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THE MINDS EYE
In the world of everyday existence, the five senses reign, but their powers are sharply limited. We perceive the universe in glimpses through narrow portals, acquiring our knowledge by sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. But what if knowledge has wider gateways and thresholds? What if, beyond vision, humans have another way of seeing?


A ll over the world, since the beginning of existance, some people have been called gifted with what is known as second sight, the third eye, the sixth sense - powers of the mind that seems to bypass the usual sensory channels and transcend mundane reality. Shamens have communed with their gods, saints have seen visions, oracles have fortold the deaths of kings. And, from time to time, ordinary people have felt a moments slippage into the inexplicable and uncanny.

Researchers have begun trying to codify psychic experiences. Among the catagories are clairvoyance, or the ability to see objects and events beyond the range of physical vision; precognition, the ability to perceive future events; and retrocognition, the ability to see into the past. For years, such experiences have been claimed and studied. But they have not, as yet, been fully explained. And I doubt they ever will be.

Human begins are limited by the physical world, by the capacities of the body and by the earthly laws of space and time. Understandably, then, an enduring belief held by humankind is that some part of us may be capable of breaking those bonds, that a spiritual or emotional essence can travel outside the body.

Underlying numerous philosophies and religions is the belief that the spirit and the body exist seperately, and that the spirit or soul survives after death. But what of the spirit during life? Is it possible for a spiritual form to journey outside the physical body and then return? And if the spirit survives death, could it come back in another body? Throughout history, respected men and women have related their own experiences and answered yes.

These spiritual voyages are said to take one of three forms. During an "out of body" experience, the spirit travels beyond the physical body for a short time and then returns. In a "near death" experience, the spirit departs as if bound for the next life but is drawn back into the still living body. And spirits who appear to have survived the death of one physical body and then come back in another are said to have undergone reincarnation.