In the first half, author and scientist Dean Radin discussed what he called "real magic," what it means, and how it can be used to realize greater human potential. He cited three categories of magical practices: divination, which includes psychic ability and looking into the future; force of will, involving spells and other types of destiny engineering, and theurgy, or communicating with spirits.
Radin elaborated on his work, talking about the controlled experiments he's conducted on psychic ability that, he said, establish that this type of magic is scientifically valid. "When scientists pay attention to the data, they come to the conclusion that these are real phenomena," he asserted. Radin also made a distinction between the "small-C" consciousness that individuals experience and the shared, universal "big-C" consciousness that is, in fact, the basis for physical reality itself. In this way, thoughts are quite literally "things," he argued. As an example of this idea, Radin described experiments where food prepared with a joyous intention was reported to be of higher quality by the people eating it. The next step in this research is to try to understand how such connections between intention and results are made, he noted.
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In the latter half of the program, Catholic professor and author James L. Papandrea examined the concept of the afterlife, as drawn from the teachings of Jesus, the Apostles, and the Church. Through his research into ancient texts, he related, Papandrea was able to find evidence that convinced him of the validity of the Bible's account of the human soul, what happens when we die, and what we can expect in the afterlife. The soul, he went on, is the intangible part of us, created in the image of God, that lives on after our death. For this reason, reincarnation is impossible, since switching bodies would violate the concept of being resurrected before our place in eternity is determined, he explained. Although he acknowledged that various religions throughout history attempt to explain the afterlife, Papandrea expressed confidence that his belief, rooted in his study of the Judeo-Christian tradition, was correct.
Among the callers who had questions for Papandrea was a woman in Kentucky who wondered what happened to people who died by suicide. He replied that Church doctrine seems to have changed somewhat on this issue, and he had hope that God's mercy would apply in those cases. A Florida caller asked what the nature of our resurrected bodies might be, prompting Papandrea to refer him to the Apostle Paul's teachings on the matter. To two listeners who challenged Papandrea's take on the afterlife, he pointed out that despite there being no irrefutable proof of his beliefs, the power of faith on this question was sufficient enough to reassure him.
News segment guests: Christian Wilde, Kevin Randle