Frank DeMarco boldly goes where no mind has gone before

Review By KEN KORCZAK

While I was reading his book I was thinking of documentary I was watching about how animals might evolve into new forms in the future. There was footage of an octopus near the shore of the ocean. It was struggling to make its way along some rocks among the shallow water -- the octopus was half in and half out of the water, grappling to navigate an environment that was somewhat familiar, but also vastly different.

FRANK DEMARCO is that kind of explorer. He is daring to send his mind into those exotic areas that straddle our normal mode of mentally framing reality with more exotic ways of determining what's going on. He's attempting to expand the way we make sense of reality -- and maybe even to find a different way to be a human being.

This book documents 10 sessions DeMarco conducted at the MONROE INSTITUTE of Faber, Virginia. The facility is named after its founder, Robert Monroe, who wrote three best-selling books about out-of-body travel. It was Monroe who really blew the lid off the OBE, a centuries old phenomenon that had long been relegated to mysticism and arcane eastern religious sects. Monroe brought if forward in a way that more Western, scientific minds could deal with it using a modern scientific approach.

Equally as important to this book is the man who facilitated the sessions with DeMarco, none other than FRED "SKIP" ATWATER. Atwater is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who was the founder of Army's top secret remote viewing unit. He was among an elite corp of men who were the Founding Fathers of so-called "psychic spying." After retiring from the military, Atwater became the science director and later president of the Monroe Institute.

So in these sessions, DeMarco is resting in a kind of isolation chamber. He's reclined in a waterbed, and he wears headphones through which he is fed a variety of sound frequencies containing something called binaural beats. I won't go into details about what these are, except to say they have been shown to induce altered states of consciousness.

As DeMarco is sent into an altered state of consciousness, but he also holds onto a portion of his

Frank DeMarco

waking mind so that he can chat with and report back to Atwater via a microphone. Atwater sits in another room where he controls the tones and frequencies DeMarco hears. DeMarco is also wired with fingertip sensors which monitor things like his galvanic skin responses, body temperature and more.

DeMarco then sends his perceptions into other realms of consciousness and reports his perceptions. He finds two contacts from two other eras of time: An ancient Egyptian and a Medieval monk. He feels he is deeply involved in some kind of mutual project of consciousness manipulation with these two -- this is not a simplistic reincarnational kind of situation in which DeMarco "trades notes" about past lives, or stuff life that.

DeMarco also interacts with a more advanced set of entities he simply calls "The Guides" or "Guidance," and sometimes just "the guys." To facilitate a greater connection with him, these higher entities encase DeMarco (or cause him to become) what he perceives as a crystalline structure. In this state he is able to receive a variety of novel concepts, expand his psychology, gain insights, and so on.

DeMarco then "debriefs" in an informal discussion with Atwater. Both the sessions and the debrief sessions were tape recorded, and DeMarco fills the pages of this book by basically giving us the raw transcripts of all that was said.

For me, this was a five-star read because it provides a fascinating "fly-on-the-wall" view of how people on the cutting edge of consciousness exploration are endeavoring to probe uncharted territories of the mind. They go places for which no road maps exist. The explorers are pushing the edges of perception, have no idea what to expect, and don't even have a good way to recognize "things" when they encounter them.

But wait --I should backtrack that statement a little. There may actually be a few road maps: Over the years, Monroe Institute researchers have worked out a series of auditory frequencies which seem to match certain mental states which in turn correspond with certain kinds of nonphysical locations. They call them Focus 10, Focus 12, Focus 15, Focus 27, etc. Each of these states, identified by specific frequencies and brain states, would seem to match up with specific territories "out there."

When people become immersed in Focus 27, for example, they will find themselves in a specific afterlife kind of location -- a place where dead people gather after leaving their bodies. Here they create a kind of resting place, perhaps a peaceful cabin in a wooded area, where they can simply rest and get used to the idea that they no longer have a physical body. They can come to grips with the fact that they are physically dead, and now can contemplate their next stage in consciousness development.

Focus 27 is a place of pure mind -- that is, a cabin in the woods is not made up of physical lumber and nails -- but a construct of the mind. Think of the way you might have a dream about a visit to a cabin in the mountains. While you are in the dream, the cabin would seem as real and solid as anything else. When you wake up, you would tell yourself: "Well, that wasn't a real cabin. It was all being created by my dream mind!" The structures of Focus 27 apparently are a kind of group-mind creations of structures -- buildings, parks, gathering places -- which are collective construct by those who have passed on.

Anyway, I digress.

I should say that for some readers this book might be something less than a five-star read -- you won't get the exciting New Age, out-of-body wonder type of fireworks provided by such folks as Robert Monroe, Richard Buhlman or others who have written popular books about OBE adventures involving lively interactions with strange beings, exotic otherworldly locales, although there is a certain element of that here.

A PLACE TO STAND is more sober and less sensational. It doggedly plods along. DeMarco also displays healthy levels of skepticism and self doubt about his own perceptions, which adds to our feeling that he is an authentic guy who is endeavoring to bring back reliable information from strange places, rather than hyping it all up to make for an exiting New Age book.

Ken Korczak is a former newspaper reporter, government information officer, served as an advocate for homeless people as a VISTA Volunteer, and taught journalism at the University of North Dakota for five years. He is the author of: BIRD BRAIN GENIUS

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Reading the Enemy's Mind by Paul H. Smith will both amaze with insight and provide a comprehensive perspective about remote viewing

Review by: KEN KORCZAK

I've read only about a half-dozen book about Remote Viewing, but I'm willing to bet that this one, READING THE ENEMY'S MIND by Paul H. Smith, is the definitive book on the topic.

Clocking in at more than 600 pages, Paul Smith slogs through just about every aspect of remote viewing -- from the mind boggling to the mundane -- from the first days of it's development through its eventual demise as a sanctioned government project.

Smith was a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer and among the original remote viewers. Here he doggedly documents the endless and banal bureaucratic twists and turns of managing a super secretive, highly classified intelligence operation -- but, wow! -- it was a spy game unlike any other in the already dark and spooky underworld of international espionage.

Most readers eager for sensational stories of extraordinary paranormal happenings will find themselves enduring some eye-glazing moments as Smith plods through all the crushingly boring -- the red tape, the funding methods, the inter-governmental squabbling. However, those who wade through it will be rewarded with a greater perspective about what really happened inside our government's unlikely foray into "psychic spying."

But there is much to amaze as well. There's lots of juicy paranormal stuff -- psychic powers, UFO tangents, channeling strange entities, spoon bending -- that will satisfy the inquiring mind.

It would take pages to provide a truly comprehensive review of everything Smith covers in this book, so let me focus on one area where I think the author provides invaluable insight into a deeply controversial topic.


The insight I am talking about is the window inside Smith gives us on certain people who emerged as high profile public remote viewers after the official program ended -- especially Ed Dames and David Morehouse.

Paul H. Smith

Smith levels his biggest criticism at David Morehouse, whom he describes as a barely involved, minimally trained slacker who was, if not actually AWOL, absent for much of the time when he was supposed to be on duty working RV sessions. Morehouse also had periods of mental instability, a disastrous illicit affair, was once suicidal -- none of which was precipitated by the strangeness of remote viewing -- although Morehouse sought to us RV as an excuse for his behavior when he was facing court marshal.

Yet Morehouse is active today as a "celebrity" remote viewer, promoting himself as an original "PSYCHIC WARRIOR" (That's the title of his book). He also peddles a RV study course, he leads remote viewing seminars and is popular on the lecture tour. But Smith paints Morehouse as little more than a failure at remote viewing, a fraud and a blatant, self-serving opportunist.

But the guy who really sucks up all the oxygen in the world of remote viewing today is former U.S. Army Major ED DAMES.

Smith is somewhat kinder to Dames in terms of his work ethic and commitment to military intelligence. Smith even gives him high marks for his professionalism as a soldier. However, when it came to performing the actual remote viewing sessions, Dames was rarely the one sitting in the psychic spying seat. Rather, Dames served more often as a monitor and facilitator for other remote viewers. His own ability to remote view were unremarkable, and he barely worked more than a hlf dozen official RV sessions himself.

Smith writes that Dames also frequently thwarted protocol by improperly "front loading" remote viewing sessions -- that is, Dames frequently attempted to "lead" or bias remote viewers with his own unstoppable obsession with UFOs and his own pet theories about extraterrestrials.

When Dames could not goad disciplined remote viewers into coughing up questionable information about ETs, he would go ahead and conduct his own sessions with sloppy protocols, which would, not surprisingly, confirm his own belief system about aliens from other worlds.

Even worse, Dames displayed an extreme proclivity for apocalyptic scenarios. Again and again, Dames came up with end-of-the-world predictions both during his time with military intelligence, and for years after as a public figure -- and he continues to do today. Dames has appeared dozens of times on the hugely popular Coast to Coast radio program hosted by Art Bell, and over the years had made one disaster-scenario prediction after another, none of which have ever come true.

Smith also sharply criticizes Ed Dames for the claims he has made about his involvement with the development of the remote viewing program -- in short, Smith says that many of Dames' claims about what he did and to help develop the military remote viewer program are flat out false. Dames was a far more marginal player than he has long advertised himself to be, according to Smith.

So this is an outstanding book which is an invaluable historical document that both dispels the many myths that still linger about remote viewing, and which provides incredible insight -- a clarifying window into one of the strangest times in the history of U.S. espionage and intelligence operations.

Ken Korczak is a former newspaper reporter, government information officer and worked for two years as an AmeriCorps volunteer on problems of poverty and homelessness. Ken taught writing at the University of North Dakota for give years. He is the author of: BIRD BRAIN GENIUS

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Skip Atwater's "Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul" is about a lot more than remote viewing; It's a profound testament of one man's spiritual journey

Review by KEN KORCZAK

A twist on an old Hindu proverb goes something like this: “There are a million paths to God (or enlightenment or heaven); it doesn’t matter which one you take, as long as you get there.”

It’s this quote that makes me think of FRED HOLMES ATWATER, best known as Skip Atwater. Here is a man who found his personal path to enlightenment, but ah, what a strange road he took.

Think back to when the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was grinding away. Both sides are harboring enough nuclear weapons to not only destroy the other – but take out the whole world in the process. The hate and enmity of these two behemoths threatened swallow our beautiful blue-green planet in a nuclear fire of mutual madness.

Now imagine that one of the key warriors in this global stalemate of loathing is working diligently to ensure that his side prevails. He is a member of the most feared corps of elite warriors – an operative in the dark, seamy, paranoid, dangerous world of military intelligence -- he's a spy.

Skip Atwater could fairly be described as a kind of elite “super spy,” not because he was traveling the dark corridors of the world collecting information or performing assassinations – but because of the amazing assignment he landed.

It became Atwater's task to study, and possibly develop, a team of psychic spies that could use ESP to snoop on the Soviet Union, or any enemy of America. Even today this sounds like an insane idea –- a mixture of New Age or occult voodoo mixed with the militaristic paranoia of the Cold War. It sounds more like a paranoid Philip K. Dick novel.

Except that it's all true. Skip Atwater was the spearhead that led the U.S. Army to spend millions of dollars and years of manpower to develop elite super corps of spies who could reach out with only their minds to get behind any wall, bunker or secret hidden base the Soviets might be hiding anywhere in the world.

By all accounts, Skip Atwater would seem to be the opposite of anyone’s definition of a Cold War spy. He is a gentle man by nature – sweet, kind, humble, unassuming, blonde and handsome – a guy with a natural but quiet charisma -- the kind of guy that makes everyone feel strangely good when he enters a room.

That’s the way I bet you will feel when you read Atwater’s book, CAPTAIN OF MY SHIP, MASTER OF MY SOUL: LIVING WITH GUIDANCE.

These pages are part autobiography, and part detailed record of what Atwater did to develop the now famous (or infamous) PSI method known as remote viewing as a tool for U.S. intelligence.

Atwater starts with his childhood, telling of strange mystical events he experienced, but which his metaphysical-minded parents encouraged him to think of as “natural.” These experiences including things like out-of-body experiences, seeing auras and even an instance of levitation!

SKIP ATWATER

Atwater voluntarily joined the U.S. Army at a time when the Vietnam War was heating up and getting ugly – but he joined only to stave off being drafted, and to prevent himself from having to kill someone. Instead, Atwater asked to join military intelligence – and he got his wish –or as he repeatedly puts it, "I was on my path, I was being guided, I was on track, I was being protected”by something he calls "Guidance."

The middle part of the book is a fairly detailed and exacting account of how the remote viewing program was developed, including some pretty terrific “how to” information for those interested in trying their own hand at this esoteric process.

For me, the juicy part of the book (to borrow a phrase from DEAN RADIN who wrote an intro) is the latter third where Atwater describes his work at the Monroe Institute in Faber, Virginia, his post-military job.

THE MONROE INSTITUTE was established by the famous out-of-body traveler ROBERT MONROE, author of several superior books on the topic.

It was here that the now also famous HEMI-SYNC TECHNOLOGY was developed – an audio system using something called binaural beats – to enhance brainwave activity, enabling people to explore alternate or advanced states of consciousness.

Atwater's is probably the very best book I have read about remote viewing (though I have only read about a half-dozen). It goes well beyond remote viewing itself to discuss issues of spiritual growth and expansion.

Like another early remote viewing pioneer – physicist Russell Targ – what began for Atwater as a hard-nosed attempt to bring scientific understanding and military application to ESP ended up a journey of profound spiritual transformation -- and his story is beautifully and eloquently told in these pages.

Ken Korczak is the author of THE FAIRY REDEMPTION OF JUBAL CRANCH

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Free ebook: Ingo Swann's "Penetration" is a delightful, tantalizing read that conspiracy buffs and fans of remote viewing will find fascinating

Review by KEN KORCZAK

I can't remember a recent time when I was as delighted as I was when reading Chapter 2 of INGO SWANN'S often intelligent but mostly loony and squirrelly self-published book, PENETRATION. (GET THE FREE EBOOK HERE)

Swann is probably world famous for being "the father of remote viewing," a method once adopted by the CIA as part of its deep black project to create a team of psychic spies during the Cold War.

Swann's journey into the world of the bizarre began when he volunteered in 1971 to be a human guinea pig for an ESP research project at the Stanford Research Institute. He expected to be "used and tossed aside" after just a few weeks of being tested for telepathic ability. But apparently Swann displayed some genuine PSI moxy, and so was launched into a life-long journey that drew him into the frightening, clandestine world of CIA operatives, UFO research, conspiracy theories, and more.

Let me just say that the vast majority of this book is absolute baloney, specifically the many pages Swann uses to discuss his theory about a hidden agenda to keep the general public ignorant of alien activity on the moon, and his belief that the moon actually is a world with free-standing water, vegetation and a significant atmosphere. This is such unsupportable nonsense I am going to pass over it completely in this review.

Chapter 2 is what I want to talk about because it is not only amazing fun, but also strangely tantalizing and intriguing. Here Swann tells the tale of a time we was contacted by a "highly-placed functionary in Washington D.C." who told him to expect a phone call from a mysterious individual. Swann was to "do whatever he asked, and to ask no questions." Although he was nervous and fearful, Swann agreed to take the man's call.

But the call didn't come until four weeks later - and it came at three in the morning, jolting Swann out of his sleep. Then a series of events followed that could be taken straight from a Hollywood spy movie: Swann was ordered to go to the Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. He was met there by two contacts who whisked him away in a car, put a hood over his head, flew him by helicopter to an unknown location, where he entered a building with an elevator that took him deep underground (or so it seemed to him).

In a small room in this underground base, Swann is then asked to use his remote viewing skills to probe certain coordinates on Earth's moon. Swann is stunned when his psionic mind perceptions reveal to him a robust alien operation of some sort on the moon, complete with large building structures and humanoid aliens who appear to be engaged in a mining operation.

What's odd is that the spies seem to already know about the alien moon base. The spooks pay Swann $1,000 a day, and after two or three days, send him home with dire warning to say absolutely nothing of the whole adventure for 10 years.

INGO SWANN

Did it really happen? Famous skeptic and debunkers, such as James Randi and others, have called Swann "the cleverest of the clever" when it comes to faking paranormal abilities. But the skeptics also tend to be close-minded to a fault. For me, reading Swann's account of his encounters with the "spookiest spooks" has a tantalizing ring of truth - and yet - it is extremely difficult for me to ignore what clearly seems to be a homoerotic fantasy.

Consider:

* The title of this book is "Penetration." Any Freudian worth his salt would have a field day with the sexually charged and suggestive nature of this word.

* The "handlers" who meet Swann at the Washington museum are two men who appear to be twins and who are extremely handsome. Swann describes them as looking like "fashion models" and also as "tallish," and "hunky." He said they had "burning green eyes."

* Later when at the underground base, Swann is allowed some R&R time between his remote viewing work -- and lo! -- he gets to spend this time in a gym and pool with his two hunky body guards.

* During his work out with the gorgeous twins, Swann notes that when they take their shirts off they are, in his words, "built like brick shit houses." He also says he "could not help but notice" the bulges in their shorts which reveal that one of the twins was more well-endowed than the other, making him muse that perhaps they were not twins after all.

* Then, back at his remote viewing work, Swann is able to receive psionic visions of humanoid aliens working on the moon. And guess what? Well, by golly, they just happen to be not only "all males" but all males that are naked! Or as Ingo described them - "they were butt naked."

* I should also mention that when Swann was waiting to be picked up at the museum in Washington, he was keen to view some large specimens of minerals and crystals on display there, one of which was "three feet long" and "egg-sized precious gems" the like of which he says had "turned him on for years."

Now the question for those of you who may know anything about Ingo Swann is this: Is he gay? Yes, it seems that Mr. Swann is gay - at the very least, that's how many others have described him after meeting him or when discussing his adventures.

So here we have a perfectly nice, obviously highly intelligent guy, who happens to have tested well in ESP ability by top scientists at Stanford, who happens to be gay, who has an amazing story to tell about interaction with agents of the supreme deep cover variety - yet, the scenario is replete with homoerotic elements.

What does it all mean? Hmmmmmm. Who knows.

The tone of the other chapters changes abruptly when Swann discusses his moon theories, and when he offers his examination of how the human race seems easily prone to be manipulated en masse because of a persistent "mob mentality" and what he calls the "phase-locking" of the public consciousness into preconceived notions about reality. This latter discussion has great merit and it proves to me that Swann is, if not an advanced thinker, a person who thinks outside the box and in creative ways that few others can.

Penetration was rejected by every publisher Swann submitted it to - which he blames on a conspiracy of some elite hierarchy to suppress the kinds of things he is talking about. Okay - whatever - but despite the conspiratorial paranoia which underlies everything he writes, this book is more than worth a read - it's a pure bat-nutty delight.

Ken Korczak is the author of: THE FAIRY REDEMPTION OF JUBAL CRANCH

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