I started to post this as a comment, but like Topsy, it "just growed"; so I made it a post in its own right.
The issue we were discussing was why we are so inclined to doubt or deny psi phenomena and postmortem survival even in the face of considerable evidence.
And the basic point I wanted to make is that, if physical reality is designed to be a fully immersive environment, then we would expect to feel a lack of certainty about continued existence on another plane. The more certain we are of nonphysical existence, the less "fully immersed" we are in this environment.
In this regard, it's interesting to note how easy it is to forget (or suppress?) evidence of psi and survival. I’ve noticed that unless I immediately write down a striking psi experience — say, a confirmed premonition or an amazing synchronicity — I will be totally unable to recall it even thirty minutes later. I’ve also noticed that it’s remarkably easy to forget case histories (of experiments with mediums, say) that really ought to be memorable.
Many people have pointed out that parapsychology seems to be perpetually reinventing the wheel, devising new experiments to establish the validity of telepathy and clairvoyance even though experiments from decades ago already proved these phenomena by any reasonable standard. It’s as if the whole field of psi research is in a state of permanent denial, or at least doubt.
George Hansen, author of The Trickster and the Paranormal, would probably ascribe all this to the liminality (marginal nature) of psi. He would point to the marginal status of shamans, medicine women, necromancers, and ghost hunters in most societies — including ours, which relegates the paranormal to horror fiction, humor, and "woo." This socially mandated liminality, he would say, keeps us from accepting the paranormal or even taking it seriously.
I'd argue that Hansen's "liminality" may be best understood as a built-in feature of the universe, which helps to ensure our continued full immersion by marginalizing anyone who starts to see "behind the veil," and by sequestering and scrubbing our own memories before they can be preserved long-term. It’s equivalent to the steps taken by The Matrix to keep everybody believing in the shared illusion.
If you look at it this way, doubts and even denial in the face of intellectually convincing evidence are actually additional proof of the "virtual reality simulation" nature of the cosmos. Why else would humans experience this continuing deep-level dissonance between repeatedly observed facts and our intractable feelings?
- Why would we feel impelled to dismiss and forget our own experiences and to marginalize and ridicule those who claim to be in touch with other levels of consciousness?
- Why would we react in a panic to the very idea of experimenting with mind-altering chemicals, even throwing people in jail for doing so?
- Why would we pass laws penalizing psychics and mediums, or uphold religious injunctions against dabbling in the occult?
- Why would a whole cadre of intellectuals spend their lives, or at least much of their free time, combatting any suggestion that the paranormal could have some validity?
- Why do so many people say they’re never really convinced, no matter how much evidence they see?
- Why do researchers who choose to study the paranormal find themselves ostracized, their careers sidetracked, their reputations maligned?
Some people would say the government or a secret cabal is behind it all, but I really don’t think so. Governments and cabals are notoriously inept. What’s far more likely is that the world works this way because this is how it’s supposed to work. The game is rigged. We are biologically hard-wired and socially conditioned to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. If we notice him anyway, we are inclined to forget. If, despite everything, we remember, then we risk our own social, professional, and intellectual banishment (a prospect that gives us an additional incentive to forget).
Leave a Reply