Pathways to Conscious Health

So, Where Does Mystery Fit In?

By Dr Catherine Fyans

So, where does mystery fit in? In this world that worships certainty, control and technology, ‘mystery’ just does not get a look-in for the majority of people. It just does not have common appeal.

Mystery is secretive, enigmatic and beyond the grasp of our rational mind and its belief constructs. Mystery taunts the values of safety, surety and security. By its very nature, it is unknown and unknowable and defies our intellect’s need to cling to the familiar. The ‘unknown’ is a very scary place with its threats of chaos and loss of control and can feel like annihilation to the ego mind.

“Mystery is secretive, enigmatic and beyond the grasp of our rational mind and its belief constructs.”

In our society, we tend to worship the intellect at the expense of other aspects of our being. We believe that the solution to all of life’s mysteries lies in our intellect, yet the intellect might never understand, nor be able to translate, our other realms of experience. Our fear of the unknown wants us to cling to the familiar and have a rational explanation for all phenomena. The familiar reinforces who we think we are and our place in the world, making us feel safe at a personality level.

“We have been led by the nose to believe that we can control all of life and death - the ultimate mystery - by artificial means.”

Many have succumbed to the illusion of promises of safety that have been so promulgated in recent years. We have been led by the nose to believe that we can control all of life and death - the ultimate mystery - by artificial means. This reflects our basic non-acceptance of our humanness, which we believe we can bypass by outwitting nature and the organic unfolding of events. It basically comes down to the trust of life and the gift of all that it entails versus feeling that we have to control everything to survive and thrive.

Don’t get me wrong; I am very attached to my intellect and love to exercise it regularly and hang out in its zone. Our intellects ground our understandings into the context of our reality, while reinforcing our consensus reality in the process. However, it needs to be in balance with the deeper aspects of our being.

In the medical world there is a compelling attachment of the collective ego to the scientific method and anything seen as ‘unscientific’ is often considered quackery, dangerous or suspect at best. We have made ‘science’ beyond reproach, sacrosanct. Blind faith in science, at the expense of other sources of information and knowledge, is an emotional response and actually very unscientific.

“Blind faith in science, at the expense of other sources of information and knowledge, is an emotional response and actually very unscientific.”

Humans evolved the scientific method to get beyond religious dogma and control and, rightfully, we needed some objective data. However, ‘scientific proof’ has become the new dogma and we can be as emotionally attached to it as we were to the former. Sadly, we have sacrificed our innate knowing at the altar of hard scientific facts.

‘Evidence based’ science is looking pretty shaky these days. The innocent public just assume that all scientific research is 100 percent accurate, beyond reproach and without any human bias, fallibility or hidden agendas. It is now abundantly clear that corporate interests play a very big hand in what ‘evidence’ will be publicly released. Cheap marketing and propaganda by another name. Yes, of course science has a very big place from which we have derived much benefit in the health care arena and beyond. However, ‘scientism’ has become the new god to whom we bow and it is generally considered heretical to question it. The collective, and certain professions in particular, are so enamoured with the scientific method and ‘data’ that they are very distrusting of our human capacity to make simple observations of life, or – dare I say – have an opinion.

The vast interconnecting reality of consciousness, which underpins every other phenomenon, is generally considered irrelevant – if it is considered at all. It is believed that the more nebulous aspects of our being, such as our more expansive mind, emotions and consciousness in general, are somehow less significant than our tangible physicality. Science’s search for the seat of consciousness remains elusive as we remain focused on what we can only perceive through our five senses. we could imagine at this point in time. As our reality is rapidly and exponentially changing, maybe we will all be called to do this sooner than we think.

Sometimes we have to concede that there is no rational explanation for certain phenomena and we might need to surrender our wanting to know to ‘mystery’. The call to surrender is to lose the control of trying to make things safe, predictable, known and rational. Maybe the unknown is much, much better than what

“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are… part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”

- Max Planck (German theoretical physicist)

Dr Catherine is a retired medical practitioner and author of The Wounding of Health Care.

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