Snobbish Bigotry Is Convenient for Those Trying to Ignore Spooky Accounts

Accounts of paranormal phenomena in Asia, South America and Africa are legion. Almost all such accounts tend to be ignored in the West. I suspect that racism or bigotry are factors contributing to this neglect.  There are innumerable people in the West who seem to think that reports of the inexplicable from Asia or Africa or South American can be kind of automatically dismissed with excuses rather like this: "Well, you know how those people are."  Their assumption rather seems to be that people in Asia or Africa or South America are gullibe sorts whose reports should not be taken very seriously. Thinking that people in one region of the world tend to be inferior observers or unreliable witnesses seems like a subtle example of racist thought or bigotry.  It also seems like racist thought or bigotry to suggest that people in one country tend to be more prone to trickery or deceit than people in some other country. 

Those in Europe and  North America have no right to regard themselves as some kind of "superior observers." Currently in the scientific papers from the United States we repeatedly see extremely poor observation habits incompatible with good scientific practice.  Such papers will report observations without usually mentioning the exact date when the observation was made or the specific person who made the observation or the equipment that was used to make the observation (when some fancy equipment was used).  You will typically read some rather vague passive voice statement such as "brain scans were made of mice," failing to mention the exact equipment used, the person making the observation, the exact software settings used, and the date the measurement was made. We often are left to guess the exact number of subjects involved. In such papers we often see esoteric statistical manipulation of observational data which smells like obfuscation or dubious speculative interpretation which serves to leave the reader  scratching his head about exactly what was actually observed.  I see no reason to regard such poor-practice types of reports as being intrinsically superior to reports typically coming from other continents, which often have greater virtues of clarity and simplicity and specificity.  

We very often see a kind of snobbish bigotry in which it is suggested or insinuated that we should pay little attention to reports of the anomalous coming from people of some particular religion.  This is contrary to the Federal Rules of Evidence of US Federal Courts.  Rule 610 of such rules states, "Evidence of a witness’s religious beliefs or opinions is not admissible to attack or support the witness’s credibility."  Such a rule does not formally apply to people arguing outside of courts, but it can be evoked in any of the countless cases in which skeptics attempt to insinuate that we should pay little attention to an eyewitness account when it was made from a member of some particular religious group. 

We absolutely should take seriously reports of the paranormal when they are made by reliable witnesses who very carefully and clearly document exactly what they saw, regardless of what country the observations occurred in, or what religion the witnesses believed in. So let's look at some astonishing reports of paranormal events in exotic locales, beginning with eyewitness testimony in the book Occult Science in India and Among the Ancients by Lewis Jocolliot, a distinguished Chief Judge. 

In Volume 1 of the book, Jocolliot describes encountering in the Indian city of Benares a Fakir named Covindasamy.  Sounding unfortunately like the English word "faker," the term "Fakir" refers to a holy man (usually Muslim but sometimes Hindu) who lives on charitable donations. The term "Fakir" should not actually imply any reason for suspicion. 

On page 237 the author records this observation:

"Leaning upon the cane with one hand, the Fakir rose gradually about two feet from the ground. His legs were crossed beneath him, and he made no change in his position, which was very like that of those bronze statues of Buddha that all tourists bring from the far East, without a suspicion that most of them come originally from English foundries. For more than twenty minutes I tried to see how Covindasamy could thus fly in the face and eyes of all the known laws of gravity ; it was entirely beyond my comprehension ; the stick gave him no visible support, and there was no apparent contact between that and his body, except through his right hand."

On page 243 the author records this observation of a heavy floating vase:

"Three vases of flowers, so heavy that none but a strong man could have lifted them (and then he could not have done so without an effort), stood at one end of the terrace. Selecting one, he imposed his hands upon it so as to touch the edge of the vase with the tips of his fingers. Without any apparent effort on his part it began to move to and fro upon its base as regularly as the pendulum of a dock. It soon seemed to me that the vase had left the floor, without changing its movement in the least degree, and it appeared to me to be floating in the air, going from right to left at the will of the Fakir."

The author lets us know on this page and other pages of his intrinsic tendency to dismiss such sights as mere illustions, although he gives no speculation as to how either such observation could have been accomplished through trickery.  On page 245 we read this account of a table that seemed to have been inexplicably rendered immobile:

"The Fakir, without the slightest hesitation, walked toward the small piece of furniture, and imposing both hands upon the top stood motionless in that position for nearly a quarter of an hour, at the end of which time he said to me, smiling : The spirits have come and nobody can remove the table without their permission.  Feeling somewhat incredulous, I approached the table and took hold of it, as though I were goiug to lift it. It would not stir from the ground any more than if it had been sealed. I struggled harder, with the result that the fragile leaf there fastened came off in my hands. I then took hold of the legs, which were united by a cross brace and which remained standing, but the result was the same."

On page 246 we read this account:

"As he uttered these words, he imposed his hands above one of those immense copper platters inlaid with silver such as are used by wealthy natives for dice playing, and almost immediately there ensued such a rapid and violent succession of blows or knocks that it might have been taken for a hail-shower upon a metal roof, and I thought I saw (the reader will observe that I do not express myself positively in this respect) a succession of phosphorescent lights (plain enough to be visible in broad daylight) pass to and fro across the platter in every direction."

On page 248 the author reports that while Covindasamy (the Fakir) was merely holding a cord attached to a musical instrument suspended by a cord, the instrument played a tune that the author recognized.  This occurred in the nineteenth century, when there was no technology capable of faking such a result.  This occurred at the author's residence, where Covindasamy had no opportunity to previously arrange any kind of trickery. 

On page 250 the author then records seeing the following "frozen in air" marvel, which seems impossible to have achieved through any kind of fakery. 

"As he was about stepping across the threshold of the terrace door he noticed a vase containing various feathers,, taken from the most wonderful birds in India. He took up a handful, which he threw above his head high in the air. The feathers of course descended again soon, but the Fakir made passes beneath them as they fell, and whenever one came near him, it turned around quickly and ascended again with a spiral movement, until stopped by the veti-vert carpet, which answered the purpose of a movable roof. They all went in the same direction, but after a moment, in obedience to the laws of gravity, they dropped again, but before they had travelled half the distance to the ground they resumed their ascending movement and were stopped as before by the matting, where they remained. A final tremor was followed by a slight manifestation of downward tendency, but the feathers soon remained stationary. If any one had seen them standing out in sharp relief against the golden background of the straw matting, in brilliant and decided colors of every possible shade, he would have said that they were placed there by the pencil of some accomplished artist. As soon as the Fakir had disappeared they fell flat to the ground."

On page 253 we have this astonishing account of sand mimicking sketches as they occurred:

"He had brought with him a small bag of the finest sand,. which he proceeded to empty upon the floor and level with his hand, in such a way as to form a surface of about half a square yard. When he had done this, he asked me to sit at a table opposite him, with a sheet of paper and a pencil. Having asked for a small piece of wood, I threw him the handle of a penholder, which he gently placed upon the bed of sand. ' Listen !' said he....'You are at liberty to trace upon the paper any figures you please, and you will see an exact copy of them in the sand'....In a few minutes the wooden rod gradually rose as he had said, and at the same moment I proceeded to move my pencil over the sheet of paper before me, tracing the strangest figures in the world entirely at random. The piece of wood at once imitated every motion, and I saw the whimsical figures that I had been tracing appear suecessively in the sand....I was able to satisfy myself that it was totally impoasible for him to ascertain what I was doing."

As reported on page 254, Covindasamy then cleared the sand, and asked the author to think of a word in Sanskrit. There was then inexplicably written in the sand exactly the word the author had thought of.  When asked to write "243d sloca of the fourth book of Manu,"  such words were inexplicably written in the sand.  When asked to mentally think of a question, the author thought of "Who is our common mother?" and the answer "the Earth" was written in the sand. 

In his book The Occult World, A.P. Sinnett discussses seeing some paranormal events in India.  He gives the following astonishing account of an expected letter that seemed to materialize in front of him, "out of thin air":

“The very first incident which took place was in the nature of a pleasant greeting from my revered friend, Koot Hoomi. I had written to him (per Madame Blavatsky, of course) shortly before leaving London, and had expected to find a letter from him awaiting my arrival at Bombay. But no such letter had been received...The following morning, after breakfast, I was sitting talking with Madame Blavatsky in the room that had been allotted to me. We were sitting at different sides of a large square table in the middle of the room, and the full daylight was shining. There was no one else in the room. Suddenly, down upon the table before me, but to my right hand, Madame Blavatsky being to my left, there fell a thick letter. It fell 'out of nothing,' so to speak ; it was materialized, or reintegrated in the air before my eyes. It was Koot Hoomi’s expected reply, — a deeply interesting letter, partly concerned with private matters and replies to questions of mine, and partly with some large, though as yet shadowy, revelations of occult philosophy, the first sketch of this that I had received. Now, of course, I know what some readers will say to this (with a self-satisfied smile) — 'wires, springs, concealed apparatus,' and so forth ; but first all the suggestion would have been grotesquely absurd to any one who had been present ; and secondly, it is unnecessary to argue about objections of this sort all over again ab initio every time. There were no more wires and springs about the room I am now referring to, than about the breezy hill-tops at Simla, where some of our earlier phenomena took place.”

Later the author describes a similar occurrence of a letter seeming to appear out of thin air:

"The promised visit was actually paid , and not only that but a letter written by Mr. Eglinton at sea on the 24th describing it — and giving in his adhesion to a belief in the Brothers fully and completely — was transported instantaneously that same evening to Bombay, where it was dropped ('out of nothing' like the first letter I received on my return to India) before several witnesses ; by them identified and tied up with cards written on by them at the time ; then taken away again and a few moments later dropped down, cards from Bombay and all, among Mr. Eglinton’s friends at Calcutta who had been told beforehand to expect a communication from the Brothers at that time. All the incidents of this series are authenticated by witnesses and documents, and there is no rational escape, for any one who looks into the evidence, from the necessity of admitting that the various phenomena as I have just described them have actually been accomplished, 'impossible' as ordinary science will declare them."

Reports just as hard-to-explain as such reports have been written by many American and European observers reporting phenomena in America or Europe, so it would not at all be correct to claim something like "only in India or Africa or South America do people report such things." Dismissing all spooky observational reports from particular continents of darker-skinned people (while thinking something like "you know how those people are") is a very convenient form of racism or bigotry for those who do not wish to be troubled by such accounts.  But such a dismissal makes no sense.  Well-written reports of the hard-to-explain from credible observers should be given proper attention, no matter what continent the observations occurred in, and no matter how much the reports defy our expectations.  But if I were to start discussing all the detailed reports from very credible observers of inexplicable healings on the bank of the Ganges river in India, I would have to multiply the length of this post many times. 

The Ganges river

The report here discusses a scientific investigation of mysterious apparent appearances of objects nearby a Brazilian, observed in Brazil. The literature of the paranormal contains very many reports of such objects which seem to appear out of nowhere; and such objects are called apports. We hear of some startling details, such as this one:

"Previous to one incident, Amiden was told that parapsychologists are always on the lookout for a ‘permanent paranormal object’, something that is difficult or impossible to create by normal means, such as a pair of seamlessly linked rings. Moments later, a pair of linked rings, ornately decorated, bounced off his hand onto the floor. The physicist had these examined by metal and mineral specialists, who were unable to find a seam; however budget restraints prevented a sufficiently thorough metallurgic analysis."

Later in the same article we read this:

"Following the publication of the report, Amiden expressed his annoyance about it to Krippner; he objected to words such as ‘allegedly’, ‘reportedly’ and ‘seems to be’, and remained unpersuaded of the need for tentative language in academic works. Following this exchange, while Krippner was on the phone in another room he heard a thud; going to investigate he found a bluish-green stone as large as his fist on the floor. Moments later, a book with a cover of the same bluish-green colour landed with a thud onto the floor. It turned out to be one that belonged to another of the investigators, which he had lost and was searching for. Amiden declared that this activity was a message to Krippner from ‘spirits’ insisting on their existence. Amiden asked Krippner not to talk or write about him again. Krippner kept that promise until 2013, when he again met with Amiden in Brasilia, and the two were reconciled.  On this occasion a total of seven apports appeared, one of which was a stone of the same blue-green, which Amiden said was Krippner’s healing colour."

Unlike Sinnett (quoted above as saying he saw "materialized...in the air before my eyes" a letter), I cannot report ever seeing something materialize in the air before my eyes. But I have directly seen kind of the next best thing, which was a coin rolling on its edge, rolling up from behind me, while I was alone in my apartment, just as if it had  materialized out of thin air a second before I saw it.  The physical circumstances offered no possibility of an explanation (other than something ridiculously improbable such as a coin-tossing unseen mouse, with the coin landing in a very rare way).