Reviewed by Nemo C. Mörck
The first author, Dr Zofia Weaver, is a SPR stalwart known for her interest in mediumship. The second author, Krzysztof Janoszka, is a police officer. He has written a thesis and a book, in Polish, about the use of psychics by the police and about the psychic Krzysztof Jackowski ”... whose contribution to our understanding of clairvoyance is one of the main themes of this book” (p. ix). Naturally, the authors have drawn on Janoszka’s earlier research. The Foreword, by Dr David Rousseau, and Chap 1 provides background to both authors and explains how the book came about (an excerpt is available here). Janoszka and Jackowski became friends and I presume that their friendship helped the former to understand Jackowski’s background and how he came to be known as a famous psychic in Poland. Jackowski relies in particular on psychometry, that is, he gets psychic impressions when holding objects. However, he believes that he also gets information from the dead.
Chap 2 is the start of ”a little detour into a very brief and selective history of science and anomalies” (p. 20). They note that we might not really know what many psychics were actually capable of because they often ended up having to repeatedly participate in the same kind of experiments. The detour continues in Chap 3 and goes on for quite some time! It is certainly especially valuable to newcomers. I do not agree with everything, but I do not wish to dwell on my disagreements. Nevertheless, remote viewers involved in the Star Gate project were not recruited from point men, who led patrols in Vietnam and “... had far fewer casualties from booby traps and ambushes than average” (Kress, 1977/1999, p. 80). The Army Materiel Command was interested in this group, but did not really figure out what characterized them. Perhaps they benefited from psychic impressions. However, Weaver and Janoszka acknowledge that psi ”… does not seem particularly effective as a survival tool” (p. 48).
I admittedly grew impatiet to learn more about the psychic Jackowski and his involvement in police investigations. Alas the little detour continued in Chap 4 and Chap 5. The authors are evidently familiar with both old and more recent literature of relevance. Psychics tend to be good at different things and have different preferences. They note, in passing, that Jackowski ”... wants to know only the name of the person he is tracing ...” (p. 72) and ”... seeks out noisy impersonal situations to distract himself while he waits for the flash of intuition ...” (p. 72).
In a long wide-ranging overview, stretching from the 18th century, a few errors are inevitable. For example, the story involving the medium Eileen Garrett is not correct (Saunders, 2019). In addition, this overview certainly seems to be written with the assumption that the sceptics are wrong, in fact, they are often omitted. To me it felt as if the authors were trying to overwhelm me with evidence for psi and survival after bodily death.
Eventually the detour ends with an interesting case from the Journal of the SPR (Keen & Playfair, 2004) involving the medium Christine Holohan. It serves as a bridge to Chap 6, titled Psychics, Detectives and Psychic Detectives. The authors note that cases involving the use of psychics by the police often result in lots of claims and counterclaims about what actually happened. They also argue that ”... the experiments to date bear little relation to the pragmatic approach taken by police officers when they are trying to solve real-life crimes and problems” (p. 92). This is an unfortunate situation. Some cases are certainly interesting, but cases in which the so-called psychic detectives were far from helpful also comes to mind.
The authors note that the famous psychic detective Noreen Renier’s procedure is ”... strikingly similar to that of Jackowski ...” (p. 93), but she is only mentioned in passing. They go on to comment on The Blue Sense (Lyons & Truzzi, 1991), one of the better known works about psychic detectives. Thanks to Weaver’s earlier research on the psychic Stefan Ossowiecki they are also able to correct some erroneous statements made about him in that book.
After an introductory review about psychic detectives they go on to describe Janoszka’s research. He conducted interviews and found that:
Generally, the advice of officers who had worked with Jackowski and some other clairvoyants with a verified track record was to use common sense, to guard against suggestion, to bear in mind that a psychic’s statement is not evidence, and not to initiate action, particularly where cost is involved, just on the basis of a psychic’s claim (p. 96).
Chap 7 is about cases in which Jackowski, Joseph McMoneagle (the famous remote viewer) or Ossowiecki were involved. The first case highlights how strange psychic experiences can be. Jackowski was given photos of two murdered people and the clothes they had when they were discovered. One would hence be forgiven for expecting his psychic impressions to relate to them – instead they related to a murderer. Jackowski does not seem to have sensed that there were two murderers. However, he provided information that helped the police locate a witness that knew that her partner was responsible. I do not wish to summarize summaries, but it is understandable that Jackowski has convinced many that he is not a fraud. Questions come to mind and I would have liked to know a bit more about some cases. For example, Jackowski’s involvement in one case did not help the police locate the body of a murdered woman, Sylvia. However, he appears to have been right about some things, but it is not clear whether all the statements he made were correct. That case is taken from Jackowski’s autobiography and supported by an interview with a police officer published in Newsweek - years after Jackowski provided his impressions. This is not ideal.
I accept psi as real, but that does not stop me from having concerns. After the cases involving Jackowski and some commentary about his experiences the authors go on to describe two cases, the Typhoon submarine and the kidnapped Brigadier General Dozier, involving McMoneagle. They rely entirely on accounts by two remote reviewers, Smith (2015) and McMoneagle (2006) himself. Andrew Endersby have provided more critical commentary about both cases on his blog (Endersby, 2013, 2017).
Finally, the authors relate cases involving the psychic Stefan Ossowiecki. Given Weaver’s earlier research they had much material to draw from: ”Most of the experiments with Ossowiecki involved concealed (usually in sealed envelopes) writing or drawing, occasionally photos and packages with various objects” (p. 133). However, Ossowiecki also appears to have been able to locate bodies and the authors quote a letter from Jerzy Olewiński in which she describes how Ossowiecki helped locate the body of her brother in a mass grave.
The book ends with Chap 8 in which the authors return to Jackowski. I was more surprised to find that they also relate many experiences from A Venture in Immortality (Kennedy, 1973): ”It is obviously not scientific evidence, yet it has a ring of truth and a logic to it that makes sense in the context of what we know about spontaneous cases and the best of mediumship” (p. 153). Throughout the book it is evident that the authors have read much of the literature and they take the time to reflect and ponder on what it all means. They think that the evidence suggests that psi is ”... part of something larger, something we only get glimpses of” (p. 157).
Given the statement on the back cover ”This book presents a unique dossier documenting one clairvoyant’s contribution to detective work in Poland” and the second author’s background I expected to learn more about Janoszka’s research. Nevertheless, this turned out to be an interesting read. In particular, readers may appreciate the sections that concern cases or research that have not been described in English before. I gather from the authors that parapsychology in Poland is about as welcome as a fly on a wedding cake. Fortunately, this did not stop them from writing this book. The Mind at Large was given the Parapsychological Association Book Award last year and I would not mind recommending it with a few caveats.
References
Endersby, A. (2013, February 14). Kidnapping of General Dozier 1981.
Endersby, A. (2017, November 19). Joe McMoneagle and the Typhoon submarine sessions.
Keen, M., & Playfair, G. L. (2004). A possibly unique case of psychic detection. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 68, 1-17.
Kennedy, D. (1973). A venture in immortality. Smythe.
Kress, K. A. (1999). Parapsychology in intelligence: A personal review and conclusions. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 13(1), 69-85. Original work published 1977.
Lyons, A., & Truzzi, M. (1991). The blue sense: Psychic detectives and crime. Mysterious Press.
McMoneagle, J. (2006). Memoirs of a psychic spy. Hampton Roads Publishing.
Saunders, D. (2019). The Carington case: The dreams of Eileen J Garrett. Gwen Tate Memorial Lecture.
Smith, P. H. (2015). The essential guide to remote viewing. Intentional Press.