|
| |
|
For
the complete debate with materialists see this
list
There is a Hole in
Materialism
The following is my response to my friend Avijit Roy (nicknamed
atheist). His message can be read here
Dear Atheist
You wrote:
| Quote: |
| Unfortunately I consider your position is more
gullible than Randi's |
One could even deny something and be gullible. Say those who deny the
evolution or those who still deny that the Earth is round. What do you
think? Are they less gullible?
I think gullible is one who accepts anything blindly. In this case I
believe gullible are the pseudo rationalists who reject the possibility
of any immaterial world off hand without even trying to be skeptical
about it or analyze the evidence.
You talk about the limitations of the psychics saying they have to go to
dentist and call a plumber like the rest of us and hence they are not psychic.
I am afraid you are not even attempting to understand what I am saying.
Who said psychics have any extraordinary power? Perhaps I should explain
this first. Let me put it this way. Psychic is one who is able to dream
awake. We are all psychic while asleep. More explanation will
follow.
A great number of people who run a business with such claim are
mentalists like James Randi. Randi is honest enough to say he is only a
mentalist. These guys try to use their dexterity to make a buck. A
friend of mine was irate to find out that his marriage break down was
the work of a psychic. His gullible wife used to go to psychic classes
and one day the so called psychic asks how are you doing? She responds,
oh not very well. “Problem at home?” questions the psychic.
“Yeah”, responds the woman. “You are going to divorce in one
year” was the response of this psychic. Sure enough a marriage that by
all standards was normal ended up in divorce in one year.
This is what I call self fulfilling prophecy. This wicked impostor sows
the seed of divorce in the gullible mind of this woman and the woman
prepares herself for the “inevitable” for one year and nurtures the
idea of divorce in her subconscious mind. She subconsciously provokes
her husband, causes alienation, and eventually leaves the good husband
exactly one year after the psychic sets her up. This man was devastated
and could not figure what hit him. Until somehow by accident he realized
what!
He confronted this wicked woman disguised as psychic and pleaded to
intervene and undo the harm. Her response was: "But I was right, wasn't
I?"
This psychic charges $100 dollars per hour of consultation. A nurse is
paid less than $30 dollars. You don’t require any
training, to set shop as a psychic. All you need is to master some
tricks and there you go. There is no accountability, no responsibility
and you are your own boss.
Most so called psychics are of this genre.
The real psychics are just as you described. They have no extraordinary
powers. Just as you and I have dreams, they can often have these
dream-like images while awake. Just as you and I have no control over
what we dream, they have no control over what they perceive.
Now, I believe we are all psychics. I don’t recall an experience such
as what Piggy described when he met a musician whom he had seen only on
TV face to face in the very moment he was thinking about him, I could
even accept this to be a one in 16 million coincidence (16 m. being the
population of Australia where Piggy and this musician live) but I sure had dreams that later came true. My
dreams do not exactly correspond to reality but I get the hint and that
is how dreams work. In some strange way they send you a hint. For
example I am in the middle of some problem struggling and then I dream I
am driving a huge truck which is stuck in a narrow alley. Then somehow I
manage to drive is out with no harm to the truck. Sure enough the next
day or days after that something unexpected happens and I resolve my
real life problem.
We all can say tens of stories like this. What is going on here? How
come our subconscious mind is aware of the things that are going to
happen? Sometimes we get premonition of a loved one’s death. Some
times we dream of an accident that involves us.
I recall when I was a teenager, one day my mother told us, she dreamt a
giant had fallen from a height and its pieces were scattered all around.
The dream left her traumatized. That very day, the big and overweight
maid of our neighbor went to the roof to shovel the snow off. She fell
from the third floor and her brain was scattered all around.
That is how psychic power works. It is clear that my mother's dream was a
premonition to what happened that very day but how in the world we could
have known what that dream meant?
The psychic can see things like this. What they perceive is dream-like.
It is a feeling of things.
This is not something materialists can accept. If they accept this their
whole house of card comes down. They will have to admit that matter is
not an end to itself and there are some, yet unknown realities that
interact with this world. Materialism is a belief system. Whether you like
this or not, materialists are just as close minded as religionists.
Uncritical acceptance or denial of anything is not what a rational
person would do. This is the essence of gullibility.
All we heard so far from the materialists who debated with me on this
issue is that psychics are not capable of reading what lottery numbers
will win and similar childish arguments to dismiss this faculty. Psychic
ability is not about guessing the lottery number. They simply can’t do
that. It is not about predicting the future. It is about dream-like
impressions that psychics get while awake.
| Quote: |
| So what should we common people do? Believe
those all charlatans who claims mystic power? Dont you think we
should follow the path of skepticism rather than blind faith in
abnormal phenomenon? |
I am not familiar with any of those names and stories you mentioned. But
I read something about Edgar Cayce. The stories about him were
fascinating. A doctor worked with him and sought his input in diagnosis
of his patients. In some cases, this ordinary untrained man, would
prescribe treatment procedures that were never performed before. Once he
instructed the doctor to perform a knee cap surgery that was never
performed before. Thousands benefits from his healing ability. Unless
you want to tell me all these people were hallucinating, or Edgar Cayce
is a mythical figure created by some fiction writer, Edgar Cayce by all
recorded accounts was an extraordinary man.
You say this is all media hype. As a rational person have you ever
thought why the whole media picks one person to hype and not another
person? There are many self proclaimed psychics who receive no media
attention. Why some do and others don’t? Are we going to suggest even
conspiracy theories just to avoid accepting the obvious?
I read what James Randi wrote about Van Praagh. If I had never seen Van
Pragh I would have probably agreed with Randi. But I saw Van Praagh and
hence know what Randi is saying is pure bull. I see a phenomenon with my
own eyes. I have to use my own judgment not someone else’s to explain
what has happened. I am afraid Randi is living in lala land and denials.
He thinks by repeating the same nonsense, people will eventually
believe. It only takes a person to listen carefully to Van Praagh’s
show to see this guy has some ability that cannot be brushed off
as pure trick.
| Quote: |
| In fact, I find it quite reasonable to use as a
guide when an implausible, incredible claim the advice of David
Hume and Thomas Huxley: ask yourself what is more likely, that
the claim is true or that one making the claim deceived, in
error or intentionally trying to deceive you? And another quote
for you: |
I did that and I came to believe that psychic power is not implausible
or incredible. It is a reality. How it works and why is now what I would
like to learn. I have no doubt that it exists. Even if I had to believe
all those who claim something extraordinary happened to them are lying.
Even if I believed Piggy and the other person who wrote me the above
notes I posted here are lying, I can’t dismiss my own experiences.
The most plausible, the most logical and the most rational conclusion
therefore is that there is some reality beyond the matter.
Now why this sounds to be implausible and impossible for materialists?
Because materialists are believers! Just as we can make it absolutely
clear to a Muslim that Muhammad and his Allah were fake yet we can’t
change his mind. We can give all the proof that matter is not everything
but a materialist will not be able to agree. Just as a religionist is
convinced he is right, a materialist is convinced he is right. Just as
the former thinks if he repeats his absurdities eventually people will
come to see that Islam is truth, materialists think by repeating the
same tired arguments eventually people will see materialism is truth.
Denial is not critical thinking. Whether you agree or not there is a
hidden world which is spiritual in nature. We see the effects of that
all around us. I do not see any problem in accepting that the reality
does not begin and end with matter. I think matter is a manifestation of
the reality and this reality has other manifestations too.
| Quote: |
| Well I found it rather opposite. In this
gullible world, Randi is making a significant and bold step
towards rationalism. |
Your opinion of James Randi is as much valid as the opinion of a
believer of his pastor. I find Randi to be a biased person. I respect
him when he is critical of the absurd but withhold that comment when he
exaggerates to make his point. He often borders irrationality and cannot
be trusted as an impartial man.
What is the explanation of Piggy and my friend’s story? Are they
anecdotal? You must do better than that to impress a skeptic. With that
kind of argument you only convince the believer.
There are millions of stories such as these from honest people. In fact,
almost every one has several stories to tell. Ironically, even the
deniers will tell you their paranormal stories and then they try to
downplay it. A good example of that was that Iranian scientist who
claimed having seen himself fallen a few yards ahead with broken leg and
proceeded to fall exactly in the same spot and break his leg, while
insisting this is nothing. How can it be nothing? Or take the example of
Aparthib who claims the milk drinking of Ganesh was “scientifically
evidenced” and yet he says there is an explanation for that but fails
to tell us what that explanation is.
What is characteristic about dogmatic people is that they are absolutely
oblivious of their inconsistencies. This is not insincerity; this is
faith. The attitude of the materialists makes us earn some respect for
the Muslims and some insight into their minds. The problem of denial and
belief is deeply rooted in our subconscious. Skepticism is not easy to
achieve.
| Quote: |
| Why Randi' is important for us ? Because he is a
famous magician. He knows the basic tricks of fake psychics
better than us. |
Randi is a magician alright! But he is not a psychic. He may be able to
tell us spoon bending is magic. I never heard any credible psychic claim
to bend spoons or lift things with mental power. So we are grateful to
Randi to expose these charlatans. However, Randi cannot understand
things that are beyond his ability as magician. Psychic power is not
magic. It is about perceptions.
A curious story I heard from my brother who said one day when he was
visiting Pakistan he noticed a stray dog noticeably distressed. He said
the dog's behavior caught his attention. She seemed to be worried,
agitated and confused. He said I watched the dog and wondered why she is
acting this way. A minute later, a truck stopped by, someone came out of
it and shot that dog. That was SPCA Pakistani style. Then dropped the
dead body of the animal in his truck and drove away. My brother is
convinced this animal knew something is going to happen to her. But the
poor animal did not know what? Had she known, probably she would have
run away.
So psychic ability exists, unfortunately it comes so encrypted that we
often can’t decipher it and hence it is not always useful.
Anecdotal.
Since I hear this as a major argument of the materialist in denial of
the psychic ability, I’d like to say something about it.
Most crimes are solved through anecdotes. People who witnessed the crime
are called to give their testimony of what they witnessed. It is known
that not all those testimonies are 100% accurate. There is always a
margin of error that is not intentional. However, generally those
testimonies lead to convictions. If you think all the millions of people
who have reported strange and unexplainable phenomena are hallucinating,
would you say our entire court system is founded on hallucinations?
I find it hypocritical and self serving when the materialists deny so
many evidences dismissing them as “anecdotal”.
As for Randi’s list of the excuses of
people not presenting themselves for test please sent him this one as
well.
Your methodology of testing psychic power is not appropriate. Just as
you can’t measure the temperature with a measuring tape, you can’t
measure the psychic ability with tests created to catch the magicians.
Magic and psychic ability are two different things. Some magicians can
make believe that they are mind reading when in reality they are playing
tricks. Like for example if I tell you think of an animal that stars
with K and then tell you, you are thinking of Kangaroo, I am not a
psychic. I know that most known and common animals do not start with K.
So it is a safe bet to say you thought of kangaroo. Randi can catch
mentalists. This is his expertise. But he can’t detect psychic power
because he has no clue what it is.
Many mentalists can make you belive they are psychic reading. That does
not mean all psychics are mentalists.
Many magicians can make you believe they are cutting someone in three
pieces. That does not mean this is what they really do. Meanwhile this
magic does not prove that a human being cannot be cut in three pieces.
|
| |
|
