Journey 07 - The Chinese Studies

Journey 07 - THE CHINESE STUDIES In this chapter, I describe some of the writings of Zhu Yi Yi, of Shanghai, a biology graduate of the Shanghai Fu Dan University, and staff writer for Ziran Zazhi (NATURE JOURNAL). INCREDIBLE TALES OF THE PARANORMAL, edited by Alexander Imich, Ph.D., has a translation of an article by her. Despite the sensational title of this book, this is actually a scholarly collection of Psi research outside the English speaking world. The studies come from Italy, Iceland, Brazil, Poland, Russia and China. The Chinese cases especially appeal to me, because, (1) they are all done under normal lighting conditions, (2) there is no medium and no "spirits" involved, (3) the psychics are all amateurs, mostly young girls 12-19, who are able to do what they do with little or no practice, (4) the principal investigators are usually professors of physics or other sciences, and (5) these are contemporary studies, begun about 1980 and on-going. The Chinese seem quite open to the investigation of Psi phenomena, and place no mental limitations on what is possible or impossible. All sorts of Psi phenomena present themselves. Best of all, here are the only controlled and successful experiments of teleportation that I know about. The first Psi phenomena to catch Zhu Yi Yi’s attention were cases of HSP perception. HSP stands for Higher Sense Perception, and is an acronym coined by Shafica Karagulla. Unlike ESP, HSP really is a form of perception that we all have automatically when Out-Of-Body (OOB). HSP allows us to see both physical and psionic matter, in complete darkness, and in successive layers of focus. This is how we see ordinary objects without eyes during OBE. Back to Zhu Yi Yi. Subjects could read pieces of paper put inside various objects. Some subjects had the same kind of "x-ray" vision exhibited by Karagulla's "Diane." In other words, they could look inside a person's body. On one occasion, Professors Xu Xinfang and Xia Xugan brought a 12year old girl named Hu Lian to see Mr. Yao, a member of the Science Committee of Xuan Chen city. Mr. Yao had a piece of shrapnel left in his body from the war. The girl correctly pointed out the position of this piece of shrapnel and accurately drew its shape, in accord with Mr. Yao's x-ray films. He kept them in his house. Few people knew about Mr. Yao's shrapnel, although it is always possible that this young girl had heard about it. The next kind of HSP perception was reading with the ear. The experimenters wrote words or phrases, usually in Chinese characters, balled them up and placed them in the subject's ears. After a few minutes, they could read the phrases, or describe the shapes if unfamiliar. Beijing Professors trained 10 year olds, and found that 60 percent of them could read with their ears. Shanghai investigators were similarly able to train juveniles in this art. This is very reminiscent of the Russian success at training juveniles in dermo-optic vision (See Ostrander and Schroeder). Some psychic children could read with the ball under their foot or in their armpit, or by chewing it up. Next, a boy exhibited HSP control over mechanical watches. He could make them run fast or slow. If there were several watches on him, some would run fast, and some would run slow. In the terms of my theory of the mind, this boy was unconsciously "pushing the probabilities" that affect surface friction between mechanical parts, such as the escapement. By reducing the friction, the watch

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would run fast. Increase the friction and the watch would run slow. He had no effect on electronic watches. All this was quite unconscious. The boy had these abilities with no training. Professors Zheng Tianming, Luo Xing, and Zhu Mingling of the University of Yun Nan devised a test for simple psycho-kinesis. Levitation is just one kind of Psycho-Kinesis or PK. They took the watches apart, separating the face with its hands from the mechanism. They found several juveniles who could make the watch hands move rapidly without touching them. This might be a good screening test for children who have PK ability. The hands of the watch are very light, and it would take very little force to make them move. Finally, we come to apports. The first case brought to Zhu Yi Yi's attention was that of a young girl named Yang Li who could "remove the cigarettes." Ms. Zhu herself counted the cigarettes that inside a cardboard box with a lid. After awhile, Yang Li said, "One had been removed." Ms. Zhu opened the box and counted the cigarettes, and sure enough, one was missing. Where it went to is unknown. This continued until they were all gone. There were also children who could apport something into a closed container. In this case, the containers were teacups with lids on them and the objects apported into the cups were flowers and flower buds. Mr. Yang found the source of one of the Jasmine buds. It came from a Jasmine plant growing in a pot on Mr. Yang's balcony. This incident took place at the home of Yang Li, mentioned above (in Chinese the Surname comes first) in the town of Kun Ming, famous for its flowers. Zhu Yi Yi invited two 12 year old girls trained for two years under Professors Luo Xinfun and Zheng Tianming, who also came along for the test. There were four young girls in all, and all were able to apport flowers and buds into the teacups, although none of them had tried this particular experiment before. The Chinese studies suggest that young children, about 10 or 12, are more likely than adults to exhibit Psi abilities spontaneously are. They are also more trainable, and their abilities improve with practice. They were rewarded only with the delight and amazement their successes evoked from the adults. This is the way Psi research should be done, quite the opposite from the boring card guessing or dice rolling of J.B. Rhine and the Parapsychologists. Psi is, after all, a mental ability, not something that can be done by machines. Social and psychological factors have to be relevant. Today, China may be in the forefront of Psi research, largely because of the chilling effect of CSICOP (the Psi-cops) on the West. The Chinese investigators have no pre-set notions of what is possible or impossible. Instead of treating their subjects like frauds when they exhibit Psi abilities, they treat them like the special and advanced human beings they are. A psychic is treated like a criminal in the West, and meets widespread approval and delight in China. Zhu Yi Yi does not expect anyone to believe in Psi abilities just from reading about it. What we need is to make use of "the second Geller effect." When Uri Geller did spoon bending and watch starting on TV, he always asked his TV audience to try it along with him. Thousands did, flooding the switchboards of the TV station. It is as if the greatest secret is just that something is possible, and once the viewers see that it is possible, many also find that they too can do it.

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Michael Shermer, who writes a column in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, has this to say about the evidence for Psi. "Until Psi finds its Darwin, it will continue to drift on the fringes of Science." - Michael Shermer, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, "Psychic Drift,” Feb. 2003. "The deeper reason scientists remain unconvinced of Psi is that there is no theory for how Psi works. Until Psi proponents can elucidate how thoughts generated by neurons in the sender's brain can pass through the skull and into the brain of the receiver, skepticism is the appropriate response, as it was for continental drift sans plate tectonics." - Michael Shermer, Scientific American, "Psychic Drift," Feb. 2003. He may be right. I do have a detailed and testable theory of the mind that is capable of explaining Psi. I shall introduce it in stages, beginning in the following chapter. I should point out that the Chinese studies by themselves constitute scientific proof of the reality of teleportation. If Shermer expects a reductionist account that can explain it away, he will wait in vain. Like Professor Stevenson's researches in reincarnation, this is just more proof that the mind is not the brain, and no attempt to explain the mind in terms of the brain can possibly succeed. I have a testable theory of the mind as dark matter.

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