Psuedoscience?

Science is not only compatible with spirituality, it is a profound source of spirituality.

Carl Sagan

Hmm! Carl Sagan also spoke a lot about the dangers of psuedoscience...?

Why is everything that cannot be explained by the "materialist" view in science called psuedoscience when science is all about exploring that which we have yet to understand? How can there be a "psuedo" to this process?  Why are individuals (scientists) who dare to explore the immaterial, that which is yet to be seen, measured, and understood, things like consciousness, ridiculed, condemned, excommunicated from the scientific community in some sort of witch hunt?  Shouldn't the most important tool used in science, be an open mind? 

I just do not understand the gate keeping that goes in the scientific community.  Hmmm!

Yoga would definitely be deemed a psuedo science by many...a "woo-woo" science. Yet, yoga is a science of the mind.  It is an ancient science...and the rishis...the scientists in this field of study realized many, many things about Self, and the universe, about mind, and perception. Their labatory was their own minds.  Through an experiential process of going inward and observing the inner workings of the mind and what is beyond it, they traced back everything to vibration in a spacious realm of akasha.  They did this thousands and thousands of years ago. Yoga and yogis are definitely not members of the Western scientific community. :) 

Yet, their discoveries have now been validated by modern day science. That tracing back to spacious vibration is the same thing the quantum physicists have done at Cern...They traced back matter to atoms, from atoms to subatomic particles, and from subatomic particles to wavelets(bosons, quarks, and leptons) in a field of energy and vibration known now as the "Higgs field". "Akasha" or "Higgs Field"  are just concepts pointing to the same thing, are they not? 

These ideas posed by quantum physicists , too, were shunned from the community until recently. In fact, "quantum mechanics" has been for the longest time viewed as a little too "woo-woo" for main stream science.  Why?  Because it challenged materialistic view. It took a lot of scientific experimentation to prove its validity. Eventually, the community came around.

So, why, then is it so hard for science to accept the probability that "consciousness" is a "thing" that exists "outside of matter/the brain" worth exploring? Why are those that partake in this endeavour automatically shut down? I am thinking of the "Telepathy Tapes"and the research done by neurosceintist, Dr. Diane Powell. There was definitely a witch hunt done on her and attempts were made to burn her at the stake...it seems.  She was ridiculed, discredited, suspended from her position at an infamous university,  and later had to be reinstated because the charges against her had no merit.  Whether or not what she had to prove was valid or not, that was a witch hunt if I ever saw one. 

I am not sure if Telepathy is a thing.  I have never observed it or experienced it. Powell was a well credited scientist, a neuropsychiatrist, with a lot to lose when she went on this experiential journey to prove it was a thing. Her tests used to prove its existence, also, seemed quite rigorous and scientific to me in my ignorant but skeptical mind.   I know that telepathy is something the ancient rishis are also said to have discovered. Infact, telepathy is said to be one of the siddhis attained by some very advanced yogis after years of intense meditation. The rishis were not wrong about akasha. There is then a chance that they are not wrong about telepathy. Maybe the neurodivergent pathways in nonverbals mimic the brains of those advanced meditators? 

The thing is...who really knows? It is a question.  And isn't it the job of science to attempt to answer such questions?  Yet, the scientific community seems to be shutting down the question before it is even completely asked. Instead of embracing the question, they tend to want to shoot the questioner. Hmm!

I am also thinking of Dr. Susan Blackmore, another neuroscientist who studied paranormal psychology at Cambridge university and spent years of her life trying to prove the existence of paranormal truths like telepathy. She has recently switched gears and debunked the existence of such things on the grounds she was unable to prove anything with all her rigorous scientific studies. She looks now to brain activity to explain phenomenon such as Near Death and Out of Body experiences. Telepathy, well that just doens't exist as far as she is concerned. She explores consciousness, now, in the way it relates to physical matter and neuronal firing.  Hmm! I can not help but wonder...if the pressure received from the scientific community was the catalyst that made her debunk that which she studied for so long?? 

Regardless...we see two sides of the line with these woman.  One was a devoted neuropsychiatrist in line with scientific thought who stepped over the line to explore consciousness in terms of paranormal activity; and the other a rebellious paranormal researcher, challenging the limited view of consciousness,  who stepped back over the line and is now conforming with scientific materialistic thinking when it comes to consciousness. Both risked or risk so much in an attempt to validate what the rishis discovered to be real. 

Is telepathy  real or not real? Proving its reality sets a framework for understanding consciousness, reality, etc in a way that would blow our minds. 

What is the truth?  Though part of me wants so badly to believe in things like telepathy...another part remains skeptical.  Like Susan Blackmore, I need proof!! I remain open minded and I question...I will not shut down the possibility until someone prooves that it can't exist. At the same time, I will not believe that it it is real until someone prooves that it is. Unlike many scientists, I am committed to staying open minded.

I will not call anything that starts with a question a psuedoscience!

What about you?

All is well.

The Weekend University/Dr Susan Blackmore ( 2000?) The Science of Out of Body Experiences-Susan Blackmore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VoixOyTPwg

New Thinking Allowed (2024)Psychic Abilities of Autistic Savants with Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIYk0ZGcVnE