Finding a place for the paranormal?
Placing fruit in a bowlWhere do we place the ‘strange fruit’Of the paranormal?
Why is the paranormal a problem at all? The paranormal is a problemPrimarily because of scienceWhich tells us that only moleculesAre real and nothing elseThis dominates our thinkingIt 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 issuesIs mind solely a product of molecules?Are mind and brain the same thing?Are ‘things’ real?
Paranormal Paranormal includesTelepathyGhostsMediums/ClairvoyanceTelekinesisIntuition, dreams? Attractions?
Science Science first kicked off by Galileo [1564-1642] around 1600Who first questionedThe truth of the ChurchAnd conducted experiments
Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes [1588-1679] Established a materialistic philosophySceptical of religion
Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon [1561-1626] established the method of inductionso central to science:Based in observationAnd experiments
Rene Descartes René Descartes [1596-1650] contributed to this new systemIn mathematicsAnd psychology
Sir Isaac Newton Newton [1642-1727] regarded world as a machineGave birth to the mechanical philosophy:An exquisite mechanism created by
Locke John Locke [1632-1704]He developed Hobbes’s viewsInto 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 forwardThis was called the enlightenmentMaterialistic culture
Enlightenment 2 Opposed to religion and spiritualityThis view dominates modern life since 1800The paranormal challenges this belief system
This talk today We need to try and placeThe paranormal into a new contextAnd try to reconcile scienceWith non-molecular views
Paranormal Phenomena We need to create a theoretical framework For the paranormal to be possibleAnd find a belief systemthat reconciles it with scienceThis 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 andcan accept views like…Berkeley, Husserl, Simmel, Buddha
George Berkeley George Berkeley [1685-1753] Matter is merely thoughtIn the mind of GodAn entirely spiritual view – all is mind!
Husserl Edmund Husserl [1858-1938] his phenomenology:We should strive toSeize the wholeIn all its fullness,Which can never be graspedThrough ‘parts’
Simmel Georg Simmel [1858-1918 ]Who stressed empathyWhich allows usTo engage withEach other andReality
Implications The upshot of Simmel’s work appliesEspecially in the arts, literature, music, healthcare and religionsWhere empathic connection of some formIs of paramount importance
Buddha Buddha [624 BC - 544 BC] A Buddhist view:World is a fluxSelf is an illusion [transient]‘things’ are an illusion [transient]Lose ego…
Buddhist view The upshot of Buddhism stressesTwo factors of relevance to our searchFirst, demolition of the self is a pre-requisite for empathic engagementThe world is constantly created and destroyed moment by moment
construction From these elementswe 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 existsbetween 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 droppedEgo 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 worldviewas 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 imagineall minds networked together But this is rarely our experienceWHY?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 machineComposed 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 viewof how it seems to functionIn a fragmented sense…
Missing link? What is left out? = the non-molecular dimension of substance that binds the whole thing togetherI.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 betweenSubjective inner realityAnd the ‘outer’ world
Matrix is this mysterious ‘substance’or substrate or medium that underpins every ‘physical’ thing in the universe.
Subjective This extra something isThe subjective dimensionOf our experienceOur inner lives and howThat connects with what we think isThe external world
Inclusivity What is excluded from science is perhaps just as real to usas physical phenomena appear to be.Art, dreams, feelingsLove, 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 experienceQuite 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 soto create ‘events’.
Hard science Because science cannot find it dismisses the paranormalas nonsense and delusion.
Vast medium? But what if the whole universe is underpinned and pervaded anyway by some subtle and vastinterconnecting ‘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 matrixpart 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 accountSucceeds in showingThat a holistic viewOf the worldMakes possible a frameworkThat accepts the paranormal
Immanuel Kant [1724-1804] Kant said the worldCannot be knownExcept through sense imagesAnd our thought processesBoth of which distort it and cast it into certain patterns
Fragmentalism However, we haveMostly focused on the processBeloved of scienceThat breaks the world downInto named ‘things’Fragmentalisation [reductionism]
Problems evaporate Fragmentation is merely one optionOne way to view the worldIt is not compulsoryInstead, matrix is a valid optional beliefThen 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 viewsIs possibleAnd is desirableSuch we have explored here today
William Blake [1757-1827] “Self-educated William BlakeWho threw his spectre in the lake,Broke off relations in a curseWith the Newtonian Universe,But even as a child would petThe tigers Voltaire never met,
William Blake [1757-1827] Took walks with them through Lambeth, andSpoke to Isaiah in the Strand,And heard inside each mortal thingIts holy emanation sing,” [W H Auden, New Year Letter, 1940]
Nietzsche [1844-1900] Finally we might say Blake is preferableTo the “God is Dead” view of NietzscheWhich is the view that life is nothing but moleculesSuch is science
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