DESCRIPTIVE TECHNIQUES 117 



observer may be in doubt. If I am not sure as to what I 

 hear, I look; if I am then not sure, I touch; if I am still in 

 doubt, I call upon others to corroborate my judgment. 

 If the results are consistent, I conclude that my sense organs 

 are functioning normally; if they are not, I decide that 

 they are operating abnormally. Thus control of the physical 

 situation differs from control of the observer in that the 

 former serves to provide him with more information about 

 the end-object whereas the latter serves to check the accuracy 

 of observation. 



It should be pointed out, further, that the variation in 

 possible appearances is much more limited when one is 

 concerned only with E-operators. At best man is limited 

 to five senses. But although practically all objects of science 

 manifest themselves visually, a more limited group exhibits 

 touch and sound properties, and very few have taste and 

 smell properties. Hence there is really only one type of 

 appearance which is important. The scientific observer, 

 says Eddington, "has one eye (his only sense organ) which 

 is color-blind. He can distinguish only two shades of light 

 and darkness so that the world to him is like a picture in 

 black and white. The sensitive part of his retina is so limited 

 that he can see in only one direction at a time ... we have 

 left the observer power to recognize that a pointer coincides 

 with a gradation on a scale." 1 It is somewhat doubtful 

 whether an observer of this kind would be able to progress 

 very far, even in astronomy. Certainly he would make a 

 poor biologist. But the important point is that significant 

 information about objects comes through a very limited 

 number of routes. 



CONTROL OF STATE OF MIND 



The essential problem in the control of the M-operators 

 is, again, that of assuring oneself that he has normal con- 

 ditions of awareness. Though present knowledge of the 

 psychological medium is even less adequate than that of 



1 New Pathways in Science, p. 13. 



