Joseph McMoneagle's Mind Trek is a first-choice book
for those who want an approachable introduction to the phenomenon
known as "remote viewing."
Mind Trek is Joseph McMoneagle's first book on the remote
viewing phenomenon, and it is without doubt a perfect starter book
for those who want to know why so many people are talking about
the subject these days. Mr. McMoneagle offers the reader a generous
perspective into his own personal life in this book, and it is from
this perspective that he explains how he became involved with remote
viewing. His "path" began in the United States Army. While
stationed in Germany in 1970, he experienced what is commonly called
a "near death experience," or simply an NDE. It was this
experience that gave him his first glimpse into a realm of consciousness
that seemed to expand well beyond a normal waking state. In the
now classic NDE setting, he saw his body from an outside perspective,
perceived what one might consider a telepathic awareness from another
nonphysical being, and eventually was forced to relocate himself
back into his body which lay "dead" in a hospital.
This NDE was clearly the motivating force behind Mr. McMoneagle's
subsequent search for a better understanding of consciousness. The
experience was as shocking for him as it would be for most people,
and his desire to explain it to others led him to the inevitable
consequence of confronting a highly skeptical world with a personal
experience that was not easily explainable within any of the acceptable
scientific paradigms. Moreover, his NDE left him with residual psychic
after-effects that were apparently almost as troubling to him as
the NDE itself. The entirety of Mr. McMoneagle's description of
his journey is filled with riveting depictions of his emotional
trauma, and this serves as a vehicle that enables the reader to
sympathize with his drive to make sense of his experiences.
Mr. McMoneagle's quest to understand both himself and what happened
to him eventually led him to work with parapsychologists Russell
Targ, Dr. Harold Puthoff, and Dr. Edward May at Stanford Research
Institute, now SRI International. It was here that he was formally
introduced to the then nascent field of remote viewing. It was a
world filled with laboratory experiments, elaborate scientific controls,
and most important of all, keen minds that approached the idea of
investigating psychic phemonena without the kneejerk prejudice of
impossible- to-convince skeptics. What is so enriching about these
experiences of Mr. McMoneagle is how well he took to the laboratory
environment. It is here that he thrived as a participant in a large
number of experiments that probed the known limits of psychic perception
at a distance. He shares these experiences with his readers by effectively
exploiting the clarity which is characteristic of his writing to
convey his growing sense of wonder.
A common misperception of many people with regard to psychic phemonena
is that psychic experiences should be as clear as those obtained
with the physical senses. Mr. McMoneagle offers an exceptionally
clear description of both how and why psychic perceptions differ
from perceptions made by the five senses of hearing, touch, sight,
taste, and smell. Readers will expecially enjoy his detailed descriptions
of his own psychic perceptions as they were made within the laboratory
environment, as well as the descriptions of the laboratory environment
itself.
In the remote-viewing world, places and things that a person is
supposed to psychically perceive are called "targets."
More often than not, Mr. McMoneagle's targets are locations that
are rich in unique characteristics and design, and his descriptions
of those targets are generally intrigingly accurate. One of his
methods of description is to use transcripts of remote viewing sessions
in which he is verbally describing a target. This method of exposition
helps to convey to his readers some of the real-time excitement
that must have been a visceral part of these early remote viewing
experiments.
Most of the targets described by Mr. McMoneagle are of a sort known
as "verifiable," which means that the targets are of well-known
places for which there are detailed photographs. But Mr. McMoneagle
does not close the door on more far-flung targets entirely. In one
of the most intriquing sessions, this one conducted in research
conducted at The Monroe Institute in Faber, Virginia, Mr. McMoneagle
describes what appears to be an ancient (and dying) civilization
on Mars. Rather than try to force the reader to accept these perceptions
as real and accurate, he leaves it up to the reader to decide how
to respond. Since the description of this target occurs near the
end of a book in which the reality of the remote viewing phenomenon
is so strikingly portrayed, Mr. McMoneagle's description of a long-lost
Martian setting acts to keep the reader at the edge of his or her
seat, begging for more. Fortunately for all of us, there is more,
as Mr. McMoneagle has matured into a somewhat prolific and talented
author. If readers like Mind Trek, they will want to read
the rest of his books as well.
|