Science does not claim to have all the answers. It claims to have a really reliable method for asking better questions, and remaining open to new answers. It’s utility is in guarding, in fact, against the very human nature of both reaching false conclusions and being resistant to changing them. It is a way we have been able to transcend our human nature and open our eyes to a scope of wonder far beyond our reach. As our understanding grows, the rules and boundaries change and the methods need to adapt accordingly.

Our mistake has been to assume mysticism should be regarded any differently. In no way should it ever claim to present the full and only answer. It is in fact precisely the same; a method for asking better questions, and a method to transcend our human nature, opening our eyes to our level of connection with that world of wonder, and how we might exceed our reach. As our connection deepens, we change, and the methods need to adapt accordingly.

For our Science to take the space in advancement and discovery that it once used to, we need to address the bad incentives and misinformation; in a word: Discernment.

The answer to bad science is no science, it is better science.

As adherents, our mistake was to treat mysticism as fixed and infallible. As skeptics, our mistake was to dismiss mysticism as hokum.

We are in both cases, with science and mysticism, trying to look at the eternal. We are changing, the nature of the universe is one of change. It has been pointed out that we are in a creating universe not a created universe. One fixed lens, cut and polished a thousand years ago, even a generation ago, can not be indelible forever. For our mysticism to work as it once did, we need to revise and adapt it. This is essential for both the adherents and the skeptics, neither of whom arrived at their beliefs or the doubts dishonestly.