Psychic Encounters

 I once had an experience that I think was a psychic encounter. It is quite possible, even likely, that it wasn't actually psychic, but rather my own mind creating the illusion of a separate consciousness. But here's what happened:

I was visiting my friend's house, and we were sitting in his room, just talking. We weren't really doing anything or going anywhere; it was a very relaxed evening. It had been raining earlier that day, and the sky was clear at nightfall, so before I arrived he'd gone outside to look for shooting stars.

We were talking about the conversation I'd had with my mother before coming over, and this led to him asking me if it was hard being in college. This of course is a normal question for someone's friend to ask them when they're deciding whether or not to go into college themselves, but instead of answering directly, I found myself describing how my thoughts seemed trapped by feelings.

For some reason, I felt as if the thoughts in my head belonged to someone else. It was as if there were another person inside me who was telling me what to think. The only way I could describe it at the time was that it felt like a psychic encounter.

It was a strange feeling, and it lasted for maybe an hour before I felt like myself again. The whole experience left me feeling more introspective than usual afterwards.

I think there are two general kinds of psychic encounters: those that exist within our own heads, and those that involve an external reality. I will tackle the first category in this post. The second, I will discuss at a later time.

The first kind of psychic encounter, the one which exists within our own heads, is a sort of duel between two consciousnesses. The duelist with the stronger mind wins.

With this in mind, perhaps we should question who has the stronger mind.

Well, we have to look no further than the person's past to see who has the stronger mind: The one with a more successful track record in life is obviously the winner.

But what does this mean? Are these psychic encounters the only times when our minds are put to the test?

No, not at all. In fact, our minds are put to the test every single day.

Let us take a look at what psychic encounters are.

Are they real or are they not? To answer this question we must first ask what is meant by the word 'real'.

There are many types of reality, and here I will list some that exist.

First, we have the reality that is real to us humans. This type of reality is subjective.

Then there are types of reality that have a more objective existence, which humans can discover and know.

This type of reality is not subjective to humans, and so it can be known.

In my experience, all of the senses are simply projections from the brain. It is clear to me that there must be some sensory organs in use in order for us humans to perceive anything at all, but why should we accept that those sensors are limited to what we consider normal?

If psychic ability is a function of these sensors, which are limited to what we conside 'normal', then how could it be possible for those with psychic abilities to sense anything outside of the normal spectrum?

I do not believe that psychic ability is simply a function of the brain, but rather it is a mechanism by which we may detect an external source of energy. To me, the mind is only in control when we are capable of sense and thought.

Therefore, at the moment a human is capable of psychic ability (which I say must exist), they are not consciously thinking or sensing anything. It would be impossible to think about something that one cannot sense.

There are many experiences where we feel the presence of something, or someone. This may be a lingering memory from childhood, or early in life. This is a description I've heard: We live our lives as if walking through a tunnel, with no knowledge of what's at either side. But sometimes there are shadows on the walls that we can recognise as people who have long since passed away - more often than not these encounters seem to be moments out of time; they stand alone and unrelated to anything else we know about.

Another description is a dream, perhaps. We all have dreams that stick in our minds years after we've forgotten the rest; they seem to hold some kind of deeper significance, and yet this meaning seems to be buried deep within us rather than being something that can be easily defined.

There seems to be no way of accounting for these experiences in terms of science or reason. They are not necessarily something we would choose to claim as true, but they do have their own internal logic - and even if you're skeptical, life feels like a series of such encounters.

Now, what if the concept of God is a similar experience? What if it's just an idea that seems to hold true in itself; something so overwhelmingly powerful and deep that we cannot help but believe it?

It seems to me that people who claim to have had a psychic or spiritual encounter are often ridiculed, for they cannot prove it. This is understandable in terms of human nature - we like things to be tangible and concrete. We want proof before we make such claims.

And yet, I feel there is something more to it than that. There are many things we cannot prove - but this does not necessarily make them untrue.