(&)....SUPERNATURAL
The New Sunday Express – Kochi, an English daily, reported on March 16, 2008 from Bangalore:
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Australian science commentator in his speech says ‘take nothing at face value – in sheer entertainment. The human brain wired uniquely is to absorb stories. Mere words mean nothing, but the same words sequenced into a story register firmly with the human brain.” But in the process, human brain is conditioned to learn without noticing, he points out. It is why humans commonly tend towards believing rather than knowing. Evidencing his theory, he showed a small movie to the audience, of a basketball team one in black and the other in white passing the ball to another. He asked his audience to count the number of passing of white team. All the audience answered correctly. But a few among them noticed a strange scene that of a man dressed as gorilla walking through the court. All the audience followed only what asked of them while three or four differently answered.
Dr Karl explains another story. A rooster named Mike, lived for another 18 months even after its head chopped off. It was in USA in September 1945. The entire nation assumed it supernatural phenomenon. Mr. Karl goes on with giving us the anatomy behind it. The crucial parts of the rooster’s brain like the brain stem (controls the heart rate), the cerebellum (provides balance for the body) and one ear remained with the main body, allowing Mike to live. He advises, if asked to believe something, just say, “Please explain”!
Last week the Mathrubhumi, a Malayalam daily published from Kerala, came with another story from Madranahalli, on Calicut – Mysore road in the state of Karnataka. A 200-year-old giant tree “Neriam Oleander” (Arali) at a temple premises axed, on Wednesday, 7th November 2007. A JCB also used to dig around to make it fall. It was a matter of wonder on the fourth day to see the fallen tree without branches standing again in the same position as in the past. With in no time the news of godly presence spread all over with color. As it happened near the highway, there are several visitors to worship the divine tree.
It is unusual to believe the story. The nature lovers and those with interest in science explain that basic root of the main stem may not have been in a cut off position. It is usual that plants fall in heavy rain or wind stand again on the next day. It should not have uprooted in total. Sunlight is required for plant growth, to produce food with the help of chlorophyll. Naturally tree grows towards light. So leaves and branches will grow towards sun.
Recently several dailies carried a news and photograph of shadow of a woman walking down from a hill on planet Mars. The news got a wide media coverage. The next day NASA press release said that it was only a shadow of cloud. But the clarification never got its due importance.
The divinity is added to belief because no an ordinary man can understand the scientific version of unnatural incidents. So thoughts indigestive to human mind is divine or illusion for the common. Most of them are not ready to fume their intelligence. ‘Why should I burn my brain?’ ‘It is easy to believe than analyze’ is our attitude.
