The Bogeyman Syndrome

In Monty Python's movie 'Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail' (set in medieval times ;) ), there's one part (whose link I've placed above) where King Arthur chances upon a village whose residents are about to burn a 'witch'. It's in humourous vein but I think it highlights something I've noticed in our society, our fascination and gullibility for all things paranormal. Unfortunately, many people (definitely in the subcontinent; don't know what it's like abroad) have a habit of immediately ascribing anything we don't understand to the other world. It's strange how logic and all semblance of common sense goes flying out the window the minute we come across success stories of fortune-tellers, palm readers and other people in the business of making 'predictions'. It's exactly how in the olden times when people didn't understand why the phenomenon of lightning occurred, they ascribed it to the anger of the gods (which makes me wonder about the whole lightning never strikes twice at the same place saying :P). I like to call it the 'Bogeyman Syndrome' because it's exactly like the case of the four-year old who hears noises at night and ascribes them to the monster under his/her bed.

Now don't get me wrong; as a Muslim, I do believe in the supernatural, the Aalim-ul-Ghaib (realm of the Unseen). I also do believe, as hadith tell us, that certain natural phenomenon do have supernatural correlation. For example, Sahih Muslim reports:

‘Abdullah. Ibn ‘Abbas reported: A person from the Ansar who was amongst the Companions of Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) reported to me: As we were sitting during the night with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), a meteor shot gave a dazzling light. Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: What did you say in the pre-Islamic days when there was such a shot (of meteor)? They said: Allah and His Messenger know best (the actual position), but we, however, used to say that that very night a great man had been born and a great man had died, whereupon Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: (These meteors) are shot neither at the death of anyone nor on the birth of anyone. Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, issues Command when He decides to do a thing. Then (the Angels) supporting the Throne sing His glory, then sing the dwellers of heaven who are near to them until this glory of God reaches them who are in the heaven of this world. Then those who are near the supporters of the Throne ask these supporters of the Throne: What your Lord has said? And they accordingly inform them what He says. Then the dwellers of heaven seek information from them until this information reaches the heaven of the world. In this process of transmission (the jinn snatches) what he manages to overhear and he carries it to his friends. And when the Angels see the jinn they attack them with meteors. If they narrate only which they manage to snatch that is correct but they alloy it with lies and make additions to it.

I also do believe that the Jinns have powers that we humans don't (e.g. The case of the retrieval of the throne of the Queen of Sheba by a Jinn in the service of Hadrat Suleman AS). I also believe that the Jinns have access to knowledge that we don't. This is evident in the above hadith as well as the following one:

`Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) said: Some people asked the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) about soothsayers. He (PBUH) said, "They are of no account.'' Upon this they said to him, "O Messenger of Allah! But they sometimes make true predictions.'' Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "That is a word pertaining to truth which a jinn snatches (from the angels) and whispers into the ears of his friend (the soothsayers) who will then mix more than a hundred lies with it.''
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

My friend (coincidentally, now a source of my recent blogpost ideas) gave me this example:

In India, 10000 years ago there was a Brahmin astrologer called the Maharishi Bhrigu who penned the Bhrigu Samhita, a compilation that contains predictions on the current and future lives of people. They were written on palm-leafs but most were destroyed when the Muslims invaded India. Of the few that are left, the only authentic ones are said to be with some Brahmins at Hoshiyarpur. In my research, I only chanced upon 2 western accounts of the predictions in them. The rest were accounts from believers in the predictions, and therefore cannot be treated as neutral accounts.

Here are the 2 western accounts:

http://www.wandahl.com/Pages/Articles/VisitingBhriguSamhita.htm

http://dlane5.tripod.com/brigu.html

In the accounts, all the true predictions are actually of the past and therefore, available to any resourceful person. Then the money demand at the end makes them all the more suspicious. Also, since most of the palm leafs were destroyed, leaving the remaining few in the hands of a few individuals, it makes it all the more difficult to verify claims. Remember, the Jews and Christians kept their holy books in the hands of the clergy alone and inaccessible to the public (the christians kept the Bible in Latin before Martin Luther's influential German translation made it available to the common man. The Torah is still in the hands of the Rabbis and many Jews only see it at special occasions like Bar Mitzvahs).

I'm sure by now I've got you pretty riled up against me, especially if you believe in the Bhrigu Samhita. Believe me, it is NOT my intention to insult and offend you. I respect your beliefs. Indeed as I stated earlier, since I do believe in the supernatural, it is entirely possible that the Bhrigu Samhita's predictions are of supernatural origin. However, the point I'm trying to drive home here is the fact that in most 'supernatural' cases that our hyperactive imaginations get over-awed by, usually have simple explanations. Case in point: the story widely reported in the media a few years ago of a girl who desecrated the Holy Quran and became a monkey. Muslims everywhere were talking about how this was the clinching proof of Islam as the correct religion. When it was discovered that it was all a bunch of kids good who were good with Photoshop pulling a prank...awwwkwarrrd.
There was this colour quiz I once took (along with a couple of friends) where you pick 2 colours and it 'reveals' your personality. Initially I was shocked with the extremely accurate results. Then I compared them with my friends and some things began to unravel. Our results had some common elements. For example, everyone was told they were a mixture of introvert and extrovert. Almost all of us were told we found pleasure through sexual activity (No s***). What has to be noted here is the fact that half the trick is before you give the test. If you do believe that they will work, then whatever the results tell you, you'll search through your previous life experiences and remember one where the results were proved right, even if that trait isn't yours. The opposite will happen if you disbelieve pre-test. This, coupled with the fact that these 'predictions' about your personality are generally quite vague, makes such test all the more amenable to our minds. Having said that, the psychologists behind these tests know their stuff and have done their homework. There is some truth to these tests. But as we are swayed by the apparent power and 'accuracy' of these tests, we forget that they have limitations and aren't the final word on who we are.

To summarise, I do believe that such paranormal phenomenon are plausible. In fact, as a student of science, it would be extremely arrogant and premature of me to deny the possibility of this as there is a large body of semi-evidence for it (by which I mean a lot of anecdotal evidence, as it is quite naturally difficult to carry out a systematic scientific study on the matter) and little against it. But before attributing an improbable event to the supernatural, we must eliminate all other more probable 'this-world' causes. Here are a few:

1. The Law of Averages: This states that a highly improbable event in isolation is actually highly probable, and can take place in the history of mankind at least once, given the huge lengths of time and number of people involved. The media will take these highly improbable events when they do occur and parade and exaggerate them, since they need to make the news. Since, we implicitly accept the news as authentic, it becomes difficult for us to look at what is reported clearly.
2. Hoaxes: Bad people exist. So do idiots. The bad people want to make a quick buck off the idiots. Remember the Piltdown Man? A hoax at a time when people were desperately looking for and thus were open (give the zeitgeist of the time) to any evidence to prove Darwinian evolution. Then there were the Hitler diaries after World War 2 when people wanted to know what wen through the mind of the man who was behind that major world event. I tell you, when people want something, there will be a conman out there to give it to them.