When my daughter Rachel was four, she cornered my wife, Jane, in the hallway one day about Santa Claus. It was near Christmas and however the subject came up, Rachel soon reached a point of frustration. I don't know how much was in reaction to what she was hearing in pre-school, and how much was her own wrestling with what was real, but in the hallway that day, she reached a point where she had to know. With hands on her hips, she demanded of Jane: "Is there a Santa Claus, yes or no?!"

We've all had moments like Rachel where the question of what is real or true became critical, and we had to answer it in order to decide how to proceed or what to do. It can be difficult to determine at times how much this need to know is driven by external circumstances that are calling for some action, and how much it is driven by the person's need to resolve some inner contradictions, conflict, or confusion. Whatever the case, in those moments we are compelled to answer the question.

I believe, as a culture, that this is the position we are in today regarding the psychic and spirit realities. Ours is a culture that does not officially recognize these realities. We can talk about them among ourselves, in the daytime talk shows, and in some of our churches, but officially, we do not acknowledge these realities and they are not part of our public discourse. If a person, for example, talks about being harassed by spirits, being visited by an angel, or being able to travel outside their body, he or she is labeled in public, at best, as eccentric or superstitious, and at worst, diagnosed as psychotic. Consider the outcry when the Reagans were found to be consulting an astrologer, or when Jimmy Carter reported seeing a UFO. There is no public credence given to these realities. Quite the opposite. Great pains are taken to depict the belief in these realities as foolish, naive, or ridiculous.

At an unofficial level, surveys say that most people in the world believe that the psychic and spiritual dimensions are real. Whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, or Hindi, they believe there are hidden dimensions and a higher power at work. There may be all kinds of disagreements and different doctrines about these realities. People may believe that their own religion has the true story and is the only way, or they may recognize that there are different paths to God. They all agree, though, we are more than our physical bodies.

I read a story recently about the "hidden college". I didn't know such a thing existed. The hidden college, according to the writer, is made up of all the professors and researchers in our colleges and universities who recognize the nonphysical realities, but who will not talk about them officially for fear of its professional consequences - loss of tenure, loss of grants, humiliation, or even the loss of a job. We could extend this example and probably include a majority of people when it comes to what they will and won't say in public about psychic abilities and the existence of spirits. The fear of humiliation and ostracism is enough to keep many people from talking about their experiences of nonordinary reality. I would be willing to bet that you know someone who consults a psychic, or practices a form of divination like Tarot or runes. Chances are, you know someone - even if they've not talked about it - who is convinced that their home is inhabited by a spirit or a presence, or who has been visited by a departed loved one in their dreams.

This official denial has several roots. One of the most obvious for us here in the United States is our constitutional separation of church and state. In principle, there is no question in my mind that the separation of church and state is one of the foundations of democracy. It grew out of a rebellion against the abuses, persecutions, and corruption by the institutional church. I believe the signers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, however, had no intention of separating God and spirituality from public life, but to limit the temporal and political power of any one church, and to guarantee each person's freedom of religion. These laws and principles, however, were established from within a Christian culture of belief, and I doubt that the founding fathers foresaw a time when globalization and cultural relativity would challenge Christianity's claim to be the only, or best way. It is almost 250 years later, and we see the clash of cultures and belief and no way to reconcile without recognizing the deeper brotherhood that exists between us.

Empirical science is a second root in our official denial of the psychic and spirit realms. It's older than our Constitution. It began over 400 years ago with the Scientific Revolution and the incredible success of empirical science in explaining the complexity of the physical reality and creating a technology that both proved its claims and transformed our world. You can't argue with success.

Somewhere along the line, though, I think that success became translated into empirical reality as the only reality. If it cannot be measured, tested, and predicted, then it's not real. The assumption that lies at the root of empiricism is that matter is the ground of reality. Everything can be reduced to its smallest physical components. By insisting that these realities can only be accepted if they are "proven" by empirical means, science creates a wall. Empirical science has neither the conceptual framework nor the tools necessary yet to study and talk about these invisible realms and forces. It doesn't understand yet that it cannot force the immaterial realities to manifest physically in order to conform to our limited methods and perception. Psychic and spirit realities don't conform to the rules of empirical evidence, but that doesn't make them any less real. The psychic and spirit realities challenge this assumption and threaten the foundations of empirical science. The recognition of the nonphysical realities points to consciousness, not matter, as the ground of reality. If true, the study of consciousness will force science to a new level, one which does not deny physical reality, but incorporates and supersedes it. If we are going to address these realities as scientists, we will have to find a way to go to them and study them on their own terms. I don't think we have any idea yet what that science will look like, but I think it is moving in that direction.

The third and deepest root in our official denial of the psychic and spirit realities is our Judeo-Christian culture and it's strict taboo against occult and esoteric practices. As early as the Book of Deuteronomy, there are prohibitions against witchcraft and sorcery, contact with spirits, and the occult practices of magic and divination. Unlike with empirical science, our Judeo-Christian culture acknowledges the psychic and spirit realities. The denial comes in by making these dimensions off-limits to the people. It's not a question of whether they are real, they are. The question is: how we are to relate to them? In the Judeo-Christian culture, we are warned against these practices which are viewed as perverting or interfering with the Divine nature creation. Somewhere along the line, though, and I suspect it was in one of the early Church Councils, the prohibition against dealing with these realms directly, became a denial that we can we can access them directly. Yes, spirits exist, but we can't communicate with them directly, or to our guiding angels, or to God.

These three roots each had their positive intention in which the separation from the psychic and spirit realities was a good thing. Proper caution and guidance in dealing with the invisible realities was a good thing; objective knowledge of the physical world was a good thing; and separation of Church and State was a good thing. Taken to their logical extremes, however, each of them can lead to a denial and severing of these realities as part of our world and everyday thinking.

What has made the denial of these realities so powerful in our culture, I believe, is the synergy of these three denials which reinforce each other and have grown entangled. The official denial of the psychic and spirit realities has become firmly entrenched in our institutions of government, science, religion, media, and education. The official position is that these realities either do not exist, or if they do, we cannot know about them and take them into account.

This dichotomy between official and unofficial reality is becoming untenable. The official denial of the psychic and spirit realities has created a vacuum in our collective psyche, and the need to fill this vacuum, I believe, has begun to assert itself. We are already seeing the religious wars being fought by fundamentalist – Christian, Muslim, Arab and Jew – who are trying to fill this vacuum, each with their own God. Like my daughter Rachel, the question we are facing is: are these psychic and spirit dimensions real, yes or no! Are we spiritual beings, yes or no! If we are, then we need to find a way to acknowledge and talk about them officially, and to do it in a way that transcends the relativity of cultures and religions.

The only way this can happen, I believe, is through a science of consciousness that recognizes the validity of other levels of consciousness and being besides the ego and its five senses. Other cultures, most of them ancient, have developed such sciences and bodies of knowledge. They include most, if not all, of the indigenous peoples of the world, and many of the Eastern traditions.

I don't know what that science would look like in our Western culture, but I'm confident that it can be done. In the last two hundred years, there are many scientists and researchers who have focused on many different psychic and spirit phenomena – near-death-experience, shamanism, mediumship, and esp to name a few. They have amassed a wealth of knowledge and data on these phenomena. These efforts have played a leading role in challenging the official reality and pushing for a new paradigm that grasps a larger picture.

Recognition of the psychic and spirit realities brings with it certain risks and dangers. History is replete with myriad stories and examples where delving into these unseen realities has led to individual or collective psychosis, possession, delusion, and deceit. This is the dark side of the unseen realities, where a mind and soul can become lost and terrified, or confused and preyed upon .

In a future essay, I will address these issues more fully. The realities of darkness and evil do not argue against the psychic and spirit realities, but are part of them. They are realities, though, that call for legitimate caution and due respect. If we deny them, as we do today, then we make ourselves blind and vulnerable to the forces that oppose the Light and the souls of Light.

As a healer, my focus is on the individual and the kinds of problems that can exist at the psychic and spirit levels of a person. The official denial is significant at a clinical level, though, because many of my clients feel they must keep these experiences to themselves. They are often afraid of being rejected if they talk about these phenomena, and so tell only their closest family or friends. This can be an added burden and source of distress for a person. Some clients have adjusted for this and learned to live with the taboo. Others, though, feel isolated and alone and need help balancing their official and unofficial world.

I don't know how long our Western culture can hold out.