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January 27, 2005
Science finding Spirit
After reading up on some of the theories of Quantum Physics, and then Physics as a whole, I was surprised how closely linked some of the theories are to well known concepts of Magick and Spirituality in general.
String theory started to bring to mind Don Juan's description of 'Incandescent threads stretched into infinity in every conceivable direction'. Type-2 String theory having 10 dimensions that equal the number of Kabbalistic planes, M-theory with 11 dimensions, which of course still maps the Kabbalistic planes when the hidden or 11th Sephiroth Daath is included. David Bohm's idea of our universe enfolding back into the substance from where it came from, mirroring Terence McKenna's idea of everything coming from the singularity.
These two ideas especially. To quote Terence McKenna :
"All these images - the starship, the space colony, the lapis - are precursory images. They follow naturally from the idea that history is the shock wave of eschatology. As close distance with the eschatological object, the reflections it is throwing off resemble more and more the thing itself. In the final moment the Unspeakable stands revealed."
And then David Bohm :
"Let's say one particular pulse comes together and expands, creating our universe of space-time and matter. But there could well be other such pulses. To us, that pulse looks like a big bang; In a greater context, it's a little ripple. Everything emerges by unfoldment from the holomovement, then enfolds back into the implicate order."
In many ways Physics theories are arriving at conclusions the Magicians, Shamans, Buddhists, Sorcerers, and many others of the Earth have known all along : that objective reality is just one of many realities open to human perception. In a way it's almost poetic : Science is helping to re-affirm many Occult and Spiritual beliefs and ideas even though it's so seperated from them. The comparisons help to show on many levels that aspects of reality repeat themselves in a fractal nature.
Maybe one day if the seperated fields of Science can work together, work alongside and learn from each other, they could guide the whole profession to a place that's a lot more balanced, productive and helpful for Humanity and the Earth as a whole, and at the same time develop the all round skills to help guide evolution alongside the great Artists and Adepts of the future.
Posted by at January 27, 2005 03:47 AM | TrackBackWhile Science as a whole is often in opposition to many of the ideas of spirituality, it's common that the greatest minds in science hold deeply spiritual and irrational beliefs.
They're just two different lenses on the same phenomenon. One looks at explaining the mechanism, the other at understanding the meaning.
Posted by: lvx23 at January 27, 2005 12:23 PMHi LV, I agree that it's common that great scientists have spiritual/irrational beliefs and I think that's great. If it wasn't for them people!
The two different lenses part hits on some of the reasons why I wrote this, one of the main ones would probably be that even though Science itself has made so much progress and done so many good things, I feel that if the Physicists, Biologists, Neurologists etc worked together more they could acheive a lot more for humankind in general. I guess I feel that they sometimes lack the balance of looking inside aswell as outside of themselves (and vice versa) for the answers to some of the great riddles of consciousness and the universe, (Physics for example) and that they could probably learn a lot more by following the examples of some of the Adepts of today and throughout history.
Apologies to any Science orientated people who see this as a dig at the profession, it's not, the single main reason for writing this was an attempt to point out a few of the striking similarities between occult/spiritual beliefs and physics.
Posted by: Xyu at January 27, 2005 05:13 PMI agree with you a 100% on this post. The good news, is the scientific revolution that they started is becoming usurped by their own discoveries. The more we learn, the more we can no longer deny the 'other'. I find it equally amusing, and somewhat sad (for them), how they have hung on to Reason as the ONE and only true way to look at the universe, that they have entirely failed to explain consciousness, the very thing which defines out entire existence. Rather than admit defeat, they insist instead that it is nothing more than a 'ghost', an accidental epiphenomona of complex chemical interactions.
Posted by: Paul Hughes at January 27, 2005 09:10 PMYeah it's going to be interesting to see where they are going with what they know at the moment. I suspect they'll arrive at places similar to where David Bohm was with his theories of implicate and explicate orders.
Posted by: Rob Hines at January 28, 2005 12:28 AMXyu, I assume you've read Capra's "Tao of Physics"...?
Posted by: lvx23 at January 28, 2005 09:06 AMI haven't read that actually, I'll hopefully have it soon though along with The Dancing Wu Li Masters which I'm also after.
(Apologies for the name confusion too, I'm posting with my real name now.)
Posted by: Rob at January 28, 2005 05:59 PM