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Nowt so strange as folk

In the article ‛Floundering around Souls’ I cited some paranormal phenomena as evidence for a ‛Spirit realm’. Science appears incapable of analysing these transient and unreliable phenomena, yet at the House Church I attended a number of people were healed of diverse medical conditions.

The fact that many were not healed does not after the fact that some were - demonstrably, like the man who no longer needed a built up shoe and had to borrow a pair of standard shoes to go home; or medically proven, like the man with cancer of the foot, medically confirmed, who - after prayer - was found to be cancer-free at his pre op assessment

As an agnostic teenager I read extensively about both major religious, psychic and paranormal events; I attended meetings (organised by an Anglican group in the local Bishop’s palace) where various paranormal practitioners told about their ‘skills’; and I did some personal experimentation (which I now reject and about which I have asked God’s forgiveness). I realised that the paranormal practitioners not only held philosophies which did not agree with each other but, while superficially normal people, I thought them odd in their world views. For example, the astral projectionists (practitioners of out-of-the-body experiences) claimed that the astral body (projected spirit) would, at the conscious wish of the person, travel anywhere on Earth, or even to the Moon, at the speed of light. How did they know the travel was at the speed of light?

Why didn’t they publish descriptions of unexplored places that could be verified later by physical visits? They claimed that, at death, the astral body ascended to a higher astral plane and that there were further higher planes beyond that, like the layers of an onion. Do we move outwards from the centre, or are we on the outside moving inwards? If outwards, is there an end to the layers or is this an infinite journey?

Spiritualists, on the other hand, claimed that at least some souls, whilst not in any way physical, were in touch with the physical world and could provide physical knowledge. One lady said a medium contacted her husband who said “Look under the carpets.” Baffled, she did so and found a dangerously frayed wire from a standard lamp that could have started a fire. While this is apparently like the indisputable healings, if she had looked under every carpet in her home she might have found a lost letter, a five pound note or woodworm in the floor boards. Anything she found could have seemed like a fulfilment of the spirit-word. Suppose later communications had said “sell the car”, “move house” or “marry Mr Biggins, down the road”. How far, from a small start, would one be willing to trust the spirit voice? And why should a disembodied spirit have knowledge of physical details (frayed wires) or of the future (the car is going to break down) or of a person’s future happiness( suppose the lady didn’t want to marry Mr Biggins)?

Reincarnationists believe spirits spontaneously generate from nothingness and move up (and down) the life/spirit scale, due to the balance of karma, with each reincarnation. They may eventually reach the top level where all are gods - but would all these gods be equal? Why should they be? Surely any polytheistic system will either have an inherent, fixed scale of greater and lesser gods or there will a constant power struggle to become ‛top god’. The ancient Greeks and Romans couldn’t quiet decide which of these theologies they followed!

Christianity seemed much more logical and also, somehow, ‘cleaner’. I also began to think that dabbling with paranormal phenomena, whilst exiting and fascinating, was like drinking alcohol or gambling. Most people could get away with reading an odd horoscope and having a laugh, just as most people can take an occasional drink - but to some these things are addictive, character-changing and dangerous.

I expect the hardened atheists think Christianity is whacky, dangerous character-changing nonsense in the same sort of way. I found the Christians I knew were pretty well balanced, kind, loving people who lived well and did a lot of good. I recognised that no amount of reasoning could ever prove or disprove a faith position (whether atheist, humanitarian or Christian) and that a ‘leap of faith’ was required by any of these positions if one were not to be an agnostic all one’s life. I decided to try one more ‘spiritual experiment’. I had read:

‘To those who believed in him Jesus said: “ If you hold to my teaching you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” [John 8 v31,32].

Like many before me I basically said: “O.K., I can test that. I will live as a Christian despite my doubts and it is up to you, God, to show me you exist and that Christianity will work as a cosmic, all-encompassing lifestyle. If you haven’t guessed God’s answer already, do come back to future blogs!

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