could psychic powers be something we are evolving away from?

I have been thinking along these lines for a while, maybe psychic abilities are a drawback to a species after they evolve to a point.

To make my point...think of a firestarter having a nightmare and burning the house down, a telekinetic baby pulling a boiling pot down on top of himself, a telepath being driven crazy from the voices in his head, etc.

I think they could be an evolutionary draw back, not a help, and it would help explain why there is such a history of "magic" in more primitive times. The futher down the ladder you go the less harm they could cause...a firestarter couldnt cause much harm in a cave, the baby couldnt pull down a boiling pot when you eat your food roasted or raw, small tribes or clans mean less voices...etc.

[edit on 20-5-2006 by Amuk]

Wonderful topic!

I have always been fascinated with the subjects of telepathy and telekenisis. I never "understood" why people were reluctant to discuss such possibilities, why it was considered such a "taboo" concept - akin to "witchcraft".

It's easy to see why people with underdeveloped cognitive abilities in regards to such abilities would harbor some degree of evolutionary fear in relation to such possibilities - not being able to relate to an experience almost always conjures up unpleasant feelings.

In my early twenties, I was heavily involved in altered states of conciousness - "testing the waters of the mental landscape" so to speak. Within a small group of close friends and in the privacy of a safe and structured environment, we found that we were able to communicate non-verbally. It was primarily intuitive and worked best with subjects relating to the current and shared experience. Personal matters weren't as clear. We were never able to "dig out" buried thoughts of feelings of other people within the group.

We came to the conclusion that such "talents" harkened back to the days before our species had developed a working vocabulary and the capacity for spoken and written language. The need for an intuitive (and almost instinticual) form of communication seemed the most plausable explaination to ensure the survival of the group in a primitive setting.

In my own private studies, in regards to pyrokenesis - I found I was able to "manipulate" fire to a small extent - however - I have never been able to start them.

Out of all the psychic phenomena my friends and I experienced - fire manipulation seemed to generate the most interest - and fear. The first experiemental group regarded the ability as "insignificant" - mainly because they were more interested in the prospect of non-verbal communications and other personalized masteries.

The second group expressed interest in how I was achieving the results, but I was unwilling to discuss it further due to a high degree of personal responsibility in relation to the subject matter - I sensed they would use the technique for "party tricks" or to experiement with personal power. I sensed danger in divulging the techinique to these individuals, and declined to do so.

The third, (and as of this writing, the final experiment) was nothing more than a private moment when I was lost in my own thoughts and began to "interact" with a candle flame on the coffeetable. As soon as my "friend" noticed what I was doing, he became extremely agitated and paranoid and harshly insisted that I "stop doing that." The experience made him extremely uncomfortable and he declined to explain why or discuss the matter further.

In summation -

Such abilities do exist - but our modern lifestyles do not stress the need to develop such matters further in the common realm of experience. It is simply not necessary for survival in the modern technological landscape.

Persons with strong and marked abilities most likely keep such talents to themselves, especially in light of the overwhelming fear and confusion that seems to stem from active display of such talents.

Still, my interest in the subject remains alive.

I think the core of the matter is that we live in a society where people see something 'unnatural' as "to be feared". In my belief, it was something we lost when we dedicated ourselves to science and forgot our spirituality. If it is a drawback, and is a power of the mind itself, then why does it only show itself in our grasp, when the mind is calm, spirituality hightened and belief strong?

Makes no sense to me why it should be a drawback if it is the result of long training, or even because it is a power of the mind. If we should fear the paranormal, we should also fear our minds. Do we fear our minds? No, then we have nothing to fear from psychic powers.

My 2 cents, nontheless.

Anything is possible however.. I dont think we are evolving away from it so much as the government is steering us away from it with food additives to pollute our bodies and media to distract our minds and endless other things that prevent a truely spiritual existance that one often needs to fully utilize their psychic gifts.
I think all this noise and chaos and fat food..oops I meant fast food.. is an intentional device to stifle our abilities.

Could you imagine the chaos that might ensue if the majority of the populace became obsessed with developing pyrokenetic abilities?

We have a problem with irresponsible firearm owners!

The problem doesn't lie within the Government - it lies within members of the populace.

Excellent stuff.

I believe there maybe something in this.
Most wild animals seem to be more in tune with the environment, they seem to sense things (danger) better than our most sensitive instruments. I know some of it is now proven to be an increased range / sensitivity of the normal senses, I am thinking of Elephants that can apparently detect very low frequencies through their feet and alleged to be able to detect earthquakes e.g. Non Human animals are more in tune with the environment I suppose they have to be.

I dont believe in a sixth sense. I believe that what is happening is merely using the current five senses at a more primitive consciousness level. I see it something like this: the skin evolved into sensorary organs for the physical realm and an ethereal skin *Aura?* has done something similar for the non physical. Most animal life has this potential but tend to use the two realities in balance. Man is more and more believing the perceived physical senses, we are aware of this reality so it is our reality.

My yet to mature hypothesis is that as we are all stardust, we are the universe. The rules and regs that we see the universe obey are just mans and womans perceptions. The universe does not obey rules, it does not even have numbers. It just is. If we just followed the balance that is the cosmos perhaps there would be less friction and violence. Like the planets just doing what they do in harmony with the Cosmos. Yes there is catastrophe in the universe. In time those harmonious planets will themselves "die" and throughout thieir life they will have violence upon them, volcanoes, weather whatever. But is just the universal consciousness balancing things out, a complete balnce would mean nothing would move, if nothing moved what of energy?

When man became a thinker, philosoher a rationaliser he started the journey to take the universe apart, for his own inquisitive mind. This has ripped apart the contract. I believe that this is where some religions get the notion of free will.
We could just go where the universe was taking us, like the older religions worshipping their particular deity. "Oh dear no rain lets sacrifice virgins it will be okay next year". We started to disassemble the wonder of the universe and percieved rules and understanding. Our belief started to shift into everything is a system, systems can be understood, systems can be controlled.

How man came about is conjecture of course. Out of all the theories out there my personal belief lies somewhere in the aquatic ape theory. That to me explains the human brain requiring Omega 3 for good functionality...perhaps I should be taking some. Also the proportionatly larger brain, similar to a Dolphins in size. Being supported in water would allow our legs and skeleton to develope into a kind of shore based walking, whilst making fur/hair and tail perhaps redundant.

I have often thought that during personal "psychic" experience in the past (when I was interested) how things sometimes manifested as an underwater world "The Psychic Sea" before the mists, lights shapes etc. In fact thinking about it that feeling before clairaudience is kind of like the feeling of being deep in water? *memo to self must look into this further* Any one want to share views on this?

Some pet owners seem convinced that there is some other "non verbal" communication with their pooches etc. They seem to know when the master or mistress is coming back from holiday. Some say they pick up non verbal cues from the human supervising them at the time. I am not sure.

Yes, I think that Psychic ability is more a throw back to our primitive selves, when we were "more in tune" with nature. It is equally possible that we may need to get back in tune to make things right. Maybe thats where psychism will take us forward to the past.

Thanks Amuk this has given something to think about.

Sorry I have rambled a bit. Dinners ready

Originally posted by Pyrotechnocracy23
Could you imagine the chaos that might ensue if the majority of the populace became obsessed with developing pyrokenetic abilities?

We have a problem with irresponsible firearm owners!

I don't believe that it would cause chaos. If people begins to take interest in pyrokenetic, it will escalate and the echo will be pulled. Which means they will gain interest in something that correlates to that area. Namely, meditation. Meditation becomes "to question the mind", that becomes spirituality and spirituality becomes insight.

I don't see any people trying to fire up a house with pyrokenetics. It is because their mind/soul will not permit it.

[edit on 21-5-2006 by Volatile]

When I was running in esoteric circles back in the day I met a lot of people who had, for one reason or another, claimed to have burned down houses.

Granted, a lot of people who are heavily involved in certain types of illegal drug use are prone to such "accidents" - but these kids were mostly interested in the occult and paranormal arts as a way of expressing "personal power" and being "badasses".

I've been with these kids when they were under the influence of heavy psychedelics and the sort of mischief and "games" they would play with while in this state made it apparent they were not cut out for certain disciplines - they didn't take their responsibility seriously.

But I suppose the universe does protect it's own. Good point.

i see it as evolution isnt steering the people at large are. society claims these things are imaginations or insanity, an i mean only private understanding is gonna come out of that, an then thats just a hear say, so really people are just not getting the answers they used too, i mean during edgar cayce's days this was big bizz. now its street vendor fodder.

but on more personal note, the practices are still alive, people all over the world are awakening, and developing thru other methods,

Stock brokers develope a form of it, or just learn to listen to it more.
Doctors,medical field specialists, all use it too
etc...

its just being used in other forms, an alot of times people dont know they are using it.

this are abilities we all have

I just wondered. Could it be because we gained the ability to imagine and create that we lost this ancient ability?
I mean in our minds while we sleep our bodies can lock us into paralysis to prevent us causing self harm while dreaming our fantasies.

I know that aspiring to a higher level of consciousness is supposed to make one more enlightened and altruistic. But we see examples of that not happening. Read these boards e.g. and the internet. Many of those of alleged "Psychic ability" are making good money from readings and sometimes crackpot schemes.

You hear of those who do things with evil intent and of evil entities that can be their slave or their master. Who knows what is fact??

As we are now, we are not much of a threat to others while we sleep. For now that dream / fantasy of making love to our neighbour is just that. The thought of slapping that smart lipped copper that pulled you over is just a thought. The vision of devastating an entire country by nuclear holocaust because they live differently is still just a vision.

Remember that Sci Fi film where an advanced civilistaion was wiped out because of the creatures of their ID? I think it was "Forbidden Planet". In that scenario they had untold technological power interfaced to their mind and imagination. It was their undoing.

Perhaps that is why we lost the ability, if it ever existed.

Besides would it become sensory overload, as we tried to make sense of all the information from environment and lifeforms? I mean how many thoughts a day does one human have?

Hmm, interesting topic.

Many years ago I realized that I had the gift (and curse!) of being a "sensitive". I prefer that word to psychic because psychic seems to smack of wannabes who do "readings" at street fairs, etc. I do not do readings or charge money for what I do. I use it to help friends and myself.

It is very strange living with this ability. It seems to manifest itself the most as an ability called "clairsentience", i.e. the ability to actually feel what others around me feel. This was very difficult for me growing up, as often I would be in a group of people, and feel anger some other emotion and couldn't figure out where it was coming from, myself or someone else in the group. Eventually, I figured out how to work with it, at least most of the time. I can pick up on all kinds of feelings, such as loneliness, hate, anger, sorrow, etc.

So to answer the question, is psychic ability something that we're losing as we evolve: I would say, no. If it does, that wuld mean that psychics/sensitives are people not as evolved as the rest of humanity. I don't think this is true, it's just another ability, such as ability to be a good musician, cook, dancer, scientist, etc.

I believe that way back when we didn't have language, we were more right-brained and therefore, more psychic. There are many, many stories of animals and humans "talking" to each other in ancient times. (I do find myself being very aware of animal's emotions.) As time went on, language was developed and we started using more of our left-brain, hence making us less psychic and more analytical.

Further, back in the Middle Ages, you have the holocaust that is termed "The Inquisition". Along with other innocents, a great many witches or wise women were killed. These were the folks who had a good knowledge of herbs, healing and the sixth sense or psychic abilities. This gene pool was greatly reduced due to the Inquisition. Hence, today we have fewer people who are psychic.

We may be evolving into using other communication forms, but I don't think it's a good or bad thing, it's just different. I think it is good to be a verbal communicator and to use one's own psychic abilities as well - it creates more of a balance.

But it sure is weird at times to be a sensitive, operating in a world that doesn't even believe in that ability, for the most part.

This is also an area of great interest to me.

Psychic abilities represent a great array of able insight beyond the five natural senses, and therefore I believe have to be considered to be the product of the sensing mind and of those different mind interactions with others.

Early man could not easily distinguish day dreams, nightmares, and dreaming in general, from the conscious world he sensed around him. He naturally thought these mind phantoms were part of the awake realm. It took more than half a million years before the brain of man evolved a recognition of the difference between illusion and reality. Meanwhile, there arose primitive religions spurred on from the ghost fear these distorted dreams brought forward.

In my opinion we are still evolving the recognition between illusion and reality within our species. We still do not know what is real at times. If the pendulum swings away from dealing with extra-sensory (mindal) development it is not the fault of the mind, but of the collective selves that prefer to teach it is better to be riveted to the literal world of the five body senses.

I think one could write a reasonable history of western civilization based on the division of the inner and outer world of experience. So far the empiricists are holding the upper hand with their explanations that life takes place within the outer world and must stay there to evolve successfully.

However, I think this world on which we have taken origin is about to have change so remarkable that it will break the back of the argument that we need only appeal to our five material senses to know what the world is all about. The pendulum will swing dramatically the other way and perhaps for centuries while we learn how to deal with the inner world realities that are not illusion. Someday, in a balanced blending of our inner and outer sensing, the world will turn toward the light of a spiritual renaissance which depends, in no small part, upon the unleashing of the mind.

Good thread.

Ron

Originally posted by forestlady


So to answer the question, is psychic ability something that we're losing as we evolve: I would say, no. If it does, that wuld mean that psychics/sensitives are people not as evolved as the rest of humanity. I don't think this is true, it's just another ability, such as ability to be a good musician, cook, dancer, scientist, etc.

Not at all.

Blonde's are evolving out but are not inferior. I was thinking more along the lines of people with the talent being killed as witches, harming themselves during nightmares, being driven insane from lack of control over the talent...etc

Forgive me for not reading the post itself - It's the title (which I'll assume capsilizes the content of the post) that I'm replying to.

I don't want to repost the same words I just posted in reply to another post a day or 2 ago, but yes.

"could psychic powers be something we are evolving away from?"

Definately - exactly - and totaly, YES.

That's exactly what has happend though out time. But there have been flare-ups (for lack of better term) that has reared it's head here and there... we are going through another such time now.
It's unfortunate that with each flare up (renewed interest and 'getting back to basics and awareness' - it seems people tend to try to cram these 100% natural things into some scientific catigory or relable it to identify it as 'para' normal (as this site and most others do).

When interest begins to flare up, instead of people turning back to natural and true ways, they start looking into man made avenues of trying to force womething that comes on it's own. It's becoming more and more mixed and mingled with things man lables as wrong or bad or negative now as a result.

Having awareness of a sense that doesn't happen to be sight, sound, smell or touch doesn't automaticaly equil cult, devil worship or ???. That's important.

Probably already said but.

Throughout human history the kinds of people you've mentioned have either been labelled insane, burnt at the stake for being witches, taken theirown life, excluded and feared.

So it is entirely possible that the end result is that we killed off most of those at a slightly higher evolutionary state, and were left with the majority without these abilities....which would be a shame.

i don't think we are evolving away from it, we just believe much more in science than ever

But the point is it might not be magic nonsense, but scientific, biological based extra sensory abilities.

Originally posted by Pyrotechnocracy23

In my own private studies, in regards to pyrokenesis - I found I was able to "manipulate" fire to a small extent - however - I have never been able to start them.

Well, though you may not have been able to neccisarily start fires, just being able to manipulate them proves that, most likely, you were able to start them. As a child, you did, anyway. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if you also showed signs, or past signs, of Mental Domination. The same goes for Telikinesis. Being able to manipulate flames on a candle or match doesn't neccisarily mean Pyrokinesis, though. It could mean an acute case of Telikinesis. I'd advise you to maybe try to manipulate something else of a small size. If it doesn't work, imagine that object as a flame. If you can make something happen to that object, then it's most likely TK (Telikinesis). If not, try a flame again. If you can manipulate the flame, but not the object (even when you imagined it as a flame), then it's probably PK. My main advice, though, is lots of meditation. You're gonna want a bit more control over your mind. I mean, you don't want to get mad at someone and set them ablaze, do you?

Originally posted by Amuk

Originally posted by forestlady
So to answer the question, is psychic ability something that we're losing as we evolve: I would say, no. If it does, that wuld mean that psychics/sensitives are people not as evolved as the rest of humanity. I don't think this is true, it's just another ability, such as ability to be a good musician, cook, dancer, scientist, etc.

Not at all.

Blonde's are evolving out but are not inferior. I was thinking more along the lines of people with the talent being killed as witches, harming themselves during nightmares, being driven insane from lack of control over the talent...etc

Yes, exactly so. As someone pointed out and I also alluded to, the gene pool of sensitives has been lessened by killing of witches, etc. and generally been made an object of humor, since sensitives are quite often considered insane, at worst, and deluded, at best.
In the sense that you're talking about, I coudn't agree more, yes I think the ability is lessening.

killing witches? most so called "witches" that were burned were everyday women who showed signs in their daily life of which the church labeled as witch. same goes for many men that were killed because people thought they were werewolves due to their heavy hair coverage. witches are hardly the only people there are occultists, druids, shamans, mages, budhist monks and everyone else that are descendends from the original traditions. within that group witches take up about 11-14% of it all. its just that the past 150-200 years witches grew in numbers seeming to think its quantity over quality or something.

evolving away from paranormal talents because they are absolete in this time and age. well it is an interesting concept to think about it. but people think to simple about it as if people were so primitive that they were morons or something.

well...how come that people like Hermes Trismegistus, was able to come up with concepts such as vibratory states which are now proven by science about 3000 years after he talked about it. how come he spoke about man/female meaning active/passive the same science uses today, just look at the 2 poles of batteries for a very simple excample. such so called "occult" studies were known way before people even invented science and just lived life and learned from the nature and people around them. science is an organ which uses "fancy words" to say the excact same thing that people knew long ago. Such as Aristotle who spoke about helicopters before Da Vinci modeled his airborne unit and the wright brothers made the concept a practical reality.

most people don't even understand the symbolic representation of all the knowledge and gifts presented in the old times. even those present in this topic who think they do with bastardized new-age bollocks.

As I see it...we're not evolving away from things due to natural evolution. It is due to social evolution. Since the coming of science people ignore their intuition, their own strenghts, stopped taking their responsibilities, get indoctrinated/manipulated without even knowing. science is a new religion who can explain a lot of HOW's, but rarely to never know the WHY's and are still catching up with concepts made 2000 years ago by people like Hermes. In my eyes science will never be a leading point and will always follow behind the already known natural facts. This is one of the many reasons that science is still a long way of before they can understand where so called paranormal gifts come from and how they work.

will it cause chaos when people realize that they can wield this power? well the first few generations definately will. especially when you look at the immature, materialistic and greedy powerhungry societies we have. apocalyptic events will take place untill people grow and learn their responsibilities and also dare to take responsibility for their own actions and start to understand the bigger picture. But seeing how evolution of society and its populace is going so slow I can't see it happening within another 100-500 years or so. not even if you believe in the Mayan 2012 or the Unknown chosen 9 from Sumerian times who are waiting to show up.