Psychic powers

A few decades ago, the US government spent Billions of dollars into the research pertaining to Psychic powers. The research was carried out in top US universities by eminent scientists. At the end of the research, the scientists involved in it declared that existence of Psychic powers was beyond any doubt. 

 

At the same time, one well known scientist, who was not part of the research process, but was a member of the two member evaluation committee, questioned the way the research was carried out and concluded that the procedure was prone to erroneous conclusions and psychic powers cannot be concluded by such research.

The interest in psychic powers has been there in human minds for centuries. But probably what whipped up the interest most, in recent times, are the two books – both by Indian Yoga Gurus – “Living with Himalayan Masters” by Swami Rama, and “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahamsa Yogananda.

The commentator of Patanjali Yoga Sutra explained it as the power of a realized soul (Purusha) that has mastery over the matter (Prakrti). Modern Yoga teachers say that it is because of the awakening of Kundalini; while the early Buddhists said that the power was due to a “concentrated mind”. Each has their own explanation, but all accept its existence.

Human mind has lot of high expectations about extraordinary phenomena, and it uses whatever is read or heard to validate its own expectations. So, even if there is glaring evidence that some Guru is just fooling the people, the mind refuses to contradict its own judgments and clings to it. 

That probably explains why several pseudo Gurus thrive with their, often illogical, portrayal of psychic powers and purported methods to achieve them.