Observations placeholder

from The 17th Frederic W H Myers memorial lecture 1968 by Sir Cyril Burt

"Osses" said the coachman to Tom Brown, "as to wear blinkers, so's they only see wot's in front of 'em; and that's the safest plan for 'umble folk like you and me".

Nature seems to have worked on much the same principle.  Our sense organs and our brain operate as an intricate kind of filter which limits and directs the mind's clairvoyant powers, so that under normal conditions attention is concentrated on just those objects or situations that are of biological importance for the survival of the organism and its species.

When for a time these practical requirements are in abeyance, then the wider scope of our clairvoyant powers may manifest itself; and the profounder intuition of the painter, the poet, or the mystic sees 'the earth and every common sight ... apparelled in celestial light', glowing with a glamour and a value of its own.

Nor should we be gretaly perterbed if many of the most impressive feats of paranormal insight have apparently been achieved when the brain is in a slightly abnormal or dissaciated state.