A cat named Oscar is reported to have the “psychic” ability to sense within hours when someone is about to die at a nursing home in Rhode Island. The cat, apparently, visits the residents of the nursing home regularly, but when it curls up near a particular patient’s bed, the hospital staff and the doctors know that it’s time for them to let the patient’s family know about the impending death.
The doctors at the nursing home acknowledge this unique phenomenon, but refuse to attribute it to psychic powers. Instead, they claim that there must be some biochemical explanation for the cat to be able to detect signals that humans can’t. More details available here.
This episode reminds me of all the horror flicks on TV where the witch/ wizard/ tantrik/ messiah is usually shown to be surrounded by cats because of their ability to sense the supernatural and communicate with a world that is beyond the human realm. In many ways, this cat episode is actually scary because it has blurred the fine line that separates the real world from the world of horror movies.
On a more scientific note, if cats can really communicate with the supernatural forces, then maybe there is a tremendous opportunity for a science or technology to decipher this unique feline ability and translate it into signals or warnings that can help the human world.
The spiritual connotation to this episode cannot be discounted either. The propagators of the “Karma” theory will find new fillip to their argument that the soul is an ethereal entity that is over and above the mortal body. The fact that a cat can sense death could be interpreted as a sighting of the soul (the supernatural) that is about to leave the body (the natural). Innumerable experiments have been conducted in the past to prove the existence of the soul, although nothing conclusive has yet been found. This could trigger the debate all over again.
It’s amazing how a tiny little cat in one corner of the world can potentially impact the way the world thinks. It sure is a weird world.
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