Finding a place for the paranormal?
Placing fruit in a bowl Where do we place the ‘strange fruit’ Of the paranormal?
Why is the paranormal a problem at all? The paranormal is a problem Primarily because of science Which tells us that only molecules Are real and nothing else This dominates our thinking It has hijacked our imagination
introduction How many of you believe in science? How many believe the world is entirely physical? Is there anything beyond the molecular? How many believe in religion?
Issues The molecular view raises several issues Is mind solely a product of molecules? Are mind and brain the same thing? Are ‘things’ real?
Paranormal Paranormal includes Telepathy Ghosts Mediums/Clairvoyance Telekinesis Intuition, dreams? Attractions?
Science Science first kicked off by Galileo [1564-1642] around 1600 Who first questioned The truth of the Church And conducted experiments
Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes [1588-1679] Established a materialistic philosophy Sceptical of religion
Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon [1561-1626] established the method of induction so central to science: Based in observation And experiments
Rene Descartes René Descartes [1596-1650] contributed to this new system In mathematics And psychology
Sir Isaac Newton Newton [1642-1727] regarded world as a machine Gave birth to the mechanical philosophy: An exquisite mechanism created by
Locke John Locke [1632-1704] He developed Hobbes’s views Into a wholly materialistic view
Science and Religion Yet they were all religious men!! A fact conveniently forgotten by scientists today
Enlightenment 1 In the 1700s science made great strides forward This was called the enlightenment Materialistic culture
Enlightenment 2 Opposed to religion and spirituality This view dominates modern life since 1800 The paranormal challenges this belief system
This talk today We need to try and place The paranormal into a new context And try to reconcile science With non-molecular views
Paranormal Phenomena We need to create a theoretical framework For the paranormal to be possible And find a belief system that reconciles it with science This is no easy task!
choices We seem to have a straight choice: either to believe that paranormal phenomena are genuine or to dismiss them all as bogus
problems However, if we accept even provisionally that paranormal is true and real, then this poses a problem both for science and for our understanding.
mutuality However, maybe we can find a philosophy that embraces Giving them both some validity? Is such a view possible?
plurality The answer is ‘yes’ if we Cast around and can accept views like… Berkeley, Husserl, Simmel, Buddha
George Berkeley George Berkeley [1685-1753] Matter is merely thought In the mind of God An entirely spiritual view – all is mind!
Husserl Edmund Husserl [1858-1938] his phenomenology: We should strive to Seize the whole In all its fullness, Which can never be grasped Through ‘parts’
Simmel Georg Simmel [1858-1918 ] Who stressed empathy Which allows us To engage with Each other and Reality
Implications The upshot of Simmel’s work applies Especially in the arts, literature, music, healthcare and religions Where empathic connection of some form Is of paramount importance
Buddha Buddha [624 BC - 544 BC] A Buddhist view: World is a flux Self is an illusion [transient] ‘things’ are an illusion [transient] Lose ego…
Buddhist view The upshot of Buddhism stresses Two factors of relevance to our search First, demolition of the self is a pre-requisite for empathic engagement The world is constantly created and destroyed moment by moment
construction From these elements we can construct a broader view of ourselves as being more intimately commingled into a vast and subtle matrix.
A view Such a view would allow telepathy and clairvoyance, for example, to be quite valid aspects of life Just as scientific phenomena are.
No dislocation Such a view would reduce the tension that exists between science and telepathy by seeking common ground to underpin them both. HOW?
No ego Such a view would comprise spiritual empathy mental osmosis when ego is dropped Ego blocks empathy & knowledge WHY?
Holistic The resulting view is a Neo-Berkelian form of Phenomenology & entails: Holism Continuity Inter-connectedness Empathy System.
Ecology Ecological awareness also contributes to this worldview as an interlocking matrix or complex comprising multi-leveled events and self-regulating feedback loops.
combination If we combine this with the ideas of some mental and emotional realities beyond mere molecules…
Imagine Then it is possible to imagine all minds networked together But this is rarely our experience WHY? Because of ego? Because of solid belief in ‘things?’
Connections However, from an ego orientation or from scientific materialism they still seem separate and disconnected ‘things’
Hangs together If you then add to this the idea of an immortal essence then it all hangs together.
Spiritual machine? Neo-Berkelian phenomenology would see the world not just as A vast physical machine Composed only of myriad ‘things’ But also a vast spiritual machine.
Events, dear boy… In this machine events shadow events in a non-rational manner that can never be fully explained by reduction into solely physical particles and forces.
Delusional view? It is because reductionism is only part of the picture, [a delusional view?] that the complete view of our experience fails to conform to the world as ‘things’ World is thus more than simply ‘things’
Incomplete If it were complete then it would explain everything. That it cannot do this, renders it incomplete.
Only one view Reductionism is merely one view of how the world might be, one view of how it seems to function In a fragmented sense…
Missing link? What is left out? = the non-molecular dimension of substance that binds the whole thing together I.e. a matrix
The glue that binds… This acts rather like the ‘glue’ or the medium on/in which something floats. This is the interface between Subjective inner reality And the ‘outer’ world
Matrix is this mysterious ‘substance’ or substrate or medium that underpins every ‘physical’ thing in the universe.
Subjective This extra something is The subjective dimension Of our experience Our inner lives and how That connects with what we think is The external world
Inclusivity What is excluded from science is perhaps just as real to us as physical phenomena appear to be. Art, dreams, feelings Love, creativity…
Irreducible But it is a something that is unsuitable for reduction to molecular phenomena or the molecular view. It is an aspect of our experience Quite irreducible to molecules
Non-real? If something cannot be reduced It is seen by science as proof that it is non-real.
Subtle forces For science to even conceive of telepathy or clairvoyance it has to invoke invisible subtle forces and particles to connect ‘things’ together and so to create ‘events’.
Hard science Because science cannot find it dismisses the paranormal as nonsense and delusion.
Vast medium? But what if the whole universe is underpinned and pervaded anyway by some subtle and vast interconnecting ‘medium’?
Matrix A subtle non-molecular matrix, would no longer need forces or particles to connect ‘events’ in one part of the matrix with another…
Same matrix … because they are already connected together anyway as part of the same matrix part of the same whole [web]
God? The matrix is like God and pervades everything just as mind permeates, underpins and interconnects everything in our body.
Analogies In fact the analogy between person and world or person and universe is a good one. God is an optional concept
Binding parts What is missing in the molecular view of each is mind or spirit that binds and interconnects What we see as ‘parts’ or ‘things’ into a functioning whole.
Resume This account Succeeds in showing That a holistic view Of the world Makes possible a framework That accepts the paranormal
Immanuel Kant [1724-1804] Kant said the world Cannot be known Except through sense images And our thought processes Both of which distort it and cast it into certain patterns
Fragmentalism However, we have Mostly focused on the process Beloved of science That breaks the world down Into named ‘things’ Fragmentalisation [reductionism]
Problems evaporate Fragmentation is merely one option One way to view the world It is not compulsory Instead, matrix is a valid optional belief Then problems between science and paranormal Evaporate automatically
Complete knowledge? the only way to complete knowledge is through wholes rather than parts
Fragmented Newtonian world the Newtonian worldview relies upon an optional classification system that breaks the world into named parts and then describes events in causal chains of ‘things’ linked together
Acceptance another option - not to fragment experience but just accept it as it is
Inapplicable? Although a fragmented view of phenomena Works well for a science of material ‘things’ Yet it is singularly inapplicable to mental matters and the whole realm of human affairs
Paranormal is possible How the paranormal might be theoretically possible, hinges very largely on an analysis of why fragmenting the world into named "things" is the source of our ‘primary delusion’
Magical worldview Magical worldview • World is one • Life is one interlinked ‘matrix’ • Wholeness – things are all connected • Oneness with everything else • Afterlife and this life are continuous • World of things is an illusion • Separate self is an illusion • Supernatural is real
Religious worldview Religious worldview • Belief in God • Rituals • Doctrines of belief are real • God, heaven, hell, soul, redeemer, etc are made into rigid concepts of dogma • Belief is the central dogma • Religion is social control by reward and punishment
Scientific worldview Scientific worldview • Matter is absolute basis of reality • World is composed of ‘things’ • Holism is an illusion • Proof is always tangible • Non-molecular is unreal
Finale We can see that A synthesis of all 3 views Is possible And is desirable Such we have explored here today
William Blake [1757-1827] “Self-educated William Blake Who threw his spectre in the lake, Broke off relations in a curse With the Newtonian Universe, But even as a child would pet The tigers Voltaire never met,
William Blake [1757-1827] Took walks with them through Lambeth, and Spoke to Isaiah in the Strand, And heard inside each mortal thing Its holy emanation sing,” [W H Auden, New Year Letter, 1940]
Nietzsche [1844-1900] Finally we might say Blake is preferable To the “God is Dead” view of Nietzsche Which is the view that life is nothing but molecules Such is science
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