Asked the student: "Wise man, do ethereal beings really exist? Or are they merely a function of our higher self?"

Retorted the teacher: "What beings do you mean?"

Answered the student: "Angels, fairies, the little people, demons, pixies, dragons and all that. When people see them, what do they see? A real emanation or a figment of imagination?"

Wondered the teacher: "Does it matter? Aren't both equally practical for spiritual workings?"

Continued the student: "I guess so... but I'd like to be certain that when someone claims to have seen an angel, the angel really was there, instead of them imagining it. Is there a way to be certain?"

Said the teacher: "Normally we'd study people's statements. If their descriptions match, we assume their experience matched as well."

Pursued the student: "But descriptions don't sound objective enough. Anectdotal evidence doesn't seem to have a predictive, scientific quality.'

Said the teacher: "Well, we currently know of the magnetic resonance of the brain. An MRI scanner can pick this up. Thus we can see a person's brain pattern. This way, we can study the brain's reaction to certain experiences. We could scan a person while they're sensing an ethereal being, and compare their brain pattern with that of other people sensing the same. If the patterns look alike, the experiences themselves should look alike as well."

Asked the student: "And that means the ethereal being really exists?"

Answered the teacher: "No... but it does mean we can identify the experience objectively, and get an insight into the immediate effects of experience. We may even find that the same brain pattern indicates the same ethereal being. That would add the predictive quality you asked for, which the study needs to count as scientific."

Continued the student: "And could the same indicate whether the experience's cause lies inside or outside ourselves?"

Said the teacher: "Can we ever really tell? After all, our senses are a function of bodies. Everything we perceive, we perceive through those same senses."

Retorted the student: "However, if we were to find similar brain patterns amongst different people when they claim sensing an ethereal being, that would increase the chances of the experience's cause lying outside ourselves."

Sighed the teacher: "Unfortunately, exposure to the strong magnetism employed by the MRI scanner itself might decrease that same chance, because it might obstruct any influence an outside ethereal being supposedly has on us."

Pondered the student: "So we couldn't tell either way... But since we believe those beings exist out of energy just like every other real thing, a scanner sensitive enough should pick them up."

Answered the teacher: "Correct. However I don't know of any scanners sensitive enough. I can imagine it difficult to build, too, since we don't really know what to look for."

Continued the student: "Then do tell, wise man, if we cannot tell whether ethereal beings really exist, then why do we continue to believe they do?"

Retorted the teacher: "Why throw out an explanation that works?"

Exclaimed the student: "But there is no proof they exist!"

Answered the teacher: "Neither did we prove yet, that they don't," and left the student to ponder.