewing with out-of-body experiences, or OBE. But a bilocation doesn't seem at all like leaving the body...Bilocation happens when the viewer's attention is thoroughly captured by the sensations present at the target."

"That was that human consciousness is not locked within the narrow confines of our physical body, that it does not stop at the edge of our skin, but that within certain limits a human consciousness can roam virtually at will across the face of the planet, down the hallways of time and into at least some of the secrets of men." p470.

Did it work?

"Altogether, 183 reports were sent to the client, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The JCS sent back several evaluations and a final report, documenting Det G's performance. Unfortunately, these remain classified." p111.

"...documenting Colonel Johnson's assignment to see if remote viewing really worked as an operational intelligence tool. The previously sceptical Johnson concluded unhesitatingly that, in fact, it did." 1990. p422.

After reading this book, I don't see that "remote viewing" is an OBE. The book doesn't speak of something leaving the body and travelling to a remote locality and observing that place. The viewer doesn't see his/her own body during remote viewing.

It seems that the viewer somehow arrives at the target and sees it and reports their impressions of what is there.