Those Pesky Paradigms
By Dane Spotts
Why is PSI TECH and remote viewing so controversial
and misunderstood? Well, in essence we are selling the idea of round-the-world cruises to
people who still think the world is flat. When you describe Technical Remote Viewing to someone
who has no experience or knowledge base regarding it, you usually see them roll their eyes into
the back of their head. "Remote what? Is that like some psychic thing?" Remote Viewing can't possibly
be real. Collecting data about people and events remote in time and space with just a pen, paper,
and alert mind sounds like an invention of a modern day PT Barnum. Yet almost all Americans believe
they possess ESP or a sixth sense.
So why is it so hard to believe in the possibility of technology that taps into and focuses
that innate ability? A technology the Pentagon spent $20 million developing and kept secret for 17 years.
For those of us who have learned the skill of TRV by installing the protocols into our autonomic nervous system and perform TRV on a daily basis, we are constantly amazed by the fact that the human mind really can do this. And because we have become so immersed in our own TRV culture, we tend to forget what it was like before we learned this skill. If it's still incredible for those of us who practice TRV that we possess this ability, it must be totally incredulous to someone who has no idea what it even is.
Humans have a long history of not accepting new ideas until forced to, usually because their very survival is at stake. In the words of Ghandi, "First they laugh at you, then they fear you, then they fight you, then you win." The process for a new paradigm or belief system to become established in a society, can take generations.
But why? Why do new ideas that benefit mankind to such a degree as remote viewing, cause such defensive angst?
Galileo Found Guilty Of Heresy
Travel back in time with me. The year is 1633. The headline on this spring day throughout Europe reads, "Galileo Found Guilty of Heresy: Condemned to Life Imprisonment For Publishing That The Earth Moves." Galileo invented the telescope. His observations strengthened his belief in Copernicus' theory that Earth and all other planets revolve around the Sun. Most people in Galileo's time believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that the Sun and planets revolved around it. The Catholic Church was the ruling authority of the day and when Galileo published his paper on his theory, it infuriated the Pope. So the Pope ordered Galileo imprisoned for life to prevent him from further disseminating his discoveries.
Ever wonder why whenever you discuss politics or religion to people whose ideas oppose yours they immediately become entrenched and ultra-defensive about their beliefs? Even the most intelligent and logically minded are reduced to emotionally charged argument and fights. It's because they are protecting their paradigms. A paradigm is a belief system. It's a set of shared assumptions, and values that constitute a way of viewing reality. These fundamental beliefs do not change easily in individuals or cultures. Usually not until a person repeatedly encounters evidence that Reality is simply not as one had thought it was.
The first response to evidence that challenges an existing paradigm is to deny it. We accuse such people of fraud or even witchcraft and convince ourselves that the evidence that seems so contrary to our reality as we know it simply does not exist. When a belief system is threatened because it is in conflict with cultural institutions or an individual's paradigms it evokes a survival response. Wars are started over such ideological conflicts.
Shifting Paradigms: Stretching Things To Fit
But as the evidence accumulates and is so strong that we can no longer dismiss it we must accept that something is going on that doesn't seem possible according to our existing paradigm. This is the point that an individual experiences what is called a paradigm shift. When this happens we bend our previous paradigm to fit the new problematic evidence.
An example of such stretching occurred during the days of the Wright Brothers and their battle for manned flight. What most don't realize is that it took years after the flight in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, before the idea caught on that heavier than air machines were invented that allowed man to fly. Most people laughed at first and assumed it was a fraud. The U.S. government was offered Wright Brothers flying machines, but they were not taken seriously until almost a decade later. The evidence began to pile up and the paradigm shifted, that such a thing was scientifically possible. Once this new paradigm was accepted, it revolutionized travel as we know it and changed society forever.
Usually paradigm shifts move "bottom-up" in a grass-roots way, so it is not uncommon for the power structures of a culture to feel highly threatened by paradigm shifts that seem to contradict the current view of reality. Such power structures may respond by passively resisting change or even by actively combating it. They don't usually do this with conscious intent or malice, but merely in response to what appears to be "crazy" or "unreasonable" pressures from a paradigm outside their own -- which by definition seems "out of touch with Reality."
It Takes A New Mind - To See A New World
Technical Remote Viewing and the work of PSI TECH is "crazy" according to most existing paradigms of our society. No matter how many demonstrations one witnesses, until you do it yourself it's just too unreal to accept that the mind…your mind can really do this. And because it is a skill, it can not be executed with perfection by every individual, giving the status quo more ammo to shoot it down. The Wright Brothers first manned flight was only 12 seconds long and went 120 feet. Certainly not a big deal when we look at how the technology has evolved. But that 12 second flight was paradigm shattering, and ushered in a whole new era of possibilities for mankind.
The future holds great promise if we are brave enough to embrace new possibilities and set aside our need to protect existing paradigms. I firmly believe one of the greatest technology breakthroughs of the new millennium will be the development of our innate PSI functioning. But it is so profound and paradigm shattering that it will be fought tooth and nail by those individuals and institutions clinging to the existing belief structure.
It is part of our mission of PSI TECH to take on this quest. And to offer tools to all who wish them to develop their full potential as human beings.
Note: Carl Jung was shunned in his day for declaring that something called the unconscious mind existed. He stated before he died in 1961 that the inevitable development of the human "Intuition/Instinct" (PSI functioning) would be the next big change for mankind. We at PSI TECH believe that Technical Remote Viewing is the language that will actively precipitate that change.
