What is faith? And by that, I don’t mean a religious or spiritual ideology or a belief system. If you dive into any religious doctrine, you come across a set of definitions being accepted as ground truth or components of the absolute truth; faith is one of them. I don’t question the validity of any of those definitions here; I am curious if there is a way to make sense of faith without confining it to a definition or attaching it to any particular doctrine.
In this context, I’m interested in that aspect of faith that results in supernatural phenomena. Therefore, let’s outline some assumptions based on which the rest of this writing can be established. First, assume a miracle can be defined as a phenomenon that appears at the time and space of its occurrence as a supernatural event, given the available knowledge in that time and space. For instance, an event in a remote village at a particular date and time may seem a miracle, whereas the same event in a scientific lab somewhere else at some other time is merely a natural process (well-defined or not). Therefore, a miracle can be considered a supernatural phenomenon provided the existing knowledge at a particular spatial and temporal coordinate on the fabric of time and space. Second, since I’m going to use examples from the bible for its broad applicability, let’s agree that Jesus existed, and the recordings of his performed miracles are accurate and not exaggerated.
Third, according to the governing laws of physics, all events have a probability of occurrence, which is a fact and not an assumption; however, let’s assume the possibility that the individuals involved in miraculous events can increase or decrease the probability of its occurrence. I refrain from discussing the influence of an observer on the outcome of the observation due to the scope of this article. Fourth, I assume all events and processes have underlying mechanisms, irrespective of conceptual or experimental limitations, to prove them. The following paragraph will expand on the last assumption.
Physics has proved that our observable world is confined to a four-dimensional fabric composed of time and three spatial dimensions. In addition, advanced mathematical frameworks suggest other existing dimensions; however, we exclude them from the analogy presented here due to a lack of observation and simplicity. Therefore, our world can be depicted as a two-dimensional fabric (ignore its geometry), one dimension being time and the other being a combination of three spatial dimensions. In other words, every object and process exists or occurs on a two-dimensional surface. In other words, we are intelligent organisms on a 2-D surface, unable to observe any existing entity or processes outside the surface. We can only observe, examine, and study their interaction with our fabric.
Therefore, we can only make philosophical or mathematical speculations about the processes or entities outside our fabric, which is a reasonable argument for someone to stay open-minded and explorative about possibilities outside the scope of current or definitive understanding. In other words, we may never be able to make a scientific observation about the outside realm as long as we are confined to a 4-D time-space fabric.
Now that we have established the ground rules let’s consider some supernatural events in the story of Jesus. According to the four gospels presented in the bible, Jesus performed a number of miracles that I classify into three categories: First, one person’s faith performed a miracle on a non-living object, such as the transformation of water to wine, Jesus being the person performing the miracle. Second, the faith of an individual who heals himself. Third, the faith of one person healing another person.
One might attribute all of the above to Jesus being present. However, I like to extend the argument and generalize the point I am about to make shortly and state that similar phenomena have occurred throughout history, even by individuals who didn’t know or believe in Jesus.
What mechanism initiates and processes a miracle or increases its probability? Is it the brain and its processes? The brain is a sophisticated organic machinery that receives data, processes it, makes decisions, initiates actions, and makes future predictions based on its past learning experiences. The brain is confined to the laws of physics and chemical/biological processes; therefore, let’s assume for now that it is not the brain. There are three other components that have the potential to construct or contribute to the occurrence of a supernatural phenomenon: the mind, consciousness, and the sum of all entities outside our four-dimensional fabric of time-space.
The mind has two derivatives, the individual mind and the collective mind, as well as consciousness, the individual and the collective consciousness. In my previous articles, I have presented the speculative concepts that the brain constructs the virtual space of the mind and that the contents of the mind are created through life. This construct ceases to exist when the brain dies. In addition, assume the existence of a unique non-physical entity called consciousness that interacts with the physical realms through the interface of the mind. If we agree with this conceptual relationship, the mind becomes the fundamental stage of any probable supernatural phenomenon.
We architect the mind and its contents, such as concepts, ideas, perceptions, perspectives, and belief systems, through years of aware and unaware experiences and interactions. In other words, every experience we have ever been involved in has led us to create and modify a framework of beliefs by which we accept what is possible and what is not. This is true for an individual mind as well as a collective mind, which refers to the mind of a group of individuals, in other words, what the group perceives as possible or impossible.
So, what is faith in the context of spiritual and biblical miracles? What is it that Jesus referred to when he said, “your faith has healed you” or “go home; your faith has healed your son”? The simplest explanation for this so-called faith can be ascribed to the mind. In other words, what he was saying was that “you just changed what was possible by changing the belief/possibility criteria in your mind and made it possible for the healing process to take place.”
The contents of the mind dictate what is possible and what is not. To be more accurate, the contents of the mind dictate what is probable and what is not. In other words, the mind can determine or change the probability of the occurrence of an event. How a supernatural phenomenon occurs and what underlying mechanisms are involved is outside our current scope of understanding, and it may stay that way indefinitely as long as we are bound to a four-dimensional fabric. Therefore, I propose the role of the mind as the first and fundamental element in the process of a supernatural phenomenon.
The individual and the collective mind can increase or decrease the probability of events. They can affect or initiate natural or supernatural processes by changing the likelihood of their occurrences. What needs to change if I have lost faith in finding the job I have always wanted to do? What is that “faith” element that I have lost? It means that I have gradually constructed this idea in my mind that I can’t find that job, that I am not good enough, and that I cannot be seen for who I am and what I know. In other words, I have built an idea that has reduced the probability of me finding that job to near zero.
How can an intelligent nation stay captive to the rigid framework of a non-intelligent dictator and be held hostage to its doctrines for decades? Through time, the nation’s collective mind has constructed the belief that they don’t have the power to make any significant and measurable change. They have structured a belief system dictating that the order of things can not be changed and the probability of success is near zero; they have adopted a perspective that is alien to an outsider, an outsider that sees a high probability of success because they have not built that framework of defeat in their mind.
The individual or the collective mind plays a fundamental role in changing the probability of an event, whether that event is finding a job or changing a regime, whether that event is natural or supernatural. The mind is the interface by which our physical world connects with whatever else is out there. The mind is the portal through which the interactions between the realms are carried out, the impossible becomes probable, and the probability changes from zero to 1. Faith is the state of mind that modifies the probability of the occurrence of a supernatural phenomenon from low to high.
Payman Janbakhsh, Ph.D.