Limits of scientific method

By Jaime Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE WAY PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY IN THE Western world, look at the nature of reality, which is based almost solely on what science regards as real, has long been in need of some rethinking, if not revision.

I want to make it clear at the outset, however, that I am not against science and I’m not referring here to the scientific method, with which I have no quarrel. I do not think that we can improve on the methodology of science as far as validating physical reality is concerned. It is already perfect and one can add nothing more to it.

It has proven its value or effectiveness for centuries. Were it not for science, people would probably still be living in caves and dying at the age of 30.

However Western orthodox science has ignored a great deal of other realities and human experiences because it is based on the following unstated assumptions:

1. Our knowledge of the outside world is derived only from our physical senses.

2. All qualitative properties can be reduced to quantitative ones.

3. There is a clear distinction between the objective world and subjective experience.

4. The mind cannot exert any influence on the physical world.

5. What we call consciousness or awareness is only a secondary phenomenon or result of physical biochemical process.

6. We can only know the present moment and cannot foretell future events, except that which can be predicted from known causes and past historical data.

7. Individual consciousness does not survive death. Therefore spirits or so-called ghosts do not and cannot exist in reality.

The above assumptions underlying the scientific method have become the only accepted means by which reality of anything is validated and accepted by scientists. Everything else outside of these is imaginary or devoid of objective and independent existence.

The main problem with mainstream scientific method is that its assumptions are true or correct only as it pertains to physical reality. It does not include the nonphysical world. That is its main limitation.

And when scientists try to apply the scientific experimental method to things other than the physical, they get into trouble in trying to explain them rationally. It is like a child who jumps from a tall building using an umbrella as parachute. He falls to the ground dead. Why? He was using the wrong instrument or tool outside of what it was intended for.

Similarly, when scientists try to explain rationally how natives of Fiji Islands, for example, can walk on extremely hot rows of molten lava rocks, six feet long, three-feet wide and three-feet deep, without being burned, they get into some logical quandary.

It has been explained by scientists that the reason the natives are not hurt is because they have developed very strong sweat glands that get activated when they step into molten lava, thereby cooling it. Or they may have developed “very thick soles” on their feet. These explanations, no matter how ridiculous, are accepted by scientists, rather than admitting that their minds may have exerted an influence on their physical body that makes it immune to burns.

According to Dr. Willis Harman, president, until his death, of the Institute of Noetic Science in Sausalito, California, in his very important book “Global Mind Change, The New Age Revolution in the Way We Think,” “A total belief system is on organization of beliefs and expectancies that the person accepts as true of the world he or she lives in.

It does not have to be logically consistent, indeed, it probably never is. It may be compartmentalized, containing logically contradicting beliefs which typically do not come into conscious awareness at the same times. The person unconsciously wards off evidence that might reveal such inner contradictions.”

What is an appropriate methodology in one level or aspect of reality, according to him, may not be applicable in another level. The scientific method was never intended to explain nonphysical reality, and, indeed, it cannot. And when applied to nonphysical subjective reality, the scientific experimental method flounders or breaks down.

As quantum physicists have discovered to their initial shock, there is probably not even such a thing as objective reality on a quantum or sub-atomic levels. There are only subjective constructs.

The immutable laws of Newtonian physics, which work so well on the macro-level, simply do not apply in the micro or subatomic levels. What seems to apply there, despite strong objections from mainstream scientists, is consciousness. As the great English physicist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington said: “The stuff of the universe is mind stuff.”

Another modern physicist, Dr. Fritjof Capra, pointed out in his best-selling book “The Tao of Physics,” “The discoveries of modern physics necessitated profound changes of concepts like space, time, matter, object, cause and effect, and since these concepts are so basic to our way of experiencing the world, it is not surprising that the physicists who were forced to change them felt something of a shock.”

To insist therefore in applying only the objective experimental scientific methodology to subjective, personal experience, is to miss a great portion of what constitutes reality, as a whole.

Do you know who you really are?

Source: Daily Inquirer
By Jaime T. Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
WE ARE TOLD THAT IN ANCIENT Greece, there was an Oracle in Delphi dedicated to Apollo, the God of Prophecy and Healing. The Oracle at Delphi became so famous for its accuracy in foretelling the future or the fate of people that even kings, princes and other heads of state would pay it regular visits to know what’s in store for them. The God Apollo was believed to speak through a high priestess while she was in a trance.

It has been said that the Oracle at Delphi declared the philosopher, Socrates, “the wisest man on earth.” When Socrates was told about this, he said in great seriousness: “The Oracle called me the wisest man on earth because I am the only one who knows that I know nothing.”

According to classic stories that have come down to us, at the gate of the Oracle of Delphi was written the cryptic statement, “Know Thyself,” before one is allowed entry to its inner chamber. Next to it is another inscription which says: “Nothing to excess.”

For so long, during my early collegiate schooling in Philosophy, I was both intrigued and fascinated by these two inscriptions, especially the first admonition to “know thyself.” “Why? Don’t we know who we are?” I asked myself innocently.

I never really understood the meaning or intent of that Delphic inscription until after five decades later. And even now, I still cannot be sure if I had really grasped its full meaning.

When I began thinking more deeply about why the ancient Greek Oracle required anyone who sought entry into its inner chamber to first know himself, I began to realize the reason. The awesome fact is: No one can tell that he really knows himself.

Let me see if I can make this clear with the following illustration:

If I asked you (or anyone) “Who are you?”, what would be your most likely answer?

First, you will most likely give your name, say, “Juan de la Cruz.”

Then, to further describe who you are, you may give your father’s and mother’s name, as the son of so and so. Then you may give your home address, school or office, or even your SSS or GSIS ID number. And so on and so forth.

But if you think more deeply about your answers, you will notice that none of them really tells who you are, because you are not your name, nor the fact that you are the son of so and so. Neither are you your school or company, nor even your SSS or GSIS number.

All these answers are outside of you. They do not tell anything about your real self. So who are you really? Can we honestly answer this question?

Disconcerting

It was then I realized, to my great horror and complete disappointment, that I do not really know who I am. And that realization is, to say the least, very disconcerting. Our parents could have given us another name and that would be how people would refer to us or call us. We could have been the child of some other parents, so naming our parents doesn’t tell us who we are. We are still describing things outside of us, but not about us. If your name, address, parents’ names, school or company affiliation, SSS, GSIS or tax account number, etc., is erased, will you know who you are?

This realization leads to further questions, like, if I don’t even know who I really am, how do I know where I come from or what I am doing here on earth? There’s no one who can answer that question except ourselves. To be able to answer the question requires that we look deeply at our essence and not what others have made of us. That’s quite a formidable task, indeed.

The other inscription at the gates of the Oracle at Delphi is much easier to understand: “Nothing to excess.” It simply means we should never think or act in excess or in any extreme. It admonishes us to choose the safe middle path. This is sometimes referred to as the “Golden Mean of Aristotle.” We should neither act too little or too much; nor sleep too little or too much; nor work too little nor too much; nor be too good or too bad, etc. Everything we do should be done in moderation.

I can just imagine the high priestess smiling mysteriously after a candidate or visitor has answered both these questions. Only then would he be qualified or fit to enter her innermost chambers to partake of the wisdom of the gods. Then no answer need be given by her, the candidate has answered it himself. This reminds me of the old Chinese saying: “He who knows others is knowledgeable, but he who knows himself is wise.”

Is it possible for a 5-year-old to be a clairvoyant?

Source: Daily Inquirer
By Jaime Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
ALTHOUGH I KEEP REPEATING IN THIS column that I cannot analyze or interpret dreams of people whose background I do not know, I still receive a good number of letters about them. Here is a recent one, which seems to be interesting:

“A few months ago, I dreamt of a woman dressed in white with long black hair, lightly stroking my face with her hair, while swaying her head. Then I couldn’t breathe anymore. After a few weeks, I dreamt of walking in my room in broad daylight, while that woman was guiding me and pointing something toward my computer table. I wasn’t able to see her face.

“A few days ago, I dreamt of being pulled up the ceiling of a room I presumed was a classroom, because I saw chairs and a table, like a classroom setting. In that dream, I saw my friends trying to pull me down to the floor. Pulling me was an invincible force. Then I felt that I couldn’t breathe again.

“Yesterday, I dreamt of something or someone choking me. Again I felt that I couldn’t breathe.

“Years ago and until now, I kept dreaming of the old apartment we used to live in in Makati. One time, I dreamt of an entity that looked like an old Chinese man, with long white eyebrows, long white beard and mustache, wearing a blue robe with floral patterns. He was sitting on a big old porcelain urn, like a Chinese vase. Inside the urn were precious stones or gems. There were two urns, one was where the old man was sitting and the other was an open urn where the stones were. The urn and the old man were located on the farthest vacant lot that used to have three banana trees, an old septic tank and a guava tree. The vacant lot was where we used to play when I was still young.

“Sometimes, dead relatives appear in my dreams asking me why they are there in that old apartment although they know that they are already dead. I remember one relative asking me: “Bakit ako nandito? Patay na ako ah,” while standing beside the main door. I also dream of my dead dog, jumping outside the window of the second floor of that apartment.

“Sometimes, in my half-conscious sleep, I hear murmurs or voices but I can’t understand their language. Why do I dream of things like these? Is there any explanation to them or am I just imagining things?

“My cousin told me that she also dreams of doing something in the same place where I saw in my dreams the old entity with the urn, the three banana trees, old septic tank and the guava tree. Do these have a connection to my dreams?

“One time around 6 p.m. she saw a huge figure which she presumed was ‘tao’ (human), looking down at her, taller than the kamias tree which was around 9 ft. She told me that it suddenly disappeared after a few seconds.

“She also has been seeing a male figure with thick fur roaming the vacant lot at night.

“Her 5-year-old niece suddenly told her that someone was in the kitchen, which she described as “mama” or lalake (male), even going closer to the subject and pointing her finger toward it. The child is the only one who saw it and it seemed she was not afraid of it.

“I am also obsessed about going back to that house and visiting the area, for no reason. It just attracts me.”—Name withheld

Although I do not know anything about your background, there are certain common elements in your dream that may help explain why they occur.

It is most likely that your dream of seeing a woman and then being unable to breathe was not a dream but a case of astral projection (or out-of-body experience). This interpretation is bolstered or strengthened by your feeling of being pulled up to the ceiling and then seeing another scene.

During an out-of-body experience, we feel as though we are floating on the air or flying (while our physical body is lying quietly on the bed). We see other scenes outside our own bedroom and can sometimes even hear people talking.

It is usual and normal for people to dream of old houses they grew up in, because these places have strong emotional impact on them.

The fact that your cousin and you see strange creatures in the same place could mean there are really entities or earth-bound spirits there. They are not aware that they are dead, or even if they were, they refuse to accept that they are already dead. They are still in a confused state or probably still in shock. This usually happens in case of sudden deaths.

Your cousin’s 5-year-old niece is a clairvoyant or has her Third Eye open. That’s why she could see things other people could not.