My Library

Parapsychology was, and is, no exception. Indeed, nothing is an exception -- and certainly not the American intelligence community. Cleve Backster has never been considered a parapsychologist by the parapsychological community, and so his work, quite excellent, was of no official interest to that community. So my "entry into parapsychology" took place within the excellent auspices of Dr. Gertrude Schmeidler -- at that time one of the few notable pillars of that community. The "entry," however, was as a test subject -- to be studied and later dispensed with. And meanwhile, as was thoughtlessly taken for granted by everyone, to willingly suffer all of the thoughtless indignities carelessly extended to test subjects thought of as experimental rats or guinea pigs. I understood all of this quite well in advance. I didn’t at all mind it because I believed that my stint in the laboratory was only a temporary phenomenon in my life. This belief was entirely typical of all those who had preceded me in parapsychology lab testing. Lab testing was considered a temporary thing for the subjects. I didn’t even mind the anonymous procedure. When Schmeidler asked me if I wanted to be mentioned by name in her report or identified as subject X, I replied that I’d leave that to her. "Oh, well," she eventually said, "they’re going to find out who you are anyway, so I might just as well identify you by name."