Miracles examined from a Fortean perspective

Miracles vs. Forteana

If one examines traditional religious miracles, some elements are particularly interesting. Many of the 'miracles' of the saints, if their theological or moralizing overlays are removed, are examples of amazing paranormal phenomena, and parapsychologists such as D. Scott Rogo and Herbert Thurston approached them as such[1.] Miracles, contrary to common expectation, are not just a Catholic phenomenon: they can be found in the traditions of the holy figures of most religions. In the Western tradition, miracles are supposed to be supernatural interventions in the natural laws of the world- the interruptions of history by Providence. They are thus by necessity rare and always have a moral or theological content (i.e. the burning bush, parting of the Red Sea, etc.) In those cases where they are connected with holy figures, it is usually claimed that those figures are mediators of the Divine, not the source of the transgressions against natural law. But if we set aside what I call the 'theological hypothesis,' i.e. the religious origin of miracles, and examine them as any other Fortean-type phenomenon, some other possibilities might suggest themselves. By looking at several types of 'miracles,' interesting patterns emerge.

Saintly Healing: Laying of Hands and Healing Shrines

Many of the saints were said to be able to cure blindness, leprosy, scrofula (the kings' evil), and other ailments merely by touch. Their model for their ability was derived from the 'theological hypothesis,' i.e. the source of healing power came from outside themselves. Many modern 'psychic healers' claim a similar record without identifying a Divine origin for their ability, and current evidence suggests that there may be multiple mechanisms involved: manipulation and transmission of body energy (i.e. chi/bioplasma/orgone), stimulation of the autoimmune system, and perhaps even a direct cellular transformation[2.] (The Eastern European healer Estebany was able to stimulate enzyme production in a flask through his talent.) More miraculous healings, such as making the paralyzed able to walk (repairing the nervous system) or stopping major bleeding, are an area of feats that so far the saints have faced little competition in from modern healers. But it is possible that these are merely extraordinary psychokinetic manipulations of tissue which may yet someday be achievable; after all, the 'psychic surgeons' of the Phillipines have managed to do what the saints were never reported to (the removal of diseased organs).

If human bioenergy (the so-called 'healing force') is transferable from healer to patient, there is no reasons why it could not accumulate in areas where the organism is located or spent frequent periods of time in. This might explain the healing attributes of saints' tombs or shrines. Some places of saintly healing, such as holy springs (Lourdes, etc.), may merely be in an auspicious geomantic location to accumulate the so-called "Earth force" generated for fertility purposes, and only associated with a saint inadvertently (they were killed there) or even erroneously[3] (perhaps they were linked to a pagan divinity that was later 'christianized' into a saint.) Saints' tombs, being places of intense meditation and devotion, may be particularly effective in triggering the autosuggestive or 'placebo' effect in believers. My suggestion in this area is that the saints may have been effective in tapping into bionenergetic processes that are accessible today to very unsaintly acupuncturists, orgone therapists, and radionics users.

Mind Over Body: The Stigmata, Imitatio Christi, and Miraculous Fasting

One feat that almost guaranteed inclusion into the Catholic canon was the stigmata, first manifested (it is said) by Francis of Assissi. He wanted to be so like Christ that he began to manifest the five wounds of his Saviour. People who manifest the stigmata (it has occurred well into the 20th century) often display bleeding and naillike wounds in the palms, feet, and the left side (where the crucified Jesus was said to be pierced by a spear.) Occasionally there are also lacerations on the forehead, corresponding to the wounds from the crown of thorns. Curiously, these wounds are found precisly where one might see them in a medieval or Renaissance painting of the crucifixion; but we know from anatomical, medical, and archaeological evidence that a crucified person would have to be nailed through their wrists and ankles . The saints were manifesting the wounds where they sincerely believed they had occurred - Christ could not possibly have had wounds where they are commonly depicted to be[4.]

The 'miracle' of the stigmata may be linked to that of 'miraculous fasting,' where the saint does without food and water for a substantial amount of their life. Saints were often said to subsists on an impossible diet, i.e. 'locusts and honey' or eating only the sacramental Host. There is some evidence to suggest that a 20th century Catholic woman performed this very same miracle for some two decades, but she was 'caught' eating on very, very rare occasions- certainly more infrequently than most people need to in order to survive. We know today that the mind can exert extreme control over the body: this can be seen in any 'hysterical pregnancy' or person under hypnosis who is told their skin is burning. It is possible the mind could generate wounds in the body (just as it makes warts disappear) or even substantially reduce its appetite and metabolism[5.] Faith may be necessary to summon the concentration, but it is not the mechanism of the result.

The Shield of Faith: Handling Serpents, Firewalking, Drinking Poison, and Martyrs' and Flagellants' Imperviousness to Pain

It's all there in the Bible. With faith, you can take up serpents and not be harmed, drink poison and live, and walk through flames. Today we know of many non-Christian cultures in Asia and the Pacific that practice firewalking, and they have their own religious or theological explanations of the phenomenon. Christian martyrs, pietists, and flagellants often performed excruciating rituals on themselves in the Middle Ages feeling little or no pain: but there are many cases of heretics consigned to the flame who felt the same imperviousness[6.] Many of these feats could result from bioenergy manipulation or mind over body as discussed above: perhaps, like a hynotized patient, the saints could 'turn off' their pain receptors. Once again, faith may have provided the necessary concentration - Islamic mystics claim they are so "filled with G-d" that there is no room for anything else, even pain.

However, even beyond this, like the Eastern fakirs, there have been Christian saints and enthusiasts that were able to lie on sword blades and not be cut, or to swallow hot coals and not be burned, or to be struck by huge hammers and have no bones broken. (All of these feats were duplicated by the Spiritualist medium Daniel Douglas Home.) These feats involve more than just mental control over the body: there must be some psychokinetic control over the external world as well, somehow directing the force of the blow or the heat of the substance away from their bodies. The resistance to flames may have been a form of pyrokinesis, or psychic command of fire.

Saintly Wild Talents: Ascension, Bilocation, and the Rapture of the Spirit

There are many feats in the saints' repertoire that have flowery sounding names, but are recognizable to any knowledgable paranormalist as something else. Saints like Joseph of Cuppertino often were 'lifted into the sky by angels,' which was called 'ascension -' something we might today call levitation. Though we are not certain how psychics are able to negate the influence of gravity on themselves, levitation was certainly an observed occurence among both Western mediums and Eastern psychics.[7] The phenomenon known as 'bilocation'- being seen in two places at one time- might be an instance of what is known in occult terms as projection of the "etheric double" or the seeing of the "doppleganger" or "vardogr"('spiritual forerunner'). Those cases where the double was seen by only one other person might be a 'telepathic projection' instead. Those instances of travelling outside the body which were called "rapture" might today be identified as 'astral projection' or an OBE (Out-of-Body Experience) or NDE (Near-Death Experience.)

We might begin to note a trend here. Many saintly miracles appear to be analogous to 'miraculous' events manifested by very non-saintly psychics. The difference between the psychics and their predecessors is that the former do consider themselves as being the source of the manifested phenomena, rather than just their transmitter. That does not mean that such occurences are still not associated with external forces: the 19th century mediums insisted the 'spirits' caused all their associated phenomena ('materialization', table rappings, etc.) whereras New Agers today might attribute them to some unknown 'higher consciousness' which is not their own mind or is a hidden level of their mind. From the Fortean perspective, it is important to understand that these 'wild talents' are associated with certain individuals , regardless of whether we can truly consider them the 'agency' behind them or not. The saints and psychics might simply be 'magnets' for these occurences, not their originators...

Postmortem Miracles: Incorruptibility, the Liquefaction of the Blood, and the Odor of Sancticity

Unless we consider the survival of consciousness beyond death, we certainly cannot attempt to identify the saints themselves as originators of these phenomena which take place after their death. In many cases, it is these postmortem phenomena that often result in the recognition of and canonization of saints. The most familiar cases involve 'saintly incorruption,' where it is noted that the body of the dead saint does not rot, decay, or suffer corruption, regardless of the state of its burial. Somethimes there is an associated 'odor of sancticity' - a sickly sweet smell that emanates from the corpse rather than the rotting smell that normally accompanies the dead[8.] These occurences are often seized upon by moralizers as symbolizing the triumph of faith over death. But there is another mysterious postmortem miracle that points to another possibility.

Annually, the encrusted blood of Saint Januarius in Italy liquefies on the anniversary of the saints' death. The vial where it it contained is hermetically sealed, yet each year it changes from a hard, crusty brown material, into red, liquid blood, as it is displayed before the anxious believers. Traditionally, those occasions where it has not done so have been said to be inauspicious years for the local village. The blood, which quite 'miraculously' becomes liquid once more, nonetheless seems to return to its solid state shortly thereafter. The transformation of the blood may be a result of the collective psychokinetic efforts of the saints' devotees and believers. Many of the saintly miracles that take place after the saints' death may be similar PK effects that result from powerful collective belief.

Holy Objects: Weeping/Bleeding Icons, Mysterious Images, and Relics

This category of phenomena is somewhat different in that it involves transformations of inanimate objects. There are many cases of statues of Christ or the Virgin or other saints shedding 'tears' or drops of blood. Most of the time, the 'tears' are merely water, without the salt content of human tears, though the blood often tends to contain human hemoglobin. While the shedding of tears is fairly easy to hoax, the bleeding is much more difficult. Other unusual 'miracles' often involve the appearance of images of Christ or other figures in walls, clouds, road signs, tortillas, and so forth. Many Forteans have noted the similarity of these occurences to the 'simulacra' found in Nature - faces and animal profiles in rocks, trees, and other formations, plus connections of these spontaneous images to other images of a more durable nature, such as the figure on the Shroud of Turin[9] or the so-called 'Veronica' napkins. D. Scott Rogo has argued that many of these transformations may be exerted by collective psychokinesis.

Most interesting in this category are the properties of saints' relics. Such relics are often fragments of their body (locks of hair, bones, nails, skulls, etc.) and are said to partake of the 'blessedness' of the saint. But often they are objects associated with their person, such as clothes, hats, jewelry, weapons[10], or grooming items. These items would in turn often be the agents of miraculous healings, good fortune, or protection from evil sorcery. The traditional Islamic explanation for the properties of these items is that they absorb the baraka or grace of the saint and help to transfer them to other persons[11.] If we posit the existence of a putative bioenergy or 'life force' which may absorb thought impressions, it is certainly possible that artefacts might accumulate that energy, like a Reichian orgone box.

Heeding the Call: Glossolalia, Prophecy, and Preaching

The term 'prophecy' is taken today to mean a general knowledge of the future, though in religious terms it is often associated with 'apocalypse,' the granting of knowledge of the Divine plan. St. Malachy, Joachim of Flora, and other saints often told elaborate prophecies concerning the future of the Church. Prophecy is said to be a universal religious phenomenon, but its particular ethical function (as a warning to change ones' ways) is perhaps most developed in apocalyptic, eschatological religions. Parapsychologists approach the faculty of precognition as a natural ability of the mind to transcend the limitations of temporality, not a gift or revelation from some Divine source. It is possible that consciousness can transcend simple linear time, and we could argue that some prophets merely had developed precognitive faculties, though they may also have been in contact with entities with similar abilities...

One of the most common "gifts of the Holy Spirit" claimed by saints was the "speaking in tongues" said to be made possible for the apostles by the agency of the Spirit at Pentecost. One traditional interpretation of the glossolalia was that the apostles were enabled to understand the languages of all nations. The modern charismatic religious movements claim it to be the ability to speak in a more spiritual, transcendental way- the 'angelic' language that preceded the Tower of Babel. This understanding of glossolalia is modern, and the phenomenon of its occurence in modern pentecostal churches does not have historical antecedent, unlike other phenomena discussed so far. To most hearers, glossolalia is simply babble, but others claim it is miraculous because they feel "filled with the Spirit" when engaging in it. Some psychologists have noted attributes that suggest that its production may well involve a genuine ASC (altered state of consciousness) or trance that might have additional effects on the minds of other hearers- perhaps their sibilant speaking is at a specific frequency, much like the chants or drummings of 'primitive' societies[12.]

Visionary Experiences: The Blessed Virgin Mary and Others

Perhaps the most Fortean of Christian miracles have been the numerous sightings and visions of saints throughout history. Due to the strength of Catholic Marian devotion, perhaps the Virgin Mary has been seen more than any other entity or apparition[13.] While such visions have often been said to be mass hallucinations, the entities in question have often communicated information to individuals and produced other evidence of their reality. It is the appearance of these visions that often result in the declaration of the holiness of a place or the canonization of a saint. In some cases, these miraculous visions have inspired holy warriors to great deeds (such as seeing St. James the Moor-Slayer in the sky) or have inspired other individuals (such as Joan of Arc.) The question we must ask in all fairness is, is the entity really who it claims to be, or is it an entity that is assuming a form consonant to the expectations and desires of those who see it. Many paranormalists investigating sightings of the BVM have leaned to this interpretation.

For example, when the BVM has appeared, it has almost always been of the ethnicity of the region, worn dress of the period, and spoken in a language known to those present[14.] In many cases, 'it' never identifies itself as Mary at first, though others may identify it as such. When the BVM has given messages to the people, they have often been of general themes pertaining to salvation, the End Times, etc. But in many cases 'she' has also spoken of very timely political and social changes with considerable familiarity. There are some cases of BVM appearances that have many "UFOlike" features including changes in shape, size, and form. When the Virgin was seen at Fatima, the sun spun in the sky, and some claim to have seen a sphere in the sky with men climbing outside.

True Miracles: The Raising of the Dead, the Feeding of the Multitudes, and Translation to Heaven

This last event category includes occurences that are truly 'miraculous.' Not only are they impossible to describe in any normal framework; we cannot even come up with a suitable parapsychological or paranormal framework in which to place them. They are violations of the laws of physics that are so severe as to almost deny explanation. Cases of saints raising the dead are a case in point. While some of these cases may be quite normal instances of rescusitation or revival of unconscious persons, they often involve the 'raising' of people quite long dead. It is impossible to come up with mechanisms for this phenomenon, if it ever actually took place, unless one is prepared to consider the hypothesis of 'souls,' a concept that parapsychology has at least recently tried to move away from in distancing itself from religion.

Similarly, with the feeding of the multitudes by mutliplying bread, fishes, cheese, or other foodstuffs. Multiplication of substance is a simple violation of conservation of matter, mass, and energy; or in layman's terms the rule that 'there is no free lunch' or 'you can't get something or nothing.' The case of saints being 'translated' to heaven into a fiery chariot is equally myserious, although it may simply be a case of a theological overlay on a very banal instance of Fortean teleportation. Both of these events are so mysterious as to defy both so-called 'rational' and 'Fortean' explanations. With other miracles, I might be accused of substituting one unknown - the paranormal - for another unknown - miracles; but with these I don't even have an inkling of what unknown lies behind them. This makes me more likely to feel that they never took place or involved hoaxes, or even consider the possibility of the external intervention hypothesis.

The External Intervention Hypothesis

The commonest external intervention theories throughout history have always pointed to G-d Himself as the source of miracles. However, it was always the case that medieval theologians saw an alternative possibility, namely, that His Adversary, the Devil, might be the agent of unusual phenomena. In our modern, empirical age, we tend to dismiss the theological hypothesis, not because it is necessarily false in all cases, but it is by necessity untestable and unprovable, except by arguments by analogy. So, while most parapsychologists have pointed to the very real minds of the saints themselves or their followers as the generators of these phenomena, some Forteans have considered other external agencies. Some have looked at the possibility of 'ghosts' or the 'Dead' or those in the 'spiritual world' as being the agents. But a whole cottage industry has grown around looking at aliens from other planets as being the agents behind miracles[15.] Since any advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic, or miracles, claim these paranormalists, we are looking at advanced technologies at work. A spaceship destroyed Sodom with an atomic blast, lifted Jesus into the clouds, and projected the images of the BVM.

As an advocate of the ultraterrestrial hypothesis, I suggest another possibility. We may very well share this planet with other forms of life which do not exist in the same way that we do. These forms of life are disincarnate ('spiritual' only in the sense that they do not appear to have a fixed physical or material form) and may not even share the same spacetime framework with us. Though they have frequently been identified as angels, ghosts, aliens, spirits, devils, jinns, faeries, or devas in various religious or belief-system frameworks, the fact is that we probably do not know anything about these beings. Indeed, they may be entirely reflective, in the sense that they cannot be perceptible to us in any way that is not merely a reflection of our beliefs. This is why Buddhists meet the Buddha, and Catholics meet Mary, and Unarius people meet the Ashtar Command, rather than the other way around. We further do not know the capabilities of these beings, though it does seem that they seem to be able to manipulate space and time in ways that we cannot. Hence it is possible that in some - or even all - cases they may be the agency behind miracles. As to their motivation in staging 'miracles,' it may be for the purposes of manipulation of belief or consciousness on a grand scale - a control system of sorts. The purposes of that system, if it exists, are beyond the scope of this missive, though there are paranormalists who hint to its connection to the evolution of humanity.

Steve Mizrach

  1. See Thurston, Herbert, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism; and Rogo, D. Scott, Miracles: A Parapsychological Explanation.
  2. Villoldo, Alberto, and Krippner, Stanley, Healing States.
  3. See Bord, Janet, and Bord, Colin, Mysterious Britain.
  4. See Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. XVI, No. 24, "Where was Christ crucified?"
  5. Green, Elmer, and Green, Alyce, Beyond Biofeedback.
  6. Gaddis, Vincent, Mysterious Fires and Lights.
  7. Richards, Steve, Levitation.
  8. Butler, E., The Lives of the Saints
  9. See Wilson, Ian, The Shroud of Turin
  10. Braber, Richard, The Penguin Guide to Medieval Europe
  11. Shah, Idries, The Sufis
  12. Harner, Michael, The Way of the Shaman
  13. Warner, Marina, Alone of all her Sex
  14. Ashe, Geoffrey, The Virgin
  15. Bergier, Jacques, Extraterrestrial Intervention in History
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