THE
SUPERNATURAL
WORLDVIEW
Examining Paranormal, PSI, and the Apocalyptic
Posted: April 27, 2014
8:00 am Eastern //http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/Supernatural9.htm
by Cris Putnam \ FOLLOW THE SERIES!
[xii]Frederick
Brotherton
Meyer,
The
Modern
Craze
of
Spiritualism
(Joseph
Kreifels,
1919).
Examining Paranormal, PSI, and the Apocalyptic
Posted: April 27, 2014
8:00 am Eastern //http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/Supernatural9.htm
by Cris Putnam \ FOLLOW THE SERIES!
PART 1 | PART 2 |
PART 3 | PART 4 |
PART 5 | PART 6 |
PART 7 | PART 8 |
PART 9 |
PART
9 - Latent
Powers of the
Soul
|
Is
it
possible
for
thoughts
to
be
projected
across
vast
distances?
Can
someone
leave
his
or
her
body
and
“see”
things
in
a
faraway
land
or
even
the
future?
Some
may
be
surprised
to
learn
The
Supernatural
Worldview
of
the
Bible
has
always
supported
such
ideas.
While
Western
scientific
orthodoxy
asserts
that
there
are
only
five
senses,
there
is
surprising
evidence
for
more.
If
Watchmen
Nee
was
correct
about
the
latent
power
of
the
soul,
we
would
expect
to
find
a
growing
body
of
evidence
for
these
abilities.
The
soon-to-be
released
The
Supernatural
Worldview
(coming
May
15th)
contains
overwhelming
evidence
for
the
existence
of
abilities
popularly
labeled
“telepathy”
and
“remote
viewing”
and
their
relationship
to
dreams
as
well
as
“precognition”
in
supports
of
Nee’s
prophetic
warning.
What
I
chronicle
therein
finds
me
behind
closed
doors
examining
well-documented,
spontaneous
cases,
laboratory
experiments,
and
even
biblical
analogs.
Take
as
example
what
is
known
as
Remote
Viewing,
the
ability
to
perceive
out
of
sensory
range.
Sometimes
this
is
connected
to
an
out-of-body
experience
(OBE),
but
other
times
not.
Parapsychologist
Charles
Tart
recorded
a
remarkable
instance
of
an
OBE
in
a
laboratory
setting
in
which
the
subject
was
able
to
see
something
outside
the
range
of
access
of
the
normal
five
senses:
On the first three laboratory nights, Miss Z reported that in spite of occasionally being “out,” she hadn’t been able to control her OBEs enough to be in position to see the target number (which was different each night). On the fourth night, at 5:57 a.m., there was a seven-minute period of somewhat ambiguous EEG activity, sometimes looking like stage 1, sometimes like brief waking states. Then Miss Z awakened and called out over the intercom that the target number was 25,132, which I wrote on the EEG recording. After she slept a few more minutes, I woke her so she could go to work, and this is what she reported regarding the previous awakening (Tart 1968, 17):I woke up; it was stifling in the room. Awake for about five minutes. I kept waking up and drifting off, having floating feelings over and over. I needed to go higher, because the number was lying down. Between 5:50 and 6:00 a.m., that did it…I wanted to go read the number in the next room, but I couldn’t leave the room, open the door, or float through the door…. I couldn’t turn on the air conditioner!
This
kind
of
evidence
is
rare.
The
fact
that
Miss
Z
reported
the
number
was
“lying
down”
rather
than
leaning
against
the
wall
as
she
expected
(a
detail
verified
by
Tart)
strongly
suggests
she
somehow
saw
the
card.
What
makes
this
especially
compelling
is
that
she
couldn’t
have
gotten
up
to
see
the
numbers,
because
she
was
hooked
up
to
an
EEG
machine;
any
physical
movement
would
have
disturbed
the
recordings
of
her
brainwaves.
The
odds
of
guessing
a
five-digit
number
are
one
hundred
thousand
to
one.
Although
the
distinction
is
somewhat
arbitrary,
the
term
remote
viewing
was
invented
to
distinguish
it
from
clairvoyance.
It
has
received
a
lot
of
attention
due
to
its
modern
use
by
intelligence
agencies.
Remote
viewing
was
popularized
following
the
declassification
of
documents
related
to
the
Stargate
Project,
a
$20-million-dollar
CIA
research
program
trying
to
determine
possible
military
application
of
psychic
phenomena.
Much
of
the
research
was
done
at
Stanford
Research
Institute
(SRI)
by
Russell
Targ
and
Harold
Puthoff,
two
former
laser
physicists,
and
Edwin
C.
May,
a
former
nuclear
physicist.
The
projects
spanned
from
the
1970s
until
1995,
and
were
primarily
handled
by
the
CIA
and
Defense
Intelligence
Agency
(DIA).
Some
believe
remote-viewing
programs
still
exist,
but
are
now
deeply
classified
black
projects.
The
star
remote
viewers
of
the
SRI
studies
were
Ingo
Swann,
Pat
Price,
and
Joe
McMoneagle.
Swann,
who
died
February
1,
2013,
was
an
artist
known
for
psychic
abilities
who
wrote
a
book
called
Natural
ESP:
The
Esp
Core
and
Its
Raw
Characteristics,
and
another
called
Penetration:
The
Question
of
Extraterrestrial
and
Human
Telepathy
that
discussed
extraterrestrial
life.
The
latter
work
suggests
that
Swann
was
contacted
by
nonhuman
entities
in
the
guise
of
space
aliens,
an
idea
explored
in
my
former
work,
Exo-Vaticana
with
Thomas
Horn.
Swann
came
to
the
attention
of
Targ
and
Puthoff
when
he
demonstrated
his
ability
to
intentionally
change
the
readings
of
Superconducting
Quantum
Interference
Device
(SQUID),
which
was
buried
deep
underneath
the
Stanford
physics
building
and
shielded
from
electromagnetic
influence
by
several
layers
of
thick
armor.
Swann
remotely
viewed
the
SQUID
and
drew
accurate
pictures
of
its
interior.
Even
more,
he
was
able
to
influence
its
sinusoidal
output,
which
was
normally
a
consistent
and
predictable
sine
wave.
When
Swann
projected
his
consciousness
toward
it,
the
wave
doubled
in
frequency.
He
was
able
to
repeat
it
at
will,
and
the
wave
returned
to
normal
frequency
when
he
stopped.
This
was
documented
by
several
technical
experts
and
recorded
by
Russell
Targ.[ii]
The
successful
experiments
with
Swann
led
to
a
visit
from
two
employees
of
the
CIA’s
Directorate
of
Science
and
Technology.
Swann’s
demonstrable
ability
to
view
locations
all
over
world
is
what
purportedly
got
the
project
off
the
ground.
The
initial
CIA-funded
project
was
later
renewed
and
expanded.
A
number
of
CIA
officials,
including
John
N.
McMahon
(later
the
CIA’s
deputy
director),
became
strong
supporters
of
the
program.
It
is
beyond
question
that
significant
evidence
for
psi
drove
the
funding.
Pat
Price
was
a
retired
police
commissioner
from
California
who
had
used
his
psychic
abilities
to
solve
crimes.
While
working
for
SRI,
he
was
asked
to
investigate
the
kidnapping
of
Patricia
Hearst,
the
teenaged
newspaper
heiress
held
hostage
by
the
Symbionese
Liberation
Army
in
1974.
After
a
visit
to
the
location
of
the
kidnapping,
Price
correctly
identified
Donald
DeFreeze
out
of
forty
mug
shots.
Also,
he
was
able
to
lead
police
to
the
location
of
the
car
used
in
the
crime.[iii]
Price
is
best
known
for
his
sketches
of
cranes
and
gantries
retrieved
by
remotely
viewing
secret
Soviet
research
at
Semipalatinsk
behind
Soviet
lines.
His
highly
accurate
sketches
preceded
the
CIA
intelligence
photographs
that
confirmed
them
by
many
years.
Joe
McMoneagle’s
most
amazing
results
include
the
time
he
drew
the
locations
of
a
CIA
team
while
the
agents
were
hiding
hundreds
of
miles
away
at
Lawrence
Livermore
Laboratories
in
the
San
Francisco
area.
He
drew
many
of
the
laboratory
buildings
and
structures
in
specific
detail.
Then
the
team
moved
to
a
nearby
Windmill
Farm,
and
McMoneagle
drew
the
windmill
structures
and
landscape
with
astounding
accuracy.
In
1984,
McMoneagle
was
awarded
a
legion
of
merit
for
“producing
crucial
and
vital
intelligence
unavailable
from
any
other
source.”[iv]
This
sort
of
evidence
cannot
simply
be
brushed
aside,
but
very
few
people
are
aware
of
it
to
take
it
seriously.
Even
U.S.
presidents
have
testified
to
the
veracity
of
remote
viewing.
President
Jimmy
Carter,
in
an
interview
with
GQ
magazine,
revealed
the
use
of
psychics
in
parapsychological
espionage
directed
against
the
USSR.
He
recounted
a
specific
incident
he
was
personally
involved
with
that
produced
viable
intelligence:
GQ: One of the promises you made in 1976 was that if you were elected, you would look into the reports from Roswell and see if there had been any cover-ups. Did you look into that?
Carter: Well, in a way. I became more aware of what our intelligence services were doing. There was only one instance that I’ll talk about now. We had a plane go down in the Central African Republic—a twin-engine plane, small plane. And we couldn’t find it. And so we oriented satellites that were going around the earth every ninety minutes to fly over that spot where we thought it might be and take photographs. We couldn’t find it. So the director of the CIA came and told me that he had contacted a woman in California that claimed to have supernatural capabilities. And she went in a trance, and she wrote down latitudes and longitudes, and we sent our satellite over that latitude and longitude, and there was the plane.
GQ: That must have been surreal for you. You’re the president of the United States, and you’re getting intelligence information from a woman in a trance in California.
Biblical Examples?
In
the
Old
Testament,
Samuel
was
called
a
“seer,”
apparently
because
he
was
able
to
see
what
others
could
not,
like
the
location
of
the
lost
donkeys
of
Saul:
Samuel answered Saul and said, “I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place, and you will eat with me today; then I will send you away in the morning. I will tell you all that is on your mind. And as for your female donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not be concerned about them, because they have been found. For whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not for you and for all the house of your father? (1 Samuel 9:19–20, LEB)
It
isn’t
clear
that
this
entails
remote
viewing,
but
it
seems
like
something
akin.
Samuel
was
gifted
by
Yahweh
to
serve
as
a
spokesperson
for
God.
It
is
essential
to
remember
that
the
biblical
prophets
derived
their
authority
from
God.
With
that
understood,
Scripture
does
seem
to
imply
that
some
people
have
these
abilities.
In
the
book
of
2
Kings,
Naaman,
the
second
in
command
to
the
king
of
Syria,
suffered
from
leprosy.
He
heard
about
Elisha,
the
Lord’s
prophet,
who
could
invoke
Yahweh
to
heal
the
dreaded
disease.
When
Naaman
arrived
at
Elisha’s
house
bearing
great
sums
of
money,
a
messenger
instructed
Naaman
to
bathe
seven
times
in
the
River
Jordan.
Because
of
his
immense
pride
he
went
away
angry,
refusing
to
wash
in
the
muddy
river
waters.
His
servants
convinced
him
to
do
so,
and
God
healed
him.
Naaman
declared,
“There
is
no
God
in
all
the
world
except
in
Israel”
(5:15).
Although
Elisha
had
refused
a
monetary
gift
from
Naaman,
the
prophet’s
servant
Gehazi
secretly
followed
Naaman
to
ask
for
money.
Somehow,
Elisha
was
able
to
follow
Gehazi’s
wrongful
actions
and
confront
him
with
specific
details
on
his
return.
“Then
he
said
to
him,
‘Did
not
my
heart
go
with
you
as
the
man
turned
from
on
his
chariot
to
meet
you?
Is
it
time
to
take
silver,
clothes,
olive
orchards,
vineyards,
sheep,
oxen,
male
slaves,
and
female
slaves?’”
(2
Kings
5:26).
The
passage
gives
the
impression
that
Elisha
saw
exactly
what
went
on
out
of
his
normal
sensory
purview.
This
gift
was
evidently
a
divinely
ordained
ability
for
a
prophet.
The
book
of
Revelation
seems
to
be
John’s
accounting
of
an
OBE:
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. (Revelation 4:1–2, underline added)
This
has
been
described
as
a
“state
in
which
the
ordinary
faculties
of
the
flesh
are
suspended,
and
the
inward
senses
opened.”15
In
this
altered
state
of
consciousness,
God
brings
a
man’s
spirit
into
direct
contact
with
the
invisible
spiritual
world.
According
to
biblical
scholar
Robert
Thomas:
“In the spirit” is descriptive of the prophetic trance into which the prophet’s spirit entered. This miraculous ecstatic state wrought by the Spirit of God was, to all intents and purposes, a complete translation from Patmos to heaven. All of the prophet’s senses were operative: his ears heard, his eyes saw, and his emotions were as real as though his body was literally in heaven instead of remaining on Patmos.[vi]
John
seems
to
be
describing
an
altered
state
of
consciousness
similar
to
remote
viewing.
Many
evangelicals
have
a
fear
of
mysticism,
probably
from
its
association
with
Roman
Catholic
monasticism.
Even
so,
Acts
10:10
speaks
of
Peter
“falling
into
a
trance”
while
praying.
This
was
not
a
nighttime
dream,
but
an
altered
state
of
consciousness
induced
by
prayer.
Peter
describes
it
as
an
ecstatic
vision
using
the
Greek
term
ekstasis.
In
the
first
century,
the
term
generally
denoted
“a
vision
accompanied
by
an
ecstatic
psychological
state.”[vii]
While
these
examples
certainly
don’t
suggest
it
is
wise
to
attempt
remote
viewing
for
one’s
own
ends,
they
do
demonstrate
the
existence
of
such
phenomena
is
consistent
with
the
Bible
and
a
Supernatural
Worldview.
If
one
isn’t
careful,
he
or
she
could
beckon
an
uninvited
guest.
Why
have
Christians
usually
associated
clairvoyance
with
demonization?
Other
than
divinely
inspired
prophecy,
the
Bible
doesn’t
tell
us
much.
However,
there
is
an
instructive
incident
in
Acts
16.
On
one
of
Paul’s
visits
to
the
Jewish
place
of
prayer,
he
and
his
cohorts
were
met
by
a
slave
girl
who
had
the
gift
of
second
sight
and
earned
money
for
her
owners
by
giving
readings.
The
text
reads,
“And
it
came
to
pass,
as
we
went
to
prayer,
a
certain
damsel
possessed
with
a
spirit
of
divination
met
us,
which
brought
her
masters
much
gain
by
soothsaying”
(Acts
16:16).
The
girl’s
gift
is
attributed
by
Luke
to
a
spirit
of
divination,
penuma
pythona,
literally,
“a
spirit,
a
Python.”
The
background
of
this
attribution
reaches
back
into
classical
Greek
mythology.
The
Python
was
a
legendary
dragon
serpent
that
guarded
the
temple
and
oracle
of
Apollo,
located
on
the
slope
of
Mt.
Parnassus
just
north
of
the
Gulf
of
Corinth.
The
giant
serpent
was
supposed
to
have
lived
at
the
foot
of
Mt.
Parnassus
and
to
have
eventually
been
killed
by
Apollo.
The
Latin
scholar
Gaius
Julius
Hyginus
(64
BC–AD
17)
elaborates:
Apollo exacted vengeance for his mother. For he went to Parnassus and slew Python with his arrows. (Because of this deed he is called Pythian.) He put Python’s bones in a cauldron, deposited them in his temple, and instituted funeral games for him which are called Pythian.[viii]
Accordingly,
the
name
is
related
to
the
site
of
Delphi
(Pythō),
the
most
important
oracle
in
the
classical
Greek
world,
and
is
also
associated
with
the
putrid
corpse
of
the
serpent
dragon
stored
in
the
cauldron
(from
the
verb
pythein,
“to
rot”).
While
the
myth
is
well
known,
could
it
have
any
historical
basis?
The
historian
Strabo
(64
BC–AD
24)
preserves
a
more
ancient
Greek
historian,
Ephorus’
(400–330 BC),
interpretation
of
the
classical
legend.
While
reading
this
account,
it
is
essential
to
note
that
Ephorus
had
previously
issued
a
complaint
concerning
those
who
mix
mythology
and
history,
a
seeming
inconsistency
as
he
proceeds
to
do
just
that,
as
Strabo
perplexingly
comments:
And that at this time Apollo, visiting the land, civilized the people by introducing cultivated fruits and cultured modes of life; and that when he set out from Athens to Delphi he went by the road which the Athenians now take when they conduct the Pythias; and that when he arrived at the land of the Panopaeans he destroyed Tityus, a violent and lawless man who ruled there; and that the Parnassians joined him and informed him of another cruel man named Python and known as the Dragon, and that when Apollo shot at him with his arrows the Parnassians shouted “Hie Paean” to encourage him (the origin, Ephorus adds, of the singing of the Paean which has been handed down as a custom for armies just before the clash of battle); and that the tent of Python was burnt by the Delphians at that time, just as they still burn it to this day in remembrance of what took place at that time. But what could be more mythical than Apollo shooting with arrows and punishing Tityuses and Pythons, and travelling from Athens to Delphi and visiting the whole earth? But if Ephorus did not take these stories for myths, by what right did he call the mythological Themis a woman, and the mythological Dragon a human being—unless he wished to confound the two types, history and myth?[ix]
This
begs
the
question
of
whether
Ephorus
was
demythologizing
the
Python
legend
or,
more
interestingly,
if
the
serpent
dragon
actually
took
the
form
of
a
man.
Reptilian
shape
shifters
or
something
like
the
nachash?
Etymologically,
there
appears
a
semantic
development
from
the
specific
serpent
dragon
to
an
oracle
inspiring
spirit
in
general.
A
massive,
tenth-century
Byzantine
encyclopedia
of
the
ancient
Mediterranean
world
known
as
the
Suda
defines
the
Python
as
a
daimonion
mantikos.
The
first
word
is
the
root
of
the
modern
term
“demon,”
examined
in
detail
in
my
upcoming
book,
and
the
second,
the
Greek
mantikos, is “prophetic,
oracular,
of
or
for
a
soothsayer,”
from
the
word
“mantis,”
or
“prophet”;
literally,
it
means
“one
touched
by
divine
madness.”[x]
In
AD
60
or
so
when
Luke
wrote
Acts,
a
person
with
“a
spirit
of
the
Python”
was
a
demon-possessed
person
through
whom
a
Python
spirit
spoke.
This
is
corroborated
by
early
writers
like
Pseudoclementine,
Origen,
and
Jerome,
who
wrote
of
“Python-demons”
inspiring
pagan
prophetic
oracles.[xi]
Certainly,
the
practices
of
contemporary
channelers
and
remote
viewers
do
not
significantly
differ
from
the
ancient
world.
Even
so,
perhaps
it
is
pressing
too
hard
to
apply
this
text
to
clairvoyance
across
the
board.
But
What
Does
This
Mean
For
Us?
It
might
come
as
a
surprise
that
some
very
conservative
theologians
allow
for
innate
human
abilities—along
the
lines
of
Watchman
Nee’s
latent
power
of
the
soul—as
an
explanation
for
some
forms
of
extrasensory
perception.
A
contemporary
and
friend
of
the
celebrated
evangelist
D.
L.
Moody,
Frederick
Brotherton
Meyer
(1847–1929),
was
a
Baptist
pastor
and
evangelist
during
the
heyday
of
the
popular
spiritualist
movement
of
the
nineteenth
century.
In
a
polemic
against
spiritualism,
Meyer
railed
against
the
mediums,
but
conceded
that
psi
abilities
are
not
necessarily
occult:
Neither telepathy nor clairvoyance appears deserving of our censure. They are natural properties of the mind, and only reveal the wondrous faculties with which the Almighty has endowed us. If it is possible to send out circling waves of wireless telegraphy, which widen out as the rings from a stone cast into a pond Or lake, and can only be appreciated where the receiver and the transmitter are perfectly attuned, so it is not difficult to believe that our minds are constantly radiating motions and influences through our brains, which are perceived by sympathetic correspondence with other brains.[xii]
Meyer
allowed
that
telepathy
and
clairvoyance
are
human
abilities
endowed
by
the
Creator.
While
dominant
Western
scientific
consensus
denies
these
abilities,
the
evidence
for
them
is
quite
compelling
and
consistent
with
biblical
revelation.
While
this
may
raise
the
hackles
of
a
few
critics,
the
biblical
worldview
has
more
in
common
with
the
findings
of
parapsychology
than
philosophical
naturalism,
and
theologians
have
much
to
learn
from
the
research.
My
conviction
is
that
the
Christian
has
nothing
to
fear
from
the
pursuit
of
truth,
even
from
unconventional
sources...
such
as
I
infiltrated...
where
I
found
what
I
did
not
expect.
TO
BE
CONTINUED
[i]
Charles
T.
Tart,
The
End
of
Materialism
(Oakland,
CA:
Fearless,
2012)
Kindle
edition,
3482–3491.
[ii]
Russell
Targ,
Limitless
Mind
(Novato,
CA:
New
World
Library,
2004)
26.
[iii]
Diane
Hennacy
Powell,
The
ESP
Enigma:
The
Scientific
Case
for
Psychic
Phenomena
(New
York:
Bloomsbury,
2009)
Kindle
edition,
939–940.
[iv]
Edwin
C.
May,
“The
American
Institutes
for
Research
Review
of
the
Department
of
Defense’s
STAR
GATE
Program,”
Journal
of
Parapsychology,
60
(March
1996)
3–23.
[v]
Wil
S.
Hylton
“The
Gospel
According
to
Jimmy,”
GQ,
January
2005,
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200512/
jimmy-carter-ted-kennedy-ufo-republicans?currentPage=2 (accessed 11/28/13).
jimmy-carter-ted-kennedy-ufo-republicans?currentPage=2 (accessed 11/28/13).
15
F.
J.
A.
Hort,
The
Apocalypse
of
St.
John
(London:
Macmillan,
1908)
15.
[vi]Robert
L.
Thomas,
Revelation
1–7:
An
Exegetical
Commentary
(Chicago:
Moody,
1992)
338.
[vii]
Johannes
P.
Louw
and
Eugene
Albert
Nida,
Greek-English
Lexicon
of
the
New
Testament:
Based
on
Semantic
Domains
(New
York:
United
Bible
Societies,
1996)
444.
[viii]
Hyginus,
“Fabulae”
Classical
E
Texts,
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae3.html#140,
(accessed
05/02/13).
[ix]
Strabo,
ed.,
H.
L.
Jones,
The
Geography
of
Strabo
(Medford,
Cambridge
MA:
Harvard
University
Press;
William
Heinemann,
1924).
[x]
“Mantic,”
Online
Etymology
Dictionary,
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mantic&allowed_in_frame=0
(accessed
05/02/13).
[xi]
“Python,”
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 6, eds. Gerhard
Kittel,
Geoffrey
W.
Bromiley,
and
Gerhard
Friedrich
(Grand
Rapids,
MI:
Eerdmans,
1964)
electronic
edition,
920.
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