Reviewed by Gregory M. Westlake
Davis K. Brimberg, PhD, trained at Harvard University as a doctoral intern, and postdoctoral fellow. She received her doctorate from Yeshiva University, and she has taught college, graduate, and medical students. Brimberg is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice. Her joyous realization was, that the more she researched the paranormal, the more she discovered the subject had been studied by some of the greatest minds of all time. The theorists featured throughout the book are Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and Wolfgang Pauli. The author exudes natural charm, and throughout her personal memoir she can clearly be seen as a role model for a new generation of students, and youngsters generally. Spread over nine chapters and an epilogue, this book covers the enormity of the field of parapsychology by including topics that we can all relate to. Most usefully there are a couple of glossaries, recommended readings, and sixteen pages of notes. The cover depicts a delightful, and most appropriate original picture of ‘Lilith’.
Perhaps, the three chapters most interesting to examine in diligent, heartfelt rigour, are chapter three, ‘Precognitive Dreams’, chapter six, ‘Synchronicity’, and chapter seven, ‘Premonitions’.
Brimberg mentions that professional psychics deepen their receptivity to paranormal information by loosening their repression barriers. For instance, Edgar Cayce, one of the most well- known psychics of the twentieth century, was dubbed ‘The Sleeping Prophet’. During private sessions Cayce would lie on a couch, and provide psychic readings over many varied different topics. Freud, also had a predilection for couches, and altered states of consciousness. After Freud had abandoned hypnosis, he invited his patents to free associate, and tell him whatever came into their mind, whilst on the couch. Evidently both men used the same method to weaken the repression barrier. Freud and Jung changed how our society thinks about dreams. As a psychiatrist Jung dealt with metaphors daily.
Interestingly, Brimberg notes: “People with histories of abuse and neglect often develop hypervigilance … which may magnify someone’s intuition” (p. 28). She defines schizophrenia, the sacred symbol of psychiatry, as “… a psychotic disorder in which a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are severely distorted” (p. 129). In an overview D. Scott Rogo wrote “…certain types of schizophrenia are more psi-conducive than others…certain schizophrenics seem prone to quite extraordinary flashes of ESP during the course of their day-to-day interactions” (Rogo, 1982, p. 340).
Brimberg recommends reading the work, C.G. Jung Letters, Vol.1, 1906-1950 (Jung, 1960). In one letter to J.B. Rhine, 27th of November 1934, Jung describes two separate paranormal instances which took place days within each other. One concerned a knife that exploded and broke apart in four places whilst inside a cabinet. In addition, a wooden table spontaneously ripped open with a thunderous boom. Jung thought that these events were due to a young woman with marked mediumistic faculties, who he had made up his mind to experiment with. She told him she had thought vividly about their séances when the explosions occurred. The woman could also produce noticeable raps in the walls during her absence at a distance of about 4 km. For J. B. Rhine to have the positive feedback from the world-renowned Jung must have been greatly validating.
Moving on to chapter six, entitled, ‘Synchronicity’, we can read that by far the largest influence on C.G. Jung was Albert Einstein with his famed theory of relativity. Einstein was a dinner guest on many occasions, and they also corresponded with countless letters. Jung endeavoured to define synchronicity and came to see that:“In relation to the psyche, space and time are, so to speak ‘elastic’ and can be reduced to an almost vanishing point” (Jung, 1960, p. 31).
Jung saw synchronicity as rooted in a mysterious energy between an individual’s mind and their external world. The alchemical mixture between a clinician and client would be the very thing that helped Jung refine his groundbreaking ideas on this matter. An extraordinary pairing began in 1932 when the physicist Wolfgang Pauli asked the psychiatrist for help. Pauli, the Nobel Prize winner, was in a terrible state when he first contacted Jung; his mother had committed suicide, his father had married a younger woman, and his own marriage was over; and, he was drinking excessively. It was Jung’s explorations of Pauli’s dreamlife, that helped his analysand see the depth and significance of his unconscious. Following the analysis the two men corresponded for several years, deepening Jung’s understanding of synchronicity. For instance, analogies between the atomic nucleus and the construct of the Self, and also, Jung’s theory of the mandala with the structure of the heart. The four-fold structure of the heart was seen as evidence that physical evolution is directed toward the goal of completeness. These structures were of special interest to Jung: ‘quaternities’. Their working relationship lasted twenty-six years, and they continued communicating and publishing until Pauli’s death in 1958.
The final chapter for our consideration, is chapter seven, entitled, ‘Premonitions’. Here Brimberg writes in the matrix of a memoir, using fascinating personal life experience, that could be described as inspirational. She relates the last days of her beloved mother, when she was influenced by a spiritual guide, in the ethereal construct of an elderly man instructing her to pay her respects and visit her mother in New York. She was intensely grateful to this wisdom, perhaps of an ancestor, to protect her, and by extension her mother. Brimberg judges this phenomenon to be a case of classic clairaudience. It is at this point, Brimberg, is called a ‘witch’, by her mother; and then“You’re the Gatekeeper” (p. 98), as the mother was passing away in hospital; she died two days later.
It is spellbinding that before she actually died, she spoke in a different language, Xenoglossy, not schizophreneze, but a language that remains a mystery. The author then analyses herself, reflectively, thinking perhaps her intuition, was a schizophrenic episode, with an auditory hallucination. She proceeds to mention a very useful scientific paper from Schizophrenia Bulletin regarding this matter.“We identify a new population – clairaudient psychics – who report receiving auditory messages from other realms”, the paper makes, “… the distinction between anomalous belief and delusion” (Powers, Kelley & Corlett, 2017, p. 84).
Also, of note, regarding the neurobiology of the theory of the brain as a filter, it is well known that:
It was Huxley who applied this theory to psychedelics by suggesting these mind manifesting drugs override the reducing valve of the brain, allowing humans access to both psychic and mystical experiences (Luke & Friedman, 2010, p. 167).
Increased understanding of such neurobiological explanations could further a more holistic approach to this domain of transpersonal psychology. Thus, this heartfelt, personal sketch provides the winning tone to energize new generations of psychologists; and that makes this an extraordinary scientific tome.
To conclude, I can strongly recommend this volume to undergraduates, and the new students of parapsychology. Davis K. Brimberg has provided a valuable guide for the curious, and the academic. An encouraging, motivational book, easy to digest and embody for a more positive future. Surely, she has now set the momentum going for many more defining moments for professors to be, in the foreseeable future. So, if you are looking for an influential, passionate book to inspirit young scholars, this would be the perfect title. A delightful publication.
References
Jung, C. G. (1960). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle. Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1973). C.G. Jung letters: Volume 1. 1906-1950. Princeton University Press.
Luke, D., & Friedman, H.L. (2010). The neurochemistry of psi reports and associated experiences. In S. Krippner & H. L. Friedman (Eds.). Mysterious minds: The neurobiology of psychics, mediums, and other extraordinary people (pp.163-185). Praeger.
Powers, A.R., Kelley, M.S., & Corlett, P.R. (2017). Varieties of voice-hearing: Psychics and the psychosis continuum. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 43(1), 84-98.
Rogo, D. S. (1982). ESP and schizophrenia: An analysis from two perspectives. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 51(792), 329-342.
Gregory M. Westlake.can be reached at email: [email protected]