Understanding channeling, mediumship and psychic phenomena.
How can we ever hope to give proof to those experiences of the sixth sense when we can’t even prove what we experience in our five senses? We have finally come to understand that History has been, and continues to be (no matter how hard we try), written from the limited point of view of those writing it at any time – in History! For example, until the additional perspective of Feminism most History was written from the perspective of middle class European White males. Any other perspectives, if available at all, were only available through Art, be it literature, paintings, sculptures, or story telling. And most of this was not given credence until long after the fall of the British Empire – a very recent phenomena. Even our understanding of other cultures was usually beholden to the particular perspective of the middle class white male School of thought at the time. And the white Caucasian male has not been the only limiter of information, as Postmodernist theorists continue to reveal to us today. Most cultures have had their lead minority group, whose voice is the only one. When Anthropologists were visiting remote cultures when Britain ruled their introductions were usually reserved for only certain members of the people they wished to study. So many taboos limited their efforts to increase their own perspectives. There are always limits to our perspectives. But it is not all bad news because it seems that there have always been human beings, somewhere, whose quests were not sacrificed to Religious or Political Tyrannies. We continue to learn more and more about our History through perspectives that now stretch even to Phenomenology wherein validity is given, just by the pure existence of the experience itself. So one might say that Academia has finally allowed everyone’s voice to be heard, to add to our understanding of what it means to be part of this great Human Race!
However, whether we open the floodgates of possibilities or keep them closed, they must, paradoxically, be closed regularly in order to allow us to broaden our perspectives outside these closed walls.
Ideas into form
In Art we can still use our imagination to write whatever we like. We can create beauty or horror without ever encountering it, or validating it. But even in the most pliable science of Anthropology, there are boundaries (walls) of what makes something science and what renders it outside academic validity. This academic validity is often found in arguments based on already sanctioned works. For example, if I can site academic works that enough scholars give credence to, and formulate my argument based on premises from these works, then I can then extend my argument to include new information that will be received. It may be disputed, but it will be a valid scientific argument worth disputing! Using this schemata I can introduce scientific argument for or against sixth sense paradigms. If I start by validating mysterious experiences through the theoretical premises of Phenomenology then I can describe any experience I care to, but if I wish to take this further I will have to ultimately rely on some other theoretical perspective and perhaps relative tests before I can gain validity. Many common experiences in our own culture, for example prayer, have been taboo for scientists. Not because they didn’t want to study them, but because Theologians were given absolute right of domain in these areas. Unfortunately, Theology is only acceptable to those who accept their foundational arguments in the first place, which usually means that Theology holds no proof to anyone who doesn’t already believe. And even within its own Religious dogma it falls back on itself by relying wholey on the need to believe first, before allowing argument. This is unfortunate and hopefully now the wealth of first hand data that has been available to Theologists may find its way more healthily to cross-discipline Theology with more scientific investigators found in Medicine, Anthropology, Psychology and Scientists of Consciousness.
