We are conditioned from infancy to beileve in the paranormal from Lazarus to the Tooth Fairy. This creates a self-feeding cycle of belief in the actual, demonstrable existence of the paranormal. Science has been unable to verify these belief systems with any hard data.
Religion, routed in ancient folk lore, promotes this belief in external, seemingly magical interventions in our lives by unexplainable forces. It's a great way to draw people in. It's a great way to intimidate people to stay. It's a great way to scare people into silence. It can also be highly profitable.
I have found that erasing the blackboards of religion and superstition in my mind has allowed me, through the study of science, to experience an awe in the face of existence which far surpasses the wonder I once experienced as an ignorant believer. The mere fact of human consciousness of the Universe and its workings is itself a truly staggering wonder, when I look at the history and science of it.
Yet, I know from my own personal experience that certain phenoma have not been adequately understood, investigated or explained by Science. Do I need to relegate these experiences to superstition or some psychological dysfunction? Or, can I simply accept that the basis of all good science is an initial admission of ignorance of the unexplored or the immessurable by current devises?
I am averse to the adoption of Science as a new religion. In the way I see humanism as a process, an individual practice and responsibility, I see learning, of which science is a part, as a personal practice and responsibility. What is Science today can be seen as benighted folly tomorrow. Yet, the scientific method, like humanist practice of mindfulness, compassion and meditation, is a vital and changing thing, a process. I believe in learning and the process of change, tested by experience and scientific method, as part of a humanist practice.
Being open to what life offers is an amazingly renewing and difficult part of my daily practice as I age. Accepting change means accepting aging and eventual death, the natural process of life. Yet, defending against change closes the shutters to the very breath of life and stifles the spirit. This is part of the middle path, as I tread it, while trying to maintain balance and livelihood.
My self-adopted challenge, while actively working within my own present consciousness with humanist mindfulness within human society, is also to be more like a drop of water which does not worry whether it is part of a puddle, a stream, a river or an ocean. It is all that water is in itself. Yet, it can effortlessly merge into the massive force water can be. To be able to live in the present with this consciousness does not require a miracle. It requires moment-by-moment hard work, which I call practice.
