Blog 3

Chapters 7-9 are the kind of things I like to read about.. finally, something that has sparked an interest for me :) !!! I have always been curious and wanted to know more about ESP and certain experiments that were used in order to get results. During Chapter 7, the thing that I found the most interesting was when Braud used the ganzfield on himself and experienced some premonitions. The image he was seeing was a motorcycle with bright lights riding on a wet surface. I found it absolutely crazy that when his wife came home, she was explaining to him he she almost encountered an accident with a person on a motorcycle with bright lights and how it was extremely wet out. It blows my mind that this stuff actually works. But it also makes me wonder if you have to be a certain 'kind' of person to get these types of results? As a child, I remember watching certain scary movies that had someone in there who could read minds and all that ESP stuff. My younger sister and I would sit there and try to 'connect' with eachother's minds but sadly, it never worked.. haha. I wonder if there is a certain technique to it.

I found Chapter 8 to be the most intriguing chapter of the three that we had to read. As soon as Swann showed up, things were starting to be put into perspective and people were actually seeing that this was no joke. I kind of thought it was funny how Hal thought that he was wasting some of his grant money by flying Swann out because his first impression of him was something along the lines of "Wow, this guy is a big joke." But he was proved wrong. When Swann was just looking in to the screen, the S curve started jumping around like crazy. That really made me wonder how just 'looking' at something, could make a machine go crazy. I like how things start happening more when Pat Price show up into the picture. When given the special coordinates, both Swann and Price were able to create images in their head of what was in the range of the coordinates. Although, the coordinates that were given were only of a cabin in the woods, both of them came up with an underground shed type, that not too many people really knew about. It boggled my brain to know that this actually happened between these two people. And, the fact that it was underground was even crazier. I found it interesting that the CIA wanted to know more about a Soviet ran underground operation. Again, Price was able to see a few more things that no one could. Another experiment that I found intriguing was when Price's 'viewer' chose his destination as the water park. Not only did Price draw the park with pools, but he also drew water tanks and described it as some kind of plant. It was kind of cool when I read on that the water park used to be a water purification plant about 50 years ago. How can someone see that far back into the past but they have never actually seen this place or ever heard of it?

Chapter 9 didn't really interest me that much because I was so stuck on the whole ESP and being able to tell what something was given specific coordinates. I just can't get over the fact that this stuff is possible and people are living proof of it. Reading these chapters made me think of the movie Final Destination. If I could see premonitions, I think that would freak me out. Like Braud had said in Chapter 7, "If we could intend good things to happen to other people, we might also be able to make bad things happen." (136) That statement really made me think about the whole motorcycle thing in Chapter 7, because Braud doesn't really specify what happened first. Did Braud see this image before it happened or while it was happening? If he saw this image before it happened... then I guess it would be possible to make bad things happen but be non-intentional. I think it would be cool to be a part of this study and learn more on ESP. Is it possible for anyone to encounter ESP? I'd be curious to find out.