Let's face it. When someone claims to be capable of healing
you through the mail, to have lived a previous life as a Tibetan monk or a
prophet, or when someone offers to communicate for you with the
spirits of the dead, most skeptics burst out in laughter.
Attempts to research the existence of paranormal phenomena under lab
conditions have not led to generally accepted proof or disproof, healers
and alternative therapists are as often successful as they are not, and
many (though not all) self-appointed guru's have turned out to be
frauds.
Yet the New Age movement keeps growing, and more and more people display an interest in spirituality, mysticism, and the paranormal. And while science claims never to have found proof of the existence of paranormal phenomena, it also has never disproved anything, so anything remains possible.
I'm rather skeptical myself. I do not accept anyone's claims at face value, and I try to verify my own observations. If people claim to have Seen The Light, I wish them good luck. If they claim to know the ultimate answer to the question about Life, the Universe, and Everything, I demand something more substantial than just hearsay. When someone claims to be paranormally gifted, I start looking for a hoax or misinterpretation.
But in recent years I have had some experiences that cannot be
explained rationally. (I'll go into a few of them later on.) I questioned
my own sanity for a while, but I've decided to assume that I am at least
nominally sane. (If I'm not, all bets are off anyway.)
Assuming that I'm sane, I've had to accept my experiences and observations
as real. And therefore, I face the challenge of explaining them. By just
claiming that I 'know that it is so', I qualify as a crackpot by my own
definition.
Where does that leave me? I claim that any phenomenon can be explained
by the rational mind, given enough data. If spiritualism, mysticism and/or
the paranormal are more than just crackpottery, then we must be able to explain
them, or we must admit ignorance. The alternative is irrationality.
So I have tried to decide what we have available in terms of hard data, and
what is just hearsay, in an attempt to find out what (if anything) is happening
to Man right now. This text is the condensed result of that process.
When I started to look into paranormal phenomena in general, I soon noticed
how many different opinions there are on the subject. Some people seem willing
to believe just anything. Some keep an open mind but have their doubts. And
some believe nothing at all, but are convinced that others are so gullible
that they'll take tales about spirits, fairies and little green men in
flying saucers seriously. No two 'authorities' on the subject seem able
to agree on anything but the most trivial details.
It was easy to see why the paranormal is regarded as a crackpot issue by
many skeptics.
Fortunately, I met a few level-headed people, and we compared notes. Slowly
I started to see a pattern in all these wild claims about things like
former lives, universal energy, or communication with spirits. Instead of
attempting to accept or to reject it all, I looked into a few aspects of
New Age culture and the paranormal.
I found a lot of hoaxes. I found lot of wild, unsupported claims. I found
a lot of crackpots. I found a lot of things that didn't make sense.
And I found a few that did. I made notes and kept looking. Most of my notes
eventually ended up here.
These chapters are an attempt to analyze what's behind the New Age movement, paranormal phenomena and spiritualism, to put together whatever data I already have, and to obtain new data or at least feedback. I have taken one fact at a time, put them all together, and I have found that they make sense to me. So here they are, for your review and criticism.
You won't find much mysticism here. You won't find much hard science here either, or pseudo-science, or 'It has been shown that...' without any further reference. I will not publish 'results' of 'scientific research' to 'prove' my theories. I also won't make any wild claims without explaining my reasoning behind it. You probably won't get any solid proof of the validity or non-validity of paranormal phenomena either.
I may have strong opinions about certain matters, but I'm not necessarily right. Feel free to disagree with me. If you do, please let me know your reasons. My E-mail address can be found here. I'd really appreciate knowing your arguments, pro or con, and any serious reaction will at least get a serious reply.
Enjoy!