In the Absence of Signs and Wonders

 So Jesus said to them, "Unless ye see signs and wonders you will not believe."

John 4:48 ESV

Another question was asked to me by someone who calls themself an annihilist. The question was in regard to my practice and belief that it is the way to go.  She has been watching me practice everyday and was looking for a good debate.  Part of her, I also see, is looking for more than scientific skepticism. She wants a little bit of what I am seeking but her analytical and protective mind needs proof. 

"How do you know this is the way to go? How do you know there is something beyond the body? Beyond form when it cannot be proven scientifically? " 

She asked me the question and I realized I didn't know how to answer.  I started by answering with the things I picked up from others: " Science is not developed enough to measure the unseen...so it cannot prove that it does not exist ."

"Yes...I know that just because it has not been proven yet to be true doesn't mean it isn't true but how do you know it is true?"

"It is an internal thing, not an external thing. Well Yogis have been looking into this for over 5000 years and came up with these realizations through inner practice's. They went beyond the body and mind to discover what was there. So and so said..." 

That didn't feel right and she quickly referred me back to the question...

"How do you know? "

"Well...it isn't about knowing conceptually...it is about feeling and experiencing it. I have had glimpses of the sense of experiencing and being in this truth rather than knowing it so I take this path."

She countered, "This peace you felt. How do you know it just wasn't a biological processing of the nervous system and little to do with the thing you are looking for? How do you know there is something beyond biology at play here?"

I referred her back to the who is watching inside the body question..."Who is observing all that is going on, all that we are thinking and feeling? Who is witnessing the body and its processes? "

She countered with "The brain...the brain is watching." She told me the mind was only a part of the brain and therefore physical.

I ask her where  thought and feeling are found in the  brain on dissection?

She said she didn't know but told me Petscans will show how the brain is wired and the electrical currents that take place when thoughts happen.  Again, she argued to it all being biological.

I agreed that there is amazing biological and miraculous processes going on inside the body. "Who or what  is responsible for them?"

Again she went back to biology and evolution...darwinian theory. "It's nature. Survival of the fittest and we, as body, evolve to these amazing capabilities.  There are no "miracles"...all things on this planet do the same...adapt for survival reasons. "

I tried the dream thing..."Well you do know that when you are sleeping you are still there even though in deep sleep there is nothing but emptiness but you know you were there.  Who was there when there was nothing...when senses and body were shut off? Consciousness survived the nothingness."

She told me that the brain is just physiologically wired to shut off so the body can sleep. Biology again.

And the debate went on and on.  The whole time I was answering her it didn't feel right. My answers felt untrue to the deeper part of me. They were ego answers and regurgitation of other thought.  I mean I know without doubt in my heart this is the way to go but I couldn't seem to explain why. That bothered me.

I eventually told her I could not argue this or even explain it really. "The knowing is not conceptual.  I just know.  When you are ready you will someday know too. "

We ended the debate there but it really left me thinking. "How do I know all this I have yet to fully experience to be true ?"

I have to let that question percolate in me too.  

Serendipity brought the below linked video to me where Ram Dass talked about this knowing beyond what science can prove, this knowing that there is something there beyond our physical plane of existence...beyond form. There are miracles and sometimes we need to see those miracles before we believe.  I wish for a miracle to show up in front of this person so she would know too. 

All is well. 

Ram Dass/ Be Here Now Network ( August 29, 2016) Episode 11- letting it all go.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoqDKsTA5GI