Question to Radhanath Swami: Was there any core group that studied out of body experiences that people will accept it? Was there any attempt made to prove it?
Answer by Radhanath Swami: There have been very high level search projects in this regard. There was one professor from the United States who spent most of his life doing scientific verifiable research about the proof of reincarnation. He traveled so many parts of the world and even the greatest scientist said that whatever he said is completely verifiable according to modern science. Whether they believed it or not is another thing but these things are there. It is a very beautiful idea that the more there is this type of research, the more it could actually give inspiration and hope to people in that sense. Really, it should be pursued on more and more.
At the same time, tangible evidence can only give us a glimpse of symptoms of something that is actually beyond the range of the senses and material science. I will give you an example – a thought. Can you see a thought or taste a thought or hear a thought with your ears? Can you smell a thought? Little you know that you could have brain waves but can the brainwave tell you what that thought is? So thoughts are invisible and they can’t be necessarily directly verifiable through scientific instruments, but a single little thought could rule over a person’s life more than all the things of this world. As you know when dictators invade countries and drop bombs and all of those things, the origin is a thought in their mind.
So we can understand the symptoms. By what we see from outside, we can understand that this person is really not thinking very good. The thought itself is so subtle that it can’t be grasped. That psychology is a subtle science. But just like there is physical science, there is also a spiritual science. There are psychological subtle sciences, and there are also spiritual sciences. When we recognize these three sciences and we actually begin to harmonize them and respect them, then we can actually see how they are all interconnected with each other. If I am feeling bliss in my heart, it is hard to find that in scientific research, but how it is expressed, how it is manifested can be seen: I am smiling, I am laughing, and sharing it with others. It is very tangible in its intent, but the core of it, the origin of it is very intangible. It is the most tangible thing to our experience in life, but it is intangible in its essence to physical researches.
