Psychic Powers

How can we harness them?

I want to begin an exploration of psychic and paranormal phenomena (Psi) based on what I have experienced directly, supported by my reading and research. I find this one of the most important — and most neglected — subjects. It remains a taboo area, for reasons I will also explore. I would love to hear from readers who have thoughts and ideas on this subject, either in comments or they can write me directly, if they prefer.

As readers know by now, I agree with the philosopher Bernardo Kastrup and others, who postulate that consciousness, not matter, is what the universe is made of. As Kastrup puts it, reality, in itself, is “mental in nature.” (Check out my interview with him here). This model, called “analytic” or “monistic” idealism, allows for all kinds of psychic or paranormal effects. In fact, it suggests that the power of Psi (if we could harness it) has no upper limit.

One of my theories is that the ecological, geo-political crisis we have unleashed could function as a collective initiation, forcing a shift or mutation into a different state of consciousness. I suspect that part of this shift requires a rediscovery of our psychic capacities. This is the part of the new psychedelic renaissance that most interests me — not the reductive focus on therapy via commercialized applications. (However, esoteric traditions almost universally agree on the danger of using entheogens or narcotics to accelerate psychic or spiritual progress, for good reasons.)

Psi is not as easy to observe and track as regular, scientifically defined phenomena because psi effects, by their nature, are not repeatable and verifiable. In fact, with research into areas of Psi like telepathy and precognition, there is a tendency for initial experiments to show a strong correlation initially, while repeats of the exact same experiments show a smaller effect. This is called “the decline effect” in parapsychology, and has been well-documented since the 1930s.

This makes no sense in terms of the traditional scientific method. But it is perfectly sensible when we realize that the power of Psi generates from particular charged circumstances, in unique ways.