The Vision: A Novel of Time and Consciousness (Michael Gillespie Mysteries Book 1)

I really enjoyed this book on remote viewing. Highly recommended to any one interested in the subject of remote viewing.

I am an avid reader of Stephan Schwartz's non-fiction and I follow his opinions on what is newsworthy in his SchwartzReport, which consistently promotes human well being. I also enjoyed his earlier novel, Awakening; so his latest, The Vision: A Novel of Time and Consciousness, was a must read, which I raced through in a couple of days.If I have any criticism, it is that it was too short; I wanted more. Especially more about the use of remote viewing as a practical method of resolving situations too difficult to solve with ordinary means of detection on our technically sophisticated modern society. And not just phenomenal events, like the planting of a nuclear bomb in Washington, DC. What we call paranormal today will be the tomorrow's normal. The circle of scientists, researchers and writers, of which I know this author is a part, have much to contribute towards the resolution of today's problems. Sort of spoon-feeding it to a resistive public through story, through fiction, is a clever form of instruction. As this book illustrates, some lessons are better learned before they play out in fact.

I just finished this rip-roaring tale of intrigue just a few days ago. The story proceeds at the rate of an action movie, and involves some complexities of multiple factions, each playing a role for disparate goals - and they share the same target to meet those goals. A massive terrorist event of disruption to achieve a massive loss of life in Washington, D.C.The heroes are a group of historically quiet and seemingly ordinary people who work to ‘remote view’ events and intelligence targets for the government. They work in the background. In this exciting tall-tale - they get sucked into a more active and swashbuckling role.The reality of such teams are now becoming more well known, and it is not fiction. In fact, the author was part of the original team in the 1970’s that started the USA’s ‘remote viewing’ program that remained secret until it was mentioned by an American president.This particular story is fiction, and thankfully so.Uncanny though, ‘timing is everything’. As, I write this television news footage of burning buildings and social unrest in a number of cities in the USA, after a brutal killing of an unarmed back man by police. Again.And, another level of disturbing reality is becoming apparent to the average US citizen who is staying current the news from a variety of sources.*****There are multiple provocateurs involved in the escalation of violence in response. They are not the local citizens, who are justifiably frustrated and angry people who have been brutalized and terrorized by bad cops, and should demand justice. The provocateurs are taking sinister advantage of the situation to further their causes. They are both far-right and far left. They are using the chaos and disinformation on the streets of the USA.*****I thoroughly enjoyed this quick read, and think it should be made into a screenplay for TV and widely distributed for another opportunity to heighten the awareness of ordinary people everywhere. Everything is NOT what it appears to be.Now, I cannot help but wonder……. perhaps this is not totally fictional in all aspects.Decide for yourself — it’s a great read.

In his novels Stephan Schwartz explores areas of human experience beyond the standard materialist view. Awakening - A Novel of Aliens and Consciousness, investigated alien contact, an area of increasing interest since the discovery of thousands of extra-solar planets. In The Vision he has written an international thriller about a dirty bomb with an underlying parapsychological plot, specifically, remote viewing.The controversies about remote viewing, with a cast of proponents and opponents arguing back and forth, have not stopped research in the area, and its validity is not necessary to enjoy this book. There are labs and researchers around the country still engaged with creating rigorous,. repeatable, falsifiable scientific protocols.The core of The Vision centers on Michael Gillespie, who has one such lab and an engaging group of “subjects” with a talent for seeing elsewhere, or in this case, elsewhen (precognition). The main problem with precognition, aside from the fact that the authorities with the power to prevent a predicted event disregard it, is the ambiguity of results. You never know you’re right until it happens, and if you prevent the event you invalidate the prediction.Schwartz gets around this problem through a series of pre-event events. Convincing those responsible for our safety, and taking action to prevent human-created catastrophe are first-order thriller tropes ad Schwartz handles them well. This is a fast-paced, engaging read. It may also inspire in the casual reader a desire to know more about this fascinating if unorthodox way of knowing.

This is a quick read. I especially enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the remote viewing process. This author’s first fiction book, Aliens and Consciousness, is equally entertaining.