On the spiritual path we encounter miracles, if we understand what they are and are not afraid to see them. I have seen every miracle described in the New Testament, including turning water into wine (in a chemistry class). Doctors see the sick cured and the dead revived daily. In Michigan, we walked on water every winter. So let’s be clear about what a Miracle is. This concept was explored in depth in the book Western Tantra, the White Path of Ethics.
Many people think Miracles are impossible events, but quantum mechanics shows us that nothing is impossible, though some events are extremely improbable. So impossibility is not a criterion. Only natural and possible events can occur. Webster’s dictionary defines a miracle as an extremely unusual event. For use on the spiritual Path, Western Tantra defines a Miracle as a natural occurrence that is either so rare or so improbable in its timing and beneficial in its outcome that it suggests the presence of Divine intervention. When you consider the number of stars and habitable planets in the universe and the odds that one particular sperm and egg would join to make your body, it is a Miracle that you are here on earth at this time and place reading these words.
I was a skeptical atheist as a young scientist in my teens and early twenties. But I was also open-minded and willing to test my ideas with evidence from my own life experience and the experience of others. Early on, I learned that logic and reasoning unsupported by evidence can lead to wrong conclusions. This was brought home by my Reed College freshman year humanities teacher, Marvin Levich. In a memorable lecture using a long series of logical steps, each step of which was irrefutably true, Professor Levich proved logically that black is white.
There is nothing logical about a belief in benevolent Divine beings or an afterlife. Logically, we are only very smart animals, biological machines powered by chemistry, and when the biochemical processes animating us stop, we decay and should cease to exist as humans. Our consciousness should stop. Unfortunately for this theory, evidence contradicts this idea. I’m not alone in remembering past places and events that do not belong to the life I am living. We now know that DNA can transmit memory, but the people, places, and events that people remember do not belong to their genetic lineage. Some of them can provide credible evidence. The only way to retain the belief that when we are dead we no longer exist is by ignoring evidence to the contrary. This cherry-picking of evidence to support one’s views is known as “investigator bias” or “prejudice.”
Once one has accepted the possibility that the essence of our being, consciousness, may continue without a physical body, it then opens the possibility that other conscious entities may exist independent of physical bodies. That in turn opens the possibility that conscious entities superior to ours may exist (Judging by how stupid we humans can be, the existence of superior intelligence is almost a certainty!). Once we admit the possibility of superior intelligence independent of physical form, we can ask the questions, “Does at least one superior consciousness know that we are here, and does that consciousness care about us? Is there a sentience in the universe that tries to help us?” That is where Miracles become important.
It is hard to differentiate between intended events and random events. I had to learn statistical analysis in both my Masters in Psychology and Masters in Safety programs, both for research and risk assessment. I have a good sense of probability and how to calculate statistical significance. I was cured of a disease that was resistant to all medical treatment by means of an improbable series of events. The events immediately followed my first true prayer, were the ordinary actions of people, but were unusual in their timing, frequency, duration, and results. It felt like a Miracle.
I started paying attention to the ways that beneficial events happen in the world. This lead to my observation that there appears to be a superior intelligence in the universe that manifests through timely natural events, and often through the unselfish actions of sentient beings (people and animals) to produce beneficial results in a manner that cannot be explained by chance. I call them Miracles, and I have seen many. Have you seen Miracles in your life?