The ‘need’ for science

MANY PEOPLE who would say they are interested in the spiritual path also say they have no need for science. They know what they know, live their life, making discoveries and do not need to prove them with science.

In fact, a lot of people feel science has let them down and only ever concerns itself with that which can be measured. The argument is that it is not necessary to have measurable proof of a spiritual experience for the person experiencing it to get benefit from it.

The science most people are familiar with is the science of measurement, of reductionism. It involves taking matter apart in order to analyse it. It only seems to deal with the solid and physical. Everything else seems to be ignored by the world of science which has an ‘if you can’t prove it, I don’t believe it ‘ attitude.

Although this is the science most people are familiar with, which underlies our institutions and our medical system, the path of true scientific enquiry has moved on. The old Newtonian science is being superseded by a more holistic view. The New Physics, which arose during the 20th century, views the universe as interconnected and conscious. In this article I will explain some of the differences and show how we can deduce the presence of angels from first principles.

The New physics versus the old
The old Newtonian view of science is that matter is made up of tiny billiard ball-like atoms, which physically bond to form things around us. It was thought originally that these atoms were indivisible and solid – the word atom comes from the Greek for indivisible. As we started to look deeper into atoms, however, the picture changed to the one that most people are familiar with in school, that of the atom being a bit like a solar system with a nucleus surrounded by electrons whizzing around. Most people’s science education stops there and we have trained many children into being adults with simply this knowledge of matter. To go further, however, is a whole different ball game.

During the early 20th century physicists were forced to see the world very differently in the form of quantum physics. Instead of viewing the particles inside atoms as solid and ball-like, they found them behaving as probability waves coming into existence only when measured. And so, for the first time, human consciousness was seen as a player in shaping matter.

Astonishingly, particles only exist as probabilities until someone actually measures them, that is, when a person with consciousness views them, they turn from probability waves into particles. This seemingly bizarre behaviour has been verified many times.

What is interesting is that, whereas with the old physics human beings could step back from the world, viewing the universe and even themselves as mechanistic and clockwork with not even any consideration of consciousness, now consciousness could not be ignored.

The Conscious Universe
Physicists like to unify everything. They are constantly trying to find a way to put everything as part of one force. So quantum physics presented them with a problem. If consciousness collapses the particle, and something made of particles – the brain - created consciousness, then a paradox occurs. How can something emerging from something create the object it emerged from?

Now physicists are saying that the problem gets solved if we see consciousness as inherent in everything 1,2,3. Then there is no paradox and separation. There is no duality between consciousness and matter. Instead of consciousness emerging from matter, matter is emergent from a deeper reality of the universe, which is consciousness. In this way the brain and everything else is already imbued with consciousness.

This idea, of course, is nothing new in mysticism. It is just that science has been forced by its own enquiry to acknowledge consciousness as part of the universe and then integrate it.

Superstringy things
Having looked at one area of unification, let us now look at another. Since the 1980s, the most fashionable way of uniting quantum physics with the theory of relativity is Superstring theory 4,5. This is an attempt at a Grand unified theory where all forces in the universe can be explained by one force.

Superstring theory is the idea that the deepest aspect of reality, as in what is at the heart of all these particles, is a vibrating string, and that everything in the universe is connected through this stringy ‘stuff’. All matter is created from this stringy ‘stuff’ vibrating at different frequencies, as if the whole universe is one big symphony. This theoretical model only seems to make sense if we give the universe more dimensions than the usual four that we live in (3 spatial dimensions plus time). The number of these dimensions is being debated, but they are usually quoted as 11 or above.

Angels and our awareness
So just to recap: we have described the universe as being a symphony of vibration with different frequencies creating different aspects of the universe. These vibrations also have different dimensions. Moreover, the universe is all inherently consciousness.

It is now possible to see how the science of angels can emerge. If consciousness is the deeper reality then it is quite possible that consciousness exists at different dimensions and frequencies. It is by moving our own awareness, as we are made up of consciousness too, to get a glimpse of different dimensions that we can sense the other beings and supposedly they can sense us.

For those familiar with the concept of flatland6 you will know of the concept that if one goes up a dimension things become clearer and one can obtain more information. Someone living in two dimensions looking at a dog would not be able to tell that this dog barked, which we can see from our perspective. Barking is a characteristic that which emerges in a higher dimensional 3-D perspective.

In the same way it is probably easier for angels or other aspects of consciousness in higher dimensions to see the bigger picture – something we find very difficult from our 3/4-D perspective. Therefore, we run our lives believing that these other aspects do not exist unless one raises one’s awareness. Now it seems science is following centuries of mysticism7 by saying it is theoretically possible for us to see into other worlds too.

References
1. Goswami A. The Visionary Window ( Quest Books)
2. Goswami A. The Self Aware Universe (Tarcher/Putnam)
3. Russell P. From Science to God
4. Greene B. The Elegant universe ( Vintage)
5. Kaku M. Hyperspace. ( Oxford University Press)
6. Abbot E.A. Flatland: A romance of many dimensions (Dover Publications)
7. Talbot M Mysticism and the New Physics ( Penguin)

© Manjir Samanta Laughton, MD, Dip. Bio Energy, 2004


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Manjir Samanta-Laughton, MBBS (MD), popularly known as ‘Dr Munchie’, trained as a medical doctor and as an energy medical consultant in Great Britain, where she has worked as a medical General Practitioner, at the world-renowned Bristol Cancer Help Centre and in her own holistic healing practice. Throughout her medical career she became curious as to how the principles of theoretical physics can be applied to biology and esoteric traditions. She now has established a successful career lecturing and writing for the general public, bringing science to a wider audience. She covers topics such as the science of consciousness, cosmology, healing, and the physics behind ‘paranormal’ phenomena. Dr. Munchie can be contacted by email at drmunchie@drmunchie.com.