Talmudic Psi Phenomena--Trust But Verify (when possible)

Reliable research is accumulating and the evidence is compelling

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been “binge listening” to a couple of really fascinating podcasts about the ability of consciousness to reach beyond the limits of time and space. Recently, I came across a Substack post by

Yitz

about a Ben Gurion professor who is trying to popularize a little-known stream of “Jewish Philosophy” that allows you to deny all kinds of foundational beliefs of Judaism.

Here’s the list:

It’s not unusual for young people to come up and confide in me, more or less in these words:
“I grew up in a religious family. I love Torah and mitzvot, but I have doubts about belief. The miracles described in the Bible don’t seem logical to me. The afterlife and resurrection sound like made-up stories. I find it hard to believe someone watches over every detail of my life and rewards or punishes me for every mitzvah or sin. I want to stay religious. I wish I could believe, but I feel it’s impossible. The faith I was raised with just doesn’t make sense to my intellect.”

Introduction to the Philosophy of Shalom Tsadik

What struck me as odd about this was that among the obstacles many people claim to have with traditional Jewish beliefs were those about Divine supervision, reward and punishment and the afterlife. I’ve never heard of Jewish rationalists having problems with these kinds of things. Sure, I can understand why these people also disbelieve all nature-breaking miracles, the resurrection of the dead, and the historicity of many events of the Tanach— because of the supposed evidence against their occurrence.

But what kind of evidence is there against life after death?

It seems now we are moving away from rationalism and over to general skepticism and materialism. “I can see/experience the physical world, but I don’t see the spiritual one. So why should I believe it exists? What evidence is there that hasn’t already been debunked as pseudoscience?”

So I get it that skeptics don’t trust the people who claim they have telepathy or clairvoyance or any kind of parapsychological abilities. Why should they?

But before we get to presenting the latest evidence for these things, let me explain why I don’t think believing Jews need to see it for themselves in order to be considered rational.

The Rambam’s Three Sources of Truth

There is a famous letter of the Rambam against (judicial) astrology which Jewish academics love to quote. They see it as the essential statement of rationalism composed by the Rambam because it is a full-throated rejection of superstition and pseudoscience in favor of logical proofs, reasonable deductions, and reliable sources.

But people often overlook this third source of truth—reliable sources.

“Know, my masters, that it is not proper for a man to accept as trustworthy anything other than one of these three things.

“The first is a thing for which there is a clear proof deriving from man’s reasoning—such as arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy.

“The second is a thing that a man perceives through one of the five senses—such as when he knows with certainty that this is red and this is black and the like through the sight of his eye; or as when he tastes that this is bitter and this is sweet; or as when he feels that this is hot and this is cold; or as when he hears that this sound is clear and this sound is indistinct; or as when he smells that this is a pleasing smell and this is a displeasing smell and the like.

“The third is a thing that a man receives from the prophets or from the righteous. Every reasonable man ought to distinguish in his mind and thought all the things that he accepts as trustworthy, and say: “This I accept as trustworthy because of tradition, and this because of sense-perception, and this on grounds of reason.” Anyone who accepts as trustworthy anything that is not of these three species, of him it is said: “The simpleton believes everything.” (Prov. 14:15).

“Thus you ought to know that fools have composed thousands of books of nothingness and emptiness. Any number of men, great in years but not in wisdom, wasted all their days in studying these books and imagined that these follies are science. They came to think of themselves as wise men because they knew that science.

So, based on the Rambam’s criteria, it is quite rational for believing Jews to rely on the testimonies of Chazal as the basis for their beliefs about the soul and the afterlife.

The Steipler Gaon, Rav Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky zt”l (father of Rav Chaim zt”l) wrote kiruv sefer “Chayei Olam” link to hebrew books) to help frum Jews who are struggling with emunah. (I know, it’s crazy, right?)

In chapters 7-13 he discusses various psi phenomena and cites dozens of sources from Shas through Achronim which record the interactions of souls with people living on Earth— as a strategy for strengthening belief. The strategy works for most frum people because, as per the Rambam’s letter above, we trust the accounts of Chazal about what they witnessed firsthand.

The Gemara’s evidence

One of the most powerful ones are in Brachos 18b: (To reduce space, only the English translation was copied below. See Hebrew text here)

The Gemara challenges this: And is it so that the dead do not know of the pain of others? Wasn’t it taught in a baraita: There was an incident involving a pious man who gave a poor man a dinar on the eve of Rosh HaShana during drought years, and his wife mocked him for giving so large a sum at so difficult a time? And in order to escape her incessant mockery, he went and slept in the cemetery. That night in his dream (Ritva, HaKotev, Maharsha), he heard two spirits conversing with each other. One said to the other: My friend, let us roam the world and hear from behind the heavenly curtain [pargod], which separates the Divine Presence from the world, what calamity will befall the world. The other spirit said to her: I cannot go with you, as I am buried in a mat of reeds, but you go, and tell me what you hear. She went, and roamed, and came back. The other spirit said: My friend, what did you hear from behind the heavenly curtain? She replied: I heard that anyone who sows during the first rainy season of this year, hail will fall and strike his crops. Hearing this, the pious man went and sowed his seeds during the second rainy season. Ultimately, the crops of the entire world were stricken by hail and his crops were not stricken.

The following year, on the eve of Rosh HaShana, the same pious man went and slept in the cemetery at his own initiative, and again he heard the two spirits conversing with each other. One said to the other: Let us roam the world and hear from behind the heavenly curtain what calamity will befall the world. She said to her: My friend, have I not already told you that I cannot, as I am buried in a mat of reeds? Rather, you go, and tell me what you hear. She went, and roamed, and returned. The other spirit said to her: My friend, what did you hear from behind the curtain? She said to her: I heard that those who sow during the second rainy season blight will strike his crops. That pious man went and sowed during the first rainy season. Since everyone else sowed during the second rainy season, ultimately, the crops of the entire world were blighted and his crops were not blighted.

The pious man’s wife said to him: Why is it that last year, the crops of the entire world were stricken and yours were not stricken, and now this year, the crops of the entire world were blighted and yours were not blighted? He related to her the entire story. They said: It was not even a few days later that a quarrel fell between the pious man’s wife and the mother of the young woman who was buried there. The pious man’s wife said to her scornfully: Go and I will show you your daughter, and you will see that she is buried in a mat of reeds.

The following year, he again went and slept in the cemetery, and heard the same spirits conversing with each other. One said to the other: My friend, let us roam the world and hear from behind the heavenly curtain what calamity will befall the world. She said to her: My friend, leave me alone, as words that we have privately exchanged between us have already been heard among the living. Apparently, the dead know what transpires in this world.

The Gemara responds: This is no proof; perhaps another person, who heard about the conversation of the spirits secondhand, died and he went and told them that they had been overheard.

With regard to the deceased’s knowledge of what transpires, come and hear a proof, as it is told: Ze’iri would deposit his dinars with his innkeeper. While he was going and coming to and from the school of Rav, she died, and he did not know where she had put the money. So he went after her to her grave in the cemetery and said to her: Where are the dinars? She replied: Go and get them from beneath the hinge of the door in such and such a place, and tell my mother that she should send me my comb and a tube of eyeshadow with such and such a woman who will die and come here tomorrow. Apparently, the dead know what transpires in this world.

The Gemara rejects this proof: Perhaps the angel Duma, who oversees the dead, comes beforehand and announces to them that a particular individual will arrive the next day, but they themselves do not know.

The Gemara cites another proof: Come and hear, as it is told: They would deposit the money of orphans with Shmuel’s father for safekeeping. When Shmuel’s father died, Shmuel was not with him, and did not learn from him the location of the money. Since he did not return it, Shmuel was called: Son of him who consumes the money of orphans. Shmuel went after his father to the cemetery and said to the dead: I want Abba. The dead said to him: There are many Abbas here. He told them: I want Abba bar Abba. They said to him: There are also many people named Abba bar Abba here. He told them: I want Abba bar Abba, the father of Shmuel. Where is he? They replied: Ascend to the yeshiva on high. Meanwhile, he saw his friend Levi sitting outside the yeshiva, away from the rest of the deceased. He asked him: Why do you sit outside? Why did you not ascend to the yeshiva? He replied: Because they tell me that for all those years that you didn’t enter the yeshiva of Rabbi Afes, and thereby upset him, we will not grant you entry to the yeshiva on high.

Meanwhile, Shmuel’s father came and Shmuel saw that he was crying and laughing. Shmuel said to his father: Why are you crying? His father replied: Because you will come here soon. Shmuel continued and asked: Why are you laughing? His father replied: Because you are extremely important in this world. Shmuel said to him: If I am important, then let them grant Levi entry to the yeshiva. And so it was that they granted Levi entry to the yeshiva.

Shmuel said to his father: Where is the orphans’ money? He said to him: Go and retrieve it from the millhouse, where you will find the uppermost and the lowermost money is ours, and the money in the middle belongs to the orphans. Shmuel said to him: Why did you do that? He replied: If thieves stole, they would steal from our money on top, which the thief would see first. If the earth swallowed up any of it, it would swallow from our money, on the bottom. Apparently, the dead, in this case Shmuel’s father, know when others will die. Since Shmuel did not die the next day, clearly the angel Duma could not have informed them (Tosafot). The Gemara responds: Perhaps Shmuel is different, and because he is so important they announce beforehand: Clear place for his arrival.

Whether the dead know what transpires in our world or not is not the point. The point is that people in our world are hearing things that are said by dead spirits. But that doesn’t make this gemara unique.

What makes this gemara especially relevant for our purposes is that it doesn’t just recount the mere fact that people heard the conversations of or talked to spirits. These incidents provide evidence of the actual exchanges because these people received actionable information that they previously weren’t aware of. They used that information, and it was accurate.

It is a form of verification.

Trust but verify

Two other gemaras I know of also mention the fact that the information received supernaturally were verified.

One is in Brachos 34b:

תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: מַעֲשֶׂה שֶׁחָלָה בְּנוֹ שֶׁל רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל. שִׁגֵּר שְׁנֵי תַּלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים אֵצֶל רַבִּי חֲנִינָא בֶּן דּוֹסָא לְבַקֵּשׁ עָלָיו רַחֲמִים. כֵּיוָן שֶׁרָאָה אוֹתָם, עָלָה לָעֲלִיָּיה, וּבִקֵּשׁ עָלָיו רַחֲמִים. בִּירִידָתוֹ אָמַר לָהֶם: לְכוּ, שֶׁחֲלָצַתּוּ חַמָּה. אָמְרוּ לוֹ: וְכִי נָבִיא אַתָּה?! אָמַר לָהֶן: לֹא נָבִיא אָנֹכִי וְלֹא בֶן נָבִיא אָנֹכִי, אֶלָּא כָּךְ מְקּוּבְּלַנִי: אִם שְׁגוּרָה תְּפִלָּתִי בְּפִי — יוֹדֵעַ אֲנִי שֶׁהוּא מְקוּבָּל, וְאִם לָאו — יוֹדֵעַ אֲנִי שֶׁהוּא מְטוֹרָף. יָשְׁבוּ וְכָתְבוּ וְכִוְּונוּ אוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה. וּכְשֶׁבָּאוּ אֵצֶל רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל, אָמַר לָהֶן: הָעֲבוֹדָה, לֹא חִסַּרְתֶּם וְלֹא הוֹתַרְתֶּם, אֶלָּא כָּךְ הָיָה מַעֲשֶׂה בְּאוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה חֲלָצַתּוּ חַמָּה וְשָׁאַל לָנוּ מַיִם לִשְׁתּוֹת.

Having mentioned Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa in our mishna, the Gemara proceeds to further praise the efficacy of his prayer: The Sages taught: There was an incident where Rabban Gamliel’s son fell ill. Rabban Gamliel dispatched two scholars to Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa to pray for mercy and healing on his behalf. When Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa saw them approaching, he went up to the attic on the roof of his house and prayed for mercy on his behalf. Upon his descent, he said to the messengers: You may go and return to Rabban Gamliel, as the fever has already left his son and he has been healed.

The messengers asked him: How do you know? Are you a prophet? He replied to them: I am neither a prophet nor son of a prophet (see Amos 7:14), but I have received a tradition with regard to this indication: If my prayer is fluent in my mouth as I recite it and there are no errors, I know that my prayer is accepted. And if not, I know that my prayer is rejected.

The Gemara relates that these messengers sat and wrote and approximated that precise moment when Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa told them this. When they came before Rabban Gamliel and related all that had happened and showed him what they had written, Rabban Gamliel said to them: I swear by the Temple service that in the time you wrote you were neither earlier or later; rather, this is how the event transpired: Precisely at that moment his fever broke and he asked us for water to drink.

Again—verification of supernatural information.

And another two in Sotah daf 33a:

וְאֵין מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת מַכִּירִין בִּלְשׁוֹן אֲרַמִּי? וְהָתַנְיָא:

תוספתא מסכת סוטה (ליברמן) פרק יג הלכה ה

יוחנן כהן גדול שמע דבר מבית קדש הקדשים נצחון (מרא) טליא דאזלון לאגחא קרבא באנטכיא וכתבו אותה שעה ואותו היום וכיונו ואותה שעה היתה שנצחו.

וְשׁוּב מַעֲשֶׂה בְּשִׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק שֶׁשָּׁמַע בַּת קוֹל מִבֵּית קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים שֶׁהוּא אוֹמֵר: בְּטֵילַת עֲבִידְתָּא דַּאֲמַר שָׂנְאָה לְאַיְיתָאָה עַל הֵיכְלָא וְנֶהֱרַג גַּסְקַלְגָּס וּבָטְלוּ גְּזֵירוֹתָיו. וְכָתְבוּ אוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה, וְכִיוְּונוּ. וּבְלָשׁוֹן אֲרַמִּי הָיָה אוֹמֵר!

The Gemara asks: And are the ministering angels not familiar with the Aramaic language? But isn’t it taught in a baraita (Tosefta 13:5): Yoḥanan the High Priest heard a Divine Voice emerging from the House of the Holy of Holies that was saying: The youth who went to wage war in Antokhya have been victorious.

And there was another incident involving Shimon HaTzaddik, who heard a Divine Voice emerging from the House of the Holy of Holies that was saying: The decree that the enemy intended to bring against the Temple is annulled, and Gaskalgas, Caligula, has been killed and his decrees have been voided.

And people wrote down that time that the Divine Voice was heard, and later found that it matched exactly the moment that Caligula was killed.

The Gemara concludes: And this Divine Voice was speaking in the Aramaic language.

So we see a pattern where Chazal find value in verifying the supernatural information and not just trusting the source!

Get excited, skeptics!

That is why I got excited when I heard the Telepathy Tapes Podcasts. Listen to both seasons, 22 episodes in all, on Spotify.

Here is a taste:

and a selection of the

Mayim Bialik's Breakdown

podcasts. (Great content, hate the jingle though.)

Conclusion:

I think know there are many Jews who are in real pain.

They want to believe in the non-physical soul and that there is life after death, but are convinced that the science has rejected all proof of its existence. They don’t feel there is enough evidence to make it a rational belief. I’m telling you there is.

I ask you to watch these interviews with an open mind. Before you go on the internet to search for websites who claim to refute the evidence.

I know there are people who are doing this. I wasn’t born yesterday. But you owe it to yourself to first take in as much evidence as you can find— as presented by those who gathered it first-hand. Ask yourself if the evidence is compelling.

I am certain you will think it is.

My contention is that any rational person who can remove his prejudices and open his mind to the possibility of a non-physical consciousness will find this evidence compelling. And there is a lot of it. Go through it all.

Then check back to the internet to find people who try to debunk it. They will succeed in questioning a few stories and a few experiments. But not most of it. Certainly not all of it. And all you really need is one compelling piece of evidence to form a rational basis to believe.

It will take many hours. Many days. But isn’t the quest for belief worth it?