By HENRY REED

The art and science of remote viewing received unprecedented attention recently in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enllightenment) and IRVA (The International Remote Viewing Association) sponsored an historical conference in Edgar Cayce’s hometown the first weekend in November, 2003.

Speakers included all the persons who played a role in the development of remote viewing as a modern, practical application of Psi ability. Hal Putoff, who, with Russell Targ, pioneered the field, opened the conference with a history of remote viewing.

The conference ended with Ingo Swan, who invented the process and gave it the name, captivating the audience, although he gave no prepared speech, by his responses to questions. In between these two, there were several speakers who told in more detail aspects of that history.

The audience was particularly delighted with the personal stories of Edgar Cayce’s own instances of remote viewing told by his second son, Edgar Evans Cayce. The entire conference was videotaped, and a DVD set will be available for sale in the future. This record will certainly be a prized learning tool for some time to come.

For what it’s worth, I drew and colored "mandalas" while listening to many of the speakers. They can be viewed at http://www.creativespirit.net/learners/artgallery

I have not been part of the history of remote viewing, but instead I was asked to present something about its potential future. Given my previous work, my task was especially focused on how the Edgar Cayce philosophy might approach remote viewing to apply this skill as a tool of self-actualization.

To respond to this task, I distinguished facts from values and ideas from ideals. I suggested that to enhance remote viewing to make it suitable to advance from obtaining information to obtaining wisdom, values must be added to the remote viewing process.

Binoculars, telescopes, and video cameras are tools, like remote viewing, to increase our powers of seeing. They record information not available to the naked eye, but they do not provide the tool necessary to understand that information, much less to process that information to hunt for possibilities for creative interaction with that information.

As an example, a remote viewer, given the coordinates of a place on the planet, can describe conditions at that location in a way that matches what a camera might record. Yet, to answer the question, "how can we improve the quality of life at that location?" more than simply viewing is required. Intuition, for example, is sometimes called ESP plus values-guided pattern analysis.

In other words, simple remote viewing may tell us the conditions at a particular location, but it takes also some kind of super-analytic skill, guided by purposes and values, to use that information to come up with an inspired approach to dealilng with conditions at that location. For example, what kind of super intelligent wisdom does it take to prescribe a workable peace plan for the Middle East?

To give my presentation some direct relevance, I gave a live demonstration of what I called "face to face remote viewing." I asked people to pair up, close their eyes and imagine having a heart connection with each other. In this context, some participants have insights into their partner.

These insights go beyond remote "viewing" their parther’s homelife and move into the realm of empathy, understanding or wisdom about the partner’s concerns and purposes in life. What needs to be added to remote viewing to make it possible to perceive so wisely or creatively? It’s more than tuning it, something has to be turned on, as well.

I proposed that what is needed is "value added remote viewing." Remote viewing, defined as a process, begins with relaxation, receiving a target, and then reporting inner experience. By value added remoted viewing, I mean to add value to the process. Besides learning how to let the mind flow freely, as is usually accomplished by relaxation, we need, in order to open remote viewing to the realms of wisdom, to "raise" the mind.

What is meant by higher consciousness? It is to move from the realm of ideas to the realm of ideals, or values. Edgar Cayce often advised to "seek the highest within." He sometimes recommended aesthetic experiences to "raise" consciousness, and also, of course, he valued love.

I proposed that an induction for remote viewing that could be used for self—actualization would be a two-part induction, one involving first freeing the mind through relaxation and then changing the mood to one of "upliftment." What I proposed was that the free flowing breath could perform the first function, while gratitude for the gift of breath could perform the second. This method is part of the "Intuitive Heart" training that I have been developing at the Edgar Cayce Institute of Intuitive Studies.

Using this method as a preparation for value added remote viewing is essentially, a process for "shapeshifting." That is, it allows a person to transform one’s self-experience from that of a localized physical being with boundaries, to that of an expanded sense of a non-physical self of experience, with no boundaries, but which is merged by love into empathy with all.

I explained the process, step by step. Focusing on the breath, while allowing it to flow freely, is the first step. When a person can make the transition from experiencing it as "I am breathing" to "it breathes me," there occurs a shift in the person’s perceived center of the will, from "I am the operator, I am directing the process" to one of "passive volition," as in "Not my will, but Thine."

I refer to Autogenic Training for research on the psychophysiological ramifications of making this shift. The second step is to introduce values, by silently giving thanks for the gift of breath.

This step awakens the grateful heart. I refer to the research conducted by the Heart-Math Institute that shows that when a person enters into a state of appreciation, the physical heart responds in a positive, coherent manner and the person seems more able to imagine creative solutions to dilemmas.

Taken together, I call this state of consciousness the "Inspired Heart." I propose that this state of consciousness is one that effectively prepares one for remote viewing for self-actualization.

I concluded with a hypothetical "tasking" exercise for value-added remote viewing that would yield moments of self-actualization. The "task" represents the target, the purpose of the remote viewing exercise. Besides making proper preparation for remote viewing, the purpose for remote viewing needs to be of such a nature to promote self-actualization.

What task would serve this purpose? Given a transpersonal view of self-actualization, and given the nature of the tasks usually assigned to remote viewing sessions, I proposed one hypothetical question that might promote self-actualization through remote viewing. You might think of other such questions yourself.

One of the requirements for this conference was that each presentation be accompanied by a Powerpoint slide show. For my show, I commissioned an artist, Matthew Harrison, to create drawings to represent his experience of the various stages of the Inspired Heart process. I also added images of my own, from my watercolor series on the "Inspired Heart."

Although you will not have my lecture commentary here to guide you, I do believe you can receive something of value by flipping through the Powerpoint slides to follow the outline of my thinking. If you try the process for yourself, I would like to hear from you what you experienced.

To view the slide show, click here!