Spontaneous Psi Phenomena Record Type: Review   ID: 1321
Operations of Increasing Order and Other Essays on Exotic Factors of Intellect, Unusual Powers and Abilities, etc. (as Found in Psychic Science) Gowan, John Curtis
Educator Gowan presents some facts and theories concerning exceptional human abilities, many of them psychic. Formerly he has written extensively on creativity, but he thinks that there are more powerful levels of cognitive thought that surpass creativity. "Some very spectacular effects occur in these higher and rarer states; indeed mystics of all ages and cultures have told us so for centuries" (p. ix). In reviewing accounts of these experiences, he feels he detects operations of increasing order in the vast mass of evidence. In this book, (1) he catalogues these exotic powers and provides a rationale for them so as to make them easier to believe; (2) he presents independent testimony that gives the phenomena some reliability, thus establishing a basis for validity; he proposes that (3) the taxonomy is evidence of order; and he observes that (4) the direction of this order is toward growth and positive integration; (5) the scope of human capacity revealed is on a grand scale; (6) the various abilities and powers described are interconnected; and (7) the nature of the structure revealed is numinous. In his words: "There is an El Dorado; the map is outlined in these pages; the way to it is through the inner reaches of the latent powers of man's mind; and, knowing that it exists, having the map and the road, it behooves us all to start on the immense journey" (p. xx). The testimony is in nine major sections, of which the third deals almost exclusively with parapsychological phenomena, covering ESP and PK (including the physical phenomena of mysticism). The fourth covers "Cosmogonic Mental Abilities," including psychometry, clairvoyance, laying-on-of-hands, and psychic surgery. Both in subject matter and in treatment this is a modern-day version of Myers' monumental Human Personality.
Publisher Information:	Westlake Village, CA: Author, 1980. 384p. Bibliography: 373-383; Subject index: 383-384; 7 tables

Previous review in this category

List All Titles in This Category (19) Book Reviews Menu

Next review in this category

All website graphics, materials and content copyright © 1997-2003
by EHE Network. All rights reserved. For permissions
please contact EHEN's Executive Director, Rhea A. White.

Web Media Management by Palyne Gaenir of ScienceHorizon.

Exceptional Human Experience Network

www.ehe.org