Synchronistic & paranormal 2

Dr. Thomas yelled, “Stand back!” as the patient’s chest jumped from a charge trying to jolt the heart muscle to its regular pace. This is a scene in Beyond Knowing by Janis Amatuzio, a forensic pathologist who challenges the assumption that modern science proves the non-existence of spiritual reality. As part of the staff anxiously watching the patient’s body filled with tubes and monitors, Amatuzio’s next observation had no medical explanation.

“. . . something happened that I still cannot explain. I saw, or more accurately felt, a shimmer of light in the corner of the room above the foot of the angiography table. I quickly looked to see if the pump team was using a lighting device that perhaps reflected off the wall, but they were not. I looked again, somewhat puzzled, and suddenly had the profound sense of a deep, overwhelming, calm presence, in stark contrast to the frantic activity in the room. It was unmistakable! I was amazed.”

Staring intensely at the ceiling, she wondered why no one else could see it and whether she was losing her mind. Then a thought formed in her with clear words, “He’s watching . . . and he’s fine!” Despite frantic efforts by the medical staff, the patient died. After the doctor reported the sad news to his wife, Amatuzio sat alone with her and felt a shiver when she heard, “I can hardly believe this has happened. . . . He said he would be watching . . . and he would be fine.”

Another incident in Beyond Knowing is an example of precognition, knowing something through extra-sensory means. A husband appears at his wife’s bedside saying he’s been in an accident and his vehicle is in a ditch where it can’t be seen from the road. She calls 911 and officers find him in a ravine not visible from the road. Later the desk sergeant says thoughtfully, “She told me that it didn’t really seem to be a dream. . . . He was really standing there, next to her bed.”

I have heard and read countless stories like this, and some have happened to me. Just yesterday I was asking myself why I felt inexplicably glum and then minutes later learned some bad news. My most striking experiences with precognition are too personal to tell here. The stories fascinate me, and they also console me. When the world is too much with me, when human greed, wretchedness, perversity, stupidity, and ignorance depress me, my soul is refreshed by evidence of Spirit, “the still point of the turning world” where reigns peace, wisdom, and beauty.

I am not unique in having experiences that science cannot explain. Everyone I talk to about this can tell her or his own stories except committed, fundamentalist atheists who are also physicalists, firm deniers of that reality which is beyond description. We are lucky, those of us who accept the mystery.