{"product_id":"2940013740471","title":"Across the Unknown","description":"WE ARE here recommending to you a country beyond. We think you will find\u003cbr\u003eits exploration rewarding. But we shall not be able to go along. We must\u003cbr\u003emerely tell you about it; and thus, perhaps, help you to find your own\u003cbr\u003eway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis country is not something brand-new that we have been the first to\u003cbr\u003ediscover. Others have passed this way before us. But they have been too\u003cbr\u003efew. The topography is not yet well understood, nor is travel there\u003cbr\u003esecure. Safe, well-made trails do not exist--only ways-through along\u003cbr\u003ewhich predecessors have here and there erected markers. And these routes\u003cbr\u003eare only for the sure-footed, for they are slippery and dangerous. Their\u003cbr\u003eexploration is not a tour, but an adventure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a fact. But I think we are often told so in the wrong way. Mostly\u003cbr\u003ewe are warned off. Stay out, is the cry, for this is a land of bugaboos!\u003cbr\u003eSome of the warnings, especially in symbolism, are terrifying. And, to my\u003cbr\u003emind, somewhat misleading. Astral entities, dugpas, incubi and succubi,\u003cbr\u003eobsessing diabolisms, black magics of all sorts--if we listen to the\u003cbr\u003eEast; queerness, crankiness, separateness, illusion, split personality,\u003cbr\u003eall the mental aberrations right up to actual insanity--if we listen to\u003cbr\u003ethe West: these are the perils which we must undertake if we are to dare\u003cbr\u003ein venturing. Pause and consider, they tell us solemnly; you need not\u003cbr\u003eventure, but if you do, make up your mind to face these enemies and\u003cbr\u003edangers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe dangers are real enough, I believe, in whatever terms they are\u003cbr\u003estated. But they should not be terrifying, and certainly not deterring.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDid you ever read a pilot book of the Pacific Northwest Coast? It was\u003cbr\u003ewritten by a pessimist. His favorite phrase is \"should not be attempted\u003cbr\u003ewithout local knowledge.\" Scattered through his pages are gems of\u003cbr\u003edescription telling of the masses of ice \"grinding together in tide\u003cbr\u003ewhirls of great velocity.\" A winter fireside perusal could easily\u003cbr\u003econvince a suggestible man that only a miracle could keep him from\u003cbr\u003edisaster. And the author tells the truth. These perils of sunken ledge\u003cbr\u003eand treacherous current, compelling tide whirl, clashing ice, are all\u003cbr\u003ethere. But to a man with ordinary foresight and common sense they are\u003cbr\u003eslight menace-provided he meets them well-informed and well-prepared.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust so, I conceive, these great and very real dangers to irresponsibles,\u003cbr\u003ein this country beyond, are not of the sort among which one must walk in\u003cbr\u003edread--provided he is suitably equipped for the journey. Was it\u003cbr\u003eStefansson who defined the usual \"adventure\" as merely a lack of\u003cbr\u003epreparation? That is what I am trying to emphasize here: the importance\u003cbr\u003eof a little careful preparation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBefore proceeding further, we must first of all agree on the matter of\u003cbr\u003ewords. Unfortunately some of the words we must use are pretty well\u003cbr\u003etattered by careless use. They have frayed out into numerous rags of\u003cbr\u003econnotation. They have been spread thin to cover too many aspects, each\u003cbr\u003eof which really should have a word of its own. If we could find, or make,\u003cbr\u003efresh words, we should get on much better. But there are none; and the\u003cbr\u003eresults of our fabrication are both clumsy and cold. So we must do our\u003cbr\u003ebest in freshening, defining, limiting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst, we must retread the term \"psychic.\" That has become a very skiddy\u003cbr\u003eword; but it is the only one we have.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor this adventure into another region of consciousness is psychic; and\u003cbr\u003eit uses psychic faculties. Only, unfortunately, the term covers too many\u003cbr\u003ethings. With some of them we have no concern at all. Some of them we\u003cbr\u003eutilize as a means to the end we are after. All of them are more or less\u003cbr\u003edisputed territory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBroadly speaking, they present two aspects. Into one general\u003cbr\u003eclassification we may crowd that great mass of astonishing and debated\u003cbr\u003ephenomena: ectoplasm and all its varied manifestation, clairvoyance,\u003cbr\u003etelepathy, direct voice, apport, spiritism, clairaudience, levitation,\u003cbr\u003eand such. By most of us these have always been regarded with suspicion or\u003cbr\u003edownright disbelief. Nevertheless, such a weight of evidence has\u003cbr\u003eaccumulated that they can no longer be dismissed by a mere scornful wave\u003cbr\u003eof the skeptical hand.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070258659568,"sku":"2940013740471","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740471_p0.jpg?v=1763598214","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740471","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}