“Suspend disbelief and remain open to true discovery, even if it means challenging the existing order of things”
Ervin Laszlo

I gave a presentation last evening on the convergence of science and spirituality and it was an evening of quite engaging discussion. Truly, this is a topic of immense magnitude and requires substantial and intricate teasing apart of perspectives as it is nothing short of a questioning of our deepest beliefs in the nature of reality. As what has been called 'new sciences' come forth with more profound explorations into the nature of the universe and consciousness itself (some even positing they are one and the same), our patience and respect is called upon so that all points of view can be articulated clearly and responded to appropriately. This is not about one view winning a station of supremacy over others but a joining in collective inquiry into the deepest of truths and even into the nature of what we are. I take a moment here to revere the times we are alive in. To discuss these topics so openly is a remarkable blessing. I believe our time affords us the most freedom of perspective and expression that we've known in our recorded history (though our annals can only go so far back on record and there may have been times of yore when such a level of cultural development was reached and the sophistications of ancient structures such as megalithic sites speak to this potential). We should feel grateful for the work of those that came before to get us here and we should also feel implicated to carry the torch forward for the benefit of future generations. To such an endeavour!

Last evening left me wanting to extrapolate many of the ideas I didn't have time to remark on and many I spoke to sharing some form of virtual discussion on specific points as a good launch pad for generating an evolution of our understanding on these most significant points. Thus, I wish to raise the notion of what philosopher of science and integral theorist, Ervin Laszlo, calls the Akashic or A-Field. In his canonical text, Science and the Akashic Field, Laszlo discusses many of the theories of the 'new sciences', mostly explored by Quantum Mechanics.  The theory he discusses in the greatest length is the notion of a scientific understanding of the fact that all that is in the universe seems to arise and fall back into one immense field.  Moreover, all that comes out of this field is entagled and, thus, interconnected, which gives theoretical plausability for many of the psychic phenomenon that for aeons had been relegated into realms of magic, mysticism and the supernatural. It appears that, in fact, nature may be just super! Laszlo draws a paraellel between this all-encompassing, womb-like field and the element of akash found in Indian philosophy: “In Indian philosophy the ultimate end of the physical world is a return to Akasha, its original subtle-energy womb.  At the end of time as we know it, the almost infinitely varied things and forms of the manifest world dissolve into formlessness, living beings exist in a state of pure potentiality, and dynamic functions condense into static stillness.  In Akasha, all attributes of the manifest world merge into a state that is beyond attributes: the state of Brahman.  Although it is undifferentiated, Brahman is dynamic and creative…The cycles of samsara—of being-to-becoming and again of becoming-to-being—are the lila of Brahman: its play of ceaseless creation and dissolution.  In Indian philosophy, absolute reality is the reality of Brahman.  The manifest world enjoys but a derived, secondary reality and mistaking it for the real is the illusion of maya.  The absolute reality of Brahman and the derived reality of the manifest world constitute a co-created and constantly co-creating whole: this is the advaitavada (the nonduality) of the universe.”

This is quite a profound notion that has been verified by thousands of scientific experiments.  It’s profound that science is beginning to reveal a sense of reality long held as true by many of the Eastern mystical traditions.  The implications are massive: if such a field exists in which everything is interconnected/entangled, then what goes on in our interior world plays a much more significant role in the exterior world.  In fact, the whole notion of interior/exterior is nullified.  This may not be apprehended by our normal senses yet our more ethereal sensibilities (such as ‘feeling’ energy, synchronicities of thoughts, etc.) lean into this.  As I stated last night, this brings the whole concept of transparency into a whole new light and raises some interesting questions.  If this is how reality is, what should this change about our societies?  What does this mean on a personal level for us all?


 


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