Book Report: Psycho-Kinesis by Adrian Clark -- Metaphsyical c.1973

 Psycho-Kinesis: Moving Matter with the Mind (C) 1973 by Adrian Clark, Parker Publishing

Background Information: The publisher of this book is Parker Publishing, a company that specialized in self help and metaphysical books in the 60s and 70s (they're still around and still selling the same titles: https://parker-publishing-company.myshopify.com/) I have to say that I'm an avid collector of these books! I used to find them for a few dollars in used book stores and on line, but recently they seem to have become much more popular (and expensive). They're a lot of fun to read, and most follow a standard format--an irresistible title, a series of inspiring anecdotes how various people made their dreams come true with whatever the book is teaching, and usually a nice recap at the end of each chapter.

This book is a bit of an oddity. The book is less about Psychokinesis than it is about the author's theory of psychic powers in general. So if you're passionate about moving things with your mind, you'll have to be patient with this book. Nevertheless, you'll still get some interesting and unusual thoughts and theories about psychic phenomena, and, of course, some pointers for your own experiments. 

The author is clearly very religious, and feels that faith is a cornerstone of all psychic abilities. It's vital that you have faith in your abilities, but also that asking for help from higher powers will greatly enhance your abilities. At the same time, he works in the aerospace sciences. He tries to reconcile psychic phenomena with physics by crediting psychic energy to photons, which, at the time of his writing, were known to be powerful, massless and spring in and out of being spontaneously, and for that reason, are worthy of scientific research. It also seems to reconcile with some biblical concepts about light. He has clearly done a lot of research and discusses various other theories on the subject, including Kundalini energy and something called "Vol" energy. 

Around about Chapter 6 he offers several exercises and discusses the necessary qualities to cultivate for success, including faith, confidence and concentration. If you're looking for the how-to section, this is it. 

I tended to get the feeling that this book was actually made up from various lectures of articles that the author had presented elsewhere and compiled for the book, since there's a bit of redundancy, and some terms that seem to apply to universal themes through the book occur only once. 

Interestingly, and I guess in an attempt to fuse his religious perspective with a scientific one, he regards many of the bible stories in terms of his photon theory and even views Jesus as an extraterrestrial. Of further interest is that he and his fellow experimenters were also NASA researchers! 

Book Report: The Power of Hypnosis by Hans Holzer -- Hypnosis discussion and Some How-to

The Power of Hypnosis, How Mind-to-Mind Communication Works (c)1973 by Hans Holzer

Background Information: Hans Holzer, a tireless researcher of the paranormal, is the author of over 100 books on various aspects of the paranormal, and has been the inspiration for a number of TV shows about the paranormal. He often worked with well known spirit mediums, including Sybil Leek, who was quite popular in the 1960s. Most recently, his work with various mediums and haunted houses, has been revisited by the 2019 TV show, The Holzer Files (fittingly, 13 years after his death).
You can read more about Holzer on the web and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holzer

This book, The Power of Hypnosis, is a fairly slim volume of under 100 pages. 

As a hypnotist, I have to say I found parts of the book a little bit silly. I'm not sure if he's playing to the public fear of hypnosis, or whether he just had an antiquated view on the irresistible power of hypnosis. (old time psychologists feared that hypnosis had the power to easily control and even harm the unwary. This was probably based on Freud's belief that the subconscious mind was a kind of wild animal that the conscious mind was always fighting to keep under control, and hypnosis might allow that wild animal to slip the leash). So the book opens warning the public of "involuntary" hypnosis in the form of advertising, and you should constantly examine yourself for covert influences (to buy more oatmeal, perhaps?).

He recommends hypnosis for pain control and to help with mediumistic trances, especially to remove residual spirits after the seance, and gener4ally for therapeutic purposes, but not for past-life regressions or other psychic phenomena. (about a third of the way into the book, he finally admits hypnosis isn't really dangerous when done correctly). 

There is  fair bit of discussion of how to apply hypnosis and for what. He describes his own method of hypnotizing people, which is a simple, authoritarian narrative induction (he tells a story that puts people to sleep). He distinguishes three levels of trance depth with the second and third suitable for suggestions.Before discussing other, non-hypnotic phenomena, like reincarnation, Deja Vu and "time slips" where someone physically slips into another time and place! 

The chapter on Emotional Hypnosis is actually fairly interesting, in that he describes how emotional states can access the subconscious to dissociate the consciousness and facilitate trance, and how various practices like tribal drums, incense and even Frank Sinatra's singing can lead to a dissociative trance. 

BTW, despite the subtitle, "mind-to-mind communication" isn't mentioned until the last few pages of the book, and then only to say that hypnotic suggestions must bev persuasive to be effective. 

Worth mentioning is his chapter on "Silent Hypnosis" where he discusses how the eyes can project a beam of energy particles that can influence another person's mind directly! Ah, if only it were true! I presume he got this from some olde tyme mesmerists. He suggests experimenting with it by projecting commands silently with your eyes to get others to do things. 

Overall, this is a fun book about psychic phenomena. The approach to hypnosis is limited and antiquated, but his observations on the power of emotional suggestions as well as his extensive knowledge of practices around the world are thought provoking.

Book Report: Wehman's Bros Practical Hypnosis and Mesmerism (c.1900's) -- Hypno History

 Wehman Bros Practical Hypnosis and Mesmerism, no author or copyright date listed. 

Background information: Wehman Brothers was a pulp publisher at the turn of the century located at Park Row in NY, the publishing center of the city in the 19th century, with an extensive catalog of titles on nearly every topic imaginable, including sports, letter writing, stage skills, and jokebooks. Their books were usually inexpensively printed on newsprint, sized to fit in a back pocket and sold inexpensively. This volume is printed on glossy paper and bears the "Zone Code" of "New York 3 NY" indicating it is probably from the 1940s, since our 5-digit "Zip Code" didn't come into use until the early 1963. Wehman Brothers Publishing appear to have survived from the 19th century and are still working in some capacity as an intermediary publisher. 

If you're interested in the historical evolution of hypnosis from Mesmerism to the present day, this booklet is a great place to start. Many books put out by Wehman Bros. were taken from other sources, and this book is literally taken from someone else's work--for one thing, the first page in the booklet is marked page 35. 

The author of this work was apparently working at a time early in the 20th century when hypnosis was being to displace Mesmerism, and he was clearly well experienced in both arts. (FYI: in a nutshell, hypnosis induces trance though verbal suggestion and fixed attention, and occasionally some other elements, while Mesmerism believes it induces trance through the projection of "Animal Magnetism" from the practitioner to the subject via "magnetic passes" of the hands and the "Magnetic Gaze" of the eyes. It's something like Chinese chi-gung therapy, or laying on of hands). 

The first part of the book describes the characteristics of mesmerism, including the best qualities for a mesmerist and for a mesmeric subject, how to cultivate the mesmeric aura and transmit it to a subject. In addition to describing his method, the author quotes several other experts, who I presume were well respected mesmerists of their day, for additional advice and insight. 

He closes the discussion of mesmerism by warning the practitioner that Mesmerism is slow and unspectacular, and if one is performing for an audience, it is better to employ the new science of hypnosis. 

The hypnosis portion of the book is pretty basic, and of more interest for historical purposes. The author include the methods of some of the leaders of the early 20th century, including James Braid, Albert Moll, and James Coates. 

There is a discussion of phrenohypnosis (phrenology and hypnosis, something I've never read about elsewhere!), medical mesmerism, charging water with mesmeric power, and hypnotizing animals.

Despite the small size of this book, it does contain a lot of information and attempts to earnestly present useful information and aspiring mend control enthusiast can practice.

Book Report: Hypnotism by Walter Gibson -- How-to c.1970

Hypnotism (c) 1970 by Walter Gibson

Background Information: Before we get into the book, it's worth taking a minute to get to know the author. He is most well known for writing hundreds of stories for the immensely popular crime-fighting character The Shadow in the 1930s and 40s, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant. (The Shadow was a mysterious figure with the power to cloud men's minds! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow). He was also a stage magician credited with creating and popularizing several very famous tricks ("effects," as magicians prefer to call them), and he and his wife wrote a number of books on divination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_B._Gibson 

Gibson's Book on Hypnotism is very much a solid and traditional kind introduction to the art of hypnosis. He opens the book with a discussion of what he calls "mass hypnosis" such as the Islamic whiling dervishes, Native American ghost dancers, and even the Woodstock festival. (Whether or not these examples of ritualistic trance behavior are exactly hypnosis is a matter of interpretation). 

The next few chapters describe the history of hypnosis from Paracelsus to Mesmer to the modern day. He includes a discussion of Emil Coue's Autosuggestion (what we call affirmations these days) and talks about how Houdini and others used autosuggestion to enable them to do superhuman feats, like holding their breath for incredibly long times when doing escape tricks. 

From here on, he presents the usual stock and trade of formal hypnosis. There's a chapter on convincers, then a series of different inductions, and then depth tests, and of course how to formulate post hypnotic suggestions and what undesirable suggestions to avoid. 

His Three Rules for Hypnotists are excellent:
1) Never hypnotize someone without formal consent
2) Always have a third person present
3) Always give suggestions for the client's best interests

As a standard text book for beginners, it's pretty good. I personally think some of his inductions are a bit complicated, but every practitioner has his own style.

Book Report: You Are Psychic! -- Psychic Ability Exercises

 

You Are Psychic! The Free Soul Method (c) 1989 by Pete A. Sanders

To be perfectly honest, I bought this at the same time as Holzer's Are You Psychic? just so I could put them side by side on my shelf. (https://successworkhypnosis.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-report-are-you-psychic-by-hans.html)

While a lot of these books on psychic abilities are a mixture of academic discussion, theory, anecdote and experiments, Sanders' book puts forth a very clear, workable, kind of course outline for developing one's mystical abilities. And no surprise, really, since this appears to be something he taught for many years (and still does, in Sedona https://freesoul.net/), so it's very easy to read and follow, having been presented many times before. 

What's interesting about Sanders is that he claims to have begun to develop his methods while doing research on the topic while a student at MIT. Sadly, there's no direct quotes of the research material he produced while at MIT, which I would have been interested to see. 

What distinguishes Sanders' Free Soul method is that he categorizes nine human senses--the usual five physical ones, and then four additional psychic ones: Psychic Feeling, Psychic Knowing (intuition), Psychic Vision (clairvoyance) and Psychic Hearing (clairaudience). He feels most people have a natural proclivity towards one of two of these, and that is reflected in the person's character traits, much the way NLP draws associations between a person's preferred sensory modality and some of their behavioral traits (not all NLP folks support that, BTW). 

He also feels his research has discovered specific areas in the body where these psychic senses are located. Interestingly, these are similar to some of the colorfully named places in Frank Rudolph Young's work from several decades before. For example, Sanders locates clairaudience in the temporal lobes of the brain above the ears, as does Young, who names this area the "brain horns."

Sanders book is a easy to understand and to follow and clearly a labor of both love and experience. I can't say I've really applied myself to the exercises, but if I were looking for a book to learn Psychic abilities from, I'd guess that this would be a good one.

Book Report: Are You Psychic? by Hans Holzer -- Psychic Phenomena and exercizes

Book Report: Are You Psychic? (c) 1997 by Hans Holzer 

Background Information: The author, Hans Holzer, was a passionate paranormal researcher with over 100 books to his credit, and produced a great deal of research material (perhaps more sensational than hard-science, but still very interesting). More information can be found at his wiki entry, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holzer

This short, edifying book on psychic phenomena is a great introduction to the topic of psychic phenomena. He clarifies and distinguishes a variety of the terms and concepts which often get muddled together, such at telepathy, clairvoyance, extraocular vision, psychometry, trance mediumship, astral projection, bilocation and other exotic powers of the mind. He even distinguishes four different kind of dreams, both psychic and psychological. 

I imagine the biggest attraction of this book are the practice exercises with which you can experiment and possibly develop your own occult powers, and there are a few things you can try for yourself. 

If you want to explore your own potential, or just want to learn more about the variety of psychic phenomena, this book is a great source.

Just for fun, I bought this at the same time as Sanders' You Are Psychic! https://successworkhypnosis.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-report-you-are-psychic.html because they looked good side by side on the shelf! But I think they're both good additions to a mind-science library.

Book report: Parapsychology Today -- Research Methodology c. 1968

Parapsychology Today (C) 1968 by Rhine and Brier

Background Information: If you're looking for more hard science in your ESP research, this is the book for you. This book is a compilation of research papers and discussions performed under the auspices of the Rhine Research center, an independent facility originally part of Duke University (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Research_Center). 

The theme that runs through almost all of the experiments is on testing methodology, since psychic powers have some unusual elements to consider. How do you quantify results to tell whether someone is psychically perceiving the unknowable, or just guessing? Guessing, it turns out, produces a random average of about 50%, so you'd imagine subjects with psychic perceptions would score above 50%. They do, but strangely, so do subjects that score consistently below average. So the data has to be screened for variance from the mean, not just percentages. And then there seems to be a change in accuracy to do with the duration of the testing. (If you've taken any college psych courses, you probably suffered through some obtuse discussions of testing methods, so you'll find this applied demonstration of the method very edifying). 

Of course, there are descriptions of the specific experiments including psychokinesis, precognition and so forth, and also the way that an individual's beliefs if the possibility of psychic powers affected their test scores. (It seems "sheep" adamantly believe in psychic power, and score higher than "goats" who are unbelievers). Gender differences were also explored in regard to the type of results. 

The final part of the book includes transcripts and papers presented at panel discussions on the topics of the future of Paranormal Research and advice to students considering going into the field.