Recently we happened to read in
an Indian journal an article by Sri K.P. Kesava Menon written on his 83rd
birthday. Sri Menon was a former High Commissioner of India in Ceylon , a writer, a patriot and one of India ’s
foremost journalists. Even in his old age, whatever he writes is read avidly
and taken as words of wisdom .by millions in India . We quote below the
translation of a small passage from that article:-
''A person s faith takes its shape from his own experience. Is it right to deny the experience of another person simply because you have failed to get the same experience? When I look at the sky at night, I am not able to see even a single star there, because I am now blind. If a person seated next to me revels at the splendour of the millions of stars he sees in the same sky, shall I be right in accusing him that he is telling a lie? If another person who is looking through a telescope, describes about still more stars he is able to see, will it be right on my part to say that they are purely the result of his imagination? Ordinary men do not have the physical strength of a Sandow or a Joe Louis. These strong men do not have the intelligence of a Ramanujan or Einstein. If it is so, is it not possible for some persons to have more spiritual powers and more spiritual experiences than others. It is my faith which gives me peace and happiness. Similarly if others also may derive peace and happiness through other types of faiths, why should I try to shake their beliefs?" (Mathrubhoomi Weekly)
What Sri Menon says, though very
misleading, may appear to be sound arguments even to many intelligent
thinkers.
Let us have a psychological
evaluation, and analysis of mental experiences and beliefs of man.
 |
| KP Kesava Menon |
A young boy may be suffering from
enuresis - that is the habit of urinating on the bed in sleep. He may be
getting severe scolding every morning from his ignorant parents. What really
happens in this boy's case is, drop by drop urine is filtered out of the
kidneys and gets collected in his urinary bladder. When the bladder is full,
this information is taken to the brain through the sensory nerves as electrical
impulses. These impulses conjure up a dream in the mind of the child. In his
dream he gets up from his bed, goes to the urinal and urinates there. The whole
thing is only a dream. The fact is that the boy has
urinated on the bed itself.
If one early morning, before the
child is awake, some one in the house lifts him up and removes the wet bed
sheet or mat, and spreads a dry one, and the child is laid back still asleep,
on awakening, as usual he will look with anxiety on the bed. On seeing that
everything is perfectly dry, he will jump up out of the bed with joy, and run
up to the mother and say, "Mammy" last night I did not urinate on
the bed. I went out and did it in the urinal."
The child is speaking the
absolute truth, but it is not factual. It is absolutely true because it is a
subjective experience of the child. But it is not factual, because on
verification, the facts will show that the child did urinate on the bed. It is
a deceptive experience, and it must not be given any credence.
Deceptive experiences or
perceptions can be of three types: illusion, hallucination, and delusion.
Of these three deceptive
perceptions, illusions are false sensory experiences. Hallucinations, on the other hand, are false
mental experiences caused by physical, chemical, biological and psychological
stimuli. Delusions, the third type, are false notions implanted in the mind by
indoctrination and brainwashing.
Let us take the illusions first.
They can be of five types, depending on the five senses - optical or visual
illusions, auditory illusions, tactile illusions, olfactory illusions and oral
or lingual illusions.
Appearance of watery patches at a
distance on a tarred road on a hot bright day is an optical illusion known as
mirage. It may appear to be real from a distance. Only on verification by going
near it we will know the illusory nature of a mirage.
The sweet taste of water when
drunk just after eating the Indian Gooseberry, known locally as Nelli, is an
oral illusion. The reality that this water is not sweet, but only an illusory
experience, can be verified by making others who have not eaten Nelli, to drink
it.
Many persons whose minds are
deluded with the belief in non-existing ghosts, demons, Satan, angels, gods,
fairies, goblins etc., may see them at night or in dark places as a result of
optical illusions. Due to the fear artificially created by brainwashing from
childhood, most persons will not have the courage to go near and verify the
truth about these apparitions. All those who have conducted investigations
courageously and scientifically have come to know that such apparitions are
either due to optical illusions, or mental hallucinations:
The juggling feats of magicians,
and the so-called miracles of imposters in the garb of holy men, are all
optical illusions. Neither the magicians, nor the miracle performing so-called
holy men will allow anyone to examine their bodies and dresses for fear of
their conjuring tricks, or frauds being exposed.
Now let us turn our attention to
hallucinations. As mentioned earlier, hallucinations are abnormal or deceptive
mental experiences resulting from physical, chemical, biological and
psychological causes.
Physical Stimuli: Doctors Walter Hess of Switzerland, J. Delgado of Yale University, and James Olds of Michigan University have succeeded in creating artificially emotions such as rage, fear, hunger, sorrow, sleep, melancholia, jubilation, love, eroticism, anxiety, aggression, extroversion, introversion, friendliness, hatred, pain, pleasure etc., by stimulating the various control of the brain by electrical impulses, exactly like what happens in normal life.
Rhythmical sensory stimulations
like drumming, clapping of hands in unison, chanting of refrains, singing,
poetry recitation, slogan-shouting during mass demonstrations, dancing,
physical jerks, alternate flashing of light and darkness into the eye, looking
intensely on psychedelic patterns, bright flames, crystals and black spots on
white back-ground - the usual practices adopted by light readers, crystal
gazers and anjanakkarayas - can cause
hallucinatory experiences in the subject.
The bizarre behaviour of persons
during devil dances, voodoo dances, Rock'n Roll, Baila, Twist, Kavadi dance,
Kolam dance, temple poojas, revival meetings and Pentecostal
sessions, cricket matches, fire-walking, pop music etc., are all due to the
rhythmical stimulations of the nervous system.
Then come the chemical
stimulations. Even from primitive times our forefathers knew the technique of
producing hallucinations by consuming toddy, arrack, opium, ganja and Datura,
which, in Sinhalese is known as Aththana
and in Tamil as Poomathai.
The Balaji
Temple in Muthumudali Street in Madras is famous among the Hindus in Tamil
Nadu, because of the unusual religious ecstasy experienced by devotees who take
part in the pooja and the prasadam there.
 |
| Dr Albert Hoffman |
In recent times, numerous
hallucinatory drugs like Lysergic acid diethylamide or L.S.D. to be short, Marijuana, Heroine, Mescaline etc., are used as mental
boosters, and lagerctil, Librium, valium, Miltown, Amital Sodium etc., as
mental sedatives or hypnogens. Dr. Albert Hoffman describes his own experience
after taking a small dose of L.S.D. thus: - "I saw my own spirit getting
out of my body. It remained suspended in space, and I was looking on my own
dead body and crying".
One-millionth grain of L.S.D. can induce in a person transient hallucinations causing ecstasy and schizophrenia, which often gives rise to religious experiences. The discovery of chemical substances of the L.S.D. group in the blood stream of schizophrenics and persons suffering from religio-mania made Doctor Quastel and Doctor Wheatly to conclude that the hallucinatory experiences of visionaries ascetics, mystics, Sadhus and the devotees who enter into trance at religious ceremonies and devil dances are all due to the derangement of their body chemistry.
Now, we will consider the third
stimuli - the biological causes: Professors Orlando Miller and Allen Fisher,
both of Canada ,
have discovered that certain abnormal behaviour patterns in men are associated
with their chromosomal abnormalities. Men with predominating sadistic
tendencies have 22 pairs of XX chromosomes, and one of XYY chromosome, instead
of the normal 22 pairs of XX and one of XY chromosomes.
Mental disturbances can also be
caused by acute shortage of certain vitamins and enzymes in the body. The
disease known as Beri Beri is caused by an acute shortage of Vitamin B 1.
Insane behaviour is an important symptom of this disease. Mental derangement is
also associated with another vitamin-deficiency disease known as pellagra. Such
persons can be brought back to sanity by the administration of the vitamin -
Nicotinic acid.
Like vitamins and enzymes,
imbalance of certain hormones - the secretions of endocrinal glands - also can
produce mental abnormalities. Persons who suffer from an insufficient supply of
parathyroxine - the hormone secreted by the-parathyroid gland - are subject to
severe hallucinations.
A niece of mine, who used to see
my dead mother's spirit whenever she looked towards the sky, was brought by me to
Now let us consider the
psychological causes. It is a well-known fact in psychology that human mind is
susceptible to suggestions. These suggestions can be by autohypnosis,
otherwise known as auto-suggestion, or by hetero-hypnosis. Just as many mental
disorders can be cured by hypnotism, it is possible to induce psychic and
psycho-somatic ailments by hypnotic suggestions.
Religious indoctrination and
brainwashing are slow and continuous process of hypnosis. Talking like a
possessed person, often in a changed voice and fabricated language - this in
psychology is known as Glossolalia -, ecstatic trance during temple poojas and devil dances, healing by
faith, prayer, poojas, pilgrimages,
blessing, anointing, sacrifice, charm, offerings, drinking or bathing in
so-called holy waters etc., are nothing but the effects of auto - or hetero
hypnosis on the subject's suggestible mind.
The late Dr. Behanan Kovoor of
the United Nations - a younger brother of mine - and myself had our university
education in Calcutta ,
about thousand five hundred miles away from our home in Kerala. Almost all the
Hindu families in our neighbourhood requested us to bring for them at least a
small quantity of the sacred water from the river Ganges .
Though prohibited by law now, more than half a century ago, it was a usual
practice for the Hindus living in the Gangetic plane, to ceremoniously deposit
the dead bodies of their kith and kin, into the sacred river Ganges ,
so that they may attain moksha or
salvation. Numerous corpses in varying stages of decomposition could be seen
floating in this so-called holy river at any time. Instead of taking this
highly polluted water to our good neighbours, we used to fill two bottles with
tap water from the nearest Railway Station to our home town, and distribute it
to our neighbours as sacred water from the Ganges .
We perpetrated this fraud for four consecutive years, and every time we
returned from Calcutta
we had to give patient hearing to the marvellous cures affected by the previous
year's supply!
The tap water from Kottarakkara
Railway Station became a curative medicine for those credulous folks purely as
the result of suggestion on the minds of our gullible neighbors.
Deep mediation and chanting of
refrains have self-hypnotizing effects. Utterances of persons in deep
meditation or trance, are nothing but the hallucinations of deranged mm~, and
should not be regarded as divine revelations or occult messages. L.S.D. and
Ganja also can produce the same effect. Neurotics and psychotics in meditation,
who claim to have received divine revelations, who claim to have achieved enlightenment,
who claim to possess paranormal miraculous powers, and those who profess to
possess the power to know all the secrets of the unknown and the unknowable,
are all fit subjects for the psychiatrist's couch, and not saints and sages to
be adored, worshipped or counseled. Diversity in religions is due to the
diversity of hallucinations of their respective founders.
Lastly let us consider the third
type of deception perceptions: the delusions.
Delusions are accumulated false
beliefs resulting from indoctrination and brainwashing from impressionable
ages. Beliefs n ghosts, demons, satan,
angels, gods, astrology, palmistry, numerology, necromancy, charms, curse,
blessings, seth kavi, vas kavi, omens, sacrifices, pirith nool, pilgrimages,
anjana eliya, light reading, card reading, tumbler talk, clairvoyance,
clairaudience, telepathy, precognition, telekinesis, holy persons, holy places,
holy objects, holy times, hell, heaven, rebirth, purgatory, materialization,
levitation, transmigration, etc are some of our delusions.
As Sri Menon says, it may be that
some persons may derive mental peace and happiness by his or her blind
beliefs. Similar results, no doubt, can
be obtained by consuming L.S.D, Ganja, opium toddy, or kasippu also! But it is not a question whether any type of experience induces peace or happiness, but
whether it is true.
(Exposing Paranormal Claims - Abrahama Kovoor, Published by B. Premanand, Indian CSICOP, 15-3-2000)
(Exposing Paranormal Claims - Abrahama Kovoor, Published by B. Premanand, Indian CSICOP, 15-3-2000)
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