AN INTRODUCTION

引言

Probably the most aggravating thing—to both authors and readers—in any published work, is that an introduction should turn out to be a review. A preface is where the authors can sound off on any rankling questions brought on by their editors; and an epilogue is where they can take a final pot-shot at their readers. Reviewers should keep out of the whole mess and go publish some place else.

對(duì)于任何出版作品的作者和讀者來說，最令人懊惱的事情，也許就是引言竟然變成了一篇評(píng)論。序言是作者可以對(duì)編輯引起的任何令人不快的問題發(fā)表意見的地方；而尾聲則是他們向讀者發(fā)出最后一擊的地方。評(píng)論家應(yīng)該遠(yuǎn)離這一切混亂，去其他地方發(fā)表評(píng)論。

An introduction, especially if written by some person other than the author or authors should, at least in my opinion, offer only some attempt at augmentation of the book’s general theme; perhaps bringing to it some corollary and pertinent observations, since a lot of things can be said in an introduction that the authors have not been able to say—or have not been allowed to say—in the body of their text. So, I shall now proceed to offer some such complementary and perhaps impertinent observations for your possible edification.

特別是如果引言是由作者之外的人撰寫的，至少在我看來，它應(yīng)該只是對(duì)書籍整體主題的一些嘗試性補(bǔ)充；也許會(huì)加入一些相關(guān)的觀察，因?yàn)樵谝灾锌梢哉f出一些作者在正文中未能或未被允許說出的東西。因此，我現(xiàn)在將繼續(xù)為您提供一些這樣的補(bǔ)充，可能會(huì)有些輕率的觀察，以供您參考。

First, let it be most clearly understood that this book has nothing whatsoever to do with any “psychic” anything. The employment of this word in the title should, rather, be read to mean “Matters that we have been taught to call psychic”. The choice of this title is, nonetheless, quite legitimate, on two counts. First, it will attract a great number of people who would otherwise not even so much as glance at the opus; and second, because it may render a very real service in clearing up this whole preposterous semantic confusion.

首先，讓我們明確一點(diǎn)，這本書與任何“心靈”相關(guān)的東西毫無關(guān)系。標(biāo)題中使用這個(gè)詞應(yīng)該被理解為“我們被教導(dǎo)稱為心靈的事物”。這個(gè)標(biāo)題的選擇在兩個(gè)方面都是合理的。首先，它會(huì)吸引許多可能不會(huì)注意這本著作的人；其次，它可能在消除這種荒謬的語(yǔ)義混淆方面發(fā)揮真正的作用。

Let us start out by taking a look in the dictionaries, always the best place to begin when there is anything involved about which there might be semantic doubts; and, as this is an American book, we will tackle good old Webster first. Herein we find the word psychic defined as:

讓我們首先從詞典中尋找線索，這總是有疑義的事情最好的起點(diǎn)。作為一本美國(guó)書籍，我們先來看看《韋氏詞典》。在這里，我們找到了心靈這個(gè)詞的定義如下：

“1. Of or relating to the psyche”. (Referring back a few lines, we find this in turn defined as “(a) A beautiful princess of classical mythology loved by Cupid. (b) Soul, Self; also Mind”.) Webster then goes on about psychic as follows:

“1. 關(guān)于心靈的。"（回頭查找?guī)仔?，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)心靈的定義是“（a）古典神話中被丘比特所愛的美麗公主。(b) 靈魂，自我；也包括思想。”）然后韋氏繼續(xù)解釋心靈：

“2. Lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge; immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force. 3. Sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences”. (Italics mine.)

“2. 超出物質(zhì)科學(xué)或知識(shí)范圍；起源或力量是非物質(zhì)的，道德的或精神的。3. 對(duì)非物質(zhì)或超自然的力量和影響敏感?！保ㄐ斌w為我加的。）

The Oxford dictionary gets to the point more simply and directly, and is much more succinct. It states simply: “Non-physical force assumed to explain spiritualistic phenomena”.

牛津詞典更加簡(jiǎn)潔明了。它直接而簡(jiǎn)單地表述：“非物質(zhì)力量，用以解釋心靈現(xiàn)象?！?/p>

Let us first try to unravel the semantics. You will notice that the mind, morals, the supernatural, the spiritual and even the spiritualistic (which is something quite else as most dictionaries make clear) get dragged into the business. However, nary a mention of the two headings under which such matters are most commonly and popularly classed in our language—namely, Mysticism or the Occult.* So, okay: the “psychic” concerns itself with the mind, the soul, morals, the supernatural (whatever that may be), matters spiritual and religious, and the spiritualistic—meaning, one must presume, spiritualism. Spiritism and Animism seem to have been overlooked.

讓我們首先嘗試?yán)砬暹@些語(yǔ)義。您會(huì)注意到，思想、道德、超自然、精神甚至是心靈現(xiàn)象（大多數(shù)詞典都很清楚這是一種不同的東西）都被卷入其中。然而，在我們的語(yǔ)言中，關(guān)于這些事物最常見和普遍的分類是—秘教學(xué)或神秘學(xué)。所以，好吧：心靈現(xiàn)象涉及思想、靈魂、道德、超自然現(xiàn)象（無論這是什么），與精神和宗教有關(guān)，以及心靈現(xiàn)象的意思，可以假設(shè)，是心靈現(xiàn)象。但似乎忽略了靈魂信仰和萬物有靈的信仰。

Now, if we cannot trust our dictionaries, what can we trust in this modern, complex, technological age that is based primarily on communication and which, in turn, is based on semantics? The only means of precise communication that we have is based on speech, the written word, or the computer’s binomial interpretation of these. (By this, I mean factual communication, not such emotional means as sex, music, the dance, and other arts.) So, above all, we must get our facts straight, and to do this, we have just got to find out precisely what other people are talking about.

現(xiàn)在，如果我們不能信任我們的詞典，那么在這個(gè)以溝通為主的現(xiàn)代復(fù)雜技術(shù)時(shí)代，我們還能信任什么呢？我們唯一準(zhǔn)確傳達(dá)信息的方法是基于言語(yǔ)、書面文字或計(jì)算機(jī)對(duì)其的二進(jìn)制解釋。（我指的是事實(shí)性的交流，不包括情感手段，如性、音樂、舞蹈和其他藝術(shù)形式。）所以，最重要的是，我們必須搞清楚事實(shí)，為此，我們必須確切地了解其他人在談?wù)撌裁础?/p>

It is most interesting to note that not even the biggest dictionary, even unto the vast multi-volume Oxford, so much as mentions a single one of the items in this book under any of their headings of psychic. And what are these items? To list some of them, we find the following:— Mental Telepathy; Hypnotism; Faith Healing; Precognition; Psychokinesis; Auras around plants and animals; Brain Control; Mind Patrol; Astrology; Levitation; Sightless—i.e. eyeless—Vision; Dowsing; Acupuncture; Witchcraft; Prophecy; Alchemy; Psychotronics; and what we naively call “ESP”.

有趣的是，甚至最大的詞典，甚至是包含龐大多卷的《牛津詞典》，在任何“心靈”類別下，都沒有提及本書中任何一個(gè)條目。那么，這些條目是什么？讓我們列舉其中一些：心靈感應(yīng)；催眠術(shù)；信仰療法；預(yù)知；念力；植物和動(dòng)物的光環(huán)；腦控制；心靈巡邏；占星術(shù)；飄?。粺o眼視覺；探地；針灸；巫術(shù)；預(yù)言；煉金術(shù)；心靈電子學(xué)；以及我們幼稚地稱之為“超感官知覺”。

Now please note something well. These are just the items that the average Westerner will positively avow constitute the hard core of what he calls “the psychic”. Moreover, while he may permit the inclusion of other items in this category, such as spiritualism, and possibly even mysticism—if he knows the difference between the two, or has ever learned what these words actually denote—if you try to ram religion down his throat within this bailiwick he will probably become insulted, insulting, and somewhat out-of-control mentally.

請(qǐng)注意這一點(diǎn)。這些僅僅是普通西方人絕對(duì)確認(rèn)的構(gòu)成他所稱為“心靈”的硬核內(nèi)容。而且，盡管他可能允許將其他項(xiàng)目納入這一類別，例如心靈主義，甚至可能是神秘主義——如果他知道這兩者之間的區(qū)別，或者對(duì)這些詞的真實(shí)含義有所了解——但是，如果您試圖在這個(gè)范圍內(nèi)向他灌輸宗教，他可能會(huì)感到受到侮辱，進(jìn)行侮辱，并且在心理上有些失控。

The reason? He has been taught for centuries that existence is clearly divided into three parts:—the Spiritual: namely, religion and such, plus, perhaps the arts, if he has even given them a thought. The Scientific: which to the average Westerner means primarily technology, or button-pushing and bottle-washing; and third, everything that is left over. This last used to be called metaphysics but is today called simply “psychic”. The result of this indoctrination is that we of the “West”—from scientists to imbeciles—seem not to have used our dictionaries and so have failed to realize that we are using this word to cover two quite different and almost diametrically opposed concepts.

原因是什么？幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，他們一直被教導(dǎo)認(rèn)為存在明確劃分為三個(gè)部分的存在：—精神：即宗教和其他類似的事物，以及也許是藝術(shù)，如果他曾經(jīng)考慮過的話。科學(xué)：對(duì)于普通的西方人來說，這主要是技術(shù)或按按鈕和洗瓶子。第三，剩下的一切。這個(gè)最后一部分曾經(jīng)被稱為形而上學(xué)，但今天被簡(jiǎn)稱為“心靈”。這種灌輸?shù)慕Y(jié)果是，從科學(xué)家到低能兒，我們似乎都沒有使用我們的詞典，因此沒有意識(shí)到我們正在用這個(gè)詞來涵蓋兩個(gè)完全不同且?guī)缀踅厝幌喾吹母拍睢?/p>

By the same token, we are in a similarly confused state with regard to both the words “science” and “scientist”. We use the first to cover both basic science, which the dictionaries define as the search for knowledge, and applied science or technology which concerns itself with research. Likewise we use the word “scientist” to cover the practitioners of both of these expertises. However, those involved in basic science are really philosophers, and it is very cheering to note that the term “Philosophical Scientists” is creeping into common usage. It is equally refreshing to encounter the heading “Science and Technology”.

同樣，對(duì)于“科學(xué)”和“科學(xué)家”這兩個(gè)詞，我們也陷入了類似混亂的狀態(tài)。我們使用第一個(gè)詞來涵蓋基礎(chǔ)科學(xué)，詞典定義為尋求知識(shí)的研究，以及應(yīng)用科學(xué)或技術(shù)，其關(guān)注點(diǎn)在于研究。同樣地，我們使用“科學(xué)家”這個(gè)詞來包括這兩個(gè)專業(yè)的從業(yè)者。然而，從事基礎(chǔ)科學(xué)的人實(shí)際上是哲學(xué)家，非常高興的是，“哲學(xué)科學(xué)家”這個(gè)術(shù)語(yǔ)已經(jīng)開始在普遍使用。同樣令人振奮的是，我們遇到了“科學(xué)和技術(shù)”這個(gè)標(biāo)題。

“Applied Science” is a good term and says clearly what it means, but to speak of an “applied scientist” sounds as if the poor guy was some kind of screwdriver. As a matter of fact, this is just about what he is, so it is much more polite to dignify him with the somewhat grandiose-sounding title of Technologist. Besides, this links him with technicians, to which brotherhood he frankly belongs.

“應(yīng)用科學(xué)”是一個(gè)好詞，清楚地表達(dá)了它的意思，但是將一個(gè)“應(yīng)用科學(xué)家”的說法聽起來好像這可憐的家伙就像螺絲刀一樣。實(shí)際上，這正是他是什么，因此用略帶浮夸的“技術(shù)專家”這個(gè)稱號(hào)來尊重他，將他與技術(shù)人員聯(lián)系在一起，他實(shí)際上屬于這個(gè)同胞會(huì)。

The average Westerner—and I shall continue to emphasize this qualifying term—lumps everything, other than that which he has been taught is either spiritual or scientific, into one great basket which he then chops up to suit his tastes. He has been told for a couple of centuries now that anything neither science (pragmatic) nor religion (spiritual) can explain must fall into this single encompassing category. And it is because of this that so many misconceptions have arisen. For instance, it would seem to be extremely unlikely that law will ever become wholly scientific, or art purely spiritual, while matters like politics defy any classification. Nonetheless, all these troublesome matters display technological aspects, and they may even be granted some scientific and spiritual qualities, so that the average person takes them in his stride. But when matters that don’t seem to be answerable to either pragmatic or spiritual explanation crop up, people simply deny that they exist even as problems. These were once lumped together as metaphysics and are those which today are called psychic.

“西方人”—我將繼續(xù)強(qiáng)調(diào)這個(gè)限定詞——將除了被認(rèn)為是屬于精神或科學(xué)的事物之外的一切東西都混為一談，然后對(duì)其進(jìn)行分類以適應(yīng)他的口味。幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，他們被告知，除了科學(xué)（實(shí)用主義）或宗教（精神）不能解釋的任何東西，都必須歸入這個(gè)統(tǒng)一的范疇。正是由于這一點(diǎn)，才產(chǎn)生了如此多的誤解。例如，法律似乎極不可能成為完全科學(xué)化的，或者藝術(shù)純粹成為精神化的，而像政治這樣的問題則無法進(jìn)行任何分類。盡管如此，所有這些令人困擾的問題都顯示出技術(shù)方面的特點(diǎn)，甚至可能被授予一些科學(xué)和精神上的品質(zhì)，使普通人在面對(duì)這些問題時(shí)感到自在。但是，當(dāng)出現(xiàn)那些似乎不能回答科學(xué)或精神解釋的問題時(shí)，人們只是否認(rèn)它們甚至是問題。這些曾經(jīng)被合并稱為形而上學(xué)，今天稱為心靈。

The old metaphysics—which, incidentally, meant only things left over from Aristotelian so-called physics—is also most clearly divided into two quite separate parts. These are, on the one hand, the Cryptophysical; and, on the other, the Cryptospiritual (“crypto” meaning simply “hidden”); in other words those items which are not as yet understood or explained to the satisfaction of our current logic. While nobody should deny the existence of the second category, such matters are not as yet the province of what we call science but rather of religion and mysticism. All of those of the first category, on the other hand, most definitely cannot be denied and do fall into that province.

舊形而上學(xué)——順便說一下，這只是指亞里士多德所謂的物理學(xué)中剩下的東西——也是最明顯地分為兩個(gè)截然不同的部分。一方面是隱形物理學(xué)，另一方面是隱形精神學(xué)（“隱形”意思就是“隱藏”）。換句話說，這些項(xiàng)目目前還沒有被我們的現(xiàn)有邏輯滿足的方式理解或解釋。雖然沒有人應(yīng)該否認(rèn)第二類存在，但是這些問題目前不屬于我們所說的科學(xué)范疇，而更屬于宗教和神秘主義。而屬于第一類別的所有問題絕對(duì)不能被否認(rèn)，而且確實(shí)屬于該范疇。

And this is just what the book is about.

這本書正是講述這些問題。

Unlike, and diametrically opposed to what the dictionaries classify as “psychic”, all the items discussed in this book are in every way not only susceptible to truly scientific contemplation but also to technological investigation. What is more, said items have, as this book now relates, been so investigated in the so-called Russian zone. But we of the West still just do not realize this fact.

與詞典所定義的“心靈”截然不同，本書中討論的所有內(nèi)容在各個(gè)方面都不僅適合真正的科學(xué)思考，而且也適合技術(shù)調(diào)查。更重要的是，這些項(xiàng)目已經(jīng)在所謂的俄羅斯區(qū)域進(jìn)行了這樣的調(diào)查，正如本書所述。但是，我們西方人仍然沒有意識(shí)到這一事實(shí)。

Doubtless our government scientists and technologists have been aware of this for a long time, but the public is not generally aware of it, and the press and other publicists simply will not even believe in it and persist in reporting on it only with snide jocularity. Whether this is under instructions, as so many claim, or due to simple lack of education, who is to say; but the result has been a crystallization of this stupid attitude and the envelopment of our whole outlook in a sort of tortoise-like shell of protective disbelief. The worst aspect of this mass stupidity (or deliberate mendacity) is, moreover, the bracketing of these matters with what the dictionaries denote as the “psychic”.

毫無疑問，我們的政府科學(xué)家和技術(shù)專家很早就意識(shí)到了這一點(diǎn)，但公眾通常并不知道，而新聞界和其他宣傳者則堅(jiān)持以輕蔑的玩笑來報(bào)道這一點(diǎn)。這是否是受到指示，正如許多人所說的，還是由于簡(jiǎn)單的教育不足，誰能說呢；但結(jié)果是這種愚蠢態(tài)度的凝結(jié)，并且我們整個(gè)觀念似乎被包裹在一種類似烏龜般的保護(hù)性懷疑中。此群體智力的最糟糕的方面（或者是故意的虛偽）是，將這些問題與詞典所指的“心靈”相提并論。

Of course, the major trouble is that, as I said at the outset, we don’t have any generally accepted word for these items as a class; though, as a matter of fact, we do have a perfectly good one which unfortunately has not yet gotten into any dictionary. The designation is, of course, “Forteana”, but I won’t go any further into this at the moment. Rather, we should try to straighten out another aspect of all this business that is equally pertinent; namely, just where the authors’ researches were prosecuted.

當(dāng)然，主要問題在于，正如我一開始所說的，我們沒有任何普遍接受的詞來作為這一類別的代表；盡管事實(shí)上，我們有一個(gè)完全好的詞，不幸的是它還沒有出現(xiàn)在任何詞典中。這個(gè)詞是“Forteana”，但我暫時(shí)不會(huì)進(jìn)一步介紹它。相反，我們應(yīng)該嘗試澄清另一個(gè)同樣相關(guān)的方面；也就是說，作者的研究是在哪里進(jìn)行的。

This is this new concept of “The West”, now so beloved of political writers. Despite its now almost universal use, this, too, has not yet gotten into the dictionaries; while even advanced students of international affairs appear not to have the foggiest notion as to how to define the term—geographically, that is. The world of humanity is today divided into eight major blocks. These are basically geographic, but the vast majority of the human inhabitants of each form a compact ethnic majority. These blocks are: (1) Western Eurasia plus North America, (2) Eastern Eurasia, namely the Slavic domain plus Siberia, (3) The Near East, being the Muhammadan world, from Morocco to West Pakistan, north to the south Slavic border, and south to the Ethiopian block, (4) The Middle East, or the subcontinent of India, (5) The Far East, being all that lies east of the great Mongolian Fold, which runs northeast from the Pamirs to Amuria; together with Indochina, Indonesia, and Micronesia, (6) Australia, with Papua and Polynesia, (7) Latin America, south of the Rio Grande, and (8) Ethiopian Africa. Of course, there are endless human minority groups in each block while the indigenous populations of two—North America and Australia—are now almost completely suppressed. It is interesting to note that the aboriginal Amerinds of Latin America have had a more than profound influence on the Europeans who went to their countries, and that the Australians are beginning to show a very noticeable distinction that would seem to have been in some mysterious way derived from their dying aborigines.

這是“西方”的新概念，現(xiàn)在深受政治作家喜愛。盡管它現(xiàn)在幾乎普遍使用，但它也尚未出現(xiàn)在詞典中；即使是國(guó)際事務(wù)的高級(jí)學(xué)生似乎對(duì)如何地理上定義這個(gè)術(shù)語(yǔ)沒有任何概念。今天，人類世界被分為八個(gè)主要區(qū)塊。這些基本上是地理分區(qū)，但每個(gè)區(qū)塊的絕大多數(shù)人口都形成了緊密的族群多數(shù)派。這些區(qū)塊分別是：（1）西歐亞加上北美，（2）東歐亞，即斯拉夫地區(qū)加上西伯利亞，（3）中東，即穆斯林世界，從摩洛哥到西巴基斯坦，南到南斯拉夫邊境，北到埃塞俄比亞區(qū)域，（4）中東，或印度子大陸，（5）遠(yuǎn)東，指的是位于從帕米爾山脈東北延伸到阿穆爾的蒙古折疊帶以東地區(qū)，以及印度支那、印度尼西亞和密克羅尼西亞，（6）澳大利亞，包括巴布亞和波利尼西亞，（7）拉丁美洲，位于里約格蘭德河以南，（8）埃塞俄比亞非洲。當(dāng)然，每個(gè)區(qū)塊中有無數(shù)的人類少數(shù)族群，而兩個(gè)地區(qū)的土著人口——北美和澳大利亞——現(xiàn)在幾乎完全消失。有趣的是，拉丁美洲的土著美洲人對(duì)前往他們國(guó)家的歐洲人產(chǎn)生了非常深遠(yuǎn)的影響，而澳大利亞人現(xiàn)在正開始顯示出非常明顯的特點(diǎn)，似乎這種特點(diǎn)是以某種神秘的方式來源于他們垂死的土著人。

Each of these eight major blocks has an overall approach to life that is now quite distinct, and each appears to look at its world, the world generally, and life as a whole, in a noticeably different way. Then, there is another thing. This is that there is really a “West-West”, a “Middle-West”, and an “East-West”, in that North America is, apart from sharing basically the same language with a Middle-West country (i.e. the United Kingdom or Great Britain) just as different in outlook from the Middle-West as that block is from the East-West. Disregarding politics and religion, the three “Wests” (being North America, Western Europe, and Slavonic or Eastern Europe) form a composite cultural block despite their tripartite internal differences. In fact, we three are already in the same bed and we might as well make up our minds to lie in it.

這八個(gè)主要地區(qū)每個(gè)都有獨(dú)特的生活方式，如今彼此間區(qū)別明顯，似乎對(duì)待世界、整個(gè)世界和生活的看法也截然不同。然后，還有另外一點(diǎn)，就是確實(shí)存在一個(gè)“西方-西方”、“中西方”和“東西方”的區(qū)別。除了與中西部國(guó)家（例如英國(guó)或大不列顛）基本相同的語(yǔ)言之外，北美與中西部的觀念也和中西部地區(qū)有著明顯的不同。不考慮政治和宗教因素，這三個(gè)“西方”（即北美、西歐和斯拉夫或東歐）盡管內(nèi)部有三方差異，但仍形成了一個(gè)綜合的文化區(qū)塊。實(shí)際上，我們這三個(gè)地區(qū)已經(jīng)處于同一狀況，我們最好也做好準(zhǔn)備并繼續(xù)如此。

If the authors of this book had visited any block other than the Slavic, they would possibly never have written any book for the simple reason that only in that sphere have scientists and technologists approached these matters in the way described in this book. Even the Australians, who are Caucasoids, take an entirely different approach, as do the Latin-Americans. Among the latter there are today many brilliant scholars working in this field, but they have, and perhaps naturally, been greatly influenced in their approach by the racial majority of their populations, which is still Amerindian; a race who, and quite apart from any language barriers left, are mentally almost incomprehensible to any Westerner. Ethiopian Africa takes still another approach to these questions and it also has an incredibly ancient culture that is for the most part a mystery to Westerners. The Indians and the Far Easterners likewise have for millennia attempted to tackle the same mysterious natural phenomena, each in their own individual ways which are truly incomprehensible to a culture based on technology. Only the Middle-Westerners (i.e. Western Europeans) form a hybrid, mongrel, bastardized intellectual bridge between all of the others—with the possible exception of the Far-Easterners.

如果本書的作者訪問的是斯拉夫地區(qū)以外的其他地區(qū)，他們可能永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)寫這本書，因?yàn)橹挥性谒估虻貐^(qū)，科學(xué)家和技術(shù)專家才以本書所描述的方式來探索這些問題。即使是高加索人的澳大利亞人也采取完全不同的方法，拉丁美洲人也是如此。在后者中，如今有許多杰出的學(xué)者在這一領(lǐng)域工作，但他們?cè)诜椒ㄉ鲜艿搅似淙丝诜N族的影響，這或許是自然的，而這個(gè)種族仍然是美洲印第安人。這個(gè)種族即使不考慮語(yǔ)言障礙，對(duì)任何西方人來說也幾乎是難以理解的。埃塞俄比亞的非洲則以另一種方式處理這些問題，它也有著令西方人大多數(shù)時(shí)間都無法理解的古老文化。印度人和遠(yuǎn)東人同樣有著千年來各自嘗試解決相同神秘自然現(xiàn)象的歷史，他們的方法對(duì)基于技術(shù)的文化來說是真正無法理解的。除了中西部人（即西歐人）以外，其他所有地區(qū)在所有人之間形成了混合的、雜種的智力橋梁——或許遠(yuǎn)東人除外。

The matters that these authors describe and discuss in this book form the hard core of a wide range of investigations that we of the West-West, and to a considerable extent of the Middle-West, have always muddled up with some other matters, such as the true (by dictionary definition) psychic and the cryptospiritual, and which have thus been almost wholly ignored by us from a scientific point of view. These matters, as listed on page 6, have simply been dubbed “kooky”, and therefore unworthy of serious investigation or even contemplation. Further, anyone attempting to so investigate them scientifically has had his wings clipped, and as the Spanish say, “rapidamente”. But, there is still another and sorrier aspect to all this; namely, that those serious scientists who have persisted in doing some solid investigation, such as even that real scholar, Dr. J. B. Rhine, have fallen into the old trap by stating that there is a spiritual (i.e. mystical) factor involved in these utterly pragmatic matters, which he first named para (like) psycho (psychic, see dictionary) logy (meaning the study of). Could anything be more mischosen? “Paranormal” if you like, but why equate these discoveries with psychology which isn’t a science and may, in fact, not really exist per se, being nothing more than our gropings into ethology, behaviorism, and chemiphysical mental processes. What the inventors of this word actually meant was “Paraphysics”, and should this have been adopted at the outset, both the stigma of this damned word psycho would have been eliminated, and some true scientific investigation possibly initiated.

本書描述和討論的問題構(gòu)成了廣泛研究的核心，而我們西方人（包括在很大程度上中西部人）總是將其與其他一些問題混淆在一起，比如真正的（根據(jù)詞典定義）心靈和隱秘精神問題，因此我們從科學(xué)角度幾乎完全忽視了它們。這些問題，如第6頁(yè)上所列，簡(jiǎn)單地被稱為“怪誕”，因此不值得認(rèn)真調(diào)查或思考。而且，任何試圖以科學(xué)方法對(duì)其進(jìn)行調(diào)查的人都被削弱了翅膀，正如西班牙人所說的“rapidamente”（迅速地）。但是，還有另一個(gè)更令人悲哀的方面，那就是那些堅(jiān)持進(jìn)行一些實(shí)質(zhì)性調(diào)查的認(rèn)真科學(xué)家，比如真正的學(xué)者J. B.萊因博士，也陷入了陳舊的誤區(qū)，聲稱在這些完全務(wù)實(shí)的問題中涉及到了一種精神（即神秘）因素，他最初將其稱為“para”（相似）“psycho”（心靈，見詞典）“l(fā)ogy”（意思是研究）。有什么比這更不合時(shí)宜的呢？也許可以稱之為“超自然”，但為什么要將這些發(fā)現(xiàn)與心理學(xué)等非科學(xué)的領(lǐng)域聯(lián)系起來，這些領(lǐng)域可能實(shí)際上并不存在，只不過是我們對(duì)動(dòng)物行為學(xué)、行為主義和化學(xué)心理過程的摸索而已。這個(gè)詞的發(fā)明者實(shí)際上想表達(dá)的是“超物理學(xué)”，如果最初采用這個(gè)詞，就可以消除“psycho”這個(gè)該死的詞的污名，并可能引發(fā)一些真正的科學(xué)調(diào)查。

The same may be said, and even more forcibly, regarding this expression “Extra Sensory Perception”. These cryptophysical matters are indeed extra, or outside the cryptospiritual—i.e. psychic or psycho—but they actually lie solidly within the physical. Even worse, however, is the rest of this silly term. Why only “perception”? It includes a lot more than perception; and apart from also “sending” or disseminating. Even SSP, or super-sensory perception would be better but this once again implies a necessary biological link, while all these things probably still exist even when there is no living thing—as we define life—around. But “ESP” has now become a catch-phrase for just about everything that neither religion nor science can explain; and both the cryptospiritual and the cryptophysical.

同樣可以說，甚至更強(qiáng)烈地說，關(guān)于“超感知”的表達(dá)也是如此。這些隱秘的物理問題的確是超出了隱秘精神——即心靈或心理——但它們實(shí)際上牢固地屬于物理領(lǐng)域。然而，這個(gè)愚蠢術(shù)語(yǔ)的其余部分更糟糕。為什么僅限于“感知”？它包含的不僅僅是感知；除此之外還有“發(fā)送”或傳播。即使使用“SSP”或超感知，也更好些，但這又暗示著必要的生物學(xué)聯(lián)系，而所有這些東西可能在沒有生物存在的情況下仍然存在——如我們定義的生命。但“ESP”現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成為一個(gè)幾乎可以解釋一切既不屬于宗教也不屬于科學(xué)的流行詞，涵蓋了隱秘精神和隱秘物理兩者。

Separate these two fields and you will find that you have, on the one hand, matters purely of the mind like religious concepts, mathematics, ontology, and the other intangibles, and, on the other hand, a seething mass of tangibles such as are discussed in this book and which are most susceptible to scientific and technological enquiry if only we would initiate such. The only real mystery lies in that we have not yet pinned them down, and for the most part, we do not yet know how they work, or even on what principles, while in the biological field we have not yet found the “organs” in living bodies through which they do work. We ought by now, however, to have enough to convince even Western scientists that there is nothing mystical, spiritual, or above all, “psychic” about any of them.

將這兩個(gè)領(lǐng)域分開，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，一方面是純粹涉及思想的問題，比如宗教概念、數(shù)學(xué)、本體論和其他抽象概念，而另一方面是一團(tuán)糟的具體問題，就像本書中所討論的那樣，如果我們?cè)敢?，這些問題大多數(shù)都可以通過科學(xué)和技術(shù)探究。唯一的真正謎團(tuán)在于，我們尚未將它們解決，大部分時(shí)間我們還不知道它們是如何運(yùn)作的，甚至不知道它們的原理是什么，而在生物學(xué)領(lǐng)域，我們還沒有找到這些問題在生物體內(nèi)的“器官”。然而，現(xiàn)在我們應(yīng)該有足夠的證據(jù)來使西方科學(xué)家相信，這些問題與神秘、精神或最重要的是“心靈”沒有任何關(guān)系。

Perhaps in the long run, and from the purely historical point of view, it is just as well that Marxist philosophy—as biologically inaccurate as it may originally have been—did arise. Please understand me! I do not equate this with Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism, or any other political or religious matter. Not only “Western” but Eastern, African, Indian, and every other type of thought was getting bogged down at the end of the last century. It needed a good jolt. One does not wish to be impolite but, speaking as a biologist, increasing knowledge of our environment and of ourselves cried out for a disassembly of a lot of traditions. Right or wrong, necessary or not, “revolution” in intellect is just as necessary as it is biologically: and it hurts just as much. Without it, maybe we like so many millions of other species of living creatures, would have already just died away.

也許從純粹歷史的角度來看，馬克思主義哲學(xué)的產(chǎn)生也是幸運(yùn)的，盡管它在生物學(xué)上可能最初并不準(zhǔn)確。請(qǐng)理解我！我并不把它與列寧主義、斯大林主義、毛主義或任何其他政治或宗教事務(wù)等同起來。在上個(gè)世紀(jì)末，不僅是“西方”，而且是東方、非洲、印度和其他各種思想都陷入了困境。它需要一次很好的震撼。不想顯得不禮貌，但作為一名生物學(xué)家，我們對(duì)環(huán)境和我們自己的認(rèn)識(shí)的增長(zhǎng)呼吁解構(gòu)許多傳統(tǒng)觀念。不論對(duì)錯(cuò)，不論是否必要，智力上的“革命”和生物上一樣必要：而且同樣痛苦。如果沒有這樣的“革命”，或許像成千上萬其他物種一樣，我們可能早就滅亡了。

Be all this philosophizing as it may, the point I am trying to make is that as a result of the intellectual climate in their block, the Slavs of the East-West have tackled “forteana” in a completely different way from us of the West-West; and the results, as described in this book, will probably be quite shocking to all “West-Western” readers, while they may shake up some of the Middle-Westerns a bit too! So please read on.

不管怎么說，我試圖要表達(dá)的是，由于東西方的知識(shí)氛圍不同，東西方的斯拉夫人對(duì)“神秘現(xiàn)象”采取了與我們西方人完全不同的方式。本書所描述的結(jié)果可能會(huì)令所有“西方人”讀者感到震驚，同時(shí)也可能會(huì)讓一些中西部人感到不安！因此請(qǐng)繼續(xù)閱讀。

Ivan T. Sanderson

伊凡·T·桑德森

Columbia, New Jersey

新澤西州哥倫比亞

January 1970

1970年1月