Science Meets Spirit

Science and spirit are not separate disciplines; understanding the true nature of reality reveals where science meets spirit!

"Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it...it aches!"

Bernard Levin

Sooner or later everyone starts to ask questions about the nature of reality. We are curious about who we are; we ponder on the meaning of life; we look at the world and wonder what is our place in it. Our search will usually take us to information, including the major religions, that suggests a 'wholeness' to reality; that everything is 'one'; that we are more than just flesh and blood.

We are now in a very exciting time when quantum physics is making discoveries about reality that support what the ancient wisdom philosophies have been saying for thousands of years. It is therefore surprising that there are hundreds of websites which claim to be examining the nature of reality, but in fact are only examining small areas of this 'oneness'; they seem to have fallen into the trap of 'dualism'. That is to say, no matter what their starting point is, or what terminology they use, sooner or later they talk in terms of 'spiritual' and 'physical'. They are left with these seemingly irreconcilable opposites which will never allow the true nature of reality to make sense.

It is the same mistake classical science made when trying to find the so-called spark of life that they thought was somehow injected into inert matter. It is only with the advent of quantum physics that science has started to realise that a totally new and radical approach is needed to begin to understand the nature of reality.

SPACETIME

For centuries science had treated 'Time' and 'Space' as if they were two separate and absolute 'entities'. Because of this error in thinking, scientists had wrestled unsuccessfully to make any real sense of reality. Genuine progress started to be made when certain scientists, starting with Albert Einstein, challenged the normally accepted scientific assumptions. This eventually led to the realisation that 'time' and 'space' were intricately intertwined. It also meant that a new word was needed to explain this concept and so they created the word 'Spacetime', which, without realising it, had taken science another step along the road to discovering the 'Wholeness' of everything. It is this 'Wholeness' that the ancient wisdom philosophies have been speaking about for thousands of years.

To illustrate the advances in scientific thinking, please consider the following quotations from several physicists:

"People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubborn persistent illusion."

- Albert Einstein

"The concept of time derives from the fact that we divide reality into bits and pieces. In so doing, we create a subject and an object with a space between. We experience these objects, these aspects of reality, in a piecemeal manner and thus create a linear succession in time. The spaceless infinite removes the space between subject and object; the timeless now removes linear succession. Instead of knowing the Universe from a distance, the Self knows the Universe by being it, without need of space and time."

- Norman Friedman

"Mind does not observe the past; it creates it. The past is only as real as we make it."

- Fred Alan Wolf.

"This universe has no beginning or ending, no outer edges in space."

- Stephen Hawking

MATTER

The quest of physics has always basically been to discover what matter is; what the fundamental building block of the reality we experience is actually made of. Once they had made the discovery of the atom, scientists represented everything as being made of components which resembled coloured balls, albeit very small coloured balls. As the atom was examined further it was found to be composed of a nucleus with orbiting electrons, but we still had the coloured ball imagery.

The quest continued to find what these components were made of. What followed was the discovery that the atom's nucleus was made up of two other 'bits' which scientists called neutrons and protons. However the journey was not over because the neutrons and protons also had to be made of something didn't they? Unfortunately for science, as they examined the neutrons and protons further they were left with what they could only call energy, and nobody was quite sure just what that was. Again it seemed that science had moved closer to proving what the ancient wisdom philosophies had always said, that all things come from the one.

To illustrate the advances in scientific thinking, please consider the following quotations from several scientists:

"It is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing."

- Carl Jung

"Quantum Physics leaves us with 'Quantumstuff', existing as a particle in our three dimensional world and appearing only when we observe it, and otherwise, existing as a wavelike entity not in our three dimensional world."

- Norman Friedman

"The difference between the old and the new physics is simple and profound; both the old and the new physics were dealing with shadow-symbols, but the new physics was forced to be aware of the fact; forced to be aware that it was dealing with shadows and illusions, not reality."

- Sir Arthur Eddington

CONSCIOUSNESS

We have seen that we are not quite sure what 'matter' is. It certainly does not seem to be extremely small pieces of solid 'something' as was once thought. Instead it is best described as 'energy' but we are not quite sure what that is either.

Ask yourself if 'thought' or 'consciousness' could also be described as 'energy'?

If this is the case then the implications are tremendous.

Have a look at the following statements by leading physicists and other eminent people:

"No elementary phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is registered (observed) phenomenon... Useful as it is under everyday circumstances to say that the world exists 'out there' independent of us, that view can no longer be upheld."

- John Wheeler

"Consciousness ultimately creates reality, because the choice of what is actualised, event to event, is always up to consciousness."

- Amit Goswami

"The knower is ever greater than the known, and the seer is greater than the seen. That which is known is contained within the knower, and that which is seen is in the seer; the vast expanse of the sky is in the mind, not outside, because the mind is everywhere and there is no outside to it."

- Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

"I had come to suspect, and now felt compelled to acknowledge, that science and the physical world were products of human imagining; that we were not the cool observers of that world, but it's passionate creators. We were all poets and the world was our metaphor."

- Roger S Jones

"Quantum theory essentially erased the difference between matter and fields, making reality a unit that exhibits the properties of both. This single, unitary stuff gave rise to the fantastically successful algorithm now used by physicists in all calculations involving quantum theory. But nobody knows what this unitary stuff really is. Most quantum physicists, of course, stop short of calling this unitary substance consciousness."

- Norman Friedman

"It is your mind that creates this world."

- The Buddha

REALITY

For most people the world they live in is viewed as a series of opposites, such as light and dark, hot and cold, right and wrong, good and bad, physical and spiritual etc. With the latter pair of seeming opposites we have what we could call two major institutions who look after the interests of their respective fields. These are of course the institution of Science, who measure and weigh all things physical, and the institution of Religion, in what ever form it takes, who measure and weigh our non-physical life. Science has often been portrayed as the enemy of religion, with each new discovery that science made seeming to disprove a little more the claims of religion. But, with the advances made in the area of Quantum Physics, this may no longer be the case.

How do we experience our reality? This is something we often take for granted, but it's worth pondering for a moment or two.

We receive our day to day experiences through our five senses, which are Touch, Taste, Sight, Hearing and Smell. But do these senses tell us everything?

For instance, what does modern physics tell us about the light and sound spectrums?

Do our eyes see the whole range of the light spectrum?

Do our ears hear the whole range of the sound spectrum?

What does science tell us about the atomic structure of matter?

Can we really rely on our sight or our hearing or our touch to tell us about the true nature of the world we inhabit?

Do you think it's possible to know the true nature of reality just using the five senses we have?

Our senses only provide us with part of the picture of the true nature of reality and because of this we very often make the wrong value judgments in our lives.

The true nature of reality is not only stranger than you imagine, it is stranger than you can imagine.

The following quotations will illustrate this point further.

"Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and, therefore, part of the mystery that we are trying to solve."

- Max Planck

"Both the ancient Hindu philosophies and quantum physics teach that an infinite, unchanging reality exists hidden behind the illusion of ceaseless change"

- Fred Alan Wolf

"The habit of attributing life to bodies goes hand in hand with extroversion; and the notion of a living organism is nothing but an objectification of the principle of life in terms of the senses."

- John Levy

"According to quantum physics principles, what we think of as the 'real past' is also alterable and not fixed."

- Fred Alan Wolf

FURTHER INSIGHTS

We have presented here a selection of quotations from various leading physicists and philosophers to aid further insights into the nature of reality.

"In essence, there is no universe present without the imagination, no imagination without a mind, and no mind without consciousness. Thus, as we begin to probe into the structure of consciousness, we come to its spiritual foundation in ancient wisdom."

- Fred Alan Wolf

"Fragmentation is continually being brought about by the almost universal habit of taking the content of our thought for 'a description of the world as it is'. Or we could say that, in this habit, our thought is regarded as in direct correspondence with objective reality."

- David Bohm

"One has the feeling that the thinkers of the East knew it all, and if we could only translate their answers into our language we would have the answers to all our questions."

- John Wheeler

"Physicist Alain Aspect and his collaborators not only proved nonlocality, but also confirmed the existence of a transcendent domain beyond the material domain of spacetime. This is in direct contradiction to the one-material-world assumption of material realism and is in direct support of transcendence found in all spiritual traditions."

- Amit Goswami

"On this side of the veil there is 'you' and 'I', on the other side of the veil there is only 'us'.

- Omar Khyam

"Truth is infinite, and our understanding will always be finite."

These concepts are explained in more depth, and in an easily understandable and practical way, on our 'Nature of Reality Course'. We will show that rather than being difficult and impractical subjects they can be understood in sufficient depth to be of real use in our everyday lives. The implications of this knowledge will not only delight and astound you but will also change forever the way you see yourself and your world.

To know more about the course log-on to http://www.thenatureofrealitycourse.com.

We, at NoR, have been devoted for many years to studying the world philosophies and sciences in our exploration of the nature of reality.

This study has resulted in The Nature of Reality Course; written in 21st century language that does not require course participants to have any specialist knowledge or training but still provides meaningful and very practical benefits.

The Nature of Reality Course is a new and unique Course which combines the wisdom of the east with the science of the west.

The facts about the true nature of reality are not only stranger than you imagine, they are stranger than you can imagine.

The online version of the Nature of Reality Course is available at http://www.thenatureofrealitycourse.com