The Skeptical Mystic

The Skeptical Mystic
December 19, 2003
5:39am

When Laura said, ''It's hard to remain skeptical'', what did she mean by 'skeptical'? I go to the dictionary, and this is what I find:

relating to, characteristic of, or marked by skepticism

For 'skepticism', we find:

1 : an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object
2 a : the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain b : the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism characteristic of skeptics
3 : doubt concerning basic religious principles (as immortality, providence, and revelation) synonym see UNCERTAINTY

An attitude of DOUBT keeps the mental muscle active if we use it to question things in order to avoid gullibility. To be gullible is to be 'easily duped or cheated'. Certainly anyone of any sense wants to avoid that.

There are zillions of wild claims being made by people through out the web. How do we know what is reality? Whole schools of philosophy are built on this. I'm possibly going to be quite superficial in this morning's analysis. Laura seemed to mean by 'skepticism' always the attitude of questioning and examining. If we hope to make use of our rational faculties, we must do this.

We might use intuitive methods of gaining knowledge, but the results gained must pass through this eye of reasoning. How else do we substitute our good results from our bad results? For instance, I receive any number of odd psychic impressions a day. How do I determine from the fanciful and illusionary and something really coming from the mystical underground?

How do I know it's not just something my brain farted out in a mis-firing of neurons? Obviously, there has to be the corresponding proof in reality. I may have the fuzzy feeling that X is Y, but to verify it, I need to examine and find objective proof that X is Y.

As I examine the definition, I am a skeptical person. That I doubt not Mysteries proof is because I've had direct physical experience of Her whisperings in my own life. I didn't trust anyone else's claims of such. Now some might go further, and say it is I, the pattern creating individual, who is seeing cause when it is only co-incidence.

To be fully honest, I have to grant these compleat skeptics the allowance of a grain of possibility. But I prefer to see the 'magic'. The compleat skeptic and I might come to a common ground if we come to the agreement that it is I who create the magic, or at least the conditions for it to occur.

I hardily agree with that.