AtDTDA 24: Psychical Research 670+

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Kit & Reef get a sitting with the "Ecstatica" Madame Natalia Eskimoff, 
first mentioned on page 226 in the thick of a wild variety of riffs on
Tarot and the Kabbalah, some real background, some parody, like
those Uckenfays---a whole family standing for "Temperance", a card 
that Crowley changed to "Art" in his "Thoth" deck. The Ecstatica has 
a Tree of Life tattooed below her bared nape, underscoring associations 
with the Theosophists, A.E. Waite, the Golden Dawn and the
O.T.O. Like most of Pynchon's Scryesses Eskimoff is Hot Stuff but
also the real thing as well. Anybody else notice how the magic always 
seems to work in Pynchon's writing? Geli Tipping sure can draw those
powers down, not to mention some hot exchanged glances twixt Hepsie
and Dixon. 

The Psychic has just returned from hiking in the mountains, an area
of activity where Alistair Crowley excelled:

          Mountaineering

          Crowley was obsessed with mountain climbing, 
          which he used as a tool to combat his chronic 
          asthma.[citation needed] He taught himself by 
          'scrambling' up Cumberland Fells and Beachy 
          Head, after which, he started spending every 
          holiday by switching between the Alps and 
          Bernese Oberland.[52]

          In March of 1902, Oscar Eckenstein and Crowley 
          undertook the first attempt to scale Chogo Ri 
          (known in the west as K2), located in Pakistan, 
          and Eckenstein had set out to teach Crowley 
          about the techniques of climbing.[52] . . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley

Crowley figures in the larger context of all of Pynchon's writing for 
the simple reason that "The Great Beast" was also involved in
espionage. The nexus of Psychical/Occult/Espionage is at the core 
of all of Pynchon's writing.

The term "Psychical Research" might have been bandied about before
finding its way to academically recognized reference sources, much like
the apparently anachronistic Rider Waite deck, found all over the
novel well before the deck was published.

          Overview of Psychical Research
          Some Definitions

          Psychical research and parapsychology are concerned with the 
          scientific investigation of the ways that organisms communicate 
          and interact with each other and with the environment, that appear 
          to be inexplicable within current scientific models. Stories of the 
          paranormal (apparitions, prophetic dreams and visions, inexplicable 
          awareness of events faraway, divination, miraculous cures etc) have 
          been with us since antiquity, but it was only in the 19th century that 
          the subject began to be studied in a systematic and scientific way.

          The definitions used below do not necessarily correctly describe the 
          processes involved, but they are terms that have been in common 
          use over a long period of time.

          Mental interactions are grouped under the term Extrasensory 
          Perception (ESP) and include telepathy (direct mind-to-mind 
          communication), clairvoyance (awareness of information unavailable 
          through normal sensory channels) and precognition (foreseeing the 
          future).

          Interactions which affect the environment or other organisms 
          physically are referred to as psychokinesis (PK). Large-scale 
          physical disturbances which occur naturally and are generally 
          referred to as poltergeists (from German meaning 'mischievous 
          spirit') have also been described as RSPK (recurrent spontaneous 
          psychokinesis), while micro-PK, involving minute 
          effects, is and has been the subject of a number of experimental 
          studies. Both ESP and PK are frequently subsumed under the more 
          general term psi.

          Phenomena suggestive of survival of death, which have been part of the 
          research since its beginnings, are nowadays often referred to as After-
          Death Communications (ADC). Near-death experiences (NDE), reported 
          by some people who nearly died, and out-of-body experiences (OBE), a 
          state reported by some people of having conscious exeriences while 
          feeling separated from their bodies, are also areas studied in 
          parapsychology and psychical research.

          The term parapsychology was introduced into the English language from 
          German by Dr Joseph Banks Rhine, who, as head of the newly-founded 
          Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory in the 1930s in the USA, 
          might be described as the first professional parapsychologist. The 
          term was introduced in order to distinguish the strictly experimental 
          approach from the wider field of psychical research; however, over the 
          years the  two terms have often come to be used interchangeably.

http://www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/index.php?section=21