The Psychic Battleground by W. Adam Mendelbaum

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The Psychic Battleground by W. Adam Mendelbaum
pub: Virgin. 278 page enlarged paperback. Price: Ł 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-901250-46-6

check out website: www.virginbooks.com

You know how it is. You read about a book and think it might be worth pursuing for personal research. Some of the books I review here are personal purchases.

Just for the record, I do read books other than review copies. A lot of the time, a review springs out of them as well so we all benefit.

This particular book is the history of the military/espionage use of ESP right up to the modern day. Well, within the past 5 years and mostly material that is declassified.

Anyone with an interest in the subject knows that CIA have been dabbling with ‘remote-viewing’ or what we SF enthusiasts call ‘distance-viewing’ for quite a few decades under the name of ‘Project: Stargate’ - no space portals to distant planets though.

The results appear to be better than guesswork but gets bogged down when the mind assumes too much a conscious control of the scanning. The book describes the ability as more an art than a laboratory experiment, so don’t go looking for Rhine cards here. These people use this ability for serious work.

What should be of particular interest to those writing Science Fiction is just how far back military advisors have been using soothsayers, fortune tellers and whathaveyou over the centuries.

A lot of it has obviously turned out to be faked by charlatans, who were either exiled, impoverished or beheaded when discovered, but leaders continually seek out such advice to help in their decisions.

Whether or not this is a failing of the leader human mind in making up their own minds or need to be shown a sign that they are doing the right thing at the right time is debatable. It could be seen even as a failing in ourselves. How many of you reading this don’t believe in ESP and happily read your daily horoscope or hold an illogical superstition?

Likewise, whether ESP is a viable means for espionage. With my own ‘Psi-Kicks’ stories, I tend to have a vested interest in looking deeper at such subjects. In an age where investigation can be far more stringent, this book succeeds in looking at the pros and cons from both sides of the fence.

As such, I think anyone with an interest in the subject is going to want to have a copy of this book in their collection. The only thing I can really fault with it is that the chapter numbers are missing from the chapter headings. A bit of foresight from the publishers should have spotted that.

GF Willmetts

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