Time is an idea. It’s real world referents are never as error free as the ideal mental construct. It is made up of a combination of memory and repetitive movements in space. Time is like a melody that can only exist as one note in any given instant. Memory provides the sense of continuity that we can recognize as a tune.

Time is mathematically defined by its units of measurement. There are a variety of references for time but in the real world none of them are as exact as the idea of time. Seconds, days, months years are defined by movements of planetary objects in space, but seconds don’t fit perfectly into years. There is accumulative error that has to be adjusted for with leap years and so on. So there has been a search for more exact references. They have come up with atomic clocks that oscillate at very steady frequencies. So time is now based on repetitive movements of atoms through space instead of planets. That serves to reduce the error factor to parts per million levels which is more than tolerable — but it is still in error compared to the idea of time.

The only thing real is the eternal now. The rest is an idea. Unreal mathematical ideas are useful sometimes. If 2 times itself yeilds 4 and 1 times itself yeilds 1, what number times itself yeilds -1? The square root of -1 does not exist. If you try it on a calculator you will get an error. But if you ignore its non-existence and put it into trigonometry equations you end up with a tool for describing electricity. Alternating current is a periodic motion, cycles in time. Imaginary numbers can describe the timing relationship between current and voltage cycles.

No one has trouble admitting that square-roots of negative numbers are useful mathematical fictions. Math is a tricky language. Time is also just an idea, but it is so built into our every-day language that it looks as solid as a rock.

So what about pre-cognitive viewing? Most of the viewers at TKR have seen that time anomally, first hand. How do we handle anomalies? By explaining them with the most impressive scientific language we can muster? (analytical overlay). Or do we hold them loosely like an impressionistic painter rendering a sunset?

Although Ingo Swann is known as one of the originanl remote viewers, the book is not really about Remote Viewing. Swann is defining or creating the parameters of what he calls Future Seeing which involves cooperation of intellect and intuition. Unlike RV which benefits from or even requires double-blind protocol, Future Seeing is concieved to be equal parts futurology (informed trend analysis) and “NostraFac” (psychic pre-cognition). He recommends graphic diagrams as a bridge between intellect and intuition.

The beginning of the book seeks to establish the near universal experience of psychic cognition in times of need, through many examples and anecdotes. The reader is encouraged to recognize it’s effect on their own lives.

There is quite a bit of text devoted to the ways that expectations and cultural programming can mislead a future seer, similar to the problem of overlays in remote viewing. He calls these ‘anchor-points’ on the intellect side and ‘telepathic-osmosis’ on the intuitive side. A future seer learns to dissolve anchor points and recognize the influence of telepathic osmosis. A future seer also studies economics, politics, ecology, history, astrology, cycles, and culture.

The last half of the book consists of predictions for the “millenial transition” period of 1990 to 2010. He is writing at the beginning of that period and we can now read his predictions with feedback from the end of that period. His description of the economic crisis is very accurate although it may be unfolding a little slower than he thought. I think that in his predictions he under-estimated the power of those who would profit from and work to prolong crises situations, and their ability to convince the public that “everything is under control” (a sometimes ominous concept, as R.A. Wilson was aware). Some of Swann’s predictions are coming about thru an 8 to 10 year delay, while others are in a much earlier state than he thought. One of the biases of Future Seers may be a desire to describe change that doesn’t anticipate inertia quite enough.

The role of drawing and diagramming in the book is to convert the author’s monologue into something that you own and comprehend for yourself, intellectualy and intuitively. The author has invented his own Future Seeing. The readers must each re-invent their own Future Seeing.

“The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali” is a very old Sanskrit text which is a highly condensed operating manual for learning supernormal powers. In fact, in one edition of it that I have, the subtitle of Book III is “Supernormal powers”. As I said it is very condensed, perhaps like a course syllabus for advanced yoga teachers. It wasn’t quite a do-it-yourself manual either. Also, the sutras use words like dhyana, dharana, samadhi and samyama that lose a lot in translation, thus the desire for a take on the subject that was more native to the Western/modern world.

I forgot about remote viewing for a while. Later I came back to it when I found the Ten Thousand Roads practice gallery and the forum. I was encouraged to try the “Just do it” method. My previous experience in meditation proved to be helpful in shifting into the right mind-state, and I found that “Just do it” was the only instruction I needed.

After a while I came across something that I could think of as a yoga sutra for the west. In a topic on the TKR forum about RV Tips, “Banded_Krait” recommended reading chapter 21 of “Mental Radio” by Upton Sinclair. That chapter was written by Sinclair’s wife, Mary Craig. It provides a very insightful description of the skills and inner processes involved. This husband and wife team were interested in investigating telepathy and structured their experiments accordingly. Remote viewers will recognized the similarity between these sessions and an RV session. Mary Craig notes that her insights apply to both telepathy and clairvoyance. Remote viewing would involve the same inner skills within a double-blind protocol.

The Sinclair-Craig experiments reflect the telepathy experiments of the early 20th century. They used sketches as targets, with the goal of having the percipient (the viewer) recreate the sketch. In RV, a target may also be represented in words, photos, or geo coordinates. A viewer will express their impressions in any medium they are fluent in, words being very common.

Mary Craig’s chapter has many personal observations of the interactions of subconscious-mind, conscious-mind and deep-mind that the remote viewer will often find to be relevant to their own experience. She describes what might be called an ERV method (extended remote viewing)  which has less external structure than CRV.

From Patanjali, we know that the core skill of remote viewing is the result of samyama applied to the light of higher perception. If you want to know about the state of samyama and higher perception, Mary Craig’s insights are a clear commentary.

In Tlon there are no nouns. Instead there are strings of adjectives. In place of Moon, for instance, one might say “airy-clear over dark-round”. The universe of Tlon is considered to be made up of a series of events or states-of-mind. Giving such an event a name would be to falsify it. The association of a name with the thing named would be an association of two distinct non-reducable states-of-mind.

To explain or judge an event is to identify or unite it with another one. In Tlon, such connection is a later stage in the mind of the observer, which can in no way affect or illuminate the earlier stage.

The story goes on to unfold the implications of these ideas in the culture of Tlon and how the invention of Tlon was the act of a secret society.

The remote-viewer might recognize the falsification that comes with naming things rather than sticking to descriptive terms. In naming things, one thing leads to another as the active mind happily trots out into left-field away from the intended target. The active mind loves to play word association, and as much fun as that is, it seldom has to do with the intended target. It is always best to describe things rather than name them. When nouns are encountered think of them as poetic analogs.

Metaphysicians of Tlon are not looking for truth, nor even for an approximation of it; they are after a kind of amazement

Wonder serves better than judgement during a session.

Outwardly, the wheel seems to be the treasure that is sought by the wheelmaker, but the real prize is the wheelmaker’s connection to the source of inspiration. The inspiration that leads to the wheel comes from a primal state of creativity, a state that is known to the inventor, the shaman, the alchemist and other keepers of the inner arts.

Intentional development of psychic awareness is one of those inner arts. Outer methods can be constructed and used as aids but the real progress will be internal, creative and unique.