Tag Archives: Russell Targ

Russell Targ and J.J. Hurtak Offer Intellectual Roadmap that Leads to Enlightenment and an ‘End to Suffering’ if You’re Smart Enough to Understand What They’re Talking About

Russell Targ wants to offer you a “Get Out of Hell Free Card.”

A famed laser physicist, Targ later was a seminal researcher for the U.S. Military and CIA’s psychic spying program that developed a human capability known today as remote viewing.

The “Hell” he is referring to is the routine suffering of everyday life. The Buddhists have long pointed out that “everyone suffers” and that “suffering is inevitable.” That includes everyone from the fabulously wealthy and to the grindingly poor.

Getting out of this hell requires achieving enlightenment. That entails the dissolving of the ego-self so that one can embody pure awareness and manifest the universal love that is the very fabric of “All That Is.”

For this book, The End of Suffering, Targ teams up with the American linguist and social scientist J.J. Hurtak Ph.D. Ph.D. (He has two doctoral degrees, one in anthropological linguistics and another in history).

My sense in reading this book is that it is mostly Targ’s because of the heavy emphasis on the philosophy of Nāgārjuna, the second-century Buddhist philosopher and founder of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Mahāyāna refers to “the Middle Way.”

Targ is known to be enamored with the teachings of Nāgārjuna. He discusses the work of the philosopher extensively in his book Limitless Mind which I reviewed HERE.

For those of us who have followed the career of Russel Targ, it’s easy to see why a science-math-engineering kind of guy found the keys he needed to escape his own delusional suffering in the ideas of Nāgārjuna. The Indian philosopher developed a pathway to enlightenment based on logic which can be represented mathematically. The latter is the famous Nāgārjuna Tetralemma.

Some Buddhist philosophers maintain that people cannot “think their way out of their delusions” to achieve enlightenment. Nāgārjuna seems to have done just that, however.

So, before I get too far into the weeds, let me lay out the crux of Targ’s thesis here and then I’ll comment afterward.

Aristotle Ruined Our Lives

Targ explains that our most significant source of suffering can be sourced to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who developed his system of logic and philosophy and unleashed it (or inflicted it) upon humanity in the 3^rd Century B.C. It especially infected Western culture.

At the heart of the Aristotelian system is the concept that A = A. An object can be identified because an object “is what it is.” An apple is an apple. A cup is a cup. A tree is a tree. That’s how we grasp what something is and so that is what anchors our reality. It seems like just basic common sense. After all, how can an object not be what it is?

Well … stay tuned.

Furthermore, this basic concept caused human beings to see everything in terms of a simple subject-object relationship. A person looks at a tree and thinks in a deeply internalized way:

“That tree is over there, and I am over here. We are separated. We each have our own physical properties ….” and so on.

The keyword here is “separated.” The Aristotelian system rests on the notion that all objects are distinct from one another in nature. We exist in the universe as categorical objects cleanly distinguished from all of the other “things” around us.

This leads to suffering because it is a massive delusion, Targ writes. It’s easy to see why the acceptance of a fundamental subject-object separation model leads to numerous problems that make us suffer in big ways and small. (I’ll give examples in a bit. Read on).

So anyway …

Targ said Aristotle’s A = A universe is a misconception at best. At the very least, it is a highly incomplete way to model our reality. He said Nāgārjuna offers a better way to understand what we experience around us. It’s ferreted out by his tetralemma. It is expressed like this:

All things (dharma) exist: affirmation of being, negation of non-being

All things (dharma) do not exist: affirmation of non-being, negation of being

All things (dharma) both exist and do not exist: both affirmation and negation

All things (dharma) neither exist nor do not exist: neither affirmation nor negation

It can be represented mathematically like this:

x = x (An object exists)

x – x (An object does not exist)

(x =x) + (x – x) (An object exists and does not exist at the same time)

-(X = X) <—> -(X – X) = Ø (An object neither exists nor does it not exist)

So, you might be wondering, if an object does not exist and it also, at the same, is in a state of not-not existing – then what is really going on? How can this explain what we clearly seem to experience every day?

Well, when we see a cup, a tree or a star, we have to think of it as a mutual “co-arising” of experience. That which is “co-arising” together is:

A: Your Consciousness

B: That which you perceive

In other words, nothing can truly exist without the interplay and participation of a conscious observer. I know what some of you are thinking: Isn’t this just simple solipsism? No! In solipsism, only you can be said to exist. Targ is saying that you exist but that what you perceive also exists as long as both of you are working in cooperation to create reality, so to speak.

Consider also that this notion now seems to have been born out by quantum mechanics as most famously demonstrated by the double-slit experiment. I won’t go into that here but I recommend you read up on it.

But wait a minute again! How will knowing this end your suffering?

If you want to know that, I suggest you read the book. Targ and Hurtak roll out their thesis page after page in a layered way in which – if you have the moxie to power through it – you’ll come to intellectually understand what they are talking about.

Be warned, however, that a mere intellectual understanding is not nearly sufficient to end your suffering. The tetralemma must be internalized and then become your default mode of perceiving your existence. If you can get to that stage, you’ll find that, indeed, your suffering will melt away because you are no longer struggling against the universe as an “object” that is separated from all other “objects” and that includes other people.

For example, if you come to understand that another person is not so much an “individual who is separated from you” but that you are both a “co-arising manifestation of the One Being” then you will no longer have any reason to fear, harm, disagree with or in any other way be in conflict with other people. You will be automatically loving and supportive of everyone else because that’s the same as being loving and supportive of yourself.

This is really only one aspect of the benefits of modeling your reality as a mutual co-arising of all experience. For example, the major problems we grapple in the world with today might have never arisen if humanity had not adopted an outlook of reality based on Aristotelian separation. An obvious example is environmental degradation generated by the Industrial Revolution.

In the past, it was common for some developer to build a factory that produced toxic waste as an outcome of its process. It was routine practice to get rid of that toxic waste by building a long pipe that led to a local river or lake. Some of us are old enough to remember June 22, 1969. That was the year the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught on fire and burned. It was the result of factories along the river that were willy-nilly dumping whatever chemical, petroleum product, animal waste or whatever directly into the water with a naive attitude of: “Out of sight, out of mind!”

Igniting the water of the Cuyahoga was a wake-up call for humanity. It gave birth to the modern environmental movement and the first Earth Day. In January of 1970 Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency. And yet, enormous conflict has fallen out from these positive developments, especially the powerful pushback from industrialist and money-hungry corporations who now endlessly moan about “regulatory overreach” and “lefty tree-hugging hippy environmentalists” who want to kill jobs and stifle the glories of capitalism. This conflict adds suffering on top of suffering.

The point is, the pollution of the Cuyahoga would not have happened in the first place if those who did it would have understood the truth that when they poison the water they poison themselves. The reality is that there is no true separation between man, woman and river. The widespread suffering of man, woman and animal would never have happened if this was the internalized mode of modeling reality. The key phrase here is: “The suffering would never have happened.”

See what I mean?

While Targ hammers out his thesis in these pages with his characteristic logical approach, Hurtak takes over in later chapters and brings forth a perspective that is more lyrical and prosy but equally effective.

Together, Targ and Hurtak have given a balanced and comprehensive roadmap for the reader – if she or he can comprehend and internalize what these two intellectuals are trying to convey – that will lead to an “end of suffering.”

Ken Korczak is a former newspaper reporter, government information officer, served as an advocate for homeless people as a VISTA Volunteer, and taught journalism at the University of North Dakota for five years. He is the author of: BIRD BRAIN GENIUS

All NEW: KEN’S BOOK REVIEW SITE ON FACEBOOK: REMOTE BOOK REVIEWING

See Ken’s Reviews of More Philosophy or Philosophy-Influenced Books:

THE THOUGHT DIAL by Paul Vitols

SAURUS by Eden Phillpotts

ENLIGHTENMENT By Martyn Wilson

Paul H. Smith’s Epic Saga of Remote Viewing Is The Most Complete Book On History and Other Aspects of Psychic Spying

1 Reply

Review by: KEN KORCZAK

I’ve read a lot of books about Remote Viewing, but I’m willing to bet that this one, READING THE ENEMY’S MIND by Paul H. Smith, is THEE definitive book on the topic.

Clocking in at more than 600 pages, Smith slogs through just about every aspect of remote viewing — from the mind boggling to the mundane — from the first days of its development through its eventual demise as a sanctioned government project.

Smith was a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer and among the original remote viewers. Here he doggedly documents the endless and banal bureaucratic twists and turns of managing a super secretive, highly classified intelligence operation — but, wow! — it was a spy game unlike any other in the already dark and spooky underworld of international espionage.

Most readers eager for sensational stories of extraordinary paranormal happenings will find themselves enduring some eye-glazing moments as Smith plods through all the crushingly boring — the red tape, the funding methods, the inter-governmental squabbling. However, those who wade through it will be rewarded with a greater perspective about what really happened inside our government’s unlikely foray into “psychic spying.”

Paul Smith

But there is much to amaze as well. There’s lots of juicy paranormal stuff — psychic powers, UFO tangents, channeling strange entities, spoon bending — that will satisfy the inquiring mind.

It would take pages to provide a truly comprehensive review of everything Smith covers in this book, so let me focus on one area where I think the author provides invaluable insight into a deeply controversial topic.

The insight I am talking about is the window inside Smith gives us on certain people who emerged as high profile public remote viewers after the official program ended — especially Ed Dames and David Morehouse.

Smith tells that Dames and Morehouse are two guys who more or less went off the deep end and were ensnared by the most unscientific and fringy possibilities associated with remote viewing.

Smith levels his biggest criticism at David Morehouse, whom he describes as a barely involved, minimally trained slacker who was, if not actually AWOL, absent for much of the time when he was supposed to be on duty working RV sessions. Morehouse also had periods of mental instability, a disastrous illicit affair, was once suicidal — none of which was precipitated by the strangeness of remote viewing — although Morehouse sought to use RV as an excuse for his behavior when he was facing court martial.

Yet Morehouse is active today as a “celebrity” remote viewer, promoting himself as one of the original “Psychic Warriors” (That’s the title of his book). He also peddles a RV study course, he leads remote viewing seminars and is popular on the lecture tour. But Smith paints Morehouse as little more than a failure at remote viewing, a fraud and a blatant, self-serving opportunist.

But the guy who really sucks up all the oxygen in the world of remote viewing today is former U.S. Army Major Ed Dames.

Smith is somewhat kinder to Dames in terms of his work ethic and commitment to military intelligence. Smith even gives him high marks for his professionalism as a soldier. However, when it came to performing the actual remote viewing sessions, Dames was rarely the one sitting in the psychic spying seat. Rather, Dames served more often as a monitor and facilitator for other remote viewers. His own ability to remote view were unremarkable, and he barely worked more than a half dozen official RV sessions himself.

Smith writes that Dames also frequently thwarted protocol by improperly “front loading” remote viewing sessions — that is, Dames frequently attempted to “lead” or bias remote viewers with his own unstoppable obsession with UFOs and his own pet theories about extraterrestrials.

When Dames could not goad disciplined remote viewers into coughing up questionable information about ETs, he would go ahead and conduct his own sessions with sloppy protocols, which would, not surprisingly, confirm his own belief system about aliens from other worlds.

Paul Smith’s organization, RVIS, or Remote Viewing Instructional Services

Even worse, Dames displayed an extreme proclivity for apocalyptic scenarios. Again and again, Dames came up with end-of-the-world predictions both during his time with military intelligence, and for years after as a public figure — and he continues to do today. Dames has appeared dozens of times on the hugely popular Coast to Coast radio program hosted by Art Bell, and over the years had made one disaster-scenario prediction after another, none of which have ever come true.

Smith also sharply criticizes Ed Dames for the claims he has made about his involvement with the development of the remote viewing program — in short, Smith says that many of Dames’ claims about what he did and to help develop the military remote viewer program are flat out false. Dames was a far more marginal player than he has long advertised himself to be, according to Smith.

So this is an outstanding book which is an invaluable historical document that both dispels the many myths that still linger about remote viewing, and which provides incredible insight — a clarifying window into one of the strangest times in the history of U.S. espionage and intelligence operations.

Tweet

Tweet to @KenKorczak
Please see also my reviews of these books on astral travel and remote viewing:

EXPLORATIONS IN CONSCIOUSNESS BY FREDERICK AARDEMA

LIMITLESS MIND BY RUSSELL TARG

MASTER OF MY SHIP, CAPTAIN OF MY SOUL BY SKIP ATWATER

THE TRANSCENDENT INGO SWANN BY RAUL DASILVA