Extrasensory perception (abbreviated as ESP), refers to the perception not obtained through physical senses. Indian seers and sages of yore had thoroughly researched this paranormal phenomenon. In the modern parlance, the term ESP was coined by a famous psychologist J. B. Rhine for describing the psychic abilities of humans. Among different types of ESP, telepathy has been investigated by many researchers. It is the ability of a person to communicate his thoughts to others without using any external means; like speech, sign language or writings, etc. Considerable research has also been done on clairvoyance – a supernormal ability to acquire information about objects or events without any physical aid. There is yet another type of ESP known as precognition. It is the ability to perceive future events before they happen. Very little research has been done in this field.
Let us find out from the ancient anecdotes as well as the results of modern research, whether ESP exists or not; and if it does exist, is it possible for the humans to manifest or enhance it.
There is an anecdote in the “Old Testament.” Once, King Belshazzar was taking dinner with his guests. All of a sudden, he saw somebody’s hand rising and writing some words with the finger on the wall. Astrologer Daniel, who was also present there interpreted this incident and said – “The Kingdom and the existence of the king himself are in danger.” The prediction proved true. Before the dawn, the king was murdered and a high-ranked officer, Darius the Mede, took possession of the rule in his hands.
According to ancient Indian scriptures, after acquiring the siddhi of Chhaya-Purush and ‘Prakash – Sharir’, it is possible to defy the limitations of time and space, and go quickly from one place to another, get the information and provide guidance to someone, if needed. In this connection, a significant incident (as described in ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramhansa Yogananda) in the life of Yogi Sri Shyamacharan Lahiri is like this.
‘The English office superintendent, who affectionately called Lahiri Mahashaya “Ecstatic Babu,” was quick to notice in the employee a strange transcendental change.
“Sir, you seem sad. What is the trouble?” Lahiri Mahashaya made this sympathetic inquiry one morning to his employer.
“My wife in England is critically ill. I am torn by anxiety.”
“I shall get you some word about her.” Lahiri Mahashaya left the room and sat for a short time in a secluded spot. On his return, he smiled consolingly.
“Your wife is improving; she is now writing a letter.” The omniscient yogi quoted some parts of the missive.
“Ecstatic Babu, I already know that you are no ordinary man. Yet I am unable to believe that, at will, you can banish time and space!”
The promised letter finally arrived. The astounded superintendent found that it contained not only the good news of his wife’s recovery but also the same phrases that weeks earlier, the great master had uttered.’
The power of physical senses is limited. The eyes can see only up to a little distance. The voice from the mouth cannot be sent very far. But when the inner consciousness gets concentrated on the subtle mind, the latter’s power of acquiring knowledge goes on increasing. Better is the control of mental energy, more will be the realization of unique experiences. The soul is subtler than the mind. If we realize the soul, then the scenes and voices of far-off places appear as if they are very near. When the soul realizes the Supreme Soul, unique powers, like ‘Trikal Darshan’ (knowledge of past, present, and future), start manifesting.
On the scientific front, J. B. Rhine, who established the famous Duke ESP laboratory, attempted to create standardized terminology and methodologies for studying these mental abilities. Rhine, instead of making wild speculations about ghosts, angels, spirits, or the akashic plane, started the study of ESP from the point of view of a scientist. His quest was: How do we measure this in a controlled experiment? Can we reproduce the results? What parameters of the analysis can we alter, and what effects can we measure?
Rhine, in his book ‘Extrasensory Perception,’ has mentioned the results of his experiments as follows:
1. It is independently established, based on this work alone, that Extra-Sensory Perception is an actual and demonstrable occurrence.
2. E.S.P. is demonstrated to occur under pure clairvoyance (P.C.) conditions, with not only the sensory and rational functions but the telepathic ability as well, excluded by the conditions.
3. E.S.P. is also demonstrated to occur equally well under pure telepathy (P.T.) conditions, with clairvoyance excluded along with the sensory and rational cognition.
4. E.S.P. occurs equally well and at similar levels of scoring in both P.C. and P.T., as shown by actual measurement, using equal probabilities and similar general conditions.
“Become a good noticer. Pay attention to the feelings, hunches, and intuitions that flood your life each day. If you do, you will see that premonitions are not rare, but a natural part of our lives. – Larry Dossey”
Russell Targ, in his book, ‘The Reality of ESP: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities,’ [Quest Books, 2012] has described the events that amply prove that ESP is a reality for the human beings and that is why he believes in ESP. On February 4, 1974, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped nineteen-year-old newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst from her Berkeley, California apartment. Desperate to find her, the police called physicist Russell Targ and Pat Price, a psychic retired police commissioner. As Price turned the pages of the police mug book filled with hundreds of photos, suddenly he pointed to one of them and announced, “That’s the ringleader.” The man was Donald De-Freeze, who was indeed subsequently so identified. Price also described the type and location of the kidnap car, enabling the police to find it within minutes. That remarkable event is one reason Targ believes in ESP. Another occurred when his group made $120,000 by forecasting for nine weeks in a row the changes in the silver-commodity futures market.
Targ’s experience is based on two decades of investigations at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), which he co-founded with physicist Harold Puthoff in 1972. This twenty-million dollar program launched during the Cold War was supported by the CIA, NASA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Army and Air Force Intelligence. Targ describes the experiment of ‘remote viewing,’ in which a person finds places and events independent of space and time. For example, while in California Price drew to scale a Soviet weapons factory at Semipalitinsk with high accuracy later confirmed by Satellite photography. In another remote viewing, Targ accurately sketched an airport in San Andreas, Columbia himself.
“Blessed are those that know the path out of their carnal flesh, for they shall attain intuition. – Michael Bassey Johnson”
How to manifest/enhance ESP?
C.W. Leadbeater, in his book ‘Clairvoyance’ describes a method by which one can manifest/ enhance ESP – ‘Let a person choose a specific time every day – a time when he is quiet and undisturbed. He should set himself at that time to keep his mind for a few minutes entirely free from all earthly thoughts of any kind whatever. When that is achieved, he should direct the whole force of his being towards the highest spiritual ideal that he happens to know. He will find that to gain such perfect control of thought is enormously more difficult than he supposes. But when he attains it, it cannot but be in every way most beneficial to him. As he grows more and more able to elevate and concentrate his thought, he may gradually find that new worlds are opening before his sight.
As a preliminary training towards the satisfactory achievement of such meditation, he will find it desirable to make a practice of concentration in the affairs of daily life—even in the smallest of them. If he writes a letter, let him think of nothing else but that letter until it is finished; if he reads a book, let him see to it that his thought is never allowed to wander from his author’s meaning. He must learn to hold his mind in check and to be master of that also, as well as of his lower passions. He must patiently labor to acquire absolute control of his thoughts so that he will always know exactly what he is thinking about, and why—so that he can use his mind, and turn it or hold it still, as a practiced swordsman turns his weapon where he wants.
Acharya Shriram Sharma had also developed several types of meditations, a sincere practice of which can help a person to manifest/enhance ESP. The audio files of these meditations, namely – ‘Amrit varsha rashanubhuti dhyan,’ ‘Triveni sangam dhyan,’ ‘Udiyman swarnim surya ka dhyan,’ ‘teen sharir ka dhyan jyoti awadharna se’ and ‘sayam naad yoga sadhana’ can be accessed at awgp.org/media_gallary.
“Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality. – Alexis Carrel”
Source: Akhand Jyoti Magazine Sept-Oct 2019