Parapsychology studies capacities of the human mind that can’t be explained by present conventional science. These include clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy and telekinesis.
The discipline has been in existence for over a century, supported by distinguished institutions: the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) formed in 1882, the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) founded in 1885, the Institut Métapsychique International (IMI) started in 1919, and the Parapsychological Association (PA) formed in 1957. Over the years, universities in different countries created departments of parapsychology under various names.
In spite of these developments, the discipline has struggled to be fully recognised and still remains on the fringe of the academic and scientific world.
Not only is the discipline poorly accepted but various organisations and circles of “sceptics” devote time, efforts and resources to try and demonstrate that the phenomena studied by parapsychology simply do not exist. And the same people also deny any value to most alternative therapies used with success all over the world.
Does all this matter?
After all, people are free to think what they want, and there always have been some who love to argue, come up with theories and show how clever they are. Isn’t it the case that such battles of egos involving nerds and eccentrics are side shows with little or no consequence for the life of ordinary folks?
No. In fact, recognising the findings of parapsychology and drawing the right conclusions from them have huge potential consequences.
When you consider together findings of parapsychology pertaining to humans and animals, other paranormal phenomena such as synchronicities, advanced knowledge in mainstream fundamental physics and neurosciences you obtain an impressive cluster of evidence which clearly exposes the weakness of fundamental beliefs underpinning the materialist worldview.
Since the materialist worldview determines how contemporary human society thinks and behaves, bringing clear evidence that this worldview is deeply flawed is profoundly threatening to the dominant system.
You might think: I am no revolutionary, political activist or follower of conspiracy theories. I don’t care about the worldview held and promoted by the ruling elite.
Well, think again. The materialist worldview rules society, including you. Your beliefs, the choices you make, what you eat, the work you do, how you look after your health, … all aspects of your life are determined by the dominant system of thoughts.
And it is not only your life, that of people around you and the lives of seven billion humans that are profoundly affected by this system of thought, but it is also the planet itself, with its animals, plants, eco-systems, magnificent balance of land, water, atmosphere, biosphere. All are being assaulted, raped and destroyed by an absurd predatory system. Everyone knows it deep down and no one is apparently able to do anything about it.
But the crux of the matter is that this dominant system derives from a narrowly materialistic worldview which itself rests on a few flawed assumptions.
These few assumptions appear surprisingly weak when confronted to a combination of pure logic, hypotheses of advanced physics and observations of life including paranormal phenomena.
Assumption 1: the universe has no purpose or intention and human consciousness is a localised phenomenon originating in the human biological system. This is at odds with straight logic: there is zero probability that chance combinations of elementary particles could ever produce all the sophisticated creatures that exist, or could ever produce life, let alone consciousness. Besides, the assumed lack of purpose or intention is contradicted by the evidence of synchronicities.
Assumption 2: reality is a vast mechanistic whole made up of separate material creatures and processes with only limited interactions with one another. Pure logic may not be quite enough to discard this assumption right away, though this assumption clearly fails to provide a clue to the key question of infinite versus finite space and time. Experience of life, intuition, and evidence of paranormal phenomena suggest that a vast multiplicity of interactions exist between apparently very distinct and distant entities. Also, modern theories of fundamental physics suggest oneness, matter as being only a perception of structured energy, continuity of energy fields, uncertainty of events at subatomic level and possible reversibility of time.
Assumption 3: life on planet earth is characterised by struggle and competition and so is human condition; always has been, always will be. This, you might say, is the fascist assumption. Life is a hard struggle, dog eats dog, the strong exploits the weak, only the fittest survives, etc. All bollocks justifying fear, armies, insane defence budgets, naked capitalism led by casino finance.
But now how do we debunk that lot? It has been implanted so deep in our minds for so long.
This is where present times, however turbulent and bringing so much fear, are in fact extraordinary and truly exciting. The global crisis cannot be overcome by the present system. No technological and or organisational trick will fix it. And no leader ‘ll fix it either.
Only a fundamental change of personal and collective behaviour associated to a 180 degrees swing in mentality and relationship with nature and the universe will bring mankind and its planet into an era of harmony and beauty.
The universe has no purpose? We are here to fight one another like idiots, destroy the delicate beauty of nature to make useless stuff, and enrich a gang of neurotic “leaders”? Insane rubbish!
When you put the findings of parapsychology in that wide context, it becomes obvious why parapsychology is not an inconsequential pursuit, and why it is opposed with inquisitorial meanness by the most corrupt sections of the establishment.
Parapsychology is a key discipline at this juncture of history. It will have to enlarge its scope, its methods of gathering and communicating evidence. It will have to outreach towards metaphysics and spirituality. It will have to contribute to reviewing the bases of human perception of reality and of knowledge as representation of bits of reality.
So, there is a lot more to say on parapsychology, but here you have a first insight into what is at stake.
Fear not, consult animals and trees around you.
Love,
Leo
Copyright © Leo Foresta 2012
Leo Foresta 