PassagesIn the area of spirituality one of the needless snags is the apparent validity of the naysayers, namely the people who hold beliefs in either materialistic science or fundamentalist religions. Both exclude the truth of experience within their own rubrics of knowing. If they were to live exclusively in their own constructed realms, this may not be so detrimental, but both are often evangelistic regarding their beliefs (e.g. scientism and fundamentalist religions). Even of itself this would not be such a negative thing; it is a part of free speech. But politics are driven, laws are made, funding is allocated as a result of their efforts to shape the discussion of “truth” and its resultant commitment of energy and resources. This article will address the seeming unassailability of one of these naysaying groups, the materialistic scientists. Within our current culture of people becoming spiritual-but-not-religious because of their own truth seeking, I believe that scientism is more of an impediment to spirituality than anything else.

This article will not try to persuade the purveyors of scientism and their “certainty;” scientists themselves would more aptly do this. Instead, the sources I quote and the arguments I make are intended to negate the needless energy we spend subconsciously (or in overt discussion) refuting that one’s spirituality is as valid as substantially material and locatable things are considered to be. I have brought together the most pertinent statements and experimental claims other writers make for things that are non-material (i.e. physic or psi phenomenon) and the sacred (i.e. things we hold dear in, often, religious venues); in other words, things that are spiritual. If you need more of the nitty-gritty apologetics for spirituality, I encourage you to scrutinize the works of the scientists and philosophers I cite here. My purpose for this article is to move us more freely into the study and dialogue of things that are rich with meaning and possibly purpose, that is, things spiritual, free of the hampering that materialistic science or scientism impose on the endeavor.

I was contemplating my next writing which was to present what I had personally experienced and/or studied to be major “evidence” for spirit, when Charles Tart (2009) came out with his latest book, The End of Materialism. As a scientist in the paranormal field for numerous years, Tart highlights the “big five” experimental evidences for psychic phenomenon or psi: (a) Telepathy; (b) clairvoyance; (c) precognition; (d) psychokinesis and (e) psychic healing. These, along with less verifiable areas in the field, certify what Tart terms “spirit.” This spiritual aspect of human beings extends beyond their bodies and possibly entails having a soul.

Before getting into Tart’s and my comparative evidence I would like to explore the perceptible motives behind our work. Tart wants to do science, not scientism, a belief of what can and cannot be admitted as evidence or even explored in the first place. As Stanislav Grof, another scientist in the transpersonal area, and on whom I rely extensively for this article states: “The nature and intensity of some of the mainstream scientists’ reaction to any form of spirituality, in general, and to transpersonal psychology in particular, seems to mirror the fanaticism of religious fundamentalists. Their attitude lacks solid scientific grounding, ignores or distorts all existing evidence, and is impervious to facts of observation and logical arguments. Closer scrutiny reveals that what they present as an image of reality that has been scientifically proven beyond any reasonable doubt is a colossus on clay feet supported by a host of a priori metaphysical assumptions” (Grof, 2006, p. 324).

So, via true science, Tart’s motive is to allow what he finds to be a fairly normal experience in peoples’ lives, the paranormal, to not be disregarded or degraded under the name of scientism. Often people who believe and study the paranormal and altered states of consciousness are not taken seriously, but have even been slanderously questioned to be of a sound mind. “In other words, if you’re an eccentric introvert and believe in clairvoyance or telepathy, you might have an official psychiatric disorder”* (Radin, 2006, p.37). Science itself, Tart argues, has to take what has occurred and test, compare, and dialogue about its findings, including the paranormal. I concur.

In Tart’s world, people live differently as a result of what has been studied if, upon consideration, life then seems worthy of that alteration. If the materialism-only approach to reality is challenged because of the validity of the paranormal experiences people have, we may be choosing to alter the way we view and live in the world. I too want to follow what has been my or others’ deep experiences (paranormal ones are often quite moving – if not life changing – for people). Like Tart, I want to examine the facts of the matter regarding spirit. In this specific article I do not want to jump to conclusions regarding the origin of those paranormal experiences or concern myself about how to then live if I were to know something of the origins of the paranormal. I want to inquire about these occurrences, but not for the purpose of satiating my need for something to ultimately believe in. Rather, I want to be honest. I also don’t want to be fraudulent in denying the paranormal or its study for fear of, to use Einstein’s words a bit loosely, “something spooky at a distance,” since existence of the paranormal turns much of what we assume about reality on its head. Likewise I do not want to be apprehensive or make up a belief to console me because of what the study of the paranormal doesn’t deliver, such as an extended or conclusive explanation of the spiritual world. I believe Tart and I wish to honestly acknowledge that these experiences occur and to simply explore what they suggest about the reality in which we live.

Tart often refers to his “Western Creed” which paints a world empty of ultimate meaning and, as a result, has those who embrace materialism inevitably tumbling into narcissistic greed. It is as though he is calling to task the implications of the belief in scientism. He doesn’t use this as a catalyst to then jump on some simple veiled foundation of truth suggested by the evidence from paranormal. I don’t think he intends it, for Tart is all about integrity and calling other scientists to a fair-minded standard of investigation, but he seems to set up a “this or that” motive to encourage us to embrace the paranormal, or as he terms it, “ ‘spiritual’ things or beings” (Tart, 2009, p.321).

If our investigations reveal that there is such an entity as spirit, what purpose would it serve? Though I’m not a theologian, there seem to be three big-picture motives to spirituality: (a) To find order in things; (b) to see meaning in existence and (c) to offer some form of redemption. I explore each of these motives further in the following sections.

A: To find order in things. Here is where science and religion seem equally invested. Brian Swimme and other cosmologists of his stripe, along with some liberal theologies, do not hold to some Supreme Being or God who is the origin of a world of implicit order and upon whom they can rest their spirituality. Although in conjunction with this order of things, there may even be some intelligence within the evolving universe. In this approach we can find our place as human beings among other things that are just being and becoming by better understanding the whole order of things. In this view of life, things are, they are being what they are, no spirit is needed and certainly no soul or specific God is required. Contrary to what Tart seems to hint at, people have had quite superior and morally upright lifestyles, as Jennifer Hecht (2003) points out in her book the History of Doubt.

B: To see meaning in existence. This could be true whether we do or don’t see order in existence as mentioned above. We might even be more motivated to seek meaning when we see no order in the universe, and likewise why we may not seem to have the need for meaning making if science is spelling out how much order there is in existence. As Victor Frankl stated in his famous book Man’s Search For Meaning, a person with a why can withstand any how, (paraphrased). But here likewise no spirit, soul, or specific God is required. One might find the meaning of their life to fulfill whatever interest or goals they have set for themselves. But to have some divine being superseding the chaos (or order) of the universe is one way to have meaning, especially if one can tap into what the divine being has in mind.

C: Some kind of redemption. In religious circles this idea comes in the language of redemption from sin or karma. Though I’ve never seen it stated specifically, these seem to require a soul, unless we are talking smaller-scale justice or forgiveness for this or that infraction that is balanced out or mitigated within a lifetime. But when people wish to deal with this in a large way, they seem to want redemption for the whole of life, big-time forgiveness or karmic cleansing and, if we are nonexistent after this one life, why the seeking? Some thing must survive to appreciate the redemption, namely a soul. Maybe the universe could pull this off with only higher beings that have larger perspectives and/or authority to redeem our past live(s), but more often than not we have some specific God who accomplishes this.

So how does the paranormal fit into this long qualifying intro? Much of the paranormal evidence suggests the existence of spirit, or at least that mind is not limited to the brain, and not all types of paranormal evidence suggest that there is a specific spirit for each of us (i.e. our own souls). The two areas that Tart speaks of, out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences, do point to some entity that ascertains the physical we are familiar with and another realm, often labeled spiritual and, once experienced, the occurrence can be life changing. This extraordinary event brings great meaning to the person’s life, and often redeems them. The order of life isn’t specifically addressed in every out-of-body or near-death experience, and instead seems secondary to the other two big-picture theological motives highlighted above; namely meaning-making and redemption.

So, while religions can teach and/or facilitate experiences in the areas of order, meaning, and redemption that can be (and have been) arguably challenged, these two larger paranormal experiences, near-death and out-of-body experiences, seem to seal one’s faith. One knows they know, faith becomes a realization, an awareness, of what is. What is meaningful and redemptive, and in some near-death and out-of-body experiences, what is the universal order of things. But the rub comes in the interpretation and implementation of the experiences, especially the two mentioned ones: the out-of-body (OBE) and near-death (NDE) experiences. But to disregard or label as insane or evil these and lesser paranormal experiences is a tragedy of cosmic proportions. Ironically the major religious traditions are often founded on the founder’s paranormal experience(s) and the interpretation of these experiences for others to abide by (often to the demise of non-believers and believer alike).

The interpretation and meaning-making of the following categories of paranormal experiences will be left to more straightforward conclusions: (a) Mind is not limited to the brain or body of the person having the paranormal experience; (b) mind’s function in limited effects can be performed over a distance; (c) some form of personal identity can exists external to the body and that the mind still functions in consort with this identity, i.e. the soul.

Again we may ask, does this suggest the immortality of the soul, or the existence of a larger intelligence. Do these ideas necessarily offer meaning or redemption to existence? These will not be explored in this article, though a number of quoted authors have more definitively suggested directions around these themes. But if these paranormal (which are far more universal than is widely acknowledged, thus possibly crossing the threshold into “normal”), human experiences are valid and verifiable, we could move forward into this kind of meaning making which I believe would qualify as theology, or at least a cosmology, we can believe in: an empowering spiritual belief founded ironically on science, on real personal and collective experiences. I won’t lean into the correlations of quantum science and psi experiences because that is more theoretical, but will introduce you to Radin’s (2006) statements: “Some may object that linking the elegance of quantum theory to the spookiness of psychic phenomena is illegitimate, … but as it turns out, the fabric of reality suggested by quantum theory and the observations associated with psychic phenomena bear striking resemblances. They are eerily weird in precisely the right way to suggest a meaningful relationship … from this perspective, psychic experiences are reframed not as mysterious ‘powers of the mind’ but as momentary glimpses of the entangled fabric of reality” (Radin, pp. 6 and 264).

Charles Tart’s book will be the framework around which I explore the paranormal subjects, but along with his lifetime of insights will be others, some of whom have equal qualitative and quantitative evidence to contribute. Still others will be brought into the discussion because of the credibility of their thoughts, which may be more anthropological, philosophical, or evidential in a less scientific way than Tart’s investigations. Many of us allow what we find to be “known” through other means than the hard sciences and in the paranormal areas of significance this is especially the case.

As I introduced earlier, Tart’s (2009) big five experimental evidences for psychic phenomenon or psi, and his definitions for each, are:
Telepathy – “…mental intentions and information shown to travel across space to other living human minds” (p.99).
Clairvoyance -“…direct perception of the state of the physical world without the use of your normal physical senses or the intermediation of another mind” (p.116).
Precognition – “…foreknowledge when such events couldn’t be rationally predicted from the current conditions and laws governing change” (p.131).
Psychokinesis – “the ability of mental intentions to directly cause physical effects on the material world” (p.151).
Psychic healing – “direct laying on of hands, but more so from a distance” (p.169).

Regarding these five experimental evidences for psychic phenomenon or psi he states unequivocally, “ …for which we have so much experimental evidence that we can take them as basic possibilities for humans” (Tart, 2009, p.12). Later in this article I will also explore some of the possible psi phenomena that Tart calls the “many maybes,” events with enough evidence to indicate they may be real, but that aren’t as well established as the “big five” according to Tart (but some are for me). I’ll be leaving the reader to investigate Tart’s actual book and his evidence for all categories; the big five experimental evidences for psychic phenomenon listed above and the paranormal with less experimental validity listed below. That saves me space. In addition to Tart’s areas I’ll add some circumstantial evidences that I hold to be evidence of things spiritual. To use Tart’s title, we need the end of materialism and we can hold to an expanded view of reality with substantial credibility.

These additional or “many maybes” areas (again, from Tart, 2009) are:
Postcognition- the mind is able to get information from the past devoid of any familiarity or exposure via other means (p.178)
Out-of-body Experience (OBE)-“Although the term is too often used rather loosely, I’ve defined an OBE as having two crucial aspects: (1) you find yourself experientially located at a place other than where your physical body is, and you may or may not see your actual physical body from an outside point of view; and (2) your consciousness feels clear during the experience. It may seem as clear and lucid as your ordinary waking state, and sometimes even clearer, even sharper…” (p.190).
Near-death Experience (NDE)-A person’s consciousness during a simple OBE is pretty much like ordinary, “normal” consciousness, so she can describe it quite comprehensibly. But in an NDE, while there may be an initial OBE component, often with consciousness seeming pretty much like normal, there’s usually an altered state of consciousness (ASC) involved, so there are important changes in the way consciousness functions. (p.227).
After-death communications ADC – via “ghosts” or the deceased making some form of contact (p.243-255)
Mediums’ spiritual contact with the dead (p. 257-275)
Reincarnation (p.277-288)

Tart has written about most of the areas that I, before his book came out, was proposing to write about; though mine would have taken more of a layman’s approach. I will still leave the reader to access The End Of Materialism (2009) and other Tart works and will not attempt to represent all of this particular book in this article. Although he categorizes areas differently than I had, and now that I’ve read his work, I would realign mine to more match his; I perceive him to be an expert in the field. Some of the discrepancies in categorizing our selection of areas of evidence for spirit may be explained in this example from another scientist, Stan Grof. Grof’s scientifically-recorded holotropic experiences can be in part pre- and post-cognition, ODE and NDE, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. Synchronicity also seems to be partly telepathic, clairvoyant, a form of precognition, or even psychokinetic.

I want to add another category to this group, the category of divination. Divination can be quite sketchy from a scientific validation point of view, but when you’re working with a very gifted practitioner in this area it can be quite convincing that something beyond odds are at work. Again, even in divination the various paranormal aspects mentioned by Tart can be at play such as precognition, but an astrological chart is fairly unalterable, similarly a tarot reading, though the subsequent interpretations can vary in both cases. But the ironic alignment and specific cards pulled in tarot and the coin tosses in I Ching seem beyond a physical explanation only. As Tart only hints at in his book in a footnote, “Sometimes it’s hard not to play with the idea, without knowing whether or not I’m really serious, that the universe psychically plays with us” (Tart, 2009, p. 84). I have often wondered myself in the areas of divination and synchronicity whether this is the case. I wonder even beyond playing with us whether the Universe is guiding us.

In the areas of near-death experiences and holotropic breath work, “there’s usually an altered state of consciousness (ASC) involved, so there are important changes in the way consciousness functions” (Tart, 2009, p. 227). Here again I often ponder whether something larger than our single consciousness is at play. “Also because this ASC makes sense to you during the ASC, but this sense doesn’t transfer well to ordinary consciousness afterward; it’s state-specific knowledge and memory” (Tart, 2009, p. 227). I also include the mystical experience in this ASC grouping as “evidence” of both spirit of the non-local psi world and Spirit of the religious realm in this larger-than-life dance. Yet the interpretation and validation of mystical experiences are to be done with caution. Here is where Ken Wilber’s “all quadrant” ways of knowing and validation are helpful (Wilber, 2000). Kooks and kooky interpretations and pseudoscience abound. Along with scientism and unsubstantiated doubt they all stand in the way of knowing what is true and, consequently, of living life fully.

One final category I find lends to some spiritual (and sizeably psychological) implications is one of dreams and the symbolism they tap into for the dreamer. Not only that archetypal aspects have developed at all and that they are “stored” non-locally, but that they person-specifically present themselves in dream time. My attention has been drawn to this area by the nature of my own (and numerous other people’s) experiences of having the “right” or informative dream appear to them. This is outside of the dream’s interpretation, about which people who are not well versed in symbols are often unaware. But in dream interpretation we are left with this “thing” called the unconscious bringing the symbols to dream time in correct/meaningful combinations that were previously totally unknown to the dreamer, and that can be subjected to wakeful analysis. This “thing”, “what Freud and Jung called ‘the unconscious’ is simply what we, in our historically conditioned estrangement, are unconscious of. It is not necessarily or essentially unconscious” (Grof & Grof, 1989, p. 56).

I’m in agreement with Tart’s hunch, that that the universe psychically plays with us or, I believe at least, tries to inform us of who we are and what we are about. To further quote Grof and Grof, “The dreamer who dreams our dreams knows far more of us than we know of it” (1989, p. 56). So in addition to the areas Tart explores which I had loosely categorized as paranormal, I’ve added holotropic breath-work, synchronicity, divination, dreams, and mystical experiences as collective evidence for spirit and/or soul. [As an aside, “spirit” as I use it here is more akin to “mind” and its ability to affect more than the body it is associated with. I also lean more toward spirit and the material being on a continuum of manifestation, thus leaning away from the dualism Tart seems to present.]

But the skeptics reside, so let me heavy-handedly present the quotes of additional authors in congruence with Tart, often authorities in their fields, regarding the outlandish views held by scientism. I do this writ large, not only to challenge the soundness of their position, but also as corrective balance to the cacophony of counter noises that too often drown out the spirit side of things:

“The observations from holotropic states seriously undermine the fundamental cornerstone of materialistic thinking, the belief in the primacy of matter and in the absence of the spiritual dimension in the fabric of existence. They bring direct experiential and empirical evidence that spirituality is a critical and legitimate attribute of the human psyche and of the universal scheme of things. … It is argued that, properly understood, spirituality and science are not and cannot be in conflict, but represent two complementary approaches to existence” (Grof, 2000, p. xii).

Further, “The research of holotropic states has brought ample evidence that there are transphenomenal dimensions of existence that are ontologically real and that they often can withstand the test of consensual validation” (Grof, 2000, p. 271).

“Science is at the very earliest stages of understanding entanglement, and there is much yet to learn. But what we’ve seen so far provides a new way of thinking about psi. No longer are psi experiences regarded as rare human talents, divine gifts, or “powers” that magically transcend ordinary physical boundaries. Instead, psi becomes an unavoidable consequence of living in an interconnected, entangled physical reality. Psi is reframed from a bizarre anomaly that doesn’t fit into the normal world — and hence is labeled paranormal — into a natural phenomenon of physics” (Radin, 2006, p. 3).

Investigating life from only a scientific materialism perspective “is like living life perpetually under the gaze of a lab technician. It’s all empiricism, all monological gaze, all behaviorism, all shiny surfaces and monochrome objects — no interiors, no depth, no consciousness” (Wilber, 2000, pp. 80-81).

Regarding paranormal understandings, “They are simply given to awareness, they simply present themselves, and you don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out if they’re real or not” (Wilber, 2000, p. 189).

“They are direct experiential disclosures issuing directly from the subtle dimensions of reality, interpreted according to the backgrounds of those individuals, but issuing from this profound ontological reality, this subtle worldspace” (Wilber, 2000, p. 197).

Pulling in yet another transpersonal author to address the reality of reincarnation Grof (2006) states: “The existence of past-life experiences with all their remarkable characteristics is an unquestionable fact that can be verified by any serious researcher who is sufficiently open-minded and interested to check the evidence. It is also clear that there is no plausible explanation for these phenomena within the conceptual framework of mainstream psychiatry and psychology…I have to agree with Chris Bache that ‘the evidence in this area is so rich and extraordinary that scientist who do not think the problem of reincarnation deserves serious study are either uninformed or boneheaded’” (Grof, p .165).

Bache (2000) himself writes with such clarity regarding the justification of psychedelic experience that I’ll quote him in entirety here. “The question of the epistemic warrant of psychedelic experience is a subset of the larger question of the epistemic warrant of transpersonal experience in general, and the answer to this question will ultimately reflect one’s assessment of the legitimacy of the entire transpersonal enterprise. This would require a careful evaluation of the many intellectual and cultural streams that have converged to form this movement, which is obviously beyond the scope of this chapter. Fortunately, however, it has already been formulated in the work of Ken Wilber. Through his many books, Wilber has done more to establish the philosophical credentials of the transpersonal movement than any other one person. His identification of the underlying deep structure of Eastern models of consciousness, his articulation of a vision of psychospiritual development that integrates a vast range of Eastern and Western insights into a comprehensive synthesis, his penetrating critique of a culture that has allowed itself to become tone-deaf to the transcendent, and his revitalization of the concept of the Great Chain of Being are but a few of his many accomplishments. If I have not built many bridges to the mainstream philosophical tradition, it is because I have assumed the bridges Wilber has already built” (Bache, pp. 26-27).

I will also leave the reader to reference the philosophical justification of the “spirit/consciousness” side of things to Wilber’s adept writings and invite you to peruse the bibliography at the end of this piece for possible resources of interest.

Charles Tart, Dean Radin and Stan Grof all have thousands of verifiable accounts of paranormal and transpersonal experiences. Ian Stevenson has documented hundreds of verifiable reincarnation accounts: most powerfully, those of instantaneous recall by young children. For this reason and others argued in Robert Almeder’s book Death and Personal Survival: Evidence for Life After Death, Roger J. Woolger’s book Other Lives Other Selves, and all of Christopher Bache’s works on reincarnation, I would include reincarnation in Tart’s “big five” experimental evidences for psychic phenomenon (or psi), but the criteria wouldn’t be experimental in nature as in being replicable, but reincarnation is certainly evidentially credible. This is why Tart doesn’t have it moved up into the “big five” status.

I feel just as strongly about synchronicities, though much of what transpires within the synchronistic event can be attributed and thus assumed under various paranormal categories. Yet some aspects are not explainable as only psi phenomena. In addition, as I mentioned earlier in quoting Tart, there seems to be something at play that entails instructive intent and even more so with synchronicities. Main (2007) writes in his wonderful, detailed, and scholarly exploration of synchronicity that, “its status as something more than just a coincidence — as a synchronicity — depends on the presence of the additional property of meaningfulness” (p. 12). “In contrast to both of these, what is interesting about synchronistic experiences is that they are equally both subjective and objective. The inner psychic aspect of synchronicity, unlike that supposed to attached to quantum events, most definitely is experienced directly; and the outer physical aspect of a synchronicity, unlike that said to pertain to mystical experiences of unity, most definitely is susceptible to being registered by independent observers” (Main, 2007, p. 53). “More generally, one could say that through revealing a profound paralleling between the psychic and physical events, synchronicity as it were adds a missing half to each, making the psychic events more embodied and the physical events more ensouled” (Main, 2007, p. 75). Main’s conclusion is exactly mine: “While I do not believe synchronicities can, or should be expected to, prove anything in any strong sense about the ultimate nature of reality, I agree that they can indeed provide a body of suggestive evidence” (2007, p. 116).

Grof (2006), who devotes a sizable portion of his book to synchronicities, also writes of correlative experience but cautions: “Profound and auspicious synchronicities can initiate and accompany a powerful spiritual awakening; however, they are not without pitfalls. They can convey a convincing sense that we not only are embedded in a larger ground of cosmic meaning and purpose but also in some sense a focus or center of it. However, the overwhelming feeling of numinousness that is often associated with these synchronicities can be deceptive and should not be naively trusted and acted upon.” (Grof, p. 16) Further he writes: “I learned not to trust unconditionally the seductive power of such experiences and the enchantment and ego inflation that they engender. The ecstatic feelings associated with emergence of archetypal forces do not guarantee a positive outcome. It is essential to refrain from acting out while we are under their spell and not to make any important decisions until we have again both feet on the ground” (Grof, 2006, p. 26).

When we move into discussions of the altered states within mystical experiences we can only verify the external accounting of an internal experience, but as stated in Ken Wilber’s works, these accounts also have a standard to measure them by. Bache (2000) writes of Wilber: “Wilber has argued in numerous places that there is a spectrum of different modes of knowing, each with its own set of instrumental injunctions for gathering information, its own modality of experiential disclosure, and its own form of evaluation. …While agreeing with empiricism that all genuine knowledge must be grounded in experience, he has criticized empiricism’s reduction of experience to sensory experience, arguing that the eye of mind and spirit are equally legitimate modalities of experience that produce equally legitimate forms of knowledge” (p. 28). Grof, from collective analysis of thousands of his clients’ holotropic sessions states: “I found to my surprise that the individual metaphysical insights of my clients were strikingly similar from person to person and that they constituted various partial aspects of one overarching cosmic vision. This extraordinary perspective on the cosmos and human existence that emerged from this analysis was radically different from the one formulated by Newtonian-Cartesian materialistic science. However, it bore striking similarity to various spiritual systems to which Aldous Huxley referred to as perennial philosophy” (2006, p. 37).

My beliefs about astrology, divination, and dream work are admittedly less reliable than scientifically replicable and collectively circumstantial evidence. They are convictions I have arrived at primarily through personal experience and thus are not verifiable for the public at large. Yet there are credible bodies of investigations in these fields along with numerous parallel individual accounts of those finding these three; astrology, divination, and dream work as valid in supporting the concept of spirit. Grof (2006), who seems to delve into most every field I mention, feels strongly about the validity of astrology coming from a large data base: “Over the years, we have been able to confirm this fact by thousands of specific observations. Because of these surprisingly precise correlations, astrology, particularly transit astrology, turned out to be the long-sought Rosetta stone of consciousness research, providing the key for understanding the nature and content of present, past, and future holotropic states, both spontaneous and induced…The connections revealed by astrology are so complex, intricate, creative, and highly imaginative that they leave no doubt of their divine origin. They provide convincing evidence for a deep, meaningful order underlying creation and for a superior cosmic intelligence that engendered it” (pp. 340 and 343).

“The I Ching, based mostly on synchronicity (Jung addressed both in his works) claims a long history of veracity. The odds of getting an appropriate response from an I Ching throwing are one out of 4,096…What is being claimed is that (in the case of the most usual method employed) the coins, quite extraordinarily, manage to fall precisely in the appropriate way to yield this response. If, of the eighteen individual coin falls, just one had been different, if just one coin had bounced, spun, or rolled differently, a completely different result could have been obtained with possibly even a contradictory meaning” (Main, 2007, p. 161).

The same principle, though I have no statistics to present here, is at play when doing the tarot. I have had far more uncannily accurate readings for both the I Ching and tarot than not. And in both cases this is not a small number I’m recollecting. My dreams likewise have been, when looking directly at the symbolism provided by the dream, far more “appropriate” to my life circumstance than amiss. Again these aren’t psychological interpretations as done in psychoanalysis, though the information deals in the realm of the unconscious. (Please see my Grof quote above regarding “this thing the unconscious.”)

What do I conclude from this long and substantive account of things spiritual? That being human is no small temporal endeavor! At the risk of having this be a heralding too much of Grof’s work, I end with this quote: “To participate in the phenomenal world and to be able to experience this rich spectrum of adventures requires a certain degree of identification with the embodied self and acceptance of the world of matter. However, when our identification with the body-ego is absolute and our belief in the material world as the only reality unshatterable, it is impossible to fully enjoy our participation in creation. The specters of personal insignificance, impermanence, and death can completely overshadow the positive side of life and rob it of its zest. We also have to add to it the frustration associated with repeated futile attempts to realize our full divine potential within the constraints imposed on us by the limitations of our bodies and of the material world. To find the solution to this dilemma, we have to turn inside, to a systematic inner quest. As we keep discovering and exploring various hidden dimensions of ourselves and of reality, our identification with the body-ego becomes progressively looser and less compelling.” Grof, 2000, p. 290).

*Note:
“This is not to say that increased education has no effect on paranormal beliefs. … The results showed that better educated people were, as predicted, significantly less likely to believe in the religious paranormal. But contrary to the prediction, they were more likely to believe in psi. This outcome was confirmed in a 2003 Harris poll” (Radin, 2006, pp. 39-40).

“Further analysis suggested that belief in superstition reflected a feeling of loss of control about one’s life, but a belief in psi was associated with the opposite, a feeling that one is in control. In other words, belief in psi is not due to dissociative tendencies, or fantasy-proneness, or to the feeling of being out of control” (Radin, 2006, p.41).

For two other thoughtful scientists/writers on science & spirit check out these brief pieces by Brian Swimme, Brian Swimme on Emptiness and the Quantum Vacuum and Rupert Sheldrake, The Credit Crunch For Materialism. Here is one from Tart himself entitled, Science versus Opinion on the Paranormal.

As I’ve written above, opening to the spiritual side of reality via science could bring profound changes in our individual and collective worlds. The following at length interview with a professor who tries to walk this line with integrity gives a wonderful taste of what is taking place toward that end. The Dawn of a New Worldview – An interview with Frank Poletti, by Joel Pitney.

References:

Bache, C. M. (2000). Dark night, early dawn. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Grof, S. (2000). Psychology of the future: Lessons from modern consciousness research. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Grof, S. (2006). When the impossible happens: Adventures in non-ordinary realities. Boulder, CO: Sounds True Inc.

Grof, S. and Grof, C. (1989). Spiritual emergency: When personal transformation becomes a crisis. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.

Main, R. (2007). Revelations of chance: Synchronicity as spiritual experience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Radin, D. (2006). Entangled minds: Extrasensory experiences in a quantum reality. New York: Paraview Pocket Books.

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Joel Jacobs, 2009, All Rights Reserved