Contents
THE FOLLOWING ESSAYS CAN BE FOUND BELOW
The Healing Touch - Does healing work? If so, how does it work? Could the answer lie in the simple fact that we live in three realities at the same time? What are these realities, and how could healing work through them?
Sceptically Speaking - Scepticism is healthy in the world of mysteries. But are sceptics open to delusion in the same way as the believer in the paranormal? Indeed, does reality bend to his ideas?
It's a Miracle - The modern world shuns miracles as impossible, but is it possible that they do happen? Although rather than breaking the laws of nature, could an answer be found within the human mind relating unconsciously to the environment?
Future Now - The possibility of foreseeing the future forms a large part of paranormal research. Could such an ability exist? If so, how does it work? Maybe the answer can be found in information perceived in the present.
THE HEALING TOUCH
Anthony North
You either love it or hate it; believe in it, or think it is a load of rubbish. But whatever your views, healing has become an essential ingredient in the treatment of a variety of illnesses from bad backs to terminal cancer. Spurred on by high profile healers such as Matthew Manning, we are literally touched by the ability to do miracles - or maybe just touched.
Most studies of healing provide only vague results, with the obvious proviso that healing can cure mental problems. But this, say sceptics, is nothing more than a type of psychotherapy. Where remarkable cures do happen, such as tumors disappearing, the medical establishment immediately invokes remission, and the fact that, for some unknown reason, tumors can just disappear.
Such scepticism aside, researchers who accept healing notice that, in most cases, the healer isn't really a healer at all. Rather, the healer simply gives the patient the confidence or authority to use their minds to cure themselves. And it is this role of the mind that seems to be essential to the healer's art.
It is all to do with the role of the mind over the physical body. Traditional medicine doesn't accept such a process. Rather, an illness is either physical or psychological. But the placebo effect, and the role of hormones upon the body, argue this separation is not quite so neat. Put simply, a thought can spark a hormone, which can result in a definite physical reality, such as an erection.
There appears to be a limbo-land between the physical and psychological which does allow the mind to affect the body in as yet mysterious ways. And perhaps the best way to approach the healing problem is to further mystify the subject by stating a simple scientific reality - that we all live in three realities at the same time.
The first reality is the 'you' you see in the mirror - a strange formation of skin and bone. However, underneath this reality is a second reality, represented by the cells which form us into human beings. This microscopic world is far stranger than science readily accepts. For instance, cells communicate and organise in ways that produce a concept bigger than themselves - namely us. This is above their individual abilities to do so, and represent a form of activity that, as well as being communal to a greater degree than us, has elements of a higher purpose.
The cellular problem is further compounded by the fact that they are not especially individual to us. They react with the outside world to a greater degree, passing infections on to the outside world and receiving infections - viruses - from that world.
The cellular construction below the individual 'you' is a strange place indeed; far stranger than present science is prepared to accept. And the strangeness of our inner person is intensified when we pass through the cellular to the subatomic, and the fundamental reality which goes on to create us.
In such a world, physicality disappears, and we are reduced to an electric vibration. Such a vibration acts spontaneously, regardless of distance, and is totally interactive with the rest of the universe. To what extent this occurs in medicine is evident by the fact that radiation at this level can cause cancer, and radiotherapy can cure it.
The 'you' you see in the mirror is a similar pattern in physicality, created by the cellular, which is itself brought into being by the subatomic. Hence, the program which is you is a product of this fundamental electrical reality. The only question to be asked is this: can a mental state tamper with the program, in the similar way to a mental state can tamper with the cellular through hormonal action? If the answer becomes yes, then just as a virus can invade the cellular, perhaps another influence, such as the actions of a healer, can cause a tampering of the program too.
Of course, this is all supposition. But until a theory can be proposed to offer explanation as to how healing works, no researcher can correctly apply data to provide evidence. The above represents the possibility of a theory, grounded in the known workings of the human entity. And it is about time medical science moved away from a definite idea of physical and psychological illness and realised there is a limbo-land between the two. And a limbo-land that could tell them more about the mind and body than they presently know.
(c) Anthony North, March 2005
SCEPTICALLY SPEAKING
Anthony North
Don't you just love a sceptic. There you are, a total believer in the supernatural, accepting the reality of ghosts, premonitions, reincarnation, telepathy, the lot. And along comes a sceptic and pours cold water on your beliefs. Well don't worry. He's as open to delusions as you are - and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Prof Arthur Ellison once carried out an ingenius demonstration. During a speech he rigged a bowl of flowers to rise in the air and settle down again. Ignoring it, at the end he asked if there were any questions. Bringing up the flowers, most had seen it rise as normal. Some believers in the audience, however, had seen spirit hands lift them. But equally fascinating, some sceptics didn't see the flowers rise at all.
Delusions all round, I think. And what the demonstration tells us is that we view the world dependant upon our opinion of the world. Whether a believer or a sceptic, our mentality can cut out unsavoury realities that shock our beliefs. Words such as coincidence and chance appear to side step what, to others, would be evidence of the paranormal.
This isn't to say that believers hold a monopoly on the truth. Rather, all I'm saying is that sceptics certainly don't. As a general practice, scepticism is sensible. But as with anything, it can go too far. Indeed, when reading literature on the paranormal, it is interesting to note that, often, sceptics can be more deceitful than believers in what they leave out of the discussion.
They don't see themselves as deceitful for the simple fact that they automatically discount much evidence because they see no point in writing about it. Their scepticism automatically cancels out its importance. And such a mentality could be used to answer why a sceptic never actually sees the paranormal about him.
Take the average poltergeist. Believers can experience all sorts of phenomena. But as soon as a sceptic enters the room, it all stops. Yet, if we see the poltergeist as an effect of culture, it all makes sense. Consider it as a psychodrama, where a group of people have come to believe something is occurring. As such, the odds are they will unconsciously conspire with those involved and actually see the phenomena happen. Basically, a coming together of minds has produced the phenomena.
I don’t see this as debunking the subject. Rather, it adds weight to the possibility of paranormal events happening. It is simply a matter of definition. But the point is, when a sceptic arrives, his own mind joins the production. And hey presto, the phenomena disappears. Which means, of course, that scepticism is a paranormal phenomenon in itself.
(c) Anthony North, June 2004
IT'S A MIRACLE
Anthony North
We all know the stories - Moses bringing down the Ten Plagues; Jesus healing the dead and all that. And ever since then, Christianity has brought about more than a miracle or two, with many saints remembered for a multitude of impossible feats. In normal life miracles are not unheard of, either. Guardian angels are in vogue, appearing to cause action in the world to save the believer. And not just with a Christian background. Miracles are celebrated and remembered in almost every religion. But are miracles possible?
The obvious answer is no - and by definition, this is quite true. A miracle is an act that breaks the laws of nature, and is clearly impossible. But maybe we've got those laws wrong. Maybe a miracle doesn't break the laws of nature, but the laws man has imposed on nature. If so, a miracle is nature laughing back.
One easy answer to miracles is to be found in human nature. An event is a happening, acting definitely in time and space. So an event occurs which appears miraculous and is remembered as such. But wait a minute! An event doesn't just happen in time and space, does it? It happens in time, space and remembrance. Maybe it isn't a definite miracle at the time - just a coincidence - but remembrance casts it in fantasy and makes it miraculous. You know, like the miraculous orchestra playing in your best remembered romantic moments.
Or maybe a miracle is just a coincidence. But as no one understands just what a coincidence is, the word 'just' is an awfully big supposition. The basic idea of coincidence is that random events will inevitably show meaning at some point. In other words, coincidences are bound to happen. But researchers such as Carl Jung were not happy with this. He argued for synchronicity - a meaningful coincidence that was somehow ordained to happen, as if the mind willed it.
This is anathema to science, but a light can pierce the fog if we try hard enough. For instance, to hold meaning a coincidence must be noticed. If there is no one to observe it, it hasn't happened in memory. And for an event to appear both coincidental and miraculous, you can argue the believer's mind was attuned to a coincidence happening.We receive thousands of images every second, and the mind is predisposed to ignore most of them unless they need attention. When this occurs we notice things. But more than this, if our mind is on a particular concept, you can appear to make coincidences happen.
The easy answer to this is that so much information bombards us at every moment that much of it has to be related. Hence, coincidence becomes, not chance, but inevitability when we focus on a particular concept. Basically, the world is full of meaning at all times but we normally don't notice it. This places us at the centre of an information universe, where all we need to do to find coincidence is look. But the problem is deeper than even this. Whilst we consciously only notice what is going on in the world when we place attention on it, we cannot say the same for the unconscious mind. For instance, there is a phenomenon known as cryptomnesia, where, under hypnosis, a person can have a remarkable recall of events he didn't notice at the time.
Cryptomnesia inevitably mixes with fantasy, so it is an inexact form of recall, but it suggests that whenever our senses operate, we take into the unconscious all those meanings from the world we do not recognise consciously. And this hidden store of information, with its possible myriad of coincidental meanings could be vital for understanding miracles.
Studies have been made on the subject of good and bad luck. It seems that two central factors can be gleaned from such studies. First of all, bad luck seems to follow a pessimistic attitude, whilst good luck follows an optimistic frame of mind. In many ways, this seems to suggest that we negotiate the world due to our mind set. But why do obstacles coincidentally appear before the person who is pessimistic?
One answer is that they don't. They just remember the bad things and forget the good. But there is another possible answer to this conundrum. Could it be that the pessimistic person actually negotiates life through the unconscious meanings that enter his head from the information received from the outside world?
This suggestion places the world inside his head at an information level, his unconscious forever searching for a pessimistic path to confirm his pessimistic attitude. And hey presto, miracles of coincidence happen to prove a curse rather than a miraculous path through life. But a further point from studies of luck offer even more insight. It has been noticed that the lucky person tends to be far better at calculating odds than the unlucky person. He lives a life where he manages to side step the obstacles and achieve perfect speed in a run of good luck.
No valid reason for this has yet been put forward. But the above allows a possibility - that the lucky person receives his coincidental meanings from the unconscious and grasps them, forever pushing him in the path of optimistic outcomes.
In this theory, a person can attune himself to the environment through unconscious meanings received from the environment, and so cause the world to be ordered as he sees fit. And in such a mind/world juxtaposition, coincidences break out and appear miraculous. Indeed, astrology and other forms of divination could work in the same way. And in such a world, miracles are not just possible, but inevitable.
© Anthony North, March 2005
FUTURE NOW
Anthony North
The Asian tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 caused many shocks, one of which was the apparent foreknowledge of the coming disaster by the peoples of the Andoman and Nicobar Islands. Although it is impossible to be sure, many of them moved inland and were saved. How did they know?
The seeming impossibility of the event has spurred some scientists to look at the power of precognition - to see into the future - for the first time. Classing previous pseudoscholars as irrelevant, they have ignored their work and decided the answer could have something to do with the ability of parts of the brain to assess, unconsciously, information in the present.
This rather fascinating ability to deduce the future from information in the present has actually been a route taken by many pseudo-scholars for decades. One useful mind-ability in this sphere is cryptomnesia.- the unconscious memory recall of the human mind. When we use our senses, we only register those things we have placed attention upon. All the other things we sense go into the unconscious. Cryptomnesia is the ability of the mind to filter into consciousness information we didn't realise we had. Feelings of deja vu could come from this ability. But it could be even more fascinating than this.
For instance, we often dream of things that come true. A classic case is the Aberfan disaster, where a slag-heap fell on a school, killing over a hundred children. Dozens of premonitions were had in dreams in the days leading up to the disaster. To place cryptomnesia as an answer, we would have to ask, could a slag-heap move in such a way without prior disturbances, no matter how slight? This is unlikely. And whilst we may not pick up such disturbances consciously, unconsciously we may have, providing a dream from the unconscious showing a future from information in the present.
Within this unconscious perception we must ask if other energies can be similarly analysed. For instance, research has shown that electromagnetic bombardment of the brain can release mood-altering chemicals, producing a myriad of phenomena from mystical experiences to hallucinations. It is known that geophysical events such as earthquakes and storms play havoc with electromagnetism. And such releases can occur before the events break out. It is perfectly rational to assume that the human mind can pick up such changes in the electromagnetic spectrum, prompting feelings upon which a person could unconsciously react. And such feelings could well be precognitive.
Many animals seem to have this form of foreknowledge. Maybe we have, too. Only with the invasion of information from our hi-tech world, we don't normally perceive it. Hence, when we do, it appears strange. However, if such powers DO exist, perhaps the best form of prevention we could have is a permanent premonitions bureau, recording such insights on a permanent basis.
© Anthony North, March 2005