Have you ever wondered why some people can see things or events others can’t? Or smell and hear things others can’t, although they are not hallucinating?

This has puzzled me. And the answer did not come as easily as I would have wanted.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that the paradigm in much of the western world is the rational, materialistic and scientific paradigm.

This paradigm has narrowly defined reality to consist only of things that are tangible or palpable to the senses or scientific instruments, namely, they must have weight, size, shape, smell, taste and sound, and they must obey the laws of Newtonian physics. Also, the object observed must have an existence independent of the observer, etc.

If there is anything that exists outside the scientific paradigm, it is regarded as hallucination or imagination, and therefore unreal. This has become the dogma of the scientific world for the last 400 years!

Fortunately, a growing number of scientists and researchers have begun to question the assumptions underlying the scientific paradigm.

There is no doubt that science has perfected a generally accepted methodology to test the reality or validity of an object, event or phenomenon. It must be statistically significant, it must be observable by man’s five senses or, at least, by his scientific instruments, and it must be repeatable and not merely be a random event.

Criteria

But such criteria are good and valid only when applied to material or physical objects and events. They cannot be applied to nonphysical things or phenomena. To insist on applying the same criteria for nonmaterial things would be to be blind to the world of the mystical and the spiritual, which is intangible and subtle.

What most scientists fail or refuse to realize is that there are at least two ways of looking at reality. One is through our physical senses and the other through our nonphysical (call it spiritual) or internal faculties. The former can see and describe only physical reality, the other can see nonphysical reality.

American astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, the sixth man to set foot on the moon, who has a doctorate degree in science, pointed out in the book “Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science:”

“This denial of the nonmaterial aspect of life—its sacred participation in the miracle of existence—leaves people with no source of meaning and direction…death is the end of me because life is only physical.

“Psychic research presents a direct challenge to this shortsighted view of reality by calling into question the assumed primacy of objectivism and materialism.

“Telepathy demonstrates that there is an informational linkage between people that goes beyond the laws of science as they are presently understood.

“Clairvoyance challenges our understanding of sensory perception.

“Precognition and retrocognition challenge our concept of time.

“Psychokinesis or telekinesis challenges our concept of energy and energy transfer.

“So too does psychic healing, which also brings into question our concepts of physiology and medicine.”

Fringes

Dr. Mitchell asserted that studies in these fringes of science indicate that “mind and consciousness can operate at a distance from the body, interacting with the outside world in ways that cannot be explained in terms of known laws.”

Don Juan Matus, the Yaqui Indian teacher of UCLA anthropologist Carlos Castaneda, calls the everyday physical reality, the “Tonal,” and the spiritual reality, the “Nagual.” The Nagual is the world of mystical reality, of magic, known only to those who can “see” and not merely “look.”

Because such a world exists beyond the reach of our physical senses and intellect, it is deemed to be nonexistent and purely imaginary by materialist science. But quantum physics is challenging such a limited and myopic view of reality. Quantum physicists have discovered that in the quantum world, Newtonian physical laws no longer apply. What apply are the laws of consciousness.

Note: Join the next Basic ESP and Intuition Development seminar on Jan. 14-15, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I, Legaspi St., Greenbelt, Makati. Tel. nos. 8107245/ 8159890 or mobile no. 0920-9818962. E-mail [email protected]. Visit my website www.jimmylicauco.com.