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Why the Spiritual Traditions Warned Us About Psychic Powers
(And why we must understand them)
Dean Radin, MS, PhD, Institute of Noetic Science
I recently had the rare privilege of engaging in an extended public dialogue with Sadhguru on a topic that has quietly haunted both science and spirituality for centuries: psychic phenomena. These core noetic phenomena studied by IONS, including telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis, are subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle ways that reveal how consciousness participates in the workings of the physical world.
I was grateful to dialogue with a renowned spiritual teacher, and to hear him describe, in real time and without simplification, why spiritual traditions have so consistently warned against focusing on psychic powers. These warnings are not casual, and they are not ignorant. They come from long observation, not superstition.
And Sadhguru articulated these cautions clearly.
What the spiritual traditions have always known
Across nearly all spiritual traditions, one finds a strikingly consistent message: extraordinary psychic capacities may arise spontaneously, or in the process of spiritual development, but they are not the goal. Pay too much attention to them, or attempt to use or cultivate them, and you may put yourself and others at risk.
Sadhguru’s central concern echoed this sentiment. There was no debate as to whether such phenomena exist. In fact, he explicitly acknowledged that they do. His concern was what happens to human beings when power appears before wisdom matures.
Give a child a nuclear bomb triggered by a blinking red button that says, “Do not press this button,” and the outcome is predictable.
His metaphors were vivid and apt: It’s not wise to reach out of a fast-moving vehicle to grab something beautiful by the roadside; don’t pluck flowers from a tree before the roots are ready; don’t mistake side effects for destinations. The core warning was simple and profound:
Human intention, when paired with powerful capabilities, is often destabilizing to the individual and to society.
History, unfortunately, provides ample justification for this warning.
Why gratitude is warranted
It is easy from a scientific perspective to caricature these spiritual cautions as anti-intellectual. But listening carefully, that accusation does not hold.
The traditions do not say nothing is happening.
They say something incredibly powerful is happening, but most people are not ready to handle it.
They see people becoming inflated, confused, frightened, or broken. Attention turning inward in unbalanced ways. Seekers mistaking phenomena for realization. Charisma replacing compassion. And the traditions learned, sometimes painfully, that capacity without grounding exacts a cost.
For articulating this so plainly, and for refusing to romanticize extraordinary experiences, Sadhguru deserves real respect.
But there’s a big risk: misinterpretation
When unusual mental or perceptual experiences arise, and there is no shared framework to understand them, they are almost inevitably interpreted through the nearest available belief system.
In earlier eras, people who had such experiences were often embedded in monasteries, lineages, or cultural systems that knew how to contextualize them. Today, that containment is largely gone.
In different cultures and contexts, the very same experience may be labeled as demonic possession, divine revelation, psychic “gifts,” karmic punishment, spiritual superiority, or mental illness. Few of these interpretations are especially helpful.
Some may lead to fear and repression, others to depend entirely on authority figures, or to believe in one’s grandiosity and moral exemption, or absolute faith in ancient scriptures, or all manner of unnecessary sufferings, stigma, or even harm.
Most importantly, they short-circuit ethical development. If an experience is framed as demonic, it must be expelled. If framed as divine, it may be taken as unquestionably true. If framed as a special power, it may justify control over others. In none of these cases is careful moral reasoning encouraged.
Without understanding, meaning rushes in, and meaning is rarely neutral.
When these experiences occur in a vacuum, without scientific explanation or grounded spiritual guidance, people are left to improvise their own meaning. That is when confusion, fear, and extremism arise.
In this context, avoiding understanding is no longer a viable position. It actively increases the likelihood of harmful interpretations.
Science as clarification, not desecration
This is where careful scientific study becomes a quiet ally to spirituality.
Responsible inquiry can demystify without trivializing, normalize without glorifying, explain without encouraging pursuit, and provide language that reduces fear rather than feeding fantasy.
Understanding does not force people to use anything. It simply gives them a map instead of leaving them lost with symbols.
When people know that an experience is a natural human phenomenon, perhaps rare or meaningful, but not supernatural, then it becomes easier to integrate it ethically and humbly.
Why we must continue to study noetic experiences
The question is no longer whether unusual capacities exist. A substantial amount of evidence, including historical, experiential, and experimental, has accumulated.
The real question is whether we will understand them well enough to minimize harm, contextualize them well enough to prevent obsession, and speak about them mindfully to preserve humility.
To disciples of spiritual teachers: this inquiry need not threaten the path. Done properly, it can protect and augment it.
To scientists: curiosity must be paired with restraint and ethical mindfulness.
To laypeople: extraordinary experiences are neither proof of enlightenment nor signs of evil. They are human experiences that deserve understanding, not silence.
The deepest respect we can show both science and spirituality is not avoidance, but responsible exploration without hunger for power.
That, I believe, is a bridge both traditions can stand on.
Dean Radin, MS, PhD, Institute of Noetic Science
Why the Spiritual Traditions Warned Us About Psychic Powers
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