The five-sensed cane of mind
In this case, I shall have to agree to disagree with my fellow contributor.Harry Kemp wrote the following in "The Second Book of Modern Verse" (1922):
Blind
The Spring blew trumpets of color;
Her Green sang in my brain--
I heard a blind man groping
"Tap--tap" with his cane;
I pitied him in his blindness;
But can I boast, "I see"?
Perhaps there walks a spirit
Close by, who pities me,--
A spirit who hears me tapping
The five-sensed cane of mind
Amid such unguessed glories--
That I am worse than blind.
Arthur C. Clarke, recalling the above poem but not the author, misquoted in his book "Profiles of the Future" (dated but still highly readable and entertaining): "... Amid such greater glories, That I am worse than blind."
Truth be told, I rather prefer Clarke's version.
Back to the point I was trying to make--that there are many wonders that lie outside of our senses, but I believe that religious mumbo jumbo is not the way to understand them. This is why we build machines to extend our senses. Sound recorders to downconvert the voices of bats so we can hear them, radio telescopes to probe where our eyes cannot, electron microscopes to explore features we cannot feel.
Mystics would like you to believe that the chaotic (and understandably bewildering) quantum universe is justification for, and here I quote Mr Chopra himself, the possibility for "healing without touch" , "telepathy" and "clarivoyance". If any of these things do happen, it will be through technology, through hardwork and through basic down-to-Earth rationality. Healing without touch? Endoscopy. Telepathy? Some kind of implanted communication device. Clairvoyance? Memory downloads.
Even chaos is nothing of the sort. It is subject to probabilities, to statistical analysis. You might not know for sure what the next coin toss would reveal, but you do know the chances.
Just because our five senses are inadequate does not mean that we should abandon what they tell us, or throw up our hands in despair. We have to proceed on the basic premise that reality has to be consistent. Yes, there are other realities besides what our five senses tell us, but the only way to understand those realities is through the good old five-sensed cane of mind, not, as Mr Chopra would like you to believe, the "sixth sense [of the soul]".
posted by Au Yong, Haw Yee @ 11:16 PM
2 Comments:
I believe religion isn't such a main point in Mr. Chopra's article. He is just highlighting the unlimited possibilites in the future, esp. if we transcend our senses. It is a fact that most humans have trouble understanding things beyond their senses, as shown in quantum computing.
"The best outcome would be that wisdom will reemerge as a vital human capacity, for there is no doubt that our spiritual forebears were deeply in touch with the same invisible reality that still surrounds us. We have shut out that reality in our stubborn, rigid insistence on believing our senses, but seeing with the eyes of the soul is possible."
I believe he is just saying that the ability to go beyond our senses bring us much wisdom. This is covered in most philosophies as well. Our senses misled us at times and only the very wise can go beyond that. The word "soul" is simply a lack of a better word.
Yes, I agree that spirituality is important. I wasn't attacking religion. I am against using realities we do not understand to justify the existence of supernatural things we want to believe are true. Saying "quantum" and "clairvoyance" in the same sentence misleads the reader into believing that the former justifies the latter.
Yes spirituality is important. That's what gives us a guiding purpose in life.
Knowing when to disbelieve our senses is important too. That's how we know the world is not going all wonky when we stop twirling. It doesn't take a wise man to tell you that.
However, it all has to be stacked up on a solid foundation. If you want to go beyond the senses, you have to justify why that should be the case. Not everything that glitters is gold.
The Greeks sat around pondering the mysteries of the universe, coming up with such nonsense as the heavenly spheres and how a more massive body has to fall faster than a slower one.
Spirituality is fine if you want to explore the mysteries of the human soul, it is only when you apply it to the natural world that it breaks down.
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