We live in a secular, natural world. Yet in our world we experiences supernatural events all the time. I’m writing this article to clarify my thinking on the topic and draw some conclusions around what we should do with the information.
The Nature of the Natural World
The world that we experience with our physical senses, touch sight, hearing, smell, and perhaps others form a basis for what I term the natural world. With our mind we process the experiences and build a narrative which is our blueprint for life. In other words, it is what we call reality.
One of the activities that we engage in is the study of our world using our sensory experience to build models and theories of the nature of our world and how it operates. In particular, the sciences of physics and cosmology have been refined to codify everyday experience. Yet the frontiers of both sciences are in chaos as attempts to create the ‘theory of everything’ remains illusive. The field of quantum mechanics offers counter-intuitive results that just won’t fit within a grand framework but border on a supernatural realm.
Apart from these abstract issues, apples still fall to the ground and not the sky, and clocks still run in one direction in a precise fashion. The walls around us and the floor under our feet are solid.
The Meaning of the Supernatural
Where we run into problems is at the point where we observe events that operate outside the natural realm. In my writings on exorcism and other areas of Christian spirituality you will find instances of bilocation – that of a person appearing simultaneously in two or more locations, levitation and other events that are impossible in our understanding of the natural realm. Hence the term super – meaning above or beyond – natural.
Ascribing supernatural events to that of another dimension, plane, world, universe, or whatever adds nothing to an informed understanding.
A Case of the Supernatural
I recently came across a video on the 20th century Catholic mystic, Maria Teresa Carloni. The video is a short description of some aspects of her later life (8:12 minutes) in which is revealed the fact that she regularly used bilocation in her ministry. Here is the video:
There have been other saints that used bilocation including the 20th century Polish Saint Faustina and Padre Pio.
Other of my articles on exorcism (see A New Direction) include references to supernatural events such as levitation and inhuman strength. The prophetic apparitions of Fatima and Garabandal have supernatural aspects associated with them.
The Spiritual Dimension and the Supernatural
My article on The Near Death Experience presents the case for an existent place or realm outside of our natural realm. There may be multiple such places as identified in The Book of Enoch. We have Heaven and Hell. The spiritual entities inhabiting both realms have the ability to exert supernatural manifestation in our natural world.
As I have discussed in other articles in these series, we are eternal beings that have a spiritual nature, embedded in bodies in the natural world for a brief period of time. Free will is the part of our nature that allows us to make the choice, either by action or inaction, which realm we will spend the rest of eternity in.
I wonder to what degree we can live simultaneously in both the spiritual and natural realms. Certainly I have had moments when experience coexisted as I’m sure you have. Sustaining those moments is a challenge and may not be possible beyond what God ordains. I wonder …
We Have a Choice
You may , of course, not believe any of what I have written. I cannot, nor will I attempt to convince you. God the Father and God the Son love all souls including you and me. But there cannot and will not be any coercion in your or my choosing. That is true love, the love to allow someone to choose to perish even when you would have them not do so.
Articles in This Series
Refer to the series index in Notes on a Spiritual Journey.
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