Kripal's Argument for the Existence of Super Secret Paranormal Powers

Like stars in the sky, not visible by daylight, but ever present never the less. The powers of mental suggestion and lucidity are present in every human being. We are all, secretly, nocturnally gifted. We just live in the day, oblivious to our own secret stars.” - Kripal

        

       I read a lot of fantasy books, and the idea of “unlocking” powers is almost always a major theme in books about magic, wizardry, and the paranormal. I think it’s a thought or idea that many young children and adults have – is it possible that we contain some type of secret, hyperesthesic powers?  

            It is nice to think about having super, special powers, but almost always do people dismiss their wild dreams as fantasy as imagination. Kripal however turns fantasy and imagination into the potentially plausible. Through a French paranormal author, Deheust, Kripal argues for the existance of a paranormal power, and why, paranormal powers are not common in the world. In his book, “Authors of the Impossible” he uses four points to suggest the impossible. Below I’ve briefly outlined the major points of Kripal’s book.

Point 1: The Great Forgetting

Kripal states that “[t]he irrepressible tendency of the human spirit to modify the real in the sense of that which the culture of the moment proscribes”. More simply put, we, as humans, tend to change the reality of what we are sensing due to the culture of the moment. Kripal uses a metaphor of geographic borders. The outline of borders are the results of conflicts, compromises, and transactions, that the real is not given, but constructed, that “society is the seat of permanent battle around its definition. The very structure and capacity of our sensorium change with our social practices and intellectual categories, over which we ceaselessly fight.”

Point 2: Guardians of the Threshold

If a skeptical body does not like the conclusion of one study, it simply organizes another, avoids research altogether, or just lies about the facts. This crushes potential exploration of “paranormal senses” – our society is at a constant war of what they would like to believe. Earlier discoveries of magnetists and psychical researches were effectively overshadowed. There is no perfect system. “Every system, any system, conceals as it reveals and reveals as it conceals.”

Point 3: To Describe is to Construct

To acknowledge openly and describe authoritatively some aspect of the real is to make possible a psychological experiences of the same. Acknowledging or believing or something is what makes things real – one’s mind, thoughts, and reality are hinged on ones personal beliefs and ideas. The idea boils down to the notion of a single individual can create his or her own reality through acts of intention and affirmation. Kripal states boldly that, “[w]hat is possible and what is impossible is largely set up by social practices, historical institutions, and previous cultural battles by which the lines were drawn and the real circumscribed”.

Point 4: Magical Powers of Actualization of self

We all of these magical powers, but have yet to realize them. “These abilities only manifest in exceptional state of consciousness, but they are always there. Like stars in the sky, not visible by daylight, but ever present never the less. The powers of mental suggestion and lucidity are present in every human being. “we are all, secretly, nocturnally gifted. We just live in the day, oblivious to our own secret stars”

What are your thoughts on Kripals arguments? Personally, I am still extremely skeptical, but his arguments do make me change from believing that such powers are impossible to believing such powers are highly implausible.