There is a lot being said nowadays about the absence of free-will and the various antecedents that underly and explain who we are, our choices, and our behavior. This is the emerging science as we know it. Reductionistic thinking in my view but allow me to explain why.
Not everything in the world is explainable, at least not yet. In a moment, I will share a personal story about paragnosis and a kitchen fire in my home, but first, let’s think about how we might know something without knowing how we know.
Paragnosis
Paragnosis is defined as knowledge that cannot be obtained by normal means—knowledge which can only be gained through extraordinary or supernatural means. Where there are many who have argued for the Blank Slate theory (Tabula Rasa), it is a given that we do not come into the world a blank slate. John Locke most famously insisted that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Innatism by contrast argues that the mind comes into the world with certain knowledge. For example, no one needs to teach us that there is no number so large that we cannot add one to it.
Alright, given this bit of an introduction, here’s but one of my own experiences that in my view, attests to a connection that transcends our scientific explanatory powers.
During a friend’s stay at my home, and after going to bed, I awoke suddenly with a loud voice in my head, “Fire!”
Messages
At first, I questioned whether I had really heard this message or just imagined it. Was I dreaming? After a few moments, I arose and proceeded downstairs to check on my friend and the main level of my townhouse.
Just as I stepped near the bottom stair which overlooked the kitchen, I saw a tea towel ignite on the stove—and I mean it just ignited. It had not been burning when I heard, “Fire!”
Of course, I immediately extinguished the fire and turned the electric burner off that had been on low since dinner. The tea towel was not on the burner, but it was close to it.
Without this warning, this experience of paragnosis, I might not be here to tell this story.
Unexplained
Paragnosis, sits at that liminal edge where empirical science yields to experience—an experience that defies convention yet insists on being recognized. While traditional scientific frameworks demand repeatability and external verification, paragnostic moments often arise as singular, deeply personal events. They don’t fit neatly into the lab, yet they persist—reported across cultures, centuries, and disciplines.
What makes paragnosis so compelling is precisely what makes it uncomfortable for materialist science: it suggests that consciousness may not be entirely local, that knowing can occur without sensory input, and that the human experience may be woven into a larger tapestry of awareness. Jung touched on this with synchronicity, William James with his explorations of mysticism, and quantum theorists like David Bohm hinted at the potential of an implicate order where information is more than just data—it’s interconnectedness.
Whispers
To me, paragnosis is a crack in the wall of reductionism—a whisper that maybe, just maybe, there’s more to mind than mechanism.
This experience is but one that has led me to seriously question the notion that science as we know it today has all the answers. Perhaps it behooves us all to pay a little more attention to those nudges that urge action or inaction in our lives. What are your thoughts?
To your success and thanks for the read,
Eldon Taylor, PhD
NY Time Bestselling Author of Gotcha!: The Subordination of Free Will
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