eclecticGEEK

We tell ourselves that some day the human mind will explain [the supernatural]; and perhaps it shall. But for now, the unexplained nature of these phenomena gives them extraordinary force—for they cause the behaviour of individual persons, as well as towns, cities, and nations, to become passionate and irrational. This is power, indeed; and what possesses power, we must admit, possesses actuality. Is it real? The question is the wrong one, and irrelevant, really—real or no, it is fact.

We believe; we act accordingly; others tell us that our beliefs are false; yet how can they be, when those beliefs have persuaded us, sometimes many of us, to alter our behaviour? No, Watson—we cannot question the power of that which motivates human action, particularly that which motivates such action along the lines that we have lately witnessed. Are ghosts—indeed, are gods, real? We cannot know; but they are powerful facts of human intercourse.

Sherlock Holmes, speaking to Dr. Watson in The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr