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Occult and Psychical Sciences: Every One Of Us Performs Supernatural Acts, Daily [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-07-11

Every One Of Us Performs Supernatural Acts, Daily. A Refutation of a Physical Only Universe

Let us start by assuming there are entirely no supernatural phenomena - that all physical activity can be accounted for by physical causes. If so, this has to apply to all things, including human behavior. Human behavior is a complex activity that arises from sensory input, memory, the abundance or scarcity of various biological molecules, and more. As complex as it may be, if it can all be accounted for by physical causes, there is no conflict with the notion of a physical only universe.

Now let us consider consciousness. Consciousness is our inner subjective awareness of life. Consciousness makes “agony” and “ecstasy” more than mere text strings. Without it there would be no content to discuss and no one interested in discussing it.

The contents of consciousness can be expected to arise from the brain, but consciousness is not a physical thing, It is our subjective inner awareness. In a physical only universe, consciousness can only be along for the ride - it cannot cause anything physical to occur.

Evidence to be considered: The only evidence that needs to be considered here is the observation that during the course of the day, we form intentions and act upon them.

If we choose to accept the observation that our voluntary muscles require conscious intent to perform organized activity, then this is an admission that a non-physical entity, our consciousness, the ghost in the machine, causes physical events to occur. By definition these are supern a tural events.

The attentive reader is now saying wait a second - this can all be accounted for by physical activity in the brain. Nothing supernatural need be invoked. One can take this position, but this leaves no role for consciousness. In this view, consciousness is merely a passive add-on. Any notion of being able to consciously act on an intention can only be an illusion. But this result is contradicted by observation - every one of us can easily observe that we do form conscious intentions and act on them.

Can voluntary muscles just do things on their own? When this occurs it is called tremor or dyskinesia, and we go to a Movement Disorder Specialist in order to be treated. Voluntary muscle activity can also occur during rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. But these are exceptions - the vast majority of voluntary muscle activity occurs under conscious waking control.

Human behavior all arises from voluntary muscle activity. There may be exceptions but I cannot think of any.

What we have just demonstrated: Human behavior arises from a non-physical, which is to say supernatural, cause.

All of the foregoing can be stated in a single sentence: In a physical only universe, each of us would be a passive observer in a meat robot.

In a prior discussion some participants complained that I was setting up a strawman because I did not specifically discuss their favored theory of consciousness. What is relevant here is how a theory of consciousness treats the observation that subjective intention results in objective action. If it has nothing to say about this, then it does not contribute to this discussion. It does not matter if the theory says consciousness arises from electric fields, the quantum interaction of microtubules, or the act of computation. None of these papers considered the matter of forming an intention and acting on it.

Additional work on the subject

By me: Scientific Materialism Fails as a Theory of Consciousness

For an encyclopedic compendium of the academic views, see this entry on Consciousness and Intentionality in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The purpose of consciousness in a physical universe attracts much discussion. I propose that a more informative inquiry is the purpose of the physical in a conscious universe. See: Bored With Heaven? Try Earth School!

*This group's aim is polite philosophical debate*

Polite philosophical debate is our aim here. Participants have the freedom to participate as they see fit. Know that if you choose to be less than polite, that is a reflection upon yourself and not upon this group.

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