The irrational
belief that we are special, spiritual beings has provided the
canvas for charlatans to paint their picture of deception. On
close examination most supernatural phenomenon is dependent upon
human gullibility. Time and time again, they have been shown
to be just magic tricks masquerading as miracles. Psychokinesis
and many other supernatural phenomenon are known to be against
the laws of physics. Science has given us explanations of happenings
once thought to be the work of spiritual forces. However, most
people ignore this reality. Faith in the supernatural is greater
than ever before.
Spiritualism in its modern sense traces its origins to 1848,
and the activities of two young girls named Kate and Maggie Fox.
At their parents' farmhouse near Hydesville, N.Y., they played
tricks in the dark. They made noises by bouncing fruit on a string
and cracking their toe joints on the bed boards. Because it was
rumored the house was haunted, Mrs. Fox thought the strange noises
might be communication from the other side. She took this seriously
because the telegraph had just been invented and there was talk
of a spiritual telegraph. When news leaked out, the Fox house
was invaded by people fascinated by the possibility of communicating
with the dead. The family quickly saw the opportunity to make
a buck. The sisters held seances, toured with P. T. Barnum, and
soon became celebrities. After her conversion to Roman Catholicism
in 1888, Maggie declared that the rappings had been a hoax. Spiritualists
insisted that her confession was made for money, and later she
did return to spiritualism for a living.
In 1850, only two years after the first antics of the Fox girls,
there were more than a hundred mediums in New York City and fifty
spiritualists in Philadelphia. And a decade after that there
were millions of believers in America and Europe. When Darwin
came along with his controversial theory of evolution, in 1859,
it was a major blow to the religionists. Their belief in the
literal truth of the bible was being challenged. Many abandoned
organized religion, but spirituality and a belief in life after
death remained very important. They were looking for something
more consistent with the new "scientism" as it was
called at that time. And then the spiritualists came along with
a mysterious new substance from the spirit realm. This substance
was seen as scientific evidence. They didn't have to believe
on faith anymore. It was called ectoplasm. A very good scientific
sounding word, and everyone embraced it immediately. The ectoplasm
seemed to flow out of the mediums mouth. However, ectoplasm bore
a striking resemblance to cheese cloth. And it tended to appear
only after the medium had been out of sight for a while in a
so-called "spirit cabinet" or behind a convenient curtain
or screen.
 With one exception, all practicing
mediums were either exposed as frauds or quite often confessed.
Many were exposed by the greatest illusionist and skeptic of
them all, Harry Houdini (Photo). Houdini would visit psychic
mediums, watch their tricks and later recreate them one by one.
Today the super psychics continue to exploit our desire to believe.
Using telephone hotlines, television shows and radio phone-ins
they sow their seeds of deception. The technique typically used
by these psychics is called cold reading. It makes people feel
that generalized statements relate specifically to their lives.
The psychic casts his net. "I get the impression that you..."
then he pauses. " Or someone close to you..." he widens
the net. "Is about to..." then he pauses. "Or
maybe already has..." he widens the net again. This method
can be surprisingly effective and convincing. The psychic can
also assess the subjects character. The way they sit, the way
they hold their hands, the way they react to certain questions.
By reading this information given back to him, he can give a
character reading about the subject with amazing accuracy. Anyone
could read a manual about cold reading and amaze complete strangers.
But of course the best psychics have developed their act over
the course of many years.
In our everlasting quest to prove the existence of a supernatural
world we leave no stone unturned. Even today with our scientific
and psychological explanations, many people believe near death
experiences, or NDE's are authentically spiritual. Many scientists
say these experiences are just effects of a dying brain. Experts
from around the world are recreating this phenomenon in the laboratory.
Effects that extreme g-forces have on the brain produce NDE like
symptoms. Researchers use a centrifuge to reproduce high speed
flight conditions. Years of research with hundreds of pilots
uncovered several intriguing correlations between pilot blackout
episodes and NDE's. One of the symptoms is a short dream, called
a dreamlet. The dreamlets have very specific characteristics.
A feeling of floating. Visions of seeing friends and family.
A feeling of being out of the body. A euphoric and pleasurable
experience most of the time. And these experiences are extremely
memorable.
Other experiments stimulate portions of the subjects brain with
low frequency magnetic pulses through a series of electrodes
that are attached at various points. By stimulating certain lobes
of the brain, specific individual NDE events can be induced.
Subjects report a feeling of fading away. A feeling of a friendly
being coming up from behind them. Once the electromagnetic stimulation
stops, the NDE symptoms quickly fade. Subjects feel the being
moving away from them and they become sad that it's going.
Neurological studies have shown that when portions of the brain
are deprived of oxygen they react in a predictable manner known
as the cortical release phenomenon. For example, when the heart
stops pumping blood to the temporal lobes of the brain, where
memories are stored, massive amounts of neurotransmitters begin
to randomly fire. This releases countless fragmented images and
emotions associated with past experiences. When the parietal
lobes lose oxygen the visual cortex becomes impaired. This can
cause a feeling of floating or a tunneling effect. Research has
shown that if blood flow is cut off to the occipital lobes subjects
will experience intense bright light.
In the middle ages most NDE's were interpretations of hell. Understandably
they were far more negatively influenced by religion. Today 90%
of NDE's are positive experiences, 10% are negative ones. The
negative ones are often experienced by people of questionable
backgrounds and activities, experiencing guilt in their lives.
Of those experiencing positive ones, not every body sees Jesus.
Some see other religious symbols, if their not Christian. Some
don't see religious symbols at all, they see lost loved ones
that have died before them. Science has determined to it's satisfaction
that NDE's are an interactive effect between neurochemistry,
psychology and cultural influences in your life. |
