One Dream

One of the main issues in the foundation problems of quantum mechanics is related to the role of the observer in the observation process. The primary object in science is to assume the external world of matter as independent of the observer (Cartesian dualism), where one can eliminate the observer’s effect on the physical system. This is the belief system generally held in natural science and it is in conformity with the materialist view. The Copenhagen interpretation provided a new perspective regarding the interaction of the outside world and the observer. Bohr himself said that we are not simply participating as the spectators of the great drama of this world but also as actors. The observer always influences the outcome of his experiment.

In quantum mechanics, the description of the observation process remains as the central issue. The observation induces a kind of disturbance to the system to be observed so that it is not meaningful to say what was there before the measurement. In general, physicist think that observation or measurements are purely physical phenomena. In this context Pauli had a different view. To Pauli, physics and psychology together do describe the overall reality. Physics can only describe the rational features of reality. He stressed that psyche must be included in our conception of reality in order to understand the irrational aspects of reality. According to Pauli, in addition to consciousness, the unconscious plays an essential role. Here, Pauli made connection Jungian unconscious, not to the Freudian subconscious.

Experiences associated with mental states such as meditation, as well as ordinary sleep characterized by theta brain waves, all cannot fit within the standard paradigm. For example, in sleep states, the sense of ordinary linear time often disappears as well as the sense of a single person identity. In advanced meditative states, the sense of separate identity dissolves etc.

Individuality, or personality, according to Yoga Vasistha, does not consist in being anything like a simple, undecomposible, spiritual entity, called soul in the West and cit by Ramanuja in India. It consists, on the other hand, in being a manas, a mind, which means a peculiar mode of the Ultimate Reality determined by a peculiar movement, tendency, desire, or will to imagine. The form is in perpetual change, as Bergson also thinks, for it is determined by ever changing, activity. Activity and personality are identical for Vasistha. They are two names for the same tendency. Vasistha will agree with James on his idea of our personality being an ever flowing stream of thought, and with Bergson that it is in perpetual flux. What modern physicists think of the atom in relation to the ether, Vasistha thinks of the mind with regard to the Absolute Reality, which he for want of a better expression calls Consciousness, The idea presented quite recently by some physicists was so clear in his mind that he calls the mind a cid-anu, a Consciousness-atom. As an atom now is considered to be nothing apart from motion or force, so mind is nothing according to Vasistha, apart from the tendency to conscire in a peculiar way. An electron, many of which compose an atom, now is considered to be a “knot”, a “twist”, a “nucleus of intrinsic strain”, a “whirl”, a “vortex-ring”, a “centre of force”, a “stress of energy” a “special mode or form of motion” in and of the substance of the physical ether. Exactly the same is the conception of mind according to Vasistha, if instead of physical ether we substitute the term Consciousness ether (Cid-akasha), a term copiously used by Vasistha.

Schrodinger asserted that not only can a microphysical particle not be observed twice, but not even once, as the consistent application of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle asserts: ‘Movement of abstract, wave-like, almost unreal electrons and their occupying a position, and the possibility of one electron’s simultaneous presence in many other places, baffled scientists’. The Cartesian-Newtonian science based picture of reality on the ultimate foundation of matter, failed to stand in its search for a matter based picture of reality, especially in the world of sub-atomic particles.

Modern physics has stepped into the world of number of bewildering contradictions about matter where particles behave as waves, and waves as particles; where a single particle is also a reflection of the whole universe; where objective reality, though apparently real is yet illusory; where we know what happens at the end of a reaction, but never know in exactitude how it happens because subatomic phenomena are like ‘an unopenable watch’ as Einstein said. These words seem like an echo of what Swami Vivekananda said in London at the end of last century: ‘This world has no existence’. What is meant by that? It means it has no absolute existence, it exists only in relation to my mind, your mind, to the total mind. Noble Physicist Robert Oppenheimer expresses this basic contradiction, this fundamental incertitude in our knowledge of the world: ‘If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron the same, we must say “no”; if we ask whether it is in motion, we must say “no”. These words seem like an echo of the Isa Upanishad indicating the Ultimate Reality,

“It moves, it moves not
It is far, and yet it is near
It is within all this, and it is outside”.

Einstein’s theory of Relativity showed that after infinite time a thing will come back to its original state. The universe springs from a state of singularity as Roger Penrose calls it, beyond space, time and goes back to it. Relativity pointed to the Absolute which is beyond space-time, and therefore transcendental. The relative is temporary, and therefore ultimately unreal.
Relativity is space-time according to Einstein, Relativity is space-time causality, according to Upanishads, The strict cause and effect relation which was thought to be eternal and unfailing by Einstein was found to be failing and uncertain in Upanishads. Quantum physics has validated the uncertainty of causality which Upanishads upheld for thousands of years. Swami Vivekananda repeatedly upheld the Upanishadic concept of non-causality as the ultimate truth in this phenomenal world although cause and effect relation is accepted to be beyond question in classical physics. Herman Minkowtiski’s idea of time-space-continuum is synonymous with Upanishadic relativity of space-time causality, Micheal Talbot makes a startling comment in his book Mysticism and New Physics:

‘Vivekananda further expresses a view that has become the backbone of Quantum Theory. There is no such thing as strict causality.’

Swami Vivekananda predicted in his 1893 Chicago Parliament Lecture that modern science would touch its final destination as soon as it reached ‘Unity’. The Grand unification theory (GUT) that physics contemplates today is not merely a unification of mass and energy, nor different kinds of cosmic forces but for the first time in the history of science it is going to be the unification of mind and matter, subject and object, scientist and experiment. Albert Einstein was the first dreamer of this unified field theory or GUT, which would combine all the forces of the universe into one force, but he failed to fulfil his dream because he did not incorporate the fundamental quantum principle of the ‘Uncertainty’. In the 1960s three physicsts , Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg and Sheldon L. Glashaw, accepted Uncertainty principle, and formulated the idea of ‘electro-weak force’ by the unification of electro magnetic and weak-interaction forces. They partially fulfilled Einstein’s dream and were awarded Noble Prize in 1979. Hawking said that after discovering a theory of everything ‘there would be still lots to do’, but physics would then be ‘like mountaineering after Everest.’

In an interview with physicist Prof. Wheeler, he said:

‘We find the world strange, but what’s strange is us. It seems to me that we don’t yet read the message properly, but in time to come, we will see it in some single, simple sentence. As we say that sentence to each other, we’ll say, “OH, how beautiful,” How could we have missed it, all that time?

Wheeler’s dream of a single, simple sentence explaining strange Universe reminds us of the simple but profoundly powerful Mahavakyas like ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ (Thou art That) or Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman or existence-knowledge-bliss absolute). Both these principles contain the cardinal principle of Vedanta- the microcosm contains the macrocosm.

In 1975, the bestselling book on physics and Eastern philosophy entitled Tao of Physics by Fritzof Capra, ends with this Upanishadic realization of the oneness of the ‘reality within’ and ‘reality without’:

‘Thus the mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, is identical to Atman, the Individual Witnessing Conscious Entity.’

Source:
Philosophy and Science An Exploratory Approach to Consciousness (Ramakrishna Mission)
Philosophy of Yoga Vasistha (B.I Atreya)