The scepticalometer

I coined this word yesterday as a means to measure why I find it difficult to accept and believe.

On a scale of 1 to 10, on average I would measure my degree of scepticism as 6 or 7, sometimes even more than that.  I seem to have an almost insurmountable difficulty in accepting that there is anything at all outside the realms of the tangible.

OK, I’m sure the philsopher would immediately question the definition of “tangible” and say that even this is open to debate and conjecture, so for now I will define this as whatever I can perceive to be tangible.

So why then, am I subjected to the various oddities that don’t fit into this category?  When my reading on the scepticalometer is very high, I can write almost all of these off to chance, learning or memory.

I am a palmist; I can read tarot cards.  They are both tricks of the mind, systems that can be learnt and assimilated.  But does learning alone enable accuracy?  Is there not some “sense” as well that makes them work properly as analytical tools?

Since the age of 11, I have had dreams that have “happened”, sometimes within a few hours, sometimes up to two years later.  The two most bizarre and unaccountable instances of these were dreaming the results of some medical tests in advance and one about singing:

I dreamt about singing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in a pub; utterly, totally improbable and I laughed it off as such, an aberration, too much cheese late at night.  Then, almost two years later, I was asked to sing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony… in a pub.  Explain it? No I can’t, within or without the confines of linear time.

Then there’s Fred.  He’s been very, very quiet lately, but pops up randomly to shout down my ear in that odd, sexless voice of his.  I would actually like to hear more from him as I think that would help me to believe. 

Many psychics believe in the existence of the “third eye” - or rather, the mind’s eye, which many, many people are aware of.  Most of us can say that we see things in our mind’s eye.  Mine is fairly active and is particularly triggered by music; Saint-Saens Organ Symphony floods me with images to the extent that it feels as though lights have been turned on in my mind, quite an odd experience.

Our mind’s eyes can bombard us with information and this is what many psychics use to help them.  The hardest part is learning to translate the symbolism.  Sometimes it is “just images; pictures of places, people, things.  Other times it is much more subtle; colours, words, or in my case, seeing things being written down on paper, or on a blackboard.

But… all this comes from within.  Is it not just generated within ourselves and not by some outside force?  I often explain psychic ability to the sceptic as being similar to radio waves; if you are tuned in to the right frequency, you pick up information.  We can all do it if we try; it’s nothing special.

Even Fred’s voice comes from within my head; I don’t hear it externally - or at least, I don’t think I do.

And what of the odd visions that I’ve had recently; the blood on the bedroom walls, the medieval patterns on the wardrobe door, the spider on the ceiling?  They’re external, aren’t they?  I am seeing them with my open eyes, but does that mean they are generated from outside?  Hallucinations aren’t and we perceive them as reality.

I don’t know - and I don’t think I will ever know.  I also wonder whether I will ever believe, or be able to adjust my scepticalometer to a more open-minded level.

If there really is something/someone out there that is beyond this reality, they must find me so frustrating.