The Other Side of the Mystery

Many of the pages of this website address a way that a culture, religion or religious group understands and names the concept of dematerialization--the process by which the human body goes from a corporeal flesh and bone structure to an ethereal or spiritual one. The opposite of that mystery, perhaps the flip side of the same coin, is the mystery of materialization, where one is able to create something in the physical world that was heretofore invisible or not there.

 - A materialization is the creation or appearance of matter from nowhere and out of nothing. Some miracles reportedly involve materializations. The most famous example of a materialization in Christianity is the story of the multiplication of bread and fish by Jesus to feed a hungry crowd, according to the Bible (John 6:1-15 & Mark 6:35-44) or alternatively Genesis where everything came out of nothing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialization_%28parapsychology%29  

Creating Something from Nothing. There have been many adepts throughout history believed to be able to create something from nothing or to trans-locate their bodies or other objects through time and space. Eastern adepts who have mastered the siddhis (miraculous powers) are said to be able to materialize objects. Sai Baba is a living example of this capacity. There are many documentaries showing him creating vibuthi, a sweet-smelling ash-like substance that followers use to bless themselves. One well-known story about Sai Baba is his materialization of a model Seiko watch from the vault of the watchmaker thousands of miles away. http://www.saiguru.net/english/articles/15seiko.htm

Over the years, researchers and others have tried to debunk Sai Baba’s apparent abilities. An abstract written by two such researchers is worth reading as they attempt to explain in physical terms, and in some instances cannot, just how Sai Baba could have performed such feats. http://www.indian-skeptic.org/html/is_v01/1-3-4.htm

Spiritualism. There is also a whole spiritual tradition known as Spiritualism that teaches that ghosts or spirits can be summoned up by mediums during séances and re-clothed in matter and communicated with. Further, these spirits are believed to be able to touch, move and physically affect objects and persons. Other objects commonly made to materialize during séances included vases, coins, flowers, luminous and ghost-like objects, as well as animal spirits and human body parts.

Spiritualism reached the height of its popularity during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Victorian etiquette prevented a thorough searching of the medium’s personage and required observance of the medium’s instructions. The fact that séances often occurred in darkened rooms made it easy for fraudulent mediums to fake materialization with sleight of hand tricks. Since that time, many fraudulent instances have been discovered, giving Spiritualism a bit of a questionable reputation.  http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/m/materialization.html  However, read this most unusual writing said to be dictated by a full form materialized spirit explaining how materializations occur and why they usually do not occur in bright light.  http://www.freewebs.com/afterlife/articles/materialvib.htm  

Theosophists. Theosophists believe that materializations do occur, though less often than commonly believed, and do not represent the actual spirit of another; rather they are considered “form manifestations” or “portrait statues” of the deceased. Read about their explanation of materialization at http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Materializations/id/201164  

There are many other stories of individuals being able to manifest something from nothing or move their bodies through time and space. To learn more about the interesting results of other current-day groups experimenting with “materialization” go to http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/presence.html  and scroll down to the paragraphs “Conjuring Up Presences” and “Materializations.”

Numbers of people all over the world and throughout time have held beliefs about a broad spectrum of possibilities associated with both materialization and dematerialization. What threshold of our own humanity does the very thought of materialization or dematerialization bring us to?