Something Unknown ....

Posted by Robert de Vos on 25 August 2009 | 0 Comments

Tags: Psychology

I recently saw the film “Something Unknown is Doing We Don’t Know What”, an investigation into the "science behind psychic phenomena", a documentary filmed and produced by Renée Scheltema, a Dutch filmmaker now living in Cape Town.

She interviews well-known scientists and researchers; Prof. Charles Tart- www.paradigm-sys.com/cttart/, Rupert Sheldrake- www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html, Dr. Dean Radin- www.ions.org, Dr Hal Putoff, Dr Roger Nelson- http://noosphere.princeton.edu, Professor Gary Schwartz- http://www.drgaryschwartz.com/, Dr Larry Dossey- http://www.dosseydossey.com/larry/default.html, Stephan Schwartz and Dr Melinda Connor with the intention of understanding the “big five” of psychic abilities: pre-cognition, telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and healing. In African wildlife viewing the “big five” refer to lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros.

As a winner of the Special Jury Award at the Arizona International Film Festival and selected for the Spirit Quest Film Festival in Pennsylvania, it comes with a certain quality of content and intellect.

The film unfortunately asks more questions than it answers, but in this field of investigation it is to be expected.

On reflection, what intrigues me more in a way than the actual content is why it is that our brain is capable of asking/enquiring into regions of the unknowable - why do we have this capacity which is perhaps unique amongst the animal species?

What significant evolutionary benefit is there in moving objects with the mind, knowing when a loved one is coming to visit or being able to mentally “see” a distant action taking place.

Perhaps there are practical mundane uses. The CIA apparently used clairvoyants in the cold war era and though it may be fascinating to twirl a fork like spaghetti it’s more practical to machine-make cutlery or rely on aerial photography before launching a preemptive strike.

We often compare the function of the brain to a computer in the way that information is able to be stored and retrieved and the way that information is processed using the analogy of micro circuit boards and neural connections, but the human brain seems in some way coded to be able to literally “think out of the box”. Is the cost/benefit of the energy consumption in these actions to the brain however justified? “The brain makes up 2% of a person's weight. Despite this, even at rest, the brain consumes 20% of the body's energy. The brain consumes energy at 10 times the rate of the rest of the body per gram of tissue. The average power consumption of a typical adult is 100 Watts and the brain consumes 20% of this making the power of the brain 20 W.” The Physics Factbook™Edited by Glenn Elert.

We know that from an evolutionary and survival aspect, conservation of energy is vital to the continuation of a species. Pigeons will walk and look for food once they have got to a likely site; (Trafalgar Square or Piazza San Marco) in preference to the energy sapping process of flight.

Why does the intellect/brain permit these energy sapping exercises? These are not new or recent processes but part of the structure of evolution. So is it possible that these abilities were/are actually a necessary function of our evolution and survival in previous and current times? And if so, why are they so tenuous in the general population now?

The few remaining members of the Southern African San Bushman tribes still live as hunter-gatherers and for them living so close to nature, yes, it could be vital to have pre-cognition of the slithering of a poisonous snake in the night, or some form of telepathic contact with other members of a hunting party who may for the success of the hunt be out of line of sight. For them the use of natural remedies is imperative and an intuitive insight into the pathology of an illness, linked with energy/emotion based healing systems such as drumming and trance states is an accepted form of treatment.

Interestingly the San use a small proportion of their day, perhaps only 25%, in actual work: finding food and fuel, manufacturing/repairing utensils - leaving a sufficient amount of energy for the practice of these faculties. Is it that since the industrial revolution we have been conscripted into mind-numbing repetitive or high-stress labour practices and thus have no energy (in the real sense of calories/joules) left to indulge in these pursuits?

Frivolously, is this why slackers seem to be an integral part of revolutions which are hatched in bars and coffee shops?

Perhaps it is now (to generalize) only the social elite with a large amount of time and less work-load who in our industrialized society can spend the time and energy on indulging in these studies? And is this why a meditative regime usually requires a low work load in a quiet environment?

So why is academia so dismissive of these abilities? Is it because we are technically able to replicate most of them with a high degree of success, things like google maps, analysis of inter-active social networking, MRI diagnosis, electronic traffic analysis algorithms and stock-market indicators like the Dow-Jones index?

Have we evolved to a stage of techno-efficiency where our instincts, intuition, faith-based healing and emotion-based religious practices are no longer necessary for our survival and are merely indulgences?

In a technologically efficient society do we really need to consult an aura reader or would an MRI scan be preferable and will our evolution be one of more and more technical efficiency in fields like stem cell medicine, DNA manipulation, instant communication via virtual reality hard/software, predictive computer-based climate and astronomical information to inform us of future disastrous comet/asteroid events, preventing the recurrence of the annihilation of us as a species in the way that the dinosaurs were wiped out?

Is the cost/benefit ratio of the energy usage of our brains better used in developing new technology or in delving into esoteric concepts?

I suppose the real questions are where are we headed as a species and what are the correct tools to use to make the passage of the entire human tribe most productive, gratifying and fulfilling not only to our bodies but also to our psyches.

And are the two disciplines compatible? Perhaps this article is also asking more questions than it answers.

Robert de Vos