Faith is a Function: Why You Never See Proof of the Paranormal

If you've been taught "seeing is believing," you've been taught wrong.

Psychics and Hylics (that's a fancy Gnostic word for "non-psychics," or material-oriented people) have been at odds since pretty much always. Psychics and our sympathizers often find ourselves having to convince Hylics that the paranormal is even A Thing.

Hylics usually want us to legitimize paranormal phenomena on their terms, which are "scientific" and "material." For example: They will only accept proof of ghosts if said ghosts are clearly captured on film, either in photographs or, better yet, a video. And even then, they'll critique the evidence into oblivion, for example by crying "PHOTOSHOP!" (even when no indication of photo modification is present), and that sort of thing.

Finally, some REAL proof of ghosts!

Silly side story: One time, a psychic cousin and I were ranting about this to each other -- about how Hylics seem to be looking for reasons to doubt the paranormal. They keep demanding proof but no amount or type of proof seems to satisfy them. Our rant became more and more passionate until I shouted, "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?! BRING YOU A GHOST?! Like, 'Here, I brought you a ghost. Look at it'."

Cue the lightbulb over my head, and this sketch was born:

Anyway, back to the point:

Notice that I don't call them "Skeptics." I call them Hylics. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but for the sake of the argument let's distinguish them this way:

A Skeptic rightfully requests extraordinary evidence to support extraordinary claims.
A Hylic erroneously believes that extraordinary evidence must take a material form.

In other words, a Hylic is operating from the faulty premise that the study of the paranormal must be no different from the study of the physical world. i.e.: "If you can't show me photographic evidence of X, then X doesn't exist."

And this line of thinking is faulty for a few reasons:

• it assumes that Metaphysics will obey the Laws of Physics (which are, if you'll recall, "laws" observed and determined by perceptually-limited humans ⁠— but I digress)

• it presumes the technology available to us (in this case, cameras) to be more perceptually objective and/or sensitive than our own senses (so, a human's eyewitness report of a ghost is illegitimate, while photographic evidence is more trustworthy ⁠— which ignores the fact that humans made cameras, thus making cameras limited similarly to us in their design ⁠— but again, I digress ⁠㋡)

• it assumes that the scientific method is the appropriate method for testing all paranormal phenomena, regardless of the specific attributes of said phenomena (i.e. it assumes that a ghost sighting is something that can be replicated/repeated for scientific observation in controlled conditions — ignoring the possibility that ghosts may operate by an entirely different set of laws)

That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Instead of opening the can of worms that is The Great Woo Woo Debate, I will instead put forth a radical proposition:

While the Laws of Physics may be more or less unbreakable here in this physical realm, entirely different laws apply the realms which lie beyond our material senses. We'll call these laws the Chaotic Function of Metaphysics.

It's crucial to understand that when I say Chaos, I don't mean disorder. I mean Chaos, as in, the philosophical-mathematical concept:

Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics focusing on the study of chaos — dynamical systems whose apparently random states of disorder and irregularities are actually governed by underlying patterns and deterministic laws that are highly sensitive to initial conditions.

In other words, I'm proposing that paranormal phenomena are intrinsically Chaotic, so the order-oriented scientific method is simply inadequate for the study of metaphysics. Okay, well, not totally. Psi phenomena have already been scientifically tested (and proven!) to the point of absurdity. But using the scientific method to study etheric beings like angels or dragons? LOL good luck with that.

Allow me to elaborate. Ghosts, right? They tend to appear to people spontaneously. For this reason, they are difficult to study using the conventional scientific method, which is contingent upon repeatability and observability. You sure as hell can't bring a ghost to a laboratory to observe it from behind a two-way mirror, for instance.

But the spontaneous quality of ghost sightings doesn't disqualify ghosts from being studied, if we're willing to go beyond conventional methods of observation such as EMF detectors and laboratory settings.

And furthermore, a lack of material proof doesn't negate the existence of ghosts any more than a lack of photographs from my birthday party would mean my birthday party never happened. It only means we must adjust our approach to understanding ghosts... from a Hylic one, to a Psychic one.

Psychics have been seeing, conversing with and even getting possessed by ghosts since forever. When it comes to the paranormal, we should give a little more credit to psychics for our time-tested ability to acquire information, quite literally, out of thin air.

At this point you might be thinking, "Why should I trust Psychics? They're all a bunch of frauds and charlatans!"

And to that I say, please read my essay about using the scientific method to prove psi phenomena to yourself. Please.

What people don't understand about the supernatural is that one of its operating laws is that you must have Faith in order to access these realms and experiences. Literally! There are some non-physical beings (like the Fae) who will not appear to you unless you believe in them first. Their whole M.O. is to test the openness of your mind, and they do that by denying doubters the ability to experience their presence directly. You aren't even capable of receiving a visitation from them until you've mastered your ability to have Faith.

This is because Faith has a function. Faith is a skill. To be able to believe in the unbelievable — and I mean really believe in it wholeheartedly, to the point where the belief changes you on a cellular level — requires a degree of self-mastery that very few people have.

Said more harshly: Not everybody's worthy.

I've gotta say, I think Faith is one of the most underrated spiritual tools out there. The word alone, "Faith," has developed a religious connotation that turns people off to it. So not many people have thought about what Faith is, and what its function is. Hell, I don't think people realize that Faith is functional.

Most people, bless their hearts, simply don't know that their beliefs are chosen. They think of their beliefs as being automatic or self-evident. They think "Well, I believe the sky is blue because I observe it to be blue." But really, we observe the sky to be blue because we believe it's blue. Believing is seeing, not the other way around.

Faith is something like a frequency key which unlocks levels of reality. You can't fully make use of your dormant psychic powers, for instance, until you first at least entertain the possibility that you have those powers. This is by design. The mistake Hylics make is in waiting for the proof to appear before they believe in psi phenomena, completely misunderstanding that the proof won't appear until they believe.

And if you're now thinking "Well isn't that just deluding myself?" then you're still missing the point. The goal is not to wrongly convince yourself of something that is not true, but to open up your perception to truths that are already established beyond your current perceptual capacity. Faith in this context is a means to an end, not an error in thought.

In closing:

If we are to explore the metaphysical realms, we must first understand that the door to those realms is unlocked with the frequency key called Faith. This is why Mystics, often written off as "crazy," are usually the only ones privileged to "go There," so to speak. Because what is a Mystic, really, if not someone who can activate their Faith on command?

The rift between Psychics and Hylics is not due to a lack of compelling evidence of the paranormal (because even by Hylic standards, there's plenty of evidence), but a difference in modes of being altogether. The difference between Hylic science and Psychic in-sight is the difference between Order and Chaos. It's the difference between fossil fuels and free energy. It's the difference between a reality where you are limited to material parameters of acquiring knowledge and power, and a reality where you can acquire that knowledge and power in the time it takes to believe you already have it.

Truly I tell you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

Jesus the Christ, Matthew 17:20

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