While thinking of a topic to write for today’s column, it dawned on me that I must have covered practically all areas in the fields of psychic research, mind power and spiritual phenomena in the Philippines over the past 28 years for the Inquirer.

Having written no less than 1,400 articles, I find it more and more difficult to come up with something I have not yet written about. Even the questions readers ask me have already been covered in previous articles.

There are some questions though that keep being asked. I also discovered I have acquired a good number of loyal readers that is beyond my expectations.

Original intent

My original intent was to write about unexplained phenomena, and the tremendous but largely ignored or untapped powers of the human mind.

I also wanted to discuss people who have demonstrated or experienced such powers or mysteries.

That’s why I originally named this column “Inner Mind.” Soon after, I started teaching people how to use more of their minds in problem-solving, decision-making and goal-setting through a series of seminars here and abroad.

I established the Inner Mind Development Institute for this purpose. I was teaching the laws of manifestation, affirmation and attraction long before these words became fashionable and popular.

My motto, then as now, is: “The mind knows no limits aside from those it accepts.”

We are the only ones putting limitations to what our minds can do.

Inner awareness

Later, I realized that the column title “Inner Mind” was too limited to describe the growing awareness of people about things beyond the material universe.

The mind-boggling discoveries of quantum physics were paving the way toward a greater acceptance of the unpredictability of the physical universe in the subatomic level.

In other words, there are no longer certainties, as postulated by Newtonian physics, but only probabilities. Modern physicists were no longer sure what was the real nature of the universe out there.

We can only know what we can know of it and not what it really is. We are back to the epistemological dilemma posed by Plato 2,400 years ago, namely: that we can only see the shadows of reality but not the reality behind the shadows.

And so, I changed the title of this column to “Inner Awareness,” because ultimately everything boils down to what is inside us.

There were those who thought I was talking nonsense, because they could not comprehend things beyond what classical logic and science had taught them.

But there were others who saw a much deeper truth behind the things discussed in this column.

Unknown geniuses

As the controversy rages on about what constitutes the ultimate stuff of the universe, I began to think of the many unknown and unheralded geniuses who have contributed much to a greater understanding of the mysterious universe we live in.

These are people who will never get a Nobel Prize in their field of work, but whose daring and courage to go against conventional wisdom and long-held conservative beliefs have thrown some light to an otherwise dark, unfathomable universe.

In succeeding issues, therefore, I shall write about some outstanding and world-famous individuals who have given us a glimpse of what really lies beyond our ordinary perception of reality.

Many of them I had the opportunity to meet and interact with personally.

Some of those that readers will meet here include the man who discovered that plants respond to human emotions; the doctor of medicine who discovered what lies beyond death by talking to people who were pronounced dead and yet returned to life; and the Scottish couple who grew large vegetables on barren soil with the help of elementals or nature spirits.

Also, the British biologist who talked of invisible communications between people poles apart through what he calls “Morphic Resonance”; the American neuroscientist who saw the brain as a hologram; and the Brazilian medium who could paint the masters’ works in 10 minutes while in a trance and without using a brush.

There will be many others whom the average Filipino reader may have never heard about before.

The next Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation seminar will be held on June 13, from 1 to 7 p.m., in Makati. Tel. 8107245 or 0998-9886292. E-mail: [email protected].