Have you ever gone to a medium?  A clairvoyant?  At a dinner party I attended the other night, a couple of people indicated they had.  I do not doubt that mediums and clairvoyants possess a special ability to, for the medium, look into the past, and for the clairvoyant, look into the future.  I've seen too many like phenomena to think otherwise. What always intrigues me about Westerners who invest in these experiences is that if I were to ask them whether they believe in God or the existence of a cognitive supernatural being, most of them would say no.  OK.  But if one believes in a medium or clairvoyant's ability to summon news from the past or disclose intimations of the future, does not this mean that one must also believe in the existence of fate and cognitive spirits?  Does not this also mean that the world is but a captive of a much larger "spirit" one?
     We can't have it both ways.  We must either believe in a cognitive supernatural realm and accept or reject what it has to offer, or we must categorically deny everything metaphysical and content ourselves with not knowing a thing about our past or future.
     Many of us enjoy imagining there is a spirit world.  Yet just as many of us like to think that we can make this world whatever we want it to be.  Again, to borrow a phrase from Renaissance England, we can't have our cake and eat it, too.  Can physical beings create spirit?