The recent 8.9 magnitude pacific earthquake, which resulted in widespread destruction in Japan during the last 48 hours, has become the dominant feature for most news sources around the globe. After all, the earthquake, as well as the tsunami that followed, weren’t only a source of danger and destruction in the East; Northern California also fell victim to property damage and sunken vessels as the shock of the quake sent tsunami waves Eastward. Emergency alerts were sounded in parts of the Indonesian islands also, as smaller tsunami waves were reported just after dusk on Friday.

In the wake of the disaster, many are focusing on the upcoming task of providing aid and relief efforts to the affected areas, Japan in particular. President Obama was quick to state on Friday that assistance would be provided with due haste, especially with the search for missing persons from Japan and elsewhere becoming a priority. On the other hand, and as expected of the more esoteric circles, some are wondering if there were elements to this disaster which had been known beforehand, or even predicted.

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On numerous occasions in my life, both professionally and on a casual basis, I’ve had conversations with individuals who claimed to possess psychic abilities. Most often I’ve been unimpressed, but I’ll admit that there have been a few exceptions, albeit those of the rarest variety. Sparing those seldom few, for the most part my experiences have failed to showcase anything I found particularly extraordinary, although in their wackiness they have left me with good fodder for future conversations and storytelling.

One such instance occurred years ago, after I was invited by a researcher and acquaintance of mine to travel out of town with him, hoping to meet with friends of his that he said were under “psychic attack” by some bizarre malevolent forces. Upon our arrival, speaking with the residents in question certainly revealed a curious set of circumstances; rather than anything supernatural or particularly “evil,” what I found was far more interesting in its more mundane aspects… but no-less potentially dangerous.

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In my book Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule, there are many instances where I discuss the various cultural parallels that exist between people around the world who use methods of entering mystical states (or altered states of consciousness) with interest in communicating with what might be some form of sentient, universal intelligence. In several instances, these parallels specifically involve the appearance of the spirits of the dead as well.

A rather obscure reference to a psychedelic substance used to evoke such an experience was recently discussed at Daniel Pinchbeck’s site Reality Sandwich, in which author Charles Shaw outlines the way the peculiar drug ibogaine, understood to have remarkable abilities in reversing addiction to drugs like heroin, is also used by African tribes to contact their elders (image, right, by Cliff1066 via Flickr).

Ibogaine is a naturally occurring alkaloid, derived from the Tabernanthe Iboga plant found in West Central Africa. “The iboga root bark contains a powerful psychedelic that has been used as a religious sacrament for centuries,” Shaw explains. Among the Bwiti religion of Gabon, ibogaine is actually a common facet of their rituals, during which Shaw says that “large amounts… are consumed and the initiates are known to enter visionary states where they meet their deceased tribal elders — what they call “the work of the ancestors” — and confront their shadow selves as a means of becoming aware of negative behavior patterns and character traits which cause illness and impede spiritual growth.”

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A new study that appeared in The British Journal of Psychiatry by researchers at University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands suggests that nearly 1 out of every ten children, seven to eight years of age, report hearing voices that don’t really exist and appear to come from nowhere. For the most part, researchers have found that these voices “don’t have an impact on daily life,” and advise that children who report them should merely be reassured and watched very closely.

Of course, the researchers have already probed for potential links between children who report hearing such disembodied voices and those who will later suffer from mental disorders like schizophrenia. Nonetheless, in most cases this sort of activity, at least among young children, has not been found to be a cause for concern, and is considered to be quite normal.

If we choose to look at this from an evolutionary viewpoint, it almost seems that hearing voices would be beneficial to young people, or even mature adults at various times throughout human history. Many people have observed how animals have a sort of “sixth sense” when it comes to navigation and other biological functions (consider the multitude of stories of household pets who, after being separated from their families, manage to travel enormous distances to find their way home). Indeed, if we were to consider whether man could have ever harnessed similar instincts, it might make sense that our early ancestors, often wandering nomads, might have had a psychological development in their brains that created a sort of “knowing” or “guiding force” they could rely on. Indeed, it would be assumed that this would have been entirely a product of how the early mind worked, rather than some supernatural force. To put it simply, before mankind had risen to the dominant species on Earth, they may have relied on senses that instilled a feeling of “being led,” when in essence, they were leading themselves.

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