In an introduction to a volume Garrett edited of an anthology, Beyond the Five Senses, from her “Tomorrow Magazine”, the psychic version as apart from the earlier literary version I resonated to statements from the 1950’s that I think bear repeating as a reminder for those of us presently engaged in psychical research and parapsychology.
“In thinking of any science in its modern form, it is well that we remember the deep roots it has in the past. What is called parapsychology, for example, began when ancient man now forgotten observed a body of phenomena and tried to explain it. It must be freely acknowledged that in the past of every science there is a background of what today we call superstition. Yet the very elements we now describe as superstition were, if we will reflect, simply the best thought of those times. As human knowledge grows, what was most surely believed yesterday becomes the jest of today, and there is no reason for us to believe that, even with all our progress, twentieth century science is exempt from this continually recurring process. An observer standing on the vantage point of the twenty-fifth century will quite probably describe much of what seems irrefragable to us as “twentieth century superstition”. I make this observation not to belittle science in any respect, but because it is important to all of us, whether scientists or not, to view everything in perspective. And, as Havelock Ellis pointed out years ago in The Dance of Life, we tend to imagine we understand what we really do not understand, simply because we have given it a name. We use the terms “attraction” and “repulsion,” for example, in modern physics, though properly speaking they are anthropomorphisms and have no actual scientific meaning. The mere use of similar terms which describe externally without conveying what really happens may itself get between us and the truth by permitting us to indulge the illusion that we have stated it.
There is, of course, another side to this coin. Beliefs held in one generation, ridiculed in the next and held in low esteem by many following generations, have sometimes been found in the end to be not superstition at all, but to be soundly based on realities the intervening generations did not know. This has been the case most notably in the healing arts and sciences, though by no means confined to them. It has also been true of the study of the mind and its capacities. To laugh confidently at something because it is old and commonly held to be outmoded, one must first make certain that his is the last laugh.
From ancient times, as has been noted, there has been a consistent body of data describing what we now call paranormal psychic phenomena. Granted that certain explanations given for this data in the past may have been fantastic, it is incumbent upon us to remember that fact and explanation must be evaluated separately, without throwing some attested happening into the trash can because someone has given it what now appears a ludicrous explanation. Some ancients, for example, observing an eclipse of the sun, declared that it was not visible because it had been swallowed by a great dog, for which they even had a name. Is it necessary to dispute, on the basis of this, that the eclipse actually took place? Hardly. The explanation we reject, though the fact remains. And belief in any fact established by competent evidence can never be truly called superstition.
The first serious studies of paranormal phenomena of the mind were made by scientifically trained men in Great Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century. Their researches established that the experiences examined did not accord with the mechanistic, deterministic physical science of their day. Had it been found in such accord, of course, it would now be totally out of accord with the anti-mechanistic science of our day. Some of the facts of psychic research uncovered then not only violated the teachings of science as then conceived, but added to the conflicts between scientists and religious philosophers. Today the same facts often tend to draw the two together…
What of the future? In general it seems to me that two branches of science in particular are drawing very close in their subject matter, though they are extremely diverse in many ways: modern physics and modern psychology. Inescapably, they are coming to a place of meeting, and the scene of that meeting will be the area of human personality. Each has much to give to and learn from the other in the study of man. Is it too much to hope and to expect that the great mass of data provided by parapsychology can act as a bridge by which they can be bought together in the study of man himself, incomparably the most interesting and important fact in our universe?”
Certainly Garrett set up to amass data through the agency of those researchers and academicians that PF supported since its inception in 1951 along with her writings and personal explorations and research during her lifetime. I myself growing up and around the field and working at the PF for now I somewhat shockingly realize for 54 years, by virtue of my longevity while being too engaged and too stubborn to quit, have seen various trends and nomenclature come and go. And yet Garrett’s reminder is still valuable when we seek to contemplate the entire reach of paranormal phenomena. I have personally seen certain research endeavors fall into disfavor and sometimes into disrepute but to sometimes years later just as Garrett’s beloved logo of an ever widening spiral wafting skyward illustrates to return to add forgotten concepts and emphasis on bits and pieces of comprehension that can be added to current day thought.
There is still so much to be done and understood and synthesized for the benefit of humankind. I would so hope that Parapsychology Foundation could continue its mission, though very difficult to envision without financial support. Please consider a tax exempt donation. I can only pray for the miracle of an endowment to be able to continue our good works. I am, however, convinced and thus reassured that there are workers in the field that will take up the banner of our past efforts who we have supported should we be unable to continue our mission as we have been for the past 72 years with focused intent able to plant many seeds in support of students the world over in various disciplines who are positioned to capably continue the search for more complete answers to the questions raised by psychic phenomena that still elude us. As Garrett was fond of saying and PF utilizes as its mantra “Onwards and upwards”.