| In conclusion of this, Puharich writes: “Now, if this were true, then surely Harry Stone could not have come by this information. It was not within his scope or his training to dig up such obscure facts and then try to pass them on as something vitally important and real, as had been done in the trance-state utterances. I was confronted for the first time with an objective proof that there was something to the sacred mushroom phenomenon which until now had come to my knowledge only through the trance utterances of Harry. At last, I had come upon some solid ground in my quest for the sacred mushroom.” (47) In his book, Puharich over and over stresses the importance of finding out whether or not Harry was influenced by other sources, with his “mushroom information.” Once he learns from Wasson, that nobody knew about the mushroom in the Western world until Wasson, Puharich concludes that Harry could not have picked up this information elsewhere. I find this particularly interesting because Puharich also makes similar claims about another psychic, involved in the “Nine Principles.” What I find most suspicious is his intent to make sure the reader does not doubt his attempts to flesh out the truth of the matter, from a setup. This alone, reeks of a set-up to me. Farther along in the book we learn that another trance occurred with Harry, while Aldous Huxley was present and Ra Ho Tep (Harry) asked for the mushroom and showed them how to take it ritually, then performed 100 percent on a psychic test which would not have occurred once in one million tests. I’m going to clue the reader in, somewhat, to something which becomes more and more obvious about Puharich. When reading his books, one gets the idea he is actually innocent of things, unless one has studied magic. In magic, the setup of the subconscious is of prime importance. Showing someone an image of something in passing, like a mouse eating cheese, and later asking that person to name the first small animal that comes to mind, and writing on a card beforehand, what that animal will be (a mouse) and hiding that card in a safe, then opening the safe to reveal the card as having predicted the animal would be a mouse, is a common parlor trick. This trick is much easier when channeling someone’s background details about them in an audience, when that person has been preselected beforehand. That is the extent of what we are seeing with Puharich, the MK-Ultra master magician. Puharich constantly attempts to entrain the reader’s mind, into believing he is actually truly investigating to see if these people around him are conning him, somehow. Puharich, over and over, works to clear the readers mind of any doubt as to the authenticity of his “subjects,” while using this technique as a “sleight of hand” magic trick to redirect any air of suspicion about Puharich himself, and place it on the subject instead: “My true feeling about the meaning of this case is that there is a reality to intelligence in the cosmos that is |
independent of its manifestation in finite bodies or finite souls. In other words, intelligence is substance, and ideas may be a table of intangible elements. Just as we ascribe evolution and entropy to biological and physical processes, so there may be a concomitant evolution and extropy of ideas that appear in the human race. These ideas appear in the human mind in the form of images, symbols, archetypes, or in personalized form. They break into the human sphere at multiple points, as, for example, the independent invention of the calculus by Newton and by Leibnitz. When such synchronism of ideas occurs in many different humans, we call it Zeitgeist, or a spirit of the age. In interpreting this phenomena some take the point of view that the new development is organically inevitable, and sooner or later someone will make the discovery; and others take the point of view that a completely new idea has come to the human mind by an outside influence. In other words, some think of a physical evolution and others think in terms of a psychical teleology. The issue does not become acute until one is faced with a problem like the Ra Ho Tep case.” Puharich also, cryptically perhaps, states: “All that is lacking (to safely ask this question of nature), is some intelligent enthusiasm. It may well be that the real meaning of a Ra Ho Tep manifestation, and others like it, is to kindle such enthusiasm.” Uri Geller and the Nine Principles According to Puharich’s book Uri: a Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller (1974), Puharich and Uri met in Israel in 1971, and after being convinced of Uri’s psychic abilities, Puharich arranged to have him studied in the US by none other than Captain Edgar D. Mitchell, the former astronaut, working with Russell Targ, Harold Puthoff, and Wilbur Franklin, who helped carry out experiments at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Incidentally, this is where the research was also carried out on Remote Viewing and Out of Body Projection. Puharich thanks Ira Einhorn who helped to formulate the book Uri, and get it to publishers. In the Preface of the book, Puharich writes: “I had suspected for a long time from my researches that man has been in communication with beings not of this earth for thousands of years. This personal opinion comes from a close reading of the record of ancient religions and from my own observations and data. What is not clear is why such communication has been kept secret for so long.” (47) Uri, p. 69 |