JPU200Y - The Way of Physics
Homework Assignment #3

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 15, Friday March 16. 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.

1. 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.
2. Man disposes himself and construes this disposition as the world.
3. It is the mind which gives to things their quality, their foundation, and their being.
4. [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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. (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.
8. (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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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".
14. (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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.