Expect miracles

I am realistic – I expect miracles

—Dr Wayne Dyer

My interpretation

Dr Wayne W Dyer is a bestselling American author and lecturer. He is also one of my top favourites. His 1976 book Your Erroneous Zones has sold over 30 million copies and is one of the best-selling books of all time. Readers have benefited so much from his works that they have christened him “Father of Motivation”. Dyer has a doctorate in counselling psychology.

I find Dyer’s quote on miracles fascinating. People commonly believe exceptional events that defy science to be miracles. Events are labelled miracles, just because science can’t offer an explanation to them at that time. So when something unexplainable happens, believers label it as a miracle and something that we shouldn’t normally expect, because it is rare and supernatural. On the other hand, sceptics, atheists and scientists dismiss it as fraud, fakery or try to explain it by conjecture. But if you listen to Dyer, neither view does justice to the word ‘miracle’.

According to Dyer, miracles are not exceptional events. They are everyday phenomena that cannot be explained by the current levels of scientific understanding. For instance, to a person in the 19th century, a wireless device that allowed him to talk to someone at the other end of the globe would be nothing short of a miracle. Yet, mobile phones are commonplace today. So, miracles do not necessarily defy science.

Despite tremendous progress of science, there is much that we do not understand about our world, our universe. Expecting miracles simply means that we are humble enough to accept this limitation of our understanding and that we are open enough to expect events that are currently unexplainable.

When Dyer declares emphatically that he is being realistic because he expects miracles, he is only acknowledging his humility and open-mindedness. Dyer seems to be speaking from his experience and the experiences of hundreds and thousands of individuals who have encountered events that they describe as miracles.

So if you believe that miracles don’t happen, you’re being unrealistic!