Asked the student: "Wise man, I hear other people talk about seeing ghosts and elves, and about objects and animals being taken over by demons, and I read about angels and dragons. I haven't seen any working in our path directing its energy towards any of them, nor using any of them as an aid. Does our path acknowledge those beings?"

Answered the teacher: "We call them 'ethereal': having energy for substance, necessarily emanating primarily in the mind's eye. We do have some workings pertaining to deflecting demons and other evil influences, but generally see no cause for worship."

Continued the student: "Energy for substance? Then how can we see them? Our senses aren't equipped to detecting energy. What do you mean by 'emanating in the mind's eye'?"

Asked the teacher: "How is it you think we cannot detect energy? Though some animals are better at it, for instance sharks find us in the water by detecting our energy emissions, don't we too sense basic shapes of energy, like electricity, light, sound, and matter?"

Said the student: "Still you made an exception for ethereal beings."

Explained the teacher: "Yes I did. We believe their substance so fleeting, that we have a hard time detecting them with any other sense than our mind. The physical senses will help minutiously, though none of them by themselves will paint the full picture. For that, we need our mind. It's a skill for which most of us will also need training and practice, though some do it naturally."

Asked the student: "So where do those beings come from? Do they procreate like animals and people?"

Answered the teacher: "We don't know. Some might, some might not procreate. We believe that all beings follow a pattern of reincarnation, alternating between soul and bodily existence, and these ethereal beings are merely another form of incarnation."

Continued the student: "And as such they are no more and no less then us, meaning worship isn't necessary. Still we believe they can hurt us and help us, if they choose so or are persuaded."

Said the teacher: "That is correct. Unlike animals and humans, which can be deflected by physical means, if ethereal beings have to be deflected the best means will probably prove non-physical."

Pursued the student: "And by non-physical means, you indicate energy shields and spells and such?"

Retorted the teacher: "You could try ignoring them...", and left the student to ponder.

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.