Wonders in the Sky   An eclipse of the sun can cause millions of people to gaze up at the open sky. The sky and its wonders stir the imagination.  In fact, the open sky is a scene of all sorts of wonders, not just the rare coincidence of the moon blocking the sun for a short while.   It is a fact that people see mysterious lights, forms, objects in the sky that move about in strange ways, unlike any known to terrestrial science.  The study of these fascinating sky-born irregularities is called ufology.  I’ve been working on a report about the connection b ..read more

 From time to time I’ve  had experiences certifiably paranormal: telepathic, ghostly, precognitive,  psychokinetic.  But on the day after Christmas in 2020, actually after midnight on the next  day, I experienced something unlike anything I ever experienced before.   The context.  I was in high spirits,  working on a large painting and, at that moment, writing a blog-post for the following day. It was about one-thirty in the morning, my body felt tired, but my mind was clear.  I’m concentrating on the point I’m about to formulate and type out on my ..read more

It’s not every day that the New York Times reports on the mysteries of mind and body.  There was, however, a report in the Times (Sept 9, 2023) by Ruth Graham of an apparent case of bodily incorruption in America. It happened to Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster from the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus, a small order located in the hills north of Kansas city.  Four years after her death it was decided to move her body to a more conspicuous place inside the church.  Upon opening her coffin and expecting to find dust and bones, they found Wilhelmina (a Black woman) with her body and face i ..read more

Is there a preferred state of mind, an optimal form of consciousness, a way to open  the creative flow of our lives?  It can be a wild beast, that mind of ours.  Are there states of mind that can lift us out of our routine everyday selves?   A particular state of mind we should think about?   I think there is, and it’s a state we’re all acquainted with, at least to some degree.  The common word for it is ecstasy.   We can all in one way or another relate to this word.  The usage ranges from “Mom, I’m ecstatic about that gorgeous red blouse you bough ..read more

The two disciplines in the title, outlaws in  academia, are not on friendly terms with each other.  But that’s a mistake. The two fields of research naturally converge into one, more interesting discipline than either operating on their own.   Full disclosure, I write about this because I’m trying to understand my own experiences.   I am periodically befuddled by experiences that seem incredible and impossible.  So let me begin with a report of my own experience: a UAP, an unidentified aerial phenomenon. My experience was more than a sighting.  It was contact ..read more

Despite their great achievements, science and technology have brought us to the brink of nuclear annihilation and launched what may be an irreversible climate catastrophe. As I write, arms sales are sky-rocketing all over the planet. Meanwhile, the corporate energy magnates show few signs of shifting toward sustainable forms of energy production.  They lie and temporize, anything to cling to their enormous profits.      The climate crisis is denied and the weapons salesmen insist on the need for self-defense.  Can a society with a warped sense of truth long survive?&nb ..read more

To add to the fun of Halloween , let me tell you a true ghost story.  Some years ago I met a woman who told me about a ghost that was bothering her family where she lived in a small town of New Jersey.  This woman was a nurse and a brilliant student of anthropology. She had two younger daughters.  She explained that this ghost liked to appear in the bathroom where she and her daughters showered.  In short, this ghost was a double creep—a creepy ghost and creepy gaper at the girls while they showered.  All in all, about nine people , including her husband and friends ha ..read more

  There is an ancient myth about the death and rebirth of the world that repeats itself throughout history.  I wrote about this age-old human obsession in The Millennium Myth.  In the research for this book, I kept coming across examples of prophets of various creeds predicting doom and end of the world.  It was tedious, a continuous stream of false endtime predictions.  All failed.              Until the climate scientists of the 21st century began to predict a coming world climate disaster. You don’t have to ..read more

The word magic may suggest much that is negative, like conjuring and con-artistry.   But there are positive senses of the word.  I would mention a brilliant book by the scientist Dean Radin, Real Magic, a report on what parapsychology tells us about the ‘magic’ of our own mental life.  In  essence, it consists of our minds having the potential to sense beyond the limits of the senses and to know and do things beyond the constraints of time and space.  In this strong sense, we are all potential magicians.   What I want to suggest is an unnoticed sense in which ..read more

It’s easy to underestimate the power of our minds—beliefs, attitudes, emotions—and their impact on our health and physical well being.  An example that science fully acknowledges is the power of the placebo. For example, it is well known that drugs used to alleviate depression are just slightly more effective than placebos.  In other words, the mere belief in the healing power of something can produce health benefits.  So, in fact, there is a whole literature of healing phenomena associated with religious beliefs at shrines, with relics, in the context of prayer, etc.  &nbs ..read more