Did the ancient Maya achieve their astronomical insights through “remote viewing”?

Several people—including Judith, Mattie and Henry—have raised some interesting issues which I will address at the end of this blog. In the meantime, however, JTCapa has suggested that the Maya might have achieved some of their spectacular insights through “remote viewing.” Thanks, JT. That’s a very significant observation.

In fact, I should have thought that one up. I’m a full-time book editor in my so-called real life, and I once signed up a book on remote viewing. I know the phenomenon exists, and, yes, JT, I think the Maya, Toltecs, et. Al. probably used it.

One way to describe remote viewing is that the observer stares at some imperceptible object or event and that his or her astral spirit leaves the body and goes to that phenomenon and observes it, while the spirit is outside the viewer’s corporeal self. Some remote viewers have gazed on distant phenomena or on concealed objects in this manner.

I have experienced remote viewing myself. I went to seminar conducted by the writer and retired military officer, Paul Smith, who conducted remote viewing study programs for both the military and the CIA. At the seminar he ran slides which documented amazing examples of successful remote viewing. One such example involved the remote viewing of an attack on a US naval vessel which occurred a few days later, just as the remote viewer predicted and depicted.

A former US Defense Secretary told me people were in awe of the results the military’s remote viewing program produced.

After the seminar Paul Smith handed out paper and pencil stubs. He had four opaque envelopes, one of which contained a photograph no one in the audience had seen. Approximately 30 people were in attendance. Even though I’ve been accused of having psychic abilities in the past, I wasn’t going to even consider trying the exercise. Among other things I draw badly. Almost as soon as Paul handed me the pencil stub and paper, I began drawing without even thinking. I had no idea what I’d drawn. When Paul opened the envelope and showed us the photo, I was the only one in the audience who’d drawn it.

I signed the author up for a book, based on his experiences with the military’s remote viewing program. Paul Smith’s book was titled READING THE ENEMY’S MIND.

As for my own alleged psychic prowess, I refuse to gamble because I win with frightening frequency—so much so it genuinely scares me. (My refusal to gamble infuriates my friends who would like to bet with me and always try to nag me into gambling with them.) I’m also considered a shockingly perceptive tarot card reader. The host of a psychic TV program once offered me a regular tarot-reading spot on her show, which I declined on the grounds that I was too busy. The truth is I don’t read tarot for money. I don’t know what happens when I read the cards, but I see taking money for the readings them as bad karma . . . at least for me. I can’t comment on other people’s karma.

My mother claimed I was born under “the sign of the apocalypse.” The night she gave me birth, she’d asked my father to take her dancing. A warm summer night, he took her to an outdoor dance place overlooking Lake Michigan. She danced, drank and smoked—as pregnant women often did in those days—then broke her water on the dance floor.

My father took her to the hospital, and she said she had a long, difficult delivery—until 2:00 AM, that is, when the city was hit by a hurricane of walnut-size hailstones. They hammered the town like shrapnel, breaking windows and streetlights all over Michigan City, Indiana, including some of the hospital windows. This holocaust of hailstones was so frightening my mother said I burst out of her like the ET monster, which exploded out of the guy’s chest in the movie, ALIEN.

I have a town newspaper documenting that disaster.

I guess my interest in 2012 comes naturally. As my mother said, I was born under “the sign of the apocalypse.”

Thanks, JTCapa, for your remarks about remote viewing. I know a fair amount about the subject, have experienced it myself, and should have had that insight. Anyone interested in the subject should get Paul Smith’s READING THE ENEMY’S MIND.

Judith also emailed me privately, raising that eternal question, “What should we think?” I will address that question in some detail down the road. The short answer is that our species is notoriously self-destructive—and no more so when facing the specter of possible extinction. Life on earth has endured over twenty extinction events, will do so again, and we’re looking several in the obsidian eye right now. We have to face up to that fact and determine what we can do to confront these cataclysms. Many of these apocalyptic catastrophes are preventable. Instead of facing up to these threats, however, humanity blithely ignores them. In fact, we invent new ways of annihilating ourselves, thus exacerbating the threat of global extirpation.

The threat of being exterminated on 2012 however could have one positive consequence. It has the potential to “wonderfully concentrate the mind”, and if it does, maybe we will start to evaluate those extinction threats and devise ways of countering them. In other words, Judith, your question is simple but transcendently important.

By the way, could you please email me the title of your own book? It sounds fascinating.

Henry, regarding your question about Celtic influences in Mayan culture, I’d recommend you contact randyeickhoff.com and discuss the subject with him. He’s a genuine Irish scholar who has translated most of THE TAIN for me—Ireland’s ILIAD and ODYESSY. (He also translated THE ODYSSEY for me as well.) Your insights will fascinate him, and he knows far more about the Celts than I do.

Mattie, don’t ask me why Indiana University referred to my undergraduate degree as an AB instead of a BA, but they did. I often hear the degree described a BA myself. In Latin, however, it’s called an “artium baccalaureus,” so perhaps AB is more literal. However, a Bachelor of Science is BS, and I hear an AB more often called a BA.