“Our great war is a spiritual war.” – Fight Club
Does a llama think the end of the world is called the Alpacalypse?
Generally, around holidays, I let my remaining seven strands of hair down and allow a post or two to deviate a bit from the normal categories. Why? Because we live in a world where often unusual ideas will eventually be found to be true, and I like to ask, from time to time, “What if?”
Enjoy!
Just as the pendulum of society has oscillated to the GloboLeft position (and, is oscillating back to the TradRight as we speak) there has been an oscillation of the way people think about the world.
Now, I would suggest, Western Civilization is at another peak: peak materialism. By materialism, I mean not that people are into material goods (even though they are) but that the entire focus is that there is a material explanation for everything, including why Kamala Harris exists.
Ever notice that Tom Cruise has one tooth in the middle of his face? Now you’ll never be able to unsee it.
This isn’t a revelation to anyone in the West, since this is what we’ve been dealing with for the majority of our lives. We have a mechanistic determinism that says that everything has an explanation, and that those explanations are all based in some sort of material, physical, phenomenon.
I used to play rugby, back in the day (prop) and our coach would, during practice, say “bad luck!” when someone goofed up. My immediate thought was, no, that wasn’t bad luck, the player goofed up. But was I right?
Well, if the world had taken a slightly different turn, the ball a different bounce, the opponent a different line, maybe the decision the player made would have been the right one. Perhaps, then, there is a place for luck.
What’s the difference between a teabag and the American Rugby World Cup team? The teabag stays in the cup longer.
And I do believe in luck. Part of is because my life has been an extraordinarily lucky one. And, no, not the “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity” definition, but “How is that stupid SOB so lucky?”
Okay, that’s a sample size of one, and the average scientist would say that’s just one data point, and not a series. But, it’s not: a series of improbable events in a single lifetime isn’t just one datapoint, it’s a series of them.
But what about actual studies that show phenomena that are far outside of the real of anything science can explain?
This one (LINK) shows that 90 experiments across 33 labs in 14 countries have shown that precognition exists. What’s precognition? That’s knowing the outcome of a future event, before the event occurs.
What kind of event? Well, one study that I read used sensors on someone viewing a computer screen. The screen would show random images, most of which were rather dull. Occasionally, though, the screen would an emotionally charged picture – think nudity or an accident victim, meant to be a “shocking” picture. The sensors recorded (in general) things like increased heartrate and increase blood pressure before the emotionally charged images showed up onscreen.
I went to a swimwear store and asked them if I could “Try on the bathing suit in the front window.” They told me I’d have to use a changing room.
The subjects “knew” subconsciously that something was up and their bodies reacted.
Now, I can certainly come up with several ideas from quantum physics that might allow for this time-reversed phenomenon, you know, when effect happens before cause. But people before, say 1900, would have just said that precognition was part of life – from the ancient Greeks to the prophecies of the Bible, precognition was just accepted as a part of reality – one that couldn’t be explained.
I’ve even had weird, precognitive dreams about odd events. One time when I was in seventh grade, I awoke, laughing. Why? Because someone had stolen the lock off of my school locker, but left the valuable stuff inside. I found it really humorous that someone would just steal the lock.
The next day? After fourth period (the period immediately after I’d told my math teacher the humorous story) the lock was . . . gone. My stuff? There.
I can’t understand kids these days and their overwhelming Axe®-scents.
Certainly, it could be a coincidence. But the odd perfection of the dream and the reality was jarring. I’ve had other dreams that came true as well. Most have been relatively boring things, and, certainly I’m not above calling them coincidences.
However, .gov, (in conjunction with the Stanford Research Institute) created a project for remote viewing – clairvoyance, where they created a program that produced (according to some sources) actionable information and according to at least one independent statistician were clearly 5-15% above random chance.
Those are just two examples of potential phenomena that exist outside of our ability to explain using purely material descriptions. And, no, I’m not wedded to the idea that those phenomena exist, but that would certainly be the simplest explanation for several events in my life. But, I am a committed Christian, so obviously I have the belief in things that have and always will be beyond the understanding of men.
And, again, before 1900 or so, the vast majority of people in all civilizations all over the world would have agreed that while there is the material plane of existence, but there is also the spiritual plane of existence, with as much (if not much more) relevance to our daily lives than the physical.
I like Chihuahuas, but not enough to eat a whole one.
One thing I’ve learned during my life, is to understand that there’s a lot that I’ll never understand, but that I do think that there is far, far more to our lives than just materialism. Heck, if I had a dime for every time I thought about materialism, I could probably afford some Gucci™ socks.
