Magazine & Occasional Pieces :: Stephan A Schwartz

Magazine & Occasional Pieces

An American Profile

I thought I would start this column by focusing on two well-conducted recent surveys, one exploring belief in anomalous perception (AP1)—knowing something you could not know through normally mediated sense perception or from intellectual sources, the other dealing with anomalous perturbation (AP2)—consciousness in some way directly affecting physical reality. Each study confirms that beliefs associated with these two phenomenological cousins, whether belief is framed as psychic, spiritual, or formally religious—be it a traditional Christian, Hindu, deist, or secular metaphor—constitutes a powerful force shaping our world.

The first survey, which polled the general public, was conducted by the Gallup Organization.1 It involved telephone interviews with 1,002 “national adults” (Americans 18 years of age or older). Gallup maintains the conclusions have 95% confidence with a maximum sampling error ± three percentage points. It found the following:

“About three in four Americans profess at least one paranormal belief,” and that, “the most prevalent belief is extrasensory perception (ESP), at 41%.” Twenty percent believe in reincarnation. Other phenomena that would involve what we are increasingly calling nonlocal mind include:

Publication History: Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing
September 2005 (Vol. 1, Issue 5, Pages 338-339)

Categories : Essays & Columns, Explore Journal, Papers & Research Reports

An Arrow Through Time

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By Stephan A. Schwartz

Excerpt:

There is no siren whose call is quite so exquisite as the music of the future. For as long as writing has existed there are records showing we have sought to know its form. Last year alone literally billions were spent by widows, lovers, spies, and presidents. All seeking, like an arrow through time, some way to answer: “In the future, what will… ?” Serving up answers are prophets, psychics, experts, and fiction writers.

In Biblical antiquity, prophets were recognized because they could interpret dreams. Although not all dreams relate to the future in the Bible, most do, like Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. [1] Alternatively individuals have their own dreams, as Joseph did when an angel came to him and told him “to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.” [2]

But it was a tricky business, one could be accused of being a false prophet, and many Christians believed then, and still believe today, that when such dreams are accurate they do not come from the individual, but from God. As Peter made clear, “no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God.” [3]

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Full Text of the Article – Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2

Publication History: EXPLORE March/April 2008, Vol. 4, No. 2

Categories : Essays & Columns, Explore Journal, Magazine & Occasional Pieces, Papers & Research Reports

And Nary a Drop to Drink

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EXCERPT:

It is generally thought that, for immediate personal needs, each person on the planet requires at least five gallons of clean water per day. Not surprisingly, that’s not how it works out. Many poor people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America survive on just over one gallon of water per day—most of it contaminated—whereas those of us in the United States and much of Europe send 13 gallons down the drain daily flushing toilets.

Imagine, then, you turned on the tap. .. and nothing came out. It really is unthinkable, isn’t it? We take it as a given that when we turn on a faucet, clean drinkable water will come out—as much as you like. Will your children think that way? Maybe. Maybe not. Will your grandchildren? Definitely not.

Can this be true?

Water stress is defined as a nation providing for each individual, for all purposes, access to less than 449,150 gallons (1,700 cubic meters) per year.1 Water scarcity is less than 264,200 gallons (1,000 cubic meters) per person per year.1 It takes a lot of water to be an even marginally vital human.

Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing
March 2007 (Vol. 3, Issue 2, Pages 95-97)

Categories : Essays & Columns, Explore Journal, Papers & Research Reports

Ben Franklin’s Gift That Keeps on Giving

Ben Franklin’s Gift That Keeps On Giving Download the Full-Text PDF (288KB)

EXCERPT:

In the spring of 1789, Benjamin Franklin was in his eighth decade and he knew he did not have long to live. Tormented by gout, eczema, kidney stones, boils and a host of other afflictions, he said, “little remains of me but a skeleton covered with a skin.” As he lay in bed or, on good days, when it was warm, sat under the large mulberry tree in his back garden at 318 Market Street in Philadelphia, he conceived of a way to reach out beyond the grave to promote civic virtue. “I have considered that among artisans, good apprentices are most likely to make good citizens, and, having myself been bred to a manual art, printing…I wish to be useful even after my Death, if possible, in forming and advancing other young men that they may be serviceable to their Country,” he wrote.

Franklin had drafted a will dated July 17, 1788, making generous disposition for family and others, including even his son William, who he thought had betrayed both him and America by remaining loyal to the British crown. Now he amended the will with a codicil, executed on June 3, 1789, which was a final expression of his belief that culture was formed on the development of personal character. In one of the grandest expressions of benevolence in American history, Franklin combined his goal of promoting civic virtue and his fascination with the power of compounding interest to make even small sums of money grow by creating two carefully structured philanthropic trusts designed to last exactly 200 years. He made separate bequests of 1,000 pounds—the equivalent of roughly $100,000 in 2008 dollars—to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia and instructed that the money be used to make small loans, at 5 percent interest per annum, to married men under 25 who had completed apprenticeships and wanted to start their own businesses.

Publication History: American History, February 2009

Categories : Magazine & Occasional Pieces

Benjamin Franklin and a Modern American Portrait — Tax Cuts, Poverty, and Moving In

Red the Full Text Article in the Huffington Post

Benjamin Franklin saw America as a democratic society: middle class, largely urban, technologically sophisticated, family centered, joyful, and upwardly mobile. The America we try to present to the world was largely Franklin’s vision. But recently we have been oriented more towards Ayn Rand than Benjamin Franklin. And we have been that way long enough that on the basis of data and not ideology we can evaluate how these anti-Franklinian policies have performed. What has been their success at nuturing and perpetuating the vital democratic middle class that has been America’s greatest strength — as important as its military prowess? There are many factors one might use to make this evaluation. Here are seven chosen across a broad spectrum of American society:

Tax Cuts:

Just as they did in 2000, the Republicans are running on an economic platform centered on tax cuts, and proposing that the Bush cuts be made permanent for the richest Americans. The 2008 income tax data are now in, so we can assess what their economic theory is worth, and how it fulfilled its promise that tax cuts would produce widespread prosperity by looking at all the years of the George W. Bush presidency.

Categories : Huffington Post

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Magazine & Occasional Pieces

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An Arrow Through Time

By Stephan A. Schwartz

And Nary a Drop to Drink

Ben Franklin’s Gift That Keeps on Giving

Benjamin Franklin and a Modern American Portrait — Tax Cuts, Poverty, and Moving In

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