Changing World View

Know some of the exciting facts about your mind, the most mysterious and complicated thing in the universe.

2010-03-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

The mind, like consciousness, cannot be pinned down to any specific system or area in the brain. We have seen that the awareness arises out of the simultaneous activities in different region of the brain. Many scientists say that the mind arises from the coherent activities in the brain specially the cortical region. The human brain creates a complex neural network in which consciousness appears along with the mysterious mind. The wrinkled and jelly like brain of 1.3-1.4 kg has nearly 100 billion neurons (i.e. the functional unit of brain) and each neuron contains from 10,000 to 100,000 dendrites/branches which form synaptic connections with dendrites of other neurons. Each neuron acts like an autonomous, miniature mind. In this way they form an intricate neural network with trillions of connections. Neurons communicate both chemically and electrically. It is also well established that the most important chemical functionaries of the brain are the neuro transmitters that carry signals in the neural network. They are capable of triggering different chemical processes in the neurons. Neuro transmitters cause a wide range of changes in the brain in which different mental states emerge in an inexplicable manner. From some of the sources I have compiled the following very interesting and exciting non technical facts (very briefly) about our mind.

1. A full blown mind is developed only during the teens because by that time, all connections in the neural network are more or less complete. And the idea of unique identity gets firmly attached to the image of the physical body. Then throughout the life, mind goes on extending and enlarging its capacities.

2. National Science Foundation, US reported a few years back that the average person has somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 thought an hour. Depending on whether or not we are “deep thinkers”, we can have between 12,000 and 50,000 thoughts each day. Most of our passing thoughts remain just that: brief glimpses into what could be, what might come to be, or what has been.

3.John von Neumann, the ‘father’ of modern computer once calculated that the human brain could store as much as 280 quintillion bits (280 with 18 zeros following it) of memory. It is further estimated that the human brain has a mind boggling raw computational power between 100,000,000,000,000 and 100,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second.

4.The subconscious mind is larger and faster than the conscious mind, and can account for as much as 90% of our activities each day. Cell biologist, Bruce Lipton, describe the conscious mind as operating with the computer-processing power at about 40 bits of information per second, while the subconscious processes information at 20 million bits per second. In other words, the subconscious is 500,000 times faster at what it does.

5.Many of our most deeply held beliefs are subconscious and begins when our brain state allows us to absorb the ideas of others before the age of seven. This is because of the fact that until the age of 7, our brains are in a hypnotic or dreamlike state, where mind is absorbing everything it can about our surroundings.

6.The evidences indicate that the window of consciousness opens for a very brief period of only 15 seconds. Our short term memory can hold perceptual experiences only for a fleeting short span of time. Our mind creates an illusion of continuous consciousness by cleverly adding up several short term memory episodes. Hence our consciousness or awareness arises from 15 seconds awareness. Moreover, a single conscious event can hold only about 7 objects at a time.

7. Experimental evidences now establish that the the brain is capable of doing computations necessary for taking decisions much before the mind becomes aware of them. Several routine activities that we perform are totally automated. It shows that the mind is indulging in the worst kind of self-deception. All that the mind does at times is to add an explanation or justification for a particular act of commission or omission.

Sources: The Spontaneous Healing of Belief by Gregg Braden, The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton, Upanishads for the Modern World by Dr G K Pillai and few papers from Internet

Heart-centered people listening to their heart’s voice do affect others energetically. The heart-focused people can in fact collectively affect the world community on a large scale.

2010-03-02T23:07:00.000-08:00

Most of the times we rely on our mind rather than heart while taking decisions or making choices in materialistic dominated life. Very often we ignore our heart’s inner voice. We all know for sure that the heart’s voice is more reliable as it is not based on our ego/ the self centeredness and fear. Now modern science has established a closer relationship between heart and our emotions. Medical science has found out that the heart produces by far the body’s most powerful rhythmic electromagnetic field, which can even be detected few feet away by sensitive instruments. Besides, the heart’s energy field is a carrier of emotional information and a mediator of bio-electromagnetic communication, within and outside the body.

Latest findings also suggest that the heart and brain maintain a continuous two-way dialogue; each influencing the functioning of others. Although it is not well known, the heart sends far more information to brain than the brain sends to the heart and the signals the heart sends to the brain can influence perception, emotional processing and higher cognitive functions. This system and circuitry is viewed by neurocardiology researchers as a "heart brain." The heart also generates the strongest rhythmic electromagnetic field in the body and this actually can be measured in the brain waves of people around us.

U S based Institute of HeartMath Research Center is globally a recognized research institution in the field of emotional physiology and stress-management and is engaged in basic psycho physiology, neurocardiology and biophysics research. The research conducted in this center has significantly advanced the understanding of heart-brain interactions, heart-rhythm-pattern and heart-rate analysis, emotional physiology and the physiology of optimal learning and performance. Research at this center shows our heart’s field changes distinctly as we experience different emotions. The information coded in our emotions plays a key role in the way the heart tells the brain which chemicals like hormones, endorphins and immune enhances to produce in the body at any given time. More precisely, our emotions tell our brains what we believe we need in the moment (quoted from Gregg Braden’s “The Spontaneous Healing of Belief”) Growing evidence also suggests energetic interactions involving the heart may underlie intuition and important aspects of human consciousness…and the heart appears to receive intuitive information before the brain."

We all know that our interaction with the planet, its systems and creatures, between and among nations, societies and individuals, and even within ourselves, is out of sync very frequently, it is difficult for many people to even achieve personal coherence – that state in which the heart, mind, emotions and other systems of the body function in a kind of a concert of synchronization with one another, affording clarity of thought and action, calmness, relationships built and nurtured on motives of care purity, and greater health, well-being and purpose. It is therefore necessary for people around the world to reconnect with their hearts, turning away from stressful and self-centered living and turning toward heart-based living and global coherence.

Indeed, most religious and spiritual traditions, regardless of cultural context, have emphasized the value of experiencing and expressing "qualities of the heart"--feelings such as love, care, gratitude, appreciation, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness--all of which can increase heart rhythm coherence. As individuals practice the principles of heart-centered, heart-based living by whatever means and methods they choose, they in turn will energetically affect those nearest them, and ultimately the collective body of heart-focused people will be able to affect the world community on a grand scale.

Source: Reading material/articles available on the website of Institute of HeartMath Research Centre, Callifornia, US

The universe does respond to our beliefs. We are active contributor to everything that we see in the world around us, precisely as the spiritual traditions in the past have said that we are.

2010-02-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

Earlier on this blog I wrote “10 Hard Questions about life that need answers before we die” on June 20, 2009 in which one of the questions was “Are we the architect of our own destiny? What’s the extent and role of ‘free will’ in shaping the events and the destiny of our life? There is another related question that arises is that whether the life is deterministic or it is the randomness that governs our life. The people around the world are generally not sure about their answer because everyone interprets about their life in their own way based on their experiences. Sometimes we feel that we all are helpless and powerless individuals witnessing all the time random and purposeless events in life. In other words, we live in a world where events just happen for no apparent reason. This feeling is often reinforced when we witness pain and suffering in our life as well as in our close family members or friends and the world looks like a hell. In any case we all suffer physical and emotional pain at one time or the other in life.

Another diametrical opposite worldview is that we are powerful humans having ‘free will’ and the ability to achieve whatever we desire in life hence we are not fragile and helpless individuals. There is off course another set of people who sometimes believe they are fully empowered individuals who can chose their own destiny but when they are subjected to severe pain and agony in their own life or in the life of their near and dears they see this world as hostile and meaningless. Very often we fall in this particular category of life as random and uncertain. Historically, we have been told that human race has evolved through random evolutionary process with the background principle of ‘survival of the fittest’ and hence we are insignificant creature evolved very recently on this earth (modern man is hardly 40 to 50,000 year old compared to 3.5 billion years when the first sign of life appeared on this planet). Besides, our life is primarily controlled by genes, comprising DNA, the hereditary material which is passed on to us from our parents. This view suggests that we have very little effect on whatever happens in our life and the world or the reality around us.

In the beginning of 20th century, in the field of modern physics, some very fascinating and mind boggling discoveries of subatomic particles (quantum world) shocked the scientific community and those very findings changed the very concept of reality about the physical world and the universe. New findings of quantum physics suggest that the universe and our physical bodies are made of ever-changing fields of energy, which interacts with one another to create our world in ways that can only be described as possibilities rather than certainties. These studies transform our role from that of passive observer to powerful individuals of change interacting with the same stuff everything else is made of. In a completely revolutionary interpretation of our relationship to the world, we are active contributor to everything that we see in the world around us, precisely as the spiritual traditions in the past have said that we are. (John Wheeler, Princeton University physicist)

Recent research on quantum mechanics/modern physics show that we humans are much more than simply the “observers” in this physical world and we can directly affect the waves and particles of the universe. Gregg Braden in ‘The Spontaneous Healing of Belief’ (2008) argues strongly that despite the role played by the DNA of our bodies, the success of our relationships and the peace of our mind is based on what we believe and the way we think of ourselves. He further explains that “the universe responds to our beliefs. It is this difference- thinking of us as powerful creators rather than passive observers. In short, our beliefs have the power to change the course of events in the physical world” He elaborates this point in the same book by explaining that “belief is expressed in the heart where our experiences are translated into the electrical and magnetic waves that interact with the physical world”. In a participatory reality, as modern physicists argue, we are creating our experiences through our beliefs, as well as experiencing what we have created.

Can we generate a critical mass of people for transformations of mankind for its better future? Attempts are being made globally through mass meditation and prayers, which can affect the global consciousness.

2010-01-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

As explained in my previous article, the materialistic world is at crucial juncture in our history because of the problems and challenges the mankind is facing on various fronts right from international terrorism and disastrous climatic changes to increasing inequality and persisting world hunger despite amazing progress in the field of science and technology. The strong and narrow sense of identity and the feeling of separateness right from individual level to nations, this worldview to poses an extreme threat because this is the very root cause of all maladies and illnesses behind every conflict, struggle and violence whether we see at the level of individual, or society, religious groups or the nations. Hence mankind has to transform itself in order to evolve spiritually for better livable future otherwise sooner or later we may face breakdown of various institutions and even whole civilization. For this, humanity while making serious attempts to mitigate these threats must transform spiritually for peaceful co-existence of all individuals, religious and ethnic groups/societies and the nations around the globe.

In my earlier article posted on Feb 9, 09 on this blog entitle “there is a growing realization on the direct link between collective consciousness and the physical world around us during extraordinary events”. I had explained in detail as to how from subatomic particles to individual brains to groups of brains emerge global consciousness and we all can potentially affect collective mindset of mankind or we may say the global consciousness. Experiments have shown that human consciousness can make the string of random numbers slightly non-random or rather more orderly when people hold common intentions to do so, or when there is a special state of coherent group consciousness. This suggests a direct relationship between collective consciousness and the physical world around us during extraordinary human events. The nature of global consciousness suggests that we all have direct communication links with each other and our intentions can collectively have effects in the world despite physical barriers.

With this background in mind, it’s worth knowing that an extraordinary event took place on May 20, 2007 in which over one million people in more than 60 countries all over the world participated. The event was celebrated in a number of ways in countries such as Argentina, Germany, Japan, India, Australia and the U.S. This event focused first of all on large gatherings with several hundreds or thousands of people practiced meditating or praying at one location, this time, the organizers asked the participants to join the global prayer and meditation link individually or in smaller groups, creating a light-filled, harmonious and peaceful circle in their homes or outside in nature, to pray or meditate for the peace of the world. Following this mega-event, on December 22, 07 thousands of friends of peace again gathered in all continents, this time in order to greet the New Dawn of human consciousness, following the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

The above events of massive gathering were jointly organized by the Global Peace Society and the Club of Budapest in order to promote the global mind-shift, the culture of peace and to help create a new era of humanity. The purpose was to create a world based on love and harmony, a world in which all different races, ethnic groups, religions, cultures, traditions and customs are respected, and in which every individual and every nation can freely express their individual qualities, while living in harmony with one another and with all life on Earth (for further details may see: www.globalpeacemeditationprayerday.org ). After seeing the overwhelming response of Global Peace Days organized so far, the club of Budapest in partnership with the World Prayer Society is making efforts to create periodic Global Peace Meditation/Prayer Days to bring together many millions of dedicated people and focus the power of their consciousness on peace in the world. Such a “critical mass” of human will, the club of Budapest believes, make a major and possibly crucial contribution towards achieving a world that is peaceful, humane and sustainable (Ervin Laszlo in Global Shift in the World Mind, 2009).

Not exactly on the similar lines, the New Age Movement or New Age spirituality is another social and spiritual movement especially in the western world that seeks “Universal Truth" and the attainment of the highest individual human potential. New Age spirituality is characterized by an individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies, and the rejection of religious doctrine and dogma. The modern New Age Movement emerged in a distinct form in the late 1960s and early 1970s, although its roots can be traced back to the 19th and early 20th centuries. It gained momentum in the 1980s and strengthened with the Harmonic Convergence event in 1987. Large number of individuals from around the world practice New Age spirituality. This movement also includes elements of older spiritual and religious traditions and philosophy of “All Is One” and “Mind Body Spirit”.

Likewise there are many such movements or platforms around the globe which are rigorously spreading awareness about the urgent need of transformation of collective mindset to tackle the crisis we all are facing. No doubt there are large number of people believing in spiritual way of life and are genuinely trying for welfare of citizens and the state but their numbers are not adequate for making an impact on the society as a whole. On the other hand, hardly 3 to 5% of general population constituting corrupt politician and bureaucrats, social offenders and criminals are holding the whole society, especially in countries like India, on ransom. However I feel even if the same percentage of population believing in high morals and ethics and engaged in spiritual practices and are united then collectively they have potential to transform the humanity for a better course of life. Many studies have proved that when a small percentage of population achieved peace within themselves, it was reflected in the world around them. The problem is that most of these people are isolated and their influence is limited to themselves while the people indulged in crime, violence and corruption have far wider influence over others. However, peace loving and spiritual people when become a critical mass of the entire population, we can soon witness a tipping point (the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable) from where we may start seeing the fundamental change in our collective mindset/ consciousness of the world.

Man has suffered heavily because of his materialistic and self-centered views not only about the physical world but also about himself.

2010-01-07T02:00:00.000-08:00

In the first decade of 21st century, humanity is still dominated by materialistic, energy and resource intensive and narrowly self-concerned technological civilization born in the west and extended to all continents. A linear continuation of the trends and processes engendered by this civilization is not sustainable; it would provoke major crisis and ultimately breakdown---Erwin Laszlo (2009)

You may be surprised to know that in the last century alone, nearly 167-175 million lives were lost by way of violence and man's inhumanity on man(compiled by Zbiginew Brezinski, former national security adviser under the Carter Administration in by 1993). Eric Hobsbawn called “20th century as the most murderous century in recorded history”. Statistics shows that the 20th century was the bloodiest 100 years in human history, with more people killed as the result of violence, war and genocides than from all of the major natural disasters combined during the same period of time. Crime is increasing sharply everywhere whether the society is developed or underdeveloped. Over and above, society is increasingly riddled with many serious maladies right from increasing divorce at alarming rate, drug menace, child prostitution, infant mortality, sexual harassment, domestic violence etc. Besides, man across the globe is killing his fellow beings in the name of God and religion. The burning example in front of us is that of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. Sometimes we feel that man is nothing but another animal that has evolved randomly to a higher level of intelligent being.

What has happened to man’s nature and behavior and why the man who has enormous capability to think and act rationally and intelligently is increasingly becoming so violent, inhuman and intolerant? Why is he losing contact with his inner Self and has so much of aversion to love, compassion and care for fellow beings? Something is terribly going wrong in the way he thinks, act and behave. Something about man has changed and this change is undoubtedly within man himself. Off course this question is not simple to be answered however, I feel, one of the most important reasons has been that man has adopted highly materialistic way of life with the advancement of civilization by unconsciously ignoring the spirituality aspect of life. It reason is reinforced by the fact that all societal problems which existed before the rise of materialism have drastically worsened through the use of materialistic solutions.

In materialistic world, we genuinely believe that everything in the universe is basically matter and physical matter is all there is, without any true spiritual or intellectual existence. Mankind is hence largely preoccupied with the material world, while ignoring the very spiritual nature of human beings. Materialism means an inclination towards acquiring material possessions and comforts; in short, it is a tendency to lead a life in which pleasures of the body are given preference above anything else. On the other hand, spirituality means, centered and established on the soul, that is, activities in life are decided keeping in mind the awakening of the soul.

As the mankind advanced into 20th century, the traditional concepts of Soul (the Atman) and spiritual nature of man took backseat and materialistic views of the world became the foundation for every field right from humanity to medical sciences and biology. Over the period of time, mankind as a whole has paid heavily for many irrelevant and wrong solutions and remedies provided by materialism. Many of the institutions established under socio-political and religious fields have deteriorated with the denial of man’s essential nature of spirituality. Medical sciences like psychology and psychiatry have also ignored this aspect while doing research for finding remedies for man’s problems of physical and mental health and its behavior.L. Ron Hubbard the founder of Scientology who argued strongly in favor of each man’s capabilities as spiritual beings was of the view that psychiatry had consistently invented more and more mental illnesses during the last fifty years and pharmaceutical industry has been quick to jump on the gravy train by inventing the chemical ‘cures’. The effects of these drugs create yet more categories of mental illnesses profiting everyone but the patient. Like in many other fields materialistic solutions applied to human problems do not work.

We are born with a self-hood that contains the spiritual DNA of our uniqueness – encoded birthright knowledge of who we are, why we are here, and how we are related to others. Parker J Palmer, 2010 in ‘A Hidden Wholeness’ observe that from the moment of birth onward, the soul or true self is assailed by deforming forces from without and within: by casteism, racism, sexism, economic injustice and other social cancers which all are byproducts of materialistic world. In this process, the child grows to a materialistic being by ignoring his spiritual nature. Mankind has suffered heavily because of its materialistic views not only about the world but also about himself. The remedies and solutions provided by modern science based on the concept of materialism have further deteriorated the man’s problems and maladies affecting the present day societies with the denial of man’s essential spirituality.

Despite all odds, mankind as a whole has largely been and is religious, regardless of how his belief in spiritual beings manifests itself. In the many parts of the world man has faith in spirituality and aspirations to something higher than his current existence. Even science has now gradually making an attempt to overcome anxiety by providing an understanding of life and forces of the universe. Spiritualism is all about learning to connect with our own inner self. To follow the spiritual path one needs not have to abandon material things, nor does leading a materialistic life mean that one can't engage in spiritual practice. In fact, even if we are totally materialistic, if we come in touch with our inner truth, becoming conscious of what we truly are. We can find that there is already a part of our mind that is flowing in a spiritual direction. (Lama Thubten Yeshe) As we evolve spiritually, it leads to an understanding that we already have within us what we seek from outside world like love, inner happiness and peace.

Do cosmic coincidences give any clue for existence of Ultimate Designer or the God - Our very existence on this universe depends on the existence of those coincidences.

2009-12-29T04:44:00.000-08:00

It would be very difficult to explain why the universe would have begun in just this way except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us. – Albert Einstein

Whether life has arisen by chance or by an intelligent designer or the God has been a subject of intense debate since the beginning of scientific age. Even as on date there remains no viable theory which can describe the origin of life in this universe. Our universe, as explained in previous article, is incredibly vast and very peculiar in nature. There has been plenty of evidence which suggest that there is something very special about the laws of nature that make this universe as suitable ground for our life. For organic life to exist, the fundamental regularities and constants of physics must all have values that together fall into an extremely narrow range. The probability of this perfect calibration happening by chance is so tiny as to be statistically negligible (Michael J Murray, 1999). In other words, there are many cosmic coincidences that make the universe so special and they point towards the presence of intelligent design of the universe.

Our very existence on this universe depends on the existence of those coincidences. Francis Collins in The Language of God explains that there are 15 constants such as gravitational constant, various constants of weak and strong nuclear force, etc. that have precise values. If any of those constants was off by even one part in a million or in some cases by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come into the point where we see it. It is worth knowing that if the difference between the mass of the neutron and proton was not precisely twice the mass of the electron, no substantial chemical reactions could take place, and if the electric charge of electrons and protons didn’t balance precisely, all configurations of matter would be unstable and universe would consist merely of radiations and relatively uniform mixture of gases ( Ervin Laszlo in Global Shift in the World Mind)

Recently I came across one very interesting example of cosmic coincidence in In Search of Multiverse by John Gribbin. It is that we humans are almost exactly halfway in mass between an atom and the sun. The mass of the sun is around 2×10³⁰ whereas the mass of an atom like carbon is roughly 10²⁶. On the other hand the mass of human being in round number is about 100 kg or 10² kg. That means that a person weigh 10²⁸ times more than an atom and the sun weigh 10²⁸ times more than a person. It would take as many people as there are atoms in our body to make the mass of the sun. Besides, in 1930s Sir Eddington and Paul Dirac noted that the ratio of electric force to gravitational force is around 10⁴⁰, and the ratio of the observable size of the universe to the size of elementary particles is likewise around 10⁴⁰. John Gribbin further explains after giving reasoning that we are actually around at just about the earliest time we could have appeared in the universe. The vast size of the visible universe which seems at first sight to highlight the insignificance of human beings on the cosmic scale of things, is actually an essential requirement of our existence.

The investigation of such types of cosmic coincidences is also called the “anthropic principle” because our very existence depends on the existence of such coincidences. This principle was formulated as a response to a series of observations that the laws of nature and its fundamental physical constants remarkably take on values that are consistent with conditions for life as we know it rather than a set of values that would not be consistent with life as observed on earth (Wikipedia). Timothy Keller in The Reason for God (2008) while explaining different clues for existence of God reasoned that it’s possible that we just happened to be in the one universe in which organic life occurred. Though you could not prove that the fine-tuning of the universe was due to some sort of design, it would be unreasonable to draw the conclusion that it wasn’t. Although organic life could have just happened without a Creator, does it make sense to live as if that infinitely remote chance is true? Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kutter also explain this point in Quantum Enigma, that split second before quarks and electrons came into existence the Big Bang had to be finely tuned to produce a universe in which we could live. That was amazing fine tuning.

It is abundantly clear from the above discussion that if the initial conditions and the natural constants of our universe were not exactly what they are, there would have been no one to observe it, this is the very essence of ‘anthropic principle’. It also suggests that the conditions were such at the moment of the creation of the universe as to presage eventual emergence of intelligent life in it (Mani Bhaumik in Code Name God, 2005). Some scientists have gone further in pursuing this anthropic theory and they are of the view that the universe is tailor made (or designer made) for us. Designer here means the God. This view is often known as “strong anthropic principle.” Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kutter while supporting this view observe that this strong anthropic principle asserts that the universe is hospitable to us because we could not create a universe in which we could not exist. Eminent physicist Freeman Dyson is further of this radical view that “the universe in some sense must have known that we were coming.”

From Big Bang to Big Crunch - a brief journey from unimaginable subatomic world to incredibly vast universe.

2009-12-24T03:29:00.000-08:00

Are you aware that when you breathe, each time we inhale about a billion trillion molecules and we each have molecules of Shakespeare or say Gautam Buddha (may see details in my article dated 13.4.09 on this blog). We simple can’t imagine such tiniest possible particles (that too illusionary) are all over the universe. The idea that everything is made of atoms goes back to the Greek philosopher Democritus (460 BCE – 370 BCE). Now we know, these atoms consist of positively charged nucleus in which protons and neutrons are bound together by strong nuclear force and are balanced by negatively charged electrons surrounding them. Typically, atom is about 100,000 times bigger than the nucleus at its center. A proton in an atomic nucleus is about 2000 times more massive than an electron. The protons and neutrons in turn are made up of even tinier particles called quarks. Hence all matter that makes up our physical world is composed of 2 kinds of fundamental particles – quarks and electrons.

We further know for sure that these elementary particles are nothing but discrete packets of energy so constituents of everything we see in this world are in a constant state of flux. It is also a remarkable fact that 99.9999999999999 % of the volume of ordinary matter is empty space. If there were some way to squeeze the entire empty space out of the atoms in our body, humanity would indeed fit into the space occupied by a sugar cube. It is also established that mass is conjured out of empty space in the form of microscopic particles of matter. The quantum vacuum is actually a seething morass of microscopic particles such as electrons popping into existence and then vanishing again. Actually, every particle created is created alongside its antiparticle, a particle with opposite properties. So a negatively charged electron is always created with a positively charged positron (Marcus Chown in Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, 2006).

Just to briefly explain further, the primary elements of reality are not individual particle but underlying fields of energy. So steel rod as we see it hard and solid is nothing but quantized “lumps of energy”. These so called un-manifest fields or quantum fields pervade all space and time. According to quantum mechanics, their influence is non local that means it is felt equally all parts of the universe. Quantum mechanics is a set of principles describing the physical reality at the atomic level of matter and the subatomic (electron, protons, and even smaller particles). These descriptions include the simultaneous wave-like and particle-like behavior of both matter and radiation (wave-particle duality). Some of its predictions and implications go against the "common sense" of how humans see a set of bodies (a system) behave. Many other characteristic features of quantum world have been explained in my earlier articles specially the one posted on Feb14,09 on this blog.

The universe, as cosmologists and astrophysicists know for sure, began 13.7 billion years ago with a big bang. The universe is still expanding today. On a larger scale universe is uniform wherever we see but at the level of clusters of galaxies and below, visible matter is clumped together. There are more than 100 billion galaxies and in each galaxy there are over 100 billion stars like sun. Now imagine, on a clear night, only 3 to 4 thousands stars are visible to the average human eye. Many scientists say that the universe is just an infinitesimal part of a single ‘bubble’ or pocket universe, set amid an infinite assemblage of universes – a multiverse – itself embedded in inflating space that exists without end (Paul Davies in The Goldilock Enigma). Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that the universe should have zero total mass as the positive mass-energy is exactly neutralized by the negative mass-energy of the gravitational field of all the matter in the universe.

Our observable universe is 10²³ Kms and it contains about 10⁵⁰ tonnes of visible matter in the forms of stars, gas and dust, all of which combines to create a powerful gravitational field. The volume of space within the horizon contains about 10⁸⁰ atoms and about 10⁹⁰ neutrinos and photons and each particle can carry a few bits of information only. According to a calculation done by Seth Lloyd, a theoretical physicist of MIT, the total information in universe comes to about 10¹²⁰ bits. Most of the universe is made of something that is still not identified. Ordinary matter makes up just 4%. It looks as though most of the mass of the universe is in the form of ‘dark energy’, which is gravitationally repulsive making the universe expand faster and faster. However, if this energy remains constant, the universe will ultimately collapse to a big crunch.

The Physics of Meditation – quantum physics explains how man’s ego is surrendered/dissolved during meditation and other creative activities.

2009-12-16T22:24:00.000-08:00

Every human being, without exception, lives a life whose moment-to-moment behavior and actions arise from a core of learned beliefs or his/her conditioned mind. And every human being develops an ego whose view of life is intimately intertwined with this core of those beliefs. In other words, the ego is the product of psychological and genetic conditioning and our ordinary states of being, both awake and asleep, are dominated by the ego conditioning. (Amit Goswami, 2008). Since we have grown under complete influence of our egos, we hardly learn to distinguish between the voice of that ego and the voice of our true self. In fact, we may not even be aware that such a distinction exists in our behavior. Until we learn to distinguish its voice from the voice of our true self, no one can be free from the ego's influence. What we think we are and what we truly are not the same things. What we think we are is greatly influenced by the egoistic reflection of the mind. The crucial step is in understanding our own egos, why we have created them, and how we can control and let go of them. When we are not able to learn how and when to tighten and loosen our egos, we pay a heavy price by way of unhappiness, despair and anger in our life. On the other hand, if our ego is controlled or restricted then we can experience peace and happiness in our life. In this context, ego surrender does not mean that we lose our identity or giving up who are but it means losing our false identity and setting free who are really are (Dr. Frank B. Smoot).

I am a regular practitioner of transcendental meditation (TM) of late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from last 10 years or so. I have earlier explained this type of meditation and its effects on physical and mental health on this blog. I have always experienced that whenever I meditate deeply, time around me seems to speed up and I experience "time slowing" relative to the clock on the wall. In other words, very often time passes very rapidly during meditation. It means I age less rapidly during this period compare to the time shown on the clock. The same kind of feeling we experience when we engaged ourselves in any other creative activity like music, painting, writing, playing passionately any game etc. Artists like painters or writer often experience this "time slowing" when they engage in creative activities. Hence there is surrendering of the ego occurs at that period of time because we seem to lose any sense of who we are that is doing the creative work. In this way, creative activities including meditation take us out of our ego or mind body as long as we are engaged in such activities.

As regards quantum physics I have briefly explained subatomic realm in my earlier article posted on Feb 14, 09 and subsequently posted 2 more articles pertaining to this subject matter on 25th and 28th March 09 on this blog. Briefly, quantum physics deals with a new kind of object called a possibility-wave and everything in the world including our brain and mind has possibility waves. When these waves are focused by mind (or consciousness), objective reality is created. Hence quantum physics deals with sub-spacetime world that is beyond both matter and mind. Fred Alan Wolf in The Yoga of Time Travel has given detailed explanation as to how man's ego is dissolved under certain circumstances specially when we are engaged in creative activities and yogic exercises including mediation . He says that we can think of this sub-spacetime realm as the fundamental ground upon which reality appearing as mind and matter emerge. We seem to have no control over these possibility-waves, which remain submerged below our levels of perception. In other words, the mind converts possibility-waves to objective reality or the real world by way of ‘focusing’ By this 'focus' mechanism, objective realities are created "out there" from the possibility-waves undulating within the subjective sub-spacetime realm. In the process of 'focusing', the mind moves from purely imaginary realm into awareness of the physical reality otherwise unfocussed possibilities remain in the sub-spacetime or imaginary realm.

In this way, our conscious experiences consist of a sequence of these focal points separated by unfocussed possibilities, explains further by Alan A Wolf. The natural course of possibility-waves, without the intervention of consciousness/mind to create a focused point, is to go from a more to a less-focused pattern. That is why our perception of reality tends to blur and spread out after a focused moment. When we let go, we 'unfocus' or free the possibilities associated with it increase at any particular location in space-time. Through focus we learn to control of master the skills we need to cope and through 'unfocusing' we learn to relax and let the world in without judgment. The progression created by successive focal points of concentration and fuzziness establishes a time order, which is the basis for the history of the individual. Modern science has established that meditation has a very profound basis in quantum physics. Conscious life consist of patterns of focused and unfocused activities and these patterns give rise to the ego or body-mind, which arose evolutionarily as mechanism for survival. Through meditation we are able to learn how and when to focus and 'unfocus' our mind. When we focus or 'unfocus' we gain (or lose) control over our body and our environment and learn how and what to extend we can manipulate them. In this way, by engaging ourselves in mediation and other creative activities like music or paintings we can surrender or dissolve our ego by keeping mind/consciousness unfocused and remain unaware about our own mind-body throughout this period.

Our thoughts and focused intentions can affect physical reality that we perceive. However, most people don't affect reality in a consistent & substantial way because they don't believe they can.

2009-11-24T04:07:00.000-08:00

In the 1970s the physicist Fred Alan Wolf wrote an evocative phrase "we create our own reality". Since then there has been lot of research and experimentation all over the world not only by physicists but even others as to how our thoughts and focused attention can affect physical reality that we perceive around us. Earlier also on this blog I had posted an article on February 05, 2009 titled "There is a growing realization on the direct link between collective consciousness and the physical world around us during extraordinary human events". In that article I had stated that the nature of global consciousness suggests that we may have direct communication links with each other and our intentions can have effects in the world despite physical barriers. Global Consciousness Project has produced such compelling evidence which suggest correlations that we can’t yet explain. On only at the collective consciousness level, we can see and feel the effects on the reality that we perceive at the individual level if we pay focused attention with a strong belief that our thoughts and attention can affect reality.

A study published in the journal 'Social Indicators Research' reports on one of the most dramatic sociological experiments ever undertaken. Researchers predicted in advance that the calming influence of group meditation practice could reduce violent crime by over 20 percent in Washington, D.C., during an 8-week period in the summer of 1993, when the crime was on peak. In fact, the findings later showed that the rate of violent crime, which included assaults, murders, and rapes decreased by 23 percent during the June 7 to July 30 period. The odds of this result occurring by chance were less than 2 in 1 billion. Rigorous statistical analyses ruled out an extensive list of alternative explanations, according to John Hagelin, lead author of the study and director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. Obviously, this leads to wonder can people affect the world of reality that they see. It has been established by numerous studies and experiments that every single one of us affects the reality that we perceive.

To corroborate what has been the outcome of above study, Mr. Masuro Emoto, a Japanese researcher and writer thought that the our thoughts should also respond to nonphysical events that take place around us. So he set up a series of studies applied mental stimuli and photographed it with a dark field microscope. Subsequently, Emoto became famous for his claim that if human speech or thoughts are directed at water droplets before they are frozen, images of the resulting water crystals will be beautiful or ugly depending upon whether the words or thoughts were positive or negative. Emoto claims this can be achieved through prayer or music. Since 1999 Emoto has published several volumes of a work titled Messages from Water, which also contains photographs of water crystals. According to Wikipedia, a discovery has been made by Emoto that there are “many differences in the crystalline structure of the water” depending on the type of water source, which were taken from all over the world. For example, a water sample from a 'pristine mountain' stream would show a 'geometric' design that is 'beautifully' shaped 'when frozen'. On the other hand, 'polluted water' sources will show a 'definite distortion' and will be 'randomly formed'. Mr. Emoto speaks of the thought or intent being the driving force in this entire phenomenon.

From Mr. Emoto's work we are provided with factual evidence, that human vibrational energy, thoughts, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water, the very same water that comprises over 70% of a mature human body and covers the same amount of our planet. Water is the very source of all life on this planet, the quality and integrity is vitally important to all forms of life. If thoughts can do that to water then one can imagine what our thought scan do to us. According to the researchers, more than 42 studies conducted during the past 25 years have verified the field effects of consciousness. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of very popular mediation technique named TM proposed that “all occurrences of violent conflict arise from the accumulation of collective stress”. Dr. Davies said that if you have a large group of people meditating together, you can have 'constructive interference-a common phenomenon in physics with waves of any type'(Source-http://www.whenonepercent.org/ collective-consciousness-%20john-davies.html)

Now the pertinent question arises whether thoughts can affect physical reality that we perceive then why we are not experiencing it in a convincing manner. The explanation that I have found in the movie titled "What the Bleep do we Know" of 2004 is that most people don't affect reality in a consistent substantial way because they don't believe they can. They make have an intention but in the next moment they erase it because they think that intention would not have any affect. They mean they can't do that. And then they make the same intention again and then they erase it. So in such time average the intention has a very small effect. And it really comes down to the fact that they believe they can't do it. But we know it's like positive thinking. It's a wonderful idea to think positively but what it usually means is that we generally have a little smear of positive thinking covering a whole mass of negative thinking. So thinking positive is not really thinking positively but it's just disguising the negative thinking that we usually have.

The above explanation has further been corroborated by the fact that there is generally lack of focusing in our mind and the average attention span of average person is 6-10 seconds per minute that's' why it's so difficult to bring focused attention on anything which we want to perceive. Besides, the Law of Attraction (we attract whatever images we have of ourselves and our desires in our sub conscious mind whether positive or negative) doesn't discriminate between good and bad thoughts. It only cares about the thought itself. If mind thinks superficially on ordinary thoughts then that can't create focused attention. Because we don't believe we can do it - we never have enough time to care anyone else other than our own emotional addictive needs. Therefore, most people become frustrated and give up because they have not learned how to cause The Law to work for them consistently and provide the results that they want (http://www.mrmanifestation.com/)

Man's mind/brain has very limited capacity to perceive True Reality of the world. The reality we perceive around us is largely illusionary and very far from the Ultimate Reality.

2009-11-09T04:24:00.000-08:00

1. When you read this article while sitting comfortably on the chair, the earth beneath you is moving at 30 km/sec around the Sun, and the Solar System is traveling at 200 km/sec around the Milky Way, but regardless of such cosmic movements and thanks to the phenomenon of inertia, you feel stationary relative to your direct surroundings?

2. Your brain processes 400 billion bits of information every second but your awareness is only on 2000 bits of information that means reality or the awareness you perceive is almost negligible compare to what brain process information.

In this materialistic world, we all generally have rock-solid foundation of certain well conceived notions for perceiving reality around us such as firstly, what we perceive as solid like chair, table, iron rod and other metallic items are solid, distinct, and separate from other things; secondly, whatever, our mind perceive through senses like eyes, ears, nose are real and not illusionary in nature; thirdly, we as observer have no role in creating reality around us means things/events will take place whether we watch them or not (when a tree falls in forest there will be sound irrespective of our presence). Likewise, there are hundreds of hidden assumptions and on that basis we take for granted that may or may not be true. But we are locked into these precepts without even knowing it oftentimes. Let's take some of these well conceived notions about perception and see how far these are objective and reflect true nature of reality around us.

Let's first consider about the nature of objects which we perceive as solid, separate and distinct from other. We like to think of space as empty and matter as solid. But in face there is essentially nothing to matter whatsoever. It's completely insubstantial. Way back in 1910 the British scientist Ernest Rutherford discovered that atoms were not solid particles, as it was believed, and that they were actually almost completely empty. Today it has been confirmed beyond any doubt that the mass of an atom represents only a thousandth of a trillionth of its volume! And that 99.9% of such mass resides in its nucleus, with the rest allocated in the energetic cloud of electrons. If an atom occupied the volume of a football stadium, its nucleus would be a grain of sand floating at the center of the stadium. This means that all we perceive as solid, ourselves included is essentially empty. Emptiness represents possibilities and, in a universe that is fundamentally empty, reality is fundamentally limitless. This view of reality has been endorsed by the founders of quantum mechanics. According to this theory, everything from the atoms and molecules to plants, animals, human, planets, stars and galaxies, there is a unified energy field that interconnects everything in the universe.

Coming to our senses through which we perceive reality, it is now becoming clear that these sensory organs of our body have limited capacity to perceive true reality. Take an example of an eye, a normal human eye features an average of 100 million photoreceptor cells, of which 5 million cone cells are mainly responsible for our color perception. 65% of those cone cells are red-sensitive, 32% are green-sensitive and 3% blue-sensitive. Our perception of color results from the interaction between rod cells, cone cells and the way our brain interprets their input. If we modify or remove some of these factors, as it is the case with most of us, the rainbow will look differently to different people. Another problem of trying to describe reality based on our sensory input is that most of reality escapes our senses. For example, what we call “visible light” represents less than 0.01% of the electromagnetic spectrum, but just because we can’t see the other wavelengths of the spectrum it does not mean they do not manifest. After all, some species can see infrared or ultraviolet wavelengths just like we see “visible light”. The same happens with sound, the range of frequencies we can hear is utterly insignificant compared with the full sonic spectrum. Of course, the invisible wavelengths and imperceptible frequencies have been incorporated into very useful new technologies such as medical imaging and telecommunications, thus becoming part of our immediate reality.

Our vast sensory limitations only account for our particular way of relating to the world of phenomena, but assuming that they are in any way absolute or objective is the basis of delusion. We will never be able to describe an absolute independent reality because we are part of the experiment being observed. We are part of reality and we modify it with our presence. This statement goes beyond the metaphorical and is one of the most surprising findings of quantum mechanics. It is known as the collapse of wave function and deals with the wave/particle duality of light. Before we measure it, light behaves as a wave that is present everywhere, but as soon as a measurement is performed a particle “materializes” in a single location. The presence of an observing consciousness defines the outcome of the observed phenomena. This means that there is no reality independent from the observer and everything becomes relative.

We generally hold a worldview of separateness in this physical reality and that we are autonomous entities, totally separate from other fellow beings because this is how we perceive through our senses. However, in the ancient times especially in India man’s views were essentially of wholeness. The most significant doctrine expressed in the Vedas and the Upanishads, the first philosophical explorations of Hinduism, is that Reality is One or Absolute, changeless, and eternal, the Brahman. And the ordinary human world of many separate and discrete (finite) things, which our mind perceives through our senses, is merely an illusion. Through the use of contemplative sciences, ancient sages like Buddha and Nagarjuna reached the conclusion that space, time and all of objective reality were mere illusions created by our differentiating mind. These revelations were strongly rejected in the West, but through the years, western scientists are slowly reaching the same conclusions.

It's hence clear from the above that all of this reality we perceive is just a great illusion that we have no way of really getting outside of it to see what is really out there. Our brain or the mind has so much of limitation in perceiving what the actual reality is out there. We firmly believe that the world 'out' there is the real world as perceived by our brain. Our brain does not know the difference between what's taking place 'out there' and what's taking place 'in here'(in brain). Modern physics/quantum mechanics has also confirmed that what we perceive through senses is not reality. Space and time are just illusion of perception. Quantum physics has also proved that it is the consciousness of the observer that creates reality. There is no reality independent of observer. However, this radical change in age old worldviews is not easy to be accepted by all and this will take more time to readily accept by all. It's like that when Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543)) came out with heliocentric view in 1513 that sun rather than earth is in the center of universe but he didn't dare to publish his work in his lifetime due to threat on his life as this work had challenged the Church who believed earth on the center of universe. Even after publication of his work, people didn't believe in this radical discovery for many decades. Likewise new radical views on reality would take time to be readily accepted by the world.

Note : Some of the facts and figures have been taken from the movie titled "What the Bleep Do We Know" of 2004 and article written by Sergio Toporek titled "Get Real" on internet.

Origin of mankind and its journey into future- If mankind is to survive beyond the current century, it has to grow spiritually for co existence of its widely diversified societies/groups.

2009-11-03T04:01:00.000-08:00

The universe started with the Big Bang an estimated 13.7 billion years ago. In the eventful first three seconds, a number of transitions occurred, including a period of inflation and symmetry breaking. These were followed, later, by expansion, cooling, and formation of galaxies, stars, and planets, including earth (around 4.5 billion years ago).The first living things on Earth are thought to be single cell organisms called prokaryotes. The oldest ancient fossil microbe-like objects are dated to be 3.5 billion years old, just a few hundred million years younger than Earth itself. Evolution of more complex organisms was a slow process. It took some 1.8 billion years for eukaryotic life to evolve from single cell organisms (prokaryotes), and another 1.4 billion years before the first multi-cellular organisms arose.

Fossil evidence as well as mitochondria DNA indicates that modern humans i.e. Homo Sapiens first appeared about 120,000 years to 160,000 years ago in Africa. The earliest known archaeological evidence of our ancestors is found in East Africa. In around 74000 yrs ago, 1000 year 'ice-age' the total population of modern humans crashed to less than 10,000 adults (the whole humanity as on date is from this population!) Subsequent dramatic warming of the climate 52,000 yrs ago, population starts growing. Then modern humans (also known as Cro magnon man) arrived in Europe from Africa about 40,000 years ago to find Neanderthal (also looked as humans but less developed and short statured compared to modern humans) already living there. The modern humans and Neanderthals existed together for 10,000 to 12,000 years before Neanderthals extinct from the earth. In the meantime modern humans gradually spread to all continents and they inhabited Eurasia and Oceania around 40,000 years back, and the America at least 14,500 years ago.

Until 10,000 years ago, most humans lived as hunter gatherer. The advent of agriculture prompted the Neolithic Revolution, when access to food surplus led to the formation of permanent human settlements, the domestication of animals and the use of tools. Agriculture encouraged trade and cooperation, and led to complex society. By about 6,000 years ago, the first proto-states developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt's Nile Valley and the Indus Valley. Around 2,000–3,000 years ago, some states, such as India, Persia, China, Rome and Greece, developed through conquest into the first expansive empires.

Ever since the last Ice Age in 10,000 years or so, human race has been accumulating knowledge and developing technology. Despite many deadliest and natural calamities/disasters as well as large scaled massacres because of man's inhumanity on man, the world population has been rising steadily and this is a reflection of rising scientific and technological progress. Way back in 14th century, Black Death, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history reduced the world's population from estimated 450 million to between 350-375 million. Such examples are in plenty in whole human history. Besides, wars, battles, invasions and revolutions took place from time to time which lead to massacre and bloodsheds by killing millions of humans. In 20th century alone, as per the estimate nearly 167-175 million lives were lost by way of violence and man's inhumanity on man. This includes 80 million people who were killed in various genocides. In any case world's population kept on rising with gradually decreased rate of growth and ever rising life expectancy.

The world's population, as per the rough estimate, was nearly 1 million in 10,000 BC and this rose to 100 million in 500 BC and in next 1500 years this was increased to 310 million in 1000 AD. In the last two hundred years, population growth has become exponential, that is, the population grows by the same percentage each year. Currently, the rate is about 1.9 percent a year and it means that the world population doubles every forty years. A more recent estimate of the total number of people who have ever lived was prepared by Carl Haub of the Population Reference Bureau in 1995 and subsequently updated in 2002; the updated figure was approximately 106 billion. As on date, there are 6776 million people are living on this planet while 134 million take birth and out of total lot 57 million die at different age in a year. At current rate, the world's population will increase to 9000 million in 2040. According to Stephen Hawking (2002) by 2600 the world's population will be standing shoulder, and electricity use will make the Earth glow red-hot.

It is therefore quite certain that the present exponential growth of population cannot continue indefinitely. Hence a very obvious question arises, so what will happen in future? There are many possible scenario (as predicted by futurologists/scientists) like the mankind will destroy itself completely, for example by way of a nuclear war or population will decrease significantly by disastrous changes in global climatic conditions or may be, the mankind start inhabiting in other planets (such as Moon where water/hydroxyl traces have been recently discovered by Chandrayan after its thorough mapping with the help of NASA) of solar system or may be beyond. However, remarkable progress in all the fields of science and technology will continue and this will also lead to first, more and more man's longevity/life span and second, artificial intelligence will start operating in the world of computers, electronics, robotics and other related fields. May be, this world will see artificial humans with far greater intelligence in next 100 years.

In this context, I feel that if the mankind succeeds to survive for say next 200-300 years, this will most likely be evolved to the civilization of super-humans or man with super consciousness. However, to survive for such a long period, it is extremely important for the mankind to grow spiritually otherwise religious fundamentalism and terrorism along with nuclear arm race/war can potentially place the whole civilization under extreme threat of complete annihilation. Humanity must grow on spiritual rather than religious lines. The strong and narrow sense of identity and the feeling of separateness right from individual level (the egoic sense of self) to nations, this will continue to poses the greatest threat because this is the very root cause of all maladies and illnesses behind struggle ,violence and fight /war whether we see at the level of individual, society, various religious groups or the nations. Humanity must therefore mitigate or transform this threat spiritually towards peaceful co-existence of all the individuals, religious and ethnic groups of societies as well as nations.

Even after remarkable scientific and technological revolution, religious views and dogmas are still deeply embedded in our collective mindset.

2009-10-20T03:41:00.000-07:00

The concept of God or the Supreme Being as old as prehistoric times. Since the beginning of the idea of God, mankind has treated God as their creator or designer. Therefore, a creationist or intelligent design approach to human evolution continues to have popular appeal. However, Charles Darwin for the first time with the publication of 'Origin of Species' in 1859 propounded the theory of evolution based on chance variation and natural selection on the principle of 'survival of the fittest'. He gave irrefutable evidence that species evolved from older species. Like, we have too much commonality with monkeys, and they have much similarity with mammals lower on the evolutionary ladder, and so forth. If we look at the early development of the embryo of a 'higher' species, we will find that the stages resemble to those of the development of lower creatures of an early era. Hence there is no scope of doubt that the later species have evolved from earlier ancestors. Now the scientists especially biologists largely assume that the argument about creationist theory should be over because the evolutionary explanation is so well established by scientific evidence and hence there is no longer any room for debate.

Even exactly 150 years after the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, the theory of evolution, majority of the literate world still doesn't believe in this revolutionary theory and this controversy continues to rage today. Advocates of the "creationism" perspective (and to some degree, the newer "intelligent design" perspective) continue to argue that the biblical story of creation -- in which God created humans in their present form on the sixth day of creation -- is as viable and as valid as the evolutionary perspective. On the other hand, Hinduism is quite different from Christianity in its perspective on evolution. The Hindu's puranas (text narrating the history of universe) in the mythology of the avatara - descent of God in biological form -can already be seen as depicting evolution. Hence Christianity as well as Hinduism both rejects the Darwinian theory of evolution (Amit Goswami in God Is Not Dead).Besides, the Koran states that Allah created Adam, the first man, separately out of clay.It further says that universe was created in 6 days,the next line adds that a day is metaphorical:"a thousand years of your reckoning"

In America, the Gallup Poll is the division of Gallup that regularly conducts public opinion polls in more than 140 countries around the world. Gallup Polls are often referenced in the mass media as a reliable and objective measure of public opinion. Gallup has asked about the origin of humans in several different ways over the years, including the question stated below:

Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings -- Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process, 2) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process, 3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so]?

1. Man developed from less advanced forms but God guided this process- 38%

2. Man developed, but God had no part in process ---------------- 13%

3. God created man much in present form at one time --------------- 45%

4. No opinion ------------ 4%

What an irony, 45% Americans still think that God created human beings in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so and they deny that we have evolved from less advanced form of life. Therefore, the above opinion poll suggests that Americans choose " the biblical theory of creationism" over "Charles Darwin's theory of evolution" when asked which of these two theories best describes the origin of mankind, but slightly larger numbers of Americans choose one of two evolutionist explanations than choose a strict creationist explanation when given a choice between three specific views.

Creationism is also growing in the Muslim world, from Turkey to Pakistan to Indonesia, international academics said last month i.e. Oct 09 as they gathered to discuss this topic (Times of India, news on 4.11.09) .This research led by the Evolution Education Center at McGill University in Montreal corroborate the Muslim's belief in creationist theory of evolution. In a survey of 2527 Pakistani high school students conducted by this Center, it was revealed that over 60% disagreed with the scientific theory of evolution and rest were not sure. It's clear that the views of scientific evolution are clearly influenced by underlying religious beliefs.

A very obvious question, therefore, arises, why it is so that even after 300 years of remarkable scientific revolution and amazing progress in the field of technological development and also when most of the so called unexplained and mysterious phenomena of nature of earlier times have been successfully explained, still majority of Americans do not believe in the very fundamental theory of evolution i.e. man has evolved from other mammals like chimpanzee. If it's so happened in America which represents the most developed world then we can very easily imagine what the other world of developing and undeveloped nations would think on this issue. The only feasible answer, I can think of, is that the ancient/age old religious beliefs are deeply embedded in our collective psyche and these will not easily wiped out from man's mindset. In fact, in many parts of the world, we are witnessing sharp rise in people's faith in religious practices and their belief in religious views, and they refuse to accept views based on reason, rationality and scientific evidence.

By learning to control different states of brain waves, we can regulate our thought process and hence improve our state of physical and mental health.

2009-10-20T00:34:00.000-07:00

Those who have been science/biology students know that the brain is an electrochemical organ using electromagnetic energy to function. Electrical activity taking place in the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves. Briefly, there are four categories of brainwaves. They range from the high amplitude, low frequency delta to the low amplitude, high frequency beta. Men, women and children of all ages experience the same characteristic brainwaves. They are reportedly consistent across all cultures and countries.

Before going into further details, let's first know, in brief, the characteristic features of 4 different brainwaves. Beta waves has frequency ranging from 13 to 30 cycles per second and is experienced during awaking stages like awareness, concentration, logical thinking and active conversation. When a person talks or argues, he or she is in high beta wave stage and others who are listening attentively would also in the same stage. Alfa waves having a range from 7 to 13 cycles per second are experienced in stages like relaxation times, meditation, hypnosis etc. On the other hand, Theta waves have range from 4 to7 cycles per second and predominantly present during day dreaming, dreaming, creativity, meditation, paranormal phenomena, out of body experiences, etc. Lastly, lowest frequency waves are Delta waves with 1.5 to 4 or less cycles per second and experienced during deep dreamless sleep stage.

All of us have an enormous capacity to control our brainwaves and therefore the state of mind. By increasing or slowing down our brainwaves, we can very easily alter as to how we think, feel and act. By learning to control these 4 different states, we can improve our state of physical and mental health and broadly the well-being state. During our waking and sleeping states, the brain moves through all the four stages. At any given time, there is a range in brainwaves that effect how deeply we have entered into that particular state. By knowing the details of these brainwaves and how these states function, we can consciously enter into a particular state and control our thought process.

Now the latest research shows that when we meditate, the balance of brain wave activity in our brain shifts - there is less Beta i.e. the thinking and stress related brain wave and more alpha, theta and gamma - the relaxation and meditation brain waves. As this shift occurs, the new brain waves create the happiness and contentment so experienced by meditators. Through meditation and altering our brain wave balance, we can create a feeling of intense happiness. At first the feeling of happiness may last for few minutes or hours after meditation but gradually over the time, that happiness becomes our normal state of mind. For further details, you may like to read on internet on: http://www. meditationescape.com /brain-waves-during-meditation.html.

Scientists investigating the effect of the meditative state on Buddhist monk's brains have found that portions of the brain previously active become quiet, while pacified areas become stimulated. Using f MRI technique, Dr. Newberg and his team studied a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks as they meditated for approximately one hour. After mediation, the brain's regions were imaged and the meditation state compared with the normal waking state. The scans provided remarkable clues about what goes on in the brain during meditation. "There was an increase in activity in the front part of the brain, the area that is activated when anyone focuses attention on a particular task," Dr Newberg explained. In addition, a notable decrease in activity in the back part of the brain, or parietal lobe, recognized as the area responsible for orientation, reinforced the general suggestion that meditation leads to a lack of spatial awareness. Dr Newberg explained: "During meditation, people have a loss of the sense of self and frequently experience a sense of no space and time and that was exactly what we saw." The complex interaction between different areas of the brain also resembles the pattern of activity that occurs during other so-called spiritual or mystical experiences. It's therefore clear that we all can alter different stages of brainwaves and, in turn, our state of mind to a great extent.

Pain and suffering is a necessary condition for human survival. Had there been no pain system in our body and brain, we would not have lived so long !

2009-10-14T03:59:00.000-07:00

The presence of so much of pain and suffering in our life pose a major philosophical and scientific problem. The problem is, how is it possible that all the pain, suffering and death that occurs in the world to take place, if the world is actually under the control of an all powerful and loving God? More specifically, how is our belief in the Supreme Being or the God of all the religions justified in view of all this pain and suffering? The philosophers and theologians call this the “problem of theodicy.” Many great philosophers and thinkers have debated worldwide on the contentious issue of theodicy. Theodicy is a theory which undertakes to justify God's actions and to vindicate Him against the charge that He has permitted pain, suffering and evil to overrun the world despite being all loving and omnipotent.

In my earlier article on this blog posted on 23.12.08, I have tried to explain that on the face of human killings and the pain and sufferings that are inflicted on humanity by fellow beings, how can one justify or defend moral evil or the free will that God has given to man. It is believed by many philosophers and thinkers that not only pain and suffering but also evilness is responsible for the development of best qualities of human personality. In the absence of pain and suffering, many qualities such as love, compassion, kindness, generosity, unselfishness would not have developed to the extent we see in people at large. These qualities give strength to man’s character. Human pain serves a divine purpose of good. This is the philosophical reasoning behind the pain and suffering we all face in our life. However, there is another explanation which is scientific based on medical grounds as to why pain is necessary for human survival and nature has chosen this mechanism based on the principle of natural selection and the 'survival of the fittest, of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory published way back in 1859.

It's very interesting to note that there are people who cannot feel pain and their life span is generally very short. This rare genetic abnormality is called 'Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis' (CIPA) and in these cases, patients lack pain receptor cells in the skin. People affected by this disease feel no pain and will never understand what pain is. CIPA is caused by a genetic mutation which prevents the formation of nerve cells which are responsible for transmitting signals of pain, heat, and cold to the brain. For this reason, CIPA patients succumb to a variety of complications because of their inability to feel pain like if there is no pain due to internal injury of say knee joint or injury in eyes then this problem will deteriorate and develop serious consequences. There are 84 documented living cases in the US; there are more than 300 in Japan.Richard Dawkins in 'The Greatest Show on Earth' explains that natural selection is indifferent to the intensity of suffering except is so far as it affects survival and reproduction. That's why the process of natural selection prefers the mechanism of pain and suffering in humans rather than preferring those individuals who cannot feel pain because these individuals have far shorter life expectancy. In other words, the principle of 'survival of the fittest' underlies the world of nature in which nature took no steps to reduce the pain and suffering of humans because this was not best suited for human beings.

It's is clear from the above that pain specially the physical one is a mechanism that fits very well in the theory of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. Had there been no pain system in our body and the brain, life expectancy of humans would have been far shorter. Precisely for this reason, pain and suffering is a necessary condition for human survival. Richard Dawkins has very well concluded on this subject by saying that pain, like everything else about life, is a Darwinian device which functions to improve the sufferer's survival. Brain has an in-built mechanism with a rule 'If you experience the sensation of pain, stop whatever you are doing and don't do it again'. This very mechanism is responsible for discouraging those individuals who ignore this rule.

If we can live in present moment in silence, in purity and, in spontaneity then our life can be transformed. This is what Taoism philosophy advocate.

2009-09-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

To practice Taoism one must follow the Tao which is a force that flows through all life. The word Tao means road or way. The followers of Taoism, goal is to find a way to harmonize themselves with the Tao.

Laozi or Lao Tzu was a philosopher of ancient China and is a central figure in Taoism (also spelled "Daoism"). Along with Confucianism and Buddhism, Taoism (pronounced Daoism) is one of the three great religions of China. According to Chinese tradition, Laozi lived in the 6th century BC. When he was eighty years old he set out for the western border of China, toward what is now Tibet, saddened and disillusioned that men were unwilling to follow the path to natural goodness (source-Wikipedia). At the border (Hank Pass), a guard asked Lao Tsu to record his teachings before he left. He then composed for the first and last time in 5,000 characters the Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its Power). As the popularity of Taoism grew, Lao Tze became a deity of the Taoist religion. Currently worldwide there are about 20 million followers of Taoism.

Taoism is based on the idea that behind all material things and all the change in the world lies one fundamental and universal principle: the Way or Tao. This principle gives rise to all existence and governs everything, all change and all life. Behind the bewildering multiplicity and contradictions of the world lies a single unity, the Tao. The purpose of human life, then, is to live life according to the Tao, which requires passivity, calm, non-striving (wu wei), humility, and no pre planning. It believes in this moment, it has no idea of future. If we can live in present moment in silence, in purity and, in spontaneity then our life can be transformed.

Like events in nature happen effortlessly without any effort, similarly life should also be allowed to flow in this way without any attempt from our side to manipulate people or events. This is the doctrine of doing-by-not-doing. It is the basic Taoist practice. Taoist philosophers also realized that the first step to come close to nature is by knowing about it by way of close observation as things have their essence in relation to others. For example, day is so because there is night, cold is so because there is hot. Thus, things are interdependent and are constantly changing from one form to another, just like night follows day followed by day again. In this way, people could come closer to the nature and know their role in right and bigger perspective.

Tao basically means surrender - surrender to nature. We have nowhere to go, nowhere to reach, no goal, no ideal, nothing to be achieved - we should surrender all. In this very surrendering moment, all will happen to us. Tao is also called the watercourse way. The Tao philosophy is one of letting go. We are not supposed to swim, but to flow with the river, to allow the river to take you wherever it is going, because every river ultimately reaches the ocean. Not to worry or be tense as we will reach the ocean. Therefore, in reality no goal is needed because the journey is the goal. Osho in Tao - its history and teachings says that it was courageous of Lao Tzu, 25 centuries ago, to tell people that there is no goal and we are not going anywhere. We are just going to be here, so make the time as beautiful, as loving, as joyous as possible. The Way is beautiful; the Way is full of flowers. And the Way becomes more and more beautiful as our consciousness becomes higher.

The most recognizable symbol of Taoism is the Yin-Yang symbol. It represents the balance of opposites in the universe. When the balance is equal, the universe is calm. If there is an imbalance, there is discourse in the universe. The two contrasting parts of the symbol are black with a bit of white and white with a bit of black. This shows that in nature everything that appears to be all bad has some good in it, and that everything that is good has some bad in it. The two sides appear to be swirling which shows that the world is always changing.

22 amazing and some of them very interesting facts about human body

2009-09-16T04:36:00.000-07:00

I have compiled 20 astonishing facts (many unimaginable) about our body from various sources. Some of them are quite interesting too. These are reproduced below:

1. Adult human body contains about 10 trillion (10,000 billion) cells and each cell has nearly 100 trillion atoms. One can imagine how many atoms we have in our body. Besides, our breath is about a litre of air and thus about 10,000 billion billions atoms. That's why when we breath, we take atoms of even those persons who may have died hundreds of years ago.

2. Our brain has around 100 billion neurons and each neuron has up to 25,000 and even 100,000 synaptic connections with other neuron. These neurons pass signals to each other via approximately 100 trillion synaptic connections.

3. 98% of our cells are replaced every year. 50 million cells must have died, while you read this sentence. One billion cells in the body are replaced every year. Besides, 100 new skins are formed in a year. In every 3 days, a human stomach gets a new lining.

4. In one day, our body sheds 10 billion skin flakes, means 2 kg in a year. Besides, our skin is the heaviest organ in the human body.

5. Latest research shows that we have nearly 20,500 genes in each cell (earlier it was thought to be around 1 lakh). Human genome (genes) has 3 billion base pairs of DNA.

6. Our body contains 15 gallons of water, a pint of salt, more protein than 70 pounds of pea nut, enough carbon to make 1000 pencils, enough phosphorus to make 3000 matches.

7. Our body requires 88 pounds of oxygen daily. In one day, adult lungs move about 10,000 litre of air.

8. Adult body has 206 bones but a child has 350! In adults, 25% of bones are in the feet.

9. Average adult has around 5 litres of blood. In 20 seconds, red blood cell is getting circulated once in the body. your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second.

10. Our brain has nearly 15,000 Kms of blood arteries for cooling purpose otherwise man's life would be in danger if there is no cooling even for an hour.

11.We spend nearly 6 years while dreaming in night.Besides, the average person has over 1460 dreams per year. (how many do we remember, guess?)

12.We have around 100,000 hairs and we lose on an average 40-100 strands of hairs in a day.

13. It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown (then why do we hesitate to smile!)

14. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of CO2 poisoning first before you die of oxygen shortage.

15. Death will occur in about 10 days without sleep while starvation takes a few weeks.

16. The body's longest internal organ is the small intestine at the average length of 20 feets.

17. The ashes of average cremated person weigh around nine pounds. But throughout our life we keep on building our ego (illusionary sense of self) driven empire.

18. In a life time, average healthy man eats more than 50 tons of food and drink more than 13,000 gallons of liquid.

19. Our eyes are always of the same size from birth but our nose and ears never stop growing.

20. When we sleep, you grow by about 8 mm (0.3 inch). The next day we shrink back to our former height. The reason is that our cartilage discs are squeezed like sponges by the force of gravity when we stand or sit..

21. Only one person in 2 billion will live up to 116 or older. If you are over 100 years old, there is an 80% chance that you are a woman.

22. Last but the most important fact is that 99.999% of human body is empty at subatomic level. This body is like a vibration of energy rather than a solid physical as we see it. But we never believe this because of our illusionary perception of world around us.

Do you know the explanation behind the mystery of how homeopathy works? Medicine we take has, many times,not even a single atom of medicinal substance

2009-09-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

Most of us take homeopathy medicine either frequently or occasionally for treatment of mostly non-serious illnesses. However, we hardly give any thoughts as how it works. The most mysterious thing is many homeopathic remedies/medicines are so diluted that according to the known scientific explanations, they couldn't possibly have any effect. Suppose we get a medicine of a potency beyond a certain point say 24x or 12c, then there is most likely not even a single molecule of the original active substance remains in the medicine we take. This fact is often pointed out by critics of homeopathy and they dismiss the effect of homeopathy as merely due to the 'placebo effect'. On the other hand, according to homeopathic doctrine and experience, the more diluted the solution, the more potent it is. It's it surprising.

Homeopathy science which began in the late 1700s was developed by a German doctor named Samuel Hahnemann. He believed that life depends on an invisible and undetectable 'vital force' which runs through the body which if disturbed will lead to illness or disease. Vital force is the healing power or energy that exists within us all. It is called by the name Chi by Chinese and Prana by Indian Ayurveda. The vital force fuels the mind, body, emotions and mind. It keeps us healthy and balanced. His remedies, he believed, restored balance to the disrupted vital force therefore allowing the body to heal itself.

The basic philosophy behind homeopathy is that medicinal substances used are organic, having not only physical bodies but also vital bodies. The physical body part is diluted because this part is generally poisonous to the human body but the vital part is preserved. Now the main question arises is to how this vital part of the medicine is preserved. Before replying this question, let's understand how medicine is diluted. One part of medicinal substance is diluted with 9 parts of water-alcohol mixture. Then one part of this diluted medicine is again diluted with 9 parts of water-alcohol mixture. Likewise, this is done for 30 times or 100 times or even a million times to get homeopathy medicine of increased potency. At each stage of dilution, the mixture is thoroughly shaken. Succussion is the process of forcefully striking a homeopathy medicine against a firm surface.

Amit Goswami explains this phenomenon briefly in the book - 'The God Is Not Dead-What Quantum Physics Tells Us about Our Origins and How We Should Live' (2009). He says that the above mentioned procedure of succussion transfers, through the intention of the preparer, the vital energies of the medicinal substance to the water of the water-alcohol mixture, which becomes correlated with the vital energies of the medicinal substance. As a result, whenever we take the homeopathy medicine, although we don't get any of the physical part of the medicine, we do receive the vital part with the water. So if the disease is at the vital level, due to vital energy imbalance, then the homeopathy will work better than the allopathic medicine. This is because it addresses the vital energy imbalance directly through the application of the vital energy of the medicinal substance. Hence, the vital energy of the medicinal substance will balance the imbalance of the unhealthy person's vital energy.

"When I see 'I am nothing' that is wisdom. When I see 'I am everything' that is love. My life is a movement between these two."- Nisargadatta Maharaj

2009-08-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

The core of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teaching is the knowledge of one's own true identity. This knowledge is indeed the pivotal point around which moves everything." Ramesh Balsekar

Nisargadatta Maharaj ( 1897-1981) was an great Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher of Advaita (non- dualism) philosophy. According to Wikipedia, one of the 20th century's exponents of the school of Advaita Vedanta philosophy, Sri Nisargadatta, with his direct and minimalistic explanation of non-dualism, is considered the most famous teacher of Advaita since Ramana Maharishi. In 1973, the publication of his most famous and widely-translated book, A Am That, brought him worldwide recognition and followers. He explained that the purpose of advanced spirituality is to simply know who you are. Recently I had an opportunity to go through this book. Some of his famous quotes from this book I am reproducing below:

"When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you uninvited and unexpected."

"All you can teach is understanding. The rest comes on its own."

"There is only life; there is nobody who lives a life."

"The mind covers up reality, without knowing it. To know the nature of the mind, you need intelligence, the capacity to look at the mind in silent and dispassionate awareness."

"Awareness is ever there. It need not be realized. Open the shutter of the mind, and it will be flooded with light."

"When the mind is kept away from its preoccupation, it becomes quiet."

"A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without effort on your part."

"There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking "

"When I see 'I am nothing' that is wisdom. When I see I am everything that is love. My life is a movement between these two."

"You always want what you cannot have & don't want what you have. To be self-realized just reverse it"

Modern science especially quantum mechanics has started offering explanations about the concept of Karma and the reincarnation?

2009-08-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

The concept of ‘karma’ is an integral part of Hindu philosophy. The word ‘Karma’, a Sanskrit word, related in its meaning to the word ‘action'. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as the "sum of person's actions in one of his successive states of existence, viewed as deciding his fate for the next". The theory of karma primarily depends on the universal law or the Newton’s principle that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Whenever we do anything, we create a cause, which sooner or later would produce its corresponding effects. In the moral realm, consequences or the reaction do not always come back to us immediately. Hindu philosophy, which believes in reincarnation i.e. the life after death, holds the doctrine that if the karma of an individual is good enough, the next birth will be rewarding, otherwise the person will have to suffer and may eventually degenerate into a lower life form. This very law of cause and effect leads to the popular beliefs of Hindus regarding birth and reincarnation. It is further believed that individual soul or the atman is reincarnated in this world on the basis of their karma.

Traditional science does not believe in reincarnation theory due to lack of any convincing evidence. Because of this reason, concept of karma could not be accepted beyond the popular belief of Hinduism by scientific community including those of us who believe in rationale and reason. However, quantum physics, a branch of modern physics that deals with the subatomic realm, has offered an explanation on the theory of reincarnation and the karma. Before coming to the explanation let me explain one of the most important characteristic features of quantum world. Quantum physics gives us an amazing concept of ‘nonlocal’ effects. In local effects or the concept of locality, all communication proceeds through local signals that have speed limit of light. However, quantum objects or the subatomic particles can influence one another instantly, once they interact and become correlated through quantum ‘nonlocality’, means signal-less interconnectedness outside local space and time. Therefore a cause at one place can produce an immediate effect at some distant location. This very phenomenon in which two or more particles remain inexorably linked no matter how far apart they are is known as quantum entanglement.

Amit Goswami, a nuclear physicist from the University of Oregon Institute for Theoretical Physics, in “God is not Dead- What Quantum Physics Tells Us Our Origins and How We Should Live” (2009) offers an scientific explanation on Karma and Dharma. He says that the complete theory of reincarnation must also contend with reincarnational content memory and certain cause-effect entanglements that may happen between two disparate reincarnations. Reincarnation memory is easy to understand; we assume that there is nonlocal window that is always open between reincarnations. Ordinarily we are not aware of it, but at the time of death, when ego attachment is extremely tenuous, a person may be open enough to this nonlocal window to have a panoramic view of himself or herself through various lifetimes. Similarly, at the moment of birth, since the ego attachment has not yet formed, the opening of the nonlocal window may be allow a panoramic experience of reincarnations to be stored in the memory of the newborn. Amit Goswami in his book gave data in support of this theory. In this way, an action or the cause in this life can ‘nonlocally’ propagate to the next life to precipitate a ‘nonlocal’ effect. Hindu philosophy or the Hinduism uses the word ‘karma’ to denote such ‘nonlocal’ cause-effect connotations between incarnations. Hence we then can bring accumulated karma through many lives into the current one. In order to appreciate this theory it is necessary to understand what these ‘nonlocal effects’ are. Then off course, there is the future karma, the karma we collect in our current life. It has also been reported that this idea has been verified through the research of a past-life therapist named David Cliness.

I have recently come across one another explanation as to how the law of Karma (the philosophy of cause-effect of events taking place in our life) really operates. My colleague Anil K Gupta, an IAS officer of 79 batch from UP cadre has last published his maiden book entitled ‘The Journey Is The Award’ in which he tried to explain about karma and reincarnation. He says that all the impressions received or made through senses are preserved in the universe as energy waves. Our minds are cognizant when the impressions are recorded in the energy particles around us and these impressions are not effaced subsequently. When either voluntarily or involuntarily these impressions come into contact with our brain energy, they influence our minds at much later stage and produce results through our own actions. He further explains that no act is without its effect. In the world of physical and chemical sciences the effect is seen at once whereas karmic actions produce results much later even after several lives. Though I have not been able to get the source and further information of this explanation from net, however, modern research on quantum physics do through light on such kind of this phenomenon taking place in physical world.

Though I have given two different scientific explanations based on quantum theory about law of karma and the reincarnation, but this mysterious phenomenon of belief and faith still need more convincing and rationale answer especially for reincarnation. However, the fact remains that we do realize that law of karma applies in our life and most of the effects we can observe in our own generation. If we want a better future, we can achieve it by our present actions, thoughts and words. What we sow is what we reap and we are therefore constantly creating our own future by our present thoughts, behavior and actions.

The continuing conflict between higher Self & the lower Self of “I”

2009-08-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

The both, higher self and lower self are our integral part of the body and soul i.e. ‘I’.
Both are in ongoing conflict with each other as both compete to pull ‘I’ to their side.

The higher self is pure intelligence and free from ego driven desire, fear and lust.
While the lower self is devoid of intelligence and is pure desire, fear and lust.

We human beings possess the combination of both - the pure intelligence, conditioned love and passion of higher Self and the ego driven desires, hatred and lust of lower Self.

Each of higher and lower selves is free from any conflict and struggle – the higher self because of its pure intelligence and lower self because of its ignorance.

And between the two lies the ‘I’ who endure a constant conflict between the two.

The higher self is spiritually induced, while the other one induced by the materialistic world of phenomena. We get to know the each part by its opposites.

Though, our higher self has potential to draw us towards higher level of being, as long as we allow ourselves to be dominated by lower self, we cannot think to evolve spiritually.

Each part of the pair of opposites makes the existence of the other part possible.
Each part of the pair can only exist and be known because of its opposite.

The more we are able to rid our ego-centered lower self, with its beliefs and prejudices,
The closer we come to the source of intelligence that lies beneath the layers of higher self.

In the eyes of our lower self, our evolutionary path does not progress beyond the realm of ego and so this is where it wishes to remain. It thus sets itself at odds with our higher self or the soul, whose purpose is to continue to grow at the higher level.

Many a times, hatred, greed, lust and selfishness have caused our ‘I’ to behave in an irresponsible and irrational manner and put the lower self in charge of ‘I’. However, because of timely check, the higher self protects the purity and integrity of ‘I’.

The duality of higher and lower self will remain part of our everyday experience of the world until such times as our sense of ‘lower self’ dissolves, like a drop of water in the ocean of Unity.

This is inspired from the works of Jalaluddin Runi, the great sufi poet as summarized by John Baldock in 'The Essence of Rumi'

Is humanity progressing towards a more superior race and for better future or just the mankind is growing in a random and purposeless manner?

2009-08-08T00:43:00.000-07:00

In my earlier article entitled ‘10 hard questions about life that need answers before we die’ I had raised the question, whether human race is evolving to a superior race or just the mankind is growing in a random and purposeless manner. As on date, there are 6776 million people are living on this planet while 134 million take birth and out of total lot 57 million die at different age in a year. This population has supposedly grown from a mere one million humans estimated in 10,000 BCE and at current rate this number will increase to 9000 million in 2040. How many people living on this earth question about the purpose and meaning of their life. What kind of world is this? Are we leading a predestined and determined life, just like a beautiful orchestrated symphony with God as a conductor and we all the musicians or we living in a circus –growing in a random and haphazard way and then living abruptly the planet without even thinking ones about life’s aim and meaning? If our individual life is aimless and purposeless then very naturally, the whole humanity is evolving aimlessly and directionless. If we think other way round then humans are heading towards a more superior race.

World’s eminent biologist Kathleen McAuliffe in science magazine ‘discover’s March, 09 edition deliberated this question - Are We Still Evolving? in a great detail and she found a connection between the explosion in human population and its consequences for evolution's pace in humans. According to the study evolution is not only still occurring - it's occurring more rapidly than ever before. She writes in that article that a team of researchers is now suggesting that “over the past 10,000 years, human evolution has occurred a hundred times more quickly in any period in our species’ history”. It means that whole humanity is progressing toward a more superior and mature race. The all round changes we all witnessing in our society and at the global level are not purposeless. Nearle Donald Walsch in ‘When Everything Changes Change Everything’ says that human are still seeking to fully be who they are. Further, humanity is not even half way through and ‘the potential of tomorrow stretches as far as our vision can carry us………. and way, way beyond’. Hence we humans have halfway more to go.

I would further like to quote the views of another world’s famous anthropologist and social scientist on this issue. In her recently published book entitled ‘Jump Time – Shaping Your Future in a World of Radical Change”, Jean Houston gives in-depth evidence of a unique period for humanity, on a global and personal level—a period of rapid change that will transform human nature for the better. She believes that humans are entering a critical stage of rapid change and the world is shifting from an ethnocentric view to a global one thanks to the Internet, which is decentralizing information and reforming new cultural neighborhoods. Jean Houston further elaborate that jump time is a moment in the eternal circle of life when we monumentally shift every aspect of our experience, as much as humanity did during the 300 years of Renaissance, when everything in every field has fundamentally changed and nothing is ever the same again. However, Nearle D Walsch went one step ahead in saying that our new renaissance is not taking place over 300 years but just thirty years. He says that everything is now instantly known transparently. Such moment to moment awareness of all that’s going on everywhere produces alterations in perspective that start dominoes falling all over the place.

In this way, I feel that the whole humanity is reinventing itself for better and superior way of life. The majority of the changes that we see around us are eventually for the betterment of our life as well as for the society as a whole. Nearle Walsch argues that life can fundamentally alter itself in only one direction: the direction that that evolution requires: the direction that expansion demands, the direction that keeps it flourishing. Many a times we don’t see things in right perspective. Like, we feel that human’s evilness and crime is increasing in the world under changing scenario. But facts say otherwise. Contrary to our general perception, overall violence, crime etc across the world is declining steadily. The homicides rate has decreased from 41 killings per one lakh people in 15th century to 1.4 in 20th century. In India 3.4 homicides were reported during the period of 1996-2000. Gradually and very slowing, world is witnessing new wave of awareness about spiritual consciousness and drifting away from violent and evil behavior.

It is hence clear from the above that mankind is evolving very fast for its better future. Our collective goal of life should be towards self-consciousness and moral responsibility;besides, love for goodness and beauty. We must discover our self and search for the meaning and purpose of life. In this way, our human consciousness can grow collectively in the same pace as we are progressing on various fields of life. We can therefore conclude that the humanity is progressing toward a more superior and better race. The all round changes we all witnessing in our society and at the global level are not meaningless and purposeless.

The fault we see in another lies within our self’ - the world around us is a reflection of our own inner world

2009-07-16T02:35:00.000-07:00

“Just as he will have inflicted a wound on a person, so shall it be inflicted upon him.” — Leviticus 24:20

In my earlier article posted on July 5, 08 on this blog titled ‘the world is a mirror- it’s a reflection of our own inner world’ it is written that when we see this world, we get reflection of our own inner world. Our own fears, anxieties and others negativities very easily get reflected in outer world. The fundamental feature about this world is that what we notice or perceive around us reflects back our state of mind. This is what has been scientifically proved by the latest studies on brain’s functioning. Though this seems to be a simplistic view about this world but the fact is that our mind becomes conditioned to a certain way of perceiving and reacting to this world depending upon our own attitude and beliefs. There is a famous saying of Anais Nin that “we don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.” The potential we see in others is possible for us as well and the beauty we see in others is our inner beauty. So, the world around us is a reflection, a mirror showing us what kind of persons we are. Almost similar views were echoed by Rumi in thirteenth century in his comprehensive works.

The 13th century saint Jalaluddin Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273) has been called the greatest mystical poet of any age and his work compared of that of Dante and Shakespeare. Rumi was born in Balkh, Khorasan (now in Afghanistan). Over the period of 25 years he composed over 70,000 verses of poetry on various subjects such as devine love, mystic passion, etc, Rumi was also a master story-teller and one of his most frequently retold of his stories is the tale about the elephant in the dark. The theme of this story is that we tend to focus our attention on the most obvious aspects of things on the parts which we can identify due to our own experience of life. I have gone through some of his stories, poetry as well as other works which are beautifully summarized in a book entitled ‘The Essence of Rumi’ by John Baldock. The example of Rumi’s profound understanding of even human psychology is well illustrated in the Sixth Discourse regarding ‘the fault we see in another lies within ourself’ which was written over 700 years ago. I am tempted to reproduce his portion below which reflects his extraordinary wisdom on matters pertaining to our daily life.

If you perceive a fault in your brother, the fault that you see in him lies within yourself. The things of this world are like a mirror in which you see your own image, for ‘the believer is the mirror for his fellow believer’. Get rid of the fault in yourself, because what distresses you in others lies within you. An elephant was led to a well to drink, when it saw itself in the water, it shied away from another elephant, not realizing that it was shying away from itself.

You are not offended by negative qualities such as injustice, hatred, envy, greed or pride when they are within yourself. But when you see in them in another, you feel offended and shy away. A person does not find his own scab or abscess repellent. But if he sees a tiny cut or abscess in another’s hand, he has no stomach for the stew that man’s hand has been dipped in. Negative qualities are just like scabs and abscesses; you are not offended by them when they are within yourself, but when you see the least hint of them in another you take great offence. Just as you shy away from another, so you should excuse them when they shy away from you, offended. The pain you feel is his excuse for shying away, because you pain comes from seeing the same fault he sees. The Prophet said, ‘the believer is the mirror of the unbeliever’. This was not because the unbeliever is the mirror for others, but because he is unaware the mirror of his own heart.

10 persons I would like to meet in heaven and say a few words to each of them:

2009-07-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

Though it’s hypothetical but given a choice I would certainly want to meet few persons in heaven who have not only turned the course of history but also influenced the mankind in a significant way. It’s almost impossible to shortlist few such significance wise personalities but I in my own (off course biased) way listed 10 such persons to whom I would like to meet and say a few words (and raise questions to some):

1. Gautama Buddha (563 BCE – 483BCE): “Personally I feel among all the religions and philosophies of religion, teachings which you had advocated for more than 2500 years back are supposed to the best as far as their practical application is concerned. No one after you has ever taught such a profound wisdom as how to handle pain and sufferings in our life. Your Four Noble Truths that first, suffering is an inherent part of existence; second, that the origin of suffering is ignorance and third, the main symptoms of that ignorance are attachment and craving; fourth, that attachment and craving can be ceased; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of attachment and craving and therefore suffering has had profound effect of the followers”.

2. Lao Tzu (6th century BCE): “Your work, Tao Te Ching, was a testament to your rationalism and beliefs. The work later led to the creation of both the philosophical Taoism and religious Taoism, which is most associated with harmony and leading a simple life. Your quotation ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ is very popular. You have been an exciting character even today - mostly because your wisdom which is both obscure and penetrating. Your preaching which insisted on keeping a low profile and practicing nondoing and emptiness has been very influencing on the modern world”.

3. Adi Shankaracharya (788-820): “Do you know I have been your admirer because you lived just 32 years and in this period, with your remarkable reinterpretations of Hindu scriptures, especially on Upanishads or Vedanta, you had a profound influence on the growth of Hinduism. You are the most famous Advaita philosopher who restored the Vedic Dharma to its pristine purity and glory. I just can’t imagine that as a child, you mastered the four Vedas by the age of eight.

4. Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948): “We Indian are still proud of you as The Father Of the Nation but we have forgotten most of the moral values and practices like non violence, cooperation and truthfulness and that’s why India is passing through a critical phase. On the one hand India is progressing fast economically but simultaneously deteriorating social and political fabric endangering her internal peace and harmony.

5. Mother Teresa (1910-1997): “The love, compassion, kindness and charity, which you had displayed at such a large scale has not been witnessed in the world after you left. Your charitable institutions are still doing wonderful job otherwise such a large organisational structure tend to wither away after loss of their founder. You would be happy to know that following your death you were beautified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta”.

6. Chenghez Khan (Genghis Khan) (1162-1227): “Do you know you are still known as the bloodiest monarch in all history, who brought the heel the entire Ch’in empire of northern China, overran Turkistan, Afghanistan and so many other countries and you in your times known as the Conqueror of the World. How could you be so ruthless and bloodiest on humans and kill them in hundreds of thousands? Have you ever regretted what did after the death? Finally, do you know history says that after your death the funeral escort killed everyone and anything across their path to conceal where you were finally buried?. You would be surprised to know, according to one study, that roughly 16 million of your descendants are living today.

7. Isaac Newton (1643-1727): “The physical laws which you had discovered were remained valid for more than 300 years before the modern science realized that these laws of materialistic or deterministic world are no more valid for quantum world i.e. at sub atomic realm. Your Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is by itself considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of the classic mechanics. In this work, in which you described gravitational force and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries.

8. Charles Darwin (1809-1882): “It was your theory of natural selection which later on became the basis of modern evolutionary theory that demolished the then prevalent theory of creationism i.e. the God created the world and this concept has not been challenged except for few scientists who say that this theory couldn’t explain fossil gaps and evolution of complex organs like eye. However, I feel you still remain one of the greatest thinker and scientists ever born”.

9. Ashoka, the great (304BCE-232BCE): Undoubtedly, you were one of the most powerful kings of the Indian subcontinent. Your reign covered most of India, South Asia and beyond. However, the Battle of Kalinga changed you completely andfrom a power hungry emperor, you turned into a Buddhist follower and started preaching the principles of Buddhism throughout the world. Do you know that you in human history is often referred to as the Emperor of Emperors of all ages. You were a devotee of non violence, love, truth and tolerance.nd you are remembered in history as philanthropic administrator.

10. Albert Einstein (1879-1955): “Wow, what a wonderful intelligence/I.Q, you had and that’s why a few people could understand the still unchallenged theory of general and special relativity. You were the one who founded the quantum theory but you statement that ‘god does not play dice’ still baffle the modern world. I doubt seriously whether after you left the world has seen such an intellectual thinker as well as scientist.

Changing worldviews: many ‘centuries old’ perceptions about us and the physical world around us have been changing as the modern science progresses

2009-07-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of modern science, starting from early Newtonian era, materialistic thinking has dominated in our life. Everything in this world could be explained by the laws of nature (such as Newton’s laws, electromagnetic laws etc ) and mathematical equations. However, in the recent times, modern science specially the quantum physics has challenged the very foundation of materialistic thinking or Newtonian deterministic world. Quantum physics/mechanics has now denied the very foundation of physical reality. Modern science has proved beyond doubt that observation actually creates the physical reality observed. Nothing has a reality until it is observed. Hence, with the unprecedented progress in the field of science and technology, many perceptions about us and our physical world that have been thought as ‘real’ since the ancient times are being corrected or demolished.10 such important worldviews that have been changed or corrected are listed below:

1.For centuries, we have been holding a strong view of separateness in the physical reality that we are autonomous entities, totally separate from other objects and beings because this is how we perceive through our senses. Now from the quantum perspective, we know that everything from atoms and molecules to plants, animals, human, planets, stars and galaxies, there is a unified energy field that interconnects everything in the universe.

2. The subatomic particles at the quantum world behave in a weird and bizarre manner. The precise behavior of individual particles can never be predicted. Like, particles can exist in multiple possible states or locations simultaneously.

3. Now there is a new revolutionary concept of objective reality. The assumption of an external reality that there is a real world that is external to our mind and senses and that it exists whether or not we are observer is no more valid. Now according to quantum physics, observer affects the reality.

4. Space and time are no longer separate and absolute. According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, space is curved. Besides, time measurements depend on the relative velocities of the observer and the observed.

5. It has been believed that our life is controlled by genes (genetically determination of life). Now neurologists and brain scientists have proved that environment rather than genes control our life and we can change the process by which genes govern our life.

6. The very basis of evolution is not ‘survival of the fittest’ and competition (Charles Darwin’s theory) but it is basically the cooperation that leads the evolutionary process.

7. Evolution is not a random process; on the other hand, evolution is meaningful and purposeful. There is a wider purpose behind evolution.

8. Physical world (matter) and the mind are not separate. Our minds (subjective mental world) can organize the physical world (objective reality) at the quantum level. Besides, there has been growing realization about the direct correlation between global collective consciousness and the physical world during extraordinary human events.

9. We are not biologically separate individuals/entities. Instead, each one of us is a large conglomerate of more than 50 trillions of cells and each cell is a totally autonomous/independent functional entity.

10. According to latest brain research, we have enormous capacity to change our brain physically (by way of neuroplasticity). We can evolve or change our brain the way we decide to do so.

Why many people love to suffer continuously and not able to break up bad relationships? - the reason is that those persons are emotionally addicted.

2009-07-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Being a conscious being, whenever we are in waking state, we experience thoughts and emotions. We all have very unique behavior and accordingly we identify with a set pattern of thoughts, feelings and particularly the emotions. This very pattern of emotions (such as arguing with one’s spouse, hating or resenting someone or holding grudges against someone) leads to the addiction of that particular set of emotions and the degree of addiction differ from individual to individual and from time to time. Often this leads to a situation when that person needs those habitual emotions to feel normal or ‘happy’ otherwise he or she feels rejected, hurt, angry, threatened or shamed and this happens because of the phenomenon called emotional addiction.

We human are basically chemical beings because of the fact that millions and millions of chemical reactions are taking place at cellular level. Even our emotions, thoughts, feelings and every other reaction produce bio-chemicals (neurotransmitters, hormones and peptides) in the brain. Besides, every memory has a unique associated feeling or the emotion which is produced by a particular chemical or the combination of chemicals. In this way, our general state of thought process or the emotional states at any given moment or period has particular balance of chemicals (homeostatic balance). Now latest research shows that the brain is both neurologically hardwired and chemically dependent upon our emotions. Joe Dispenza in Evolve Your Brain (2009) says that when our current life circumstances don’t produce in us the particular chemicals we need to maintain our customary state of being, we will do whatever we must to ensure that those chemicals are present in the body. If our current circumstances or the environment don’t permit that chemical balance then we would try to create physically and/or mentally such kind of atmosphere so that the particular chemical balance is maintained in the brain. By this way we become addicted to the chemistry of our own emotional states or the circumstances.

We are now increasingly realizing that each and every individual is addicted to emotions in one way or the other. It has been established that the very same receptors on the cells of our body that are used by drug addicts are the very same receptors that are used for the chemicals our bodies uses to experience emotion ( Emotional addictions and their relationships to the Law of Attraction by Dwayne Gilbert) . It's not the emotions that are bad for our health but it's the addiction to those emotions that is the real problem. There is a specific chemical combination for happiness, and sadness, anger, to be felt victimized, or any other emotion that we can think of. The more someone feels a particular emotion, the more addicted to that emotion they become. If we get angry or disgusted on a consistent basis, then we develop an emotional addiction to those particular bio-chemicals. If someone feels a victim of certain person or say circumstances and cries ‘why me’ persistently for a long time, then he or she habituates that way and develops an emotional addiction to those specific chemicals. As each of the cells split, the new cells created need more and more of those specific chemicals in order to get the same stimulation as the old one.

When we become emotionally addicted to particular sets of emotions or life’s circumstances, then it becomes very difficult to change those circumstances and we love to maintain such atmosphere as the relationships which provide such emotional states. That’s why, Joe Dispenza in ‘Evolve Your Brain’ argues that breaking up such relationships that continuously provide negative emotions like anger, sadness, guilt, hatred etc becomes very difficult and precisely for this reason, we continue to maintain such bad relationships because of chemical addiction in the brain due to those particular negative emotions. Joe Dispenza further says that “throughout such relationships (even a bad one) both people synaptically fire neural nets that make neurotransmitters and peptides, causing their experiences to feel a certain way. And those feelings reaffirm each party’s personality. They become so habituated to the relationship that although they decide to leave it, they cannot break the neurological wiring and the chemical bonds tying them to it. After the breakup, each person’s memories of their experiences remind their body that it’s being deprived of its accustomed chemical stimulation”.

When we are addicted to negative emotions, it’s obvious that we feel good under those circumstances that provide us those very emotions. To get rid of the addiction, first of all we must be aware about those particular emotions that create he addiction. Then the second step is to consciously make serious efforts to detach our self from those very emotions that the experience creates. Though this is very hard to practice, but it is necessary to stop the addiction process. Besides, we should try to replace negative emotions with the positive ones. It's far easier to replace an old addiction with a new one rather overcoming an old addiction..

10 Hard Questions about life that need answers before we die!

2009-06-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

In this blog, I am trying to address and deliberate many contentious and hard questions about life. Most of these issues are philosophical in nature and hence no straight answer we get even if we try hard, though on many such issues modern science has thrown some light but still they remain inconclusive. 10 such questions that come in my mind are listed below:

1. What is the nature and role of God in the creation of universe and life particularly if He exists? And is the God result of man’s blind faith and belief and his need for emotional and psychological support?

2. If God is omnipotent, loving and caring then why there is a widespread pain and suffering in the world?

3. Are we the architect of our own destiny? What’s the extent and role ‘free will’ in shaping the events and the destiny of our life?

4. Is there any meaningful purpose behind the man’s evilness? Is evilness is taking the man’s collective consciousness to a higher spiritual level?

5. Why it’s so that many a time’s small and insignificant decisions can have vast and devastating effect on our life?

6. Is there any life after death and how does the Karma Theory fit into our life if there is no life beyond this life?

7. To what extent our mind (subjective mental world) can influence the physical and objective world around us?

8. What is consciousness? How does the brain generate the subjective inner world of experience- the “Hard Problem” of consciousness?

9. Is human race evolving to a superior race or just mankind is growing in a random and purposeless manner?

10. Is the physical world and the life deterministic or it’s randomness and indeterminism that govern the physical world and our life?

10 Hard Facts (Bitter Truths) of life which we just can’t avoid and realize them gradually in our life

2009-06-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

Life is like a roller coaster and very occasionally we are subjected to ups and down in life coupled with pains and suffering as well as joy and happiness. However, we keep on learning lessons from successes and failures that we come across. As we age, we also learn some bitter truths about life. I am recapitulating 10 such hard facts of life or the bitter truths which, I feel, we face them in life.

1. No one’s life can be smooth. It is full of challenges and conflicts and very often we face despair, sorrow and suffering due to our deep entrapment in desires/fear duality.

2. We come in this world with a genetically pre-determined psychosomatic body and then we have to live with it for the remaining period of life.

3. Most of the time, things just don’t happen as we plan or foresee. Most certain thing about life is the uncertainty. Many a times, even small and insignificant events can have vast and devastating effects on our life.

4. There are always a very few friends, not more the magic number of 10, who can be trusted and will stand by you during the troubled times. Bigger the friend’s circle, lesser are the ‘true’ and reliable friends.

5. Most of the decisions we take come from the subconscious part of our mind and for which we no control whatsoever over them. Even when we take conscious and well thought of decisions, in those cases conditioning of mind as well as thoughts, feelings, emotions and perceptions hidden in subconscious mind play a significant role in determining our decision making as well as the behavior pattern. Therefore, the ‘free will’ for which we are so confident has a very limited role in shaping our destiny.

6. Human nature is fundamentally very fragile and venerable because of undercurrent fear and anxiety (mostly unreal and unfounded) we all encounter most of the time in our life.

7. The material things like money, status, power have a very limited role in our day to day happiness. The large part of our temperament is genetically predetermined; it has been scientifically proved that about 50 percent of our happiness or unhappiness level is genetically determined. Other 40 percent depends on our conditioned thoughts and actions on which we hardly have any control. The remaining 10 percent is related to our life circumstances, such as where we live, how much money we have, our marital status, and how we look.

8. The most destructive habit in us is allowing our mind to wander and indulge in negative thoughts and emotions. This is the root cause of our stress related illnesses (which accounts 90% of all illnesses we mostly suffer).

9. There are no personal Gods. It’s only a blind faith and belief that prompts us to believe in the existence of personal God. However, we need such Gods mostly for meeting our emotional and psychological requirements and to explain the unexplainable events pertaining to us and that's why most of us overuse such Gods with supposedly no outcome .

10. We daily see our fellow beings dying around us but still we think, act and behave as if we are never going to die. We continue to live in this great mystery of life.

Unresolved enigma of Free Will -Libet’s experiments show that we become aware of a decision only after the decision has already been made inside brain

2009-05-12T01:41:00.000-07:00

Since our early childhood we have been told by our parents, teachers and the society as a whole that we are the architect of our destiny as we have full freedom to take decisions and actions as per our choice and wish. However, gradually we realize that our genetic constitution and the environment in which we grow play a crucial role in determining the way we think, behave and act. The mind is conditioned or groomed as we age in circumstances that are special and peculiar to each and every individual. Besides, sub conscious mind greatly influence our actions and behavior. Sub conscious mind is basically sum total of all our past experiences and our thoughts, feelings and emotions for which we not aware of in the awaken state. We become prone to react in a particular way to a particular situation or stimulus depending upon the tendencies/conditioning in our subconscious mind. In my earlier article on this blog entitled “Are we really the architect of our destiny? Conditioned mind as well as the subconscious mind greatly influence our destiny and events taking place in life” I have deliberated the issue of free will and raised a pertinent question as to what extent we have freedom or free will over the circumstances for taking decision as per our wish or desire.

We however feel quite uncomfortable in accepting a controversial view that we don’t really have free will to decide and act especially when we have brought up in a scientific and materialistic world. J A Hobson has very rightly commented that “those of us with common sense are amazed at the resistance put up by psychologists, physiologist, and philosophers to the obvious reality of free will”. Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kutner in Quantum Enigma – Physics Encounters Consciousness (2008) say that most neurophysiologists and many psychologists tacitly ignore the deterministic and scientific worldview wherein not only physical world around us but also the human behavior is governed by the physical laws. Some perhaps being more logically consistent deny that free will exists and claim that our feeling of free will is an illusion. Others just accept as a mystery to ignore for now. However the question remains unanswered as to how or on what basis we accept that there is no free will because every time not only we get a strong feeling of personal doer ship but also we are responsible for whatever is happening to us. The most famous scientific experiments on free will have been conducted by Libet which have generated lot of debate and arguments on their results which show that the feeling of free will is illusionary. Lets see what the research shows on this subject matter.

In the series of experiments, first reported in 1973, Benjamin Libet and others showed that the earliest experiential awareness of a sensory stimulus occurs about 500 milliseconds (0.5 sec) after the stimulus itself. The initial pulse is the primary evoked potential resulting from the nerve impulse travelling from the hand to the brain – it appears 10-30 msec after the skin stimulus. The experiments showed that none of the experiences of perception are in objective time i.e. clock time but in fact are delayed by about one-half of a second after the objective event .This delay is the time required for the brain’s response time for making experiential awareness (neuronal adequacy). Similarly, such response time is also required for subjective experience to occur. This means that it is impossible to respond volitionally in less than 500 msec to any external stimulus as our experience is always delayed by that much of time. Libet also showed that unconscious and reflexive behavioral responses can occur in merely 100 msec after the stimulus, showing that such unconsciousness action need not be conscious behavior.

Benjamin Libet and others in other experiments carried out in 1983 showed that the decision to perform a muscle act is made prior to the awareness of the decision. In other words, we become aware of a decision only after the decision has already been made. Libet speculated that it may be possible to consciously veto such an unconscious decision if it is done just before the action is to occur (100-200 msec) However, because there is no muscle action to trigger the recording of a veto event, experimental verification of conscious veto decision is not possible. Stanley Sobotka, Prof in University of Virginia in ‘A Course of Consciousness’ says that the Libet’s experiments that everything that happens must happen before we can become aware of it. Any neurological or sensory process always happens before our awareness of the thought, feeling or sensation that represents it. In Libet’s experiments , the lag of awareness was between 350 to 500 msec. Stanley Sobotka argues that as long as this time lag exists, though it is very small, our subjective experience of an event always come after the objective measurement of the event. This is because of the fact that the brain requires about 500 msec to process an event before we can become aware of it, it is impossible for us to be aware of it of any instant in which the brain ceases to function, such as the instant we fall asleep.

It’s clear from the above Libet’s scientific experiments that we have hardly any control or choice over the decisions which are taken instanteously as in those cases brain automatically send required signals for action to be taken before we are aware of the stimulus or sensation or feeling from outside world. On the other hand where we supposedly use our free will for taking conscious or well thought of decisions, in those cases conditioning of mind as well as our thoughts, feelings and perceptions hidden in sub conscious mind play a significant role to determining our decision making as well as behavior pattern .However, we all undoubtedly have a feeling of free will because not only we have been told repeatedly by others but this feeling is re enforced daily when we decide, act and behave. That’s why this enigma remains unresolved despite ground breaking progress in related scientific field like neurobiology, psychology, behavioral science and brain science and we depend on philosophy for interpretations of various aspects relating to free will.

Emerging commercial market of Spirituality in India- how far modern day spiritual gurus fulfill the common man’s need of spiritual enlightenment?

2009-05-07T03:12:00.000-07:00

India is known as the seat of spiritualism and religion since the ancient times. India is the birthplace of many religions and spiritual leaders. In ancient India the Spiritual Guru was generally referred to as a Rishi 'Sage' or 'Saint' whereas the word Guru was and still is used in the more personal sense in reference to the Teacher and Disciple. According to Wikipedia, a guru is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses these abilities to guide others. In Sanskrit Gu, darkness/denseness/obscuration, and Ru, light/lightness/radiance; literally a preceptor who facilitates a shift in consciousness. It also means "teacher" or "guide" in the religious sense. One can easily recall big names in the field of spirituality like Adi Shankaracharya, Patanjali, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekanand, Shirdi Sai Baba, Sant Kabir, Guru Nanak, Valmiki, Vishwamitra etc of ancient India.

In recent times, several Indian spiritual gurus and large spiritual groups and spiritual groups ( like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, Bapu Aasha Ram, Shree Mataji Nirmala Devi, Sathya Sai Baba, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Shree Maa etc) amassed unprecedented followings and wealth in India as well as globally. For example, the Sathya Sai Organization claims an estimated 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 114 countries worldwide. The number of Sathya Sai Baba adherents is estimated to be somewhere around 6 million, although their disciples cite anywhere around 5 crore. By a rough estimate, the total following of all these gurus and spiritual organizations exceed 10 crores. Most of these gurus of modern times have also been unveiling hitherto their own doctrines and practices. Mostly they claim themselves to be charismatic, great healers and motivators, but off course, they are the ‘glamour boys’ of contemporary spirituality. Many such gurus have powerful political and corporate network and have huge real estate and other material assets worth hundreds if not thousands of crores. Anytime one can watch some of them on dedicated TV channels giving sermons and discourses to the gathering of thousands of people of all age.

In order to attract large followings and audience, spiritual gurus and groups design their teachings by way of sermons and discourses or prescriptions in such a way to have maximum acceptability and at the same time they can increase wealth and expand their empires. On the other hand, purest teachings usually come from teachers who are not surrounded and supported by followers or the large groups/organizations; one can take such examples from our rich history of spirituality. Some spiritual gurus or groups such as Maharishi Mahesh yogi and Art of Living require secrecy pledge from the followers to get their proprietary systems of teachings specially the practice of mediation. When I learnt T M in March, 2000 from a teacher of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, I was required to give a pledge of not sharing the technique or the Mantra given to me to anyone else. An obvious thought then comes in the mind that such policies may be framed more for the power and privilege of the teachers than for the enlightenment of their students.

It is extremely difficult that merely by listening their sermons and discourses or adopting their short cut methods or prescriptions of different practices, we can be spiritual awakened or enlightened in the circumstances and environment in which most of the people live. They just mislead their followers by convincing them by saying that their pain and suffering can be taken care of merely by listening to their discourses, visiting their palatial ashrams or attending their camps where thousands of people assemble for days together. I am not saying that all such modern day gurus or the spiritual groups indulge in such practices or teachings but certainly majority of such gurus and teachers are not fulfilling the common man’s requirement of spiritual awakening or enlightenment leading to happiness, peace and harmony in their life.

Man’s nature is fundamentally very fragile and insecure and throughout the life, majority of us are trapped in desire/fear duality. Once the child at the age of around 8 months, starts perceiving itself as a separate individual from its mother and this process is completed around 15 months when the child starts developing the personalized sense of self i.e. ‘me’. Then the journey starts for expansion of egoic sense of self and with growing ‘me’ in him/her, the individual gets badly trapped in desire/fear duality and as a result man’s insecurity, fear, sufferings and miseries start appearing. Now those people without limiting or dissolving his expanding sense of ego, they starts looking for peace and happiness. He first looks for God not only for meeting his emotional and psychological needs but also fulfilling his desires, addressing his day to day problems and alleviating his pain and sufferings. When many of those people or even otherwise realizes, sooner or later, that religious rituals and visits to religious places do not help to the desired extent then they go for spiritual gurus, organized spiritual groups, their teachers and disciples for listening discourse, take ready-made prescriptions of different time tested practices like meditation.

The spiritual guru is meant to liberate human beings from the negative forces operating behind greed, hatred, anger, ignorance and the resultant pain and sufferings. Guru are also expected to motivate common man to unlock their potential and tap the enormous power of unconditional love and tolerance. Merely by listening discourses and sermons from such gurus and their teachers and disciples will not, in any way, help in dissolving the hardened egoic sense of self (i.e. ‘me’) because of the conditioning of mind. Our sense of ‘me’ and mind’s conditioning is so strong that unless we first take the path of ‘self enquiry’ and self awareness, the teaching and other practices relating to spirituality like mediation would not be have meaningful impact on us. Self enquiry is the direct path to self realization or enlightenment. The only way to make the mind cease its outward activities is to turn it inward. By steady and continuous investigation into the nature of the mind, the mind itself gets transformed into That to which it owes its own existence. ( quoted from the A Net of Jewel, 1996 by Ramesh Baleskar). Once one undertakes ‘self enquiry’ and fully aware about his or her true inner nature then teaching from spiritual gurus and practices like mediation can be of great help for spiritual enlightenment otherwise so called modern spiritual gurus many of them declare themselves equivalent to God will continue to play with people’s emotions and their fear of insecurity and uncertainty.

For every person, awareness of physical time differs as each person has a distinct priority for assigning importance to different dimensions of life

2009-04-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Time has been studied by philosophers and scientists since the prehistoric times and thanks to the scientific progress, we understand it much better today. However, some of the fundamental questions remain unanswered such as, what time actually is; whether time exists when nothing is changing, whether the future and past are real; whether there is an end f time and above all, what is the neural mechanism that account for our experience of time in the brain. Some of these issues will be resolved by scientific advances alone, but others require philosophical interpretation.

According to modern science, time is an integral part of the stationary time-space continuum. As per Prof. Alek Samarin, what we perceive as a “movement of time” is in reality a movement of various physical, mental etc. processes in time. We perceive this movement in a form of a swinging pendulum of an old fashioned clock, or in the firing of nerve impulses and in the extremely complex processes occurring in our brain. This is how our notion or our illusion of what we perceive as the “rate of flow of time” is created. Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel in his book: “Man, the Unknown”, distinguishes manifestations of time as physical, inner, intrinsic, physiological and psychological. It is, of course, not the time which is altered, but the various courses of events which move through the stationary time at different rates.

This phenomenon of differential rate of time is particularly dramatic in the so called Near Death Experiences (NDE), such as reported by Drs. E. Kubler-Ross, R.A. Moody and K. Ring, among many others. In the state of clinical death, some patients apparently experience total recall of their entire lives in, as they describe it, “an instant”. In this state, there is no time, there is an immediate perception of the past, present and future as if on the present moment. The experience of in the state of NDE (for example the absence of a pulse) usually lasts not more than a minute or two, but for the clinically dead person the process of his or her life review must be of a relatively exceedingly long duration, which indicates an extremely fast progression of mental activities in time. Many scientists believe that it may be caused by a flood of endorphins (the neuro peptides acting on the nervous system to reduce pain) to the part of the brain associated with emotions. Yet others think that falling oxygen levels at NDE might cause electrical discharges in some other part and affect the temporal lobe of brain, associated with memory, and consequently cause the recall of life events.

We can feel psychological clock at the time when we perceive pleasant and unpleasant events in our life. For example, when we are in the state of pain and agony, time slows down and small moments look never ending moments. There is an old saying: “Watched kettle never boils”. By contrast, all our pleasant experiences end so early, just as we begin to enjoy them. It is perhaps best understood as awareness of physical time. The psychological time is vitally important for understanding many human thought processes. According to Prof. Alek Samarin, the psychological clock also changes its rate, as we get older. For a child the process of waiting for a birthday celebration is long and anxious experience. At the old age, as we grow to be older and older, birthdays seem to come and go at an alarmingly faster and faster rate.

In the basic sense, we can’t measure psychological time by checking it on the clock. In it is that sort of time that deals with the degree of significance a certain person assigns to his past, present and future- which mainly are the three important dimensions of psychological time. Prof Alek Samarin in “Quantum Mechanics, Consciousness, Reality and Time’ paper published in Sept,03, for every person, psychological time differs as each person has a specific and distinct mode of priority with regards to assigning importance to different dimensions (phases) of his life. For instance if a person has a past orientation, that person relives old days of his life, considers the old methods and approaches of life far superior compared to contemporary practices. Besides, that person sees events as recurring and circular. In other words, according to a past-oriented person, the experiences and habits of the past are verily applicable in the courses of both present and future. As for persons who have a present orientation, they live for the present and don't care either about the past or about the future. They very rightly feel that the present is the ultimate determinant that will comprehend the course of our lives.