1 rating (5.00 avg)
1 review

Henry Reed

Add friend

Henry’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)

currently-reading‎ (1)

read‎ (0)

did-not-finish‎ (0)

Stats | More…

Henry is Currently Reading

Henry Reed is currently reading

The Vision: A Novel of Time and Consciousness (Michael Gillespie Mysteries Book 1)

by Stephan A. Schwartz

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Henry Reed said: " "To know the future is a curse!' exclaims one of the protagonists in this novel about that challenge. One of the questions I most often received regarding troublesome psychic experiences concerned dreams about future calamaties.
"Why would we dream ab "To know the future is a curse!' exclaims one of the protagonists in this novel about that challenge. One of the questions I most often received regarding troublesome psychic experiences concerned dreams about future calamaties.
"Why would we dream about this stuff if we can't do anything about it?" This painfully intriguing question comes up, in one way, because it is very hard to get other people to take the dream seriously. Moreover, a dream may describe the event, but not reveal time or place. How can you act on something like that?
Enter "remote viewing." More than twenty years ago it came out in the news that the CIA had been using remote viewing for espionage. There were some great demonstrations on TV. Lotta new start ups training folks in how to remote view.
What's it all good for? Defeating terrorism, for one thing, as this action-packed novel (if going into an altered state of conscious and remote viewing a scene some time in the future is "action") demonstrates. The story of "the hunt for the nuclear bomb" via the psychic skill of "remote viewing" is the essential plot of this novel, and introduces us to the hero of perhaps many adventures to come.
Michael Gillespie is perhaps the alter ego of the author of this novel, Stephan A. Schwartz. Both have conducted research into remote viewing. Stephan was a pioneer in its non military use, such as archaeological exploration. Stephan has written books on remote viewing and other subjects. His daily blog, "The SchwartzReport," keeps us well informed regarding news that pertain to important trends affecting our lives. Full disclosure: I'm a good friend of Stephan. I see him as somewhat of a postmodern Paul Revere, constantly and faithfully alerting us to what's coming, and often expressing frustration that we might not be listening, or responding, as we should if we are to survive the future. I can compare the fellow as I have known him with what I read of the novel's protagonist. Dr. Gillespie's main challenge is how to get people to listen to his warning! What was the warning?
How can you know, or decide, or figure out, if the dream, or psychic vision, is accurate, and not merely a reflection of the person's own hopes and fears? In real life, as in this novel, Stephan, or Michael, approach the aquisition of "nonlocal information" (beyond the time/space constraints of physically perceived, local information) through what Edgar Cayce lauded as "comparative study." Using multiple viewers, comparing impressions, moves subjective evaluation toward something a bit more objective. In the case of Michael's research, a routine remote viewing of a scene on a given date in the future was eliciting disturbing images in each and every one of his research subjects. He had reason to believe that they were accurately predicting some kind of terrorist bomb threat that was going to happen. How Michael and his team come to that conclusion is an interesting part of the story.
Taking the data to the authorities proves to be a waste of time, and thus the pressure remains on Michael and his team to try to save the day. The reading starts to get more tense about then, and I, like other reviewers, found myself glued to the screen, staying up past my bedtime, to read to the end of the story.
The latter half of the plot concerns how Michael and his team of remote viewers work with the inherent limitations of modes of information acquistion. It's one thing to remote view the visual appearance of the surroundings of the terrorist bomb. It's another thing to remote view the address of that site. Information like that is a totally different challenge, and not remote viewing's best skill. One of the things that makes the book so interesting is that the author's personal experience as a researcher and public speaker on the topic of remote viewing and nonlocal consciousness generally, is that the details in the story (where it can be most devilish) coincide with the facts and procedures of academic, scientific parapsychology as it applies to remote viewing. How Michael deals with the challenge is interesting as it involves a shift in assumptions, something that's not always that easy.
The arts can often be persuasive where the sciences are more calm. Stephan's "day job" reporting the news presents us with information, stuff we keep at a distance. By engaging the aesthetic dimension, Stephan now gets us imaginatively involved in the world he perceives from his research. It is perhaps by engaging the public at this level, that will provide the necessary motivation to innovate our way into the future. I applaud Stephan's innovation of "Michael Gillespie" and look forward to what lies ahead and how he'll deal with it. ...more "

Aug 02, 2018 04:21PM · see review