Psi Abilities and the Science of Miracles

From medical miracles to psychic powers and the enigma of consciousness, here’s what’s up this week:

• The story of Jacqueline Duffin, an atheist hematologist who helped confirm a miracle for a Catholic saint’s canonization

• What it takes for the Catholic Church to call something a miracle — think serious disease, failed treatments, and an inexplicable recovery (that lasts at least 10 years)

• Miracles as mysteries — stuff that happens according to laws and forces we don’t yet understand

• A study from the Allen Institute pitting two theories of consciousness—Integrative Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT)—against each other in an adversarial collaboration. Spoiler: Both are kinda right, kinda wrong, and consciousness is still a giant mystery.

• How “adversarial collaboration” forces competing theories to design experiments together and reduce cognitive biases. Yay science!

• A 2024 study in Cortex suggests the frontal lobe might be block psychic abilities. More evidence that the brain is a filter for reality

• How psi phenomena might peak when brain activity dips, like during near-death experiences

• Some research about earthworms and finches showing precognitive behavior

• Channeling The Telepathy Tapes, Mal connects the dots between the Cortex study and research on autism. Does atypical frontal lobe development naturally boost psychic sensitivity?

• The slow thaw of academic stigma around studying the woo

• In a slimy tangent, Tom looks up the four bodily humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Jordan’s Team Blood, Tom’s Team Yellow Bile, and Mal’s undecided.

• Oh hey, have you guys heard of YouTube?

Last time we begged…

And some people left comments, and it made us feel so fuzzy we thought we might die of coziness.

This time, here are some Q’s we legit want A’s to:

• Have you (or someone you know) ever experienced an actual miracle? If so, say more, fam.

• Is orthodoxy always bad?

• If there was a way to zap your frontal cortex offline, would you do it?

• What do you hope lab-coat wearing science nerds study next, now that the stigma is finally sloughing off the world of woo?

• Lastly, most importantly, Team Blood or Team Bile? (Make the right choice.)

And as always, if you’ve got a story of any kind, any kind at all, lay it on us.