Saturday, December 11, 2010

Hinduism and physics

The basic oneness of the universe is not only the central
characteristic of the mystical experience, but is also one
of the most important revelations of modern physics.
"The most important discovery in the history of science"
-Prof.Henry Stapp, Quantum physicist.
Bell's Theorem-Vedanta and Quantum Physics
Human consciousness and the physcal world
'Om Isha vasyam idam sarvam, yat kincha jagatyam jagat'
"All this- whatever exists in this
changing universe, is pervaded by God"
-Isa Upanishad
"Om purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate,
purnasya purnamadaya purnamevaavashishyate"

"That (pure consciousness) is full(perfect); this(the manifest universe of matter; of names and forms being maya) is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness."
-Peace invocation- Isa Upanishad
The Supreme Brahman(God) is the only Reality. The idea of the phenomenal universe is falsely superimposed upon it."
-Swami Nikhilananda of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, New York.
The Implications of this Theorem are Staggering
The implications of this theorem are staggering
In recent years physicists have had to address the interplay of consciousness and the physical world. In Quantum Physics much has been made over Bell's Theorem. The implications of this theorem and the experimental findings that flow from it are staggering. They force us to consider that the entire notion of a purely objective world is in conflict not only with the theory of quantum mechanics, but with the facts drawn from actual experiments. These findings point insistently to a profound interaction between conscious mental activity and the physical world itself.
The Rishi's vision
The Rishi's vision of a world in which man participates in a seamless existence, indivisibly united with the universe around him, resonates through a discovery called "BELL'S THEOREM". This discovery, first proposed in 1964 by the physicist John S. Bell was first confirmed by experiment in 1972 by Professor John Clauser at Berkley. It is an almost unbelievable result - unbelievable because the logical mind has great difficulty in comprehending how it can be true. Its impact on the physics community has been enormous. Professor Henry Stapp, a physicist at Berkley and an authority on the implications of Bell's Theorem, has called it
The most important discovery in the history of science.
A description of the proof of Bell's theory, as given by Stapp reads:
"If the statistical predictions of quantum theory are true, an objective universe is incompatible with the law of local causes."
Although formidable at first glance, Bell's Theorem seems simpler once key terms are understood.
First, an "objective universe" is simply one that exists apart from our consciousness.
In 1935, Albert Einstein, together with Nathan Rosen and Boris Podolsky proposed through flawless mathematical reasoning that if the quantum theory were correct, then 'A change in the spin of one particle in a two particle system would affect its twin simultaneously, even if the two had been widely separated in the meantime'. And 'simultaneous' is a dirty word in the theory of special relativity, which forbids the transmission of any signal faster than the speed of light. Obviously, a signal telling the particle 'what to do' would have to travel faster than the speed of light if instantaneous changes were to occur between the two particles.
The dilemma into which Einstein, Rosen and Podolsky dragged the quantum theory was a profound one, coming to be known as The ERP Effect.
In 1964 Bell's Theorem emerged as a proof that Einstein's impossible proposition did in fact hold true: instantaneous changes in widely separated systems did occur.
In 1972, Clauser confirmed the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics, working with an elaborate system involving photons, calcite crystals, and photo multiplier tubes The experiment has since been run several times with the same consistent results; Bell's Theorem stands solid.
The implications of Bell's theorem
are practically unthinkable
Even for the physicists involved, the implications of Bell's Theorem are practically unthinkable. Mathematics and experimentation have taken us where our logical mind cannot go. Imagine, two particles once in contact, separated even to the ends of the universe, change instantaneously when a change in one of them occurs!
Slowly, new ideas are emerging to explain these unthinkable occurrences. One view is that, in some unexplainable way, the separated particles are still in contact although separated in space. This is the suggestion of the French physicist Bernard D'Espagnat. In 1979, writing about quantum reality, he said that "the entire notion of an external, fixed, objective world now lies in conflict not only with quantum theory, but in facts drawn from actual experiments.... in some sense all these objects constitute an indivisible whole."
Physicist Jack Sarfatti of the Physics/Consciousness Research Group proposes that no actual energy-requiring signal is transmitted between the distant objects, but 'information' is transmitted instead. Thus no violation of Einstein's special theory of relativity occurs. Exactly what this information is is unclear, and it is a strange thing which might travel instantly and require no energy to do so.
Nic Herbert, a physicist who heads the C-Life Institute, suggests that we have merely discovered an elemental oneness of the world. This oneness cannot be diminished by spatial separation. An invisible wholeness unites the objects that are given birth in the universe, and it is this wholeness that we have stumbled into through modern experimental methods. Herbert alludes to the words of the poet Charles Williams: "Separation without separateness, reality without rift."
It would be a mistake to suppose that these effects operate only with relevance to the invisible world of the atom. Professor Henry Stapp states that the real importance of these findings is that they translate directly to our microcosmic existence, implying that the oneness that is implicit in Bell's Theorem envelopes human beings and atoms alike.
The interrelation of human consciousness and the observed world is obvious in Bell's Theorem. Human consciousness and the physical world cannot be regarded as distinct, separate entities. What we call physical reality, the external world, is shaped - to some extent - by human thought. The lesson is clear; we cannot separate our own existence from that of the world outside. We are intimately associated not only with the earth we inhabit, but with the farthest reaches of the cosmos.
Certain quantum physicists now say that each part of the universe contains all the information present in the entire cosmos itself (similar to a giant oak tree producing an acorn that contains all the information to replicate itself).
This assertion is so audacious that it would be dismissed out of hand were it not for the scientific stature of its chief proponent David Bohm, a former associate of Einstein, professor of theoretical physics at Birbeck College of University of London. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent theoretical physicists of our day.
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The Hologram
Bohm maintains that the information of the entire universe is contained in each of its parts. There is, he says, a stunning example of this principle in photography: the hologram (literally whole message).
Hologram is a specially constructed image which, when illuminated by a laser beam, seems eerily suspended in three dimensional space. The most incredible feature of holograms is that any piece of it, if illuminated with coherent light, provides an image of the entire hologram. The information of the whole is contained in each part. The entire representation of the original object is contained in each portion of the hologram. This principle, says Bohm, extends to the universe at large, that the universe is constructed on the same principles as the hologram. His theory rests on concepts that flow from modern physics. The world is an indivisible whole.
For Bohm, order and unity are spread throughout the universe in a way which escapes our senses. In the same way that order and organisation are spread throughout the hologram. Each part of the universe contains enough information to reconstitute the whole. The form and structure of the entire universe is enfolded within each part.
For many working physicists, these concepts are inescapable conclusions that flow from quantum mechanics and relativity. It is crucial to appreciate the scope of these implications. We frequently assume that quantum physics applies only to the diminutive realm of nature - electrons, protons etc., and that relativity has only to do with massive objects of cosmic proportions -stars, galaxies, nebulae etc. But Bohm's contention is that we are squarely in the middle of these phenomena. Ultimately the entire universe (with all its 'particles' including those constituting human beings, their laboratories, observing instruments etc). has to be understood as a single undivided whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no fundamental status.
What are the implications of a holographic universe? As part of the universe, do we have holographic features ourselves that allow us to comprehend a holographic universe? This question has been answered affirmatively by Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram. In an attempt to account for key observations about brain function which for decades have puzzled brain physiologists, Pribram arrived at a radical proposal: the hologram is a model brain function. In essence, the brain is the 'photographic plate' on which information in the universe is encoded.
When the proposals of Bohm and Pribram are conceptually joined, a new model of man emerges: we use a brain that encodes information holographically; and it is a hologram that is a part of an even larger hologram - the universe itself.
Pribram's radical suggestions are founded on work that originated in the laboratory of one of the pioneers of modern neurophysiology, Karl Lashley. At a time when it was popularly believed that there were specific centres in the brain for practically every human function - such as speech, vision, appetite, sleep etc.,- Lashley demonstrated that this was apparently not true for memory. Working with animals, he found that even when bulk of the cerebral cortex was surgically removed, leaving only a remnant intact, the memory of how to perform specific tasks remained. The rapidity and accuracy of the performance was frequently attenuated, but the knowledge was retained.
These findings fit poorly with existing theories about how information is stored in the brain. It was as if memory was spread everywhere in the cortex - but how? Pribram reasoned that the brain contained the memory in each of its parts. The analogy to a hologram was obvious. The entire memory pattern could be found throughout the cerebral cortex if the information had originally been encoded holographically.
In most right handed persons, the left side of the brain is presumed to control the movements of the right side of the body. In instances where the left side of the brain is injured - for example through a stroke or with a trauma -paralysis or profound weakness of the right side of the body is the predictable result. A physician, Richard Restak, has reported a case, in a twenty one year old female in which the entire left side of the brain was removed surgically in order to control epileptic seizures that were unmanageable with any other known form of therapy. The results of the therapy were astonishing.
Although the seizures were stopped, within a few weeks the woman began to regain control of the right side of her body. She was able to return to work and to lead an active social life. Where did the right side of her body receive its motor information with the left side of the brain in the surgeon's pail?
In 1975 a similar case was reported by Smith & Sugar. A six year old male underwent total removal of the left cerebral hemisphere because of intractable epileptic seizures. Conventional neurophysiological wisdom asserts that the left side of the cerebral cortex is responsible for our speech, mathematical reasoning and logical thought in general, and that the right cerebral hemisphere controls our intuitive, non-rational, non-verbal forms of thought. Yet this young man grew up to become a gifted student, proficient in verbal reasoning and language abilities, testing even into the gifted range of on standard intelligence tests.
Space and Time-the Holoverse
This indivisibility also applied fundamentally to space and time. Relativity has shown that they are inextricably linked, and cannot be teased apart.
Recall one of the possibilities embodied in Bell's theorem involving non-local features of the universe: objects once in contact, though separated spatially, even if placed at distant ends of the universe, are somehow in inseparable contact. Since any change in one immediately and unmitigatedly causes change in the other, this is a nonlocal occurance, meaning that any information passing between the two objects would have to travel faster than the speed of light to cause such instantaneous change. Since it is impossible for the speed of light to be exceeded, according to the special theory of relativity, this event is said to be noncausal-i.e. not caused by the transfer of any conceivable kind of energy passing between the distant objects.
Although these nonlocal and noncausal descriptions are worked out for objects separated in space, Bohm states that the implications of quantum theory also apply to moments in 'TIME'.
What is crucial is that, according to the theory of relativity, a sharp distinction between space and time cannot be maintained.
We all have roots in the universe. Conscious mental activity exerts measurable effects on the physical world - a world that includes human bodies, organs, tissues, and cells. Mind becomes a legitimate factor in the unfolding of health and disease. The inter-penetration of all matter is the rule. The dividing line between life and non-life is illusory and arbitrary. There is only one valid way, thus, to partake of the universe and that way is characterised by reverence - a reverence born of a felt sense of participation in the universe, of a kinship with all others and with all matter. A reverential attitude that bespeaks a oneness with the universe can transform the commonest act.
Bhagavad Gita, Ch.13,Verses 15 :
"Without and within all beings the unmoving and also the moving; because of Its subtlety, unknowable; and near and far away is That(God)".
Bhagavad Gita, Ch.13, Verse 16:
"And undivided, yet He exists as if divided in beings; He is to be known as the supporter of beings; He devours and He generates."
No division in Consciousness is admissible at any time as it is always one and the same. Even the individuality of the Jiva must be known as false, like the delusion of a snake in a rope. Shankaracharya (Aparokshanubhuti.43)
City of Brahman
What is in the macrocosm is in this microcosm.
Within the city of Brahman, which is the body, there is the heart, and within the heart there is a little house.
This house has the shape of a lotus, and within it dwells that which is to be sought after, inquired about, and realized.
What then is that which, dwelling within this little house, this lotus of the heart, is to be sought after, inquired about, and realized?
As large as the universe outside, even so large is the universe within the lotus of the heart.
Within it are heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, the lightning, and all the stars.
What is in the macrocosm is in this microcosm.
-Chandogya Upanishad
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"In 1980, subjects with elevated blood cholesterol levels were taught the technique of transcendental meditation. Serial determinations of the blood cholesterol level were made. It was found that in subjects who practiced this technique the cholesterol level fell on the average of 20 percent. While this fall may seem modest, it should be noted that there are no drugs that are consistently more effective, safe, and inexpensive as this method of voluntary relaxation and mental quieting. Moreover, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate, as well as the blood levels of insulin, hydrocortisone, adrenaline, and norepinephrine are modified to more desirable levels."
- Cooper and Aygen "The effect of Meditation."
The significance of these observations is inestimable: by taking thought in ways which 'elongate' the time sense, time-sick individuals can alter many of the devastating effects of the time syndrome.
Our sense of time affects our health by influencing the development and course of specific diseases. This is nowhere more obvious than in persons who have been called Type A individuals by Friedman and Rosenman. Type A persons have "hurry sickness." Their lives are oriented around goals, deadlines, and objectives, which they seem to react to in a driven fashion. They are unable to approach a task in a healthy, balanced way, but in extreme cases seem almost consumed by a need to accomplish and achieve.
Not only do they have an inward sense of urgency, their outward behaviour suggests the same quality. When sitting they may be in constant motion, not only with thoughts, but with body parts- hands, fingers, legs, feet. They are usually vocal, verbally expressing the products of a mind that cannot rest. This behaviour frequently generates discomfort and tension in those around them.
It is as if Type A persons are "time sick." Type A persons are usually ambitious and frequently are highly successsful, having succeeded in harnessing their high motivation and sense of purpose.Yet for all the qualities for which they are admired- their vision, energy, and dedication- they possess, as a group, a characteristic that nobody envies: they have a high mortality rate from heart disease.Type A individuals as a group, die earlier. Their behaviour puts them at risk for the most frequent cause of death in our society, coronary artery disease.
The importance of the exaggerated response to time , the sense of urgency displayed by Type A individuals, is that it is translated into physiologic effects. These effects are pervasive and are seen long before heart disease supervenes. These physiological events are so characteristic of time-sick persons, they could be called the time syndrome. Among them are increased heart rate and blood pressure at rest; elevation of certain blood hormones such as adrenaline, norepinephrine, insulin, growth hormone, and hydrocortisone, all of which are ordinarily secreted in an exaggerated way during times of urgency or stress; increased gastric acid secretion; increased blood cholesterol; an increased respiratory rate; increased secretory activity of sweat glands; an increased muscle tension throughout the body. The time syndrome is a body-mind process with effects on all major systems.
As we learn to meditate, or when we become familiar with the states of consciousness through techniques employing deep relaxation, we develop a familiarity with a new sense of time. We begin to experience time in new ways. We begin to feel at home with time as it expands. Phrases such as "the ever-present now" and "the eternal moment" become full with meaning. Above all, we develop a friendliness with time.
The health-sustaining role of social support systems
We affect the health of those about us. Human events such as caring, loving,touching and confiding exert profound consequences on health.
In Alameda County, California, 4700 men and women were followed over a nine year period, and mortality rates from all causes were examined. Mortality rates in men were significantly higher among the unmarried. Those men who chose fewer social contacts with friends and relatives, and those who were not church members,demonstrated a higher death rate.
A striking result was found in an experiment at Ohio State University. A group of investigators were studying the effects of a diet high in fat and cholesterol in rabbits. At the end of a certain period the rabbits were sacrificed, and certain arteries in their bodies were examined for evidence of atherosclerosis. This process of cholesterol deposition forms obstructions and ulcerations in arteries, and in humans results in vascular disease of various types, such as heart attacks and stroke.
The results of the study should have been rather predictable. But when a certain group of the test rabbits demonstrated atherosclerotic changes which were 60 percent less than that of the overall group, the investigators were astonished! The rabbits who were affected less severely were those who were fed and cared for by one of the investigators who, during the course of the experiment, regularly took them from their cages and petted, stroked, and talked to them.
In order to test this 'coincidence', systematic controlled studies were designed in which two groups of rabbits were again fed the same diet and were treated identically except that one group was removed from their cages several times a day for petting, and were talked to each time by the same person. The results? The petted and talked to group once again demonstrated a 60 percent lower incidence of atherosclerosis.
Not content with the possibility of two coincidences, the Ohio State investigators repeated the study. The results were the same. Touching, petting, handling, and gentle talking emerged as a crucial determinant in the disease process.
A task force in Massachusetts reported to the Secretary of H.E.W. their findings on the likelihood of survival from atherosclerotic heart disease. They found the most reliable factor in determining survival was not smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, or high blood cholesterol levels, but job satisfaction. And the second overall predictor was what the task force termed "overall happiness."
Angina pectoris is the term applied to the pain experienced by patients with atherosclerotic heart disease. Medalie and Goldbourt followed 10,000 Israeli males aged forty years and older to determine the impact of risk factors on the frequency of angina.Most of the commonly known risk factors were correlated with angina, but so too were anxiety and severe psychosocial problems. Most surprising of all was the finding that, among men with severe anxiety, those who perceived their wives to be loving and supportive had half the rate of angina of those who felt unloved and unsupported.
Brown and his colleagues have conducted a series of studies in the United Kingdom, investigating the incidence and prevalence of psychiatric disorders. In a variety of settings (urban and rural) and among different social classes (working and middle class).
The most potent protective factor against psychiatric illness was the presence or absence of an intimate and confiding relationship with a husband or boyfriend; that is, one in which feelings could be shared, whether or not sexual intimacy occurred.
One of the most stressful events in life is the death of a husband or wife. Holmes and Rahe, in assessing the relative stress imposed by various events rated the death of a spouse as the single most stressful occurrence in life.
Krause and Lilienfeld found that age-specific mortality ratios for widowed men and women were two to fourfold higher than for those who were married.
Schleifer found that bereavement, a profoundly stressful event, produce changes in the body's immune system, compromising the defense against infection and cancer.
How do such human experiences as job satisfaction, happiness, and meditation get into the cells? There is a physiology of loving and caring, ranging from embarrassing facial blush to palpitations, sweating and stammering. Feelings of love generate physical events.It may seem a distant transition from being in love in one's teens to being a confidant or a supportive spouse later in life, but physiologic changes are involved on both ends of the spectrum. These changes are not trivial. They can make the difference between life and death.
Social support systems are important for survival
Loving, caring and confiding are crucial matters; matters of life and death.
"A solitary individual wholly independent of others is largely a fiction. In reality, most or even all living beings exist in more or less integrated communities, and the ability to maintain these associations entails some co-operations, or at least, 'proto-co-operation."- T.Dobzhansky, New York.
Our urge toward associating with those of our own kind is rooted in our earliest beginnings.
"Dependency and interdependency are the indispensable conditions of life." - A.Montague, "On Being Human."
Separated from their companions, individual amoebae begin immediately to find their way back to the group.
Wilhelm Roux shook apart the cells in a frog's eggs early in the course of its development and separated the cells at some distance in water. The cells slowly began to approach each other, eventually making contact. There are endless examples in the plant and animal world that social systems are important in the reproductive cycles and survival of living organisms.
If our health is coupled with the perpetuation of our genes, it is also tied to our association with members of our species. As G.G.Simpson has said in 'Life of the Past':
"No animal or plant lives alone or is self-sustaining. All live in communities including other members of their own species and also a number, usually a large variety, of other sorts of animals and plants. The quest to be alone is indeed a futile one, never successfully followed in the history of life."
The psychological effects of urgency - stress, anxiety, tension- do not stay in the psyche. They are translated into the body where they eventuate in physical ailments. The sense of urgency generates infirmity, disease and death.
In contrast, the psychological sense that accompanies the perception of time as static and nonflowing is one of tranquility, serenity and peace. It is the sense of oneness of unity, the feeling of calm and release. Mind and body are intrinsically united, and consciousness is the fulcrum of health.

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