C. THE PARANORMAL AND EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION
4.0 Foreword & qualification
It might be seen that contained in the above are the grounds for possible explanations for a number of paranormal phenomena. Since my first interest is in trying to deliver a mechanism in principle for the operation of memory, these side issues of ESP will be dealt with briefly, just indicating in general terms how the principle of Duplication Theory might operate in each of the following seven cases. As to the still contested question of whether ESP exists in the first place, I will comment little other than to say that I have assumed there is from the body of reading I have conducted on the subject over many years. I prefer to believe that not all recorders of such events are either lying or are so stupid that they have been tricked by deception, or induced by a romantic disposition, into manufacturing evidence to satisfy a whim.
As for myself, I have little sensitivity in such matters and have little personal experience of ESP, but know people who have experienced out of body experiences, premonitions, and coincidences which cannot be rationalised. A general conclusion of this paper is that the deductive method of thought of modern science tends to discourage the intuitive process through which ESP, and indeed artistic creativity operate, so that the two tend to be mutually exclusive. But the implications of the explanation for intuition above show that there is no reason why the some degree of the observational and deductive method of science might not produce an explanation for intuition, thus bringing the two together.
As for the reason why ESP is regarded by the majority of established scientists with asperity, I published a paper in 1990 which is attached below in section J (Published Papers), on the subject of Repeatability, the lack of which in the world of the paranormal is the central problem as to whether it exists or not. My paper puts up a possible solution by adapting an argument first put up by Rupert Sheldrake (The Presence of the Past: 1988) on the way the laws of nature might evolve. In as far as this paper investigates the subject I am content to consider ESP as possibly a not yet established phenomenon of human consciousness, but which should evolve over time into a well accredited ability.
4.1 Precognition.
If some event of large consequence occurs such as, say, a train crash with multiple deaths observed by large numbers of people, then the following scenario is suggested. The observation of, or involvement in, the horrifying event would cause very strong holocepts which would be imprinted deeply in DNA molecular trigger form in the memory and the metabolism of each of the many observers, or those involved, and the measure of great emotional shock in each case would be similar. If an individual of psychic sensitivity, someone who can put his mind into the trance random state with ease while still conscious, were to stand in the location of the crash either, say one year, before or after the event, (the timing is probably not important) then the duplication of the same vivid holoceptual impressions of the many observers of and participants in the crash should be strong enough to cause some degree of resonance through time in that one location. This resonance might be inclined to remain as long as the geographical surroundings of the location of the crash remained much the same over the years. Radical change would diminish the resonance effect.
This is not how many cases of recorded precognition operate, but nevertheless, it appears to be the case that sensitive individuals can feel in retrospect the oppressive atmosphere of, say, the site of a former concentration camp such as Bergen Belsen. How somebody completely unconnected with the event in another location might receive some premonition, cannot be answered, expect to note that there are many recorded instances of this happening. However, somebody with a genetic connection with an observer of the incident, or indeed somebody involved directly in it, would be a little easier to rationalise. There are serious problems of causality for which I have not attempted an explanation, leaving that to Jon Taylor who also relies on a mechanism of resonance in his uncommonly perceptive and very clear papers (Journal of Society of Psychical Research 1998 & 2000).
4.2 Recall of earlier existences.
There is a fair amount of recorded material where subjects under trance are regressed not only back to relive earlier periods of their own lives but other peoples' lives from earlier times as well. There is of course dispute as to whether such regressions are genuine or not. However, they could be explained as follows. Assuming the subject is in trance, then if somehow an memory molecule from someone else's body could be injected into the subject's brain, then that would instigate a holoceptual flow so that an episode of this other person's life would be recalled and lived out, perhaps jumping from episode to episode at the hypnotist's instruction. The problem of how someone else's Trigger DNA molecules gets into the wrong body could be answered by saying that as long as the prior existence is some sort of blood relation, however distant, with the subject, then it would be possible for some of the cells, or gene patterns and hence DNA from that earlier individual, still to remain in a later generation. Normally such weak links would not rise up into the realms of consciousness, but they would be there, contributing to the characteristics of the individual, and his behaviour pattern, as handed down through the generations by the changing genetic code. If there was some physical link in the form of an object owned by the previous individual, then it should be possible to develop an argument to show how the some resonance effect might be instigated by the presence of that object.
4.3 Telepathy.
The simultaneous projection of a holocept from one mind to another, is more difficult to rationalise, since this would appear to require at least an instigatory communication through principles of electromagnetic induction (resonance through time interval duplication), although once initiated, of course there needs to be no further element of intervening medium to transfer the action of the transmitter's holoceptual patterns or thoughts to the receiver. Duplication theory indicates that people who know each other well, or are related would be the best candidates for telepathy, so that there would be some increased chance of similar holocepts in both parties resonating, either through relatives' similar gene patterns, or through memories of similar backgrounds and memories of shared experiences. Identical twins will obviously demonstrate telepathic ability ex hypothesi.
It also indicates that the receiver would operate best in the hypnotic trance state, with his mind as blank and random as possible. However, the question of how selectivity is controlled in telepathy is a problem. Why numbers of other minds who might happen to be in the trance state at that time of transmission when the transmitter is concentrating on producing the clearest holocept possible in his mind is also a problem. Perhaps the muddled and arbitrary sequences of dreams are sometimes caused by the dreamer's relaxed mind in random state picking up interference from other minds projecting very strong holoceptual images: telepathic transmitters in fact. Again, if the transmitter is not only thinking of the image he wants to project in the clearest holocept manageable, but is also thinking of the identity of the selected receiver as well, it seems reasonable to suppose, that there is a greater chance of resonance being set up in the receiver's mind, if it is suitably random, and thinking of not much else in particular. I have drafted some proposals for variations on the Ganzfeld experiments which should produce strong prompt stronger resonance effects, both in telepathy and/or precognition than might have been recorded heretofore. One very simple expedient which should produce palpable results would be to do away with the white sound and covered eyes of the Ganzfeld, and just to have the receiver under hypnotic trance, and preferably with the transmitter as the hypnotist.
4.4 Hauntings.
It appears that certain sensitive observers have an occasional ability to see images of former individuals. If this ability is genuine, then one thing is fairly sure and that is the ghost will reappear from time to time at the same location, carrying out the same actions. Whether the appearance occurs at regular intervals is less well attested, although there is some general indication that similar external circumstances tend to bring about such sightings. An explanation for this is provided by Duplication Theory as follows. If an individual performs a routine task in a mindless manner, or perhaps has some obsession that repeats repeatedly in his mind while he obsessively executes an aimless routine task, time and time again, then here is a duplication of brain pattern in the same location at perhaps regular intervals, day in, day out. If the external circumstances of furniture in a room, the room itself within a house, which then remains on relatively undisturbed with regards to the surrounding countryside, surround this obsessive repetition of pattern of thought, then here is a fine stage for the demonstration of the space duplication effect, which would predict a resonance through time of similar holocepts.
Not only would perhaps the holocepts in the brain be duplicated but also the pattern of nerve firings in the whole body, which would provide a very great complexity of duplication of patterns. This might produce enough morphic resonance to be detected by a sensitive observer under the correct conditions, of similarity of external circumstances. Such a possible explanation goes slightly against the more commonly and easily held explanation that a really significant or horrific event makes such a deep impression on a particular location ~ as argued for precognition above ~ that it might tend to resonate down through time. However, the argument in precognition was that a single significant or horrifying event observed or experienced by large numbers produces a resonance of that event, whereas in haunting, it is the repetition of many similar events by one person that causes the resonance.
The argument here is that either single people of very dull and boring routine habits are more likely to be immortalised as a shade of the past, or perhaps most likely of all, obsessive personalities of regular habits, that live in houses that are likely to remain undisturbed for years. If the subjects of reported sightings were analysed for their qualities of boring repetitiveness and neurotic tendencies, assuming the spectre's history can be identified, then perhaps some new sightings on the subject and common behaviour patterns might be noted.
4.5 Activity of Mediums, & Life beyond Death.
In very general terms, the phenomenon of a sensitive medium communicating with a departed spirit, passing messages to some surviving relative could be justified by a mixture of the laws of probability and duplication theory at play, although it has already been indicated that these two are derived from the same source. If there is some grieving relative who strongly desires some message of comfort, then the medium in the intuitive trance state can telepathically gain from the latter a holoceptual image of the desired deceased subject and his personality. The latter could also be alive or not yet born. The suffering relative might be in a condition of some stress and therefore perhaps in an excellent transmitting state of some strong basic emotion~ obsessive grief~ which allied to a remembered image of the individual concerned, could be argued to produce a strong projective holoceptual image.
Once that holocept is caught by the medium, then instead of producing one sequence of perfect recall from the individual's life, which would be possible, the medium is able to produce the most likely response that the subject would have produced had he been there in person to answer the questions set. In a way, this would be the minimum energy principle in operation again, so that the most probable and most correct responses are given by the medium, representing the most likely pattern of information that the subject would have given, had he been there in person to do so. This is not to say that the concept of an afterlife for spirits is necessarily entirely misleading, but Duplication Theory indicates that there would be a pattern of events that could be predicted by the laws of probability, given the cell structure, gene pattern and history of an individual, produced in holocept form by the medium through telepathy. Thus a sensitive or medium could describe the actions that the individual would be taking given the circumstances of an afterlife.
No doubt the circumstances of the imagined afterlife differ from medium to medium (although no doubt a consensus has been built up over the years) and given the different parameters of each medium's version, the behaviour of the subject will be similar, having made adjustments for the different surroundings imposed by each medium. In short, a spirit represented by a medium, behaves in the way that it most probably would have in real life given the external circumstances imposed by that medium's ideas of afterlife and the usual desire by doing so. This brings some comfort to the person waiting for information and who is usually necessarily physically close to the medium. Perfect recall or reliving some episode in perfect detail tends to be produced by the regression an ordinary subject hypnotised to deep trance state. A medium or sensitive has an extra ability to produce the equivalent to a trance state while remaining conscious and thus able to insert required holocepts into that part of the mind that remains in random motion.
Once the holocept of the absent personality is lodged in the medium's mind, then not only is that a mere visual image, but through the operation of intuition and the perfect duplication by the random mind of the medium, there could be duplication of structure in detail of cell patterns, perhaps down to the genes and even the level of groups of memory molecules. If this were to occur, and duplication theory indicates that at least it is possible, given great sensitivity of the medium as a perfectly random receiver of holocepts, for the medium to be able to reproduce exactly how the subject would have responded to a certain sort of question or set of circumstances.
There forms in the medium's brain a holocept of the construction of the subject's brain cells and its pattern of operation. It would tend to duplicate the most likely way that it would respond to a question, assuming that question can be inserted somehow into the medium's mind to surround the subject's holocept. This is because the theory indicates that, given the quantum uncertainty of the random motion of the particles causing the holocepts, they will move to the position of least energy, which is that which truthfully duplicates the action of the original. If there is no particular sequence for the holocept to duplicate then it will do the next best thing and a sequence of pattern of behaviour in which the original would have behaved given those circumstances, according to probability.
4.6 Psycho kinesis.
The power of mind over matter is more problematical, but might be rationalised to an extent as follows. The subject concentrates initially concentrates upon the object to be affected, to take in as much information about it as he can on a conscious level, so that a fairly accurate holocept is formed in the mind. Then the mind is put into the random trance state, and the object recalled. The operation of duplication theory indicates that if the mind was in very near perfect random motion, the holocept formed would then be a very near perfect replica of the object, provided it was relatively small and not too complex so that the holocept of a single mind could contain the necessary information down to minute detail of structure. If the object were large, of say an elephant, then the detail of the holocept contained by a single mind would inevitably be sketchy.
However, if the object, were small enough, say a kitchen fork, then the holocept produced in the mind through morphic resonance in the trance state, could be accurate in detail down perhaps even to molecular structure: duplication theory indicates that such accuracy could occur if the mind were in pure enough random state. No doubt this is why it seems that preadolescent children tend to have the psychokinetic ability to a far greater extent than adults do. Their minds have not yet been conditioned enough by the demands of survival to lose the ability to switch into the conscious random state, which only very few sensitive adults retain. If the holocept is an accurate duplicate of the object at molecular level, then the potential to convert rest mass into radiation energy starts to increase, which could release very large energy for a minute loss in mass. Certainly the energy required to bend a fork would represent a minute loss in mass.
However, a more likely explanation for the bending of such a fork might be as follows: As soon as the holocept in the mind accurately duplicates the fork down to its molecular structure, it could be argued that there is some genuine doubt as to which is the real object and which the replica. The fork has been copied by the holocept, but if the observer then deliberately moves the holocept in his mind, or at least changes its molecular structure, then in order that the minimum energy principle be observed, there might be a tendency for the molecular structure in the fork to follow the changes imposed by intelligence on the holocept. In other words if the observer then makes the holocept of the fork in his mind bend, perhaps by weakening its rigidity in some molecular change requiring the minimum of structure change, then the real fork will duplicate this action and also bend. It would obviously take far greater degrees of control to make the fork bend into a specific required shape.