My quest: an insightful analyst of the supernatural, who does not reject it

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

There's a spiritual and intellectual brick wall I tend to crash into every now and then. Like crashes of the literal type, they're few and far between, but each one frustratingly familiar and leaving me shaken for a bit. I'll find a book (or less commonly, a magazine article or a webpage) with a tantalizing title, purporting to shed some serious light on the nature of religion, spirituality, the supernatural, or just mankind's search for meaning in general. There'll be nothing snide or smug about the title or the tone of the writing, and the author will grab me with some really great ideas that I can dig. There'll be words of wisdom peppered throughout from familiar spiritual wisdom figures whose names I've known since the cradle, used to support some overarching theory. I'll be anticipating some grand "aha" moment, when modern scholarship backs up and validates some of my deepest yearnings.

And I'll wait. And read some more. And wait. And read some more. But then at some point I'll read a sentence that hits me with a sinking, "hey wait a minute", kind of feeling. And as I flip through the pages and paragraphs a little less patiently, I'll find -- sure enough -- a section where the author admits subtly, almost apologetically, that he personally rejects the supernatural. Unlike the stereotype that Richard Dawkins established, I find more often than not this is done with utmost politeness and care not to offend -- I can only imagine an intended audience largely composed of believers. I'll even see reassurances that the author respects, sympathizes with, and deeply understands the motive to believe, and sincerely does not harshly judge his readers who choose to go this route. That's noble; I know from experience it's not easy to reach out to and respect people whose most deeply held beliefs differ markedly from your own.

But the fact remains that he doesn't believe, and that his central argument springs from a firm background of unbelief. And against that fact, any endorsement from a scholar in any secular field rings somewhat hollow to me. It feels unconvincing and unsatisfying in a similar way to a salesman trying to get me to buy a product that he himself would never buy or use.

So here's my question at the bottom of all this: Is it too much to ask to find a scholar willing to take a good hard analytical look at man's search for Something Greater, from a psychological or anthropological or evolutionary or philosophical perspective, who him/herself still sincerely walks that path? Or am I asking for a contradiction in terms? In other words, does it take someone who has no horse in a race, to be able to see the race clearly and objectively?

I'd sure appreciate any recommendations.

 

[sekio]

But the fact remains that he doesn't believe, and that his central argument springs from a firm background of unbelief.

But does disbelief in the premise of the supernatural invalidate the exploration of the argument?

Does one have to accept the truth of a sentence to truly understand it? Someone who is skilled at debating can still come up with arguments for something he does not believe in (or play devil's advocate), does that render the points drawn as nothing more than chaff, even if they are derived axiomatically from things we can observe?

Is it too much to ask to find a scholar willing to take a good hard analytical look at man's search for Something Greater, from a psychological or anthropological or evolutionary or philosophical perspective, who him/herself still sincerely walks that path?

This sounds like something monks would be involved in. Or a friendly neighbourhood theologian.

 

[Journyman16]

Robert Monroe has 3 books - Journeys Out of Body, Far Journeys and Ultimate Journeys. Worth downloading and reading thoroughly. Anyone with an interest in spirituality that is NOT tied up in Religion should have a read.

He has no horse in the race in the sense the books are not the source of income for him - he invented hemisync, the binaural beat phenomenon that can help people achieve altered states in minutes that can take a meditation adept 30 years to achieve.

 

[Ninae]

I see it a bit differently. I just expect everything to be crap and have a Aha-moment when I find something good. Most articles like these are only good for scanning through.

 

[methamaniac]

Try researching Nikola Tesla in respect to science/mathematics and spirituality.
(Some good videos and reading on-line)
I guarantee you will be interested.
It will still be up to you to find the "ah-ha" moments, but hey that's the fun part ☺

 

[Foreigner]

The footnotes and subtle disclaimers you're finding are to cover their asses career wise. Any scholar who puts their neck on the line but claiming they actually believe in the supernatural will soon lose cred, funding, prestige, etc. You're underestimating the power of the institutions and the intellectual traditions they represent. If you talk to some scholars privately, they might be willing to admit more than they can publicly claim in their works.

I prefer to read into the works of paranormal researchers because they don't really pay lip service to the mainstream institutions, yet many of them still follow scientific processes.

 

[Mysterie]

check out daniel ingram's 'mastering the core teachings of the buddha' if you are actually interested in a decent map of awakening. he speaks from direct experience with truth and has a no bs approach to talking about spirituality. he is not a scholar, but i would say he is an intellectual, why do you need it to be scholarly for it to validate it as worthwhile? scholars a really boring to me, how does spending all your time reading other people's work and writing give someone experiential wisdom?

this is the book (pdf) which he offers for free on his website

i am reading it atm and it is really a revelation

 

[Ransom itch]

Haha my doors, please do go to www.mindblowingdecisions.com and download the free PDF. I really do belive this will be a helpful read.

 

[swilow]

^Rather then spam your website () why don't you post here the parts that are relevant? I sure don't want to read the entire document, so perhaps you could highlight parts you think MDAO would benefit from?

So here's my question at the bottom of all this: Is it too much to ask to find a scholar willing to take a good hard analytical look at man's search for Something Greater, from a psychological or anthropological or evolutionary or philosophical perspective, who him/herself still sincerely walks that path? Or am I asking for a contradiction in terms? In other words, does it take someone who has no horse in a race, to be able to see the race clearly and objectively?

I think you are correct, but I would add something. It would appear that, using the scientific method to examine the supernatural, not much of a positive conclusion can be drawn. Much of science essentially denies the existence of such things, or atleast cannot find physical evidence. Thus, it comes back to faith or belief and science has no way to quantify such things. If something 'supernatural' can be examined and described mathematically/scientifically, it is no longer supernatural (I think). If it can be quantified, so it is and enters the realm of human knowledge.

FWIW, I don't know what I think. I am sure there is much more to our existence but I cannot prove that. Given that, I've quit trying to do so.

I think sekio made a good point, that there is a lot of social pressure on scientists to remain scientific. Speculation about the unprovable is counter to what most scientists attempt to do.

MDAO, I wanted to ask you- what are you thinking about when you refer to the supernatural or paranormal here? Ghosts? God? Immaculate conception? If you could clarify, that would be excellent....

 

[Ransom itch]

Willow11 says

Rather then spam your website, why don't you post here the parts that are relevant? I sure don't want to read the entire document, so perhaps you could highlight parts you think MDAO would benefit from?

Sorry Willow, I will clarify but first, please, Im not spamming my website. Spamming would be ramming everybody's inbox with the link. MDAO pleae go to the last 3 chapters beginnining with 'Our Age of Enblightemment' the text cannot be grabbed for copyright reasons.

 

[noone1]

What do you mean by supernatural? If you are looking for someone who takes an objective unbiased view of things such as ghosts and comes to the conclusion that it's real or might be just because "there are things we can't explain" you won't find one as true science is based on hard evidence. Sure for instance there might be an invisible flying teapot circling the sun that can evade all current or future method of detection, anything is possible.

Now mysticism is a different story. But a mystic wouldn't label their experiences as "supernatural" which is a misnomer anyways, if it is capable of happening it is natural. The true mystic does not care about labels and will happily admit it probably is all illusion, placebo and self delusion on this level of reality while at the same time insisting all this is solid proof of the divine.