A Short History of (Nearly) Everything Paranormal by Terje G. Simonsen

Author:Terje G. Simonsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786784087
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2020-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Eastern Perspectives

Eastern philosophies have in the main included the various types of psi phenomena. This is linked to the holistic approach prevalent in both Chinese and Indian thought. Many readers probably know of Taoism (tao is often translated as ‘way,’ ‘mode,’ ‘law of life,’ etc., referring to nature’s intrinsic harmony). The key concepts here are yin and yang, which represent the eternal counterpoints that complement and interact with each other within life’s great symphony: passivity/activity, contraction/expansion, night/day, death/life, etc. The symbol of Taoism, which is often depicted on jewelry of the ‘hippie kind,’ is two drop-shaped figures, one black and one white, inscribed in a circle. This expresses that opposites are closely interlinked with one other, and are involved in continuous exchanges. The person who cooperates with this flux—often referred to as the supreme person—through the attentive and meditative attitude called Wu Wei (effortless action, active non-action), will, according to tradition, elevate his/her consciousness and gain control over the chi, the life force, and hence will be able to perform healing, telekinesis and other ‘miracles’ (which are taken to be the natural activities of an expanded consciousness). The central text in Taoism, the Tao Te Ching from around 600 BCE, also describes the strong telepathic influence exerted by the person who is in harmony with tao and has an expanded consciousness: ‘When the right person is sitting at the right place and is thinking the right thoughts, it can be felt more than a thousand miles away!’

Within the Indian tradition the holistic mindset is beautifully expressed by the metaphor of the Net of Indra, the God-King. Imagine an infinitely large golden fishing net with lots of parallel layers where each node in the yarn is a facet-cut jewel, and in its facets every jewel reflects the entire net with all the other jewels. This symbolizes how absolutely all things, objects and entities in the whole wide world—consciousness and nature, humans and gods, galaxies and grains of sand—are connected to each other and interact through myriads and myriads of relationships. In most branches of Buddhism and Hinduism consciousness is thought to be the driving force in these exchanges, while matter is on a lower level; it is sometimes conceived to be a kind of ‘frozen’ consciousness—approximately as ice is frozen water. The person who through yoga and meditation acquires control of his/her consciousness will therefore—according to the theory—be less enslaved by material restrictions than ordinary people. This is elaborated on in the 196 classic yoga sutras (aphorisms) compiled around 400 CE by the philosopher Patanjali. Here we are instructed in techniques for developing siddhis, i.e. paranormal abilities. The treatise explains how one can achieve knowledge of past and future events, knowledge of what is hidden and remote, knowledge of other people’s thoughts, how to perform levitation, and other extraordinary skills. We immediately recognize that these are abilities of the psi-type, which in parapsychology would be referred to respectively as post- and precognition, clairvoyance, telepathy and psychokinesis.

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