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Science & Spirituality
The Search For Truth
Both science and spirituality are the search for truth. One is the search for
the truths of the physical world; the other the search for the truth of the
spirit.
Though the intention is the same, there is currently little meeting between the two.
The current scientific paradigm does not include spirit as a
fundamental reality, but seeks to explain everything in physical terms that have
been proven until that moment. Western
science has now looked out to the edges of the Universe, back in time to the
beginning of creation, and down into the sub-atomic structure of matter; and it
finds no place, nor need, for God. But this is because it has not yet included
the inner realm of mind in its scope. When science explores mind as fully as it
has explored space, time and matter, it will create a new worldview - one that
includes spirituality.
Blind Faith Versus Understanding
Spirituality, on the other hand, is often considered very un-scientific in its
approach to self-liberation. This depends of course on what you consider to be
spirituality, and self-liberation. People often believe things simply because
another has 'said so' or written it down on paper. If you see spirituality as believing/”having
faith” in something without truly knowing and understanding it by experience than
it is definitely un-scientific. Yet even if you do know through experience that
something is true then it may not be able to be proven using the modern scientific methods
of testing.
Spirituality, consciousness, universal life energy and the mind are all difficult to prove using the
methods used these days by modern science. Nonetheless there is one thing both sides can agree upon, and
which is considered true spirituality by all good people on earth – simple
kindness, compassion and unselfish love. In other words - Simple Goodness. So even if there are disagreements,
they should never overshadow our love and caring for each other.
Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics explanations have strong scientific and depending on how you
look at it, spiritual or
philosophical implications as well. This conclusion can be made from the simple
fact that the influence of each electron from any atom
can be found everywhere, which means that everything, everywhere is
potentially in touch with everything else.
In fact, while we talk about Quantum mechanics, that border that used to
separate theologians and philosophers from scientists, is gettting thinner and
thinner every passing day. Quantum mechanics, although up to this moment,
remains just a very interesting theory, seems to give a coherent explanation
to some paradoxes and dilemmas that Einstein's genius left unanswered.
That
apparently rock solid foundation over which traditional science built the
edifice that we have known as "reality", took a very severe blow once that
quantum mechanics defied and challenged the common and widely accepted notion of
what reality is.
Reality means, very basically, "what things are". But the
problem is that all that we regard as " a real thing", is merely an
interpretation of what we decide to take as real. Quantum mechanics opened the
discussion about what reality really, really is (pun intended), since the theory
aspects
present a quite different aproach to order, solidity, determinism and
mechanicism that shakes our classic view of "things". In other words, quantum
mechanics states that reality it not as solid and predictable as once we thought
it was.
Spirituality and Science are considered separate generally. That which we
normally call Science is that which we can measure, see and prove. From that
perspective, Spirit is perhaps the last thing to find looking through any microscope.
The Underlying Intelligence
Mind Beyond Matter
It was about twenty years ago when astronomers began noticing various objects in
space that aren’t behaving themselves (according to what they believed
was "correct" at that time).
That is, they don’t seem to be obeying the
laws of physics. Because of these laws, governing gravitational pull and
separation, physicists are able to determine precisely how much matter must
exist to hold a galaxy together. The only problem is, in practically all systems,
their figures don’t add up. When they actually observe these galaxies they can’t
find most of the matter their calculations say should be there. These ubiquitous
discrepancies seem to leave us with two possibilities, either the universe
contains a lot more matter than can be observed, "dark matter," as it is
referred to, or our understanding of the laws of physics is incorrect. In either
case, it would seem, there is much more to knowing how the universe works than
meets the eye.
If we head the other direction, from the farthest reaches of space into the
infinite depth of our own molecular makeup, we are presented with a similar
scientific conundrum.
Ever since the 1950’s, with the discovery of DNA, scientists have been working
to understand the laws governing genetics. In this quest, which has in recent
years led to the mapping of the entire human genome, many geneticists have
classified 98 percent of our DNA as junk. This junk DNA doesn’t produce the
proteins that are considered essential in programming our cellular makeup. But
in a recent article in Scientific America on the subject, John Mattick, director
of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, has
stated, "what was damned as junk because it was not understood may, in fact,
turn our to be the very basis of human complexity."
In this article, entitled
The Unseen Genome: Gems among the Junk, we learn of entire litters of mice that
have died after having their useless junk DNA tampered with, and of cellular
programming that occurs without proteins.
As fascinating as these problems are, the point here is rather obvious,
considering 95 percent of the universe is comprised of dark matter and 98
percent of our DNA is classified as junk because we don’t understand its
function, there is much about the universe, both on the macrocosmic and
microcosmic level, that we still don’t comprehend.
Yet most of the time we go about our lives as if our understanding of the world
is nearly complete, as if there is little more to it than our redundant thoughts
and behavior permit. It’s as if we’re in a dark room with a narrow beam of light.
Whatever we shine the light on we take as reality, but the rest of it, lying out
there in the darkness, either doesn’t exist or serves no purpose. Every now and
then we hear something in the darkness, some faint sound, a distant echo
suggesting there might actually be something else out there, something more to
the universe than our narrow vision allows, but we have learned to distrust,
even to fear, the mysterious sounds emanating from the darkness, and easily
dismiss those who do listen as crackpots and charlatans, when, like DNA and dark
matter, most of reality likely exists in the shadows of what we don’t understand.
Our narrow beam of light, for example, indicates human beings are the most
advanced beings that have ever lived. Our large cerebral cortex makes us much
more intelligent
than any other creature on earth. In many cases, the other beings we share the
earth with are entirely incapable of reasoning or understanding (this
does not mean however that animals are of 'lesser worth' than human beings). Our
paradigm suggests genuine intelligence originates and ends with human beings.
More often than not, however, it seems our superior intelligence has merely made
us better at killing each other and destroying our environment than any of the
'dumb animals' we share the planet with. Indeed, if we turn off our narrow light for a
few moments, and stop ignoring the voices in the darkness, begin taking seriously
the things we can’t explain, we might begin to appreciate our world in a broader
light.
One such voice is calling to us from a far away zoo in Warwickshire, England.
It’s the voice of a female bonobo, a pygmy chimpanzee, who seems to be
delighting in poking zoo visitors with a bamboo stick she’s managed to obtain.
Fortunately one of her keepers, Betty Walsh, has brought a bag containing four
cakes to work with her. Betty had planned to share the cakes with here
colleagues at tea time, but decides to attempt trading one of the cakes for the
stick. But when the bonobo saw that she had four cakes, the "dumb animal," broke
the stick into four pieces in order to get all of them. "It was more than clever," Betty recounted, "She worked it out in a split second."
This is just one of the incredible stories biologist Rupert Sheldrake tells in
his book,
Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers
of Animals. In his research, Sheldrake discovered many cat owners complain that
their
pets manage to disappear whenever their scheduled for a veterinary appointment.
As one person explained, "The cat always knows hours ahead of time when I’m
going to take him to the vet, long before I actually fetch his basket from the
attic. I try to act as natural as possible so he won’t notice, but he can always
see through me at any time and will yowl to go out." To better understand just
how widespread this phenomenon is,
Sheldrake and his team once surveyed all the veterinary clinics listed in the
North
London Yellow Pages. It turned out that 64 of the 65 clinics they called
reported frequent
appointment cancellations for this very reason.
Most of us are aware of the mysterious homing ability found in many animals, and
we’ve all heard the incredible stories of dogs and cats that make their way home
after
traveling long distances. Like the story of a collie named Bobby, lost in
Indiana while his
family was moving across country to their new home in Oregon. A year later the
dog
show up at their new home after traversing more than 2000 miles. Since Bobby had
never been to the home in Oregon before, it’s difficult to comprehend how he
knew which route to take. Some might explain it as the dog’s ability to pick of
the scent of his owners, but following the scent of their rubber tires for 2000
miles seems remarkable, even for the sharpest of bloodhounds.
 Nor can scent
explain the case of Troubles, a scout dog that had been taken by helicopter to a
Vietnam war zone with his handler, William Richardson. When Richardson was
wounded and airlifted to safety, Troubles got left behind. Three weeks later,
the tired and starving dog showed up at headquarters ten miles away. He wouldn’t
let anyone get near him but searched the tents until he found Richardson’s
belongings, then curled up and went to sleep. Since Richardson had been
airlifted away, there was no scent on the ground for Troubles to follow.
Nowadays, more and more animals are also being used to warn epileptics in
advance
of a seizure so they can lay down and prepare themselves. Chad, a Golden
Retriever who won the 1997 British Therapy Dog of the Year Award, for example,
actually goes to the mother of a young boy who suffers from the condition and
warns her when he is about to have a seizure. Another person, who has as many as
twelve seizures a week was unable to leave her home until she got her helper
dog. "He can sense, up to fifty minutes before, that I am going to have an
attack and taps me twice with his paw, giving me time to get somewhere safe." She explains, "He can also press a button on my phone and bark when it is
answered, to get help, and, if he thinks I’m going to have an attack while I’m
in the bath, he’ll pull the plug out."
Other animals have also proven capable of predicting seizures, even something as
unlikely as a pet rabbit. Many of these stories seem to indicate the possibility
that animals may have telepathic powers, that they are somehow connected with
people and places they bond with through some force transcending the limitations
of their bodies. This seems to be the only way to explain the result of one
laboratory experiment involving some chicks that had bonded with a small robot
that randomly moved about. The chicks followed the robot around the room as if
it were their mother. The robot was then placed in a room with an empty cage and
researchers were able to trace its random movements across the floor. As
expected the robot ended up eventually moving all over the room. When the day
old imprinted chicks were placed in the cage, however, something extraordinary
happened. The tracings show that the robot stayed mostly near the cage, and
never ventured to the farther half of the room at all. The same researchers also
placed a group of non-imprinted chicks in a dark room with the robot after
putting a lighted candle on it. These chicks were also able to somehow keep the
robot near them during the day so they could receive more light.
So how is it possible for day old chicks to remote control a robot, for rabbits
to predict epileptic seizures, or for a dog to travel 2000 miles to a home it
has never been before? Could these examples point to an intelligence beyond the
confines of our skulls? Could it be that intelligence is something that
transcends both mind and body, and exists out there somewhere, in the ether, in
the darkness, just waiting for us to tap into it like our animal companions?
Perhaps there is in reality only one universal Mind? As the physicist Erwin Schrodinger once said, "Mind
is by its very nature a singular tantum. I should say: the overall number of
minds is just one."
Schrodinger went on to conclude that it is meaningless to "divide or multiply
consciousness" because, "In all the world, there is no kind of framework with
which we can find consciousness in the plural".
Perhaps this is similar to what Einstein meant when he remarked, "I feel such a
sense of solidarity with all living things that it does not matter to me where
the individual begins and ends." In this world view, beyond the detached,
mechanistic, schizophrenic vision provided by our narrow beam of light, there is
only one mind, a singularity of intelligence, beyond time and space, beyond
beginning and end, in which all creatures are capable of sharing. And lest we mistakenly limit this to just animals, we should also consider the intelligence
of plants, that, through co-evolution with animals, have developed colorful
flowers, pleasant fragrances, savory tastes and consciousness expanding
compounds in order to communicate their presence to us. In a recent and
fascinating interview, Dr. Yoshiuki Miwa, a robotics expert studying the
bio-information systems of plants in order to make more life like robots, has
concluded, "From a macroscopic viewpoint, a forest as a whole forms a brain."
Dr. Miwa came to recognize the intelligence in Forests by inserting electrodes
into trees in order to detect subtle changes in them, similar to monitoring
electrocardiograms and brain waves. "I have the feeling that a forest itself has
a network, similar to that found in a brain," he concludes, but "Through what
kind of medium is such grouping being carried out? And through that medium, what
kind of information relating to the life activities of trees is being shared?" Miwa’s research indicates the medium through which plants and trees share
intelligence involves electrical fields. If this is the case, perhaps this is
the same kind of invisible energy that mediates all intelligence, from the
inexplicable homing and precognitive abilities of some animals, to the ability
of chicks to remote control a robot.
I’d like to conclude by asking you to consider another voice calling to us from
the mysterious darkness, the voice of Eliot Cowan, a shaman who has created a
healing system he calls plant spirit medicine. Cowan claims he has no especially
mystical abilities and grew up in an average middle class household, a child
allergic to pollen and
prone to staying indoors. While studying anthropology in college, however, he
developed the urge to learn more about the world in which he lived. So he left
school and moved to a farm in Vermont where he began learning about and
experimenting with plant medicines. One day, needing fence posts, he wondered
into a cedar grove with a saw and machete, instead of a noisy gas-fueled
chainsaw. Before tearing into the trees, however, he asked himself, "If I were
growing here in this bog, how would I want it to be done by?" He decided that he
would select a trunk from each clump of trees that was crowding the others, cut
it, removes its limbs, then pile the brush atop the stump so as not to harm the
other trees and clutter the meadow with brush piles. "I will leave the grove
healthier and more beautiful than when I found it." Cowan’s approach took much
longer than it should have, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Nearly twenty years later, while on a shamanic journey to the Sierra foothills
of Northern California, Cowan had a dream in which he encountered a female
spirit who told him she was the mother of all the creatures in the forest. "The cedars are pleased with you," she told him, "and we’ll help you because of your
kindness to us long ago."
Cowan was confused and asked, "What kindness?"
"It was my cousin," the spirit replied, "the northern white cedar, don’t you
recall?" That’s when, for the first time, Cowan remembered his forgotten
experience in the grove 18 years earlier. Since then Cowan has come to conclude
that in many cases we don’t even need to ingest plants to be healed and
enlightened by them, we simply need to be
close to them. "I think it’s important for people to know," he says, "and to be
able to experience that every plant is a miracle, magic. And if you approach it
right, every plant is psychoactive. Spirit isn’t limited by molecules."
Science tells us the Universe if full of mostly stuff we can’t see, dark matter,
and our bodies are made of mostly stuff we don’t understand, junk DNA. But our
lack of
experience or understanding doesn’t mean these aren’t real or serve no purpose.
As Einstein said, "Out yonder there is a huge world, which exists independently
of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at
least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking." Perhaps the peculiar
intelligence expressed by plants and animals is accessible to us mere humans too,
if we stop focusing so hard on our narrow vision of reality, close our eyes, and
listen.
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