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Why the Paranormal is Normal

Deepak Chopra - July 17, 2008

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question:
Polls routinely show that 75 percent of Americans hold some form of belief in the paranormal such as astrology, telepathy and ghosts. All religions contain beliefs in the supernatural. Is there a link? What’s the difference?

In general, it's fair to say that the popular belief in the paranormal falls outside the official picture of reality. The official picture is grounded in science, rationalism, and materialism. It takes a definition of "natural," after all, before "supernatural" can exist. God was natural in the medieval world, and thus miracles, healings, apparitions of the Virgin Mary, stigmatics, and so on, were considered natural. At the moment, it doesn't matter how many people believe in the supernatural. Until the official picture changes, astrology is bogus, astronomy is legitimate. Ghosts are bogus, apparitions of the Virgin Mary are -- well, that's the rub. Religious people are allowed to cling to a different model of reality, tolerated by the official gatekeepers but not believed in. This gives rise to the curious phenomenon of religious scientists, who manage to hold on to two totally conflicting worldviews at the same time.

Any of us can hold conflicting viewpoints at the same time -- it's called compartmentalization. If the various compartments are tight enough and separated by thick walls, a whole range of phenomena can be believed in without making them consistent. I can imagine a cell biologist who is Catholic, has seen a UFO, reads the astrology column in the newspaper, and hopes to go to Heaven when he dies. It would be far better, however, to promote a consistent worldview, one that allows the walls to come down so that official reality might open up to unofficial reality. And vice versa, since popular belief in certain kinds of totally unproven folk cures, for example, can do harm, just as the official insistence on pharmaceuticals and surgery does its own brand of harm at times.

The only consistent worldview that I've ever discovered places all phenomena, natural and supernatural, on the ground of consciousness. The noted Australian neurologist Sir John Eccles pointed out a truth that materialists, including both scientists and ordinary people, don't remotely grasp. There is no sight or sound 'out there' in the world, Eccles declared, no touch or taste, no beauty or ugliness, no sensation of light or objects. All these things are created in subjectivity, which is to say, they exist only in consciousness. The fact that your hand seems solid is an illusion. A neutrino passes through the entire Earth without encountering an obstacle. Every atom in your hand is 99.9999% empty space. Measured in proportion, the distance between the electrons and nucleus of an atom is greater than the distance between the Earth and the sun. At the next level of reality, atoms disappear into energy waves and then into pure potential, the ghostly state of so-called virtual reality. Only perception makes a hand solid. and perceptions are interlinked to create the world you and I inhabit, so that color, light, sound, smell, solidity, etc. all fit together.

In my view, paranormal events are neither fringe nor unreal. They are simply things not yet admitted into consciousness by our official belief system. Reality has this curious habit of keeping certain things under wraps until the human mind is willing to look at them, and then all at once they appear, changing the world when they do. Germs and gravity were once waiting in the wings but now stand center stage. In ancient India, astrology was center stage and now has retreated again, for the coming and going of phenomena works both ways.

Even so, consciousness never retreats. In the darkest ages, people know that they are aware, and from that basic premise they create a personal reality, and when enough individuals agree, then collective reality comes about. Trying to base common reality sheerly on material objects has been wildly successful in the West, but that means little about ultimate reality, which transcends individuals and groups. In the ultimate reality there is only pure consciousness, which can be conceived of as the modeling clay or box of paints that Nature provides, adding the simple instruction: Use as you please.

www.deepakchopra.com

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/

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Posted by Deepak Chopra at July 17, 2008 03:39 PM

Comments

Extraordinary
Stupified after effects
NOT of my doing

1. Posted by Keith on July 17, 2008 04:32 PM

Mermaids want butlers
Dark Knights need but one Joker
Trees talk me, too

2. Posted by Keith on July 17, 2008 04:41 PM

How becoming?

3. Posted by Ed on July 18, 2008 02:44 AM

You noticed?

4. Posted by Keith on July 18, 2008 03:17 AM

Last night there was war
Gods stealing thunder from each
What other gods want

5. Posted by Keith on July 18, 2008 03:22 AM

What is Normal to most is what the material senses tell them is real.

These same senses can very easily be cheated by very simple tactics; yet people still hold them as the only solid test of reality.

When you have some real understanding; nothing is paranormal because one already knows that Normal is just a point of view and all that exists is the divine.

Love

Simon xx

6. Posted by Simon_Freejohn on July 18, 2008 06:05 AM

Very well said Simon...thats very exiting, yup!

7. Posted by Tammy on July 18, 2008 06:11 AM

Aloha Deepak and Everyone

I liked what the quote Trish gave of Shaman, Sandra Ingerman,
"Alchemists did not actually change lead into gold. The practice of alchemy was about changing lead consciousness into gold light consciousness." The paranormal/consciousness becomes exciting as it has the possibilities of being inclusive of being abducted by aliens, having hybrid children, parallel universes, the many world concepts and doing not only past life regressions but paragressions. As Jesus has shared "And you will do more."

Now they have found new scrolls, where the Hebrews prophecy that the savior would liberate through suffering. Extreme sports, create the paranormal through suffering, climbing a mountain where a loose rock could mean death to everyone connected.. experience a formless form pulling on the rope beneath them. I find this is true, in witnessing a loved one making their transition from a physical body, a body that is no longer functioning in a healthy way, they too, experience the paranormal through suffering.

I had a wonderful dream where I died, and woke with the feeling of knowing the angels are coming as I had seen them. It helps living with the heart inside out in witnessing suffering. I am able to love where the other is without expectation. The paranormal is the timeless realm of delightful uncertainty as the angels are streaming through the IB video screens as the unseen in the written posts:) love patty

8. Posted by patty on July 18, 2008 06:11 AM

#4 Err? for war I read peace, kind sir. Such is my inherent ambiguity.

'How-becoming' a sum-up to Deepak. Am I off?

9. Posted by Ed on July 18, 2008 07:24 AM

#8 Great post Patty. I enjoyed very much.

I can relate to the normal and paranormal...is that normal? LOL Both are two sides of the same coin.

All things appear in consciousness...yet consciousness is not the absolut in my opinion. As Maharaja points out there is "something" that gives rise to consciousness....and "that" he calls awareness...to me God.

God is neither "normal nor paranormal" yet both and beyond.

10. Posted by VivianAmis on July 18, 2008 07:33 AM

Dear Dr. Chopra,

Regarding the subject of what is today termed, the "paranormal" I would like to reference some writings of Edgar Cayce (from the July, 1982 A.R.E. Journal). This regards the story about Jacob wrestling all night with an angel of the Lord in the form of a man - (from the Bible). In the morning, the angel agreed to bless his worthy opponent, giving to the persevering Jacob a new name: Israel. It signified one who has prevailed "as a prince" and has "power with God and with men." Jacob, in turn, "called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." There is mention that the reference to "Peniel" may be of a symbolic character only signifying "one who has seen God face to face." There may also be an esoteric correspondence with the pineal gland, seat of the Christed Consciousness.

The Master too, appeared only to those who were spiritually ready to receive Him in their hearts, in their understanding; and although present in the flesh, it was in the Spirit that He made Himself known to them.

The reference to "..those that seek His face" seems to hark back to the true meaning of Israel (one who has power with God and with men). Also, it hints at the even higher significance of Peniel - pineal - that place where one "meets God face to face."

I believe that there is much esoteric teaching to be found in the Bible and it is given in such a way as to be available to those who have gained a higher level of spiritual understanding than have those who are unaware of higher spiritual laws. The reference to the pineal gland is significant because the pineal is the seat of psychic (soul) awareness.

Best Wishes,

"Betsy" S.

11. Posted by "Betsy" S. on July 18, 2008 12:28 PM

My bad, Ed. I was thinking satire in #5.

We did actually have thunderstorms last night,
but it was all for show, as little rain fell at the time.

Paranormal is not a normal happening, what the hex was the biggest D thinking?

To anyone with experience it's a no-brainer. I hope "Betsy" S. is a BTDT.

I know patty is. On Tammy? I'm clueless...sorta like Diablo's case.

Are you first born? Only child? I'm a second, therefore me2watson.

If I got too deep, let TREE know. Too absurd? Don't tell K :~)

12. Posted by Keith on July 18, 2008 05:30 PM

Dr. Chopra: Very well said! I have believed in precisely the same thing - that miracles and "divine acts" are the talk of ignorant.. those who have not yet understood the "science" of consciousness. At the Consciousness level there is no such thing as miracle or mundane. It is all the same.

Cheers,
Desh

13. Posted by Desh kapoor on July 19, 2008 11:54 AM

I was very taken by the paragraph about the Australian neurologist Dr. John Eccles whose claim that there is no sight, no sound, nothing but consciousness. There is no beauty, no ugly, only consciousness. That paragraph alone makes me think of the question about a tree falling in a forest when none is around to hear it.

In a truly unconscious state, such as many who suffer to live so long in comas, does that mean that life simply does not exist at all for them?

Without the human race, would the consciousness of all that is around them be known only to the dinosaurs?

This is a very perplexing viewpoint in my opinion.

Because of humanity, one becomes conscious of so many things...but it is all really nothing at all but an illusion...

Perhaps that why creation created mankind, to bring consciousness into being. Just pondering...

14. Posted by arizonasunset on July 19, 2008 12:11 PM

What is gravity? (I hear a tree fall)
Is consciousness levity? (I hear that which resists falling)
What is equilibrium? (I resist falling)
How do I resist falling? ( I stand up for myself. 100%)

15. Posted by Ed on July 19, 2008 02:34 PM

Hi Dr. Chopra,
I just heard you speak at Comic-Con today. What a fabulous conversation you guys had and it's relevant to this topic. You discussed how human consciousness is limitless. We have unlimited possibilities. Paranormal or normal--it is all possible.

My question, which I did not get to ask today, was about whether our society will allow for a "super hero" or someone who reaches beyond the socially approved possibilities of what it means to be human? Or would we call this person a "freak" or sue them or have the press discredit them and dig up every piece of dirt on the person? There are a few who are reaching to be "more" but when will society not only accept this but strive for it?

My regards,
Melinda Pajak

16. Posted by mpajak on July 27, 2008 09:58 PM

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