It is well known that our psychic or extrasensory (ESP) faculties can be active while we are in a variety of mental states including awake and highly alert, relaxed states, dreaming and in deeper trance-like conditions.  In the awake state, we may have a hunch, a sudden impulse for action, or experience a synchronicity.  We may even have a visual, auditory or other sensory impression that proves to be of an ESP origin.  Dreams have been known for centuries to be highly conducive for experiencing ESP, especially of situations that have not yet occurred.  Such precognitive dreams are the most common type of psychic dream and can be experienced by anyone.  Most of the reported psychic incidents are spontaneous and unplanned. However, with intention and perseverance, we can experience them most anytime, while awake or especially when asleep in dreams.  When we work with this latent psychic ability that we all have, we can begin to apply our talents to a variety of needs.

There are several terms commonly used to describe psychic phenomena.  It may be useful to review some of them to clarify what the terms mean.

1. Remote Viewing

The term, remote viewing (RV) refers to an unknown mental process that enables us to perceive spatial or temporal information that is shielded from our ordinary senses of sight, sound, taste, smell or touch.  This is essentially the same definition that has also been used for extrasensory perception (ESP), a term popularized by Dr. J.B. Rhine at the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory in the 1930s.  Remote viewing was first used by individuals at the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) in New York in the early 1970s and subsequently adapted by physicists who were researching this phenomenon at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International, Menlo Park, CA.  The emphasis on viewing resulted from the research objectives or describing concealed objects or pictures and distant scenes.  The early SRI research with distant sites (targets) typically had a beacon person or outbound experimenter travel to a randomly selected location.  A remote viewer sequestered in a room at SRI would then attempt while awake but relaxed, to describe that location primarily by making sketches of the visual impressions received during the experimental period or session.  It was discovered that sketches of the visual impressions usually correlated well with the features at the target area.  However, the remote viewer frequently misidentified them.  The RV process appeared to be more like pattern matching and was independent of how we know or name something.  This misnaming characteristic became even more apparent when the RV targets were pictures in sealed envelopes and there was no beacon person or target observer. This no observer protocol is referred to as double blind protocol.


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The term, remote viewing, also had political significance.  It avoided the unnecessary and often troublesome images of psychics and clairvoyants that popular media portrayed at that time.  During the early phase of RV research and the initial part of the STARGATE application activity, remote viewing was achieved by setting the intention to do so and then waiting expectantly for impressions. The emphasis was on encouragement, setting the objective, desire or intent, patience and practice. Later in the applications portion of the STARGATE program, certain procedures were developed as a type of training or learning method for assisting the RV process.  The researchers at SRI did not adopt these or any other methods.  They continued with the simpler approach of setting intention as the best method for initiating or facilitating the RV process.  This approach was successful even with individuals who had no prior psychic experiences.

Currently, there are individuals who are making unsubstantiated claims that method A or protocol B or something else is the only way to achieve RV, or that it is not RV unless certain procedures (or recipes) are vigorously followed.  There is nothing in the original definition of RV that presupposes the need for a particular approach.  This over-emphasis on procedures is probably for marketing purposes only.  Some individuals prefer such an approach, while others experience them as being too complex and cumbersome.  One size does not fit all.

Since the early RV research days, there has been an evolution in the meaning of the term, remote viewing.  Initially, the term really meant "viewing," as in visual type data.  RV practitioners now consider RV to include all other types of sensory impressions as well, and that RV can be for past or future situations, as in remote viewing of the future or precognition.

As you can see, what started as a neutral term to avoid associations to older terms such as clairvoyance, telepathy, or even precognition, has come full circle.  It was recognized early on that remote viewing was like clairvoyance or "clear seeing," a term used over a century ago by French investigators to describe phenomenon similar to remote viewing.  But is the term, remote viewing, the best one for describing the phenomenon?  For me, I prefer the term, psi.  I do use the term remote viewing to indicate a specific type of psi, particularly when pictures or real locations are the targets.

2. Psi Phenomena

In the early 1940s, British researchers at the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London used the symbol y, or psi, pronounced "sigh" as a neutral way of identifying psychic phenomena and to avoid presumptions as to what it was or how it functioned.  The term psi also distanced the researchers from unfavorable associations that were presented in the media and brought on by some psychic practitioners.  Psi has two aspects; either informational (i.e., ESP, clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition and now remote viewing), or energetic (i.e., mind-matter interaction or psychokinesis). 


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Psi also includes past or future (precognition) information and can occur in any type of mental state3/4awake, asleep or some other level of consciousness.  Psi, the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet is like "X," the unknown used in mathematical equations.  Psi, therefore, represents an unknown mental process and does not imply any explanatory or operating concept, nor does it focus on any specific sensory data type.

My preference is to use the term psi in my own research and writings.  All parapsychological researchers and some practitioners use this term.  As you may have noted, psi frequently appears in media presentations and general publications.  I use the terms, Conscious State Psi (CSP) and Dream State Psi (DSP) as an aid in keeping track of when psi occurs. 

It is often convenient to use a specific term such as remote viewing, clairvoyance, telepathy, or precognition depending on the situation.  These are subsets of psi and can help us understand something about the source of psi or how it is presented to conscious or dream awareness.

3. Telepathy

In the late 1800s, researchers at the Society for Psychical Research in London used the term telepathy, or "distant feeling," to represent instances of when someone felt that something had happened to another at a distant location.  This term followed from the emerging understanding of electromagnetic radiation and the telegraph.  Researchers suspected that in certain instances individuals could experience what someone distant felt through some type of electromagnetic radiation emitted by brain activity.  Today we know through experiments with shielded rooms that electromagnetics is not involved in how psi functions. Eventually, telepathy became associated with any type of information that someone knew, not only feelings or emotions.  Thus, telepathy continues to be commonly used to represent what appears to be direct mind-to-mind contact.  Telepathic connections can become known while awake and especially during sleep while dreaming.

There is considerable experimental and experiential evidence indicating the reality of something like telepathy.  Some of the results may have been from remote viewing or clairvoyance of the target pictures.  The most significant pioneering dream telepathy research occurred during the 1960s at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.  (See Dream Telepathy, Ullman, Krippner, Vaughn).  I have also performed independent research that replicates these results and confirms mind-to-mind connectivity.  Some psi researchers consider telepathy to be we accessing our knowledge of the time when we receive feedback of the psi task, and not us accessing what someone else sees or knows.  I consider both of these views as possible.  However, I lean strongly toward mind-to-other mind contact, and not me to my future knowledge. I plan to set up experiments later this year to explore whose mind is the source in telepathic experiments.


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Whatever or however, the evidence of telepathic information presented to us during dreaming is very strong.  During sleep we are indeed scanning our psyche and psychic regions, and we can often wake up recalling dreams with information that is shielded from our ordinary ways of sensing or knowing.

4. Sensing and Knowing

It may be helpful to consider the difference between sensing and knowing, as this may help us understand various interpretations or experiences of psi phenomena. 

Sensing refers to what enters into our conscious or subliminal awareness through our external sense organs of eyes, ears, nose, taste and touch. However, the interpretation of our sensory inputs is something we learn.  We "know" i.e., name or give meaning to, a sensory experience only after we associate in some way or call from memory its significance.  For example, we observe a golf ball.  Unless we had prior experience by witnessing someone hit one down a fairway, or unless someone explained its purpose, there would be no way for us to understand or know what it was.  The part of our brain that stores the image memory of "golf ball" is not the same as the part that connects with its meaning or purpose.  Somehow our brain mechanisms link object with meaning when we see or think, golf ball.  The words, cognition or perception are often used in describing the results of our sensory experiences.  These terms mean knowledge gained by understanding what we see or otherwise experience. 

The RV research showing a good correlation between the remote viewer's sketch and the distant area features, and a poor correlation between what the remote viewer thought it was, illustrates a psi process possibility.  The remote viewer may have accessed a type of sensory information storage medium, something like a hologram that files images but not their meaning.  Such a "mind" hologram would be accessible by an unknown mental interaction3/4the psi process.  Psi, including RV, experiments have been successful even when no one knows the target (double blind protocol).  However, the psi or RV participant could not identify the target material unless it was easily recognized and familiar.  These results suggest that such a hypothetical "mind hologram" is only "half-a-mind" hologram.  It does not contain or link with the object's or area feature's meaning.  This correlates with the left-right brain hemisphere specialization.  Our left brain hemisphere is primarily involved in logical and linear thought, and our right brain hemisphere is primarily involved in pattern recognition and non-linear processes. 

What happens when telepathy occurs?   The data gathered from experiments and experiences demonstrates strong evidence that a direct mind-to-mind connection can occur in either of two ways: (1) access of sensory information only, or (2) access of the interpretation of the sensory data.  Some results from telepathy experiments with target observers (senders) indicates that some individuals prefer, possibly subconsciously, one of these two ways or paths but not both. 

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For the sensory results, it is difficult to distinguish if the sensory data storage part of the brain/mind was accessed or if the picture or scene observed by the sender was accessed directly via remote viewing or clairvoyance.  Experiments with "only thought" or visualized targets have also been successful for both sensory and interpretative (meaning) information.  This suggests that what is sensed and interpreted by someone can become known by a psi sensitive.  But maybe not both at the same time.  In my psi dream experiments when a target picture observer is present, I have found that one dream may reveal the sensory information such as the visual content, and a follow-on dream may reveal the picture's meaning or context.  Precognitive experiments usually indicate that sensory visual data, its forms and colors, is perceived accurately but not its meaning.  This suggests that precognition may not involve our future feedback, since we can see and interpret or know what we see at that future time. 

There is another aspect to telepathy that links it with precognition.  Since it is possible to detect or access someone's thoughts about the psi target, then it also possible to access someone's intention for future action, even if no written or pictorial material existed for that intention.  We may perceive this intention in a dream, particularly if it was of significant consequence for others or ourselves.  When the intention is accomplished, the event would look like precognition3/4that is, we had dreamt of a future incident.  Since Sept. 11, I have heard of many accounts of precognition prior to the attack.  However, I suspect that these psi dreams were actually accessing current plans, and not a fixed future approaching us.  See InPAC on my web page for additional discussion on this important topic.  http://www.dalegraff.com

Could it be that individuals who have an easy time establishing rapport are more prone to connecting with personal and interpretative information; whereas those who are abstract or analytical would connect with only the cognitive and impersonal regions or aspects of the brain/mind? 

As you can see, there are many facets to consider about how psi functions.  Fortunately, uncertainties of the principles of psi do not need to deter us from being open to psi and seeking ways in which its data can be helpful and applied.


5. Combining Remote Viewing and Psi Dreaming

One of my independent research objectives is to discover if Conscious State Psi (CSP), including remote viewing, and Dream State Psi (DSP), including dream telepathy, can be synergistic.  That is, can a combined conscious state and dream state approach to the same psi task provide more or different information than either one alone?  For example, consider a psi project where you are asked to describe a picture that someone is observing.  You may desire to access the picture directly via CSP (remote viewing) by achieving a relaxed state to receive any cognitive impressions that corresponds to the target. 

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After sketching your impressions, you put them aside and then re-focus on accessing the same target picture later that night in a dream.  You can do this by incubating a psi dream that presents the target picture to you.  You may explore two types of psi or telepathic dreams: (1) Set your intention to experience a psi dream that shows the visual content of the picture.  After that occurs, (2) Set your intention to experience a psi or telepathic dream that presents the meaning of the target picture as known by the picture's observer.  The dreams may be similar, especially if the target picture has familiar elements.  However, some aspects of the target picture may not be familiar, and the second dream may accurately present the picture's meaning and be very different from the first one.

After wake up, see if you can develop a composite of the conscious state RV phase and the dream material.  I think you will be surprised as to how these two methods when combined, provide a better overall representation of the psi objective or target.

While this example is for an experimental situation, it can be applied to any psi task, including one that has application potential.  For example, you may have lost something.  By seeking CSP and DSP information, you can improve your chances of locating where it is.  Of course, a variety of other challenging psi projects come to mind.

Since the early definition of RV did not specify if RV occurred in an awake or dream state, we can consider "dream RV" as a valid descriptive term, especially when the psi target is a picture or scene.  The terms we use, as you can see, have more to do with personal preference than with absolute knowledge of what psi is and how it functions.

When we exercise one psi mode we also help develop the other.  Our psi process is ever ready, awake or asleep.  So why not explore both of them?




CURRENT  ACTIVITIES
at Baycliff Psi Seminars

By Dale Graff


A variety of psi research and application and educational activities are being performed at Baycliff Psi Seminars (BPS), an independent facility located in Maryland, USA.  Both Conscious State Psi (CSP) and Dream State Psi (DSP) are examined.  CSP has psi categories usually referred to as extra sensory perception (ESP) and remote viewing (RV).  DSP examines telepathic and precognitive potential of the dream state and can include dreams about places or areas unknown to the dreamer.  The dream formats are ordinary and lucid.  Lucid dreaming is a state in which the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming.

Conscious state and dream state psi investigations include experiments that provide insight into the psi processes.  Various types of psi objectives (the psi target) indicate that  different responses or perceptions relate to how the target material is accessed and in how it enters subconscious and conscious awareness.  Distance to the psi target and the manner in which the target is identified are major variables.

An on-going experimental series involves research colleagues located thousands of miles from Baycliff in Europe and the USA.  The target may be observed by someone (telepathic mode), it may be unknown to anyone (double blind protocol), or it may be selected in the future (precognition).

Some experiments include targets that are illusions.  A recent experiment with a 3-D illusion was especially interesting since the participant, 1000 miles away, could not perceive the 3-D effect in the conscious state psi but experienced it exactly while dreaming. 

Baycliff Psi Seminars plans to perform experiments to see if "intentions only" can be reliably perceived since this has implications for sensing terrorist plans before they are implemented.

It is anticipated that psi experiments with a variety of psi targets including geographic areas, pictures, words, sounds, thoughts, feelings or emotions will provide important insight into the psi process and related phenomenology.  An improved understanding of psi will help enhance reliability and accuracy for a variety of psi applications.


Future dream state psi studies will include new user friendly sleep physiology monitoring equipment developed by the Harvard Medical School that can be taken home.  In addition to psi investigations, BPS in conjunction with the Rhine Research Center (RRC), Durham, NC has facilitated intensive workshops, The Art of Psi Dreaming that focus on developing and enhancing precognitive dream capability.  These and other BPS workshops, including ESP, Remote Viewing and Your Intuitive Nature, are scheduled at various locations in the future.   http://www.dalegraff.com

BPS has also initiated plans for an International Psi Alert Center (InPAC).  The objective is to collect and analyze suspected precognitive impressions from anyone to see if patterns or trends can be detected that have the potential for alert and warning notices.  This work is underway and is currently focused on anticipating, via precognitive dreams, specific planned acts of terrorism. 


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Soviet Fighter Crash

"Suddenly I am observing an airplane . . . it is small and resembles a Russian MIG fighter. It circles near a low mountain performing several maneuvers, loops and turns. The area has communication facilities and it seems to be a military base with an airport. The airplane turns sharply to the left and then to the right, angling down and flying close to or through a low building that resembles a hangar. Suddenly it dives and crashes, destroying the area behind the low building where many people are gathered. They are on a stand attending a ceremony of some type. I become aware of terrible pain from the many burning people. Some are trapped under debris. I sense the agony of those burned or trapped who are still alive."

This was the first "airplane crash" dream since a week prior to Sept. 11. It did not make sense, as I was sure the airplane resembled a Russian fighter that would not be involved in any potential terrorist attack. However, the crash seemed intentional. The plane was maneuvering too low for any ordinary flight.

Since we were packing to leave for a week-long trip to join the U. of South Carolina Center for Coastal Ecology sea turtle saving program, I did not seek any follow-up dream for clarification. We would be out of touch with the news while we were on the barrier island helping sea turtle hatchlings reach the ocean safely.

Immediately before leaving for the island on Sunday, July 28, I happened to see the headlines of The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper published in Columbia, SC. It read: " 78 die at Ukraine air show." The top of the page showed four photos of the crash: two of the diving SU -27, a new Russian fighter plane, and two photos of the flames surrounding the "huge crowd of spectators" after the crash. The crash, during an air show in Lviv, Ukraine, occurred on Saturday morning, July 27.

If my dream of Thursday night relates to this accident, then it occurred at least one day prior to the crash. on Saturday.

In the dream, I thought the plane resembled a MIG fighter, possibly a M1G - 17, not the newer SU - 27.  Not sure why this misidentification occurred. Maybe my familiarity with MIGs caused this association. I had assembled MIG models years ago. This was only the second dream I have ever had, of tens of thousands of dreams that featured a Russian airplane. The only other dream with MIG airplanes occurred in 1977 and was precognitive of a Soviet pilot defecting by flying a MIG - 25 to Japan.



Dale Graff