My (first) Outline

Update on my interview: It went very well. I have about 35 minutes of material. Some of it I have to use, some I won't be able to. I can't show it straight thought, there will have to be a lot of editing.

First outline (this is very loose: I don't have a thesis, this is my most basic layout). Additionally, it should be noted that I am writing "section" instead of "paragraph". This is because there will be multiple paragraphs per section.

1st section: What is Clairvoyance?

• Definition of clairvoyance
• What is clairvoyance and what isn't (e.g. Oracle of Delphi is not, tarot is questionable, readings are clairvoyance.)
• How it connects to other forms of ESP
• Types of clairvoyance
• Clairaudience
• clairsentience

2nd section

• Clairvoyance in history
• hindu religious texts (clear seeing)
• Marquis de Puységur
• Edgar Cayce
• spiritualistic period in the 19th century
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Charles Richet
• Government funded "psychotronic" experience against the Soviet military
• Clairvoyance as relates to the history of fortunetelling, soothsaying

3rd section

• Controversial Clairvoyance
• J.B. Rhine
• Fight against science
• Photographing of auras
• New Age science
• Chakras that turn out to connect to real pressure points

Success! First interview set up

Now that I have a formal interview set up with David Pierce of Intuitive Way (though I really should work on fixing my camera) I can list my questions for him. I'm planning on the interview being a half hour, so I think I'll have 15 Questions prepared, and end up asking about ten.

1) How would you define Clairvoyance?

2) What do fully-trained clairvoyants have the ability to do?

3)How would you compare what "clairvoyance" means to what "psychic abilities or powers" means?

4) How does clairvoyance work?

5) What concepts do you teach when holding a class on clairvoyance?

6) What is the relationship between intuition and clairvoyance?

7) What is a reading?

8) What would a reading look like, to both a casual observer and to you? In other words, what would someone on the outside see, but what do you see yourself doing?

9) There are those who define clairvoyance as "the ability to predict the future". To what level are they correct?

10) The Institute of Noetic Sciences says that they  "identify three principal areas of interest: extended human capacities, integral health and haling, and emerging world views". Does this connect to clairvoyance at all?

11) Could you comment on the controversies surrounding clairvoyance, such as the claims that say all clairvoyants and psychics have tricks?

12) Would you say that clairvoyance is a "sixth sense"?

13) How could one connect clairvoyance to faith healing?

14) Would you say that one could connect "clairvoyance" to something that we would other wise define as "magic"?

15) Psychics and clairvoyants have been around for a long time. Can you think of other names that they are known by? In other words, perhaps a few centuries ago they would not have been known as psychics, but perhaps as fortune tellers, witches, or mediums?

I put Noetic Sciences as number 10, because even though it doesn't necessarily connect to talking about what clairvoyance is, it is technically a science, and if the interviewee can agree that clairvoyance connects to the definition given of Noetic Science, then that is progress towards giving clairvoyance some validity.

While the last question may be a bit difficult to understand, and is not relevant to proving the validity of clairvoyance, it is important to ask that in order to connect clairvoyance to history.

Update Number 1

My first adventure into my research has been to the ultimate source: the public library.

Despite the large selection of books, it's harder than it seems to find articles on psychic abilities, let alone clairvoyance. Out of 10 books I originally found and 15 articles, 1 book and 5 articles have turned out to be useful.

I've found that the most difficult thing about my keystone is knowing the similes to "Clairvoyance". Clairvoyance is not a very well-known or understood term, so to get information on it's history, I have to look up terms like "ESP", "psychic powers" or "fortune telling". The one book that I got turns out to have a whole section on the history of ESP, which is definitely related to Clairvoyance - though ESP is categorized as a paranormal ability, while Clairvoyance is more similar to Intuition.

Something that I have not yet explored, but plan to, is intuition, and compare it's success in the market with that of Clairvoyance. They can be very similar, but since Intuition is such a common word, while Clairvoyance is not, they will have very different successes in the economic sense.

I've contacted the couple that owns Intuitive Way, the local school for Clairvoyance. Hopefully, I'll be able to interview them soon.

Keystone Plan - Clairvoyance

The subject of my keystone is clairvoyance - misconceptions and what it truly is according to those in that field.

The finished product will be a hybrid of a product based and research based product. For the product base, I will be making a mini-movie that I will show at my presentation. In this mini-movie, I will show clips of people I have interviewed, each answering the following three questions: "What do you think clairvoyance is?", "What do you think clairvoyants, that is, people who are clairvoyant, can do?" and finally, "Do you think  clairvoyance is real?". For the second part of the video, I will show filmed interviews with select clairvoyants who use clairvoyance as a means of living. Additionally, I plan to intersperse these interview clips with other clips of students of said clairvoyants.

The research based part of my keystone will be a short paper on clairvoyance in history. In my paper, I will look into where is has shown up, and according to historical trends, why is was portrayed positively or negatively. I will also research what forms it appears in - in a story, fact, or misconception. To sum up my paper, I will go into how the view on clairvoyance in its many forms has changed.

For my presentation, I will first give a summary of how clairvoyance has appeared in history, and how it's forms have changed, fully showing the transfer from many years ago to modern day. I will then give a precursor to my mini-movie, which I will then show. After the mini movie is done, I will conclude my presentation.