Science Debunked

Materialistic science,1 like most fundamentalist religions, is extremely unreasoning and bigoted. When confronted with phenomena which don’t fit its presuppositions, it closes its eyes and pretends that such phenomena don’t exist. There is plenty of evidence, from all times and civilizations, that magic and astrology work, that spirits exist and can communicate with people, and so on. Indeed, about the only civilization on earth up to this time which rejects these notions is ours. “We know better now” say the scientists. How do they know this? Have they examined the subject objectively? No, they haven’t done this. Even to suggest such an investigation during this dark age of rationalistic materialism would require the utmost intellectual courage and devotion to the truth. The results would bring down ultimate rejection and vituperation on one’s head from the academic establishment. This is what happened to Carlos Castaneda.

Materialistic science believes that it is describing an objective, factual reality. In fact it is, like everyone else, creating its own reality. Scientists are not discovering the laws of nature; they are inventing them. The true pioneers of science – the Einsteins, Plancks, and Heisenbergs – are well aware of this fact even if the credulous hoi polloi of science are not. 2

It is important to remember that science is a body of knowledge that has been built up over many thousands of years by many thousands of thinkers working from many different points of view and philosophical perspectives. However it has happened here and there that science has fallen into the hands of unreasoning zealots with a particular ideological axe to grind; and when that has happened science, in the sense of being an objective search for intellectual truth, winds up being a polemic to defend some political agenda. That is what occurred in Communist Russia with Lysenkoism and in Nazi Germany with “Aryan science”; and that is what has happened in capitalistic academia over the past century with the cult of materialism. The materialists with their statistical version of truth, perhaps in overreaction to the fundamentalist Christian creationist view, have completely abandoned any pretense of intellectual objectivity. As a result a non-academic version of science has developed to investigate such important matters as the thousands of reports – which tend to be quite similar in content – of after-death experiences by people who were revived; of psychic healing; of past lives; of spirit communications; etc. (not to mention astrology ). What we are debunking here is not the body of knowledge which is science, but rather the smug narrow-mindedness of materialism. The materialists have such absolute power in academia and the media, and have so confused the issue with disinformation and cowed their critics with ridicule, that any criticism of materialism and its dictatorial tactics is touted as an attack on science itself.

Modern physics says, in a nutshell, that the universe is not how it appears to be to our normal, everyday perception. This is precisely what magicians and Buddhists have been saying all along. It’s great that some of academic science has finally caught up to what mystics have been saying for thousands of years. However, the materialistic life sciences such as biology and psychology , not to mention neuroscience, are still back in the dark ages. They haven’t yet figured out what modern physics is saying. Biology and psychology are still laboring under the old “linear time, objective space” view.

Wake up, people! Materialism cannot comprehend that time and space are completely subjective (learned rules of behavior). There is NO objective reality consisting of solid, discrete objects out there; all there is, is a dream, a mass hallucination, which we have been trained to interpret with the illusion of orderliness (time and space). There’s no way that what is really going on can be described by materialism except by asserting that e.g. psychic phenomena, precognition, past lives, etc. don’t exist. Since practically everybody has experienced these things at one time or another for themselves, most people know where the truth lies. However everyone’s afraid of being ridiculed if they have the temerity to point out publicly that the emperor is stark naked. Most people – including many scientists who would never admit this openly for fear of reprisal – know quite well that it’s materialistic science that’s the lie, not magic or astrology .

We must constantly keep in mind that materialism is a religion like any other. It is an opinion which has no factual basis. It is merely a matter of faith amongst true believers, who happen to be in the majority and in absolute, dictatorial control of academia at the present time. When Georg Cantor invented set theory a century ago he was assailed by orthodox mathematicians not only because he tried to develop a calculus of infinite numbers, which was considered outside the bounds of proper scientific inquiry, but also because he invented a new type of proof which orthodox mathematicians rejected. Eventually a new generation of mathematicians came along which accepted Cantor’s ideas, and now set theory is very much at the center of modern mathematical thought. The point is that what is accepted as proper science at a given time is a popularity contest pure and simple. There is nothing objective about it. And the materialistic definition of truth – statistical significance – is merely a definition of truth, not the definition of truth. Indeed, it is a rather lousy definition: statistics is not a measure of truth but rather of ignorance – an admission that you’ve somehow lost the thread of what’s really going on.3 Materialists throw out the baby and then obsessively scrutinize the bath water.

There is nothing to prove or disprove in magical science; there’s nothing to debate. Magical science is a collection of pointers put together by more experienced practitioners to help their neophyte brethren understand what they are experiencing and where they are going, which is why magical and astrological texts written hundreds or thousands of years ago still speak to us today. Magical science makes no pretense of describing reality because 1) there is no “reality” and 2) all descriptions (thought forms, concepts, belief systems) are false.4

As long as you only look at this one little piece of the universe over here – things moving at slow speeds – then the old, Newtonian description works pretty well. But when you look at things moving near the speed of light, you need a new, Einsteinian, description to fit the observed facts. Similarly, when you look at this little piece of the universe over there – that which can be apprehended with the mind – then materialistic science works pretty well. But when you look at that which can only be apprehended with intuition ; with feelings; by direct knowing; then materialistic science fails miserably. Materialists get around this by saying that there is no way to quantify feelings and intuition – subjective experience – and therefore these are not a proper subject for scientific inquiry; as if there is any other sort of experience besides subjective experience.

That magical science cannot be analyzed with statistics doesn’t address the issue of whether magic is true. It is merely a commentary on the limitations of the materialistic approach to scientific inquiry. Magical events are too unique and ephemeral to be measured in a materialistic way because they are not mental abstracts but rather feelings. Take omens, for example, which have meaning only to the person for whom the Spirit is manifesting but not for anyone else who might be present. This doesn’t mean that omens don’t exist or are merely a figment of one person’s imagination . Rather, it means that statistical analysis – the current criterion of scientific truth – is too crude an instrument to encompass or measure magical phenomena.Statistical significance is no more a measure of truth than biblical authority is a measure of truth. Both statistics and the Bible merely represent different opinions as to where truth is to be found. Magicians reject both of these definitions of truth. (However consensual validation – two or more people witnessing the same event and agreeing on what they witnessed – is obtainable even with magical events when the participants have been trained – or are able from birth – to intuit such things. At Mayan ceremonies, for example, pretty much everyone present who has any sensitivity can pick up the messages which the spirits are sending. Similarly, replication of results by other researchers is as applicable to magical science as to materialistic science: that’s how we learn it in the first place, and how experienced magicians train neophytes).
Laboratory statistical studies to prove or disprove “ESP” are silly. Magical science just doesn’t work that way. For example, when I do rituals to invoke spirits, sometimes I feel the spirits’ presence and sometimes I don’t. You can’t go into magic making arrogant demands; you can only humbly invite, which is why statistical studies of psychic phenomena will always come up empty.

If psychic phenomena, which are commonly experienced and have been reported by many people throughout human history cannot be measured statistically, then the obvious conclusion is that statistics are irrelevant to what is actually going on. The cult of materialism which has captured and imprisoned science has particularly corrupted those fields, such as psychology and anthropology, which would otherwise be most helpful in understanding what psychic phenomena (altered states of consciousness) really are, and by contrast what everyday life (an unaltered state of consciousness) really is.

The absurdity of the materialist position is illustrated by the ongoing argument in biology over whether animals possess consciousness. This sort of shameless arrogance makes one wonder whether sociobiologists possess consciousness.5 It’s precisely the same as the Nazi theories of superior race; and it’s used to justify the same sort of cruelty and butchery.

Magical science is a science in the exact same sense of the word as materialistic science. However, the reality it describes and the techniques it uses are quite different from those of the materialists. The magician’s worldview is no more true nor false than the materialistic, Christian, Islamic, etc. worldviews. You create your own reality. All worldviews are false because they are not and can never be true. What is really going on out there in the universe cannot in any way be comprehended by mind and its intellectual constructs (thought forms). As Hans Hahn said, “Our thinking consists of tautological transformation ; it is incapable of comprehending a reality.” Reality can only be apprehended with feeling, by direct knowing. The reason why we adopt the magicians’ belief system, knowing that it is false, is to set up a counterpoint or contradiction with everyday society’s worldview. This gives us a means of detaching from both worldviews, from intellection, altogether. Then feeling – intent – takes over.

There is no rational reason why the universe is the way it is. The idea that e.g. competition for scarce resources is the driving force behind evolution is the obvious conclusion that a capitalist would come to; just as the idea that things are the way they are because that is God’s will is the only explanation that a Jew, Christian, or Muslim needs. But to a magician there is no reason for anything: things are the way they are as the result of completely random processes, and seeing any kind of order in how things are is narcissistic, post hoc, wishful thinking. There is no reason for anything. There is no reason, period. The only thing which exists in the universe is feelings, which we have termed “intent”. And these cannot be apprehended by mind.

The present race in cognitive science to solve the mystery of consciousness is never going to be won by materialism. As long as you are looking south, you’ll never see the pole star; and as long as you are looking outside yourself you’ll never understand what consciousness is. Concepts are not an adequate tool for understanding consciousness. Only materialistic hubris would believe that. We have gone as far as we can with concepts. The philosophy of materialism – very much like the philosophy of fundamentalist Christian creationism – refuses to acknowledge this fact: that its tools are outmoded and new ones (namely intent: direct knowing as opposed to knowledge that can be communicated verbally) must be employed to proceed further. Just as slavish, mindless adherence to Aristotelian and Christian tradition retarded the progress of science for centuries, so too is the false doctrine of materialism retarding the progress of science at the present time.

Materialistic platforms such as the Skeptic magazines and the websites which “objectively” criticize astrology are star chambers.6 Like the Inquisition which forced Galileo to recant what he knew was the truth, materialistic scientists decry the truth of subjectivism. Materialistic scientists, like the Catholic church of old, have a vested interest in keeping their own teachings predominant. Anyone who dares to contradict these teachings is pilloried just as Galileo was. Carlos Castaneda, for example, who has brought us the most important new information of the past few millennia, was smeared, vilified, and drummed out of academia.

Look at the diatribe against astrology a few years ago by 186 famous scientists, none of whom bothered investigating astrology before denouncing it! Thirty years ago French researcher Michel Gauquelin proved the existence of an astrological effect statistically, and his results have been replicated independently by other researchers. He did what these guys say they want: he proved the existence of an astrological effect according to the statistical canons of materialistic truth.7 Yet materialistic scientists still reject astrology. What does this say about scientists’ pretensions to being champions of truth? Indeed, the materialistic model is a classic case of bad science: discarding any information which contradicts its preconceived assumptions.

Anthropology, economics, and psychology are the quintessential sciences because they make no pretense to studying anything beyond human nature. However all science is merely the study of human nature; or of human cognition, if you will; or of modern human cognition would be better said, since ancient humans’ cognitive processes were very, very different from ours.

All that science studies is the way that humans make sense of the world. All materialistic scientists are doing is peering into a mirror and calling that the universe. Science is not the study of an objective reality, because there is no objective reality. Just because two humans can get together and agree that a ball, for example, is red and round and a foot in diameter doesn’t really say anything about that ball. Rather, it is a description of how humans in our society make agreements amongst themselves.

This is a very difficult point to grasp, or to agree with, even if grasped. This is because you have been so indoctrinated with the assumption that you are a separated perceiver of an outside reality. Look at it like this: two Communists reading the same political news item in the newspaper will usually come to the same conclusions about it even if they can’t confer on it beforehand. They already agree about the nature of their reality: they see everything in terms of class struggle, rich exploiting poor, and capital and labor continually at odds. Therefore anything that happens they will fit into that worldview, and they will agree on what really happened in that news story. Similarly, two capitalists reading the same news story will agree with each other on what actually happened in that news item. However, their view of the occurrence will probably be very much at odds with the interpretation of the Communists. In the same way, materialistic scientists confronted with objective phenomena try to fit them into their pre-conceived worldview, which a priori excludes astrology and magic.

For example, there is no genetic mechanism involved in fetal development. The materialists get off the track when they suppose there to be some sort of automatic, pre-programmed blueprint which nature follows blindly. Materialism considers the development of the embryo in the womb to be a mechanical process, when in fact it is better characterized as a learning process. The mother actively shapes the child in her womb by her feelings, attitudes, beliefs, etc. no less than she does after the child is born. The reason why Negro children are born to Negro parents and Caucasian children are born to Caucasian parents is precisely the same reason why American children speak English and Chinese children speak Chinese – i.e. because they have learned to do these things from their parents. A Negro mother “teaches” her unborn infant to be a Negro, just as later she will teach him to speak English. The geneticists’ explanation of why Negro parents have Negro children is like the Greek myths’ explanations of natural phenomena that they didn’t understand.

Actually, magic has a much better grip on what is really going on out there (in terms of which is the cause and which is the effect) than materialism does; so for us to follow them is completely asinine. The world is not a mechanism; to describe it in mechanistic terms it is necessary to ignore about 99% of what is actually going on, and to pretend that the 1% you’ve got left is all there is.

I believe that most people know in their hearts that materialistic science is shamelessly lying when it denies the truth of magic. Of course, magical science cannot be proven true by materialistic canons of truth any more than Galileo could prove the validity of Copernican theory by appealing to the Bible, as the Inquisitionists of that time demanded. For one thing, materialistic science is based upon completely different presuppositions than magical science, such as linear time,8 duality, the existence of an objective reality, and that statistics measure truth. Materialistic scientists and magicians are not looking at the same phenomena. Or rather, they are, but from irreconcilably contradictory points of view; or better said, from different taken-for-granted cognitive assumptions. The materialist looks outward for answers, whereas the magician looks inward. But I believe that in the next century conventional science will evolve to include what is now considered magic. Then it won’t be considered magic at all. Modern science is in fact magic, but its practitioners don’t call it that or understand it in those terms because they are blinded by the tenets of their fundamentalist religion , the chief one being that the world is mechanistic rather than alive. That it’s something we can stomp on with impunity and it will never stomp back.

The ideal of materialistic science is a hell world, and that’s where they’re taking us. In societies where they have a modicum of respect for life they don’t do vivisection or Auschwitz-type medical experiments, so they don’t learn all the neat things you can learn by cold-bloodedly destroying other beings. Materialism is basically a form of black magic (except it is far more stupid and inept than real black magic).

It’s not only the animal and human sacrifices that present-day scientists are involved in that mirror disrespect. Just the way astronomers look at the stars, with no ability to feel what they are seeing, is disrespectful. Probably most astronomers were originally drawn to astronomy by a sense of awe, but the disrespect which is part and parcel of materialism soon confuses young astronomers. And God help them if they avow before their inquisitional fellows an intuitive acceptance of the veracity of astrology or magic!

The materialists’ argument – like their capitalist masters’ argument – is that “it works.” But so does a scorched earth policy against Mayan Indians work to isolate guerrillas. And so did the bombing of Hiroshima work: undoubtedly that saved many lives on both sides. But the underlying assumption in both cases is mistaken. It doesn’t lead to happiness or joy. Shameless cruelty works really well; but it makes for a hell world. Shameless arrogance and contempt are an intrinsic component of materialism in all of its forms (standing above and subduing nature – and other people – instead of approaching them humbly and respectfully). Besides, capitalism and materialism don’t “work”. At this point in history it is very clear exactly how well capitalism and materialism are “working”, and exactly where these stupid, destructive mindsets are leading us.

Science doesn’t have to be so cruel and heartless. You don’t have to rape the universe for knowledge. You can ask it nicely what you want to know. Luther Burbank produced many new varieties of plants by talking to them. According to Rudolf Steiner, that is how all the fruit crops which people now use were originally developed from wild plants. Ancient Mesoamerican magicians created maize from the native grass teosinte thousands of years ago in a manner which thoroughly baffles modern botanists, since the genetic manipulation techniques required for this transmutation have only existed for the last twenty years.
By choosing materialistic science in its current, heartless manifestation we are foregoing the experience of the world as joyous. Rationalism doesn’t have to be divorced from magic, which is as much a science as physics or biology. Magical science just operates on different assumptions. Actually it is a different cognitive system altogether. Indeed, Sir Isaac Newton – the founder of modern science – was a magician. In John Maynard Keynes’ words, “Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians.” The majority of Newton’s writings have been suppressed by the materialistic Inquisition because they dealt with magic and alchemy.9

Materialistic science was well suited to agricultural and industrial human society. It led to a great deal of material progress. But there are too many people now; and they’re messing the earth up. That sort of crabbed, niggling, arrogant, and shameless mindset won’t work anymore. Materialistic science has perverted the quest for intellectual truth and embraced a smug, shallow sophistry in its stead. What the human race desperately needs, and is now ready for, is a new worldview, based upon broader principles of intellectual truth than any which materialistic science can ever encompass. The human race is on the brink of a scientific revolution greater than the one which rocked the 16th and 17th centuries. We have to start – or restart, since these were our guiding lights when humans were still hunter / gatherers – setting aside all our intellection, our opinions and beliefs, and opening our hearts to what the earth is trying to tell us.

One nice thing about magical science is that it really doesn’t matter whether it is true or not. It’s the best bet. Materialistic religion assumes that everything’s all screwed up, but someday science will figure it all out. Magic, by contrast, assumes nothing. If you are going to be saved, it will be by your own efforts; by being wide awake instead of pulling woolly assumptions over your eyes to lull yourself into a stupor. You must take 100% responsibility for your own salvation.

Magicians believe that the God Materialism is leading us to hell in a handbasket. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are good examples (n.b., this was written before Fukushima) – loud and clear warnings to anyone who’s not asleep – and yet they’re still building them. It is true that materialistic science and technology have brought many people a high level of comfort and convenience, but at the cost of bankrupting their spirit and joy. Are you happy in your work, your relationships, your life? Do you know anyone who is?

Magic and astrology were the world religion once, and they shall be the world religion again, because people have had enough of the emptiness, meaninglessness, and short-sighted stupidity of materialism. E pur si muove!

Notes:

1 By the term “materialism” is meant the belief that, in the words of cognitive philosopher Daniel Dennett, “there is only one sort of stuff, namely matter – the physical stuff of physics, chemistry, and physiology – and the mind is somehow nothing but a physical phenomenon. In short, the mind is the brain.” – Dennett, Daniel Consciousness Explained, Penguin 1991 p. 33.
The science of magic, by contrast, takes the Idealistic view that the physical world, including the physical body and brain, are merely projections of the mind; in exactly the same way that the world of dreams and the body we have while we are dreaming are projections of the mind. Being awake is merely a more highly evolved form of dreaming, and it is only our belief that what is happening to us is real that makes it seem real (whether we are awake or dreaming).
2 “Philosophically … the implications of quantum mechanics are psychedelic. Not only do we influence our reality, but in some degree we actually create it. … Metaphysically, this is very close to saying that we create certain properties because we choose to measure those properties.” - Zukav, Gary, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Bantam NYC 1980, page 28.
3 Statistics are not a measure of truth but rather a way of obfuscating truth. The best proof of this is that astrological and magical phenomena cannot be measured statistically. For example, according to materialist theory, buying numerous lottery tickets increases your chances of winning the lottery. But according to magical theory, buying more than one lottery ticket actually decreases your chances of winning, since it demonstrates lack of faith – trying to second-guess or hedge or fake out the Spirit.
Materialist critics of well-documented cases of past life memories dismiss this evidence as “anecdotal”; as if statistics was something other than a bunch of materialists telling each other anecdotes. Just choosing what to measure or ignore is a completely subjective opinion. Even the materialists themselves are beginning to suspect that the statistical definition of truth is false (see The Truth Wears Off by Jonah Lehrer, The New Yorker Magazine December 13, 2010, Page 52 posted at: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/13/101213fa_fact_lehrer ).
4 There is only one canonical way of doing biology or physics; but there are lots of ways of doing astrology or magic; and they all work. For example, Franz Bardon’s conception of spirits and how to invoke them (The Practice of Magical Evocation) is quite different from mine. Similarly, Carlos Castaneda’s conception of demons (The Active Side of Infinity) is different from mine. This doesn’t mean that one is right and the other is wrong. We are all sharing our personal experiences, which are necessarily diverse. Once you step outside of the bounds of everyday society with its consensual agreements, you no longer have any guidelines or guiderails to hang onto except for what your spirits tell you; and also the wisdom gleaned from your own experience. This is why it is useful for the magical tyro to read different authors, or to work with different teachers, to get different takes on the subject.
5 Of course this depends upon how you choose to define “consciousness”. Magical science is Panpsychist in that it considers that any being who can feel feelings possesses consciousness. Thus everything that lives – animals, plants, bacteria; even so-called inanimate objects such as our possessions, rocks, even mountains (especially mountains!) and caves possess consciousness.
6 Although the materialists are quite correct that tests to prove the competence of astrologers are usually embarrassing failures, the fault, Dear Brutus, lies not in astrology but in the stigma which the materialists have heaped upon astrology, so that very few first-rate minds are attracted to the field. Part of the problem, too, is that the materialists demand an impossible standard of accuracy which astrology, because of its very nature, is incapable of providing. The universe is not as mechanistic as the materialists would like to believe; rather, it is a matter of free will and of possible outcomes. Astrology cannot predict that e.g. “at 12:37 pm on August 3rd you will slip on ice and break your left arm above the elbow.” Psychics – and psychic astrologers – can sometimes do this; but they use intuition to do it, not astrology. To demand pinpoint accuracy from astrology qua astrology is unreasonable and silly; although once in a while you can do it.
7 see Dean, Geoffrey, Recent Advances in Natal Astrology , Astrological Association
(Australia) 1977, page 380 ff for details.
8 Where materialistic science sees time as linear, magic sees time as rhythmic. Materialistic science measures points and intervals along a well-ordered continuum, whereas magical science measures cycles upon cycles. This is what astrology is all about: the moment of birth can be viewed as a point along a linear continuum, as it is in rationalistic materialism; or, conversely, it can be viewed as a stage in the unfoldment of potentialities on various levels – i.e. as the intersection of many different interpenetrating cycles, as it is in astrology.
Time is not linear. Everything that has ever happened, and ever will happen, in all lifetimes and realities, is all going on at once, in an eternal NOW moment. It is more accurate to describe time as an emanation of birth – death – rebirth; and what we see as linear time is but a fragmentary way of apprehending this phenomenon which has evolved in tandem with human society. Linear time is a completely human invention, like golf or the latest Paris fashions; a set of rules which have no reference to anything outside of human experience (animals have a relatively undeveloped sense of linear time compared to humans – i.e. are more centered in the now moment, don’t apprehend so much of a past and future as humans do). Linear time is predicated on linear thinking. When thinking stops – when the constant internal dialogue which most people engage in from the minute they awaken to the minute they go to sleep ceases – then so too does linear time.
9 Keynes, John Maynard, Newton, the Man; from Newman, James, The World of
Mathematics, Simon & Schuster NYC 1956 pages 277, 282: “A large section (of
Newton’s papers), judging by the handwriting amongst the earliest, relates to alchemy – transmutation, the philosopher’s stone, the elixir of life. The scope and character of these papers have been hushed up, or at least minimized, by nearly all those who have inspected them.”