There are numerous well-recorded examples of amazing things that we don’t understand. These include spontaneous healing, incredible visions, and so-called poltergeist activity.

A study published in the British Medical Journal in December 1983 on “unexplained spontaneous cure” found amazing examples of unexpected improvement or cure in patients suffering from disease. Dr. Rex Gardner conducted the research. He was then a consultant gynecologist from Sunderland. The study was carried out by him following a series of contemporary cases similar to those traditionally described as ‘miracles of healing’. He exchanged letters with the doctor in question or himself examined the patient.

Throughout English history, many people have reported having visions. Visions generally have more clarity than dreams. As early as 731, for example, the Venerable Bede spoke of a man, already dead, who came back to life, describing many remarkable things he had seen. This was a simple account. It is typical of consistent research findings in our own times of the ‘near death experience’ associated with a near brush with death.

There are numerous eyewitness reports testifying to abnormal noises, sudden jerks, breakage of household items, or other unexplained movement of objects. All this by means other than physical force. Two British parapsychologists have compiled a monumental collection of 500 ‘poltergeist’ cases. One of the authors was Alan Gauld, who taught psychology at the University of Nottingham. There are even movies of such phenomena.

Interpretation of amazing things.
Some people see amazing events and experiences with a perfectly natural explanation. They perceive a world devoid of divinity and tend to see religious people as gullible and indiscriminate. So, they claim that Jesus Christ didn’t really feed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish: the boy brought out his packed lunch and shamed everyone else into bringing out theirs, so in the end, it was discovered that there was enough food to go around. .

However, whatever our beliefs, strange occurrences, which we cannot understand, amaze us. Such unpredictable experiences stop us in our tracks. Could there be more to existence than we ever suspected?

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” (Albert Einstein)

The question is whether amazing things show a transcendent power behind the universe. Or do they have perfectly natural explanations?

natural law
Television, the Internet, and space travel would have seemed like miracles to a person living in the 19th century. At no time in history, science cannot explain certain incredible phenomena. But does this have to mean that such things violate the laws of nature?

I would wonder why science as a whole (as opposed to an individual scientist) assumes that there is no higher wisdom underlying ordinary natural phenomena. I’m thinking about everyday things like body digestion, the sleep cycle, the seasons. Even the ordinary can amaze many researchers. Normal things like the bodily growth of a child, the arrangement and size of the universe of stars, the instinctive knowledge of animals and birds. Can’t such things be signs of incredible energy, power and intelligence behind nature?

In reality, those who wish to scientifically prove or disprove a transcendent side of reality cannot in fact do so. The instruments at their disposal are limited. Science is apt to study only natural phenomena. His methods are not up to the job of detecting a spiritual power that may or may not be behind the universe.

Fright factor and awesome stuff.
Ignorance, imagination or delusion can make you believe in miracles. Alternatively, the belief may result from a tendency to accept surface evidence without critical thought or analysis.

In his Maurice Elliott Memorial Lecture, Michael Perry pointed out that we need freedom to think what we want. An obvious miracle would compel religious conviction. However, he argues that the Creator makes himself vulnerable to us by respecting our freedom. He wants our love and cooperation to be freely reciprocated. In other words, he does not impose himself on us. He does not force belief. As a consequence, we vary greatly in what each of us is willing to swallow. Our ‘wow factor’ is different.

What touches one person as an indicator of something beyond oneself that is a power for good, may be different from what touches another.

Amazing things like beauty in art, music, and nature can affect our deepest feelings. Social ideals, incredible loving service of people or incredible mystical experience can inspire a lot.

“Without the emotion of the beautiful, the sublime, the mysterious, there is no art, no religion, no literature.” (John Burroughs, American naturalist)

However, I would say that although our confounding factor varies, the Divine reveals itself to all of us in some way. That is, as long as we don’t oppose it.

Mysterious power within nature
Some people claim that the divine reveals things to them when they experience a state of higher consciousness. An important example is the 18th century visionary, Emanuel Swedenborg. For him nature has no intelligence of its own. You need creative energy and design to flow into the natural plane. However, he says that this does not happen by arbitrary acts of a capricious God.

His way of looking at this is to say that surprising events and experiences are not contrary to nature. Because the mysterious power of the divine spirit fills the natural world so that both correspond. According to this view, the very laws of science are constant and immutable. If it were not so, we would be living in a world of chaos.

Consequently, he says that these laws are adaptable to different circumstances and conditions. For example, the cold of winter disrupts the normal flow of sap in plants and trees and the heat of spring releases it. The conditions of temperature, pressure, humidity, greatly change the way in which physical laws operate. Likewise, the presence of a catalytic agent affects chemical reactions.

So possibly, given the incomplete knowledge of science, the divine spirit, without violating the laws of nature, applies them in ways that are beyond our current understanding. The transcendent origin of love and wisdom comes naturally to our material world.

It is no wonder then that we see amazing things around us and can, if we choose, accept that they come from a higher reality.