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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Science and Outrage

I was surprised at how many people had negative responses to this article in Newsweek that proclaimed that all supernatural phenomena are due to the mind's tendency to visualize patterns.
The problem with most scientists today is that rather than taking an attitude that things such as supernatural phenomena can't be proven or disproven at this point in time and thus leaving it an open question, they take the attitude that since it can't be proven it must not exist. Rather than stating that they themselves do not believe something is possible, they tend to take a sneering tone, implying that anyone who believes it's possible is either a simpleton or a nut job.
In a field such as detection of spirits, the truly serious practitioners rule out possible earthly causes first. It's my personal belief that most spirit orbs are probably dust motes on the camera lens or in the air. However, having once stared right at a very tangible spirit for several minutes at a time when I was completely sober, I can plainly state that he was not some sort of vague composition of patterns that I was pulling out of my brain or any other part of my body. The man looked exactly as he had in life before he became ill. The hair, the glasses, the nose, the smile--it was definitely my neighbor. He had been trying to get my attention for over an hour before I finally saw him.
I can see applying this theory to phenomena such as seeing the face of Jesus in a cheese sandwich (if Jesus wanted to manifest, don't you think he'd choose mediums other than cheese sandwiches or spots on a cow's butt?) but not to a full blown apparition where, except for the fact that you know the person's dead, you'd think you were standing there talking to a flesh and blood human being. Granted, a manifestation of this magnitude is rare--unless you are like my great grandfather. He saw them all the time. And no, he was not schizophrenic or otherwise "touched in the head." He was described as being very sensible and down to earth in his attitudes. And as it happens, he saw ghosts.
It's hard to prove experiences such as the communications between myself and my co-author. I've never seen him manifest and I think it would be very difficult for him to do so, because he was never physically in this part of the world. A spirit needs some sort of anchor in order to become visible. The spirit I saw was in the house where he'd lived for the past 12 years. He definitely had an anchor there.
Whatever the case may be, scientists have always tried to explain away psychic phenomena. Yet these phenomena persist. This article didn't convince me that I saw a conglomeration of patterns on that night in 1981. I'll put it this way--if I did, that's one hell of a good conglomeration of patterns to be able to disguise itself as the near-solid form of a man who had died six months previously. And it didn't even have to use a cheese sandwich for a canvas. I'm very, very impressed.
Blessed be,
Lily

2 comments:

Tom & Icy said...

You should be Dennis Kucinich's speech writer!
But seriously, that was a well written argument and you made several good points.

Indeterminacy said...

I will be back here to read up on your posts - for now I wanted to thank you for your well wishes for my family. All of the comments, including yours meant a lot to me. By now it's mostly just a bad dream what we experienced. Our lives have returned to normal more or less. We're also very thankful, because it could have been much much worse.

Kind wishes,
Inde.