Entanglement

For as long as I can remember, I've believed in and been fascinated by psychic phenomena. There were many examples of psychic connections in my immediate family, especially between me and my sister, and while it wasn't always convenient, it was far from spooky. It just made sense to me that people who shared a strong bond would also share a wavelength of sorts.

Most of my psychic experiences have been incredibly minor things, and not all that useful. But they're real, and they're challenging to make sense of. So I'm always delighted to learn about others' experiences, and about any possible explanations.

I'm not having as many visitation dreams lately, but in a few
of the more recent ones, Sandy's been with Grumpus. I hope
their entanglement stretched beyond death. She just adored
him, and he adored her right back. When I have those dreams,
I'm delighted to see him as well as her. (Pico, too, though
he shows up less frequently. Prudence and Roo are sometimes
in what may be visitation dreams, but never with Sandy.)

I just read Entangled Minds, by Dean Radin. The book explores the relationship between psi (psychic phenomena) and quantum physics. Very simply put, the theory of entanglement is that particles that have been close will forever be entangled, no matter how far apart they get. This has, in effect, been proven at the level of atomic particles. Scientific experiments have also shown an entanglement effect with humans. (A simple example: Poke one person and another person's fMRI shows brain behavior indicating a reaction to being poked, though that person couldn't see what happened and hadn't been told.)

Entangled Minds goes into detail on numerous scientific experiments that have shown that presentiment (sensing a future event), clairvoyance, and similar phenomena are not that extraordinary. In fact, the studies on presentiment imply that, subconsciously, we are constantly scanning our futures, preparing to respond to events. This was shown by measuring skin reactions to violent, erotic, or neutral scenes - the skin reactions occurred a few seconds before the scenes, which were displayed randomly. The studies are incredibly cool, and I find it encouraging to think about what this means for our potential.

Of course, not everyone is clairvoyant or senses the future. Radin describes surveys that asked people about their experiences and then compared those results to other data about the group, including demographics, personality qualities, and other individual characteristics.

First, who believes in this stuff? Skeptics like to say that belief in psi is due to ignorance, similar to superstition. But in fact, the surveys tell a different story. Religious belief and belief in superstition both decline with education, but belief in psi becomes more common with more education.

Who experiences it? People like me! Women more than men. Sensitive people (people sensitive to sound, odor, touch, the environment, etc.). Empathetic people. Creative people. Intuitive people (that one seems tautological to me, as intuition is likely just a form of psi, I think).

Here's the basic theory, as I understand it: We're all entangled. We're all capable of psychic connections. But we have latent inhibitions that help us focus on the present world and its dangers and opportunities. Without these latent inhibitions, we'd be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information we receive. How much psi you experience has to do with the level of your latent inhibitions. Some people naturally have lower levels; others have trained themselves to be more open through meditation, yoga, or prayer.

Radin doesn't talk about this in the context of communicating with the dead, but once you accept the theory of entanglement itself, and the legitimacy of psi,  it isn't much of a leap to recognize that entanglement would continue, and that those who are predisposed to psi would find it easier to receive communication from loved ones who have died.

The studies on psi are rigorous, redundant, and surprisingly mundane; the results are what are exciting. I haven't found anything yet, though, about scientific research that explores what happens to consciousness after death or how communication is possible. Honestly, I don't know how you'd set up the studies, but it seems like we ought to be getting closer.

Until then, I'm going to attempt to enhance my psychic openness through more regular meditation. Even if I don't receive more communication from Sandy, feeling more connected to the universe is a worthy goal in itself.