Summary of Class 16 - Tuesday March 12, 2001
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Introduction
"Consider an intelligence which, at any instant, could have a knowledge
of all forces controlling nature together with the momentary conditions of all
the entities of which nature consists. If this intelligence were powerful
enough to submit all this data to analysis it would be able to embrace in a
single formula the movements of the largest bodies in the universe and those of
the lightest atoms; for it nothing would be uncertain; the future and the past
would be equally present to its eyes." - Pierre Laplace, 1819.
Today's Class
We finished our discussion of Chaos.
We then reviewed the Double Slit for Electrons, which was originally
discussed in the first few classes at the beginning of the term.
Next we introduced a second major paradox of Quantum Mechanics:
Schrödinger's Cat. A small document on this topic has been
prepared:
html
pdf.
Homework Assignment #5
In 1969 LeShan devised an interesting test. He collected 62
quotations, some from modern theoretical physicists and some from mystics.
Below, we have randomly selected 20 of these quotations; the reason for
reducing the size of the question bank is to reduce the time necessary to
complete the assignment.
Reference: Lawrence LeShan, "Physicists and
Mystics: Similarities in World View", Jour. Transp. Psych. (Fall 1969) pg.
1.
This assignment is due in tutorial on
Thursday March 21, Friday March 22. Beside each statement clearly mark a
P if you believe it was made by a physicist and an
M if you believe it was made by a mystic.
- So far as broader characteristics are concerned we see in
nature what we look for or are equipped to look for. Of course, I do not mean
that we can arrange the details of the scene; but by the light and shade of our
values we can bring out things that shall have the broad characteristics we
esteem. In this sense the value placed on permanence creates the world of
apparent substance; in this sense, perhaps the God within creates the God in
nature.
- Man disposes himself and construes this disposition as the
world.
- It is the mind which gives to things their quality, their
foundation, and their being.
- [The] reason why our sentient, percipient, and thinking ego is
met nowhere in our world picture can easily be indicated in seven words:
because it is ITSELF that world picture. It is identical with the whole
and therefore cannot be contained in it as part of it.
- In general, we should never think of the world around us
without also thinking of the nervous machinery in our heads by means of which
we acquire knowledge of the world.
- These two groups of thinking, the way of time and history, the
way of eternity and timelessness, are both parts of man's efforts to comprehend
the world in which he lives. Neither is comprehended in the other nor reducible
to it ... each supplementing the other, neither telling the whole story.
- (Satori)(Relativity) theory may be defined as an intuitive
looking into the nature of things in contradiction to the analytical or logical
understanding of it. Practically, it means the unfolding of a new world
hitherto unperceived in the confusion of a dualistically-trained mind. Or we
may say that with (Satori)(Relativity) theory our entire surroundings are
viewed from quite an unexpected angle of perception ... logically stated, all
its (the worlds) opposites and contradictions are united and harmonized into a
consistent, organic whole.
- (In science) (In meditation) we realize more and more that our
understanding of nature cannot begin with some definite cognition, that is
cannot be built on such a rock-life foundation, but that all cognition is, so
to speak, suspended over an infinite abyss.
- As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are
not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
- What is the cause of this universe? ... time, space, law,
chance, matter, primal energy, intelligence - none of these, nor a combination
of these can be the final cause of the universe, for they are effects ... this
universe which is made up of the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest
and the unmanifest ... realize that mind, matter, and ... the power which
unites mind and matter are but three aspects of ... the one reality.
- This (divine ground) (block universe) (four dimensional
manifold) is a unified stillness immovable in itself. Yet from this immobility
all things are moved and receive life.
- Thus the material world ... constitutes the whole world of
appearance, but not the whole world of reality; we may think of it as forming
only a cross section of the world of reality.
- If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the
(electron)(mind) remains the same, we must say "no"; if we ask whether the
(electron)(mind)'s position changes with time, we must say "no"; if we ask
whether the (electron)(mind) is at rest, we must say "no"; if we ask whether it
is in motion, we must say "no".
- (Modern science) (Deeper understanding) has demonstrated that
in the real world surrounding us, it is not geometric forms, but the dynamic
laws concerning movement (coming into being and passing away) which are
permanent.
- Substance is one of the most dominant concepts of our familiar
outlook on the world of sensory experience, and it is one with which (science)
(wisdom) finds itself continually at war.
- Time, then, is contained in differentiation of life; the
ceaseless forward movement of life brings with it unending time; and life as it
achieves its stages constitutes past time ... eternity as we have said, is life
in repose, unchanging self-identical always endlessly complete ... the origin
of time, clearly, is to be traced to the first stirrings of the (soul's)
(mind's) tendency towards the production of the sensible universe with the
consecutive act ongoing .. the (soul) (mind) begot at once the universe and
time.
- However deep the chasm may be that separates the intuitive
nature of space from that of time in our experience, nothing of the
qualitative difference enters into the objective world which (Hatha Yoga)
(Physics) endeavors to crystallize out of "direct experience". It is a
(One with a second) (four dimensional continuum) which is neither time nor
space - only the consciousness that passes on in one portion of the world
experiences the detached piece which is going to meet it and passes behind it,
as history, that is a process going forward in time and taking place in
space.
- A stone falls and we ask why. This question is possible only
on the supposition that nothing happens without a cause. I request you to make
this very clear in your minds, for, whenever we ask why anything happens, we
are taking for granted that everything that happened must have a why, that is
to say, it must have been preceded by something else which acted as the cause.
This precedence in succession is what we call the law of causation. It means
that everything in the universe is by turn cause and effect.
- It is necessary, therefore, that advancing knowledge should
base herself on a clear, pure and disciplined intellect. It is necessary, too,
that she should correct her errors, sometimes by a return to the restraint of
sensible fact, the concrete realities of the physical world. The touch of Earth
is always reinvigorating to the sons of Earth ... the superphysical can only be
really mastered in its fullness ... when we keep our feet firmly on the
physical.
- Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in a
second, never-ending crusade against skepticism and dogmatism, and against
superstition. The rallying cry for this crusade has always been and always will
be "On to God!"
We conclude this assignment with some final remarks from LeShan's
original paper.
Perhaps the most significant fact about this procedure of
dealing with quotations is not that they were impossible to place in one group
or the other (language, thought style, minor variations in tone, etc. make it
possible for most individuals trained in one of the areas to decide with pretty
fair accuracy), but rather the fact that it is a "difficult" task.
There
is an old [Eastern] idea that seems relevant here. It is the belief that as one
searches more and more deeply into oneself, tearing aside veil after veil of
illusion, one comes finally to ATMAN, the essence of the self. And that
as one searches more and more deeply into outside reality, tearing aside veil
after veil of illusion, one comes finally to BRAHMAN, the true essence
of reality. And that Atman and Brahman are the
same.
Thanks to Valerie Belsky, a former JPU200Y student, for bring
LeShan's article to my attention.