Imagine your education had been diametrically different from a young age.
Your parents would have trained you in the use of telepathy to communicate with people, with animals and with other creatures.
They would have encouraged you to develop precognition. They would have told you about existence before and after life.
They would have opened your thoughts to the sublime mystery of the universe, and would have kindled your trust in its ultimate harmony and love.
Your present vision of the world would be far broader and your ability to navigate through life more fluid and less anxious.
But most of us haven’t received such gifts, because most of us have been educated according to the materialist mode of thinking.
Materialist thinking takes a narrow view of existence. It regards anything not going via the five senses as not possible, and therefore not real. Reality has to be material.
Some people, however, while not rejecting dominant thinking outright, have been curious enough to recognise the existence of phenomena not logically consistent with the materialist view.
They have studied such so-called “paranormal” phenomena and have gathered convincing evidence proving their occurrence.
In doing so, they have created a discipline called “parapsychology” to set out a rigorous framework for their studies.
Rationally speaking, “parapsychology” should by now be the major discipline, as it deals with the fundamental enlargement of our vision of the universe.
But, in spite of its distinguished record, parapsychology, far from being fully recognised, is struggling hard not be to be dismissed by most of the academic community.
University departments of parapsychology are comparatively few and modestly funded. Most research in the discipline is conducted in non academic institutions often funded by rich individuals.
We can venture an explanation: experts in parapsychology are being too conservative and prudent.
Having established beyond doubt the existence of paranormal phenomena, they confine most of their work to a narrow methodology in line with the materialist approach, instead of going for a completely new paradigm using both deductive reasoning and intuition such as found in mystical traditions all over the world.
Since it is now obvious that reality is much broader and more subtle than anything the materialist vision is able to represent, why stick to limiting conventional methods, such as laboratory protocols appropriate for simple models but clearly ineffective for subtle aspects of reality?
This is where present society has become perverse.
Even intellectually honest people engaged in parapsychology are trapped by the system. They feel a great pressure to make a living or a career following routes approved by the establishment.
And the establishment has a strong vested interest in discarding any suggestion that a completely different vision of the world is conceivable, let alone far more promising that the dominant materialist vision.
This is because all major business activities are rooted in the materialist vision, and big business now keeps academics, and politicians, entirely in its grip.
Meanwhile, however, the global crisis, with its multiple interrelated facets, accelerates, and the now evident inability of materialist thinking to put forward any coherent response is final proof of its fundamental weakness.
The time has come for experts in parapsychology and other enlightened people to find the courage to go all the way into a new spiritual paradigm.
For further information, here is the link to the Charting the Future of Parapsychology conference held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in October 2008 :
http://www.psi-mart.com/Utrecht%20II%20Overflow/Utrecht%20II%20Program.pdf
and the link to the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine:
http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/psychiatry/sections/cspp/dops
Fear not, trust intuition free from ego.
Love,
Leo
Copyright © Leo Foresta 2012
Leo Foresta 
May 28, 2012 @ 12:01:56
The main problem with parapsychology is that it’s built on an unscientific premise. In science, you build your work on the work of others, and you aim to explain verifiable observations. Parapsychology on the other hand looks for evidence of phenomena that people want to exist, so it’s mostly just wishful thinking.
Jun 18, 2012 @ 08:10:43
It is true that there are more questions than aneswrs about the kinds of experiences which are posted here, and that the asking of questions in itself makes people, including myself, think about these matters in different ways.While there have been some scientific institutes that have experimented on some things in laboratories, I think that what we are dealing with here is really on the frontiers of science, for which no really viable methodology has been developed.There are those who say that anecdotal information proves nothing, but I don’t agree with that. We have had many thousands of years of such anecdotal reports from a great many people. Most of what I read here (other than the jokes and that sort of thing) needs to be taken seriously. The skeptics are good, too, because they point out the possibly mundane explanations. If only more would consider that the explanation does not necessarily have to be the logical one.There are people in the past who have challenged the culturally accepted rational explantions. For example, a journalist named Charles Fort in 1920 wrote a book entitled The Book of the Damned in which he listed many events which defied rational explantion including scientifically documented rains of frogs.References :
May 29, 2012 @ 17:47:24
Actually, Parapsychology is based on a very scientific premise: investigating why people have experiences that 1) appear to involve perceptions that don’t involve prior knowledge, logical inference or the use of the senses, 2) appear to involve conscious and unconscious direct interaction with the world (outside of the use of normal physical instrumentality) and 3) suggest consciousness might exist after the death of the body/brain.
The study of the experiences has led to models of what might be behind the experiences which folks may not agree with. Parapsychologists have worked to test those models, with a degree of evidence that indicates that the models hold some weight.
In addition, parapsychologists have all along the way made observations of normal explanations — some of them quite unique in and of themselves — and made those known whereas mainstream science seems determined that the experiences not be studied or are written off.
People are having these experiences. People have reported these experiences for a very long time. What causes them? How do the experiences impact people’s lives? If looking at these questions is an “unscientific premise,” one must rethink much of what Social Science does in general.
Jun 02, 2012 @ 18:47:32
Tom: I don’t get it! Why would subjects like telepathy & life after death be wishful thinking while others are not? Anti-depressants for example are yet to be successfully proven in being an efficient solution in treating depression yet they are still immensely administered. I’m guessing that there was some potential lucrative wishful thinking behind that piece of research.
Wouldn’t any research and scientific curiosity initially be triggered by some sort of wishful thinking? If I look into THIS I hope to find THAT- already seems to pinpoint the constellation of stars I am going to wish upon! And my perception will immediately be skewed whatever the subject.
Jun 18, 2012 @ 01:35:18
The current scinitifec world operates with a very narrow world view that only includes evidence that can be gathered using the scinitifec method and established protocols. Many events that are reported anecdotally are ignored by scientists in traditional fields, and other events which have been recorded under laboratory conditions are dismissed because they do not correspond to the purely physical viewpoint of many physicists, biologists, and psychologists. Parapsychology provides the opportunity for disciplined research into these events and further exploration of anomalies that have been ignored by scientists for years. It is only with these in depth examinations that it is possible to better explain the world, the human mind, and the relationship between human perceptions and the physical world. Parapsychology provides legitimacy to these experiences within the sciences and enables the development of an all encompassing philosophy of life that includes all human experiences.For hundreds of years traditional scientists have embraced the world view that everything is physical and can be explained using physical methods. Parapsychologists are scientists who are trying to bridge the gap between the historical scinitifec paradigm and the experiences that are reported and verified outside of that paradigm. In addition, many events studied by parapsychologists have been reported for centuries in many different cultures. Through scinitifec study of these events, parapsychologists can provide additional information to help historians and anthropologists to better understand the nature of different cultures. Finally, there are many events studied in parapschology that are related to the survival of consciousness beyond the physical form and the experiences of people who believe that they have had experiences after physical death. Parapsychologists are gathering and attempting to verify these experiences in order to help psychologists and religious scholars to better understand the relationship between human experience and the divine.Parapsychologists are scientists. Their contributions are similar to the contributions of any scientists in that they are adding to human knowledge in a disciplined and controlled manner. It is important that ALL human experience be considered when constructing a world view, and parapsychologists are allowing for the continued exploration of phenomena that does not fit into the existing physical world view.References :