Science freezes over into dogma

01 Jun 2012 1 Comment

by leoforesta in Meta-science, Metaphysics, Parapsychology, Propaganda & denial

The post “Why parapsychology is still struggling” of 23 May 2012 attracted revealing comments from Tom the “Skeptic Canary” and Loyd of the “Paranormal Network”.

For Tom “the main problem with parapsychology is that it’s built on an unscientific premise” while according to Loyd “actually, Parapsychology is based on a very scientific premise”.

The dividing line between them is science.

But science is just a set of theories and models providing fragmented representations of limited bits of reality. Reality itself is infinite and infinitely complex, and well beyond our comprehension.

Through our five senses we receive small stimuli with which our mind builds mental pictures. Science is no more than elaborate pictures shared between different individuals.

Science can be useful, but it should never be confused with the “truth” about reality. We have no way of knowing the truth about reality as a whole. We can only toy with our own uncertain pictures of what we assume to be related to little pieces of reality.

Honest scientists know this well and their basic attitude is one of profound humility coupled to admiration for the splendour of the universe and its astounding subtlety.

However, materialist thinking is so bent on arrogance and ego that it tends to forget its own limitations, opening the door to the cult of absolute science and its child omnipotent technology.

Once dogma starts to dominate society, open minded observation and logical reasoning become virtually impossible.

And that is where we are now, with a new form of religion that mixes science, technology, money, competition, as absolute concepts beyond discussion.

In such a context, everybody feels under pressure to try and fit his arguments about any subject into the restrictive mould of the new religion.

That is precisely the mental trap we have to escape from.

For your references, here are the web sites of Tom and Loyd:

http://www.skepticcanary.com/   and  http://mindreader.com/

Thanks to both of them for their comments.

Fear not, observe with a sharp and free mind.

Love,

Leo

Copyright © Leo Foresta 2012

Advertisement

From paranormal phenomena to revolution

26 May 2012 Leave a comment

by leoforesta in Historic transition, Materialist system of thought, Metaphysics, Parapsychology

For over a century parapsychology has established the occurrence of phenomena that are supposed to be impossible according to the materialist vision of reality.

The logical consequence of such findings is that reality is wider and more subtle than the materialist model assumes, which is what spiritual traditions all over the world had been suggesting for millennia.

At another level, widely accepted theories of sub atomic physics and astrophysics imply a universe made essentially of energy rather than matter.

All this is known to a number of people, often with an interest in parapsychology, contemporary forms of spirituality, or alternative healing.

However, paradoxically, almost everybody goes about the ordinary business of life as if paranormal phenomena were rare occurrences with little practical significance.

And despite its obvious limitations, the materialist model continues to be the only reference for organising society, running the economy, promoting technologies, etc.

As a result, people with ideas that fundamentally contradict the dominant model tend to either keep a low profile or to shape the expression of their ideas in a way that makes them appear non threatening to the system.

Experts in parapsychology try hard to turn their discipline into a narrow conventional branch of science, when they should have much broader ambitions.

Spirituality is often stifled by organised religions (new or old) or reduced to personal development with a strong self centred focus.

Alternative healing is mostly confined to the role of “complementary medicine” when its competent practitioners have their fingers on essential factors of human health which far transcend the blind mechanical procedures of mainstream medicine.

But things are not still, and history accelerates every day under our noses.

The global crisis offers a live demonstration that the system is failing totally and that materialist thinking is strictly incapable of grasping what is going on and of conceiving coherent responses, let alone implementing them.

In other words, the time has come for those who know better to free themselves from the mental cage of materialism and run their lives in accordance with a new paradigm: a universe of energy, consciousness, intention and pure love.

Trust in the messages of universal consciousness and practice of pure love in every aspect of daily life; this is the way forward.

Admittedly it is not always easy, particularly at the beginning, as the pathetic ego tends to raise its head at every turn. But progress comes with persistent practice.

We could paraphrase a well known materialist and declare: “alternatives of the world unite”. But this revolution is not one of conflict and violence, it’s the revolution of pure love.

Fear not, watch the sun rise.

Love,

Leo

Copyright © Leo Foresta 2012

Why parapsychology is still struggling

23 May 2012 5 Comments

by leoforesta in Parapsychology

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

Rational approach to the paranormal

04 Apr 2012 1 Comment

by leoforesta in Meta-science, Parapsychology

The “paranormal”, or “supranormal“ as I prefer to call it, covers a wide range of phenomena. Some could be explained by official science while others seem impossible to account for without a spiritual vision of the universe.

Finding water, metals, or cavities using a dowsing rod could be explained by the sensitivity of human body to small variations in electromagnetic fields caused by the presence underground of what one tries to detect.

Such sensitivity is unconscious, but causes small movements to the hands holding the dowsing rod, the pendulum, or other amplifying device.

Similarly, the action of energy healers could be explained by their influence on the small electromagnetic fields within patients’ bodies.

But when a psychic is able to give accurate details concerning a person he/she doesn’t know, explanations within the realm of science become much harder to conceive.

Particularly when details provided concern events in progress or events in the future.

Yet such things do happen, and many have been well documented.

Similarly, synchronicities – occurrences which seem to take place against all reasonable odds (“chance” meetings ….) – can hardly be explained scientifically. Yet they happen frequently, as anybody can verify.

Disdainfully denying or ignoring all this, as some narrow minded materialists do, is not rational.

What is rational is to question logically the nature of knowledge and science, and their relation to reality.

Conventional knowledge, including official science, is made up of mental representations of bits of reality constructed on the basis of perceptions through the five senses.

Sensory perceptions can be aided and amplified by various instruments like microscopes, telescopes, ultra sound sensors, etc.

As conventional knowledge depends entirely on perceptions through the five senses and deductive reasoning capacities of the mind, two fundamental questions need to be raised:

– are our five senses the only channels to receive information on reality?

– are deductive reasoning capacities of the mind its only form of information processing?

Although uncertain, the answer to both is most probably no.

In other words, there is logically no reason to assume that conventional knowledge, including official science, offers the only valid representations of reality.

In fact, there is every reason to regard the representations of conventional knowledge as partial, distorted, and only use them as rough tools for limited purposes.

In all logic we have to admit that a broader form of knowledge most probably exists, which we can call supranormal knowledge.

Does this supranormal knowledge imply a spiritual world view?

As suggested earlier, some phenomena could be explained on the basis of extra-sensorial perceptions of a purely physical nature (e.g., electromagnetic captors – which we know exist in many living cells, including in the human body).

But other phenomena would seem to logically have to involve something much more subtle.

For example, when you go in a room and feel a distinct heaviness which turns out to be correlated to violent events that happened in that room, what could be the explanation?

Something like: the brain, heart and other organs of people involved in the violence emitted electromagnetic signals which were picked up by substances in the room (plaster, paint on the walls….) which retained the message structure of the electromagnetic signals.

These substances in the room then re-emit signals with the message of violence, sensors in your body receive them, and your intuitive information processing sends a message to your conscious mind.

In cases of, say, telepathy between twins separated by long distances, one has to stretch still further away from official science to develop plausible explanations.

Eventually it is impossible to avoid facing fundamental questioning on the nature of universal energy, consciousness, intention, and benevolence of conscious intention.

We are then away from conventional knowledge and into spirituality.

Note that the path from one to the other is perfectly rational, in addition to being guided by intuition.

It is rational because it involves plausible and logically coherent assumptions.

In the end, the only wild act of faith is belief in the fundamental goodness of the universe, which you can call belief in the loving divine.

But belief in the loving wholeness of a universe made of energy and consciousness turns out to be a model that neatly accounts for a lot of supranormal phenomena.

This is especially evident in energy based healing methods, in extra sensory communication, in communication with animals and plants, in relationships between people and places,…

It also accounts for the law of attraction, which, contrary to abusive interpretation by money making gurus, only “works” well if intentions are in line with universal love, i.e., not driven by the whims of ego.

Finally, it yields a practical method to live harmoniously, especially through our turbulent times: tune down ego and fear, and let yourself be guided by your intuition, always bearing pure love in mind and body.

For general information on the supranormal, here are three useful sources:

University of Edinburgh – Parapsychology Unit

http://www.koestler-parapsychology.psy.ed.ac.uk/index.html

Parapsychological Association (affiliated to the AAAS), USA

http://www.parapsych.org/base/about.aspx

“Institut Métapsychique International”, Paris

http://www.metapsychique.org/English-presentation-of-IMI.html

Fear not, keep your integrity.

Love,

Leo

Copyright © Leo Foresta 2012

Water energized by power of mind

20 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by leoforesta in Meta-science, Metaphysics, Parapsychology

Human beings can energize water through their thoughts.

I have seen it done and I even tried myself. It works: energized water tastes nicer and softer than filtered water off the tap.

The procedure to accomplish this apparent miracle looks extraordinarily simple.

You take a glass of water in your hands, place it close to your chest, look in, and focus your mind on the water.

What happens next depends entirely on the quality of your thoughts and emotions. Total sincerity, absolute trust in the universe and pure intentions are the key. This is not a game; if you simply try to impress people, forget it, it won’t work.

What the phenomenon demonstrates is that a human being can influence matter through thoughts at a very deep level.

An individual’s relationship with universal consciousness translates into an energy envelope in and around his physical body.

If the relationship is sound, the energy envelope is healthy and strong, and the person is a potential healer. He or she can influence biological processes and energize water (which is the main component of living cells).

This can be explained through models some way between conventional science and spirituality, which are consistent with the holistic vision of a universe made of energy and consciousness.

These models refer to energy flows, auras, chacras …, all concepts whose relationship with electromagnetic fields is as yet not fully clarified. Though it must be noted that body electro magnetic fields of a healer engaged in his practice have been shown to be much higher than those emanating from an average person (see reference below).

From all this two fundamental questions arise:

(1) Why doesn’t conventional science explore more proactively these crucial phenomenon’s, instead of pathetically trying to dismiss them?

(2) How far could the influence of thought on matter actually extend?

Conventional science has largely fallen into the hands of big business and its servants in governments and academia.

And big business is keen to maintain everybody in the mental straightjacket of the materialist mechanistic vision of the universe.

This vision suits its modus operandi: standardised products and production methods, low costs, high prices, high profits, no subtlety, no respect for nature, local communities or cultural traditions.

All who deal in subtlety and refinement must be marginalised, dismissed as unscientific, and if possible ridiculed.

As for the second question, tentative thinking could run like this: in the big picture of the universe, the influence on matter of human thoughts is linked to the spiritual level attained.

At the level reached by (some) humans, things like subtle healing or making water healthier and nicer to drink are possible, but moving mountains is still out.

To conclude on a light note, experiments I attended involved not only water, but also wine.

To be more precise a Saumur 2005 (Loire valley). Straight from the bottle this (red) wine was already quite good, but after being energized it turned exceptionally round in the mouth, all harshness removed.

A few days later we conducted experiments with a nice Proseco (white bubbly from North of Venice). We first poured it out in a jug to let most of the gas froth away and then energized a couple of glasses. Again the difference was most pleasing.

But, as said before, this is not a game.

If you only try to impress your guests as part of an ego mini trip, it will fail. The intention must be serious and profound: give your friends a wine blessed with a message of pure love for their own progress, and if your trust and humility are genuine, it will work.

Here is the link to a paper on healers (by Sue Benford) referred to earlier: http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/articles/1-2/benford.html

Fear not, cheers.

Love,

Leo

Copyright © Leo Foresta 2012

Next Newer Entries

%d bloggers like this: