In 1996 at the second Tucson consciousness Conference, Susan Blackmore maintained that psi tells us nothing about consciousness. I will argue that this claim is mistaken, and make a case for psi — especially the form of ESP (or “anomalous cognition”) — as the last real defense available for resisting attempts to define all human mentality (including consciousness) as being strictly physical.

Paul H. Smith is a retired US Army intelligence officer and Desert Storm veteran, and an alumnus of seven years in the military’s StarGate remote viewing program. He is author of “Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Inside Star Gate — America’s Psychic Espionage Program” (a Readers Digest “Editor’s Choice,” and book bonus feature in the March 2006 issue). With undergraduate and masters degrees in Middle East studies, Smith is now a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, writing on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and consciousness. He is the president and chief instructor of the for-profit Remote Viewing Instructional Services, Inc., and is also this year’s president for the non-profit International Remote Viewing Association.

Recorded at the 27th annual SSE Conference in 2008 in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

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Published on November 13, 2018