In Praise of Fringe

December 19, 2022

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“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

– Albert Einstein

I have no doubt that in 100 years – maybe 50 – maybe even 20?…that our society will fully embrace what is considered now fringe, marginal, “out there.”

This fringe element consists of thinkers, scientists, philosophers, theologians, and healers who venture into the unknown terrain of consciousness and experiences that are not explained by known physical or biological mechanisms.

I have had many experiences throughout my life that I simply couldn’t explain in logical terms. Well-meaning skeptical friends have attributed these experiences to placebo effects, an overly active imagination, or just too much time spent reading Tolkien.

The “logic” of their arguments sent me into hiding for years, fearful of appearing illogical, naive, unintelligent, or simply crazy. And yet I couldn’t deny the beauty and almost holy feeling inside when I would listen to and follow these inner impulses that came from a place I didn’t understand but trusted completely.

After years of minimizing my intuitive self, I came to realize that I have a choice. I could believe in the dualistic, logical, reductionistic universe that much of traditional science says is the only real choice.

Or I could reject the either/or of this dualistic mindset, and put my trust in a world that embraces unity and wholeness. By wholeness I mean the union of the right and left brains. The analytical and the artistic. The dream and the material worlds. The psychic intuitive realm living alongside the scientific Newtonian mindset.

It’s a world where there is the recognition that all things are alive. Our earth and her inhabitants – including animals, rocks, plants, waters — are living, breathing entities that we are in relationship with. Not to use for our own selfish ends, but an expanded family that we wouldn’t dream of abusing.

A day when the vast majority of the population recognizes their capacity for psychic and heart-based wisdom, and uses it for good. We would see the 2020s in the same way we now look at the Middle Ages – “doing the best we can with what we have,” but falling far short of our capacities as human beings.

I hope to gain a glimpse of this day in my lifetime.

I am seeing in the younger generation a greater willingness and openness to heretofore heretical notions about miracles, psychic events, synchronicities, and the simply inexplicable.

This gives me hope.

And for those of us who occupy an elder space in the world, we must continue walking our solitary path of inner truth, speaking when no one is listening. Acting when the blowback may be unpleasant.

And perhaps most importantly, believing that with each step that we take, we are forging a path for those to have an easier time of it as they step into their own inner magic.