On psi and spiritual awakening for skeptics
The experience of psi and psychic phenomena can be one of the most distressing aspects of a spiritual awakening for a scientist.
Scientists have largely been trained to dismiss any mention of psi or psychic phenomena as quackery, and pseudoscience. But this is dogmatic thinking. We can do better. This is a basic article to tackle the topic, if you need more check out the topic page with advanced articles and resources.
Image by Alexandr Ivanov from Pixabay
"Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience."
- Mark Twain
There is this eternal, and entirely unnecessary debate about whether scientists are jerks or psychics are frauds.
The truth is some scientists are jerks, some psychics overrepresent their ability, and we’re unlikely to come up with any convincing way to prove which is which anytime soon. If only we had litmus paper for jackassery….
All reported psi abilities exist on a spectrum where normal human ability extending several standard deviations above the median, eventually reaches abilities that are beyond space-time.
Sometimes these abilities develop naturally. It’s like if you were a mechanic, and really good at your job. You went to mechanic school and you worked as a mechanic for many years. You became a master at your craft. One day you were in your super-cool cluttered garage and when you reached for your familiar, trusty torque wrench, instead of picking it up off the bench, you plucked it from midair. Most psychic abilities feel like that, you reach for something and you get what you expected, or needed but you shouldn’t have been able to based on the consensual reality everyone else agrees they experience.
For perfectly respectable scientists who are nice, there isn’t much evidence to prove or disprove psi abilities so its perfectly logical to be your most flamboyant feathered psychic self.
Psi and skeptics
There is plenty of observational evidence for psi senses but little systematic scientific evidence. This is actually quite consistent with quantum physics. We know the observer changes the experiment. Also there is a problem with recruitment, how do you measure an ability people only have by self-report?
In my direct experience, psi signals are subtler and overlay physical reality. What affects a beam of electrons is likely to have a stronger effect on psi phenomena. I very much doubt we will find much systematic scientific evidence for psi until we have observers who are at least open-minded. Something science isn’t great at creating.
There is also a wide variation in actual psychic ability and, consistent with other disciplines, most people of minor ability are quite overconfident. People of high ability can be crippled by their senses and many are unlikely to disclose out of fear of societal retribution. In other words, just try recruiting an accurate sample of highly skilled psychics.
We do have interesting observational documentation from astronauts and the military attempting systematic investigations into psi. But really the scientific literature is dead stuck. Nature published one debate, a paper in 1974 from Stanford Research Institute claiming psi information transmission, and one in 1980 from claiming the results couldn’t be reproduced.
There just isn’t much evidence to validate the phenomenon.
Psi and spiritual awakening
Please keep in mind this blog is not to provide scientific evidence for psi. As a scientist I don’t think we have it yet — maybe we never will.
I’m writing it to help scientists who have a personal experience of psi and have no idea how to reconcile the phenomena with their belief system.
The fact is, most psychics wouldn’t really disagree with scientists. No honest psychic would say it their ability was consistent either. I would never try to get information from the divine in the setting of a controlled laboratory experiment. Aside from the obvious disrespect, I would feel too jumbled and distracted to get a clear reading.
Most strong psychics I know would pick up all kinds of interference from the researchers thoughts, the room, the structure of the experiment etc. These would have to be familiar before they could attempt to distinguish a novel signal, and then the experiment would be hopelessly biased.
When I want to get a clear reading I usually ask the question and wait for the information to present when the divine feels its appropriate. When the information comes in for me its “labeled” — my guides impress on my mind “this is the answer to [question] you asked [time]…”. These days that’s often instantaneous, and almost always within a week but its taken as long as several years depending on the question.
Documenting my own psi experiences, they really aren’t reproducible. They come when they come, its usually a gift, and I don’t rely on them, just accept the information and use it if it’s appropriate. Often its according to spiritual logic. I’d be more likely to learn about a researchers dead grandmother than I would about the symbol on the back of a card he’s holding.
Spirit just doesn’t care that much about research :)
Psi and spiritual awakening for skeptics conclusion
At the end of the day, there isn’t much scientific evidence for psi. But psi has not been conclusively disproven either. We just can’t say its statistically significant in controlled laboratory experiments with the technology and study design we currently have.
If you are a scientist who has had a personal experience of psi or spiritual awakening you are not alone. Not only is this experience consistent with the principles of science, engaging with them can enhance your logical thinking and mental abilities.
If you’re a psychic tired of getting mocked by scientists, they’re being jerks. You do you, I’m one scientist who appreciates that.
