In the previous posts we saw that science and spiritualism were identical concepts right till the Middle Ages when religious dogma and growing orthodoxy sought to limit and confine freedom of thought. This led to a parting of ways and henceforth science sought to distance itself from spiritual inspiration and religion.
Science without the inhibiting and restraining weight of religious dogma, began to experience meteoric advance at a pace which surpassed the entire progress achieved by mankind in history and continues to move forward by leaps and bounds. In the centuries following the schism between science and spiritualism, the scientific mind crossed new frontiers of knowledge with bold and fearless discoveries and inventions. The scientific temper has now virtually stretched to the limits of man’s ingenuity, going down to split the atom and going outwards to put his footsteps on the moon and preparing to reach beyond. Dogmas no longer inhibit man. He is ready to discard established hypothesis no sooner new evidence proves the contrary. There is freedom of thought, individual liberty, encouragement to experiment and postulate as never before. Inventive and creative minds are at a premium. They no longer need to fear the consequences. Every known frontier is under challenge.
In this atmosphere of freedom, religion has suffered a setback, particularly in the advanced societies of the West. In Europe the pews of the churches are empty, except for some elderly stragglers and art enthusiasts who treat them as museums. The Pope is now from a third world country where religion still thrives.
Despite this, there has been the remarkable growth of a new spiritual awareness which seeks to express itself through humanism, egalitarianism, vegetarianism, ecological concerns, animal rights, environmentalism and last but not the least the emergence of neo-mystical trends imbibing influences from a range of spiritual insights from established religions to lesser known mystical, esoteric beliefs and practices. These are varied combinations and cocktails for our changing times, that have popularly acquired the nomenclature ‘New Age’. Basically the cocktails, to mix a metaphor, are old wine in colourful new bottles.
Credit: onthemovewithus.com
Science on the other hand, may well be reaching the zenith of secular advance and may soon find itself compelled less than a century from now to merely crawl forward by varying and duplicating existing knowledge rather than evolving, unless it takes the next logical step forward. It would need to rejoin the spiritualism it left by the wayside even if the parting was only a historical accident. It will need for instance to correlate metaphysical insight with Quantum discoveries, probe the paranormal, the supernatural, telepathy, morphogenetic fields, morphic resonance, Kirlian photography and Auric phenomena, psychokinesis, the healing powers of the mind, feats of Yoga, Reiki cures, Chakra therapies and you name it, before it can make a quantum leap of galactic proportions, taking humans from manhood to supermanhood.
Greetings, Indrajit Rathore. I read your whole *Science and Spirit* series, and will reply to it all here rather than piecemeal. It’s an excellent essay, very well thought out. I agree with many of your points, e.g.: magic was the first science, the great religions were vehicles of all that was noble in humanity during their own epochs, there was a terrible schism beginning with the Renaissance, and more. You even acknowledged that caste originally had a valid meaning and function, something that even the most enlightened people here in the West are clueless about.
Having said that, I have to add that my own attitude to science and scientists is extremely critical, and I believe that the schism was no accident nor mistake: it was driven by a dark will which has now expanded to planetary proportions and threatens the survival of humanity itself. I have explained my views in terms of the myth of Faust:
http://www.ramaspirit.com/Faust.html
Likewise I don’t buy into the belief that quantum physics is leading toward any kind of new fusion of science & Spirit. It could, but it won’t, and here’s why, IMHO: first of all, the few scientists who champion the cause have a following only on the New Age side of the schism, and are not taken seriously by their fellow scientists. As you noted in one of your comments, it violates the new dogma of material science. I once read an interview of John Bell, creator of Bell’s Theorem, in which he told how he attended an event in which he was honored by Buddhist monks. It was all very congenial and generated good publicity all around ~ but he joked to the interviewer about how the Buddhists were foolish enough to believe that “my theories have something to do with spirituality”. And this is the high end. At the low end is Richard Dawkins and the rest of the new anti-God movement. I think they would burn religionists at the stake if they could get away with it.
Secondly, and I think this is even more crucial: quantum theory is not experiential. You said: “Sages and Yogis dwelling in the forests, the deserts and the mountains, meditated on the ultimate, much as scientists do today in their labs”. They do no such thing, IMO. They perform mundane operations according to logical/discursive/rational-level thought which does not need to approach the sublimity of spiritual realization in order to produce the desired results in the physical experiments. They are glorified auto mechanics and computer technicians. To cite one of your other examples: matching descriptions of the behavior of subatomic particles with the experiential insights in sacred texts only proves that the physicists have succeeded in doing externally what in former ages could only be done with the inner force of Spirit by individuals of such noble stature and spiritual advancement that the power could never be misused. Today the tools of God are in the hands of sudras. If nothing happens to change the equation (pardon the pun), the outcome is all too certain.
Now I’d like to add that, believe it or not, I am not a negative person. My own spiritual development has been proceeding in such a way that I am filled more and more with ecstatic positive energy, and I try to spread it to others as much as possible. I also have a basic optimism about the fate of the world, but it differs from yours in that I am certain that a prerequisite for any breakthrough is the complete collapse of the current power structure. The unfolding of the Faust myth in global reality has reached the stage where Mephistopheles now rules the world. This is what must be dethroned before a new Spirit can triumph. But I feel that such a Spirit has already arisen and is at work in the world.
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must read the myth of faust – thanks fJoseph or your abiding interest in the posts – gives me great satisfaction to share these inspirations and thoughts which have been with me since childhood.
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