Speech Was Made At Deepak Chopra Foundation Event In April, 2014
(which has been recorded at ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnO45AtGrM0)
1. You have believed for some time that human consciousness comes from the universe. Which in other words can be put as that the fabric of universe and human consciousness is the same. It is true that the universe has intelligence, which is consciousness. Certainly, the human body, including the brain, is made of elementary particles, which also are the building blocks of the universe. But it is not only the brain that develops human consciousness but developed consciousness is based on ideas, which have evolved since thousands of years.
2. Ideas are the bedrock of human intellectuality. The brain functions of physical seeing, touching, smelling, etc. and memorizing are physical in nature but the function of understanding what your senses have observed come from conceptualization. And conceptualization has been going on for thousands of years. Almost all the ancient ideas about the physical universe have been changed because of the continuing process of better understanding of it.
3. Analytical process of the mind, though dependent on the physical structure and chemistry of the brain, has nothing to do with it. In other words, mind’s conclusions are based on experience, reasoning, and the established theory that covers the problem at hand.
4. In Einstein’s view a new physical theory has to go through the following tests:
a. Does it contradict an established theory?
b. Does it pass experimental verification of it?
c. Projections from the theory have to support the theory.
d. Does it stand the test of time?
This is the best human intellect can do. That is why science is an evolutionary process. Quite a bit of science since Galileo’s time has changed. Universe provides us with senses and memory but intellectual analysis is man-made, without which in many cases the sense-data would be misleading and worthless.
5. The experiencing-self you are talking about is nothing but an assembly of emotions and imagination, which, at times, makes miraculous discoveries, but without Einstein’s dictum for the test of new theories it is of no value.
6. Who has the autonomy of human mind? It is a composite structure of the rational mind and emotional hierarchy.
7. Human beings live for the most of time in a macro world and not in the world of elementary particles. And they have done a brilliant work of developing engineering and other sciences, where precision and projection have achieved an extraordinary level.
If observation disturbs a sub-elementary object and we cannot know its position and momentum precisely at the same time, so why make such a fuss about it. Human beings know about the physical nature of the universe. In the sub-elementary particle world we have to use our imagination, which has to be consistent with Einstein’s criteria for accepting new theories.
You have to accept that the universe runs by laws, not all of which are known to humans, and some may be unknowable. Why don’t we accept this concept and stop fretting about some the absurd projections of Quantum Mechanics (Q.M.). Science runs on the principle of casualty. We have no choice to drop it.
8. More than the science itself what is of greater value is the scientific method. I am not sure if the Vedic scholars knew it to formulate their theories. Anything that has not gone through the rigor of the scientific method should not be accepted. Perception and imagination have great value at times. But the revolution of science was based on making an attempt to understand the nature physical reality without the help of gods. Let us not compromise science’s brilliant attempt.
Suffern, N.Y., May 4, 2014
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