Telepathic Tales Precognition and Clairvoyance in Legend, Lyric, and Lore.

Abstract

Of all scientific frontiers, attempts to establish the existence of psi phenomena may have produced greater gains than any other in recent decades.An ever-growing handful of institutions continue to take the matter quite seriously, and, combined with the efforts of dedicated researchers, have pushed the conversation into territory our forebears would envy.To those tracking these developments, the question is not if these phenomena exist, but rather how they exist.Collective culture is slowly coming to terms with the data.In the meantime, it seems more important than ever to reevaluate our past through the lens of this new emergent reality.How do the stories we've told-from the religious epic to historical fact to the passing anecdote-encode, reflect, and reveal humanity's latent psychic talents?Enter Telepathic Tales, the latest offering from Daniel Bourke, 320 pages including endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.Over the course of a brisk, thoroughly cited 236 pages, Bourke leverages incisive comparativism in service of a compelling argument.Despite the different terms we choose for a variety of psychic experiences, these phenomena remain pervasive across all cultures and epochs and may well distil into a single word: knowing.The book's foreword, penned by Dr Gregory Shushan, clearly establishes the tone and Bourke's aims.Shushan was an excellent choice: his extensive work examining near-death experiences and afterlife narratives from the ancient and indigenous worlds aligns well with Bourke's thesis.As someone who has not only skilfully employed but also defended comparative studies to great effect, Shushan conveys the central notion that precognition and clairvoyance are "panhuman phenomena" (p.x), as he puts it.In his own humble way, Bourke has applied the same sort of comparativism to this suite of extrasensory experiences.To that end, Bourke's main text draws upon a diverse set of stories told by people (and peoples) from all walks of life.The eight chapters-focusing on