Should Science Care About Life After Death?

I am puzzled by the seeming lack of interest in one of the great mysteries.  I have also noticed an active revulsion on the part of friends I have known toward even thinking about it.  I once performed an experiment with two colleagues.  I tried to place a copy of the best book I knew on mediumship by the British psychologist, Alan Gauld, into their hands, in hopes of them reading it.  I failed on both counts.  Each of my colleagues literally recoiled from the sight of Gauld’s book, and each of them invented the most baroque reason for not being free to turn a page at least for a year!

Forgive Or Not To Forgive?

Few of us go through life without having been injured, wounded, sometimes devastated by the actions of individuals or institutions.  We’re creatures of memory and carry our injuries with us, which can be quietly nagging or secretly poisonous.   Seemingly invisible or forgotten, we have to deal with them, one way or another.  I have an unoriginal suggestion. One way is through conscious acts of forgiveness.  

Forgiveness can change one’s whole outlook on life, as in the story of Louis Zamperini, an American soldier who returned to Japan and embraced with forgiveness three of the men who tortured him in the Second World War.  It was only after this that his nightmares from the war ceased.  It was the beginning of something new; he became a teacher, a healer, and a force for good.

Rigid Disbelief: An Obstacle to Healing

The psychologist, William McDougall, recounts the case of a client who came to him after a year of struggling with his affliction. A young man got his left hand violently caught in a hay-rake, and emerged from the accident with his forearm reduced to a state of paralysis and anesthesia.  Several doctors, including one that left scars from a failed electrical treatment, treated him without success; another offer was to simplify matters by amputating the apparently useless limb.

             

According to McDougall, the young man was absolutely convinced he could not be healed. No one had helped him so far; so he thought of himself as a hopeless case.  The man needed to be disabused of the false belief he had embraced.  “It was only through a course of education, persuasion, and suggestion (waking and hypnotic) and encouragement continued over some weeks that the cure was effected. The essential step was to shake and undermine his fixed belief in the permanent nature of the paralysis.” (See his Outline of Abnormal Psychology.)

Awakening Our Better Angels

Our normal consciousness conceals a world of possible states, each with it uses and unknown functions: I mean stuff we call creative, paranormal, and mystical. I believe all these are pointing toward our potential future—we don’t have to look far to see we’re a long way from getting there.  

Potential, however, does not necessarily imply probable.  Dante had to make his way through Hell and Purgatory before the first glimpse of Heaven was possible.

Bullying Our Way to Heaven and Empire

I was out for a Sunday stroll on the outdoor mall.  I noticed up ahead two young men trying to hand out some leaflets.  The two had evangelically bland, scrubbed faces and attire to match.  I could see that no one was accepting the leaflets; others went out of their way to avoid the two men completely.

I walked right up to them and the tall guy held out a leaflet.  I accepted it, nodded, said, “Thank you,” and moved on.  I opened the leaflet. The first page was covered with one sentence from a letter of St. Paul’s to the Hebrews (9:27).  In all caps it said: “A man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”  The word die was in red italics and judgment in italics.

Awakening Psychokinesis

Awakening Psychokinesis

Psychokinesis is the the power of our intangible thoughts to produce tangible effects.

It is direct action of mind on matter—on our own bodies, and sometimes, on external bodies.  But that’s magic! you might say.  Correct, as discussed in Dean Radin’s book, Real Magic, an excellent primer on the science of magic.  Consider the greatest magician of all time--God.  We read in the Book of Genesis: “And God said, ‘Let there be light!’ And there was light.”  Now that’s PK!  Psychokinesis--which means mind-moving, mind-transforming.

If I had one phrase to distill what I’ve learned from my research, it would be this: PK is the spark of divine creativity in us all.  For indeed as the poet said we are “made in the image and likeness of God.”  We’re not just carbon-based physical organisms; but minds, a source of consciousness with powers that boggle known science.   

PK, moreover, is not rare.  There is normal PK, evident all day as we direct the movements of our bodies, restraining and shaping them in various ways; there is abnormal PK in the form of ulcers, high blood pressure, and other psychosomatic diseases; and finally supernormal PK—effects like levitation, shapeshifting, bilocation, weather control, materialization, dematerialization, instantaneous healings, placebo, nocebo, stigmata, odor of sanctity, and much more.  There is a mountain of facts that supports the idea that we humans own a spark of supernormal capacity—a spark that can sometimes ignite a fire.

So, with some hesitation, . we might ask: How can we ignite the fire of our potential soul power? Which is what I mean by the technical term psychokinesis.  According to physicist Helmut Schmidt, PK is a goal-oriented process.  Suppose in a test you’re trying to influence the fall of dice, say, to get sevens.  You don’t concentrate on how to make it happen. Instead, you keep your attention on the goal, the end-state, the thing itself—in this case, to roll sevens.  Don’t calculate, worry or strain.   The ‘method’ is to fix attention on the goal; hold it there firmly; visualize what you want to actually happen. The image of the goal becomes the lodestar of your consciousness.

This may be useful in shaping the course of everyday life.  The important thing is having our aims clearly and steadily before our consciousness.   But this is hard to do, especially for us in our hyper-active techno-culture defined by endless distractions.  If you really want to perform a ‘miracle,’ all of you has to be present.    

Often, ironically, the ‘miracles’ in our lives occur when we least expect them.  Sometimes you can aim too hard; like trying too hard to remember something—stop trying, give up, and then it comes back.  Sometimes we have to give up before something we’re aiming for can happen.  Total concentration is required, but being too anxious about success will get in the way. The big idea is that we can shape the course of our journey.  It’s either that or we get blown hither and yon, slaves of chance and fate, fodder for the dark forces.

I have defined PK in such a way as to show it represents a spectrum from normal to abnormal and supernormal.  The supernormal and ‘miraculous’ potentials are rooted in our normal everyday minds.  As human beings we’re capable of doing far more than we might normally suppose.  We find evidence for this all the time.  It would be useful to learn how to activate that potential.  In fact, thanks to the explorer instinct of our species, many ways have been discovered.  The physicist Helmut Schmidt, along with mystics, shamans, and magicians from all traditions provide various hints and rules.  It’s up to us to make use of them.

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The Need for a Science of Spirituality

Ever since the rise of modern science in 17^th century Europe, science and spirituality have been estranged.  This has been worse than unfortunate because science and spirituality are major parts of human experience, and it won’t do to have them perennially at odds with each other.  So one of the mega thought-memes of modern history has been trying to harmonize these two dimensions of experience that so powerfully influence our lives.  The challenge is how to integrate them and do justice to the best they have to offer while being wary of the worst as well.

Transcendent Diet

by Michael Grosso:

Diet in ancient Greek refers to one’s way of life. What you eat,  how you exercise, the kind of society you keep, etc. Diet assumes you’re capable of self-discipline.  Looking for an art form you can practice?  Look no further than the raw material handed to you called daily life. Your ‘diet’ is the art you practice to shape your day to day existence.  Could there be any higher art form?

A good diet should cover both mind and body. Now one problem we all know about is obesity—but there are two kinds of ‘obesity’. Some folks are not literally fat, but their minds might be ‘overweight’.  They might need to lighten up mentally. Their ‘obesity’ lies in the medley of thoughts and emotions that drive their minds. This kind of obesity is easy to conceal; that of the body is quickly exposed, even to the casual observer.  

An American PK Super-Star



by Michael Grosso:

One of the odd facts about our scientific world are the periodic intrusions of events completely at odds with familiar reality.  We don’t expect alien light-beings to materialize in our living rooms or ghosts to physically attack us in haunted houses, but they do, and that’s not all.  

Take, for example, the case of a man who apparently had super psychokinetic powers, but was of fairly low moral stature, and in fact may have been a murderer. Fortunately, Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove, who wrote the story of Ted Owens, treats his subject with the nuanced approach that it demands. Mishlove knew Owens (d. 1987) for years and had access to the data based on interviews, reportage, and media coverage. The PK Man is not a book for people with a fundamentalist cast of mind; one has to be mentally agile to cover this terrain.

A Terrifying Case of Precognition

by Michael Grosso:

One thing I keep learning about our mysterious minds—in every category of a phenomenon—say, a mystical experience, a reported alien contact, or the effects of psychokinesis—there are endless variations.  Nothing is mechanical, or exactly predictable about mental life.  No matter how time-tested a rule, it will always be broken.

Precognition subverts our commonsense idea of time and our intuitive sense of cause and effect.  Since when does the effect come before the cause?   Precognition—also called foreknowledge and prophecy—is to know of specific events that have yet to occur.  That may sound impossible, but plenty of evidence says it’s a real effect.

Our Worst Enemy Can Be Ourselves

by Michael Grosso:

I think that anybody given to self-observation will notice that sometimes our worst enemy is ourselves.  They say we have guardian angels; I think we also have inner saboteurs.  There is, I believe, a war going on in us all the time.  But the enemy is not Satan but rather our rogue thoughts.

So I perk up at stories that show how people wreak havoc on themselves with their own beliefs. 

Walter Cannon has described the phenomenon of voodoo death.  A perfectly healthy man learns that some sorcerer has pointed the bone at him, with the intent of a spell to kill him.  The victim is terrified and feels defenseless. He lies down, his whole vital apparatus crashes, and he dies.  Voodoo death illustrates the violence we can inflict on ourselves--all by virtue of what we believe and what we expect.

Experiment With a Ouija Board

by Michael Grosso:

Since the beginning people have performed experiments, made conscious efforts to pierce the veil that hides the invisible world. All cultures have devised methods of interrogating the Transcendent.  The forms of yoga come to mind, prayer and meditation, ascetic disciplines like fasting and breath-control, the native American vision quest, the classical mystery rites of Eleusis and Dionysos, and so  on and so forth.  Human tradition is replete with methods of inducing experiences of other worlds.[i]

Since the quest of Gilgamesh to discover the plant of immortality, it has insinuated itself into what seems like a game, playing with a Ouija board.  This is a device for stirring up the unconscious and talking with spirits, (best to avoid if mentally unbalanced).  The first time I tried it, the experience was quite interesting and made a memorable impression.

Leaving the World Together

by Michael Grosso:

A story appeared from the News on my Smartphone.  It read, all caps: “Michigan Couple Married 56 Years Die Hours Apart While Holding Hands”. The report states that Judy and Will Webb, both 77 years old, died a few hours apart, first Will (at 2 a.m.) and then Judy, a few hours later. Was the close timing of their deaths a coincidence?  If it was just a coincidence, it was certainly a meaningful one.

But I think more was involved than mere coincidence.  It turns out that Judy and Will had a very unusual 56 years together.  Apart from the longevity of their marriage, according to daughter MaryBeth, Judy and Will were inseparable, and spent virtually every day of their wedded 56 years together—not just in spirit but in body.  It’s a bit difficult to imagine and I want to call it a miracle, or at least, a wonder of the natural world. I say this not to be cynical, but to point out that we live in distracting times when holding attention on anything is becoming increasingly difficult.

More than a meaningful coincidence, I think that Will’s unconscious acted on his body so that he could follow his wife even if it meant himself dying.  Their mental rapport was more powerful than Will’s immune system. Will was not altogether well, but when Judy got ill, he got seriously ill himself.  According to daughter MaryBeth, “everything that happened to her happened to him in another place”.  While they were separated physically, Will was unconsciously mimicking his wife’s symptoms.  It was the only way they could remain together.  It’s also possible that Judy somehow cooperated in reproducing her symptoms in Will.  Something seems to have arranged it so Will could die more or less with his wife.

Frederic Myers, the poet and great psychical researcher, believed that the deepest kind of love is a form of exalted telepathy—a mental rapport that can transcend distance, physical obstacles, even death—and so it seems in the story of Judy and Will. There are, in fact, many examples of strange coincidences in the timing that people deploy in making their exit from the world.  A favorite of mine is the coincidence that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same Independence Day, July 4, 1826.  It was exactly 50 years since the birth of the nation, the two founders seeming to bow to each other as they stepped off the stage of life into history and eternity.

Shared Near-Death Experience?

by Michael Grosso:

I recently heard a story from somebody who was at the bedside of a dying loved one.   People who come close to death often report extraordinary experiences—a world beyond suddenly opens up to the dying person’s consciousness—a world of light, love, and people who previously had passed.  These experiences are not only a challenge to science but radically change the people who have them.

One aspect of these experiences is rarely reported but is extremely interesting from a theoretical point of view. The person at the bedside of a dying loved one mentioned above had an extraordinary experience. He shared, as he put it, the “journey to the light” joining in the experience of dying person.  The effect of the experience on the dying person was transformative, but the person who shared the experience was also deeply move and changed.   

So here we have a double mystery; first, the transformative effects on people actually near physical death; but the second surprise is that bystanders to the dying person can somehow enter into the transformative space of the dying person.  This is strange because it suggests that a healthy person can, under certain circumstances, temporarily enter the ‘next’ or ‘other’ or ‘after’ world.  This, I suppose, would be like another person entering my dream space while I’m having a dream—could anything be more intimate?

So, how is possible to share the near-death experience of another person?   Clearly, the only way two brains can interact is by means of sensory signaling.  Viewing ourselves as just physical organisms, sharing a near-death experience would be impossible.  In fact, the classic near-death experience itself would be impossible.

We have to look to our minds to understand how sharing a near-death is possible. Assume that telepathy is a fact of nature—the evidence is overwhelming—then telepathy shows how minds can and do directly interact.  So it is possible to ‘enter’ the mind of another.  Sharing a near-death experience with a dying person might be an elaborate form of telepathic rapport.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had an experience in which they seemed to tune into the experience of a dying person.  In my next post, I want to explore the idea of a possible global near-death experience.  (See my The Final Choice: Death or Transcendence? (2018). It is, after all, during supreme stress that higher forms of consciousness can suddenly break open.  As we edge toward increasing global disturbances, we should see signs breaking out everywhere of a new consciousness.

Can We Scare Ourselves To Death?

by Michael Grosso:

A woman once told me a strange story about her husband.  When he was a teenager he stopped at a carnival to consult with a fortune teller.  She told him he was going to have a wonderful life but that he would die when he was 35 years old.  As his 35^th birthday approached, he took ill and by the time he was 35 passed away.  The autopsy indicated there was no explanation of his death.  His death was an extreme example of nocebo, the opposite of placebo: he believed he was going to die, which apparently caused him to die.    

Doors of Transcendence

by Michael Grosso:

What happens when we sense being stalled in our lives, trapped, stuck at a place we’re not happy to be?  In spite of the funk, we may sense something new, something higher beckoning us—but to go forward, we need a push, a jolt.

At such times, what can we do? How do we get that push or jolt? Folks from the get-go have tried to figure it out.  If we’re willing to try, there are many ways.  There are many doors to transcendence; many patterns of behavior known to facilitate breakthroughs to higher consciousness.

Tattoos and the Soul

by Michael Grosso:

The other morning I went for a haircut.  While the barber was cutting my hair, he and a pal of his were talking excitedly about tattoos, a topic I know nothing about. My barber and his friend were discussing the stigma attached to having  tattoos.  They were saying you get put in a box, classified as odd and possibly dangerous.  Or worse.  Something about it was suspicious, tattooing images and symbols on your body, turning yourself into a walking hieroglyph.  

Empathy and Telepathy

by Michael Grosso:

 

The world would be better off if there was more empathy.   People everywhere and always treat each other abominably.  Many are the reasons for all the abuse, injustice,  and killing: material gain, fanatical ideology, some twisted idea of duty, demented forms of pleasure, and so on.   The victim is objectified, turned into a thing, a cipher; to be used and abused or just destroyed.  What seems to be missing is awareness of what’s going on inside the person being abused or savaged. 

What’s missing we call empathy, and people with a stark deficit in empathy we call psychopaths.  So, to be human, we need more than rational skills. We need to have some sense of the inner side of other people.  We need to cultivate our ability to enter—to feel and imagine—the soul of another human being.  Empathy is our best counterpoint to psychopathy.

Webinar on Ecstasy, Levitation, and Immortality

by Michael Grosso:

 I’m assembling a webinar on ecstasy, levitation, and immortality for the Forever Family Foundation that supports afterlife research. As to where I’m coming from, I sporadically have experiences I can’t explain—from PK to precognition.  I’ve been trying to figure out all the strange experiences I’ve had for many years.  

The focus here is on PK (psychokinesis)—stuff about “mind over matter”. In light of all the available evidence, I’m convinced we have powers quite beyond what we normally suppose. The people who know this best are people who have the crucial experiences. Experience, of course, can  rip open your sense of the possible, and on this topic I have observed levitation twice. No mistake about it, raw experience opens the mind.   

The Power of Dreaming Together

by Michael Grosso:

I once took a workshop with dream researcher and psychiatrist, Monty Ullman. In the group, led by Monty, we shared and interpreted each other’s dreams.  I learned some very interesting things from this workshop.  For example, after listening to others interpret my dreams in ways that made sense and that I missed, I realized the fertility of dream symbolism.  In other words, my own interpretation was limited; working with a group opened me to new ways of probing the possible meaning of my dream. The group dynamic can prevent us from being blindsided by our own limitations.

Unknown Friends That Help Us

by Michael Grosso:

It gives us a curious slant on life to know we may have unknown friends.  Unknown in that we really don’t know how they operate, who they are, or where they come from. Sometimes they seem to come from the other side--in this example, not surprisingly, from a mother. Theresa Cheung, a University of Cambridge graduate, with a master’s in theology and English, said that while driving towards a junction behind a truck, she was about to turn left but her dead mother’s voice told her to shift to the right lane. She said: “Even though she had died a few years earlier, it was my mother’s voice, and I obeyed instantly. If I had turned left, you wouldn’t be reading this now, because I would have driven into a pile-up that claimed the lives of three people in cars directly behind the truck.  I can’t explain that voice; it must have been my mother guiding me … It proved to me there is an afterlife.” (Daily and Sunday Express. 2018. express.co.uk/news/ weird/935615/life-after-death-afterlife-what-happens-when-you-die)  

A New Angle on the Mystery of Mind

by Michael Grosso:

 

Darold Treffert is a psychiatrist who studies the unexplained creative powers of children with savant-syndrome.  Kids who suffer from autism sometimes possess extraordinary mental abilities. There is also something Treffert calls “sudden savant syndrome”—a phenomenon that really challenges our picture of the human mind. We each may have a “guardian angel” in the form of latent genius that awaits the right stimulus to bring it forth.

Awakening Our Higher Mental Powers

by Michael Grosso:

I’ve been tracking what I call human singularities—people who embody rare and extraordinary talents—like Joseph of Copertino, or Arigo, or Lurancy Vennum, etc.. I’m trying to paint a composite picture of what I believe is our latent super-humanity. All the strange manifestations must have some purpose, some meaning.

There is reason to doubt that we--as a species--have reached the climax of our full evolutionary potential. Far from it!  Look around at the world—the greed, the violence, and the stupidity spreading havoc and mayhem everywhere. The growing dangers of social instability, risk of nuclear war and oncoming eco-catastrophe cry out for sweeping change.  

Change Your Vocabulary and Change Your Reality

by Michael Grosso:

We underestimate how words can change our sense of reality. Words can corner and confine us; they can also open doors and free us. Nowadays we often hear people say that they are spiritual but not religious.  What that usually means is something like this: I no longer attend religious services nor do I accept as absolutely true any of the major claims of the basic religions.  Still, I have spiritual needs, interests, and inclinations. I just don’t rely on organized religion to explore and satisfy these needs. Religion is associated with established doctrines, rules, and social organization; spirituality, with search, personal practice, and experience.  

The Death of Higher Education in America

by Michael Grosso:

The other day I heard a report on NPR about a festival of the book and of art and music in Mosul, a city in Iraq coming back to life from being under the heel of Isis terrorists. Under the previous regime, reading books, listening to music and making art were forbidden on pain of death.  I was moved by the sound of Iraqi music and by the story of a man who learned English by means of a book he hid in his house during the terror. He spoke of the joy of his humanity restored through being able to walk through the streets with a book in his hand and music in the air. 

This story reminded  me of an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Eric Hayot, titled “The Imminent Death of the Humanities” (July 6, 2018). Fewer students are majoring in the humanities these days and so are jobs for Ph.D.s in the humanities fewer. “The humanities are institutionally more alone and more vulnerable than ever before, “ writes Hayot, “more at the mercy of a university’s financial decisions or a new dean’s desire to prove his or her toughness by consolidating departments or reducing faculty size.” The doomsday clock is apparently striking midnight for higher education in America.

Music as Medicine for the Soul

by Michael Grosso:

 

On Thanksgiving Day I caught a holiday special on NPR. The hour long show featured stories of Americans especially grateful for music.  Each story had one or more narrator with samplings of the music that inspired them.  The stories and the music touched me, and I remembered the words of the philosopher Nietzsche (himself a musician) who said: “Without music, life would be a mistake.”

Most of the NPR stories revolved around love and death. There were stories about music leading to romantic encounters that led to happy, enduring love.  Other stories told how music can heal deep wounds that life inflicts on us.  In one sad tale, a woman describes how she lost her true love in a cruel, untimely fashion; yet, in the end, their shared love of music saved her from despair, and in her ongoing  love of music has come to feel she’s gone beyond the pains of her loss.  She lives, she seemed to say, in a mental atmosphere beyond anything that death could do to her—thanks to the subtle effect of music on her consciousness.

Pseudo-Skepticism: A Case Study

by Michael Grosso:

Mendacity of all kinds is a part of human experience, but the potential for propagating it has hugely increased—thanks to modern technology.  There is talk of a crisis of truth, capped by the Trumpian meme of “fake news”. Rampant in venues outside politics, fake news spreads lies for political, economic, and ideological purposes.

There’s a species of it I call pseudo-skepticism—a form of fake news, evident in Joe Nickell’s case who writes for the so-called Skeptical Inquirer.  “So-called”, I say, because the term skeptical implies doubt and open-minded inquiry; it doesn’t mean using every dirty trick of omission and distortion to arrive at a foregone conclusion.

Stories Pointing to Another World

by Michael Grosso:

 

Most of us are too busy struggling to survive on Earth to think about what might come after death. But experiences I’ve had have forced me to think about this question, experiences that stopped me cold because I couldn’t explain them. Things happen that force people to ponder the possibility of others worlds.   Well, you ask, are there any? 

Mark Twain And The World of Dreams

by Michael Grosso:



The dream is the greatest of all psychic phenomena, for like a god the dreamer is a creator of worlds.  But what are dreams?  Shadows of our waking life, airy nothings? Perhaps not, say some who don’t mind subverting conventional wisdom. According to philosophers C.D. Broad and H.H. Price, our waking minds are immersed in an extended dream world, which continues with its business, even as we carry on in waking reality.

Moreover, there’s a flimsy partition between waking and dream reality.  Dozing off at your desk or on a train ride can plunge you into another world, incongruous and unexpected.  Ingest a magic mushroom or smoke some weed, and a pile of garbage may become an enchanting landscape.  Nearly die and you may find yourself whirling out of your body into a strange light and meeting your dead granny and uncle Harry.     

Mystery in the Mirror

by Michael Grosso:

The other day I woke up and proceeded to wash and shave.  It was still a little dark, so I turned on the overhead light and was startled by the image of myself in the mirror.  “Who’s that?” It flashed on me that I was staring at a mystery.

First my body.  I recalled that about 95 percent of the physical universe, matter and energy, is “dark”—in short, unknown, a mystery.  My second thought was that the origins of living matter is also a mystery. Then something else struck me as strange as I looked at my mirror image.  My mind was invisible! 

Why Do We Have Psychic Powers?

by Michael Grosso:

In the attempt to understand the nature of mind, I’ve traveled all over the map of human experience. Inevitably, I was drawn to the outer limits of mental experience, abnormal and supernormal.  For example, I found all sorts of evidence suggesting the reality of a “next” world. Up until modern scientific times, belief in an afterlife was common and widespread. However, modern science is supposed to have proven the afterlife is a fairy tale.

But that is complete nonsense.  Modern science has never investigated the question because it has focused on physics, chemistry, biology, and other physical sciences. The investigation of psychic powers has been conducted by individuals, groups, and special societies such as the English and American Societies for Psychical Research. A minority of mavericks has always had to battle the physicalist establishment that ignored or dismissed their findings. This unscientific attitude continues to poison the 21^sst century, easily proven by reading accounts of anything paranormal in Wikipedia.

Are Miracles For Real?

by Michael Grosso:

 

Are Miracles For Real?

According to Skeats’ Etymological Dictionary, the word miracle is rooted in the smi of Sanskrit, related to our smile.  In this sense of the word, a miracle is something that makes us smile with awe and wonder.  It’s not often that we can do that; but it doesn’t seem like a bad thing.  And yet, nothing irritates some materialists more than talk of ‘miracles.’ Why is that? Materialists are atheists, but miracle suggests the idea of a God who can suspend the laws of nature and thus perform miracles.

Now that sounds spooky and potentially full of unnerving surprises.  Materialists seem to prefer an orderly universe that can be predicted and of course controlled. Sorry, but the universe is not only spooky, it’s top-heavy with mysteries and enigmas larded with puzzles and conundrums.

The Pill of Perfect Happiness

by Michael Grosso:

I was inspired by Michael Pollan’s new book, How to Change Your Mind, which explores  the outer limits of psychedelic consciousness.  We know it’s possible, by means of psychoactive chemicals, to change our minds in wonderful and fascinating ways.  The question is, how far are people willing to go?  How many of us are ready for transformation?  And would society be willing to support our efforts?

It might help to try a thought experiment. Imagine what would be an event of world significance: a group of neuroscientists announce the discovery of a drug that transforms consciousness, offering permanent benefit to the individual and to human society at large. One treatment is all that is required, and there are no ill side-effects.

Braking for Armageddon

by Michael Grosso:

Driving us toward a climax nobody wants to think about are three global trends: the  mounting risk of nuclear war; faster than expected approaching climate catastrophe; and the ever-growing gap between the rich power elites and everybody else.

Each trend, each dynamic, by itself, left unchecked, points toward civilization crashing. The three trends, chugging away at the same time, can only amplify each other exponentially.  And at the moment all three are gaining momentum. As the world appears to be evolving today, things may have to play themselves out before any real possibility of improvement.  

The Creative Power of Coincidence

by Michael Grosso:

 

Events colliding together by apparent chance often reveal themselves as deeply meaningful. Most people now and then experience interesting coincidences. They often seem to provide us with raw material for finding or for creating meaning.  Coincidences, as deep meaning markers, play a prominent role in religion.

One particular kind of coincidence seems to generate an immediate, overwhelming response of religious feeling. The other day I watched an interview of a woman who described how she barely made it out of her burning house, after which she watched it collapse into a heap of smoldering flame. She was breathless with joy and with awe at the thought that God had saved her.  When people escape disaster by a hair’s breadth, the instinct is commonly to ascribe the good fortune to divine intervention.

Converging Toward Catastrophe

by Michael Grosso:
 

In view of present circumstances, talk of “doomsday” and “apocalypse” is cropping up with increasing regularity, even in progressive media not prone to hyperbole. The destruction of world civilization and of life itself are not only thinkable today, but thanks to certain global trends gaining momentum, in the minds of many informed persons, it is starting to appear probable.

A triangle of converging trends--toward climate catastrophe, toward nuclear war, and toward mass social upheaval--is gaining momentum. There is, moreover, no credible idea or plan of how to stop this runaway train. 

The human story may not have a happy ending, at least if the crystal ball you are looking into is made of logic and matters of fact.  An impartial survey of the facts clearly points to steadily increasing global crisis, not least in light of the enormous numbers of uprooted refugees and immigrants and their destabilizing effects. 

Mind Over Matter and Life After Death

by Michael Grosso:

The ultimate triumph of mind over matter would be to survive bodily death. The argument, roughly put: the greater the power of mind over physical reality, the greater the plausibility of survival. In contrast, if our mental states are just byproducts of physical causes, they aren’t likely to survive physical death.  But if our minds cannot be reduced to, or explained by, physical states, surviving death becomes more credible.  Mind may be married to body; but divorce need not mean the death of mind. Sometimes divorce leads to new beginnings. 

Transcendent Depravity

by Michael Grosso:

 

I’m drawn to the transcendent in all its forms.  Give me stories of the great athletes of consciousness: mystics, ecstatics, mad lovers; poets, painters, musicians that charge our imaginations and open our hearts.  All these give us snapshots, glimpses of what we could or might be. That’s a bit of upbeat news.  So two cheers for what Mark Twain called the “human experiment.” But what of the third cheer? you ask.  For balance, I feel the need to note the dark side, the monsters and grotesques beside the saints and geniuses.  So alongside the wonders, I collect tales of extreme depravity—shockers that lurk beyond the pale--‘live and learn’ moments.  

Levitation: A Huge Challenge to Science

by Michael Grosso:



Reading cosmologist Martin Rees’ Before the Beginning, you come away with respect  for the key role of gravitation in the evolution of the universe.  According to Rees, the particular strength of gravity is as it had to be to produce galaxies and the very conditions for life on Earth.  Gravity is the glue of our evolving universe, the fundamental factor of physical reality.

In light of that, the phenomenon of levitation seems all the more interesting. There are many examples and many forms of levitation.  I’ve focused on a well documented case, which includes thirty-five years of reliable eyewitness testimony.  St. Joseph of Copertino’s (1603-1663) frequently observed flights occurred in the complete absence of any known physical force.  That’s a huge challenge to science.

Countries Against Life After Death

by Michael Grosso:

I was reading an account of American movies being so popular in China.  But there are restrictions on what movies the dictatorship allows the public to watch. One forbidden movie that was mentioned surprised me—Ghost Busters!   You all remember that one—hilarious!  What’s so subversive about it? 

Even though the movie is a comedy, the idea of ghosts and life after death is forbidden, according to the government. You’re not allowed to think of anything beyond the material world. This is to consign us to a claustrophobic universe, and there are parallels in America where the constraints on what we’re allowed to think are more subtle but just as pervasive.

Ecstasy and Future Humans

by Michael Grosso:

 I’ve been tracking what I call human singularities—people who embody rare and extraordinary talents—like Joseph of Copertino, or Arigo, or Lurancy Vennum, etc.. I’m trying to paint a composite picture of what I believe is our latent but still hidden super-humanity.  Call it a portrait, a model of future humans, the next (urgently needed) stage of our evolution.

All the strange manifestations must have some purpose, some meaning. Besides, there’s no reason to believe that we have reached the climax of our full evolutionary potential. Far from it!  Look around at the world. We desperately need to transcend the greed, violence, and stupidity spreading havoc and mayhem everywhere on the planet. Politics alone without a deep collective change of consciousness will never save us.

On Having One's Mind Blown

by Michael Grosso:

 

How does somebody with a Ph. D. in philosophy from Columbia University come to believe in impossible things like flying friars?  I’m often asked what got me interested in all the weird stuff—events that seem to break the familiar laws of nature.  Some folks might just be naturally curious.  But what I’ve seen is that people open up as a result of some mind-blowing experience.  Example after example could be trotted out to illustrate.

I won’t try to define the criteria for such experiences, except to say that fundamental ideas about how reality works may be shattered. Let me describe an experience of mine that had such an effect on me. It was April 23, 1971, about 11 PM, a clear night in Greenwich Village, New York. I was in my apartment on the top floor (6^th) at 14 Bedford Street, listening to John Coltrane’s “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost” with my girlfriend. It was the week I had to defend my dissertation at Columbia University, which was about the Myth of the True Earth in Plato’s Phaedo.