A New Way to See

I’ve thought long and hard about sharing what I’m about to share. There are a lot of people who won’t read this, yet will still come away with opinions as to my sanity or gullibility. Others will read it and not understand, due to my own inability to explain well enough what I’m talking about. There are a lot of downsides to exposing such a personal part of myself, but I believe the upsides are more valuable, both for me and for anyone who comes away from this post with a little twinge of curiosity.

If you’re uncomfortable with me talking about untapped psychic powers, or the fact that you may have them, please stop reading and go about your day! No judgement from me, I swear!

Ok, now that I’ve got that out of the way, here comes the part where I don’t give a damn!

How do you see? How do you know what you know, why do you suppose what you suppose? Until about four years ago, I would have told you that one takes in information via the body’s sense organs, then processes that information in the brain, allowing us to make inferences and posit future outcomes based upon what we are looking at. Then I discovered Remote Viewing. Today, if you asked me how I see, my answer would be more complicated.

Remote Viewing is a protocol through which it is possible to perceive objects and places from afar, without the use of the normal five senses. It is a psychic ability, and therefore easy to ridicule, easy to dismiss. I took it up looking for a portable hobby for tour.

I’m going to tell you the little that I know about it here, along with why I’ve chosen to disclose myself as a closet psychic.

Remote Viewing was developed as a systematic process back in the 1970’s when the US government became alarmed by reports of people in other countries demonstrating some truly fantastical feats of clairvoyance. Not enjoying being late to the party, the US military began to search for their own special people and methods, in the hopes of weaponizing any psychic powers that it could. When you’re a hammer…

(For anyone looking to read about this fascinating period in US history, I thoroughly recommend Annie Jacobsen’s investigative book, Phenomena.)

During this time, researchers studying the phenomena of clairvoyance attempted to systematize a process that almost anyone could do. They called the product of their work Remote Viewing.

Remote viewing works like this at its most basic level:

1. A random set of numerical coordinates (ex. 2258 – 1259) is given to a verifiable image or place or thing or person. This image is known as the ‘target’ or ‘target image.’ This will be the image that the Remote Viewer will attempt to see.

2. The random coordinates are given to the Remote Viewer.

3. The Remote Viewer uses the random coordinates, and nothing else, to divine information about the image, place or thing.

I’m aware that this sounds nuts. A target image can be of anything, so how is it possible to see the correct image from just a few numbers, out of the potential billions and billions of possible images?

The claims sounded woo-woo. Additionally, the practice of Remote Viewing seemed to have acquired a thick patina of New Age vocabulary by the time I discovered it. It was difficult to understand how any positive result could be based upon anything but coincidence and wishful thinking. But skepticism should be backed up by evidence, not just personal bias, so I decided to give it a try.

Following the very basic protocol I read about, I got my random numbers, closed my eyes, and used the same Iris Method that I’ve written about previously.

(On a recommendation, I chose a Remote Viewing app known as RV Tournament to practice. The app offers two possible images to choose from , only one of which is the target image.)

Here is one of my early trials. The number I was given was 3706-8102. As you can see, I wrote the number down, along with a line called the impulse line. Then, with my eyes closed, I took note of the feelings, sights, sounds and smells around me. I wrote them down to keep them in mind, as this process was very fast - perhaps a minute or less.

Here was the target image that I was trying to see, along with a random image that is not the target.

As you can see, I quite thoroughly described the situation going on in the image of the race car pit stop. I wasn’t thoroughly correct, and I wasn’t able to identify exactly what was happening, but I certainly saw and felt elements of it, rather than the image of the rings.

Here’s another:

and here’s the target image:

I have no clue how it works, and from what I’ve read, no one else really does, either. Practitioners credit everything from Quantum Mechanics to the Akashic Records for the ability to retrieve information about times and places that they should have no knowledge of.

What I know is this: it’s a lot like writing a song.

I’m not saying that writing a song is a psychic act, but to write requires the suspension of disbelief. You must disregard that pulling a song from nowhere is impossible. Songwriting, like Remote Viewing, also requires, at times, a suspension of belief, as well. You will never quite get what you think. You are never as good or as bad as you believe you are.

In fact, what Remote Viewing and songwriting have in common is that they both require emptiness. If you are empty, every image that drips into your consciousness is freighted with information. You can’t experience what you don’t have room to take in. You’ve got to dive deep, deep, down, where it’s quiet and dark. That’s where the good stuff is. That’s where the emptiness is.

Don’t believe me? You don’t have to. There are lots and lots of incredible statistics-based studies on the existence of the Remote Viewing phenomenon. Anyone who wants to do a little digging in good faith can find it.

Just like songwriting, though, I can’t tell you how it’s done. It’s done by doing. Like writing a song, you just have to begin. You have to close your eyes and dive deep down, past your intentions and your doubts, past the people who tell you it’s impossible, past even yourself telling you that it’s impossible. Then you just have to write down what you see.

Oh yeah, and…

Over and over, you will get it wrong. Like with songs, like with almost everything in life, you will do it wrong many times. You will suffer defeat and humiliation, even if completely on your own.

Here’s one I just did.

There is every chance you’ve gotten this far and decided that ol’ Josh is off his rocker. Well, maybe I am. So why would I run that risk by telling you all of this stuff, showing you my crazy hobby?

I’m showing you because I’ve derived a great deal of inspiration and (dare I say it?) joy from discovering this talent within myself. I’m a huge believer in amateurism. It is so important, always, to the open heart that we are always willing to do things that we cannot quite do, that we cannot quite understand. In doing so, we occasionally find wonder.

Another reason that I’m showing you this Remote Viewing hobby of mine, is that I’d like to get better at it, and I believe that all learning is genuinely public in nature. Perhaps, in sharing my hits and misses, I’ll get more proficient and my hobby and practice will deepen. This would make me happy and is there a better reason to do anything creative?

Are you curious yet? Wanna give it a try? There are a plethora of materials and places to visit if you’re interested. As well, there are many variations on the practice. For me, the rules are only as good as my understanding and ability to utilize them. For that reason, I’m slowly learning my own favorite ways to visualize. Maybe, as I go, I can share some tricks that I learn. Maybe you can share some with me!