Sunday, August 6, 2000		Article

HAVE you ever suddenly thought of someone after years and received a telephone call from him almost immediately. Have you ever had the urge to see someone and have found him the very next moment at your doorstep? Have you ever thought of something happening somewhere and have later found out that it actually happened? Have you ever read the thoughts of someone before he has actually expressed them? Dr J B Rhine, the former head of the parapsychology department of Duke University, USA, confirms such experiences are natural and normal for most people.

We all have such experiences at one time or another but we usually ignore them. As a child, Swami Vivekananda was impressed by a yogi who could tell him exactly what he was thinking at that moment. This made him eager to delve deep into the world of psychic phenomena.

At the age of four, Dona Leda, a Black woman of Brazil, saw a strange, tall, Black man entering their backyard. She ran to her mother and informed her. Her mother could see nothing there, and out of anger, locked Leda in a dark room. Leda was released on the condition that she would never tell such lies again. But again Leda cried: "Sorry Mama, the man is still there!" Leda was actually seeing the ghost of the man, which her mother couldn’t see.

Once Leda told a teenage girl in the neighbourhood that the latter was pregnant, though Leda didn’t know what ‘pregnant’ meant. The girl’s mother complained to Leda’s mother that Leda was spreading rumours about her daughter. Leda was punished. But soon it was clear that the girl was really pregnant. Leda became a psychic who could predict future events, read other people’s minds and work miracles.

Jesus Christ’s miracles are well-known. He had once told Moses to say to a mountain: "Be thou removed", and immediately gurgling water gushed out to quench Moses’ thirst.

The gurdwara at Punja Sahib is an example of the power of mind over matter. Guru Nanak was a profound scholar who was well acquainted with the power of the mind. Whatever he spoke came to be known as waaq (a sacred word). With his mental power he stopped a falling mountain at Punja Sahib. His intuition led him to places where he was needed.

The ghost of Prince Hamlet’s father (the King) revealed to Hamlet that the King’s brother had put poison into his ears to kill him so that he could marry Hamlet’s beautiful mother.

R.K. Narayan would talk to his dead wife’s spirit. He was never afraid of it. Rather, it would often guide him through thick and thin. He has described these conversations his novel The English Teacher.

People are afraid of spirits simply because they have been conditioned to fear them. When I was a child, my mother would try to frighten me with ghost stories. But now I am convinced that spirits are not harmful.

Ghosts and spirits harm us only when we try to misuse them. Brazil police records describe now a lady who knew black magic earned millions by using spirits to eliminate the enemies of those who approached her. When she heard the news of someone’s death she would immediately contact the spirit of the dead person and say that it could reach its destination only if it took the spirit of so and so with it. She would give the name of the person her client wanted dead and the spirit would do the rest.

But one day, instead of naming the person to be killed, she named her only son. She tried to undo what she had unwittingly done, but in vain. Her son soon died in an accident.

My father was in a coma when I rushed to the hospital. He died without telling me his last wish. But one afternoon, I saw him enter our drawing room. For a moment I forgot that he was dead. He told me he had lent Rs 1000 to a man named Manga Ram and that his passbook wrapped in brown paper was lying at the top of his cupboard in right hand corner. Manga Ram returned the amount to me and the passbook was exactly where his spirit had told me it would be.

Psychic phenomena are a wonder of human mind. Ordinarily, we barely use one-tenth of our brains. The remaining ninety percent which is the seat of mystical, and intuitive powers remain mostly unused. When a person meditates, he can penetrate deeper into his subconscious and thus learn about things he would not otherwise have known.

When two minds are tuned into the same frequency one can read the other’s mind. Similarly, if one tunes into the same wavelength as a spirit, one can communicate with it. It is a kind of sadhna. Each one of us can reach that stage provided we have an intense desire to learn and the ability to persevere, analyse and to keep calm.