WEEK EIGHT: Mystical Philosophy and Transcendence

1. Why is Faqir Chand's experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?

Faqir Chand’s experiences are very important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles. Firstly, the stories and incidents in the book are very real and touching, and Faqir Chand’s narration is very persuasive and influential. As revealed in the book, “The Unknowing Sage: The Life and Work of Faqir Chand”, the stories have adopted a first person point of view to narrate the life and experience of Faqir Chand. He has experienced disappointment and lots of medidations, but finally he has come to the state and arrive that “the illusory nature of religious visions, the limitation of knowledge, both rational and transmundane, and the principle that the ego/self/soul is the real cause of man’s unenlightened state”. (p95) He believed that “the phenomena of manifestations is the main cause of religious exploitation of the ignorant devotees”. (p79)

2. What is meant by the phrase, "philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy."

When philosophy could be tested and believed by a great range of person, I think it could become science, which is firmly believed by the general public. However, when philosophy only stays in the theory condition and could not persuade others to follow, or when the principles in some philosophical theories could not be observed or tested by science, as revealed in the film, “The Remainder Conjecture” that “if something is genuinely beyond science’s reach, it will invariably show up as a remainder”.