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Understanding Nature’s mysteries

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Emeritus Prof. S. N. Arseculeratne

My plea to readers, is please keep an open mind on what I will say, despite your conditioning and beliefs.

This is an abbreviated version of a lecture titled “Published records on and my personal experiences with Paranormal phenomena,“given in 2019 to the Peradeniya University’s Alumni Association. It will recount evidence for the reality of Parapsychological (Paranormal), mysterious phenomena described in the published literature and in my personal experiences, in accordance with what John Ziman (Fellow of London’s The Royal Society), wrote “Come with reliable, consensible evidence , and we will be ready to be convinced” and that is what I did in my lecture.

Aristotle commented ” It is of man’s nature that he wants to know“. In that quest for knowledge, scientists have unearthed much about Nature in many categories of knowledge, in the physical and biological sciences; these are considered branches of natural phenomena, which are amenable to direct exploration. There are however phenomena that were well known for centuries, but have defied exploration though they have been written about by many prestigious authors; these fall into the category of Parapsychology.

Many persons are skeptical of the reality or validity of these phenomena and consider them as mumbo-jumbo as did Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene; I wrote to him challenging his unsubstantiated skepticism. Sceptics should remember that Shakespeare’s Horatio said “There are more things in Heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy“. A former physicist Peter Betts, now a Buddhist monk, Ajahn Brahmavamso in Australia, with whom I corresponded wrote “Scientists, for the most part, are brainwashed by their education and their in-group conferences to see the world in a very narrow, microscopic way“.

Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world”. In 300 BC in China, the Lu Shih Chhun Chhiu commented ” If a man climbs a mountain, the oxen below look like sheep and the sheep like hedgehogs. Yet their real shape is very different. It is a question of the observer’s viewpoint“.

Britain’s Society for Psychical Research had 12 Nobel Prize laureates and many Fellows of the most prestigious scientific society in the world, The Royal Society of London; members included Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Nobel Laureate Brian Josephson turned from Physics to the paranormal after he saw Mathew Manning performing psychokinesis (physical acts through the mind alone) at a conference on parapsychology (psychokinesis) in Toronto, Canada; I corresponded with him.

Sigmund Freud wrote a book on Parapsychology. Albert Einstein wrote: “It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.” Sigmund Freud wrote ” I am not one of those who , from the outset, disapprove of the study of so-called occult phenomena as unscientific , as unworthy or even dangerous. If I were at the beginning of a scientific career, instead of as now at its end, I would perhaps choose no other field of work, in spite of its difficulties.”

Psychologist Carl G. Jung wrote ” I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I I cannot explain, as fraud”. Philosopher Arthur Schoenhauer wrote “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world”. I contributed a chapter “Approaches to the study of Reincarnation” to the book Yoga and Parapsychology edited by the Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao.

There are nine categories of these phenomena, in all of which I had personsal experience, reported evidence from friends or evidence in the published literature. I have discussed some of these topics personally with Ian Stevenson (USA), Erlandur Haraldsson of Sweden, and Rama Krishna Rao of India.

These categories comprise, 1. Rebirth, also termed Reincarnation and Palingenesis. This refers to the successive births of a personality after the death of each one. Ian P. Stevenson of Virginia University (USA) the world’s foremost authority on it, published a book, “Twenty cases suggestive of Reincarnation” to which I contributed a case; I introduced him at his lecture at the Peradeniya university. N. Senanayake also wrote a book “Recent trends in Rebirth Research“, to which I contributed.

The succeeding birth has a person recapitulating some of the characters of the preceding personality and his acts committed in previous births, reaping their karmic consequences. Arthur Ellison, University of London wrote “The best evidence for genuine reincarnation appears to be that produced in such quantity and high quality by Professor Ian Stevenson in his work all over the world, with children having appropriate memories. John G. Fuller in his remarkable book “The airmen who would not die” wrote that the evidence “…brought many discerning and even skeptical people to the unalterable conclusion that there is life after death”. The evidence cited by most authors is circumstantial in legal terms.

 

2

. Spirits of dead people; also termed Discarnate Entities, DEs are personalities after their death on earth, which then exist in some unidentified celestial abode. These entities can be accessed parapsychologically. They are considered to be helpful to people on earth as when the sister who had died, temporarily disabled a car to be driven by her brother thus preventing his entry to the site of a later bombing. It expresses the bond between the Discarnate Entity and the beneficiary. John G. Fuller wrote two books on this topic. Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck wrote The Unknown Guest, about these cases. DEs seem to have precognitive and psychokinetic abilities.

 

3

. Planetary controls in Nature, Astrology, I had numerous experiences with the mundane variety as well as with the 1,400 years-old Indian Palm leaf horoscopes studied by the German author Thomas Ritter. My personal experience was the astrological prediction of my future medical career and my writing of a book on poisons, both of which were realized over the next 20 years. I verified from an expert on snake poisons, that he has Rahu, an indicator or poisons, in the first house of his horoscope representing his mind. Another who had Venus, the controller of sex, in his first house of his horoscope which had Venus as the ruler; he had a tragic end through sexual misadventures. R. S. Offenbach wrote on the palm leaf horoscopic writings from India, about the bombings of New York in 2001. I had a remarkable case of an astrologer who, from the birth data of a scientist, constructed in my absence to avoid telepathy, the fate of this man in a car accident which left him totally disabled and later dead.

 

4.

Palmistry, This refers to the analysis and prediction of life’s events through the lines on a palm. I was told of three cases by the persons concerned, themselves, of events predicted through the lines on their palms. West & Toonder (1970) noted that “Most professional palmists combine straightforward analysis along traditional lines with clairvoyance and it is not as a rule possible to distinguish between the two”.

 

5. Anomalous cognition,

Extra-sensory Perception, Clairvoyance is the ability of a psychic to read concealed writings mentally without direct vision. I had an Indian who visited my home in Malaysia, who was able to read and recopy documented but concealed items through the mind alone. Hans Eysenck (London University and pioneer psychologist) commented: The only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there exist a small number of people who obtain knowledge existing wither in other peoples’ minds or in the outer world, by means as yet unknown to modern science”.

 

6

. Fore-seeing the future, Precognition, The most remarkable example was the publication of a novel by Morgan Robertson in England in 1894, some 18 years before the predicted event really happened; the congruence between the fictional events and the real event was total. Robertson described fictionally the sinking of the British ship Titan after a collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic, The real ship the Titanic suffered the identical fate 18 years later, with the loss of 1,500 passengers. Nostradamus the 15th century French psychic made accurate predictions of global events including the rise of Hitler in Germany and Middle Eastern terrorists.. My personal experience was with a layman-psychic who foresaw the results of my medical research which were totally confirmed by scientists abroad 10 years later. His technical description of the immunological results was e stunningly accurate. He also predicted my foreign tour for work in WHO.

 

7.

Acts done by the mind alone, Psychokinesis, The performance of physical acts through the mind alone and not through physical means. My experience was my contact with the famous Indian psychic Sai Baba, followed a day later by my recovery of an important lost item. Nobel laureate Brian Josephson wrote his experiences after seeing Mathew Manning perform psychokinesis in Toronto; he said that he then became interested in the paranormal. I corresponded with him. Uri Geller’s psychokinetic performances were confirmed by Dr David Bohm and Dr John Hasted (University of London).

 

8.

Purely mental communication of information between persons, Telepathy. A classic example was that of the inventor of the electro-encephalograph Hans Berger whose sister was accessed telepathically by him when he had an accident far away. Alan Turing, the inventor of the computer, wrote on telepathy, (1950): “These disturbing phenomena seem to deny all our usual scientific ideas; how we should like to discredit them. Unfortunately the evidence at least for telepathy is overwhelming“.

 

9.

Prophetic dreams. These are dreams experienced by people about events which concerned their professional or personal interests . The most remarkable was Auguste Kekule’s dream of a snake biting its own tail as a parallel of the circular structure of the Benzene molecule in 1862; Benzene is a key chemical compound in organic chemistry. He was a professor of Chemistry in Belgium. A Sri Lankan parallel of a prophetic dream was a domestic’s dream of her employer’s wife who was hospitalized with a head injury; she visited the hospital to see her employer’s wife, eight years after leaving her service.

My frequent experience of the denial of paranormal phenomena by skeptics, commonly arises from the work of fraudulent or incompetent practitioners, especially astrologers, compounded by incurable skepticism, or beliefs especially of religious origin which negate such experiences and phenomena.

 

(The writer is an Emeritus Professor of the Peradeniya University and a Founder Fellow of the National Academy of Science, Sri Lanka)



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Have Humanities and Social Sciences muddied water enough?

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By Maduranga Kalugampitiya

The domain of the humanities and social sciences is under attack more than ever before. The relevance, as well as usefulness of the degrees earned in those fields, is being questioned left, right, and centre. The question of whether it is meaningful at all to be spending, if not wasting, the limited financial resources available in the coffers to produce graduates in those fields is raised constantly, at multiple levels. Attempts are being made to introduce a little bit of soft skills into the curricula in order to add ‘value’ to the degree programmes in the field. The assumption here is that either such degree programmes do not impart any skills or the skills that they impart are of no value. We often see this widely-shared profoundly negative attitude towards the humanities and the social sciences (more towards the former than towards the latter) being projected on the practitioners (students, teachers, and researchers) in those areas. At a top-level meeting, which was held one to two years ago, with the participation of policy-makers in higher education and academics and educationists representing the humanities and social sciences departments, at state universities, a key figure in the higher education establishment claimed that the students who come to the humanities and social sciences faculties were ‘late-developers’. What better (or should I say worse?) indication of the official attitude towards those of us in the humanities and the social sciences!

While acknowledging that many of the key factors that have resulted in downgrading the humanities and social sciences disciplines are global by nature and are very much part of the neoliberal world order, which dominates the day, I wish to ask if we, the practitioners in the said fields, have done our part to counter the attack.

What the humanities and the social sciences engage with is essentially and self-consciously social. What these disciplines have to say has a direct bearing on the social dimension of human existence. It is near impossible to discuss phenomena in economics, political science, or sociology without having to reflect upon and use examples from what happens in our lives and around us. One cannot even begin to talk about teaching English as a second language without taking a look at her/his own experience learning English and the struggles that many people go through at different levels doing the same. One cannot talk about successful ways of teaching foreign languages without recognizing the need to incorporate an engagement with the cultural life of those languages at some level. No reading of an artwork—be it a novel, a movie, a painting, a sculpture, a poem, whatever—is possible without the reader at least subconsciously reflecting upon the broader context in which those artworks are set and also relating her own context or experience to what is being read. A legal scholar cannot read a legislation without paying attention to the social implications of the legislation and the dynamics of the community at whom that legislation is directed. The point is our own existence as social beings is right in the middle of what we engage with in such disciplines. To steal (and do so self-consciously) a term from the hard/natural sciences, society is essentially the ‘laboratory’ in which those in the humanities and social sciences conduct their work. There may be some areas of study within the humanities and social sciences which do not require an explicit engagement with our social existence, but I would say that such areas, if any, are limited in number.

Needless to say that every social intervention is political in nature. It involves unsettling what appears to be normal about our social existence in some way. One cannot make interventions that have a lasting impact without muddying the water which we have been made to believe is clear. How much of muddying do we as practitioners in the field of humanities and social sciences do is a question that needs to be asked.

Unfortunately, we do not see much work in the humanities and social sciences which unsettles the dominant order. What we often see is work that reinforces and reaffirms the dominant structures, systems, and lines of thought. Lack of rigorous academic training and exposure to critical theory is clearly one of the factors which prevents some scholars in the field from being able to make interventions that are capable of muddying the water, but the fact that we sometimes do not see much muddying even on the part of the more adept scholars shows that lack of rigorous training is not the sole reason.

Muddying the water is no simple matter. To use a problematic, yet in my view useful, analogy, a scholar in the said field trying to make an intervention that results in unsettling the order is like a hydrogen atom in H2O, ‘water’ in layperson’s language, trying to make an intervention which results in a re-evaluation of the oxygen atom. Such an intervention invariably entails a re-evaluation of the hydrogen atom as well, for the reason that the two atoms are part of an organic whole. One cannot be purely objective in its reading of the other. Such an intervention is bound to be as unsettling for the hydrogen atom as it is for the oxygen atom. Similarly, in a majority of contexts, a scholar in the area of the humanities and social sciences cannot make an intervention, the kind that pushes the boundaries of knowledge, without unsettling the dominant structures and value systems, which they themselves are part of, live by, and also benefit from. For instance, the norms, values, and practices which define the idea of marriage in contexts like ours are things that a male scholar would have to deal with as a member of our society, and any intervention on his part which raises questions about gender-based inequalities embodied in such norms, values, and practices would be to question his own privilege. Needless to say that such an intervention could result in an existential crisis for the scholar, at least temporarily. Such interventions also entail the possibility of backlash from society. One needs thorough training to withstand that pressure.

In place of interventions that unsettle the existing order, what we often see is work, which re-presents commonsensical knowledge garbed in jargon. To give an example from an area that I am a bit familiar with, much of the work that takes place in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL) identifies lack of motivation on the part of the students and also teachers and also lack of proper training for teachers as the primary reasons for the plight of English education in the country. This reading is not very different from a layperson’s understanding of the problem, and what we often see as research findings in the field of ESL is the same understanding, albeit dressed up in technical-sounding language. Such readings do not unsettle the existing order. They put the blame on the powerless. Very limited is the work that sees the present plight of English education as a systemic or structural problem. Reading that plight as a systemic problem requires us to re-evaluate the fundamental structures which govern our society, and such re-evaluation is unsettling is many ways. I argue that that is what is expected of scholarship in the ESL field, but unfortunately that is not what we see as coming out of the field.

If what gets produced as knowledge in the humanities and social sciences is jargonized commonsense, then the claim that such fields have nothing important to say is valid. If what a scholar in those fields has to say is not different to a layperson’s understanding of a given reality, the question whether there is any point in producing such scholars becomes valid.

In my view, the humanities and social sciences are in need of fundamental restructuring. This restructuring is not the kind which calls for the incorporation of a bit of soft skills here and a bit of soft skills there so that those who come out of those fields easily fit into predefined slots in society but the kind that results in the enhancement of the critical thinking capacity of the scholars. It is the kind of restructuring that would produce scholars who are capable of engaging in a political reading of the realities that define our existence in society and raise difficult questions about such existence, in other words, scholars who are capable of muddying the water.

(Maduranga Kalugampitiya is attached to Department of English, University of Peradeniya)

Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall thatparodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.

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Selective targeting not law’s purpose

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By Jehan Perera

The re-emergence of Donald Trump in the United States is a reminder that change is not permanent. Former President Trump is currently utilising the grievances of the white population in the United States with regard to the economic difficulties that many of them face to make the case that they need to be united to maintain their position in society. He is coming forward as their champion. The saying “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” is often attributed to the founders of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, among many others, though Lord Denning in The Road to Justice (1988) stated that the phrase originated in a statement of Irish orator John Philpot Curran in 1790. The phrase is often used to emphasise the importance of being vigilant in protecting one’s rights and freedoms.

Ethnic and religious identity are two powerful concepts by which people may be mobilised the world over. This is a phenomenon that seemed to have subsided in Western Europe due to centuries of secular practices in which the state was made secular and neutral between ethnicities and religions. For a short while last year during the Aragalaya, it seemed that Sri Lanka was transcending its ethnic and religious cleavages in the face of the unexpected economic calamity that plunged large sections of the population back into poverty. There was unprecedented unity especially at the street level to demonstrate publicly that the government that had brought the country to this sorry pass had to go. The mighty force of people’s power succeeded in driving the leaders of that government out of power. Hopefully, there will be a government in the future that will bring the unity and mutual respect within the people, especially the younger generations, to the fore and the sooner the better as the price is growing higher by the day.

But like the irrepressible Donald Trump the old order is fighting to stage its comeback. The rhetoric of ethnicity and religion being in danger is surfacing once more. President Ranil Wickremesinghe who proclaimed late last year that the 13th Amendment to the constitution would be implemented in full, as it was meant to be, and enable the devolution of power to be enjoyed by the people of the provinces, including those dominated by Tamils and Muslims, has gone silent on this promise. The old order to which he is providing a new economic vision is clearly recalcitrant on ethno-religious matters. As a result, the government’s bold plan to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as promised to the international community in 2015 to address the unresolved human rights issues of the war, is reportedly on the rocks. The main Tamil political parties have made statements that they will not legitimise or accept such a mechanism in the absence of a genuine devolution of power. Politics must not override policies.

HURTFUL SENTIMENTS

The sense of threat to ethnicity and religion looms too large once again for forward movement in conflict resolution between the different communities that constitute the Sri Lankan nation which is diverse and plural. Two unlikely persons now find themselves at the centre of an emotion-heavy ethno-religious storm. One is a comedian, the other is a religious preacher. Both of them have offended the religious sensibilities of many in the ethno-religious Sinhala Buddhist majority community. Both of their statements were originally made to small audiences of their own persuasion, but were then projected through social media to reach much larger audiences. The question is whether they made these statements to rouse religious hatred and violence. There have been numerous statements from all sides of the divide, whether ethnic, religious or political, denouncing them for their utterances.

Both comedian Nathasha Edirisooriya and pastor Jerome Fernando have apologised for offending and hurting the religious sentiments of the Buddhist population. They made an attempt to remedy the situation when they realised the hurt, the anger and the opposition they had generated. This is not the first time that such hurtful and offensive comments have been made by members of one ethno-religious community against members of another ethnic-religious community. Taking advantage of this fact the government is arguing the case for the control of social media and also the mainstream media. It is preparing to bring forward legislation for a Broadcasting Regulatory Commission that would also pave the way to imprison journalists for their reporting, impose fines, and also revoke the licences issued to electronic media institutions if they impact negatively on national security, national economy, and public order or create any conflict among races and religions.

In a free society, opportunities are provided for people to be able to air their thoughts and dissents openly, be it at Hyde Park or through their representatives in Parliament. The threat to freedom of speech and to the media that can arise from this new law can be seen in the way that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which is the world’s standard bearer on civil and political rights has been used and is being abused in Sri Lanka. It was incorporated into Sri Lankan law in a manner that has permitted successive governments to misuse it. It is very likely that the Broadcast Regulatory Commission bill will yield a similar result if passed into law. The arrest and detention of comedian Natasha Edirisooriya under the ICCPR Act has become yet another unfortunate example of the misuse of a law meant to protect human rights by the government. Pastor Jerome Fernando is out of prison as he is currently abroad having left the country a short while before a travel ban was delivered to him.

SELECTIVE TARGETING

The state media reported that a “Police officer said that since there is information that she was a person who was in the Aragalaya protest, they are looking into the matter with special attention.” This gives rise to the inference that the reason for her arrest was politically motivated. Comedian Edirisooriya was accused of having violated the provisions in the ICCPR in Section 3(1) that forbids hate speech. Section 3(1) of the ICCPR Act prohibits advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, violence or hostility. The international human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, has pointed out that in the case of Edirisooriya that for speech to be illegal on the grounds of being hate speech it requires “a clear showing of intent to incite others to discriminate, be hostile towards or commit violence against the group in question.” Amnesty International also notes that “When the expression fails to meet the test, even if it is shocking, offensive or disturbing, it should be protected by the state.”

Ironically, in the past there have been many instances of ethnic and religious minorities being targeted in a hateful manner that even led to riots against them, but successive governments have been inactive in protecting them or arresting their persecutors. Such targeting has taken place, often for political purposes in the context of elections, in blatant bids to mobilise sections of the population through appeals to narrow nationalism and fear of the other. The country’s political and governmental leaders need to desist from utilising the ICCPR Act against those who make social and political critiques that are outside the domain of hate speech. The arrest of Bruno Divakara, the owner of SL-Vlogs, under the ICCPR Act is an indication of this larger and more concerning phenomenon which is being brought to the fore by the Broadcasting Regulatory Commission bill.

The crackdown on the space for free expression and critical comment is unacceptable in a democratic polity, especially one as troubled as Sri Lanka, in which the economy has collapsed and caused much suffering to the people and the call to hold elections has been growing. The intervention of the Human Rights Commission which has called on the Inspector General of Police to submit a report on the arrest and its rationale is a hopeful sign that the independence of institutions intended to provide a check and balance will finally prevail. The Sri Lankan state will hopefully evolve to be a neutral arbiter in the disputes between competing ethnic, religious and partisan political visions of what the state should be and what constitutes acceptable behaviour within it. Taking on undemocratic powers in a variety of ways and within a short space of time is unlikely to deliver economic resurgence and a stable and democratic governance the country longs for. Without freedom, justice and fair play within, there can be no hope of economic development that President Wickremesinghe would be wanting to see.

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Girl power… to light up our scene

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Manthra: Pop, rock and Sinhala songs

We have never had any outstanding all-girl bands, in the local scene, except, perhaps…yes The Planets, and that was decades ago!

The Planets did make a name for themselves, and they did create quite a lot of excitement, when they went into action.

Of course, abroad, we had several top all-girl bands – outfits like the Spice Girls, Bangles, Destiny’s Child, and The Supremes.

It’s happening even now, in the K-pop scene.

Let’s hope we would have something to shout about…with the band Manthra – an all-girl outfit that came together last year (2022).

Manthra is made up of Hiruni Fernando (leader/bass guitar), Gayathma Liyanage (lead guitar), Amaya Jayarathne (drums), Imeshini Piyumika (keyboards), and Arundathi Hewawitharana (vocals).

Amaya Arundathi and Imeshini are studying at the University of Visual and Performing Arts, while Gayathma is studying Architecture at NIMB, and Hiruni is the Western Music teacher at St. Lawrence’s Convent, and the pianist at Galadari Hotel, having studied piano and classical guitar at West London University.

They have already displayed their talents at various venues, events, weddings, and on TV, as well (Vanithabimana Sirasa TV and Charna TV Art Beat).

Additionally, the band showcased their talent at the talent show held at the Esoft Metro Campus.

The plus factor, where this all-girl outfit is concerned, is that their repertoire is made up rock, pop, and Sinhala songs.

Explaining as to how they came up with the name Manthra, founder member Hiruni said that Manthra means a word, or sound, repeated to aid concentration in meditation, and that the name was suggested by one of the band members.

Hiruni Fernando: Founder and leader of Manthra

She also went on to say that putting together a female band is not an easy task, in the scene here.

“We faced many difficulties in finding members. Some joined and then left, after a short while. Unlike a male band, where there are many male musicians in Sri Lanka, there are only a few female musicians. And then, there are some parents who don’t like their daughters getting involved in music.”

With talented musicians in their line-up, the future certainly looks bright for Manthra who are now keen to project themselves, in an awesome way, in the scene here, and abroad, as well.

“We are keen to do stage shows and we are also planning to create our own songs,” said Hiruni.

Yes, we need an all-girl group to add variety to our scene that is now turning out to be a kind of ‘repeating groove,’ where we see, and hear, almost the same thing…over and over again!

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