Lehal Library

If only it were that easy! Yet the factors present that make it difficult are recognizable. Recognition of a problem presumes an eventual solution one way or another, and perhaps it will be so in this field. Let us take first the factors of direction and identification. Suppose, for example, fully conscious and in your physical body, you were able to soar through the air rather than walk on the ground or ride in a car. You discovered this ability, and decided to fly over to George's house to demonstrate how it works. Your house or your laboratory is on the outskirts of a large city. George lives in a subdivision on the other side of town. On a sunny afternoon, you start off. Naturally, you rise high in the air so as to avoid obstacles of trees, buildings, etc. Uncertain, you do not go too high. You want to be able to recognize landmarks which might be difficult to see from five thousand feet. Therefore, you stay low, about a hundred feet off the ground. Now, which way to go. You look for points of familiarity. It is at that moment you realize you have a problem. You do not have a compass course to George's house, and it would not do you any good if you did. You do not have a compass. Undaunted, you decide to cut across the city, using the familiar buildings and streets as guideposts. You have driven the route many times, so you should find your way easily. You start off over houses and streets, and almost immediately you become confused. The familiar has suddenly become unfamiliar. You look back, and you have difficulty finding your own house even at close range. It takes a moment to realize why this is so. You have been earthbound, and your entire point of view has been from a level of less than six feet. Most of the time, we habitually look straight ahead or downward. Only occasionally do we look up, when something attracts our attention. Even such an upward-looking angle of vision has little relationship to looking down from one hundred feet. How long would it take for you to recognize your own home if you were shown a photograph taken from directly overhead? The same applies to all "familiar" surroundings, streets, buildings, cities, and people. You may get to George's house, but it will take you a long time. You may not identify it from a distance of fifty feet because you know only the appearance of the front of his house, and you approach it from the back. It is not a failing peculiar to you. Pilots of aircraft, their attention diverted for a moment, have become "lost" within two miles of the airport when flying at low level in bright daylight. For a moment, everything below is completely unfamiliar. Only navigational instruments can bring the quick orientation needed. It is easy to see how this problem can be compounded when your friend George lives in another city some distance away, where you have never