The Influence of Psychedelics on Remote Viewing

(A more complete discussion of this topic can be found in Multidimensional Mind: Remote Viewing in Hyperspace, by Jean Millay, Ph.D., with a forward by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.)

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The process of doing remote viewing, with or without psychedelics, requires an ability to focus attention and to be able to clear away any personal and/or emotional issues that would interfere with perception of external images and cause them to be skewed. I never use the term "extra-sensory perception" or "ESP" because it implies that there is an EXTRA sense somewhere that accounts for telepathy. This is counter-productive in attempting to understand how psi phenomena works. All our senses can be extended for use and interpretation of incoming information. One of the uses of psilocybin is that it can contribute to the extension of one's ability to focus attention very precisely on something or some problem until it is understood at a higher level. Another of the many uses of psilocybin is that it facilitates one's ability to access non-local spacetime (the hyperspace) which is where remote viewing can be done. Cannabis can be utilized in this manner, as well. However, the quality of the cannabis is important, and one needs to practice with it, to know and understand just how the process of remote viewing works best. It is also important to remember that the inexperienced users of psychedelics can find themselves in the middle of a major cosmic drama, and if so, this must be resolved first and foremost. No remote viewing should be attempted during such a session that is essential for the clearing of preconscious material. In my informal studies beginning nearly forty years ago, I have used LSD, mescaline, or psilocybin, if I had an urgent need to communicate with someone at a distance, when a telephone was not available. Each of these substances worked fairly well under such needy conditions. At other times, my colleagues and I would use one of these substances to try sending and receiving simple messages just to explore and to study the potentials of this direct mind-to-mind communication process. When we compared our responses afterward, we discovered how our memories and internal dialog could skew the results. After a time, I began to realize that what we learned about the process was now part of what we could use at any time. We no longer needed the boost that the strong psychedelics, mentioned above, provided. It was at that time, that I learned that cannabis could be used just as well And even when that was not available, I could focus my attention with my own intention set to do so.

Later, I conducted a formal study for my Ph.D. dissertation with college students who formed eleven telepathic teams. These were couples (lovers or friends since childhood) who volunteered because they wanted to learn to improve their own communication with each other. In this first study we did not use psychedelics or cannabis. We used biofeedback to train the volunteers to synchronize their alpha brainwaves between right and left hemispheres, and later with each other. One semester was not enough time for some of the couples to learn EEG synch and some did not receive telepathic messages any better than chance. However, when all scores were counted at the end of the experiment, we found that those teams who had the best scores in paired EEG phase coherence were also those who had the best (better than chance) average scores in blind match telepathy. This trend was continued in a later study as well. (Both studies were statistically significant at p<.001.) It is important to notice that the brainwaves were not measured at the same time that the telepathy was tested. In one case, the electrodes interfered with concentration for telepathy, and in the other, the attempts to communicate telepathically interfered with the intent to synchronize brainwaves. So we cannot say that one is the "cause" of the other, but that both are related to the ability to focus attention in a precise way. (For details, see my book, Multidimensional Mind: Remote Viewing in Hyperspace, available at Amazon.com).

In the late 1970's, we conducted another study designed to examine the possible effects that smoking cannabis had on the EEG of volunteers. In this study we used the same equipment as we had used in the previous study (i.e., two Aquarius Electronics brainwave biofeedback analyzers with the phase comparator, designed by Tim Scully, Ph.D.). A good grade of cannabis was obtained so that each volunteer would be smoking the same material. In those days, the EEG biofeedback equipment was often used to judge the quality of mind-altering materials. If a person lost some voluntary control of his/her brainwaves (that she/he had previously learned) by using any substance, it was felt to be inferior. (Obviously, if that material was used too often, one would lose some aspect of thought, eventually.) If a person gained some ability to exert voluntary control over his/her brainwaves by using some substance, then that material had the potential of being "mind-expanding." This was the rule of thumb, at that time, and occasionally students at "Altered State College" would request the use of our equipment to test their own material.

Because of the intense interest in that community in the actual effects of cannabis, volunteers requested that we do such a study since we had the equipment available. We began by establishing the base line of EEG frequency range for each individual. Then with biofeedback, we also recorded the initial alpha phase-coherent scores for each one, and for each team. Then we introduced a good grade of cannabis for each one to smoke, and took the EEG phase-coherent scores again at intervals. In each case, all volunteers recorded a dramatic increase in their individual interhemispheric alpha phase-coherent scores. However, some of the couples showed an increase in their interpersonal alpha phase-coherent scores and some couples showed a decrease from their baseline scores. Those couples, whose interpersonal alpha phase-coherent scores increased after smoking, described their experiences as being totally focused on each other, especially on touch. Those couples, whose interpersonal alpha phase-coherent scores had decreased after smoking, reported that they had "spaced out," that is they no longer focused on each other but enjoyed thinking about separate events, or creative ideas. (Their interhemispheric synch scores remained high, but their interpersonal synch scores decreased.)

One suggestion here is: since brainwave biofeedback can help people to increase their ability to increase alpha phase-coherence (along with their ability to focus attention), and if the ability to focus attention is relevant to increased accuracy in telepathy, then when one can learn to increase alpha phase-coherence with the use of a good quality of cannabis, a research study might very well be able to find that cannabis can increase the ability to do successful telepathy among those couples who already have established some rapport. We must remember, however, that clarity of mind is always a consistent requirement.

Additional research in this area needs to be done by those who can focus attention on the real issues of the multidimensional realms available to each of us. With or without psychedelics, telepathy and remote viewing are possible. Psychedelics have introduced millions of us to the concept of non-local spacetime and have opened the "doors of perception". The doors cannot be closed again!