The primary theme of this blog will revolve around what Graham Greene said of his reasons for travel among primitives, but I could not help mentioning this item: In Indiana, one of the biggest stories now going is about a demonically possessed family, including the mother and several of her children. With noises and screaming upsetting the neighbors, social workers and police were called to a house (I do not know who called - this was from a TV news summary) where they witnessed: one child levitate from her bed; and another walk up the wall, backwards. The police chief and others swear by their observations. An exorcist (Catholic priest) was called in to minister to the mother, who also (it is claimed) was possessed, while the children were sent either to psychiatric care or protective custody. The priest claims that the woman and children were possessed. However, there was also a claim by an "expert" that the house was infested with over 200 ghostly spirits. To the TV reporter, that sent up a red flag - this is TOO weird. Perhaps this latter claim is not true - but how would that make the other observed supernatural activities not true?
This, apparently, is making a big splash in Indiana, but it will do nothing towards changing the superficial and official cultural view on such things. The proof of this is that such things have been scientifically tested and verified for well over 100 years, and yet still we are told to deny them. Any mention of such things in a large general audience will get one labeled a "kook." Of course, there are kooks - there are disabilities and distortions of all kinds among us - but the labeling is automatic and decidedly NOT scientific, for science is not supposed to put on blinders; rather, it is supposed to observe all things, and once observed, to seek an explanation. If the current models of reality do not coincide with what is observed, the current models are supposed to be altered to allow the observations to fit. Instead, after the observations are verified, they are just as quickly dropped, kicked out as an aberration of some kind because they do not fit within the current theoretical mold of reality.
Think about it: to do this is to assume that the operational model of the universe is already in our hands, all but complete. This is no better, abstractly, than the old Catholic Church burning Galileo at the stake because his observations and natural conclusions did not coincide with what the Church wanted the world to look like. We are, in effect, no better off now intellectually, in principle, than we were 500 years ago.
However, I think there is more involved here than intellectual arrogance. In Thomas Cahill's book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization," he shows how Ireland was the only European country that willfully converted to Christianity without threat of power. Why they did this, explains Cahill, is out of fear; their eyes and ears were filled constantly with the visions and sounds of spirits of all kinds, all the time. Young warriors, he said, would drink themselves into a stupor at night simply to not have dreams and visions of the spirits. Christianity to them meant protection - protection from the demons, whom Christ could dispel. And, in spite of seeing Leprechauns regularly, they clung fast to this protection until the last few decades, when at last the modern era caught up with them.
The modern era - it has given us more than a scientific model of the universe; it has given us a shield, what Christ was to the Irish, except this one is more complete. In Catholicism there are still demons and a hellish underworld- but in the world of science, none of these exist. We have traded the depth of the world for security, and have found it wanting, but few are ready to accept children walking up walls backwards. In the news story from Indiana, one man talking of the incidents is shown rocking in his chair convulsively, obviously on the edge of terror (I forget who, but he is an official of some kind). What he has seen he will never forget - although he would clearly like to. Most of us, though, will never have to be so terrified. Our barriers against this other world have been built well by our culture. But it seems to me that, as afraid as I also am of such things, it is cowardly and infantile to not accept the real. This barrier, this wall has also cut us off from portions of our self, from our soul, which has led to an unhappy and unfulfilled vision of reality. But I must admit - to venture forth, I would need the sword and shield of my faith. That other world scares the hell out of me, too.
Too late to move on to Graham Greene. However, the subject above does coincide. Greene's idea was that living with the primitive is a sort of psychotherapy, where one is forced to relive emotions from childhood that scared us so that they have been buried, or repressed. These include bugs, snakes, disease, death, and the worst of all - the presence of spiritual entities. This, though, for another date. FK
This, apparently, is making a big splash in Indiana, but it will do nothing towards changing the superficial and official cultural view on such things. The proof of this is that such things have been scientifically tested and verified for well over 100 years, and yet still we are told to deny them. Any mention of such things in a large general audience will get one labeled a "kook." Of course, there are kooks - there are disabilities and distortions of all kinds among us - but the labeling is automatic and decidedly NOT scientific, for science is not supposed to put on blinders; rather, it is supposed to observe all things, and once observed, to seek an explanation. If the current models of reality do not coincide with what is observed, the current models are supposed to be altered to allow the observations to fit. Instead, after the observations are verified, they are just as quickly dropped, kicked out as an aberration of some kind because they do not fit within the current theoretical mold of reality.
Think about it: to do this is to assume that the operational model of the universe is already in our hands, all but complete. This is no better, abstractly, than the old Catholic Church burning Galileo at the stake because his observations and natural conclusions did not coincide with what the Church wanted the world to look like. We are, in effect, no better off now intellectually, in principle, than we were 500 years ago.
However, I think there is more involved here than intellectual arrogance. In Thomas Cahill's book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization," he shows how Ireland was the only European country that willfully converted to Christianity without threat of power. Why they did this, explains Cahill, is out of fear; their eyes and ears were filled constantly with the visions and sounds of spirits of all kinds, all the time. Young warriors, he said, would drink themselves into a stupor at night simply to not have dreams and visions of the spirits. Christianity to them meant protection - protection from the demons, whom Christ could dispel. And, in spite of seeing Leprechauns regularly, they clung fast to this protection until the last few decades, when at last the modern era caught up with them.
The modern era - it has given us more than a scientific model of the universe; it has given us a shield, what Christ was to the Irish, except this one is more complete. In Catholicism there are still demons and a hellish underworld- but in the world of science, none of these exist. We have traded the depth of the world for security, and have found it wanting, but few are ready to accept children walking up walls backwards. In the news story from Indiana, one man talking of the incidents is shown rocking in his chair convulsively, obviously on the edge of terror (I forget who, but he is an official of some kind). What he has seen he will never forget - although he would clearly like to. Most of us, though, will never have to be so terrified. Our barriers against this other world have been built well by our culture. But it seems to me that, as afraid as I also am of such things, it is cowardly and infantile to not accept the real. This barrier, this wall has also cut us off from portions of our self, from our soul, which has led to an unhappy and unfulfilled vision of reality. But I must admit - to venture forth, I would need the sword and shield of my faith. That other world scares the hell out of me, too.
Too late to move on to Graham Greene. However, the subject above does coincide. Greene's idea was that living with the primitive is a sort of psychotherapy, where one is forced to relive emotions from childhood that scared us so that they have been buried, or repressed. These include bugs, snakes, disease, death, and the worst of all - the presence of spiritual entities. This, though, for another date. FK
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