The different kinds of knowing
Scientific proof is not the only way to know things
Welcome! This is the Sunday Soother, a weekly newsletter about compassionate personal growth and authentic living, written by me, Catherine Andrews, a life coach, teacher, and writer. Did somebody forward this to you? You can subscribe to the Sunday Soother here.
Happy Sunday, Soothers. In my little corner of the internet, where we focus on magic, intuition, and the ethereal realms, the normally relatively thoughtful and insightful Adam Grant caused a bit of a stir with a very strange post about astrology and trying to debunk it from a scientific perspective. Weird because it has a very "gotcha, woo woo losers!" type of vibe, which is normally not his schtick, and also, anybody who had ever remotely studied astrology would understand that it's a lot more complicated and nuanced than what Grant lays out in his attempt to disprove.
But no matter what you think of astrology, whether you believe in it or not, I'm not here to talk about that specifically. Grant's post instead sparked in me the desire to explore the concept of "knowing" beyond Western scientific proof, which is pretty much our only accepted standard of verification these days.
And it leaves us sorely lacking.
Now, I'm a spiritual person, but I respect and believe in science, data, evidence. (Believe it or not, believing in spirituality AND science are not at odds!)
But what we also need to talk about is that Western scientific evidence and studies are not the only way to "know" something, to "prove" it true.
I work in the arena of spirituality and intuition and energy and magic, which can't be "proved" by Western science (yet — much like we didn't know the earth was round or what atoms were, but eventually came to have tools that could understand and document those, I believe we will for energy and such as well one day).
But I know energy and magic and intuition are real, as sure as I know that gravity and evolution are real, the sun is a star, and water freezes at 32 degrees fahrenheit.
I just don't have... proof.
At least, the kind of proof we tell ourselves "counts."
But here's the thing: When we limit ourselves to just one way of proof or knowing about the miracle that is this planet, this universe and our very existence, we narrow our way of thinking. We get stuck in black and white approaches, which is harmful for us and our society. We ignore possibilities and solutions that could be just as valid as something scientifically accepted, but that may not have the specific type of data to back it up as evidence, and so they're dismissed out of hand.
Here's a few things for us to consider as we work to expand our minds and hearts to open up to different ways of knowing:
1. We need to understand that Western scientific approaches that have been created and held up as the standard in the last few hundred years were also built under white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism, and such, are not necessarily always reliable. In terms of medical studies, for example, women, and specifically women of color, are still wildly underrepresented in clinical trials, limiting biological understanding and contributing to health inequities and social injustice (and did you know that in 1977, the FDA issued a guideline banning most women of "childbearing potential" from participating in clinical research studies? The ramifications of this are still affecting studies). The amount of studies that are also sponsored by an interested party but not disclosed (I'm thinking of big alcohol — wine is great for you! Or tobacco companies in the past) are also at play. Proof from medical or scientific studies should be looked at with our own skepticism and through where they might lack given an intersectional lens, I think, and not placed above our own intuition or lived experiences.
2. The need to "know and prove" is an inherently patriarchal and dominant one, one based on human supremacy, that everything is knowable only by humans. In my view, humans don't know more or better about the world around us or its ways than anything else; in fact, objectively, being basically one of the youngest lifeforms on this planet, we probably know the least. I wrote more about this in my post on Moving Past Domination Into Animism.
3. In fact, I'd even go so far to call the need to "prove" things in a particular dominant way as toxic masculinity. When you really read up, like actually read the history of the extensive witch hunts in Europe, you understand that at their root were men trying to divest women of their unknowable magic, magic they could never really access themselves — the magic of all creation of life. But also the magic of intuition, working with the elements, with plants, with healing, with birth and death. I think men are ultimately very threatened by women's ability to heal and intuit and be connected to spirit, and also to, you know, create life, and so they try to mansplain it away with logic and proof, and dismiss our more intuitive talents that are less proveable by their kind of science as quackery. Sorry, men, I hate to tell you, but the witches are coming back, so you better get on board.
4. Science itself admits it proves nothing. When it comes to science, proving anything is an impossibility. Science offers us its best theories based on consistent observation, but is always evolving. Everything is at best a hypothesis.
5. Intuition is real and valid, and also can never really be proved at least in the way we're used to. I'm claircognizant, which means you just "know" things without knowing why or having any good reason to know, and I use Tarot to assist in that knowing. Here's an example recently with a feng shui client. Her husband is facing a serious health diagnosis, and as I was mulling it over, I asked Tarot what could be at the root of this from an energy perspective. I pulled the King of Wands — to me this means an older man with fire energy, and from this perspective I immediately "knew" that he was facing some inflammatory issues based on a chair he was regularly sitting in. (The way my brain connected that, the King of Wands was sitting on a "throne," and then, like, I said, I just... knew. The issue was a chair.) I hadn't seen this client's house yet, so with trepidation of her thinking I was totally bonkers, I asked her if her husband had a chair he was partial to and sat in a lot. Immediately she wrote back that he spent 10+ hours a day in a chair that her own father spent his final years in during hospice, and she showed me where the chair was placed in her home, which turned out to be a challenging placement based on feng shui energy readings. I knew then the energy of the chair needed to be cleared (if not removed from the house entirely) and it needed to be moved to a different area, and also that she had too much fire energy in her house as well which was affecting his health. I mean, lol... there's no way for anybody to "prove" that I'm right, but this is what intuitive knowing looks like. And it's real. You always have to be discerning with it, when using it yourself or receiving it from others, of course.
6. Lived experience is a valid way of knowing. Your lived experience. You can trust it. You can trust what you experience. You don't have to rely on somebody outside of you to tell you what is true for you.
7. Anecdotal experience is a valid way of knowing. For example, I listen every week to Nicole Sach's podcast, The Cure for Chronic Pain. She posits that chronic pain and autoimmune conditions are created by a dysregulated nervous system that is too full with repressed emotions and trauma. I do pray one day that this will be more deeply studied by science and medicine (it's starting to be), but for now, I'm relying on the hundreds and hundreds of people who have come on her podcast completely healing their chronic pain and conditions through JOURNALING. Like, WTF, right? And then the tens of thousands in her online community. Amazing, right? And yet this is so little studied, that all we have to go on to believe that this could be true is anecdotal evidence. And to me, this anecdotal evidence in such a groundswell, is a very valid way of knowing. (And actually though, there is some "proof" around journaling on trauma improving health.)
8. A lot of what we don't have "proof" for, at least Western scientific proof, DOES have proof. Like, systems like acupuncture and energy work have been studied and reported on and used for thousands of years. There are measured outcomes and evidence. But just because they haven't been "proved" by a White, Western standard... and you see where I'm going with this...
9. Finally, and to me, most importantly: Unwillingness to consider that earth-based, indigenous, ancestral, energetic, spiritual and “woo-woo” practices and ways of knowing are real and their own type of knowing may be a sign of a mind and heart still deeply under the trance of colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy and the patriarchy. I remember a tiff I got into years ago with an acquaintance (a fellow white woman) who was calling acupuncture a "scam." This was a progressive person with liberal values who believed in anti-racist work. Even though I wasn't spiritual then, I could sense there was something to acupuncture, and I remember thinking, "Uh...do you think an entire medical system from China, that has existed for thousands of years...is a *scam*? Like, there's NOTHING to this?" Traditional Chinese Medicine has a history of 3,000 years. Ayurveda, one of the world's oldest medical systems and still one of India's traditional health systems, originated over 3,000 years ago. The chakra system originated in India between 1500 and 500 BC. Feng shui principles date back as far as 5,000 BC, to the Yangshao residents who lived by the Yellow River in China. Shamanic spiritual practices are evidenced as far as 10-30,000 years ago and tenets were practiced (and still are) across the globe. There's documentation of almost every culture having some form of energy work, engaging with land-based spirits, journeying with plants and believing the entire world was alive with consciousness. And yes, Adam Grant, astrology too is ancient, probably beginning as soon as humans first started to observe astronomical cycles, with some of the earliest evidence dating from the 3rd millennium BCE.
Today we live under the thrum of capitalism and a colonized society, steeped in white supremacist and patriarchal beliefs, and I don't think we understand how deeply oppressive systems have internalized in us, and separated us from ancient wisdom and ways of knowing, from tools born in Eastern cultures; how witch hunts and accumulation really, truly ripped us from healing magic of the land and allyship of plants.
In our work of decolonizing ourselves and opening up our brains and hearts to different ways of knowing, we must continue to ask ourselves about our skepticism towards Eastern tools, animism, or land-based spiritual and magical practices.
Isn't it possible that we don't see the power and truth of these things because it's yet another way oppressive systems have conditioned us?
Of how they've separated us from our own magic?
And who benefits from that?
Who benefits from there being only one way societally approved way of knowing or proof?
So today, open your heart a bit, and your mind. Try out a Tarot pull, or read a bit more about energy work.
And for god's sake, Adam Grant, go get your chart read.
Reads & Recs
Where I share articles, books, recipes, podcasts, beauty products and more that I'm enjoying! (A few links may be affiliate links off of which I'll make a small commission; I only endorse stuff I've tried and loved).
💥 You must go read this great piece breaking down how Adam Grant, a white man, mansplains astrology, a topic he doesn't know anything about. "I was taken aback when he careened hard out of his lane of expertise into a space he seems to only have the most rudimentary understanding of to offer a take no one really needed. I find myself called to explore this callous and careless hot take. Not because I think he’d ever see it, but because his words reflect a harmfully condescending stance that’s too easily bandied about to shame and silence people who find real value, meaning, and friendship in astrology — usually (though not always) women."
🎧 A while back my friend and talented astrologer Carolina Martin came on my podcast and talked about how to use astrology as a tool for self-awareness, and also read my chart.
🎂 From Melissa Urban: Happy birthday to me "I'M FIFTY YEARS OLD TODAY. And not as freaked out as I thought I'd be."
❤️🩹 For my Black readers, I just found this account on healing from the mother wound as a Black woman that seems potent and insightful (she has a podcast too).
🧹 From Tara in the Sunday Soother Slack: "I stumbled upon this book, Clearing Clutter as a Sacred Act, and bought it to help with some research I’m doing — I found it very moving, gentle, soul-led, mindful approach to evaluating and letting go of some physical and mental clutter. It’s really lovely and thought some Soothers might like to check it out. It has loads of journal prompts for the practical approach as well as getting into the stories we have with ur sentimental things. What I really like is that she doesn’t elevate a one-size-fits-all approach and gives recommendations for ways to make it your own process."
🏠 I'm deeply enjoying Sarah Menkedick's philosophizing about her learnings from home-schooling her daughter the last six months. It's about a lot more than just school and kids, she has great reflections on authority, hierarchy, learning, that we can all absorb.
😃 Thanks to Olivia for sharing this SNL skit on people pleasers. No worries!!!!
👉 Alanis Morissette comes on Glennon Doyle's podcast to talk about being a highly sensitive person and empath.
💡 I know I literally just wrote a Sunday Soother about how I stopped listening to self help and health podcasts but this podcast ep was shared with me and towards the middle there's what I thought was a really interesting conversation about codependency, identity, spirituality, boundaries around health that was really relevant to a lot of what HSPs can deal with.
That's it for this week, all my love for the week ahead,
Catherine
PS: I have a new website! If you want to check out more of my story and ways to work with me, dance on over to catherinedandrews.com. There are lots of new ways to work with me, including Tarot readings, workshops, a 1:1 spiritual mentorship and more. Photos by the talented Mary Catherine Wickham, and design by Alex at https://arcoiris.design, can heartily endorse both of these amazing women.
Go off Catherine!!!! YAS! I stopped reading Adam Grant when he refused to address his white male privilege in another article. Truly Adam, get your chart read! 👏🏻