This is the next installment in my series of articles describing illusions deeply embedded in our modern view of the world. In earlier articles I have shown how the methods of science can be quite effectively turned toward topics considered spiritual and thus thought to be outside the purview of science. Research studies that meet the highest scientific standards have demonstrated beyond any doubt that average people can gather useful information about distant locations and events in ways that completely transcend distance and time limitations. Thus, this research has conclusively shown that the human mind is much more powerful than we have ever considered possible.
As we progress through these articles, we are developing a new (for many readers, at least), broader perspective showing how many of our most fundamental assumptions about the nature of our world are mistaken. Each new insight not only adds to the others, it also increases our confidence in them as they demonstrate an incredible consistency that could not possibly be just a coincidence. We will now move on to a group of scientific anomalies I have lumped together under the category of “remote influence.” It includes the human ability to heal other people, animals and plants without any physical contact with them, and even mentally impacting the function of mechanical devices without any physical mediators to facilitate the process.
If you have not already read them, the first four articles of this series will help a lot in getting the full benefit of this one. (At the end of this article, I have placed links to the earlier articles.) Next, if you haven’t done so already, you should read the document in the header, above, entitled Remote Influence book chapter. This chapter presents research by scientists of the Stanford Research Institute and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Department that show that we can change the function of mechanical devices with only our mental intent to do so. It also briefly summarizes many of the studies involving healing solely by human intent, without any physical contact with those healed.
With this preparation out of the way, let’s now consider how the many studies of what I am calling “remote influence” fit into the picture of the world I am portraying. If you are like me, when you first looked at the remote viewing studies (from the previous articles), as a group, you may have been tempted to view the human research subjects (remote viewers) as merely receivers of information that somehow radiates out from the physical phenomena that comprise our world. In this way of looking at what is going on, we would be perceivers of non-physical data being sent out everywhere by everything. Remote viewing, then, would be like selecting out a small portion of this enormous amount of data to put into drawings or words as directed by the research protocols. In this scenario, our “remote viewing” connection to the world would be like our connection to each other as we talk on a radio with another person, provided that our radio is tuned to the proper frequency.
Now, with results of the remote influence studies, we see that our minds are not just receivers; we are able to reach out beyond our location in space and time and impact events in the world we have no physical contact with. We are given clear and conclusive evidence of how powerful the human mind actually is. Since there are no known limits to which events we can target, we can focus our intent anywhere we want, at any time we choose, and have a measurable impact on the objects of our focus. So not only can we gather information in this way through remote viewing, we can impact the external world in the ways demonstrated through these remote influence studies.
Beyond this power to act within the world, this research also demonstrates that everything is connected in some mysterious, invisible way. If we can gather information from any location at will, and we can also impact any event at will, our minds serve as a connecting locus for everything in the universe. Of course it is very likely that the connection is far more extensive than this, but this much is proven by the research reviewed here. We have clear evidence to support both what modern physicists have been saying and what mystics have said throughout the ages. Everything and everyone is invisibly connected. That we can ever be completely isolated is also an illusion we can add to those disclosed earlier.
We also see that our natural assumption that we are totally dependent on and limited to the confines of our body is wrong. Instead, our perceptive capacity and our ability to alter the world’s events extend out from us to anywhere we choose, completely independent of our physical location in the world. Who we are actually extends out into the world, apparently without any limits. What we are is far more than just a flesh and blood body. We are conclusively shown, through well designed and carefully performed scientific research, that the belief that our mind is just a product of our physical body is also just an illusion.
This seems like a good spot to summarize the illusions presented so far in this series, but instead of presenting them as illusions, I will state them as the truths the scientific research discloses and confirms beyond any reasonable doubt.
1. Something exists in our universe beyond physical matter and forces.
2. At least some of our religious and spiritual beliefs can be studied by
science.
3. The spiritual domain is continuously active in all physical events; it is all one
system.
4. Everyone and everything is always invisibly connected.
5. Our minds extend out beyond our bodies in an unlimited fashion.
This is where we are so far in this series of articles. I believe that if you find these ideas compelling, you will truly see the world through new eyes. This is only the beginning, there is much more.
Chuck
Return to Home Page
The previous articles in this series:
1. Is the world real or is it an illusion?
2. The Illusion of an Exclusively Material Universe
3. Using Scientific Tools to Study Spiritual Questions
4. Three Illusions Misleading Modern Society
Links to the book chapters:
Science and Spirit 