Science & Spirituality: Connecting the Dots m- Part 1

 

B y : R i c k E r a m

The goal of this article is to bring a perspective into the science of spirituality, and how its mysteries are intertwined with the world of science which provides scientific explanation of what happens in the spiritual world and the fact that there is a scientific explanation for what many consider unsolved, unknowns, or even hoax.

We are all trying to understand the world around us and explain what goes on and happen around us. Perhaps the oldest question in mankind mind is the origins of our existence and our connection to the universe around us which we do not understand and have only discovered clues about. Scientists, Religious figures, Spiritual thinkers, philosophers have all tried to come up with some explanation and description of what goes on around us. Interestingly they all have their own methods to describe the unknown universe, and adamantly defend their views in vacuum out of pure belief, economic gains, or political empowerment. What they fail to admit or agree on is that any point of view is simply a hypothesis in explaining what goes on around us, and none of them have been definitively proven right or wrong. The only certain thing about these points of views is that we as human being have come to greater understanding of our surroundings.

Hypothesis and Clues

An old story illustrates the above argument the best. It is about a small town, where people had heard but never seen an elephant. The eager residents, all rush to the Circus site to see the magnificent animal despite being so close to dusk. The keeper tells them that getting in the tent would be a waste of time, as the tent is dark and they cannot see anything inside. Yet the eager residents insisted on entering the tent. So they go, and start touching their way to the elephant. One touches the legs and describes the elephant as a solid towering column, another touches the belly and describes elephant as a roof over everyone’s head. One other totally misses the animal and describes the elephant as narrow cold post (which holds up the tent), and the one touching the trunk describes the animal as a thick long hose, etc. Only one person stays out and asks the keeper for description of the animal. Needless to say, that upon exit all those emerging from the tent argued and justified their own vision and their own assessment of what the elephant looks like, to the point of heated arguments. They called each other liars, and accused of one another of being dumb and stupid. Only the one person who listened to the description of the elephant from the keeper along with the description of other residents was able to use his imagination to build his understanding of the magnificent elephant may have looked like. The next day when they saw the real animal, only the one person with mental image was not surprised. His mental image was very close to what he had thought and expected as he had kept an open mind listening to all those who came from the tent and tried to place them in relations to the keeper description. Every other resident surprised as how wrong they had been, were shocked at their own assessments and the picture they had in mind, felt cheated and stupid about their own assessment not to mention their insistence on being right! The moral of the story is that none of us really knows all the details, we only see clues, and have the option of connecting these clues or rejecting them at our own peril.

So bottom line is that the scientific, religious, philosopher and all great minds metaphysical world, do not know any better, they all explore the reality of the universe by touching what they can in search of clues to describe what they cannot see in the dark. One uses telescopes microscope and electromagnetic radars to arrive at a big bang theory or contracting universe theory, while another person describes the world in terms of a super being in charge of everything and creator of all. Some go to the metaphysics, some to the physics itself, and some even dabble into the world of magic and spells. The bottom line is that we are all trying to describe our world and the universe and to understand not only our surroundings but also our inner being, thoughts, and our intuition.

Connected World of Science and Spirituality

There is a lot of discussion about the link between spirituality and science, yet many people remain puzzled and confused about any possible link between the two perspectives. This argument is further complicated when people claim to be able to understand one side or the other or connect and understand with one side, specially on the spiritual side. Both the scientific minds and spiritual minds often fail to think out of the box and allow themselves to connect the dots.

What’s confusing for many people who read opinions on either side, is the fact that many scientific minds; at least the ones who have had the formal training but have not been deeply involved in years of true research of science, are of the mind that the scientifically the world of spirituality is so disconnected from science that the logic and reason cannot be possibly used to explain what happens around us. So they simply disregard it as hoax.

On the Spiritual side similarly the minds are distracted by the fact that one cannot possibly be thinking in scientific ways in order to explain and understand the world of spirituality. Further confusion is caused when spirituality is mixed with religious biases where the possibility of accepting or rejecting ideas out of the specified frame work or the preverbal out of the box thinking is not easily acceptable. So the science is simply pushed aside as non-believers, or not having faith.

So where is the reality? Are the two world are really connected? Is there a link which can explain the spirituality and science? Can there be an explanation which connects the two arguments? The spirituality talks about energy and energy flow through spirits and beings (or in religious form in terms of God(s) and spirits). At the same time the quantum physics argues in term of frequencies, waves and masses and their transformations. As closely as these topics sound the link is not clear to many people and the idea that people can connect the world of theories with the world of mysteries and unknowns is not something that most people can connect easily or digest.

 

IT Will Be CONTINUED