People who have power-spiritual power-are people who have learned how to work with energy. Working with energy requires an understanding of both scientific laws and universal laws. Scientific laws change as science progresses. There were once laws that supported the beliefs that the earth was flat, was the center of the universe, and that light only travels in a straight line. These laws held true until science advanced to discover other possibilities, at which time new scientific laws emerged. In other words, scientific "proof" supports a set of beliefs until a new scientific model redefines reality. Many scientific truths have passed into myth. Bear in mind that "myth" only exists from the vantage of hindsight; it was "truth" in the context of the time that spawned it.

If history is an accurate predictor of our future, then we must assume that the current scientific "truths" will eventually become myth as new "truths" emerge. How confident of our scientific truths can or should we be? The American dramatist Arthur Miller observed, "An era can be said to be at an end when its basic illusions are exhausted." Our mental models of reality may never be more than "illusions" that we, as a culture, have commonly agreed upon. The models have the feel of truth because they are widely shared. They create our current paradigm.

A paradigm is a constellation of concepts, values, perceptions, and practices shared by a community. That constellation forms the basis for how a community defines and organizes itself. Scientific paradigms, widely accepted by "advanced" societies, have become the basis of defining reality for our world community. "Primitive" societies that may not share our scientific worldviews are often targets of programs intended to "convert" them to our "higher" truths. At times, however, we have discovered that the primitive paradigms were, in fact, accurate. A good example is recent medical discoveries that validate the potency of traditional medicines and the role of mind-body-spirit connection in the healing process. Once considered to be of the realm of "witch doctors," these are now receiving serious attention from the scientific community.

Our beliefs-even our scientific knowledge-color our observations and perceptions. We look for evidence to corroborate what we know; we find the evidence because that is what we are predisposed to see. Consequently, we continually reinforce as true that which we already know. This is done at a subconscious level, but it is how the paradigms govern our lives. Breaking out of these paradigms is difficult, and it takes strong character to go against such compelling and accepted societal norms. History is full of accounts of people being persecuted and, in some instances, killed because they supported new discoveries in science. Hindsight being 20/20, two hundred years later it is easy to say, "How could they have believed something so ridiculous?" What will be said of our beliefs two centuries from now?

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