Wednesday, June 6, 2012

SAND conference , Amsterdam, 31st May to 3 june

The setting was perfect. In the lush woods of Utrecht nestled in a forest at the outskirts of Amsterdam. The ambience , a testimony to the journey of mankind,from the thick forests to the precision of technology and perfection of engineering. There was a certain air of Non duality about the venue. No two opinions. The sunny weather too seemed prophetic , forecasting the dazzling brilliance of the speakers we were to witness over the next three days as it were. The symbol of this movement is AUM = mc2 where AUM is representative of the universal truth that includes the experience of this universe. The universal truth will have to factor in the element of consciousness to connect the descartes mind matter duality. And mc2 of course part of the universal equation equating mass with energy , the ontological units of the universe.


This August assembly was attempting to evolve our understanding of creation and consciousness from a psuedopodal clumsy locomotion to an erect bipedalism, setting afoot on the limbs of science and non-duality.

Over the next few days, we entered a seemingly new world of fractals, quantum particles and fields, quantum foam, and many more abstractions of thoughts and concepts. Was creation really such a complicated phenomenon. Could experimental reductionism of science ever be synthesised with the abstract experiential realm of spirituality to unravel the mysteries of understanding the self and this manifold creation?

One paper proposed a hypothesis that suggested that our "self" was a holographic virtual image and the real image was the one in our brain . When the divine light or universal consciousness rays fell on the " kundalini" these rays diffracted to form the real image and reflected to form the virtual image. This hypothesis was put forth by Dr Taylor, a quantum physicist. It sounded very original and was quite well received.

Another very interesting take was the one that revisited the equation which was reduced by Einstein to the famous E= mc2. The original equation was one that expressed E as a square. E2 = m2c4 + p2c2

The velocity of any particle was considered negligible compared to the speed of light by Einstein. So the part dealing with the momentum of the particle was dropped. The value of E would have to have a positive and negative polarity, but the negative value was ignored and even totally discounted , even by Heisenberg. That finally gave us the E= mc2.

However when Wolfgang Pauli discovered that sub atomic particles were spinning at near equal the speed of light the momentum of the particle could not be ignored. The negative value of E is looked upon as retro causality. That is, the effect precedes the cause. Energy is manifested first and the electron moves back in time to become a positron. Fascinating concept.

Entropy is always increasing, and is positive. But in retro causality, entropy is negative. Syntropy. Matter was considered to be the one with positive entropy whilst all life forms were retro causal with a syntropy. This view was deliberated by one and all and in fact seemed to whet the intellectual appetite of the gathering.

One of the speakers was a young lad of 34 whose world went tipsy turvy when he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. Ironically, his talk was titled " I was blessed with a brain tumour" . The delegates were spellbound by his viewpoint when he said he refused the option of conscious brain surgery to extirpate the tumour. He remarked that there are two worlds, one which we create for ourselves and one which actually pans out. The gist of his talk was how this very unfortunate event transformed him into living in the moment and being grateful the discordance of both these worlds notwithstanding.

The famous quantum physicist and a person who was in the race for the presidential election in 1996 and 2000 Dr. John Hagelin had a very equanimous and serene disposition. He gave a very measured and articulate view that spoke of a unified field of consciousness, which unifies subatomic particles and forces as expression of a single unified force. He was very assertive about of a state of non duality . A state where the knower and known dissolves and only subjectivity remains. On being asked whether in this Non dual state, would it still be a science, he replied it would ,but in the realm of the experiential, beyond semantics and concepts.

A quantum physicist From France showed a film that shows the appearance of bands in the famous double slit experiment. The bands would appear only if light propagated as a wave form. But strangely the interference bands appeared pixel by pixel even when a mono photonic beam was used. This suggested that the photon simultaneously passed through both the slits and created an interference with itself to produce the bands. It was very enchanting. She in fact went as far as to replay the recording and that her team considered this clip as sacred.

The scientific sessions were interspersed with meditation sessions. The session conducted by Rupert Spira was particularly very effective. It transported the collective consciousness of the two hundred odd participants to a level of internal unified silence. It was an experience to cherish. The evenings used music to experience a communion with divinity.

The performance that combined the serene cello with the vivacious harp truly seemed to reverberate the theme of non duality. The discrete notes of each harmonised into a sort of divine alliance.

The deliberations of scientists and delegates from 23 nations appeared to have a consensus on non-duality, or Adwaita. It was gratifying to note frequent references to this ancient Indian wisdom and philosophy. This ideology that for long was shackled by religious connotations and it was heartening to realise that it is being revisited by contemporary scientific thought and research.

The conference was holistic in the true sense. Each approach discrete , at times hard core scientific, and other times intangible . We were walking the edge of science and knowledge. Knowledge that is in the domain of experience and hence more metaphysical than physical. The adwaita philosophy ,that had a very mild resonance with the substance of spinoza may eventually reveal the truth that expresses the mind matter descartian duality as an awareness where the two merge into an endless infinite unity.Both unmistakably proving the existence of an ultimate truth that seems to display a wave particle duality. Appearing illusory when specifically looked for but manifests tangibly when experienced , as the harmony of soulful music,or the beauty of this manifold creation .



1 comment:

rudru47 said...

As the days pass and science may come to a saturation stage as regards exploration of space, universe etc., the equation Aum=mc2 may become true in the philosophical/spiritual meaning. As I have read in one site, by the year 10000 to 11000, science will come to the conclusion of inadequacy of science and the beginning of spirituality and by that time, the scientists will do space exploration without expected results, time travel without expected results and may come to the conclusion that all the earthly beings should move with God and lead a God initiated life.Now, NASA scientists have discovered that the sound Aum comes near the Sun and also they are agreeing with Vedic philosophy of universe and not the big bang theory. Still they have to find out soul, astral body, consciousness, and mastery over space n time etc.,etc., Thus, we have to choose to think scientifically and live spiritually for the whole welfare of people of earth. //r m agadi - rudrappaagadi@gmail.com//