I was recently reshelving a seminal volume by the late Dr. Lawrence LeShan, The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist and paused to leaf through it and refresh my memory. I am so glad I did and I urge you to take a read as well as minds more astute than mine have found his “general theory of the paranormal” thought provoking to say the least. My interest is not solely based on LeShan’s subject, Eileen J. Garrett, as I believe she is just representative of those who have psychic proclivities.
Taken from the cover’s flyleaf “It is clear to all of us,” writes psychologist Lawrence LeShan, “that clairvoyance and precognition are ‘impossible’—impossible, that is, within the perfectly valid, commonsense framework of everyday ‘sensory’ reality. Yet the seemingly impossible does happen, and occurrence of the strangest phenomena are far too numerous and too well documented to ignore. To explain them by saying ‘spirits do it’ only compounds the paradox, unless we understand that there is another equally valid way of looking at the world, a way LeShan has named the Clairvoyant Reality: a coherent, organized world picture described by three groups of individuals—mediums, mystics and physicists in strikingly similar terms.”
Having been fortunate to have had a personal close relationship with Larry I smiled as I went on to read his commentary which was so recognizable to me following what I used to refer to as my “private tutorials”. He writes: “Since the beginning of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882 (and long before), serious men of very high caliber have been trying hard to answer the question ‘How does the sensitive do it?’ It has seemed impossible to arrive at a meaningful explanation. The whole situation flies so much in the face of common sense that we mentally stagger in circles trying to understand it. There is, however, a scientific article of faith that seemed helpful to me. It is the knowledge that if serious people work for a long time on a question and do not get an answer, they are asking the wrong question. So often in scientific history what has seemed to be an absolute impasse, a totally hopeless situation in our quest for understanding has opened up and been bypassed when someone has asked a new question about the problem. What question should I ask? Psychical research had failed with ‘How does the sensitive get the information?’ and ‘How is it transmitted?’ I decided to try this new one: ‘What is the relationship between the sensitive and the rest of reality at the moment when paranormal information is being acquired?’ Instead of asking ‘how’ it is done, I was now asking ‘What is going on when it is done; what is the structure of the total situation when the paranormal event happens? This is a quite different question, and one I thought that might, perhaps lead me further.”
Moving on Larry goes on to explain “ In the special moments of paranormal perception, I discovered from the writings of the clairvoyants… it is the unity of all things that is seen as most important, their relationships rather than their individual and unique characteristics that are seen as crucial. The ordinary way of perceiving starts with each ‘thing’ (entity or event) seen first as separate and unique and that is what is most important about it. Only secondarily do we go to its relationships with other entities or events. In the paranormal moment of perception (which I called the ‘ Clairvoyant Reality,’ the reality perceived when ESP is taking place) we start just in the opposite manner. All ‘things’ (entities and events) are related, and that is what is most important. Only secondarily do we go to its separate or individual characteristics. It is as if we are turning reality upside down. In the ordinary way of looking at things (which I called the ‘Sensory Reality’ the reality in which we gain information through our senses), we start with the individual thing and then proceed to its relationship with other things. In the Clairvoyant Reality we start with the relationships and then go on to the individual…In the Clairvoyant Reality, say the sensitives, time takes on quite a different structure. All the events are they do not happen. All the events of the past, present and future exist; it is only the narrow window we usually look through that makes them seem to ‘happen,’ that makes the present visible. ‘Everything that was, is, and if you are a sensitive you stumble on it,’ said Mrs. Garrett. She has also described clairvoyance as undivided and whole, one perceives the object or event in the past, present and/or future in abruptly swift successions.’ And elsewhere Mrs. Garrett wrote: ‘On clairvoyant levels there exists simultaneity of time, and the clairvoyant message may concern future events and future relationships which today seem impossible, or meaningless to the person to whom they are revealed.’
I hope Larry’s work entices you to further make inroads personally as to how you think it all works…if in fact it does. Personally I tend to need to take small bites of the material to better digest and when that settles go back to the banquet that is psychic functioning. So be prepared in future I will be sharing with you other appetizing morsels. Happy Fall!