One of my fondest experiences writing on psychical research has been the opportunity to meet Russell Targ, the austensible ‘father’ of Remote Viewing and a leading player in the U.S. government’s psychic spy program. Targ’s work in the field of consciousness studies parallels his work as a pioneering laser physicist active at Lockheed Martin for a number of decades up until his retirement, and there is an interesting resonance in meditating on the career of a man who created laser guidance systems in the outer world, while also developing the Remote Viewing procedures which provide the mind with something not so dissimilar.
While the skeptical sub-culture likes to portray psychical research as some far out New Age pursuit, those active in it at the professional level are rarely soft minded pseudo-scientists. Targ’s work in the field of psychical research provides the same kind of practical insights in terms of consciousness that his work in the field of lasers did for practically applying the physical sciences to everday problems (albeit, with Lockheed Martin, he was dealing with a different sort of ‘everyday.)
When Ken Jordan and I were discussing possible titles for the Reality Sandwich 2.0 section on psi and consciousness, we realized that Targ’s book Limitless Mind, provided the perfect sense of poignant de-mystification and practical application that we hope to explore with the articles, videos, and blog posts featured in this section. It also expressed the simplicity that attends these areas when you are able to step out of the biased dialogue between ‘skeptics’ and ‘believers.’ The scientific method is about exploring reality, not belief, and the reality is that psychical research has shown some very provocative results that need to be addressed in order to gain any sort of insight into the true inner workings of our shared reality.
The synopsis of Limitless Mind, from Targ’s website, speaks very well to this integral nature of what scientist’s refer to as psi functioning:
“For decades, the work of Russell Targ and other scientists has demonstrated that our minds have extraordinary abilities we are only beginning to understand. Learning to use these abilities–from remote viewing to precognition to intuitive medical diagnoses to distant healing–leads to a quiet mind, the experience of the interconnectedness of all beings, and, ultimately, the transformation of consciousness.
This breakthrough book, based on two decades of research at the Stanford Research Institute and elsewhere, clearly presents the scientific support for remote viewing and the phenomenon of “nonlocality”. It explains these phenomena in clear terms and offers practical, concrete steps you can take to guide you in your own experiences of remote viewing and distant healing.
Even more important, Russell Targ shows us in these pages that timeless existence is real and has been experienced for centuries by those practicing meditation and remote viewing. Best of all, he gives us the tools to experience it for ourselves.”
What we were able to do with Psi in the News to bring this information to the wider public, we are looking forward to expanding and integrating into the new Limitless Minds section of the Reality Sandwich website. We are very excited to invite you on a journey to the far reaches of the human experience, and hope that you will gain a deeper sense of life’s beauty and complexity through interacting with the resources that we gather here. Most of all we hope to honor Russell Targ, and all of the other pioneers who have pursued these topics with rigor and passion in the hopes that their work can in some small way help bring us to a better understanding of ourselves and world in which we live.
