Igor Kononenko

Science is based on objective knowledge that is inductively derived from empirical observations of reality throughout many years. Spirituality is based on subjective knowing collected by the soul from experience in numerous lives. Spirituality is necessarily subjective, science has to be objective. Spirituality emphasizes the development of feelings (heart), science requires the development of intellect (brain). Spirituality is intuitive, science is logical. Science is based on causality, spirituality, on the other hand, often denies causality as time is not irreversible. Science and spirituality complement each other and together compose the knowledge and awareness that help us to understand and accept ourselves and the universe.

We shall start the analysis of science and spirituality by considering basic concepts that are extensively used in science every day, however, if we want to define these concepts we have troubles. These concepts are the very basic ones and we consider them as given facts and they cannot be defined. We imagine their meaning only trough experience and intuition. These concepts are space, vacuum, energy, matter, thought, information, time, reality and free will. We will end up with strict limitations posed by mathematics to each symbolic language and therefore also to science that uses those languages for modeling the world.

SPACE

When we consciously think about the happening in space we are bounded with three basic space dimensions and, usually, as the fourth dimension we consider time. It is not easy for our mind to imagine more than three dimensions as we are used to live inside these limitations. On the other hand, mathematics has no problems in introducing higher dimensions. The only reason that we do not believe in existence of higher dimensions is our narrow-mindedness. The existence of higher dimensions is also frightening. If (intelligent) creatures exist that live in higher dimensions their three dimensional shadows can at anytime appear in front of our eyes and can also at anytime disappear (which would be considered by three dimensional observer as a miracle). For easier understanding imagine creatures living in only two dimensions - in a plane. When I push my finger through such a plane and then draw it back, the surprised two-dimensional observer sees in front of his two dimensional eyes that suddenly a two dimensional section of my finger appears from “nothing” and then it suddenly disappears.

Today still, there is no generally accepted physical theory that would explain all physical phenomena that can be measured (especially the gravitational force is a great mystery). The novel theories introduce additional space dimensions in order to achieve the uniformity of all the forces, which we currently know. Some theories require only one additional dimension, the other require ten or even more additional dimensions. “The visible universe could lie on a membrane floating within a higher-dimensional space. The extra dimensions would help unify the forces of nature and could contain parallel universes”. (N.Arkani-Hamed, S.Dimopoulus and G.Davi, 2000). This however means, that physicists not only allow more than three dimensions, but also consider a possibility that there exist many parallel three- or more-dimensional universes! They even design experiments that would support such hypotheses.

VACUUM, ENERGY, MATTER

If we assume an atom enlarged to the size of an apartment block then we may say that the whole mass of the atom is concentrated in the center, in the nucleus that is no larger than a pinhead. Hundred meters away the electrons buzz around, however, in this enlargement they are still invisible. The space between the nucleus and the electrons is empty. Atom is composed practically completely of vacuum, which is not what we usually consider it to be. In vacuum all the time pairs of particles appear from “nothing”, they glow up like comets and they again disappear – the matter transforms into radiation and vice versa. New particles appear and disappear. Before the physicists were able to find out what is going on the discovery of one of the most exciting theories, created by human mind, was needed: the quantum mechanics. This theory of the smallest particles is both brilliant and shocking. It is brilliant as it completely describes what is going on in micro-world. It is shocking as it completely contradicts the everyday human reasoning and understanding. Quantum mechanics was able to explain all the peculiarities that were observed in physics and was able to predict new, even more unusual discoveries (Capra, 1983).

One of the great successes of quantum mechanics was the prediction of the existence of the antimatter. The theoretical physicist Paul Dirac in 1928 discovered in formulas the new kind of matter – the antimatter. It is similar to normal matter except that it is charged inversely and it will burn away in a flash immediately when it meets the normal matter. And four years later the antimatter was indeed discovered. Much oversimplified, we can think of the equation 0 = -1 + 1. From zero we can obtain the one and its opposite - the negative one. If we sum them up we again get zero.

In fact the antimatter comes out from vacuum. Vacuum, as discovered by Dirac, is not at all empty. It is densely full of electrons of negative energy (Dirac’s lake). Electrons in the lake are hidden as they homogeneously fill up the space. Only when the homogeneity is destroyed our instruments can detect something. For example, if we shoot with energy ray into Dirac’s lake and we switch one electron to positive energy then we can observe how matter comes from nothing. We can see the electron as well as the hole in the lake, which is called a positron. If electron and positron meet they mutually destroy each other: an electron falls back into the hole in the Dirac’s lake and they disappear from the field of visibility. What remains is a flash of energy and the vacuum from which they both some time ago emerged.

Hundreds of years before physicists the wise men devoted special attention to the vacuum – the emptiness, which was the final goal of their search on spiritual growth. This search was going on in different times and under different spiritual movements, it was leading on different paths but it always ended with the same result: in the emptiness the seeker joins the universal consciousness. The universal consciousness is known in all cultures. In 12^th century mystic Ibn al-Arabi described the experience of zero as follows: “You don’t stop to exist but you also don’t exist anymore. You are It without any limitations.” The zen patriarch said: “Emptiness here, emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands in front of your eyes.” Zero is the foundation of our world.

 
THOUGHT, INFORMATION, SPACE, MATTER

In spirituality the physical distance of course does not represent a serious limitation. A thought that is sent by a spiritual teacher or by a therapist immediately reaches the learner or the patient, the actual distance doesn’t matter. Almost everybody has at least once experienced a telepathic event. Such experience supports our confidence that the telepathy is possible. Besides the transmission of information it is also possible that mental information influences the physical world – the matter. The research of telepathy and telekinesis confirms it. For example, results of twelve years of accurate and critical experimental work of top-level experts of PEAR Laboratory (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) at Princeton University and also of research groups from other countries confirm that the human mind can consciously influence physical processes regardless of the actual distance between the human and the physical process (Jahn et al., 1997; Dunne and Jahn, 1995). The results also confirm that the human mind can detect feelings of the other person also regardless of the actual distance between the two persons.

It is easier to trust those results due to high competence of the involved researchers. The head of the PEAR group is Professor dr. Robert Jahn. He is Dean Emeritus of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and has been chairman of the AIAA Electric Propulsion Technical Committee, associate editor of the AIAA Journal, and a member of the NASA Space Science and Technology Advisory Committee.

In the past many research groups all over the world (from 1959 to 1987 more than 800 studies were completed by more than 60 different researchers) have conducted similar studies and all the studies obtained similar results. The PEAR group therefore only confirmed previous results, but these experiments were much more carefully designed and rigorously statistically analyzed so they don’t leave any space for doubt in the authenticity of published results. Similar experiments were performed also with animals and plants (Tompkins and Bird, 1973) and the results are similar. Still, the open question remains: how to explain those phenomena.

The official science tries it’s utmost to oppose these results and closes it’s (narrow) eyes. There are several reasons for that. The first reason is poor reproducibility of results. The results of the PEAR group showed that the influence of experimental persons on the output of a random number generator is relatively modest. When trying to consciously increase the number of ones or zeros, on average one output out of 10.000 was changed which seems to be merely a coincidence. However, the results were highly statistically significant. Detailed statistical analysis showed that the probability that such deviation would be merely a coincidence is less than one over one million! Subsequent experiments confirmed the reproducibility and statistical significance of the results. From modest influence which is, however, statistically significant, we can conclude that this smallness of mental influence on the physical processes is the reason why the possibility of the influence of the mind (consciousness) on the physical processes was not acknowledged in scientific community. Only rarely there were so called media that were exhibiting telepathic abilities which were hard to verify due to poor reproducibility.

Besides poor reproducibility, the unacceptability by official science is also due to more deep reasons. As there is no (scientific) explanation for these phenomena, such and similar results demolish the very basis of science which is of course very painful. At the same time the bases are demolished on which many individuals have grown their ego. Last but not least, the system based on profit requires spiritually undeveloped and unconscious people in order to exploit them.

TIME

We are not used to think about everyday life from the point of view of eternity and therefore we are all the time under the pressure of time limitations. We consider the things we are working on in our lives as extremely important and we have to complete them in time. However, to every high school pupil it is clear that any finite time interval, such as one second, one year or billion of years, is equal to ZERO when compared to eternity. This is a mathematical fact! If we are eternal, then the significance of a period of one life on planet Earth is negligible. How does the human ego feel like when considering this fact? Is it really necessary not to be late for a meeting, a job, a sale or a party?

For science the principle of causality is essential and the causality is guided by the direction of time: past events influence the order of events in present and future time. Linearity of time plays an essential role. What has happen before can influence the future, the other way around is “impossible”. Whatever experiments contradict the linearity of time are in advance disapproved and considered as charlatanism. But yet Einstein has already showed the relativity of time that of course helps to loosen the strong opinion (which so often becomes “the matter of course”). Novel findings in quantum physics confirm that time is not irreversible, although they state strict conditions under which such exceptions can appear. These limitations are connected with very short time and space intervals as well as with specific extreme values of energetic states of quantum particles.

NONDETERMINISM OF REALITY

In spiritual teachings the true reality is spiritual, physical existence only serves the spirituality. Human is an accurately designed instrument for the interaction with the physical world in ways that potentially enable the achievement of spiritual goals that are not reachable without physical body. Therefore the physical reality is essential but only as help. The human body is potentially a holy physical tool that can control the spiritual (Rabinowitz and Branover, unpublished).

The results of experiments with telepathy on Princeton University wouldn’t be so surprising, at least for people that have got some personal experience with telepathic or intuitive flash of wit, if they didn’t confirm also that the influence is independent of time. It was experimentally confirmed that the mental influence is possible on the matter or on the other mind (consciousness) for several days in advance and for several days backwards in time. The PEAR group have carefully designed two kinds of experiments: mental influence on the output of random number generators and mental perception of feelings of other people on long distances that were exposed to various situations. In both kinds of experiments the results were significantly positive and independent of the distance in space and the distance in time! For example, experiments with random number generators were performed with various time delays: a person had to try to influence the output of the random number generator in the past (with delay up to 336 hours = 2 weeks) and in the future (with delay up to 72 hours = 3 days). In the former case the output from the past was stored and, until the experiment was performed, nobody was able to see it. In both cases the results were equally positive and statistically significant as in experiments without time delay.

Although the results are counterintuitive we can guess the explanation with the help of quantum physics. Namely, on quantum level it holds that, until the state of the system is observed, all the states are possible and their probabilities are determined with the wave function. In quantum mechanics it holds that every small part of matter, each electron, each proton, each nuclear particle is the wave and the particle at the same time. As long as the “quantum object” moves in the space it is described by a wave function. It is not situated in any particular place, it exist only as an intersection of possible paths and locations. If the wave bumps in an obstacle, detector, photographic paper or our eye retina, it immediately becomes a particle. Physicists talk about a “collapse of wave function”. Many possibilities are reduced to single reality. The wave function is ruined (collapsed).

Such ruining is happening all the time. As was stated by physicist John Davidson: “The world is creative also on its lowest level.” However, when we try to analyze when the wave function actually collapses we come across an unusual problem: the quantum non-determinism moves to all involved measuring instruments. In the same way as an electron is a mixture of “maybe here” and “maybe there”, the measuring device also by the laws of quantum mechanics exhibits a mixed state: “the electron detected maybe here” and “the electron detected maybe there”. This inaccuracy moves also to the computer that stores the results and to the printer that prints the results even on the paper. However, if we look on the paper there is no trace of inaccuracy, no intersection. We see only single reality – the result of the measurement. When did the transition from possibility to reality happen? Amit Goswami says: in the moment when the quantum world bumps (confronts) with a consciousness. Universal consciousness forces the wave function to collapse. The consciousness creates the matter. The world exist only when the consciousness observes it. That is why we never have seen all the possibilities of quantum mechanics - and we never will.

Therefore, the quantum principle of non-determinism of state “until the measurement” actually means “until the measurement, performed by a conscious being”. This principle can be found in various spiritual teachings and also many famous physicists argue for it (Rabinowitz and Branover, unpublished). By this principle the reality is not determined until a conscious observer measures it. Only then the reality is fixed (and cannot be changed anymore). Till then the reality is indeed bounded with the laws of nature but all the states within these boundaries are still possible, regardless of the fact that, for example, a computer already printed out the results on the paper. Only when a human looks at the results the reality becomes “frozen”, till then we can change the reality, for example with mental influence on the past experiment as was shown in the Princeton University.

The great mathematician John Von Neumann, who provided a rigorous mathematical foundation of quantum mechanics, believed that only a human consciousness can collapse the wave function. The eminent Nobel prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner writes: “It follows that the quantum description of objects is influenced by impressions entering my consciousness… It follows that the being with a consciousness must have a different role in quantum mechanics than the inanimate measuring device.” The famous physicist John Wheeler has taken this one step further. According to him the entire universe can emerge into true physical existence only via observation of a consciousness! The observer is as essential to the creation of the universe as is the universe to the creation of observer… (Rabinowitz and Branover, unpublished).

FREE WILL

In the Jewish spiritual teachings they believe that God has delegated man to interpret the reality. The world was created by God but formation and interpretation is left to man. This authorization is the basis of free will. Consciousness can influence the reality only if it has free will, and also free will cannot exist without consciousness. Israeli physicists Avi Rabinowitz and Herman Branover state it as follows:

“Free-willed decision, in order to be truly free, has to be unconstrained by the laws of nature and not determined by any physical phenomena. Hence free will must be neither the result of deterministic processes, nor the result of random processes occurring in accordance with the natural order of phenomena. Hence if the universe contains a free will, this free will must operate via interactions which transcend both the determinism of classical physics and the randomness of quantum physics. Free will is then unique in this respect. If some entity exists which can collapse the quantum wave function, then it is reasonable to postulate that this entity has to be free will, since only free will transcends quantum randomness, as it transcends nature in general.

Furthermore, just as according to quantum physics (or metaphysics) nature has delegated to man the ability to determine the nature of physical reality within the limitations of natural laws, similarly, according to Torah (Jewish teachings), God, the Creator of nature, has delegated to man alone the ability to determine the nature of spiritual reality, within the limitations of halakhah (Jewish Law). Spiritual reality then influences the physical. Thus the determination by man of spiritual reality is even more fundamental than the men’s determination of physical reality… Nature by itself is powerless to achieve self-realization; man is required to bring both himself and the universe into reality.”

Therefore, God does not determine the reality; this responsibility is delegated to man.

BOUNDARIES OF SCIENCE: CONTINUOUS AND DISCRETE WORLD

When I intentionally started several years ago to occupy myself with spirituality I had serious problems because of persistent wish to explain every phenomenon that I met. Namely, many years I believed that logic can explain the purpose and the functioning of the universe. Also, I believed that each living being, which includes also a human being, can be described with a computer program. My research area is artificial intelligence (more specifically: machine learning (e.g. Dietterich and Shavlik, 1990)). Besides developing more “intelligent” computer programs the utmost goal of these investigations is the development of a computer program that would act as or even more intelligently than human beings. In spite of optimistic announcements at the very beginning of computer era the research didn’t have great successes. For some time this was really bothering me.

Mathematics did help me during searching for an answer. Mathematics in fact determines very strictly the limitations for all formal symbolic languages that are today used in science. These languages are, for example, mathematical logic, computer programming languages, recursive functions and formal grammars. All those formalisms are equally expressible and all have the same limitations (Hopcroft and Ullman, 1979): they can (partially) describe the events inside the discrete world (mathematically speaking, the discrete world corresponds to the set of natural numbers). However, they can describe practically only a negligible part of the continuous world (that corresponds to the set of real numbers). Therefore, if the world is actually continuous, which is indeed supported by novel discoveries in physics, then it is not describable with any formalism used by today’s science. This means that the knowledge that can be provided by science, books, teachers, is never final as it is always only an approximation and cannot completely describe the reality. In other words, the existence or nonexistence of God is not provable – science cannot answer to this question. This is all right: it is the task of each individual.

If the world cannot be described, maybe, we can feel it as we are a part of this (continuous) world. In the computer terminology I would say that we are »continuous machines«. Of course the word »machine« is not appropriate anymore as the limitations of machines, as we know them in a discrete world, in the continuous world do not hold anymore. If we are continuous machines then we are potentially omnipotent: we can (potentially) solve any problem in an arbitrary short amount of time an we can store in an arbitrary small amount of space an arbitrary large amount of information. Such »machine« could be named (again in the computer terminology) a universal computer or simply God.

Words are unimportant, they are only an approximation of reality. Therefore, it is all the same if we say god, omnipotent love, universal intelligence, nature, or continuous machine. Also, it is all the same if we say Christ, master of wisdom, angel, guide, or higher self. It is important, however, what we feel. The truth cannot be objective in the usual sense of objectivity as science cannot describe it. It is necessarily subjective and everybody has to find the truth by him or herself (has to feel it inside him or herself). And this is probably our life-task.

REFERENCES

N. Arkani-Hamed, S. Dimopoulus and G. Davi: The Universe’s Unseen Dimensions, Scientific American, 283(2)48-55, August 2000.

T.G. Dietterich and J.W. Shavlik (eds.): Readings in machine learning, Morgan Kaufmann Publ., 1990.

B.J. Dunne, R.G. Jahn: Consciousness and anomalous physical phenomena, PEAR, Princeton University, Technical note PEAR 95004, May 1995.

J.E. Hopcroft and J.D. Ullman: Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation, Addison Wesley, 1979.

R.G. Jahn, B.J .Dunne, R.D. Nelson, Y.H. Dobyns and G.J. Bradish: Correlations of random binary sequences with pre-stated operator intention: A review of a 12-Year Program, Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11(3)345-367, 1997.

A. Rabinowitz, H. Branover: The Role of Observer in Halakhah and Quantum Physics, unpublished paper, Israel.