Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Quantum consciousness, May 20

From: Edgar Mitchell ushers in the Next Epoch in Evolution
 
deRegnier: Great.

I'm going to skip now to the focal point of your book, which is the dyadic model. I'm going to switch to that because it seems that it is a very important element of what you want to communicate with the book. Can you explain it to us in lay-person terms for the scientifically-challenged?

Mitchell: Yes, in a very simple statement: Four hundred years ago. the philosopher Rene Descartes came to the conclusion that physicality, spirituality, mind and body belonged to different realms of reality that didn't interact. Now, that served the purpose to get the Inquisition off the backs of the intellectuals so they could disagree on material things with the church and without the fear of being burned at the stake. So that ended that, but it did cause, for four hundred years, science to consider consciousness and mind a subject for philosophy and religion and not a subject for science.

Now, one of the things that happened, in the 1940s, was the mathematician, physicist, Norbert Wiener (MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for the first time really defined information as the negative of entropy, and entropy as the idea of the universe is running down and wastes energy. But, Wiener defined information as the negative of entropy, and that's wonderful but it didn't go far enough.

So what my dyadic model does, [relates to] Einstein's energy is the basis of matter. We know that if we take matter apart and explode matter, we find energy. And that energy is the basis of matter. But if we go a step further, we live in a universe where intelligence and knowing is important, and how do we know anything, well, information. And, information at its most basic definition is just patterns in energy.

So the dyadic model says that energy has two faces. Instead of being two separate things, it's the energy as the basis of our existence in matter. And, it´s the basis of our knowing and information. And that's the simplest way to explain it.

deRegnier: And how does that affect our consciousness, or how does the consciousness affect that model?

Mitchell: First of all, it gives a consistent way of looking at this and we needed that. But we had not had, in science, a definition of consciousness. The only definition of consciousness from the dictionary is that at its basic level it is awareness. Consciousness means to be aware, and then we have different levels of consciousness depending upon how complex the substance is. It has been demonstrated many times over in laboratories that basic awareness is demonstrable at the level of plants, at simple bacteria, at simple life forms.

This is done with Faraday cages. It's shown that this information at this deep level, at the quantum level, can transcend electromagnetic theory. And, now we're getting into quantum physics and we don´t want to go there at this point. But it's a very fundamental notion that awareness is at the very basis of things.

And we have a consciousness that is not only is aware, but we can think about our thinking and that is a much higher level of consciousness than we find at the level of plants and animals.

deRegnier: Has our level of consciousness changed as we've evolved?

Mitchell: I would think so. I tend to agree with the classic notions that come right out of biology that we have evolved from a more primitive state and that from those lower animal states, from which we came, that we have progressively evolved in our ability to utilize consciousness, to utilize thought and intelligence as we have learned more about our universe. Both on earth and as in the 19th and 20th centuries, and now the 21st century, we´ve been able to look out into the heavens with very powerful instruments and to find our place in the universe in totally new ways.

deRegnier: Would you say that with the dawning of ritual and religion, was that when there came a change in consciousness?

Mitchell: No, I would say there was a whole host of developments associated with that. The inventing of writing is one. Spoken language is another. And then the development of all this helps the brain to evolve and to utilize and to start to take on different characteristics.

I don't consider myself enough of an evolutionary biologist to speak coherently about all of this, but it's very clear that in the evolutionary process that's taken place in the last several thousand years as we have evolved language, and written language in particular, and from the Greeks forward learned to think in more logical terms.

deRegnier: What do you see as our responsibility with this consciousness? For example, do we have a responsibility to morality?

Mitchell: Of course, what comes along with living is learning to develop everything that goes with our consciousness. We have to think about morality. We have to think about rightness. We have certainly learned to accept the notion that we're all created out of the same thing. And that's one of the things quantum physics has shown us. Particularly, what the space experience has shown me was that when we understand that the matter in our bodies and in everything (all matter is created in the star system, the heavy matter created in the furnace of stars) we start to realize that that is the basis of our very existence. And when we start to realize we are interconnected in this way it helps you see things in a different way.


From: Vesak Reflection on the Medical Profession
The Newtonian- Cartesian model of the world on which Western medicine developed has been superseded at the sub atomic level by quantum physics. Professor Carl von Weizsacker, German atomic physicist and philosopher, was interviewed in a Dutch TV programme on the challenge posed by the New Physics to religion and philosophy. The New Physics, the professor commented, calls for a new understanding of our world and a new ethical attitude to life and the world we live in. I quote from the transcript:
Consider the implications of quantum theory. In quantum theory we are describing the behaviour of stars and atoms and produce tables and figures as if we are spectators. But at the same time we realize, and we are reminded so profoundly of that old truth already understood by the Buddha that we are in fact telling our own story. Our own bodies consist of atoms; our own lives are part of that nature we are analyzing. We cannot separate it. We cannot speak of nature as if we did not belong to it. That is more or less the message of quantum theory. Now look at all the immense number of beings who are born, who live and die, who suffer because all life is suffering according to Buddha. But you cannot speak of this truth as something outside yourself, you yourself are born and you will die and you are going through a life of suffering because you build your life on false expectations which are frustrated, And in this situation you cannot distinguish between the onlooker - the one who looks and the one who is looked. You are one and the same you are in both roles at the same time.


From: Human consciousness, intelligence may suddenly shift

Accompanying continued progress in understanding the potential and apparent direction of human consciousness, some researchers point out that a "unified field" or "zero-point field" probably exists around us and within us.

In addition to this hypothesized energy field underlying what we see and experience around us, there may be various dimensions that we may not always see. Some researchers propose that boundaries or membranes, sometimes referred to as "branes," separate these dimensions.

For people who wonder about ideas like an afterlife, Heaven and angels, theories about other dimensions actually existing along with our normal reality might make sense. Individuals who say they have had a "near-death experience" or NDE report crossing a boundary, a tunnel of beautiful light, to a different reality.

Some spiritual researchers have hypothesized that there could be several layers or kinds of dimensions in the afterlife.

How do these ideas fit with emerging discoveries and theories in modern physics and other sciences? There seem to be some common elements between the scientific and spiritual views.

Spiritual philosophies and faiths often note that intellectual or brain-oriented thinking can only get us so far in understanding a larger intelligence or force around us.

Transcending our thinking minds, then using our hearts and what is often called a soul take us to new levels of perception, according to certain belief systems.

These same kinds of methods are used in ESP and remote viewing. Using internal resources that are not simply thinking with our brains, people can tap into perceptions we often call intuition, instincts, gut feelings, hunches, dreams and visions to gain new insights and information.

This is one area where science and spirituality seem to be merging. And it seems to be where new phenomena and insights are emerging.


From: Problems in Western Science Resolved By Occult Science

There are fundamental, perplexing questions on which science has scratched its head for centuries and is still at it. For example, did anything happen before the Big Bang, if so what? What are the mysteries of Sound and Light, Space and Time, Energy and Matter in manifesting the Cosmos? Do we need God? Who is He? Who made Him? What does He do?

Both science and religion have offered their explanations. But there are still many unanswered areas left.

London-based renowned theosophist and international lecturer Dr. Edi D Bilimoria, in his seminal work titled, "The Snake And The Rope", finds that the key to unlock answers to the mysteries that have ever perplexed science rests with Occult Science - the science of the hidden laws of nature. He explores how Occult Science answers such conundrums in science as Big Bang theory, infinite energy, extra-terrestrial life, nature of consciousness, and wave-particle duality.

In his book, Dr Bilimoria considers investigations by Western Science into Cosmology, Consciousness, Sound and Light, Biology and Evolutionary Theory. He then contrasts the philosophies and experimental methods of Western Science with those of Occult Science.

The book also delves into issues such as Quantum Physics and the Nature of Light and Matter, exploring why classical physics broke down and how quantum physics opens the door to the esoteric philosophy. Drawing upon hard science evidence that we humans existed alongside and much before the dinosaurs, the author explains why Darwinism is disintegrating.
 

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