Yes, you are quite right. It only leads to frustration to attempt to explain E.S.P. phenomena on a scientific basis. Dr. Grey Walter, a pioneer of electroencephalography, who seems quite well disposed towards E.S.P. workers, has remarked that the electrical brain impulses with which he is dealing cannot possibly have any connexion (as some people have hoped) with E.S.P. phenomena.[1] The relevant passages can be found in his book The Living Brain. And attempts to explain the Dhamma on a rational scientific basis only result in such wholly misleading effusions as Francis Story's 'The Four Noble Truths' (BPS Wheel 34/35), which was published recently. The Ven. Thera has reported unfavourably on The Mind Unshaken, and I have no great desire to read it. Thank you all the same.
Editorial notes:
[11.1] E.S.P. phenomena: A similar view has been reported more recently in Soviet research on E.S.P. See Sheila Ostrander et al., Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (New York: Bantam, 1971), especially pp. 306-7. The Mind Unshaken is by John Walters. [Back to text]
