EXONOIA Sir John Polkinghorne, the eminent particle physicist and Anglican priest, recently spoke at Lancaster Theological Seminary. In the course of his presentation on “A New Natural Theology,” he referred frequently to the “mind of God.” Simply put, the object of natural theology is to comprehend the nature of God through reason rather than revelation, or at least understand revelation through reason. Polkinghorne’s new natural theology is to see the mind of God behind the laws of nature and scientific explanation. Apart from God’s many incarnations in human form, through which divine revelation must be apprehended by faith, one was left wondering how mind can exist in a nonphysical state. I asked Sir John about the mind existing apart from the body. I had hoped that he would reply from his background in subatomic particles, the realm of quarks, hadrons, baryons and mesons, and ultimately super stringtheory, whereby the nature of the material universe is reduced to vibrations of energy. Instead, Polkinghorne responded by saying that in the afterlife we will be given a different body, a spiritual body. The implication seemed to be that the mind needs some sort of vehicle in order to be able to operate. How does pure thought function? Is God the collective unconscious, a nonspecific, ubiquitous, nondescript process? When it comes to the exosomatic human mind, was Sir John suggesting that there is a need for a localized, differentiated mind that maintained some spatial identity? How else could apparitions appear in a particular place, at a particular time, to a particular person or group of persons? Or is the apparition dependent upon the mind of the perceiver being processed by a physical brain. (Macbeth’s “dagger” again.) Do spiritual entities manifest themselves when there is no perceiver present? The parapsychologist would say, “Of course they do. And we have electronic voice phenomena, light impressions on photographic plates, videotape and more to prove it.” (Well, let’s not go there again with the question of what is “proof.” But, on the other hand, maybe we should.) I found myself at the conclusion of Sir John Polkinghorne’s presentation saying with C. S. Lewis, “Your God is too small.” The mind and intelligence of God are beyond our comprehension. As much as I enjoy probing the mysteries of science and spirituality, I delight in being in awe of mystery and wonder. I will stretch my mind to its limits, but realize that there is ever so much beyond it. The God of the Bible is continually asking humans to “repent,” in Greek, metanoia, literally “to change one’s mind.” Those who refuse to accept a reality other than their own creation are said to have paranoia, “mind beside itself.” Perhaps there is a greater need for exonoia, “mind beyond itself.” What really is wrong with being out of one’s mind? We need to think outside the box in which our physical lives are buried At the 33rd Annual Conference of the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, Inc. at DeSales University we will have our minds stretched as we explore that which lies beyond the veil of our limited perception of reality. The nature of consciousness, the concept of the continuing self, empirical data in survival research, and more, will be discussed from a variety of perspectives. The presentations and discussions are sure to be stimulating. Dr. Harry L. Serio |
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