All statements about the material world are subject to science

"Spirituality" is a word that's difficult to pin down. In my current atheist frame of mind, I consider that the term refers to an attempt to find meaning in life -- this material life, this physical life, this life here on Earth. 

Such is how Daniele Bolelli speaks of the need to rekindle our appreciation of what the senses bring to us. In his book, "On the Warrior's Path," he writes:

Our bodies are the kingdom of lost continents and unknown lands. Columbus, Livingstone, Stanley, Marco Polo, and Neil Armstrong are just Boy Scouts compared to the explorers of the inner space. The first step to unlock the doors of perception and sniff the scent of the Secret is to awaken the five senses from the numbness that normally surrounds them.

When the senses wake up, people talk about altered states, but actually nothing about them is altered. The only real alteration is the sleep into which we often let them fall. Bringing them back to life is the only natural thing we can do. 

It is as if we defined the starting of an engine as an "altered state" only because we consider normal leaving it turned off. The fascination many people have for "supernatural" phenomena is the result of their lack of deep knowledge of what Nature is about.

...Ecstasy is not a faraway, unreachable dimension. It is right here, just a few feet away from the sleep of the senses. As William Blake put it: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." The miracle of ordinary reality is revealed to those who have eyes to see it and ears to hear it. 

But many people -- most, actually, given the popularity of religions -- believe that the spiritual quest is to get in touch with a supernatural domain of reality. God, spirit, soul, angels, heaven, miracles, these are believed to point to a realm beyond physicality, a world of the Absolute.

I've started reading Alan Lightman's engaging book, "Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine." Lightman is a philosophically minded physicist who looks at the marvels of the universe with awe. He had a sense of infinity one night when he turned off the motor of his boat, laid down, and looked up at the stars.

Lightman writes:

I have worked as a physicist for many years, and I have always held a purely scientific view of the world. By that, I mean that the universe is made of material and nothing more, that the universe is governed exclusively by a small number of fundamental forces and laws, and that all composite things in the world, including humans and stars, eventually disintegrate and return to their component parts.

...Yet after my experience in that boat many years later, I understood what Lord Indra of the Vedas must have felt when he first drank soma and could see the light of the gods. I understood the powerful allure of the Absolutes -- ethereal things that are all-encompassing, unchangeable, eternal, sacred. At the same time, and perhaps paradoxically, I remained a scientist. I remained committed to the material world.

Every culture in every era of human existence has had some concept of Absolutes. Indeed, one might group a large number of notions and entities under the heading of Absolutes: absolute truth (valid in all circumstances), absolute goodness, constancies of various kinds, certainties, cosmic unity, immutable laws of nature, indestructible substances, permanence, eternity, the immortal soul, God.

Absolutes sound great, right? I used to strongly believe in them. For many years I was obsessed with the notion of Ultimate Reality, and even believed that one day I would understand it, and maybe even become one with it. So like Lightman, I too understand the appeal of Absolutes.

But here's the catch:

Finally, the tenets of the Absolutes have not been proven, nor can they be proven, certainly not in the way that science has proven the existence of atoms or the law of the pendulum swing. Unprovability is a central feature of all Absolutes. Yet I did not need any proof of what I felt during that summer night in Maine looking up at the sky.

It was a purely personal experience, and its validity and power rested in the experience itself. Science knows what it knows from experiments with the external world. Belief in the Absolutes comes from internal experience, or sometimes from received teachings and culture-granted authority.

...We have found no physical evidence for the Absolutes. And just the opposite. All of the new findings suggest that we live in a world of multiplicities, relativities, change, and impermanence. In the physical realm, nothing persists. Nothing lasts. Nothing is indivisible. Even the subatomic particles found in the twentieth century are now thought to be made of even smaller "strings" of energy, in a continuing regression of subatomic Russian dolls.

So a spirituality founded on a belief in supernatural Absolutes cannot be proven to be correct. We may feel that it is correct, but feelings can lead us astray. We may experience that it is correct, but experiences can lead us astray. We may be convinced that it is correct, but convictions can lead us astray.

This isn't to say that Absolutes have no value. Since billions of people believe in them, clearly they serve some human purpose. Lightman says:

The Absolutes comfort us. Imperfect beings that we are, we can imagine perfection. In search of meaning and how best to live our lives, we can turn to irrefutable precepts and principles. Certain of our material death, we can find solace in the permanence of our ethereal souls.

What's important, though, is to be honest with ourselves.

We need to realize that because Absolutes are unprovable, we have no way of knowing if they have any reality outside of our minds. But this is the case with lots of things: feelings, thoughts, imagination, fantasies, wishes, dreams, and so much else within our psyches exist only as neurochemical traces within our cranium.

If we seek certainty, or rather, near-certainty, it won't be found in Absolutes. It will be found in science, because this is the only means we humans have developed that allows us to say with a high degree of confidence, "This is true not only for me, but is a truth about the world that lies outside of me."

As Lightman puts it:

I respect the notions of God and other divine beings. However, I insist on one thing: I insist that any statements made by such beings and their prophets about the material world, including statements recorded in the sacred books, must be subject to the experimental testing of science.

In my view, the truths of such statements cannot be assumed. They must be tested and revised or rejected as needed. The spiritual world, and the world of the Absolutes, have their own domain. The physical world should be the province of science.

This makes a lot of sense. People are free to believe whatever they want about God and other Absolutes.

But when those beliefs intrude upon this physical world, and obviously this happens with regularity, such as when religious people want their dogmas to be enshrined in governmental policies or cultural institutions, those purported Absolutes need to be challenged vigorously.

"Prove it!" is an entirely reasonable demand if someone wants their personal spirituality to be accepted as universal truth. I do that frequently on this blog, and not surprisingly I've never gotten any demonstrable proof of an Absolute. 

Comments

[vinny]

But the material is subject to metaphysical if any physicist says that electrons revolving in an atom can be explained by any physical law he is simply befooling the public. The whole foundation of Quantum physics is itself metaphysical.

[Spencer Tepper]

Science is all about absolutes. Gravity, force, electricity. These things are absolute in the sense that these laws are proven and unvarying facts. Objects fall to earth at 32 feet per second per second. Only another Absolute principle, air resistance, has ever altered that.

Spirituality is nothing more or less than the effort to understand internal perception, and the subtle realities of that experience.

But it is just another experience, to be tested in any reasonable way. And it has been tested and reported for thousands of years by spiritual practitioners . One day the tools of science will also be able to measure these forces and confirm that human beings have always had latent within them the ability to sense them.

We are all connected. Science will continue to confirm this absolute from ancient worshipers in ever more subtle ways.

We are all part of one system. Science will likewise raise its own confirmation of this truth witnessed by spiritual practitioners throughout recorded history.

In this sense there is only one reality. What has been called supernatural is really just natural, but a part of nature that science was heretofore unable to detect.

Science has only been able to measure a minor portion of reality and has much to learn.

As for terminology, God is all powerful in the sense that the entire creation as a whole is all the power there is.

To witness the creation as a conscious entity is then to make such attributions to it. Since the mind functions in symbols it is reasonable to understand those symbols are valid reflections of physical truth. Just as a spectrographic plate, through its stratification of color tells us with absolute certainty of the core minerals in a distant sun, so a vision of perfect love can tell us with absolute certainty of our own unbreakable connection to all that is around us.

That witness is very common in spiritual literature.

[عبد الرحمن]

your statement "This makes a lot of sense. People are free to believe whatever they want about God and other Absolutes.
But when those beliefs intrude upon this physical world, and obviously this happens with regularity, such as when religious people want their dogmas to be enshrined in governmental policies or cultural institutions, those purported Absolutes need to be challenged vigorously.
"Prove it!" is an entirely reasonable demand if someone wants their personal spirituality to be accepted as universal truth. I do that frequently on this blog, and not surprisingly I've never gotten any demonstrable proof of an Absolute."

That's right Brian - Use your eyes to make your decisions !!! Keep using your mind to make your decisions. The little voice who talks to you, your Real Self!!!
The 5 senses are only thing we can rely on. Irrefutable.

In this world, where lessons are learned everyday like who to believe,
try this :

vasukimurali-walkthrough.blogspot.in/

Saint Kabir

The great Saint Kabir Das was a simple weaver. He was a man of principles and practised what he preached. The Saint was a muslim by birth, but some also believed that he was a brahmin. He had many disciples as well as many who were against him.
One of his devoted disciple was Bir Singh, who was none other than the Kasi king himself.

Whenever Saint Kabir visited Bir Singh, he used to offer him the throne to sit on and he himself sat on the floor, at the saint's feet.

One day Kabir decided to test Bir Singh, if he was really as simple as he behaved.

The Saint walked in the bazaars of Kashi with Ravi Das, the cobbler and a woman disciple who was once a prostitute, singing devotional songs. He carried in his hands, two bottles filled with coloured water, that resembled alcohol.

Some, both Hindus and Muslims who were against Kabir saw this act, created a commotion in the city. People gossiped about the prostitute, the cobbler and the bottles of alcohol. The news also reached The King.

Saint Kabir entered King Bir Singh’s palace in just this kind of manner.

On seeing Saint Kabir, the King’s faith in the Guru wavered. He did not get up from the throne.
Saint Kabir was amused by the kings action and understood that the king thought just as the others did. Immediately he dropped the bottles of coloured liquids with a crash at his feet.

This made the King think,
“How odd, an alcoholic would never spill a drop of alcohol. There must be something else in the bottles!”

He got up from his throne and drew Ravi Das aside and asked,
“Ravi, what is all this about?”

Ravi Das replied, “Oh Maharaj, don’t you know that the Jagannath temple is on fire, and Kabir is putting out the fire with the water in his bottle?”

The Raja noted down the date and the time. He sent a messenger to make the long journey to Jagannath temple to enquire about the fire.

The people near Jagannath temple confirmed about the fire and told,
“Yes, there was a fire and Kabir did indeed put it out.” The Raja’s faith was strengthened again."
A Master can act in many ways but for the good of the disciple. "

Only a rare disciple can pass this test."

Only a rare disciple can pass any test, when it is destined for the disciple to fail.

Proof:
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Platforms_of_Jetha

Nothing like logic to prove the illusory nature of life, like Gurus to reject as false.

Easy to find kaffir - they run away from their faith at the drop of a hat - use your eyes brother to know what is true.

لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱلله

A true messenger of Allah will claim to be nothing more than that.

Let us judge to the fullest - reflect and judge.

[Spence Tepper]

Testing Internal Experience

I've been thinking this morning about internal experience and the testing of that experience.

There are many challenges to do this correctly. The most successful have been with well defined parameters.

Research on meditation has been varied and frequent. Results indicate that the practice of meditation, through some form of mental focus, imagery focus, and / or silent repetition of a word or words, something relatively innocuous or pleasant, yields changes, improvements, in health.

Some of those changes are minor, but important for good health.

The research is limited because generally it isn't practical to pull together long term meditators on a specific method. TM is probably closest and best researched.

Also, the researchers have been unable to test a good sample size of long term meditators using a spiritual meditation, where the object of focus is a form of divinity. Again, the vast majority of the research that does exist doesn't use those who have stuck with the method for years.

And where long term meditators have been tested, usually individually or small n, results have been compelling, in terms of physiological control. But very few such papers exist, so replication has been highly limited.

People confuse research with mental imaginings with religion. But in that research they are not actually gathering the mental images seen by long term meditators. So, again, the research hasn't been done adequately.

What the research tells us (from Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and other established centers of medical science research) is that any number of meditation techniques are, for the right person, extremely healthful. And should be advocated strongly.

Does this prove God exists? That is the question of Atheists. But that question cannot be answered by research, because research method requires the capacity to manipulate variables. If God is the cause behind all variables, or even an element that can be found in all variables, it is impossible to isolate any true "independent" variable. Hence the experiment cannot be carried out with any internal validity.

All things in this creation radiate energy. That's the best we know. At an atomic level, every particle radiates energy. And upon deeper investigation, the particle itself is energy, in one form or another. At that level even time and causality cease to function in the linear way we perceive here.

It is at this sub-atomic level that we learn most of matter is empty space, and that it is a field held together, which also radiates energy and can be affected by other fields of energy.

Sunlight upon a rock can bleach that rock.

But in practical science with spirituality, in an effort to learn more about such claims, we are left with testing either the claims of meditators, or the effects on their body from their practice. The effects are well confirmed: It's very very healthy for most people.

As for the claims, well, they can't be verified. Are they the claims of long term meditators? Or of people hallucinating? Or of people with psychiatric disorders?

How can one distinguish which claims even to test?

For some strange reason, Atheists tend to pick the last two categories for investigation, and they come up with their own self-fulfilled prophecy that hallucination is just that. Or that the God that hallucinators and psychiatric patients claim to see is just hallucination. Therefore that's what God is. By eliminating all the false sources they themselves introduced, they come up with nothing and claim therefore God doesn't exist. When more scientific approaches are offered, Atheists become oddly quiet, and mostly unscientific. All science operates on an assumption that information be reviewed and only rejected on clear grounds of reason, not ignored because it interferes with a pre-conceived notion.

And so their approach is unscientifict, and actually falacious. They are using the logic of Abduction...the elimination of all that is false, but twisting this by only introducing a known source of false reports as the basis of their "science". And eliminating the introduction of actual, testable sources.

Real Science typically uses a combination of deductive reasoning and inductive experimentation and inference.

One day experimentation on the reports and physical evidence from long term meditators will yield the basis for actual scientific inquiry about "spiritual" experience.

There is a body of literature throughout recorded history about Spirit which describes similarities: Intense Light, intense sound, intense experience of joy, intense focus; visions of their own Master.

These could be compared and tested across long term meditators, as well as actually calculated for internal validity and correlation across these meditators.

But to do that means acknowledging that we are testing something, not nothing. Atheists won't go there. That is their bias.

Like Gravity, we may not have a direct measure of Spirit for hundreds of years. But we can gain a more reliable schematic of this experience. And we may discover that it is a field of energy that reacts to thoughts, which pervades the entire creation, and which we can learn to witness directly.

Atheists try to claim that all experience must be limited to the human brain.

However, the human brain is not a completely isolated organ. The body is often affected by subtle things, X rays for example, that can disrupt cells. Meditation has already been proven to alter, in a healthy way, our genetic structure.

It may be possible one day to detect energy that both effects the brain and can be effected by it. At that point we will have the establishment of a more direct link between the human brain and the greater creation around us, than our flawed external senses.

If those who witness objects falling to earth can easily adopt the concept of "gravity", then it is simple to understand why those who witness the heavens from within meditation also believe in something which they can consciously be connected to and travel upon outside the human brain.

Yet we know so much about Gravity. How? We are investigating, not gravity, but its effect upon other things. That's how most of science works.

Atheists refuse to acknowledge that, because they are not actually submitting their bias to a more scientific approach.

Point is, if you experience reliably something, it is something reliable.

But what it is, is a matter for scientific inquiry, and investigation, within and without.