The Reality of ESP: A Physicist's Proof of Psychic Abilities - Softcover

Targ, Russell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0835608840 ISBN 13: 9780835608848

Publisher: Quest Books, 2012

Synopsis

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 DeFreeze, 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

As a scientist, Targ demands proof. His experience is based on two decades of investigations at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), which he cofounded 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. The experiments they conducted routinely presented results could have happened by chance less than once in a million. Targ describes four types of experiments:

1. Remote Viewing, in which a person describes places and events independent of space and time. For example, while in California Price drew to scale a Soviet weapons factory at Semipalitinsk with great accuracy later confirmed by Satellite photography. In another remote viewing, Targ accurately sketched an airport in San Andreas, Columbia himself.
2. Distant Mental Influence, where the thoughts of the experimenter can positively or negatively affect the physiology (heart rate, skin resistance, etc.) of a distant person.
   
3. Whole field isolation, where someone in a state of sensory isolation accurately describes the visual experiences of someone else in another place
4. Precognition and retrocausality, showing that the future can affect the past. That is, the elephant you see on television in the morning can be the cause of your having dreamed about elephants the previous night.

Final chapters present evidence for survival after death; explain how ESP works based on the Buddhist/Hindu view of our selves as nonlocal, eternal awareness; discuss the ethics of exercising psychic abilities,and show us how to explore ESP ourselves. "I am convinced," Targ says, "that most people can learn to move from their ordinary mind to one not obstructed by conventional barriers of space and time. Who would not want to try that?"

About this title

About the Author

Russell Targ is a physicist and author, and was a pioneer in the development of the laser and laser applications. He holds his B.S. in Physics from Queens College, and did graduate work in physics at Columbia University. Targ has received two National Aeronautics and Space Administration awards for inventions and contributions in lasers and laser communications, and has published over one hundred scientific papers on lasers, plasma physics and ESP research. In the 1970s and 1980s, Targ co-founded and worked for the CIA-sponsored Stanford Research Institute's investigation into psychic abilities. His work in this new area, called remote viewing, was published in Nature, The Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and in Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1983 and 1984, he accepted invitations to present remote viewing demonstrations and address the USSR Academy of Sciences on this research. In 1997, Targ retired from Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space Co. as a senior staff scientist, where he developed airborne laser systems for the detection of windshear. Targ now teaches remote viewing workshops worldwide and continues to write. He is co-author of eight books dealing with the scientific investigation of psychic abilities, including Limitless Mind: A Guide to Remote Viewing, Transformation of Consciousness, and his autobiography Do You See What I See?: Memoirs of a Blind Biker. Russell Targ is also an editor, publisher, songwriter, producer and teacher. He lives in Palo Alto, California with his wife Patricia.

Review

"A scientist shares his years of cutting-edge research and discovery in psychic abilities: remote viewing, extrasensory perception, mental influence, space and time, healing at a distance and "how it all works: the physics of miracles."
--Light of Consciousness


"In this witty and informative new book, physicist-author and renowned psi researcher Targ summarizes three decades of research into psychic phenomena, describing the evidence as "so strong as to be logically or probabilistically unreasonable to deny." From psychic policemen and stock market predictions to military programs and the "physics of miracles," the realm of ESP is varied and deep, and Targ covers it all. He concludes with a chapter on how to cultivate one's own paranormal abilities." --The Noetic Post

"In The Reality of ESP: A Physicist's Proof of Psychic Abilities, Russell Targ shares his comprehensive scientific research to provide convincing evidence that by quieting our minds we can access information in the field of potentiality where there is no distance in space and time" --Deepak Chopra, author of War of the Worldview

"This book, detailing its author's many successful investigations into the paranormal, should make those who deny the possible existence of such phenomena think again." --Brian Josephson, Nobel Laureate in Physics and Emeritus Professor, Physics, University of Cambridge

"For decades, physicist Russell Targ has produced some of the most significant scientific research ever conducted on the nature of consciousness. He has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the mind can function without limitation in space and time, and that this ability is widespread, teachable, and practical. The Reality of ESP is an inspiring description of who we really are, and why we should not settle for less" --Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words and The Power of Premonitions

Edition details

• Publisher: Quest Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0835608840
• ISBN 13: 9780835608848
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 312