Ingo Swann's book, Penetration, is a nonfiction remote-viewing
thriller if there ever was one.
Ingo Swann is one of the more important historical figures in the
U.S. government-funded efforts to investigate the phenomenon known
as "remote viewing." His participation in highly classified
research is now public knowledge and not disputed. Mr. Swann is
also somewhat elderly as of this writing, and I can find no reason
for him to lie now about what happened to him during his most bizarre
interactions with elements of the U.S. intelligence community.
Penetration is Mr. Swann's most riveting book. The first
100 pages of the book is just about guaranteed to keep any reader
flipping the pages as fast as the eye can read. In this book, Swann
forever banishes the idea that a remote viewer's life need be dull.
This is a story of how badly the government needed to know some
information, and to what extent it was willing to go to get it.
I suspect that most readers will be grateful that Mr. Swann finally
decided to tell this most intimate history of his involvement with
those in our government whose activities only rarely become visible
to the common citizen.
Minimally, this is a story about remote viewing and its use by
Mr. Swann to explore the idea of extraterrestrial life. On the surface,
this would be interesting enough for many readers to want to hear
what he has to say. But Mr. Swann's tale is not of a coolly academic
nature. Rather, he tells of how in the past he interacted with some
of the most deeply buried U.S. government intelligence personnel
to help them understand the "ET enigma." This is not a
story of academic researchers wanting to know if extraterrestrial
life is possible. This is a nonfiction drama involving elite elements
within the U.S. intelligence community wanting to know more about
extraterrestrials whom they knew were operating on and near Earth.
This is the UFO hypothesis turned fully around into a confrontation
with reality that destroys more passive "what-if" scientific
speculation. From Swann's perspective, it is not a question of whether
or not UFOs and extraterrestrials exist, or whether or not the U.S.
government knows about them. Rather it is a question of how intensely
the intelligence apparatus of the government is trying to learn
more about the activities of the extraterrestrials without letting
the public in on the story. Mr. Swann gets caught in the middle,
a middle from which he eventually escapes with the publication of
this book.
This book is essentially two books in one. The first is about 100
pages long, and it details Mr. Swann's interactions with U.S. spies
who study extraterrestrials. This is where the action and drama
in this book resides. After this the book shifts gears to more general
discussions (and speculations) about the subjects of telepathy,
remote viewing, and extraterrestrial life. In all honesty, the latter
parts of this book are not as interesting as the first 100 pages.
Perhaps some readers will find the later pages helpful not so much
because of what is said, but because of who is saying it. Nonetheless,
I doubt many readers will criticize Mr. Swann for the later sections
of the book given the visceral reward of the first part.
This book will not convince anyone that extraterrestrials exist.
Rather, this book is for those who simply want to hear more about
Mr. Swann's past. The fact that his involvement with the U.S. intelligence
community is already so well documented lends credibility to his
discussion in these pages. But this is not the smoking gun that
will force the government to reveal all. The story in this book
is too wild for the masses to embrace, and it is unlikely that the
government would ever confirm what Mr. Swann writes about here,
especially if it is true.
My suggestion is that readers take this book at face value, neither
accepting it fully nor rejecting it as impossible. This is Mr. Swann's
story, his own personal story. It may be true. On the other hand,
some may conclude that it is either false or delusional. Since it
is impossible for most readers to know for certain one way or the
other, it makes more sense to simply accept this story as an honest
statement that is as true as Mr. Swann can remember it. At least
it does not hurt us to keep our minds open. Mr. Swann has contributed
so much to our current understanding of the human psyche and the
process of remote viewing, it seems only reasonable that people
should give him the courtesy of allowing him to tell this most personal
and intense story. As a society, we owe him that much at least.
On the other hand, we owe him a lot more if what he writes about
in Penetration is a true recollection from his past.
One side note, this book is somewhat hard to obtain since it is
self-published. Interested readers may want to go to Mr.
Swann's web site to find out how to obtain this book.
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