Captain Marvel…
This week I took some time out to take my son to the cinema to seethe latest instalment from Marvel – Captain Marvel. Which was brilliant by the way and also a bit of an origins story for the Nick Fury character; sort of. Don’t worry though there wont be any spoilers regarding the film, as this post is more about the concept of a Superhero.
The idea of actual Superheroes being real made me think of Dean Radin’s book; ‘Supernormal.’ In the book Radin looks at Yoga and meditation, asking if they could potentially unleash supernormal mental powers. Powers which we are all too familiar with in the Psi Theory series – telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, precognition and more. All aspects which Radin has investigated as a scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) or explored as a part of his own research.
Supernormal superpowers…
Radin brilliantly describes superpowers that are found in ancient legends, science fiction and comic books. Could those superpowers be waiting for us behind the scenes? Are we just waiting for something in our lives to trigger the next evolutionary jump where we unlock our full potential?
So, if accessing the full potential of our psi abilities would in a way give us superpowers, why hasn’t this been previously looked in to? The truth is, it actually has, but we only really know the tip of the iceberg in this area.
We know that the worlds governments or at least their military have been interested in this subject for many years. The problem is we don’t know how deep it goes or what exactly they’ve discovered or achieved.
Its all sounding a little X-Files now isn’t it?
Nazi secret occult interest…
Its no secret, well not anymore, that the Nazi’s had an interest in the occult during the second world war. The reason that I start with the Nazi’s is because that interest in the occult is highlighted across popular culture in both fiction like comic books; Captain America, Wolfenstein and one of my favourites Indiana Jones. More shockingly though is the pseudoscience they engaged in. Hitler and the head of the SS, Himmler took their understanding of the occult into reality, bringing their beliefs into their science too. Perhaps this will be an area I will explore in greater detail in a future blog post, but like any good superhero story we need an evil adversary. The Nazi’s have played this role in many of the familiar stories. I wonder if they were as successful with their science in reality as they often were in the stories?
The Nazi interest in the occult and science is still shrouded in darkness all these years later. We are only now beginning to realise the possibility that our understanding of post WWII history maybe wrong.
Stargate project…
Fast forward a little and the next well known project, which certainly taps into those potential supernormal powers is the Stargate Project. Now this certainly had a few names prior to Stargate, but essentially this was all about psi abilities. This would become the beginning of psychic spies. Now obviously this wasn’t as exciting or Hollywood as it may sound. The Stargate Project aimed to experiment properly with the concept of psi and this developed into the subjects identifying objects hidden in bags, to describing where a team member was, to describing a far off location. There was of course a lot more to it than that, which Russell Targ explains in his books; ‘Limitless Mind’ and ‘The Reality of ESP.’ This format later became better known as Remote Viewing, which is essentially the ability to see a location not local to the subject. Now that certainly begins to fit our understanding of a superpower doesn’t it?
Nina Kulagina…
Another amazing supernormal power would be the ability to manipulate physical objects without touching them. Generally referred to as telekinesis or psychokinesis. Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina better known as Nina started to display these kind of psychic powers after WWII. Nina’s abilities were tested greatly over the years and scientist were said to be unable to prove Nina’s abilities to be fraudulent.
Nina displayed variations of her superpowers from moving objects on a table, making objects float just above a table to stopping the heart of a frog. All of which sounds just like the superpowers of a few superheroes or even Jedi powers from the popular Star Wars films.
However not everyone was convinced by Nina’s abilities. As they believed that the Soviet Union may have fabricated it to make the Americans a little worried. Which makes perfect sense as it would fit with the Cold War tactics, trying to highlight that the citizens of the Soviet Union had potential superpowers.
As amazing as these superpowers may be, Nina seemed to lose them towards the end of her life, which was blamed on a near-fatal heart attack that she had in the late 1970’s. If memory serves me well. As with many of these amazing stories the truth of Nina’s abilities appears to have died with her.
Time travel…
Whether its a psychic medium, someone that has precognitive dreams or visions of the future; there are many examples of people seeing future events. Time is one of those things that has also fascinated us all, it is the one thing that appears to govern all we do. It also places restrictions on our perception of the world around us. So, it isn’t surprising then that the control of time; Dr Strange from the Avengers Marvel movies; to travelling through time; Doctor Who; is something that those popular fictional characters gain mastery over. In reality there’s no blue police boxes or time stones, but there are many anecdotal reports that talk about precognitive experiences. Its not movie style time travelling, but there’s certainly something in it and certainly more to be understood. Perhaps this is another area that the military have experimented in too, but we are just not aware of yet. Alternatively we may have already seen it and not realised it. There are certain aspects of the Mothman case that when I read them seemed like Keel was suggesting the possibility of time travel. How else could the visitors have reasonable knowledge of potentially future events?
So, next time you sit back and watch the brilliant fiction of a superheroes movie; perhaps spare a thought for the reality that could exist behind the story. We are after all an amazing species that continue to evolve in unimaginable ways. After all, we all have a superpower of some sort and every one of us has the potential to be someone’s hero.
Ashley Knibb 
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