Psychic Powers in Nepal (documentary)

Text: Wisdom Quarterly editors; video: "Curiosity" (Discovery Channel)

(Wudu1982) European illusionist Dan White ("The Supernaturalist") travels to magical, mysterious Nepal in search of real magic in the Himalayas. Is what he finds real? Do the Discovery Networks and Curiosity stand by it? 

Saddhus in Durbar Square (AFP)

BHAKTAPUR, Nepal - Psychic powers (abhinnas or siddhis) are real in Buddhism. They are important only because they reveal what the real world. We are immersed in an illusion, in a small fraction of what is real. Powers open us up to the possibility of what is really going on. While we instinctively love the sense of wonder, it is sometimes accompanied by fear or awe. 

  

Illusionists create illusions that hint at a greater reality. Yet, there are magicians who are not creating illusions but working perplexing feats of what is humanly possible. They do not violate the laws of physics -- only our ridiculous view that most of us have any idea what the actual laws of physics are. 

   

(-William/flickr.com)

Nepal is the world's only Hindu nation, but that seems to stem from census manipulations. The nation is very Buddhist but utterly dependent on India for its survival. As an officially if only nominally "Hindu" country, it is the home of many saddhus (holy men), yogis, babas, shamans, and Western wanderers in search of the real. Bhaktapur may be the spiritual center of the country. 

Durbar Square with its famous Freak Street was its central hippie haven in the 1960s and '70s. The ancient outpost is a conglomeration of blended Buddhist/Hindu pagodas and temples grouped around a 55-window brownstone palace. Nepal is the home of the "living child goddess" whose feet are kept from touching the Earth.

  

Such occupied individuals are known as Kumari. But this is a temporary channeled position for pre-pubescent virgins, ten in all. The real goddesses are devis who are said to enter select children with blemish-free bodies (32 perfections in all). This being the custom in the former Himalayan kingdom (now a Maoist-liberated republic), could displays of real magic be anything surprising?