Is Psychology on the Threshold of New Knowledge?

Is Psychology on the Threshold of New Knowledge?

Studying field oriented literature and reading local scientific articles in various periodicals I have come across the strange absence of a phenomenon being quite popular among laypersons. The phenomenon, that is in fact taboo nowadays in popular scientific literature, in publications dealing with hypnosis and manifestations of a hypnotic state of trance written by Czech hypnologists, psychologists and psychiatrists except for accidental remarks by some authors . The phenomenon in question is known as 'clairvoyance' (sometimes also as cryptesthesia as in the meaning of a third eye or a sixth sense or rather the actual telegnosis of objects and events under the more appropriate definition of Professor Rudolf Kohoutek from the Internet Dictionary of foreign expressions showing in the knowledge of subjects which has been acquired neither by common, generally known ways of perception and/or communication nor by the pure considerations.

In fact, the first relatively precise hypnosis characteristic was given by Marquis de Puységur as stated by J. Hoskovec and S. Hoskovcova in their publication “The Psychology of Hypnosis and Suggestion In any case, even the above authors have not mentioned the crucial fact that Puységur was one of the researchers attempting to free the phenomenon of clairvoyance from the initial layers of mysticism. Marques de Puységur, who was Mesmer’s pupil, actually discovered the state of somnambulism evoked by hypnosis, during his training of “magnetization” in farmers at his farm in Champagne in the year . Under Puységur’s reports of that time, clairvoyance was observed in persons in hypnotic sleep and some of them were said to have been able to read the thoughts of the magnetizer while they were also able to find hidden subjects Clairvoyant abilities based on somnambulism described by Puységur encountered an extraordinary public response and 'magnetic circles' were arising all over France towards the end of the ^th century, similarly as in America the spiritualist’s circles and groups started to spread about as an avalanche about one hundred years later

James Braid (1795-1860) was also similarly interested in clairvoyance phenomena and introduced the concept of 'hypnosis It is surprising how the surgeon James Esdaile (1808-1859) has been forgotten in the recapitulation of hypnosis history in the publications of our leading scientists. Nevertheless he has been the well known pioneer of hypnotically evoked anaesthesia in operations , having published his findings on clairvoyance phenomena in journals and books, similarly as John Elliotson (1791-1868), a well known physiologist and the publisher of the journal Zoist La Roy Sunderland is another person who made the scientific public familiar quite soon with well documented manifestations of clairvoyance in the first half of the ^th century. His publications made him famous and he was adored by researchers dealing with hypnosis and hypnotic sleep for the entire span of the 19th century He was a pragmatic and besides hypnosis, he was also dealing with manifestations of clairvoyance in trance affected subjects backed by experiments.

What follows is an example of Sunderland’s findings, having been made popular in our country for instance by Jaroslav Kocir We have made so many experiments, showing the subject to be able to talk about what was going on in an adjoining room. The experiments to prove the subject’s ability appropriately were as a rule carried out as follows: my cousin went to the other room and re arranged the furniture there, upset the table and threw chairs on the bed. When I asked the subject thereafter to look in spirit into the other room he ushered Why are chairs on beds? And what does the re arranged furniture mean? As I asked some more questions he accurately described all the changes having taken place in the given room.  Then I asked him to visit in spirit my room, having been rented in a pub of the neighbouring town at a distance of about two miles. The subject precisely described all the objects in the room, even a picture hanging on the wall. I emphasize, this was a room he could not have ever visited. We can confer from the fully satisfactory experiments above that he was able to acquire knowledge on objects that could not be spotted by an ordinary man under the common state of abilities and senses

As a matter of fact the first documented manifestations of clairvoyance were intermediated to the scientific world by the Swedish natural scientist Emanuel Swedenborg who developed at a young age his own approach to intensive concentration and meditation on the verge of trance having been reported in his texts later on his altered states of consciousness were related in particular to concentration and the narrow targeting of attention, while his breathing slowed down during the given states Swedenborg could also describe some events in detail having taken place at a distance of hundreds of kilometres away (for instance the fire in the city of Stockholm . The fact above has been focused upon by one of our leading psychologists Vilem Forster in his book Occult Phenomena and Their Psychological Elucidation in the 20th and/or later also by Vladimir Vondracek in his book “The Fantastic and Magic from the Standpoint of Psychiatry

A whole array of physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists were interested in clairvoyance during the first Czechoslovak Republic (between the two wars), but first of all the hypnotizer Bretislav Kafka, having been experimenting for many years. He described manifestations of clairvoyance in his book The New Fundamentals of E H xperimental Psychology Ninth publications Cerveny Kostelec, 1946), which was hailed with considerable response both at home and abroad April in The New York Herald Tribune Daily or May in French Cité Soir Daily . He talked about the cases he has encountered during his practice in Chapter 42, dedicated to clairvoyance. There is an interesting story, stated by Kafka in another chapter where he induced hypnotic sleep to the present actor H in one of his experiments and linked him with Miss S to remember her

She wished the subject to describe her household never visited either by me or by the sleeping one. On my request to go in the direction from which the girl came, the subject said I am in a room There are cans and wardrobes at the porch a bed nearby and somebody lying in it. I will go and have a look. Oh he said, disappointed an old witch There is another bed to the rear and an elderly man with a long beard lying in it. I will try and pull the beard I objected that he should not do so and wake up the sleeping man, but the subject smiled and did not answer. I have asked the girl, whether the description was correct and she explained to me and company that everything was accurate her mother was sleeping in the nearer bed her father, who had a full beard in the second one Then I told the subject Tell me what else you can see in the room The subject replied There is a table opposite with chairs. I can hear a clock that I cannot see Oh, it is in the room aside. I will stop it from ticking Then he described other objects, the arrangement of the furniture in the rooms and the girl had always said it was correct

I take it for important to mention that all the reprints of Kafka’s Experimental Psychology text from the 40th had quickly sold out and additional prints were to be made. In the years the book was de facto (in contrast to the set printed press run published in 17 reprints regardless the given economical and political circumstances while the common press run made 500 thousand reprints. The book was excluded from our libraries funds after the last reprint, was deemed harmful to the Communist ideology and there was just a so called safe copy at the University Library provided in disposal to the reading room on special permit only.  Neither the old, initial reprints from the 40th nor the new sold out reprints from th appear at all in second-hand bookshops contrary to expectations, but we can indeed find them though in the many home libraries of Czech physicians, psychiatrists and psychologists.

After the year 1968 by the time of the so called normalization”, the two so called popular scientific books of Z. Rejdak: “Telepathy and Clairvoyance” and “Outlooks of Telepathy” had appeared thanks to psychotronique promoted by some politicians (Frantisek Kahuda, the author of the evilly famous theory of „mentions could even publish in the Journal of Czech Physicians in the years 1975 And the censors, so alert in the past, did not mind any more when the manifestations of clairvoyance were mentioned.  The Russian psychologist Vladimir Lvovich Levi says in his book “I and We”, published in Czechoslovakia in 1976, for instance During a séance I induced deep hypnotic sleep to V.A., abandoned the room and went to arrange my matters on the other floor of the building. I had not explained to her as I usually did in such cases that I was leaving and she would sleep until I have come back and should hear nothing. This time her contact with me had been maintained, and she was waiting for me the whole time. Having returned, I started talking to her and asked where I could have been in her opinion. To my surprise she detailed after certain hesitation quite accurately all of my movements' [13].

As I visited the town of Sochi (Soviet Union) in the year I had the chance to talk to the psychotherapeutic L. S. Levner on the given topic. Not only had he described to me several cases from his practice adequate to the story of V. Levi, but in addition he made me familiar with an interesting experiment during which he let the patient in a deep hypnotic sleep describe the scene going on in a building on the opposite side of the city, for which his colleague left.  He was then sitting in the building behind a work table keeping the receiver in his left hand and a pencil in his right hand, writing various slogans and drawing pictures on a white sheet of paper in his block notebook Doctor Levner was listening to the patient’s statements that were immediately verified by his colleague over the telephone. The patient not only described drawn pictures correctly, but she also precisely described movements of the remote experimentalist She managed in addition to describe in detail the furnishings of the office that she had never seen, because she met the colleague of Doctor Levner at the commencement of the experiment for the first time. She had not met him prior to the experiment and had never visited his office.

Even after the dramatic events of the year 1989 over twenty years ago, when many taboos had faded away clairvoyance phenomena as said at the introduction to this article do not appear in scientific literature even nowadays.  We therefore miss the answer to the crucial question, why actually the findings on the manifestations of such human abilities are missing in all our field oriented periodicals targeted to psychologists and/or psychiatrists I suppose in large part it is due to the clear tailings of opponents’ objections having been armed with Marxist ideology by the time of the deep totalitarian system trying to dissuade efforts to trace clairvoyance Docent MUDr. Ivan Horvai was one of the leading censors and opponents the author of the book ”Miracles as Seen by Psychiatry”, very hard to forget by the sceptics movement, published by the State Publishers of Political Literature in Prague, where Horvai says True events are superficially, non scientifically and inappropriately estimated often by people with insufficiently deep field oriented knowledge, its causes are incorrectly differentiated and its fully natural origin is erroneously considered to be inexplicable by science, to have arisen supernaturally, e.g. miraculously This is why many of our scientists are afraid of the objections that they have „insufficiently deep field oriented knowledge also in case they describe the manifestations of clairvoyance and/or telegnosis and its “causes are erroneously considered Linking manifestations of telegnosis and/or clairvoyance with the supernatural is of course truly absurd, as none of the researchers that may even incline to the meta psychic and/or parapsychology having dealt with clairvoyance manifestations over the last 1 years and making the public familiar with the given phenomenon, never took clairvoyance for miracle and/or supernatural phenomenon.

Affecting the stances and approaches of field oriented people in the case of clairvoyance a crucial role has been played also by the representatives of the Czech sceptical movement or the Czech Club of Sceptics Sisyphus having declared itself the speaker of the Czech scientific community as New Age censors and arch-opponents. Under the meaning of their representatives the manifestations of clairvoyance are even today, at the beginning of the st century simply „paranormal or „extrasensory phenomena. In another formulation any phenomenon avoiding the elucidation of the representatives and supporters of the sceptic movement is a simple hoax in their opinion and/or nonexistent, while they replace apparently the existence of the phenomenon itself with the imperfect or erroneous attempts of its interpretation it is good luck, they do not designate hypnosis itself as fake, due to the fact emphasized by them that its precise, scientific elucidation has not been provided until now As like most laypersons the scientific society is also not of course suggestion proof. We can differentiate suggestion as the effective way to support the spreading of prejudice in the way of acting of all of the stated opponents, who are mostly absolutely convinced sometimes even fanatically about their truthfulness . We encounter here prestigious suggestion that can be considered to be overtaking authoritarian approaches saturated with prestige, while they make use of both the form of suggestion and its contents and also the specific circumstances under which the suggestion works.

The rational stance of Derren Brown is evidence of the tremendous error of the above opponents. He is one of the leading representatives of the foreign sceptic movement and in his book Tricks of Mind published in our country in 2007 says At first we have to understand and define the outline of „normal' and sensory', and only afterwards can we declare something as 'paranormal or „extrasensory When we approach anything automatically as paranormal we put constrictions on our thirst for knowledge and the willingness to learn. Using simple labels and simple meanings satisfactory for those who do not like to think and offend those who want to think, we deprive ourselves, our mind, our world and our cosmos of its immense complexity and diversity

To avoid misunderstanding I have in mind the so called sceptic movement I do not talk about scepticism as such as the concept scepticism comes from the Greek expression 'skepsis' meaning looking for, taking stances, research while scepticism represents the old philosophical view. At any rate, the Czech sceptical movement has quite evidently compromised the preamble under which scepticism represents a 'positive approach because its scepticism nowadays represents solely an adverse approach In contrast to sound scepticism, understood as “viewing, researching” being crucial for any scientific research including the research of the phenomenon of clairvoyance We can point out the need of a sceptical approach in research workers in particular related to the evaluation of experiments which is necessary to set up the new projects of experimental research of hypnotic phenomena, including clairvoyance Excluding the sceptical approach one could not verify after all even the manifestations of clairvoyance and telegnosis. 

As for instance Luc Bürgin [16] sais one of the reasons that most the scientists make wrong conclusions is skipping their own research and stemming blindly from the official approach. In spite of the low probability at first sight of a clairvoyance phenomenon to appear during the change of perception in a hypnotic trance, the numerous observations of such behavioural manifestations may convince us to the contrary similarly as in the case of hypnotically evoked anaesthesia in operations having been taken for a hoax until recently by many scientists We again experience the practical example of nature evidencing the rebukes in the current scientific knowledge. Nevertheless we can of course learn what has not been known before. So in the case of clairvoyance a new chapter of basic research agenda should be opened in accordance with the saying the basis of any knowledge is primary observation'. This old rule is applicable at the time being as well because the objective existence of phenomena, the description of which cannot be found in any of our scientific publications and or any of our field oriented publications, cannot be judged in the 'ex cathedra' way from the work table. Researchers may learn about its true existence or non-existence solely by observations under the statement of Immanuel Kant that „all human knowledge begins with observation

In the case of clairvoyance phenomena, we can say that using hypnosis and suggestion we need to eliminate the factors impossible to be eliminated by the will, as we need to research the psychic states that cannot be freely brought about without trance And as J. Hoskovec says: 'Hypnosis together with suggestion enables one to eliminate, isolate, dissociate and make sensible the certain part of brain functions But new grants for research are not needed, as the basic research can be started within the current experiments taking place now. Everything depends on our hypnologists, to which extent some of them at least will be able to overcome their fear or unwillingness to deal with the above stated changes of the state of human perception. As each hypnologist is well familiar with the role played by the appropriate suggestions to bring about the basic conditions for the concealed manifestations of human psychology accompanied by prejudice-free and objective experimentalist trance logics and the expectations of subjects, but in the end also the development of the abilities of some hypnotizable persons showing for the first time should be supported that has been so far neglected by the scientific community.

As to hypnosis and suggestion manifestations, the academic community was looking upon them not so long ago the same way as nowadays upon the mysterious phenomenon of clairvoyance, where the academicians were in doubt concerning the objective existence of the above phenomena took all the hypnotized persons for fakers. I suppose the unwillingness to verify experimentally the manifestations of clairvoyance under hypnotic trance that we encounter nowadays in most of our authors is due to the statement of a certain German physician, declaring some time ago I shall never believe in hypnotic suggestion, unless I have seen such a case and I will never see such case, as I will never have a look at such experiments. In contrast William Thomson, the Lord Kelvin of Largs, one of the greatest researchers in the history of science, declared one day Science is bound by the everlasting principles of honour to look without fear into the eyes of each enigma that occurs.

The manifestations of clairvoyance documented in history by various authors as exceptional observations, experiences and findings cannot be simply ignored. Even an arch-enemy of miracles, the physiologist Henri Roger says in the case of anomalous phenomena we should avoid the two extremes consistent denying and credulity because scepticism is as useful, as consistent denying is harmful And if the true existence of clairvoyance needs to be proven in a reliable, experimental way, then the useless discussions and speculations on the origin of the above phenomena and the use of simple labels and simplified meanings can be only counterproductive. As modern psychology, similarly as any current scientific discipline, cannot rely upon traditional opinions and the views of authorities anymore, solely the simple, experimental facts are the most important also in the case of learning human psychic manifestations related to trance that have not yet been elucidated

To conclude in brief: one of the reasons, most the scientists make erroneous conclusions about clairvoyance is their skipping own research and building blindly on the official approach of authorities. But problems involved in authoritarian approach to the science were focused long ago, on th July by the famous philosopher Karl Raimund Popper the significant representative of science theory The old imperative for an intellectual sais You must be an authority You must know everything from your field Once you are acknowledged as the authority by your colleagues, they will also guard your authority and you have of course to guard the authority of your colleagues as well. No need to emphasise this old professional ethics to have always been intellectually unreliable. It results in covering the errors due to the authority

Recommended literature

La Roy Sunderland - Pathetism: With Practical Instruction. P. P. Good, 1843

La Roy Sunderland - Book of psychology. Stearns & Company, 1853

La Roy Sunderland - The Trance. Chicago: J. Walker, 1868

John Elliotson - Numerous cases of surgical operations without pain in the mesmeric state. H. Baillilere, London 1843

James Esdaile - Natural and mesmeric clairvoyance with the practical application of mesmerism in surgery and medicine. Schulze and Co., London 1852

Jaroslav Kočíř - Lekce hypnotismu. Nákladem Nové České Myšlenky v Králově Poli na Moravě.

Vilém Forster - Okultní úkazy a jejich psychologický výklad. J. Otto, Praha 1923

[8] Henri Roger - Jak se dějí zázraky. Volná myšlenka, Praha 1937

Břetislav Kafka - Nové základy experimentální psychologie. Červený Kostelec 1946

Ivan Horvai - Zázraky očima psy­chiatrie. Státní nakladatelství poli­tické literatury, Praha 1959

Rejdák Z. a kol.: Telepatie a jasnovidnost. Svoboda, Praha 1970

Rejdák Z., Drbal K.: Perspektivy telepatie. Melantrich, Praha 1970

Vladimír Levi - Já a my. Mladá fronta, Edice: Kolumbus, Praha 1976

[14] Vladimír Vondráček, František Holub - Fantastické a magické z hlediska psychiatrie. Kolumbus, Bratislava 1993

Jiří Hoskovec, Simona Hoskovcová - Psychologie hypnózy a sugesce. Portál, Praha 1998

Luc Bürgin - Omyly vědy. Brána, Praha 1998

Derren Brown - Magie a manipulace mysli. Argo 2007

Karel Wágner

Prague  April 27