“Informed skepticism is an integral part of the scientific method, professional debunkers — often called ‘kneejerk skeptics’ — tend to be skeptics in name only, and to speak with little or no authority on the subject matter of which they are so passionately skeptical.” – Dan Drasin, author of Zen and the Art of Debunkery
INTRODUCTION TO ZEN AND THE ART OF DEBUNKERY
So you’ve had a close encounter with a UFO or its occupants. Or maybe you’ve experienced an “impossible” healing, a perfectly cogent conversation with your dead uncle or an irrefutable demonstration of “free energy,” and you’ve begun to suspect that the official view of reality isn’t the whole picture. Mention any of these things to most working scientists and be prepared for anything from patronizing cynicism to merciless ridicule. After all, science is a purely hard-nosed enterprise that should have little patience for “expanded” notions of reality. Right?
Wrong.
Like all systems of truth-seeking, the scientific method, applied with integrity, has a profoundly expansive, liberating impulse at its core. This “Zen” in the heart of science is revealed when the practitioner sets aside arbitrary beliefs, cultural preconceptions and groupthink, and approaches the nature of things with “beginner’s mind.” Given the freedom to express itself, reality can speak freshly and freely, and can be heard more clearly. Appropriate testing and objective validation can then follow in due course.
