Sunday, September 25,
2016
Many people thought that science…[would] take
us away from dependence on a Creator…[but] modern science actually points
strongly toward Him…It is only with considerable effort that a person can cling
to materialistic views of the universe. ~ Michael Behe, Lehigh University Professor
of Molecular Biology
The evidence of PK [psychokinesis] along with
that of ESP [extrasensory perception] establishes the case for the reality of
mind…[that] mind is what the man in the street thought it was all along…The man
in the pulpit too was right in preaching that the human spirit is something
more than the material of his body and brain. For the first time, science
offered a little support to his view. ~ Duke University Professor J.B. Rhine, the
father of American parapsychology.
There are powers of the mind and powers beyond
the mind, which your science could never have brought within its framework
without shattering itself entirely…strange phenomena [poltergeist, telepathy,
precognition] which you have named but never explained…Any [complete] theory of
the universe must account for them. ~ Overlords of the Universe to earthlings in
Arthur C. Clarke’ Childhood’s End.
That consciousness is ruled by the laws of
physics and chemistry is as preposterous as the suggestion that a nation could
be ruled by… the laws of grammar. ~ Sir Arthur Eddington, Nobelist in physics.
Psychoanalysis…offers only a partial view of
reality, since overlooks the spiritual dimensions of humanity. That can get you
into trouble. ~
Charles Tart, Professor of Psychology at the University of California
The outstanding achievement of
twentieth-century physics is not the theory of relativity…or the theory of
quanta…or the dissection of the atom… [but] it is the general recognition that
we are not yet in contact with the ultimate reality. ~ Sir James Jeans
-----------------
The acceptance of Darwinian evolution in the nineteenth century was the key development in moving the scientific world into a hard-core materialism. Nevertheless, increasing numbers of leading physical scientists became convinced of the reality of a nonphysical world. Among them were Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, one of the greatest physicists of the century, the mathematician and quantum mechanics theorist John von Neumann [sometimes called “the smartest man who ever lived”], and Sir Karl Popper, recognized as the most famous philosopher of science of recent times. Sir John Eccles quotes Popper as saying:
“According to
determinism, any theory… is held because of a certain physical structure of the
holder—perhaps of his brain. Accordingly, we are deceiving ourselves… whenever
we believe that there are such things as arguments or reasons… Purely physical
conditions… make us say or accept whatever we say or accept” [The Wonder of Being Human: Our Brain and Our
Mind, 1981, p.38].
If materialism and
determinism are true, then the theory of evolution itself must be the result of
random thoughts and thus could not be true. In fact, the very concept of true
and false, good and evil—and all other ideas and beliefs- would simply be the
result of random motions of atoms in the brain which all began with a big bang
billions of years ago and have proceeded by chance ever since. If so, then our
thoughts have no meaning. On the contrary, the fact that the mind must be
something other than brain, and that it formulates meaningful thoughts, is
demanded by our everyday experience and forms another argument against
materialism.
Evolution Destroyed the Soul
As Mortimer J. Addler
points out in his book The Difference of
Man and the Difference It Makes, there is such a vast chasm between animal
instinct and uniquely human characteristics [for instance, recognition of good
and evil and appreciation of beauty] that there is no way to bridge it by a
gradual evolutionary transformation. The human soul stands squarely in the way
of evolution. To refute special creation, one would have to show that human
personality is simply a quality of organic matter acquired through the
evolution of the physical brain and nervous system. Behavioristic and
humanistic psychologies provide the rationale for the general acceptance of
evolution and materialism. Charles Tart, Professor of Psychology at the
University of California at Davis, points out some of the consequences:
“Behaviorism and
psychoanalysis make it very clear that the mind is the brain. This means, of
course, that when you die you’re dead. There is no survival. There’s no real
spiritual life… Humanistic psychology…didn’t teach us to question the
mechanistic assumption of the Western world view” [it supported them] [Rogo, “Psychology”, pp. 12-13].
Materialistic
understanding of man persisted as the predominant
view in academia well past the middle of this century. Psychology [with which
we will deal in more depth in a later article] was determined to establish itself
as a science on a par not only with
medicine but with physics and chemistry. This author well remembers the
prevailing view when he attended university 50 years ago: Humans were simply
complex lumps of protein molecules wired with nerves who made conditioned
responses to stimuli bombarding them from the physical world. Human behavior
could therefore be reprogrammed through the “scientific” methods of “behavior
modification”. One day it would be possible, with drugs and therapy, to
reprogram the brains of criminals and overly aggressive political leaders and
thus turn this world once again into paradise.
A “Ghost” in the Machine
Thoughts were presume to
originate in the brain as a result of chemical and electrical processes.
Nothing nonphysical could exist. Contrary to common sense, was man was the
prisoner of whatever his brain cells [for purely mechanistic reasons]
“thought”. This incredible “fact” of science was taught throughout the academic
world.
The great hope was that
the laws of physics and chemistry, applied to the brain, would explain human
personality. That would allow psychiatrists to manipulate the brain like a
mechanic does an engine. Thus all inappropriate behavior could be eliminated. There
would be no more wars or crime and this world would become a rhapsody of
kindness, pleasure and prosperity, the Eden no one had believed in.
It was impossible,
however, to suppress the evidence that, instead of producing thought, brain activity is the result of thought. Inasmuch as thought originate independently of
the brain, they must exist outside the physical dimension. That fact is
self-evident on the basis of the many thoughts for which there is no physical
counterpart nor any physical stimulus: truth, justice, holiness, perfection,
God, ad infinitum. Indeed, consciousness itself exists outside the realm of
science. Michael Polanyi argued:
“The most striking
feature of our own existence is our sentience [consciousness]. The laws of
physics and chemistry include not conception of sentience, and any system wholly
determined by these [physical laws] must be insentience [without consciousness].
It may be to the interest of science to turn a blind eye on this central fact
of the universe, but it is certainly not in the interest of truth” [The Tacit Dimension, 1967, p. 37].
No matter how
“intelligent” a computer may be, it can only do what it has been programmed to
do. Nor can the brain, though far more complex than any computer, think on its
own. If thought were the result of neural activity in the brain, we would all
be helplessly dragged along by chemical/electrical processes determining our
thoughts and even our morals and emotions. No rational person can accept that
hypothesis because we demonstrate our power of choice, and thus control of our
brain cells, countless times each
day. There is a “ghost” in the machine. The human soul and do the thinking and
use the brain to communicate these thoughts to the body and through the body to
others.
No “Science” of Human Behavior
For materialism to be a
valid theory, human personality and behavior would have to be explicable in
purely scientific terms and subject to modification according to the laws of
physical science. It would therefore be theoretically possible to precisely
predict human behavior and to reprogram personality. Otherwise there could be
no science of human behavior. Although most psychologists would now recognize
that their profession is not science,
some still cling to that appealing delusion.
It requires little common
sense to recognize that there could not possible be a “science of human
behavior”. If there were, then for a man to say to his wife or child “I love
you” would be no more significant to say that he had an itch or a
gastrointestinal pain. Love, an appreciation of beauty, a sense of injustice,
and all other uniquely human emotions and understandings would simply be
physical reactions within the brain cells, the nerves, and the glands, totally
explicable by physical laws, thus as meaningless as a reaction between
chemicals in a test tube.
Though behavioristic
psychologists such as B.F. Skinner tried for years to convince themselves and
others that man is a stimulus-response robot without the power to genuinely
make choices –to love or hate, to do good or evil, to be kind or vicious- few
retain that opinion today. Apparently a person who still does is Bill Gates,
founder of Microsoft and the richest entrepreneur in the world, now worth 37
billion dollars. Gates “believes that we’ll someday be able to replicate intelligence
and emotions in a machine. But he admits that the joy of raising his daughter
Jennifer ‘goes beyond analytic description’” [Time, January 13, 1997, p.57]. Gates may one day recognize that
Jennifer is not a machine.
Mind Distinguished from Brain
If the physical/material
universe is all that there is, then every facet of occultism [which necessarily
occurs in a nonphysical universe] is simply a delusion. There is, however, far
too much evidence in support of so called ESP [extrasensory perception],
telekinesis, precognition, poltergeist activity and other forms of the occult
to allow one to accept materialistic dogma. Carl Rogers [an
influential American psychologist who was among the founders of the humanistic
approach to psychology] eventually confessed that “mind is an entity far greater than brain” [Life Times, no. 3, p. 47]. Recognizing
that consciousness could not be explained by materialism, Rogers realized the
consequences and on that basis predicted the imminent practical application of
“such paranormal phenomena as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition…healing
energies…the power of meditation, transcendent forces…” [Life Times, no. 3, p. 47-48].
The famous neurologist
Wilder Penfield put it well: “The mind is independent of the brain. The brain
is a computer, but it is programmed by something that is outside itself, the
mind” [Your Maximum Mind, 1987, p. 46].
Logically, if the mind/spirit/soul is independent of the brain, it could
survive the death of the body. Carl Jung, reflecting upon the soul, which he
called “the psyche”, might survive physical death, wrote:
“Total loss of
consciousness can be accompanied by perceptions of the outside world and vivid
dream experiences. Since the cerebral cortex, the seat of consciousness, is not
functioning at this time, there is not yet explanation for such phenomena. They
may be evidence for at least a subjective persistence of the capacity for consciousness
—even in a state of apparent unconsciousness” [Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1963, p. 322].
That some form of consciousness
persists even when the brain is not functioning is evident from the many
testimonies of those who have been declared brain dead and yet lived to
describe in detail what was happening around them while they were being
revived. A consciousness that functions independently of the brain is obviously
nonphysical. The world of the occult is also nonphysical but it can affect this
physical dimension just as our nonphysical minds operate our brains.
Remote Viewing
One of the most powerful
occult practices known today is called “remote viewing”, to be dealt with in
depth in a whole article later. Its practitioners claim that information of any kind can be obtained,
no matter how far removed from the viewer by space or even past or future time. Remote viewing is still being used by both the
American and Russian [and other] military and intelligence establishments for
espionage purposes. The results, many of them still classified and secret, are
mind-blogging and totally inexplicable by science. So accurate have remote
viewers become, so they tell us, that governments rely upon them for secrets
missions when lives hang in the balance.
One of today’s premier
remote viewers, Major Ed Dames, testifies to having used this occult power in
the military. Congress is allegedly well aware of such activities and
appropriates funds for this pursuit. Dames heads Psi Tech, a firm which
specializes in remote viewing for the civilian world. Still called upon by the
military in difficult cases, he claims to have been used to locate chemical
weapons that Saddam Hussein was hiding in Iraq from the United Nations
inspection teams. In all of its remote viewing assignments, Psi Tech guarantees
100 percent accuracy to its customers!
Edgar Cayce many years
ago claimed to be able to see “the body” of the patient he was diagnosing in
trance and could even describe that person and the bed and room he occupied.
Much of Cayce’s remote viewing [including his medical diagnoses] proved to be
amazingly accurate. Such practices among psychics continue today. Time magazine once reported:
“Rosemary Altea is a spiritual
medium and a healer who with her spirit guide, and Apache called Gray Eagle,
communicates with spirits to heal, guide and console… Writes Altea [in The Eagle and the Rose]: ‘Using mind
energy connected with universal God energy, we can give absent or distant
healing’” [Time, June 24, 1996, p. 67].
Remote viewers are not so
ready to admit the involvement of “spirits”. Remote viewing is mentioned
briefly here because it has contributed in a major way to the death of
materialism. There is no physical
explanation for the remarkable phenomenon of remote viewing.
Another of today’s
best-known remote viewers, who also was involved with this technique for the
United States military establishment, is Emory University professor Courtney
Brown. In the civilian world he teaches and employs what he calls Scientific
Remote Viewing [SRV]. Says Professor Brown:
“You have to understand
that remote viewing is absolute positive proof…that we are more than our
physical bodies. It was developed in laboratory conditions and now
operationalized under laboratory conditions with the strictest of
controls…Remote viewing procedures demonstrate that we have a soul, that we are
more than physical beings because the properties of the soul are what we use
when we remote view…There is a whole realm of life out there that’s not
physical” [Professor Courtney Brown interview on Art Bell Show, late in 1996].
Science and the Mind
If everything in the
universe works according to scientifically defined physical laws, mysterious,
inexplicable powers, and those who believe in then have been badly deluded. On
the other hand, if there is a nonphysical dimension, then who knows what
astonishing “entities” and “powers” might be out there? And if the mind exists
in a nonphysical dimension independent of the brain, then could it not make use
of the powers in that dimension and contact entities who reside there?
Obviously it could be
dangerous to venture into this realm. Could that be why the Bible forbids
occult involvement of any kind? One thing is certain: Whatever understanding or
protection one would hope for from the laws of the physical sciences would be
left behind on such an adventure.
It is clearly wrong to
demand a physical explanation for
spiritual experiences – and if one
was not forthcoming, to then deny the reality of a spiritual dimension to life.
That would be like denying the reality of the sense of smell because odors can’t be felt
or insisting that because honesty and
justice have no taste they don’t exist. Yet such foolish judgments by science were
accepted uncritically until well into the twentieth century, when many top scientists finally began to speak out
against such nonsense. Referring to the existence of a spiritual dimension, Sir
Arthur Eddington wrote:
“The scheme of [the new]
physics is now formulated in such a way as to make it almost self-evident that
it is a partial aspect of something wider” [Ken Wilber, in ReVISION, Spring 1984, pp. 6-7].
That this “something
wider” could be nonphysical is, as Eddington believed, suggested by the very
qualities of the universe as we know it. The discovery of ghostly particles
such as the neutrino makes the existence of discarnate spirits or other
nonphysical intelligences much more plausible in a scientific context. With virtually
no physical properties—no mass, no electrical charge, no magnetic field—the
neutrino behaves very much like a “ghost”. Neither gravitation nor
electromagnetic force have any effect upon the neutrino. A neutrino zooming in
from intergalactic space at nearly the speed of light would almost
instantaneously pass through the entire earth without hitting anything. This
fact makes the suggestion that “ghosts” can pass through walls less fantastic.
“Scientific” Mysticism
Of course, the determined
atheist of the past could not accept the existence of soul and so continued to
support materialism even in the face of growing evidence to the contrary. This
attitude maintained its dominance in science until very recently. Science has
been traditionally given such unquestioned authority that it was virtually
worshiped, given rise to the religion of scientism.
Scientism is an immensely powerful factor in shaping both secular and religious
thought in today’s world. Charles Tart defines scientism as “the psychological dominance of a materialistic
philosophy hardened into dogma and
masquerading as an authentic science” [Brain,
Mind & Common Sense, February 1993, pp. 1, 6].
Many scientists,
following the lead of Einstein, turned to mysticism. Rather than admit the
existence of the God of the Bible, they postulated a universal Force behind
evolution, or a universal mind or consciousness. Psychology helped to establish
these pseudospiritual beliefs. Carl Jung, who was heavily involved in the
occult, had already postulated his “collective unconscious”, a concept which he
received by inspiration from de demonic realm. Today’s remote viewers are
convinced that the information they pick up comes from the “collective unconscious”.
We will examine that claim in due course.
While the development of
transpersonal psychologies in the early 1970s brought an almost grudging
admission that the real of the spirit was real, there was a reluctance to admit
that science had no jurisdiction over it. Science continued to be regarded as
the only way to evaluate the nonphysical as well as the physical. We had
conditioned to revere a “scientific explanation” for all phenomena.
Many of those involved in
the New Age were only too eager to pretend they had “scientific” support. When
TM [Transcendental Meditation -one form of yoga] fell flat as the “Spiritual
Regeneration Movement”, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi changed its name to “The Science
of Creative Intelligence”. With that new and deceitful name, TM became a
success worldwide.
One of the most ancient religious practices in Hinduism and
Buddhism is now widely accepted in the West as the science of yoga. This new designation gives yoga a respectability
which it does not deserve. Among those determined to rebirth religious
practices as science was Dr. Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz, who studied at
Stanford University under fame psychologist William James. Evans-Wentz became
known as the “scholar-gypsy”; he traveled the world seeking initiation into Hinduism,
Buddhism, and other pagan religious practices. His first book involved years of
research into the existence of the “wee folk” of Ireland. He wrote:
“We can postulate
scientifically, on the showing of the data of physical research, the existence
of such invisible intelligences as gods, genii, daemons, all kinds of true
fairies, and disembodied men [spirits of the dead]” [The Fairy Faith, 1966].
If such beliefs sound
like old-fashioned superstition, then take a close look at Touched by an Angel, one of the most popular television shows some
years ago. Many viewers unabashedly took its charming lessons on life and
theories about the next life very seriously. Whether there is any connection
to a heightened expectation raised by the program itself, accounts multiplied
from those who also claimed they have encountered angels. Of course such
accounts have been claimed since the beginning of time. Something similar
happens now with Grimm, one of the most popular television drama
series today. Many viewers take its advertising slogan like gospel truth: “Remember
the fairy tales your parents used to tell you before bedtime? Well, those
weren't stories, they were warnings”. Accounts multiply from those who also claim
they believe some humans can have the ability to
shape-shift into an anthropomorphic monster-like creature. The belief that the
world is being invaded by reptilian humanoids, grey aliens [also referred to as
"Greys"], draconian, and other kind of extraterrestrials is very
popular nowadays.
Revelation, the last book of the Bible, foretells a
great spiritual invasion of demonic entities in the “last days”. Mythological
or folkloric beings that experience physical transformation are, as matter of
fact, either demons masquerading as humans, or humans possessed by demons. We
will prove this statement later.
Some of today’s most deceptive cults have adopted the
word “science” to give their brand of spirituality credibility and authority:
Science of Mind, Religious Science, Christian Science, et al. There could be no
greater anachronism or delusion, inasmuch as the mind and spirit are outside of
the realm of science. It would be an equal delusion to insist, upon the basis
of any analysis made by physical science, that the occult [which operates in
the realm of mind, soul, spirit] was nonexistent. Physical science, by very
definition, can make no judgments concerning a nonphysical spirit realm.
The Birth of Parapsychology
Finally, science, after
more of a hundred years of being mired in materialism’s total denial of a
nonphysical dimension, has come around to admitting the reality of a realm
beyond the physical universe, and that it could very well be inhabited by
spirits beings. After extensive interviews in Europe and America,
philosophy-of-science professor John Gliedman wrote “Scientists in Search of
the Soul” more than twenty years ago in Science
Digest:
“From Berkeley to Paris
and from London to Princeton, prominent scientists from fields as diverse as
neurophysiology and quantum physics are coming out of the closet and admitting
they believe in the possibility, at least, of such unscientific entities as the
immortal human spirit and divine creation”.
With the virtual death of
materialism, a new “scientific” approach to the occult was born called
parapsychology, now taught in most major universities. Inasmuch as a
nonphysical dimension of reality is entirely outside the realm of science, the
attempt to examine it “scientifically” and to be able to establish how it
functions by “scientific controls” could only lead to error. Scientists were
set up for a master deception. It would seem that we had reached the point
dreamed of by Screwtape and outlined to Wormwood in the sadly famous Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis:
“We [demons] are really
faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose
all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the
other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and
skeptics. At least not yet.
“I have great hopes that
we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to
such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us [though not under that
name] will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy
[the God of the Bible, the Father of the Virging-born Savior, Jesus Christ].
“The ‘Life Force’, the
worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If
once we can produce our perfect work—the Materialist Magician… veritable
worshipping what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of
“spirits”—then the end of our war will be in sight.
“But in the meantime… the
fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination
will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his
mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him
that since he cannot believe in that [it is an old textbook method of confusing
them] he therefore cannot believe in you” [pp. 45-46].
Thus we now have a
variety of quasi-materialistic explanations, all of them “scientifically verified”,
concerning who or what these nonphysical entities might be that seem to be
communicating with mankind. They range all the way from splits of the psyche or
a force generated by the unconscious to spirits of the dead or
extraterrestrials visiting us from distant planets or even secretly living
among us. Any suggestion that they might actually be demons bent on deceiving and destroying mankind is met with polite
smiles, pained incredulity, or outright contempt.
The New “Science” of Consciousness
Professor Courtney Brown directs
The Farsight Institute, whose mission, he says, is “to demonstrate
scientifically to all of us that we humans are more than our physical bodies,
and that life exists on both the physical and subspace [nonphysical] realms” [From
“The Official Statement by Courtney Brown” on his website dated 20 January 1997].
Brown is convinced that some of these mysterious entities with who psychics
make contact are here on planet Earth and that they are actually
extraterrestrials [ETIs]. He even claims to have made psychic contact with them
himself.
Unfortunately, Dr. Brown
is relying on his brand of “science” instead of the Bible and has fallen into
serious error, which we will discuss in the next chapter. On an Art Bell radio
program on November 19, 1996, Brown said:
“In our view, what people
really need is the truth about… the new scientific understanding of our
composite nature…soul and body. Finally, people need to know that The Farsight
Institute is dedicated to researching and teaching about our essential nature
on the level of exploration into consciousness… We are at a turning point in
our human evolution… Finally, one day nearly everyone will recognize that the
great debate as to who we are and why we exist has been significantly resolved.
This, indeed, is our mission”.
Here we have the new
“scientific” idea that one must reach a “higher state of consciousness” in
order to perceive things as they really are. Yet an altered state of
consciousness allows demonic entities to take over and begin to operate the
brain to create a universe of illusion. This was obviously the major problem of
the Heaven’s Gate cult, 39 of whose members committed suicide together in
Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego, California, in late March 1997. They imagined
they had received “transmissions” from the “next Level” which told them that it
was time to “move on” in their evolutionary journey to perfection and that if
they left their bodies behind they would be picked up by a giant UFO
accompanying the Comet Hale-Bopp.
Other UFO groups have
been receiving similar data. Dr. Brown published on his website in late 1996 a
statement titled “The Interdimensional Portal”. It declared that Scientific
Remote Viewing “seemed to suggest that there is some type of interdimesional
portal or gateway near Earth that is being used for transportation purposes”.
Whether that statement served to encourage the Southern California cult to make
themselves ready for “transport” through suicide will perhaps never be known.
These were highly intelligent
people who had tried to follow “science” instead of the Bible in their dealings
with what they thought were extraterrestrials. If they actually did receive
psychic messages, the entities sending them were demons determined to destroy
them.
Members of the cult
believed that the kingdom they were seeking and to which they thought they were
being transported by suicide was “an evolutionary level above human” [Cult
member speaking on tape aired on CNN March 27-27, 1997]. And they have been
deceived into believing that Hale-Bopp’s approach to Earth signaled their time
of departure. In their position paper on suicide published on their website we
see once again the key role that evolution plays in the occult:
“The joy is that our
Older Member [the reference is to their understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ]
in the Evolutionay Level Above Human [the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’] has made it
clear to us that Hale-Bopp’s approach is the ‘marker’ we’ve been waiting for
–the time for the arrival of the spacecraft from the Level Above Human to take
us home to ‘their World’-in the literal Heavens.
“Our 22 years of
classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion-‘graduation’
from the Human Evolutionay Level. We are happily prepared to leave ‘this
world’…If you study the material on this website you will hopefully understand
our joy [and] may even find your ‘boarding pass’ to leave with us during this
brief ‘window’.
“We are so thankful that
we have been recipients of this opportunity to prepare for membership in Their
Kingdom, and to experience Their boundless Caring and Nurturing” [From the
statement Our Position Against Suicide
posted on the cult’s website].
The obvious sincerity
reflected above reveals the power of demonic entities to deceive, entities with
whom this group had apparently being in communication through psychic means for
more than 20 years. Even some former cult members still hold to its bizarre
beliefs. When interviewed by CBS’s 60 Minutes, one former member, whose
wife was among those who died, expressed regret that he hadn’t been there to
“leave this world” with them. He told KQED-FM in San Francisco:
“I don’t think of them as
dead. Well, the bodies, yes. But these are shells behind. I believe they are on
a [space] craft somewhere…To move into bodies that had been prepared for
them…of a finer nature-androgynous, sexless. It’s an evolutionary step…I don’t
consider it suicide” [March 31, 1997, p.2].
Compounding the Error
Many people who call
themselves Christians are drawn into the occult because it acknowledges the
reality of the soul and spirit and can even sound biblical in doing so. This
apparent agreement with the Bible is a deliberate setup by Satan in order to
lead simple souls into deeper deception.
Professor Brown believes
that the human soul exists throughout the entire universe at all times. Thus to
view anything going on anywhere in the universe is simply to change one’s
center of awareness from the body to the soul. Here is The Mission of the
Farsight Institute:
“The Western scientific
paradigm postulates that consciousness is a phenomenon strictly related to
brain physiology: when the brain stops functioning, consciousness ceases to
exist. This belief has dominated society, and it has inhibited scientific
investigation into the nature of the soul. The consequences have been
devastating…[to the] spiritual aspect of life…
“The Farsight Institute of Scientific Remote Viewing seeks to overturn this flawed paradigm before it is too late. Research at the Farsight Institute demonstrates that consciousness is…eternal and unbounded…basic to and permeates all of physical creation…[making] knowledge of all things…possible.
“At the Farsight Institute, we are dedicated to the practical and benevolent use of Scientific Remote Viewing…[for] helping humanity to discern that which is real in… a universe filled with mystery…Using the controls of modern science… our goal is no less than to perceive the nature of God”.
“To perceive the nature of God” by some “scientific” technique operating in the
spiritual realm would seem to pave the way for the ultimate delusion. You may
be certain that Dr. Brown’s god is not the God of the Bible or he would look to
His Word for an understanding of God. Science is still on its throne even after
the death of materialism. That is a recipe for disaster.
An Unshakable, Universal Conviction
Throughout history and in
all cultures, mankind has held a common and unshakable conviction that a nonphysical realm inhabited by
spirits beings does indeed exist. That even atheist are not immune to this
universal sense of the monumental [a
reality beyond the senses] can be easily demonstrated. A suspenseful mystery,
for example, or a realistic war movie can stimulate a certain fear in readers
or audiences. Horror films or movies about the occult, are much more
unsettling. Why?
Facing a gun is one
thing; facing an unseen “ghost” that is throwing furniture around the room
brings terror of a different kind, even to the dogmatic materialist who denies
the existence of such entities. As philosopher A.E. Taylor argues:
“The ‘uncanny’ is
precisely that which does not simply belong to ‘this’ everyday world, but
directly impresses us as manifesting in some special way the presence of ‘the
other’ world…It is hard to believe that the most skeptical among us does not
know the experience” [Essays Catholic and
Critical, ed. E.G. Selwyn, 1926, pp.74-77].
The sense of the
“uncanny” to which Taylor refers is normal. It may be repressed, but it
remains, no matter how deeply buried. In the former Soviet Union, even after
more than 70 years of enforced atheism and the most severe measures against all
religious faith, occultism is rampant. Belief in the supernatural is so much a
part of human consciousness that it persists in spite of all the arguments that
skepticism can marshal.
Spirit Entities and the Occult
Robert Jastrow [founder
and for many years director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies]
theorizes that the evolutionary process could have been going on ten billion
years longer on some other planets than on Earth. While the theory of evolution
is mathematically impossible, Jastrow’s conclusions are nevertheless of
interest. He suggests that some entities could have evolved beyond the
limitations of space, matter, and time:
“Life that is a billion of
years beyond us may be far beyond the flesh-and-blood form that we would
recognize. It may…[have] escaped its mortal flesh to become something that
old-fashioned people would call spirits. And so how do we know it’s there?
Maybe it can materialize and then dematerialize. I’m sure it has magical powers
by our standars” [Robert Jastrow in Geo,
February 1982, p. 14].
Sir John Eccles, Nobel
Prize winner for his research on the brain, describes the brain as “a machine
that a ghost can operate”. As a result of his research, Eccles believes there
is compelling evidence to support the traditional religious belief in the
existence of a nonphysical soul and/or spirit – and it is this “ghost” which
actually operates the human brain and through it the body. It is certainly
reasonable to assume that the “operator” could very well survive the death of
the “vehicle” it was operating.
If the human spirit
operates the brain, which in turn operates the body, then psychedelic drugs,
yoga, hypnosis, TM, and any other technique for altering consciousness could
very well loosen the normal connection between the spirit and the brain. That
temporary disconnection could allow other spirit to operate the brain and
thereby subject that person to occult bondage and delusion.
John Lilly invented the
isolation tank, which became the inspiration for the movie Altered States. He has devoted himself to exploring “altered states
of consciousness”. Some of his observations are interesting:
“From certain experiences
that I have had of leaving the body while in the isolation tank, I would say
that the spirit contains the being that is contained in the brain… Now, if you
work in the tank, what you’ve done is to shut down all the known senses…the
gravitational field effect is reduced to the minimum possible…Once you get the
input to the brain down to the minimum possible…you’re free to go. Some people
call it lucid dreaming…It’s a lot easier if you have a psychedelic in you, but
a lot of people…can just meditate and go into these alternates realities…I
suspect that a lot of new science can come out of this” [Magical Blend: A Transforming Journey, Issue 17, 1987, p. 13].
Materialism Is Dead
Lilly was only one of
many psychiatrists, anthropologists, and other researchers who realized the
connection between drugs and the occult. Here was another powerful factor in
the death of materialism. Psychedelic drugs open the doorway to a whole
universe beyond the material world. Two generations of Westerners have been set
free from materialism by drugs, only to be swallowed up by the occult.
No argument could any
longer convince those who had experienced the “altered state” that reality was
limited to the physical world. The sights, tastes, smells, sounds, and above
all, the exhilarating feelings in this strange new land of the mind often seemed even more vivid and
real than those in the so-called “real world”. Ordinary reality seemed drab and
tasteless by comparison. The magical door to what Carlos Castaneda called the
“sorcerer’s world” [The Power of Silence],
a real surpassing even Alice’s Wonderland, had swung open, and America would
never be the same. That world was inhabited by entities who would masquerade in
any form that best suited their purpose.
Though Harvard professor William
James at one time was convinced that human personality and behavior could be
explained in materialistic/deterministic terms, he became a supporter of
religious and mystical experiences for which there was no materialistic
explanation. Unfortunately, he clung to the “scientific method” for
understanding the realm of the spirit. As a consequence, James, not unlike the
cult members of Rancho Santa Fe, fell victim to the belief that “higher powers
exist and are at work to save the world…”
Why should these
allegedly “high powers” be interested in saving the world? Might they not be
determined to destroy us for their own selfish reasons? Is it not possible that
such evil entities as demons actually exist?
Demonic Possession
That demonic possession
could result from entering an altered state of consciousness is being
increasingly acknowledged by scientists and psychologists and other researchers
into parapsychology. Jon Kilmo, author of one of the most definitive books on
channeling, explains:
“If your own mind can
affect your own brain, then the similar nonphysical nature of another mind might also be able to
affect your brain [if it is in a state of receptivity], giving rise to hearing
a voice, seeing a vision, or having the other mind speak or write [through you]
by controlling your body the same way you normally control your own body” [Channeling: Investigations on Receiving
Information from Paranormal Sources, p. 249].
Charles Tart admits
reluctantly, “There’s enough evidence that comes in to make the idea of
disembodied intelligence seriously” [Ibid., interview with Tart, p. 253].
William James, one of the most highly regarded psychologists of the last
century, wrote:
“The refusal of modern
‘enlightenment’ to treat [demonic] ‘possession’ as a hypothesis…in spite of the
massive human tradition based on concrete human experience in its favor, has
always seemed to me a curious example of the power of fashion in things
‘scientific’.
“That the demon-theory…
will have its innings again is to my mind absolutely certain. One has to be
‘scientific’ indeed to be blind and ignorant enough to suspect no such
possibility” [Proceedings of the English
Society for Physical Research, 23:1-121 ].
Psychiatrist Stanislav
Grof, pioneer researcher into LSD and altered states, reports that some of the
LSD subjects he has studied have had encounters with astral bodies, and in some
cases this has led to the “characteristics of spirit possession”. Friedrich
Nietzsche indicated that the inspiration for Thus Spake Zarathustra came as a form of possession. “It invaded
me. One can hardly reject completely the idea that one is the mere incarnation,
or mouthpiece, or medium, of some almighty power”. It takes little thought to
realize which “almighty power” inspired this great inspirer of Hitler.
Famed architect
Buckminster Fuller, after staying up half the night reading Marilyn Ferguson’s groundbreaking
book The Aquarian Conspiracy [the New
Age Bible], suggested that “the spirits of the dead” had help her to write
it. Ferguson laughed and said, “Well, I
sometimes thought so, but I wasn’t about to tell anybody” [Kilmo, Channeling, p. 313].
What Does It All Mean?
Materialism is dead. It
is no longer the brain, a mass of
matter, that is credited with thought, but the mind, a nonphysical entity that is not part of the brain or any
other part of the body and thus could apparently survive the death of the body.
The mind could therefore entertain perceptions quite independent of the body
and its five senses.
Unfortunately, while the
delusionary lie of materialism has been largely discredited, it has been
replaced by a new spirituality that still remains tied to this universe and to
science. There is a belief in nonphysical “entities”, including “angels”, but
their identity is decided entirely on the basis of what they say about themselves.
At the same time, there is an even greater skepticism toward belief in demons,
Satan, the God of the Bible, and Jesus Christ as the only Savior.
A major problem with
“scientific spirituality” is its inability to deal with life on a moral basis.
It can only promise power to
supposedly gain control of one’s life. The Bible, on the other hand, claims
that the problem with the world is sin
and that it cannot be dealt with by “higher powers”. No amount of power, no matter how high, can solve a moral problem.
