Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
another's feeling tones, associations and thinking styles can often
anticipate what the partner will say. This is merely the usual five
senses plus human empathy, sensitivity and intelligence in operation.
It may feel extrasensory, but it's not at all what's intended by
the word 'telepathy'. If something like this were ever conclusively
demonstrated, it would, I think, have discernible physical causes -
perhaps electrical currents in the brain. Pseudoscience, rightly or
wrongly labelled, is by no means the same thing as the supernatural,
which is by definition something somehow outside of Nature.
It is barely possible that a few of these paranormal claims might
one day be verified by solid scientific data. But it would be foolish
to accept any of them without adequate evidence. In the spirit of
garage dragons, it is much better, for those claims not already
disproved or adequately explained, to contain our impatience, to
nurture a tolerance for ambiguity, and to await - or, much better,
to seek - supporting or disconfirming evidence.
In a far-off land in the South Seas, the word went out about a wise
man, a healer, an embodied spirit. He could speak across time. He
was an Ascended Master. He was coming, they said. He was
coming . . .
In 1988, Australian newspapers, magazines and television stations
began to receive the good news via press kits and videotape.
One broadside read:
CARLOS
TO APPEAR IN AUSTRALIA
Those who have seen it will never forget. The brilliant young
artist who has been talking to them suddenly seems to falter,
his pulse slows dangerously and virtually stops at the point of
death. The qualified medical attendant, who has been
assigned to keep constant watch, is about to sound the alarm.
But then, with a heart-stirring burst, the pulse is felt again -
faster and stronger than ever before. The life force clearly has
returned to the body - but the entity inside that body is no
longer Jose Luis Alvarez, the 19-year-old whose unique
painted ceramics are featured in some of the wealthiest
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