Meditation 61: The Uncanny Bin

The uncanny is a most neglected category of human thought. When uncanny things happen, it makes people want to look for omens, portents, hidden powers, spiritual orders, and so on. Examples are legion. Even rational people will sometimes change their plans because of ‘signs’ from powers or spirits above. People still ‘take the auspices,’ if not as publicly as the augurs in ancient Rome, then privately in their own private rituals.  Most of us are aware of uncanny things that have happened to us or that we have experienced.

The uncanny is unexpected, unlikely, inexplicable, and makes us feel weird, as when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. There is something about the uncanny that makes us a bit fearful, even if we are not in a dangerous situation. In this respect, the uncanny and the sublime are similar. Imagine a pagan ceremony, or a high mass in a great cathedral. It is dark, flames flicker on the walls. People chant to invoke the god. The participant is caught up in the uncanny strangeness of the world when the individual is taken out of the everyday environment. Life becomes dreamlike. Even outside such ritual contexts, we hear many stories of uncanny experiences and happenings.

For example, a book falls off the shelf and opens to a page that you did not even know you were looking for, but answers your unspoken question. Or, when you are walking through the woods at night and are sure that there are eyes out there looking at you. Or, when you experience déjà vu, and swear you have never been there before.  It is uncanny when you turn a corner and meet an old friend you thought was dead. The uncanny also includes all those amazing occurrences that do not look like coincidences, but as something fated or planned in advance.

There is something inexplicable about the uncanny, and this makes it very hard to define except by giving examples, as I have been doing.  Freud suggests that you will feel the uncanny when you meet your doppelganger on the street, or when you get the feeling that inanimate things are alive. Once on TV I saw a science fiction show in which a high ranking criminal was sentenced to spend a term in prison on his very own planet. In an act of mercy, the criminal of our story is supplied with a robot in the form of an attractive female. It could talk and act indistinguishably from a ‘real’ woman. At first the man will have nothing to do with ‘it.’ However, over the years, a relationship grows up between them, and we have the uncanny blending of human and the machine. When it came time for him to go home, he decides to stay with his robot, who he now loves as a person. This story still gives me an uncanny feeling.

All these uncanny experiences ought to go into the uncanny bin, until, if ever, we find satisfactory explanations of them that do not require unsupported beliefs or leaps of faith. The uncanny bin is the perfect place to put all the inexplicabilities and amazing occurrences of life. We do not have to understand or have an explanation for everything. Many mysterious and marvelous things happen in the world, including things so unlikely and inexplicable that we want to call them miracles, apparitions, or sendings from another world.

The uncanny is so seductive because it seems to want us to see in strange or unexpected occurrences the working of fate or occult powers. We should resist this seduction, despite the fact that the uncanny does add a disquieting dimension to our lives. It gives things and events a kind of glamour that no rational explanation can provide. There are times when reason does not go where our fancies take us. The uncanny bin is the perfect place to put all the inexplicabilities and amazing occurrences of life. There we can let them work their magic in safety, rather than forcing explanations on them; when, in truth, we haven’t a clue what is going on. The danger, otherwise, is that we will follows the suggestions of the uncanny and posit the magico-mystical world of superstition and prejudice that has proved so damaging throughout history.

It is ok not to understand everything. It is ok not to have an explanation for everything. Many mysterious and marvelous things happen in the world, including things so unlikely and inexplicable that we call them miracles, apparitions, or sendings from another world. All go into the uncanny bin until, if ever, we find a satisfactory explanation in terms that we readily understand without the need for ‘belief’ or faith. The uncanny bin is the perfect place to put the inexplicabilities of life and let them work their magic there, rather than forcing an explanation on them, when, in truth, we do not know what is going on.