Charles Berlitz's World of Strange Phenomena 1. [antikvár]

The fascination that mystery exerts on the human mind as been the reason for the extension of our knowledge of the /^orld around us and the development of modern science. Our ontinuing desire to solve the mysteries of space has pushed us )ward exploration of our solar system, the stars and planets of ur universe, and then to the other universes beyond. During the last five hundred years we have nearly exhausted ur exploration of the world's geographic mysteries. We have lapped or photographed most of the earth's surface, and, since le 1940s, have been able to record the approximate position of le mountains, gulfs, plains, and abysses on the sea bottom, lunters and zoologists have alternately exterminated or cata-)gued most of the world's animal life, although the depths of the ea may have reserved some surprises. Modern and ancient man ave been exhaustively studied and classified. Even remote and jicivilized populations have been made familiar to everyone via slevision, which itself only a few centuries ago would have been onsidered a breathtaking manifestation of magic.In a world of computers, robots, guided missiles, space travel, manipulative genetics, and the first steps in the artificial creation f life, one wonders if there are any further mysteries to be solved, >r, considering the dangers of the atomic age and the development >f scientific warfare, whether there will be time to discover further ecrets of the universebefore mankind is destroyed.Certainly much still remains clouded in mystery. Even today, at he apogee of our scientific expertise, the mysteries of space, ime, coincidence, paranormal manifestations, and exceptions to vhat we consider natural law remain elusive. As our search for he unknown has progressed, our formerly separate concepts of icience and the paranormal have begun to merge. We now clas-iify a whole range of paranormal potentialities.The power of the human mind, for one thing, is proving to be Tiuch more powerful than previously thought. Quasi-physical19