Why scientists should be more open-minded about the paranormal

Although many aspects of the universe remain, in large part, a mystery, scientific discoveries have managed to put together numerous pieces of the complex puzzle of our very existence. Today it’s pretty much safe to say science has saved civilization from the perils of the ignorance that has pervaded much of human history.

Well, for the most part.

After many years of geologic observation and careful scientific analysis, we now know that the Earth is not the center of the universe, that it is most likely around 4.55 billion years old and that the universe is expanding every second. Only a few centuries ago, anyone who embraced these notions would’ve been accused of heresy and possibly even tortured and burned at the stake.

There’s no doubt living in the 21st century has its perks.

But even with all the empirical evidence at hand, millions of people throughout the world continue to believe our planet and the universe itself are only a few thousand years old and that a mythical being created everything in existence.

And although organized religion appears to be receding in many parts of the world, unverifiable and unlikely beliefs are still widely embraced, such as the idea that “everything happens for a reason” or “what goes around comes around”, or that everyone has a guardian angel, etc.

I personally find it hard to believe there is some magical order in the world that makes sure good always prevails in the end, or that everybody has a guardian angel looking over their shoulder, especially when we consider that every single day 25,000 people, including 10,000 children, die of hunger and related diseases throughout the world.

Of course, we can’t forget about all the other tragedies that take place on a regular basis (death, destruction and suffering because of car accidents, building collapses, floods, tornadoes, heatwaves etc.) If everything happens for a reason and what goes around comes around, then we must infer that all those who are suffering deserve what they are getting.

This alone is a good reason to assume that if there is some magical force behind everything, be it God or angels or karma, perhaps it is not so benevolent. Or perhaps it doesn’t exist at all, and such beliefs are nothing more than human constructs to ease the pain of living in a scary, chaotic and confusing world with no real purpose or meaning.

Many people, especially scientists, often package religious and superstitious beliefs together with any beliefs that science has yet to explain. If you even believe in the remotest possibility of what can be interpreted as aliens or ghosts or some form of life after death, then you must also believe that “everything happens for a reason” or that everyone has a guardian angel.

The problem with this train of thinking is it completely dismisses, and often ridicules, other possibilities that may actually be more than just possibilities. For example, as far as science can explain, when we die that’s it, it’s over, end of story. Anyone who believes otherwise should join the religious fanatics who belong in the 16th century.

Are there legitimate studies on the paranormal?

But here’s where things get interesting. The world-ranked, credible, and highly respected University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, actually has its own division dedicated to the study of paranormal phenomena, called the Division of Perceptual Studies.

This department has spent decades researching what is called the “transfer of consciousness”, a much more scientific euphemism for reincarnation, and has made numerous mind-boggling discoveries that are extremely difficult to debunk. And not all scientists go out of their way to ridicule such findings.

According to a 2014 article in The Atlantic, the father of quantum physics, Max Planck, “saw merit in the possibility of a physical realm derived from the non-physical”, what we know as consciousness.

Even the king of skepticism himself, Carl Sagan, once said that “the phenomenon of children reporting details of a previous life, which upon checking turn out to be accurate and which they could not have known about in any other way than reincarnation is an area of parapsychological research deserving of serious study.”

Regarding the more than 3,000 “past life” case reports carried out by Ian Stevenson, the founder of the Division of Perceptual Studies (who died in 2007), Jesse Bering, Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said the following in a 2013 article in Scientific American:

“I’d be happy to say it’s all complete and utter nonsense — a moldering cesspool of irredeemable, anti-scientific drivel. The trouble is, it’s not entirely apparent to me that it is. So why aren’t scientists taking Stevenson’s data more seriously? The data don’t ‘fit’ our working model of materialistic brain science, surely. But does our refusal to even look at his findings, let alone to debate them, come down to our fear of being wrong? ‘The wish not to believe,’ Stevenson once said, ‘can influence as strongly as the wish to believe.’”

Extraterrestrial visitors

Last month (June 2021) the U.S government released a nine-page report to congress and the general public. The report describes 144 observations, most of which come from U.S Navy personnel, including pilots, of what the government has dubbed UAP’s, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, basically the government’s more sophisticated and less taboo way of saying UFO’s. The reports of such sightings, many of which have also been recorded by numerous military cameras from the sky and the ground, date back to 2004.

According to a recent article in Reuters titled Watershed U.S UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin: “the report marked a turning point for the U.S. government after the military spent decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and ‘flying saucers’ dating back to the 1940s.”

The Pentagon has also released videos from military flight crew showing unidentified aircraft “exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies and lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight-control surfaces.”

Only one of the cases was found to be a large, deflating balloon. The other 143 cases remain unexplained. Some say it may be Russian or Chinese technology, but if the US government really suspected its foes of possessing such otherworldly technology, I think it would’ve been discovered by the CIA years ago, leading to fresh tensions that may have resulted in a kind of futuristic, dystopian cold war like no other, or something much worse.

And yet, considering the compelling evidence, pop science superstars like Niel Degrasse Tyson and Lawrence Krauss, both experts in physics and cosmology, continue to express doubt and even ridicule the idea that advanced extraterrestrial lifeforms have been visiting our planet.

Krauss recently posted an article titled “Whatever It Is, It Ain’t Aliens”, where he argues that it is virtually impossible for alien lifeforms to come to Earth from so far away, and suggest the 143 unidentified cases of space objects making radical turns, many of which were caught on radar, numerous military cameras and analyzed by trained experts, are simply “natural atmospheric phenomenon.”

He goes on to say aliens would have no interest in visiting humans on Earth and that it would be easier for them to just observe us from a telescope. One can speculate that if humans had the same ambitions as Krauss’ lazy aliens, we should also be satisfied with simply observing mars by telescope instead of actually sending aircraft and robots there, as we’ve been doing for quite some time now.

The thing is Krauss (whose work I generally admire, by the way) does not even make an attempt to delve into the details of the cases in mention. He should at least provide an in-depth hypothesis of what they probably are or how “weather phenomena” can totally trick hundreds of highly trained and experienced military aviation pilots, and cameras, and radars, into believing they are seeing, or recording, something well beyond the realm of our current technological abilities.

The big picture

On June 15, 2020, a study by the University of Nottingham, published in The Astrophysical Journal, revealed that there could be “over 30 active communicating intelligent civilizations in our home galaxy” alone. Now consider the fact that there are trillions of galaxies in the universe, or more than we could possibly fathom, let alone quantify with our existing numeric system.

Now consider the fact that humans share about 99% of our DNA with chimps. Yet while we’ve built skyscrapers and sent humans into outer space, chimpanzees’ most sophisticated feat is perhaps their ability to use sticks and stones as tools, or for fun. Nothing more.

That 1% divergence in DNA might mean the difference between the ability to hurl a stone at a tree and the ability to deliver robots to Mars.

Unless we are truly special, like the Bible has led us to believe all these years, there may be an endless array of life in the universe, some of which may be more intelligent than we are.

To assume space travel from enormous distances is “impossible”, as Lawrence Krauss suggests, may be akin to the smartest chimp explaining to other members of his species how it’s impossible for humans to travel in a large grey object 35,000 feet above sea level and go from Buenos Aires to Paris in less than 12 hours. Those objects they see in the sky from the tops of the jungle trees are actually just large grey birds.

Why is the scientific community so closed-minded?

Thanks to science, we can now make many statements with a high degree of certainty. We now have undeniable proof that the Earth is a sphere because we have satellites in outer space, and we can certainly say with the highest degree of confidence that human activities are altering the Earth’s atmosphere, and that we can slow the spread of pandemics with the right vaccines.

But we’ve really only found a fraction of the pieces of the puzzle that makes up reality as a whole, something we as a species are often reluctant to admit.

Even though many scientists claim that the most valuable trait a scientist can have is an open mind and understanding that they don’t understand everything, this is often not the case, especially when egos are involved.

When a public figure has built their entire career and reputation on being skeptical of anything considered to be outside the realm of the rigidly established scientific principles they have learned, it’s very difficult to admit they may have been wrong about something, or that there are some things that were never fully understood in the first place.

In today’s social media-driven world, where some of the most unhinged conspiracy theories -from the flat-earth movement to the anti-vax crusade to outright pandemic denial- have been given a platform, the world has become more polarized, and confused, than ever.

For this reason, today’s mainstream scientists feel driven to appear as “rational” as possible to avoid being associated with any of the unfounded belief systems prevailing in modern-day society.

As was mentioned earlier, understanding reality is like putting together the pieces of an extremely complex puzzle. After years of trial and error, careful analysis and sharing of information, we’ve managed to get a lot of it right, but just because we can’t understand how some of the pieces fit doesn’t mean we should deny those pieces ever existed in the first place.

If you are any way fascinated with all things related to the paranormal, feel free to pick up a copy of my fiction novel, The Shadow in the Mirror, and find out what’s actually going on with Harold Hopkins.

Harold’s only wish is to lead a normal life. Yet for reasons he can’t comprehend, he is shunned by all living things. No matter how hard he tries, he is unable to garner attention from the woman he loves, nor can he foster genuine friendships or find a decent job. Meanwhile, since childhood he has been haunted by his own reflection in the mirror, which frequently acts as a window to another world. The person on the other side is everything Harold wishes he could be, like a clone of himself leading the fruitful life he was destined to lead. He finally sets off in search of answers, where he learns about the unearthly events that took place when he was born, and discovers the tantalizing truth about his own existence…