Nuggets from Occult Invasion—How Do We Know What Is Real?

In 1996 the media had great fun with the story that First Lady Hillary Clinton had made contact and carried on conversations with a former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. There were disclaimers by Hillary that the conversations had been “imaginary.” Was she then just talking to herself? Surely it had to be more than that! In fact, Hillary has been led by Jean Houston into the ancient occult technique of visualization.

On the one hand, it all sounds ludicrous, conjuring up in the imagination some mysterious entities which then seemingly become “real,” whatever that means. On the other hand, it would be insulting to accuse all of these highly intelligent and well-educated persons of a common madness. Indeed, the very fact that so many people all over the world at all times of history have had the same experience puts the stamp of reality upon it. The fact, however, that these entities are not physical raises the question of how “real” these spirit guides are—and here we confront the question of what is meant by “real.”

One result of the transformation taking place in our world through drugs and other shamanic practices is the confusion about “reality” that now plagues so many people who were once quite certain of the answer to that question. Is what is experienced on the drug trip or in the “higher consciousness” achieved through Eastern mysticism the “real” state of affairs, or is reality found in ordinary consciousness? It has become so popular to claim that we create our own universe with our minds, so reality is in a state of flux and differs for each of us. This is patent nonsense that comes from the Hindu belief that all is maya, an illusion.

Logically, the mere fact that the universe existed long before Homo sapiens came along to “create” reality with his imagination should have ended the kind of delusion that Jean Houston and others like her have foisted upon a gullible following. Yet this theory persists. To demolish this fantasy, that we are all dreaming a common dream we call “reality,” and to establish the fact of a real universe independent of our minds, Sir James Jeans pointed out that there are three criteria which are essential for objective reality: surprise, continuity, and change. Here is what he meant.

Twenty million people are suddenly awakened from sound sleep by an earthquake in Mexico City which kills many of them by collapsing the homes and apartments they occupy. The fact that they were surprised by this event—indeed awakened by the shaking and roaring of an earthquake that they certainly were not even dreaming of—is evidence enough that an objective reality imposed itself upon its victims. It would be madness to suggest that a hurricane that destroys homes or a fire that guts a hotel were simply part of a common dream which the victims had all agreed upon. Yet the new-consciousness gurus who are so popular continue to promote techniques for getting out of this “ordinary” but delusionary state of consciousness into a new reality created by the mind in a so-called “higher state of consciousness”—which is supposedly the real world.

Sir James Jeans’ second criterion to establish objective reality, continuity, is as easily understood. After a 20-year absence you return to your high school for a reunion. The same rooms in which you once attended class are there, complete with desks, blackboards, and cracks in the ceiling—everything that you had scarcely even remembered during the 20-year interval. All has remained in place without one thought from you. Those young trees you remember have grown large without any help at all from your mind.

Obviously, your old school and its surroundings, like the rest of the world and universe, are not some dream you have dreamed, but an objective reality that exists entirely independent of you and the rest of mankind. Imagine the chaos if reality were in fact the product of billions of individual minds of independent and forgetful (or even insane) makeup. Whose “reality” would be dominant, and how often would one person’s self-created “reality” suddenly be overturned by another’s imposing itself? And by what logic could it be imagined that the billions of people on this earth somehow got together and managed to create the universe we all experience, from the interior of the atom to the farthest star—a universe that was here long before we even arrived?

There have also been changes at your high school during your absence. The old crackerbox gymnasium has been torn down and a new and much larger one stands in its place. Change such as this, coming without our knowledge in places we have forgotten, clearly has occurred without our minds creating it. This too demonstrates the objectivity of the physical universe about us. These three criteria—surprise, continuity, and change—also prove the reality of the occult experiences for the same reasons.

When scientists such as Sir James Jeans state, as he did, that the universe is “like a great thought,” they do not mean a thought in the human minds but, as Jeans said, “in the mind of some Eternal Spirit,” who alone could be the Creator of the universe. Far from mentally creating reality, mankind has been struggling to discover a reality that exists independently of his thoughts and imagination and that was obviously created by a mind far beyond his comprehension or abilities. The only sensible thing to do is to stop trying to manipulate reality and allow the Creator to have His way in your life.