by Thomas Zinser, Ed.D.
As a hypnotherapist, I have worked with psychic and spirit phenomena for nearly thirty years. I have also read hundreds of books and reports and first-hand accounts by people involving a whole range of paranormal phenomena and experiences. I waited for many years for the scientific community to study the evidence and acknowledge the high probability that other dimensions of reality exist beyond our senses and ego-consciousness. That moment still hasn’t arrived.
The evidence for the existence of these other dimensions is overwhelming. From my point of view, I don’t see how anyone could honestly study the evidence and conclude otherwise. Yet, they do. No matter how convincing the evidence, paranormal phenomena and events are still dismissed by the scientific community as though there’s nothing to them; like they didn’t really happen; or it’s all somehow an illusion. I’ve watched this denial happen more times than I can remember. So many times, in fact, that it was the denial itself that began to interest me.
Something powerful was happening here that so many rational, intelligent individuals would deny what the evidence was telling them. It’s like they are all seeing the emperor’s new clothes, and no one dares yell out and break the spell. The spell we live under is materialism, the belief that matter is the ground of all reality. It’s a belief that science can eventually break everything down into its tiniest pieces. This includes everything mental as well: visions, dreams, thoughts, memories… All is to be reduced in the end to neurons, cells, and synapses. Nothing’s real unless you can touch it and test it.
Paranormal phenomena, if real, would certainly break the spell. Communication from a deceased loved one, for example, would break the spell. So too would precognitions that accurately predict the future, or memories of different lifetimes, or the power of prayer. Any of them, if true, would dispel the idea that matter is the only thing in play here.
These phenomena contradict our laws of matter and space-time. They contradict what the materialist says is true. If realms of discarnate beings do exist, and if some of them, under certain conditions, make direct contact with humans, then the materialists’ framework collapses. If these phenomena are real, the ground will disappear beneath their feet. It cannot account for such phenomena, and the same is true for so many paranormal phenomena. They cannot be made to fit.
I would argue that the denial of paranormal realities by science and by our culture in general is a defense against these fundamental contradictions and the threat of collapse that they imply. I would also argue that this denial is operating on several levels, each of which needs to be addressed on its own terms.
In the next essay, I’ll discuss these different levels of defense and what drives the denial of the paranormal.
Photo of Ouija board, courtesy of: FOYTOGRAPHY.COM
Photo of couple, courtesy of: Jelly Watson