edgar-mitchell

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By 1973 I was beginning to understand why normally rational people
reacted as they did when they witnessed some of the experiments and
viewed the evidence we had carefully collected. I believed then, as I do
today, that it comes down to an individual’s belief system, which each of us
constructs through the course of our lifetime. This psychological construct
is really just stored information we gather through the years and weave
into a “story” that has both conscious and subconscious components. We
use it to represent our reality. At any moment, the sum of the information
and the meaning we attach to it is derived from all of the experiences
previously accumulated; sometimes seemingly insignificant experiences.
Our beliefs cause us to see the world in a way that is unique to each one of
us, as it is quite impossible to duplicate each step in a life’s journey. This is
the source of our “story.”
We often sublimate information and its significance in the subconscious,
though it continues to influence our thinking and behaviors. Whatever
our beliefs, we are likely to label them as Truth, and consider them
permanent and absolute, because our internal representation is the only
map of reality we can know. When presented with new information that
challenges what we currently believe, reflex prompts us to attack the new
in order to maintain the integrity of the old. We don’t like to be wrong.
Fears are aroused and the primitive fight-or-flight response typically summoned.
Whatever our beliefs, they are comfortably familiar to us, like old
shoes. I saw how the phenomena Uri Geller demonstrated could be seen
by others in the scientific community as a reality at some level of awareness,
yet immediately rejected as a threat at another. Any type of psychic
event under conditions that gave it validity appeared to shatter accepted
scientific thought—similar to a scientist earlier in this century who criticized
J.B. Rhine’s work with the statement that he wouldn’t believe it even
if it were true.
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