My Library

As a result of studying (not just reading) THOUGHTS THROUGH SPACE, a number of realizations began to dawn on me. When these were integrated with one another, the outlines of a bigger picture began to form up. It was NOT an attractive one. The first of the realizations had to do with the out-bound experiments at the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR). The details of those experiments, which took place in February, 1972, have been described in chapter 26. But briefly here, they involved person A who goes somewhere in distance unknown to person B, with person B then attempting to "see" something of where person A is at. In February, 1972, this idea was thought to be original and never before tested. Although those directly involved with the experiments were enthusiastic, it turned out that they upset a number of trustees on the ASPR’s Board, and Dr. Osis was soon the recipient of their demand that such experiments cease. The best reason given was that there was no precedent for such experiments, and that the overall work of the ASPR had to be confined only to what was "scientifically presentable." Or, as more simply put, confined to what was approved by the dominant influences within the Board. As was soon learned, the FULL Board of Trustees was about equally divided on whether the experiments should proceed. Beyond this squabble, however, the insistence that there was no precedent was not the case at all. But this became apparent only after I inadvertently discovered (in the Library of Congress in late June, 1972) the existence of the Wilkins/Sherman book (see chapter 50). Since Mr. Sherman’s "impressions" were quickly put into the hands of Dr. Gardner Murphy, a long-term Member of the ASPR’s Board of Trustees, it became impossible to think that veteran parapsychologists were totally ignorant of the Wilkins/Sherman effort.