Mario, Micah & the Midnight Oil

Hi RPJ

I hope in my original post that I did not come across as implying that you were trying to boil down the paranormal as simply down to EM radiation as that was not the intention. I actually rather suspect that our definitions of "If you want to make light solid, show it to the moon." are pretty close, just coloured with a slightly different perspective, and that in itself can only be a good thing as each definition complements each other.

I couldn’t agree more with regards to your comments on Don Juans’ advice against creating a logical system to explain or even just categorize these events. When we start categorizing phenomena there always seems to be exceptions to the rule and also that phenomena seems to behave in response to how it is investigated. For example skeptics always find evidence disproving it and believers always find evidence to “prove” it. This has certainly influenced my approach and over time I have learned that (for myself) an experiential approach is the only path I am able to take and that (perhaps) we can never hope to expose such phenomena to the scrutiny of a scientific methodology. I may not be able to prove ghosts exist to the world (and civilization has had at least 10000 years to do this) but I can prove it to myself and experience part of the wonder which seems to underlie everything.

This doesn’t really bother me (although with a scientific background it used to) and the idea that there could be infinite inexplicable wonder out there is also an exciting concept which perhaps parries the concept that we will never cross the finishing line.

I also agree with you regarding the terminology and phrases such as “astral” and “etheric” in that definitions can differ and we can never know what they really mean. They are also quite embarrassing to use. I suspect that a lot of this is due to the input of Theosophical ideas at the end of the 19th century and in many ways occult literature seems stuck with such terms. We could of course also redefine new terms, although without more knowledge it is hard to do this sensibly. For example if we could prove that the “body” which one goes out of body in (if that is indeed the case) were of a electromagnetic nature it might make sense to call it that, but at the moment so little is known and maybe even be unknowable (see below) that introducing new jargon might simply serve to further confuse a muddy subject. We could also introduce eastern terms; and to an extent this has happened with concepts such as chakras; but I feel that it hits similar problems.

Introducing new terms based upon current scientific jargon can also be dangerous as the use of the term “etheric” shows. To the best of my knowledge that one found its way into occult and parapsychical language around the late 19th century when science was wrestling with the idea of ether; a mysterious “fluid” which pervaded space and was supposed to be the medium which wobbles with light waves (much as air vibrates with sound waves and water ripples with water waves). Theosophists jumped on the popular science bandwagon, read about the new science and incorporated the jargon into their ideas probably saying something like – “a ha, that’s it, the bodies we float around in are made of the ether”. Sadly science soon dismissed the idea of ether leaving everyone interested in the paranormal with an antiquated and obsolete piece of jargon. I feel that we must all be careful not to immediately pull the new sciences in such as quantum theory or string theory just because they are new ideas.

You question as to whether UFO’s etc are knowable is a good one which I have pondered a lot too and I think it does get down the meaning of knowledge and information to an extent. A nasty cynical part of my says that they may never be understood by the rational mind or science because they are (at least partially) artifacts of the irrational mind; that bit of us which get spooked on occasional but also which allows us to make intuitive jumps which turn out to be correct. The problem is perhaps similar to trying to scientifically measure the ambient temperature of the room on my dream last night. As my dream took place in a different world I wonder whether it is perhaps beyond the reach of science. If we assume that there is a mental component to phenomena perhaps similar to dreaming (and I am not trying to dismiss anything as simply “dreams”) I think the problem science faces is of a similar order of magnitude.

I mentioned at the start that such scientific scrutiny may never get to understand such phenomena and I feel that this could be an important point. Let us disregard “political science” here or science with an agenda to promote or disprove certain worldviews and focus just on pure enquiry. A scientist working under such conditions will generally have a negative world view aimed at disproving ideas as this is part of the epistemology of scientific knowledge. A theory that all swans are white can never be proven because one would have to examine all swans. It can easily be disproven by pulling out one black swan. As such the scientific view tends to be negative towards new phenomena (not just parapsychological phenomena but anything).

Ok I know that my above paragraph is simplistic but I do think that this is a component in the scientific methodology. Taking this negative; “How can I disprove this?” view into the séance room , haunted house, or UFO hot spot can be disastrous due to the nature of the phenomena; As I mentioned earlier there does seem to be a component of the phenomena which responds to its investigators which gets totally switched off in the face of disbelief.

There is hope however in that the scientific greats like Newton, Einstein etc seemed to operate on a higher octave and as much felt their ways to truth as discovered it (similar to the discovery of the structure of benzene, the sewing machine etc). We need an Einstein of the paranormal to explain how all this fits together and then leave it to the scientists which follow to fill in the gaps once they have generated the paradigm shift needed to get magic back on the map.

I think that this is something magic has (to an extent) always possessed in that magicians have the ability to intuit the truth; although the truth is always warped somewhat by the psychology of the person bringing the insight through. Work by the likes of Dr Mario Pazzaglini are invaluable steps in the right direction however. I don’t think that magic has ever had a Newton or Einstein however as otherwise there would be more understanding of physical phenomena in magic making it more “Harry Potter” and less “Dion Fortune”. Modern (Western) magicians seem very disinterested in phenomena and do not really generate it; although it is a common feature of other systems such as voodoo.

There are other examples of the intuitive truths coming out. For example Jeremy Narby has commented that the discovery of ayahuasca in the Amazon is nothing short of miraculous. Of all the many thousands of plans how did the locals know to combine the DMT rich plant with the correct MAOI inhibitor (Banisteriopsis Caapi and Psychotria viridis although I forget which is which). Given the sheer number of possible combinations the results are staggering as to how these two were hit upon unless some intuitive knowing were present.

A similar example occurs in witchcraft. There are recipes for the flying ointment which were often kept quite secret although some have leaked out. Researcher Daniel Schulke has suggested that there are a number of components in the key ingredients – usually Aconite, Mandrake and Belladonna – which somehow combine cancelling out the toxic properties of each other and accentuating the psychedelic properties. Again given the diversity of plants in Europe at the time these potions were being made how was the correct combination hit upon – especially where given the extreme toxicity of these plants it is not an area for random experimentation. – Aconite Tea anyone? 

But I think that (at least in historical and modern times) we lack the ability to tame this intuition I am speculating about and use it to really open up our horizons. This is really a pity because to an extent magic seems to be going full circle and we are moving away from the medieval paradigm of results magic such as silencing colicky babies, ensuring the harvest and keeping cows in milk. If you look at any of the grimoires such as the Goetia is it pretty much a catalogue of which demon to call up to get what material result; gold, women, power, the utter obliteration of enemies etc. (Material) results magic still seems to be in vogue (since Austin Osman Spare dies in the 1950s his idea of sigils has reached public consciousness to the extent that Magician Comic Writer Grant Morrison uses them). However I am also seeing a lot of trends in modern occultism as using it as a tool for exploration and self development. Modern occult writers such as Kenneth Grant and Andrew Chumbley are almost writing “rough guide” travel books to the psychic landscape rather than repeating earlier instructions such as found in many how-to books on the occult repeating the standard banishing ritual etc.

There are exceptions to this however – magicians such as John Dee attempted (successfully IMO) to engage the angels for knowledge rather than material results. Although his seerer Edward Kelley wasn’t above asking the Angels to lend him money.

Perhaps the trick we need to learn is how to engage both sides of the brain simultaneously to this problem; unifying the irrational psychic explorer with the rational part which has the potential to make sense (and direct) the experience and phenomena. Some of the problems I think about above are pitfalls along the way but who knows, I am generally optimistic that one day someone will work out how to do this.

I don’t think we are going to run out of things to investigate soon 

Cheers Paolo