Mental Radio [Hardcover]

Upton Sinclair took a considerable gamble by writing this book and had to withstand a good deal of criticism as a consequence of it. It was obvious, though, that he felt this was a story that needed to be told, and we should be glad he went through with his hunch.

The book is essentially a description of a large number of experiments done in the areas of mental telepathy and remote reviewing, broken down into sets or groups of sessions. The author tends to bend over backwards to convince the public of the sincere intentions of all involved in these tests - mostly his wife, himself, his secretary, brother-in-law and several friends and associates.

The information is presented in a very frank and accessible manner, without a lot of protocol and formality, because the tests were being carried out by non-scientists who were just trying to be as diligent as possible. This in turn makes for easy reading by the layman.

Chapter 21 is a verbatim account by Sinclair's wife (whom he calls by her middle name, Craig). It is both a handbook of her methodologies and a fascinating insight into the way she theorizes the workings of the mind. This is very useful information for anyone wanting a "how to" for remote viewing or telepathic research and is a very simple sequence of instructions. Of course a great deal of practice would be necessary to achieve the necessary level of concentration required. But at least one can have a distinct roadmap to follow as opposed to a lot of vague references.

Author Upton Sinclair is ledgend. What is more complementary to the great authors saga is his soul mate and life's companion, wife Mary. A certain risk in Sinclair's time was the issue of "the occult". Even polite discussion or any association to the subject labeled it's members as outsiders or worse. So is the bravery and love that Upton and Mary Sinclair bring to the reader in enlightenment and discovery. That the "subject" of telepathy and precognitive ability is based intimatly between man and wife, it unfolds in a love story, bringing us closer to the heart and our minds deepest of mystery's. "Mental Radio" is a book of wonderment and love. The reader takes a glimpse into a couples quest to bring understanding to our lives and their discoverys. The book is justly prefaced by none other than Albert Einstien, May 23, 1930.

Opening the book you cannot fail to be impressed by the name and words of Albert Einstein who wrote the preface.

Prior to reading this book, Pulitzer prize winner Upton Sinclair was unknown to me, further emphasising my ignorance of early twentieth century literary and political movements.
This is not a scientific monologue, but is rather an almost homely account of amateurs making very careful exploration of telepathic and clairvoyant ability - with very impressive results.
Sinclair uses his significant literary skills to make this book an interesting description of his wife's experimentation with her telepathic abilities.

Mary Craig Sinclair and her husband Upton Sinclair used a basic protocol requiring that the two sat in separate rooms, When Upton was ready to start creating a target line drawing he would call "all right". When his wife had finished her drawings of what she perceived, she would call "All right". Usually the result was a pair of drawings, the target, and the attempted reproduction using telepathy. The attempt was then judged in its likeness to the target. What resulted where 290 trials, consisting of 65 (23%) successes, 155 (53%) partial successes and 70 (24%) failures.

The book contains 16 chapters describing the the motivation from which the experiment arose, and giving a number of examples of successes, partial successes, and other interesting anomalies. A summary of the receptive technique is given, with some closing comments. Originally published in 1930 this work is of such historical significance that it has recently (2001) been re-published as a part of Hampton Roads series Classics in Conciousness, edited by Russell Targ. This edition has an addendum containing a rather dry analysis of the raw experiment documentation by Dr Walter Franklin Prince of the Boston Society for Psychic Research.

Having previously been generally ignorant of psychical research prior to the 1960's, I see in the Sinclair experiments valid descriptions of how we experience the Psi capability, and the seeds of the remote viewing protocol. I also understand they were a primary motivation for the establishment of the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory, a predecessor of the Rhine Research Centre.

As a whole the book has the following values:
1) It stands in independent of other psychical research as strong evidence for telepathic and clairvoyant functioning.
2) It documents the technique used by Mary Craig Sinclair in in her telepathic functioning.
3) it records a number of phenomena familiar with Remote Viewers and others using such skills.
a) The ability is not 100% reliable
b) Sometimes there is a remarkable contact with the target
c) Sometimes only conceptual elements of the target shape are identified
d) Some targets (in her case, targets with smoke) are perceived better than others
e) Often picks up the shape (form) rather than the function (being able to correctly name the target).
e) Target displacement (anticipation of future targets).
f) Sometimes picked up related mental thoughts of the targeter.
g) Attraction to bigger issues (eg health).
h) Works equally well from the next room or 40 miles away.
i) Variability - Sometimes you get a great run, sometimes you to get a run of bad sessions.

Although I yearned for a more mathematical treatment of the results (being permanently twisted from majoring in maths), I came away with a deeper understanding of Psi functioning and its history. A worthwhile read, particularly for those interested in understanding Telepathic ability.