Science & Spirituality: Connecting the Dots
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.
Brief understanding of Quantum Mechanics and Physics
Before getting into more details, let’s first briefly talk about the science side of this equation. The science side was best described by Einstein and Schrödinger who essentially transformed our knowledge of of physics.
Schrödinger theorized that every physical entity is made of wave functions (a collection of waves interacting with each other), which simply means that there is series of waves at various frequencies which interact with one another to shape into what we can recognize as particles or physical beings; the duality principal. This could be something as little as an atom particles, such as protons, neutrons, etc. or as large as a building or a living being, or even stars and universe itself. The interaction of wave functions can change shape of the particles which they represent and/or change shape into something else. So the waves, by interacting with one another can change frequencies; creating new waves. Since a waves oscillating at some frequency, then it has an energy associated with it (the movement means energy). Schrödinger explains how the wave energy can transform from one shape into another, continually via changes in the underlying wave function, or put simply energy can transfer from one particle to the next, and flow freely and change form and shapes.
Einstein added more to this Schrödinger theory by his famous equation. Simply stated Energy and Mass (beings) are connected and can change form and shape and transform from one to the other. Mass can flow as energy, and energy can transform back, or “reincarnate” into mass.
Of course this is a very brief and over simplistic interpretation of a very complex scientific area, but without getting into mathematics and details of physics, the intent is to provide the idea which links two supposed unrelated fields.
Energies and Messages Around Us
Again the duality of energy (energy of wave frequencies) can change from one form to another and flow freely between the two worlds of Energy and mass.
This happens everyday around us, yet we are oblivious to it. The sun shine is nothing more than the energy created (transformed through nuclear reactions) in the sun and travels to us through space as waves of light bringing awesome energy of light to us which brings life to plants and animals which we consume for our livelihood. Or the light which we capture via solar cells and transform into many things via electricity; electricity which lights our rooms and cities to products we build using that electricity and consume to enrich our spiritual life.
Another example is the man generated waves which travel around us as radio or microwave frequencies which bring the energy of a message typed on a cell phone, or a TV program which is recorded in a studio far far away from where we live. We receive such messages without even thinking as how they impacts our life, mood, or behavior. The soul of a message spoken or presented by someone at one end get transformed and assembled on top of electromagnetic carrier waves and travel miles and miles to be converted back to the original form delivering the spiritual energy of the message. It is hard to count the number of transformations and conversions back and forth between mass, energy and waves, of a music delivered from the past (pre-recorded) to the point when we feel uplifted and energized or relaxed as we listen to the piece.
So the spirit of an artist or a performer; the essence of their work or message, get captured though a series of equipment and is transformed into waves of energy and transferred to us while we decode it at our end and convert it back to the waves which impact our sole. A music or a movie which brings pleasure and lifts our spirits.
Now as we dive into deeper aspects of spirituality, is essentially energies which cause action and motion and feelings. The deeper we dig into the world of spirituality the more we realize that it is all about energies which impact us, the transformation and interaction of energies around us in form of various sources with different messages. These messages are sometimes very obvious and at times not so obvious. Sometimes the messages (the energy of such messages and their frequencies) come from people whom we can physically see and touch, while some are communicated to us as hunches, feelings, or no-feeling at all. The messages/energies can come from the person sitting in the same room or from places beyond our comprehension. Bottom line we have such messages and their encoded energies all around us and we often ignore them. If this is hard to comprehend, simply try to sit some place and receive a cell phone or a TV signal in your head. Most likely an average person cannot receive such messages or energies, yet we cannot deny that they do not exist, since our phone or TV can easily receive such messages, and transforms it for us into something we can comprehend.
We have all been in situations where we have felt the energy in a room or in presence of another person, even when there is not word is exchanged. We have all been in a wholly site or a monument, or even a casino where the weight and differences of the energies are felt, even when there is no difference between the brick and mortar used to build such buildings and others, the soul of the location cannot be only attributed to our heads and imagination. So denying the energy is not logical.
Energy Reception Antennas
In order to receive such spiritual messages that lifts us up, we need special equipment, and transformation of energy. So in the example of a cell phone, or TV there is s need for a finely tuned antenna to capture the energy of waves (waves trailing at different frequencies) flowing freely through space, in order to receive such messages. Yet even with the right kind of antenna we still need special equipment in order to transfer the energy of free traveling waves into something comprehensible. So our TV or Cell phone example, gather collection of waves from free space at various frequencies and filter and decode them into simpler components which we can understand displaying them on the screen or playing them on speakers which then impact our sole.
Not all messages and frequencies around us can be detected by equipment we have. yet we cannot deny that they exist.
Role of a Spiritual Antennas
In the example of TV or cell phone the need for an antenna and special filtering, deciphering, and decoding equipment was discussed. So if we think and extrapolate to the world of spirituality and life (wave) after death; or wave-functions traveling though space, then it is not too hard to imagine that we need some kind of specialty equipment and antennas in order to communicate and receive the messages from those who are all around us in form of energy captured in the wave-functions which they have transformed into upon their physical transformation from mass to energy.
Every person comes with some innate and God given talents and energies. No two people are alike nor have the same skills and abilities. This difference is what brings diversity and depth to our lives. Some of us are more sensitive to certain events and energies around us than others. Some are more street smart or book smart than rest of us. Similarly there is a group of people who are better tuned to what happens around them and can receive messages which an average person cannot simply decipher or comprehend.
The world of Unknown Uncovered, Death, Science and Spirituality
Now if we go back to quantum physics and take Einstein’s words, then we can see how it is possible that once human beings put the physical world behind, the person (the mass) simply transform into energy (waves and movement (frequencies) of waves). The transformation simply kills the notion of death. So one can hypothesize that there is no death, it is simply transformation; mass to wave energies. The transformation which is named death is then simply is nothing more than a wave moving at certain collection of frequencies; a wave function, as explained by Schrödinger.
This means that all of the emotions, feelings, wisdom, insight and thoughts, carried in life as mass and/or waves, upon transformation of death transform into a new wave function; or the carrier (DNA) of such information. As if the information gained through our lives are saved and passed on to the universe to be used in next reincarnation. The resulting new wave function without mass in physical world continues to freely travel through space with all the thoughts, feelings, wisdom, and messages it contains. This new wave function most certainly interacts with other wave functions in space and perhaps changes form and shape. This wave function which is called ghost, spirit, wisdom, etc is all around us. We feel and experience it. yet most of us cannot understand or decipher it. The result is uncertainty and fear. Fear of the ghost, unknown, spiritual world.
Medium Antenna and Psychic Decoding
The mediums and psychics each have their functions in receiving messages and decoding them in the spiritual world. A true medium is a person who can fine tune his or her antenna to the world of spirituality and receive the energy of the wave-functions flowing around us in space. They are nothing more than the TV or Cell phone antenna which is tuned to spiritual messages from those who have passed on and travel in space in form of the new wave-functions energies. The energies with the messages are attracted to these human antennas as a pathway to the physical (living) world.
The art of mediumship is the ability to receive such messages and deliver them in a comprehensible form to the intended audience. This is where a medium can bring a message from a loved one to us and bring enlightenment into our lives with the benefit of the insight that a free flowing energy has in space.
The psychics are generally not able to receive such messages through energy Antennas, but they have the talent to detect and understand the energies which influence and concentrate around a person. By tapping into one’s own energy, a psychic is able to understand the influences on ones life and how they may mead into future events.
Mediums often also have psychic senses which allows them to be very effective as a psychic. However each type of talent is unique and serves its purpose.
Of course many claim to have such abilities. We cannot reject that such claims are all lies and false as we all have some psychic senses and abilities. The psychic sense is nearly experienced by everyone, yet many of us are not tuned into it. We have all experienced the “gut feeling” or having a vision of something happening in the future. Even if we have such experiences and senses, we may not consciously or actively open ourselves up to such messages and often ignore our innate talents and abilities. Specially those of scientific training and minds are typically more resistant to opening up to such ideas and possibilities and often reject such ideas until later stages of life or until they are impacted by a profound event in their lives.
The degree of psychic sense and mediumship ability of course varies. The antennas may be partially tuned to receive the energy from the world beyond which flows around us. however, we all have possibility to focus and develop our psychic senses. Mediumship on the other hand is perhaps more difficult to develop, teach and transfer. But the two are possible to develop and fine tune. The journey may require a great deal of personal sacrifice as such journey often require a great deal of self consciousness and self knowledge which may require a great deal of training.
This is training and learning is where many people who claim to have psychic and mediumship abilities fail and take a shortcut by making false claims. The frauds often make claims which they cannot back, and have little ideas about the spirituality world.
The other question which often comes to people’s attention is accuracy of the messages and or interpretations. The messages and energies which are being detected by the human antennas may or may not be complete. Some of the information being communicated through a medium, may not converge and be synchronized. This lack of coherency may mislead a medium at several junctions. A medium may misinterpret an energy flow, because of lack of information or maybe because of the fact that the messages are communicated in chunks and blocks that are delivered out of sync.
The spiritual world works in a mysterious ways. some of the energy in wave-functions received by a medium may contain part of the message, and the spiritual energy may come in time as opposed to one time delivery. This is where one reading may differ from another and the resulting prediction may unravel over time as opposed to one time reading.
A medium or psychic ability to understand, pace the flow of messages, detect proper energy levels, and properly synchronize such messages is an art form provided by a medium or the psychic.
Hypnosis Past Life Regression and Spiritual Energies
The hypnosis and hypnotherapy has been around for ages. Yet many people cannot bring themselves into believing such techniques as a way to understand a person’s underlying behavior and patterns repeated in life.
Hypnosis is simply put is understadning and tapping into the energies (waves) that are controlling and influencing our lives. Patterns we repeats and continue to follow despite results we know are not desired.
Many people for example go through life struggling with relationships. A hypnosis can potentially uncover the energies which control the behavior of a person who continually operate on a pattern which attracts same type of people into their lives. The patterns which are unconsciously repeated and result in the same exact outcomes, because the under lying patterns are the same.
By the same token, the hypo therapy and past life regression can dig deep into the origin of such energies and uncover the root cause of such patterns in ones life. Having such knowledge can then lead into a course of action which can then undo the impact of such energies and unraveling the patterns which lead to continuous failure.
Healers and Energy Manipulation
A healer may or may not have ability to detect the free energies around us. However when focused a healer is able to concentrate, focus and direct energy as necessary. A healer can detect the energies of a subject he or she is treating, from the person under treatment. The energy can then be directed or redirected as required by the treatment to manipulate and change the flow of energies in our bodies.
Understanding Energy, Flow and Waves
At this point it may be prudent to decompile the concept of energy and waves.
First let’s state one of physics most coveted principals. That is conservation of energy. Meaning that the universe the energy is transformed from one form to another, and it is not created nor destroyed. Heat turns into electricity; electricity turns into light, light turns into work output, and so on, one form to another.
In world of physics and science energy is simply ability to do work, or create movement. This could be moving an object, or moving molecule of some gas by heat, or even creating heat by moving molecules of some substance.
In the spiritual world, energy is also about movement and work. Movement of conscious which in turn moves the spirit and lifts one into layers of consciousness. The spiritual energy can take the physical energy and turn it into spiritual energy as it does when one exercises thats lifts up one’s spirits and results in better thinking and connecting with inner self.
In the ancient Indians theories, there exist a duality of physical and psychological/non-physical parallel worlds or the subtle body. The idea is that the subtle body (soul) lives in parallel with the physical body. The subtle body is the world of waves and energy, and world of energy where energy flows and transforms the physical world. Interestingly the world of science also has a mathematical representation which represents waves through what is known as Fourier transform. Through the Fourier concept, one can mathematically see how a wave frequency and its harmonics (repeated waves at different frequencies), can be present simultaneously, The existence of waves in parallel at different frequencies correlates with the spiritual duality of a being in physical and subtle worlds once one accepts the idea that the energy and waves are commonly flow between the spiritual and physical worlds (the two are the same, it is only distinguished in our mind for better representation and understanding).
The subtle body is energy while the physical body is mass. Einstein exactly postulated the relationship between the two and the fact that the two are the same and flow back and forth, the two are the same and equivalent. For example, by exercising you can turn energy (or movement) into mass; muscle mass. The waves generated and transmitted in the process also carrying energy flow into the subtle body of energy flowing through body through our Chakras and meridians which are nothing but gateways to filter and control flow of energy in our bodies.
What is interesting is the fact that both science and spirituality arrive at same principals regarding energy and waves, despite different representations, one mathematical and one purely faith based and based on belief and clues.
The Chakras (Meridians, Nafs) the Energy Vortex
If we pay attention to our daily language we notice the impact of all chakras, or energy vortices in our lives. The gut feeling, an inspiration, feeling motivated, fired up, rooted, or wanting to shout all refer to some form of energy or waves that are transmitted from our body to the world around us. The idea of energy existing in parallel with our physical world is expressed everyday in our life, yet we ignore or even dismiss the idea. We know and experience this seven energy vortex in our body on daily basis, so lets get to know them better.
According to the ancient eastern theories (and this includes Hinduism, Sofism, Buddhism, etc.) the mass or the body has its parallel; as discussed above, on the energy domain. The connection between the two is the mind or the psyche plane where the mass or the body plane intersects with the subtle world or the soul. The subtle body has “nadi” or connected channels of energy interacting with one another through Chakras or nodes of psychic energy.
The seven Chakras from the bottom, Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Nabhi-Manipura, Anahata, Vishshuddhi, Ajna, and Sahasrara, These are not the only Chakras, there is over 80,000 chakras in our bodies which facilitate flow of energy through our body. These Chakras are energy highways through our body where our soul is in control of life flow of our physical body.
Once one chakras does not perform as designed, it can cause issues with physical body or energy disruptions causing mood and feeling changes. These chakras even provide clues and diagnosis info to what may be wrong in our physical bodies. For example, a blocked chakra can result in depression and bad mood. Yoga and breathing techniques have all been devised to better control and manage the energy flow through these roadways for energy. This provides exactly the tools needed by a healing practitioner to redirect and manage the flows of energy. Lets explore the chakra’s and their functions:
• Sahasrara; Crown Chakra - Connection to the universe; is the highest level of pure consciousness and spiritual center. When the masculine and feminine energies rise to this level, the result is a state of self realization and liberation or meditative conscious state. This chakra is over our heads. Some of the signs of this chakra are: increase feeling of weight or lightheadedness over your head, increased headache, sensations in head and spine.
• Anja; Third eye or Guru Chakra - located between the eye brows, this is the part of the brain which is trainable and can be optimized through meditation, yoga, and spiritual practices. The third eye is responsible for intuition, imagination, self-awareness as well as insight and wisdom. The chakra helps in regulation of mental power and ability. Some signs which one may experience are: light sensitivity, continual feeling of change, increased foresight, Pressure between eyebrows, increased headaches.
• Vishshuddhi; Throat Chakra - It is purity and purification energy center. This is our communication Chakra where we express and transform energy through other Chakras into transmitted energy. The energy passage between the lower parts of body to upper parts. Some of the sound therapy or sound expression or relate can change and facilitate flow of energy through this Chakra. The chants, hymns, or even singing are all in support of energy flow through this Chakra which often lead to higher energy levels and rise of spirits in our minds. The signs of this Chakra are the sounds heard and felt through our body, throat shoulder and neck pains or even hearing issues or jaw pains are signs of this Chakra.
• Anahata; Heart Chakra - Represents air and life. Symbol of male and female union and pure and unconditional love. Source of deep and profound truth. This Chakra sitting between the upper and lower Chakras is responsible for energy flow through our senses, That is why stones, aromatic oils, are essential to balancing the heart Chakra. Stones such as rose or clear quartz, green calcite or jade all help to activate the energy flow through this Chakra. This Chakra is also known to be responsible for hormones related to immune system in our body. The energy through this Chakra is directly transformed into our health and immune system.
• Nabhi-Manipura; Belly Chakra - Characterized by Fire, this is the creator of motion and motivation in life. The “fire in the belly” is exactly what this Chakra is all about. The solar plexus is for vitality and governs personal power and self-esteem, the worrier energy and power to transform and set life into motion. Emotional upsets, loss or accidents impact flow of energy through this Chakra and impact our locomotion. This Chakra is also in control of nervous system which sends command to all body parts; again regulation motion and keeping all of our organs functioning properly. The most critical hormone controlled by this Chakra is through adrenal glands which is associated with motion, and excitement. Some signs of disruption are abnormal breathing, pain in gastro organs, etc.
• Svadhisthana; Sacral Chakra - Water is what signifies this Chakra that is associated with sexuality, creativity, sensuality, fantasies, delusions, disdain, feeling of inner and outer world. Emotions and enjoyment of life are all controlled by this chakra. The energy through this Chakra leads to creation and production in proverbial symbolic sense. Movement, flow and flexibility is initiated through this vortex of energy. This is how we feel the world around us. This is the energy which seeds the life and life experiences. Even senses of taste and touch which leads to our enjoyment of this world all based on this vortex of energy.
• Muladhara; Root Chakra - Representing earth is considered the energy behind the skeletal structures in body, teeth, blood, etc. This Chakra is about support, grounding, and stability; or sitting and setting. When needs are met a feeling of safety and roundedness prevails. This is the root or the basis of life. Anxiety, fears, nightmares, are all signs of imbalance in this Chakra. Organs such as bladder, colon, legs, back are under control of energy from this Chakra. It is best activated by Red colors and oils such as Rosewood, Rosemary, Black Pepper, Cedar, Cloves or Ginger.
The chakras are energy highways which keep life moving through the existence of both spiritual and body simultaneously
The interesting point about this entire discussion is energy which is common between all theories and approaches to understand and learn about the universe. Energy which is transmitted as a wave with a certain frequency encoded with messages and power of the spirits and the soul which delivers not only the electromagnetic effects but also the encoded message as well as the soul of the message.
All spiritual, religions, and even scientific theories have same type of concepts and what is interesting is the fact that they all came to existence independent of the other in the ancient world. The science was the last to catch up (and still behind) with the world of spirituality and brought with it a new explanation with understandable mathematical concepts. The reason for science being behind is obvious, since science seeks and formulate any such hypothesis with facts and data which at times are not possible to obtain or gather with available technologies to us. Yet the underlying concept remains the same. Each one of the theories approach the topic from different angels and they all arrive at similar explanation, yet they do not embrace each other.
For example, the concept of Chakra was a purely spiritual concept developed in areas of India, while the Chinese, pretty much in parallel did the same by mapping the entire body chakras, or energy points, the 80,000 or so of them for medical purposes. We have all been exposed to ancient Chinese remedies and energy points used in acupuncture or pressure therapy etc.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the worlds of spirituality, religion, and science are interrelated and can be even argued are the same. Each is simply a approache to our desire for understanding ourselves and our world from a distinct yet connected points of views. To be fixated on one point of view vs. the other is an utter narrow-mindedness and deprive us from a more expansive and likely a more comprehensive point of view. Whether a scientific minded, or religious believer, or pure spiritual practitioner we are in it together to gain and expand our knowledge of what happened and how it happens around us.
The science, ancient spiritual teachings and theories, practices are all result of our collective knowledge gain throughout history via our genetics; where our surrounding records and transfers knowledge of our being via DNA and our collective evolution, to the generational propagation of knowledge through various forms such as books, stories, historic passages, and even more modern methods such as electronic means.
We are in search of answers as human beings and we have found various ways of explaining what happens around us and we need to be open to all points of view and avoid preconceived notions and stereo types which hinder our open-mindedness to better understand what is happening around us and even to us as we continue our journey through life.