Today I wish to share something personal with you. When I was a child I imagined what it might be like to have a round table where you could bring the brightest minds together to question the nature of life. Of course you would invite the scientist, but you would also want the mystic, the philosopher, the metaphysician, and so forth. Fast-forward to some eight years ago, and I thought, why not use a radio show for exactly this purpose? I had done radio in the past going back to the late 1980s, so why not get back into radio and bring these minds to your show? As such, the seeds for today’s Provocative Enlightenment, originally called Mind Matters, were planted.
The Supernatural
Since I have personally experienced many events in my life for which there is absolutely no scientific explanation, at least in our present paradigm, there was a deep beginning interest in the so-called unexplainable. I have read many books that portend evidence of the supernatural, ranging from life after death to the quantum physics that allegedly proves consciousness is a creative force in the universe. As such, I was excited to bring these authors to the show and learn first hand of their findings, to flesh out in detail the ramifications implicit in their discoveries and so on—and that’s where we began.
Today, years later and after hundreds of interviews, I am much less convinced of the would-be science allegedly proving what many have labeled as “New Age” material. I have interviewed a psychiatrist and Harvard professor, whose book stated absolutely and with empirical emphasis that evidence proved ESP, who flatly denied this assertion, and even informed me that someone else wrote the material that appears on the cover of her book. I have heard all about the new evidence that allegedly shows that the Schumann resonance is changing—the hertz rate is increasing and not just from lightning storms, but steadily increasing—and supposedly this means that the vibration of consciousness is rising. For this to be true, it necessarily implies that the earth’s size is changing and /or the speed of light has been drastically altered, and this is provably more flagrantly false than Santa Clause. I have listened to the go-to physicist of the New Age world, featured in all sorts of so-called new age documentaries, where he stated scientific proofs conclude this and that assertion, and it turns out that it’s all just his opinion and not one shared by most others. In other words, he alone has decided that something is suggestive and ergo, therefore it is now his fact. And I’m sorry, but this is just so much more bafflegab.
Bafflegab
We have heard one of the leading researchers of NDE phenomena inform us that one characteristic common to NDE experiencers is an increased IQ—often of 200 or more. This too turns out to be pure unmitigated rubbish! We have heard of a new test that reads magnetic fields of the brain without actually touching the skull, proving that the energy of mind is generated outside of the brain, but again, this too turned out to be nonsense. I could go on, but the pattern is clear: put a microphone in front of someone with a bias and a badge of some sort of authority, and watch out!
I remain a believer in the notion that we are much more than Darwinian meat machines destined from dust to dust, but largely because of my own personal experiences, many of which I share in my book, “What Does That Mean?” However, I have truly become a skeptic—not a cynic, but a hardcore skeptic because I know first hand how often this stuff is just the figment of someone’s imaginative creativity.
Bias
We all have our biases, and when someone claims not to be biased, they are either ignorant of their own psychology or lying. The fact is, the bias is so recognized in science that this is the reason the gold standard of science, the double-blind study, exists. I admit my bias but hold with disdain those who would allow their bias to so color their work that it becomes inventive, misleading all who would give them an ear. Unfortunately, many do just that because it can appear to be so appealing. Tell me what I want to hear and you can forever be my Pied Piper.
I recently did a piece on truth and the conclusion pointed how just how biased and relative our truths are. In math, we use proofs to demonstrate truth and prove the false. At least in mathematics, truth seems possible. However, we should hold out for the closest thing to truth that we can gain in all other areas. So just because it sounds so good, doesn’t mean it is true! Just because we want it to be true should warn us to double check the claims before we swallow hook line and sinker. My thoughts anyway, for what it may be worth!
As always, thanks for the read and I appreciate your feedback.
Eldon Taylor
Provocative Enlightenment
NY Time Bestselling Author of Choices and Illusions
www.eldontaylor.com