What is the potential for human beings? What hidden powers do we have and is it possible to gain information not readily apparent to most people?

Many movies and television shows imagine people able to move objects by thought alone or show people with some kind of extra-sensory perception or unusual power. Is this merely fantasy, or are such things possible?

As a doctor, I have seen patients recover from incurable diseases like metastatic cancer, without the usual medical treatment. Alternative therapies may help—like acupuncture or meditation—but such explanations only occur in some cases. How do spontaneous remissions happen? No one knows, but some people experience genuine miracles in their recovery. I have observed those who have learned to be still within and have a positive, cheerful attitude do best with illnesses or challenges—no matter what is thrown at them—and are often the ones who emerge remarkably unscathed from their illness. Those who become disturbed or confused and upset tend to go downhill more quickly. Perhaps it relates to the release of internal hormones and the strengthening, or weakening, of the immune system.

Great thinkers and writers have pondered human potential. Men like the writer Aldous Huxley or psychologist Abraham Maslow, suggest that we have untapped areas of function that may one day may be discovered and used.

As a physician, I have often wondered if mankind would evolve and find hidden areas or abilities, waiting to be activated. What once seemed impossible has now become reality—like sending a man to the moon or talking into a portable phone to someone on the far side of the world. Helicopters and submarines were imagined centuries they were actualized. So, it can be helpful to let the imagination have free rein, for anything dreamed up as fantastic may one day become commonplace.

Not all problems are as cut and dry or close-ended as most believe, or confined to a Cartesian model that does not take into account unseen forces. For example, scientists cannot explain quantum phenomenon, such as how changing one particle effects another miles away with no direct connection. There is talk now of quantum computers, not connected, far apart, yet capable of transferring information in ways we do not understand.

There’s more. Consider your own perceptive abilities. Have you gone to a home after a couple has had a fight? You can feel the tension in the air, a sense of discomfort without anything being said, even when the couple puts up a good front. If we are not in turmoil ourselves, we may sense a person’s atmosphere as distinct, the subtle and intangible factors laid bare that let us see more deeply into them than is apparent on the surface.

Internal stillness helps with this kind of discernment. If we are lost in our own tangled problems, we cannot easily discern what is happening in another, yet, if we are at peace and quiet inside, we quickly pick up a disturbance coming from somewhere else. Yogis and spiritual masters have been saying such things for millennia.

Many people have had the experience of thinking of someone just before the phone rings when that person calls, and it may be someone they have not spoken to in months. Scoffers would say that is coincidence, but it may be something else, a nudge from an intuitive part of our brain that sees beyond outer factors. I often had a patient’s name and face pop into my head as I drove to the clinic, not having looked at the schedule the day before, only to find that person was on the list for the day. It happened so often, I began to take it for granted, knowing I would see or hear from that person that day, trusting this intuitive glimpse that could not be explained, but was always right. People have hunches or “gut feelings” that often prove correct, and it is wise not to dismiss them out of hand. So, maybe there is more to our potential than we realized, greater perceptions than can be explained by the usual methods.

As we grow as a species, perhaps we will learn stillness and an inward knowing, opening the door for other abilities to put in an appearance.

Why put limits on ourselves? Our imaginations are important tools, meant to stretch the boundaries of what is known, that one day humans may be much more than they are now.

The world is a mysterious and wonderful place. And in it, we are all explorers.

Dr. Larry Krantz is a graduate of Cornell University, where he was an Honors English student, but went on to study medicine, becoming a physician and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado Medical School. He now writes fiction full time and teaches creative writing. He is the author of Dreams of Atlantis and Strange Miracles. Along with his wife and son, he enjoys the Rocky Mountains, biking, sports, fun, growing organic vegetables, sunshine, and meaningful conversations.Learn more about Dr. Krantz at http://www.larrykrantzauthor.com/