“I maintain that the human mystery is incredibly demeaned by reductionism, with its claim in Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada pointing at his fingernail, promissory materialism to account eventually for all “The Bhaktivedanta Institute is greatly to be explaining how it is made of matter, that it is of the spiritual world in terms of patterns of neural congratulated for having produced so crucial manifesting because life is present in the activity. This belief must be classed as a and productive a discussion. It should be given body—matter comes from life! superstition-…we are spiritual beings with souls in every encouragement and support in going a spiritual world, as well as material beings with ahead with an enterprise so well begun.” Prof. George Wald, Nobel Laureate bodies and brains existing in a material world.” Sir John Eccles, Nobel Laureate
“I think that life could be beyond “Science and technology alone cannot solve the problems of the new millennium. We the assembly of biomolecules.” need additional guidelines for our actions, for the selection of our research projects and Prof. Werner Arber, research goals. These guidelines have to do with ethics, with philosophy, and with faith.” Nobel Laureate Professor Richard R. Ernst, Nobel Laureate
“In India, there is much more union between the two (science and spirituality) than there is in the West. I think that the Western scientists are coming back to that point of view - what the universe is all about. A few scientists are interested and their number is increasing.” Prof. Charles Townes, Nobel Laureate
Srila Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Goswami Maharaja (Dr. T. D. Singh) with Prof. John R. Searle, American Srila Sripad Maharaja (Dr. T. D. Singh) “Spirituality is the post graduate study of religion philosopher and currently the Slusser accepting a United Nations’ Flag from Dr. and we should rise from religion to spirituality.” Professor of Philosophy at the Robert Muller, Former Assistant Secre- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, University of California, Berkeley tary General of the United Nations Former President of India A humble offffering ttering ooo Srila Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Goswami Maharaja (Dr(Dr(Dr. TT. .D. Singh, FF.D. ounding Director BhaktivBhaktivor edanta Institute)e)e)
Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D.
Visionary for ‘Science and Scientist’ Annual Conference Series
Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. is a direct disciple of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and Srila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhar Dev- Goswami Maharaja. In 1971 he was awarded a Ph.D. from a prominent university in USA. He is a leading Vedantic authority in all of the Gaudiya Vaishnava line of thought in the world today. Apart from that he is also a scholar in Hegelian Dialectics and is giving regular guidance to his students. Moreover, he has spent many years in Nabadwip, West Bengal, India, under the guidance of his Gurus in search of Vedantic conception of Absolute Truth. He has a profound grasp of both Vedanta and Western philosophy and due to his mood of humility and Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja,complete Ph.D. surrender he has received much appreciation from previous acharyas. Serving Director, Bhakti Vedanta Institute, Srila Sridhar Maharaja told to Sripad Puri Maharaja, “I am just like you. My nature Princeton, NJ, USA is just like yours,” thus accepting his philosophical and devotional mood of service. Conference Chair Srila Bhakti Sundara Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaja told to the servitors of
scientific sankirtan movement that “Service to Puri Maharaja is service to me.” Srila Bhaktisvarupa Damodar Goswami Maharaja (Srila Sripad Maharaja also known as Dr. T.D. Singh) appreciated Sripad Puri Maharaja’s humility and disinterest in worldly designations. He told him, “Your consciousness is very pure.” Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. is a follower of Srila Prabhupada, the instructions of Srila Sridhar Maharaja and the direction of Srila Sripad. Srila Sripad Maharaja instructed a number of his disciples to follow and serve Sripad Puri Maharaja and learn from his deep knowledge on Hegelian spiritual dialectic as well as Vedanta. Sripad Puri Maharaja holds regular classes in Princeton as well as online Skype classes with his students all over the world. By the grace of previous Acharyas of Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya Sripad Puri Maharaja is highly empowered to guide the Scientific Sankirtan movement meant for establishing a lasting Harmony between Science and Religion.
Srila Sridhar Maharaja told to Srila Sripad Maharaja and Sripad Puri Maharaja to build a temple over the tomb of Darwin. Srila Prabhupada has given two powerful transformative scientifically observed truths unrecognized by modern materialistic science, (1) Life comes from Life, and (2) Matter comes from Life. When Sripad Puri Maharaja explained to the Nobel Biologist Professor George Wald, who was a very big atheistic evolutionist of his time, that why don’t you consider that, “Matter comes from Life”, he became convinced. After this Professor Wald wrote a series of articles denouncing his own earlier stance towards materialism in understanding life and instead talked about how life was prior to matter and is therefore its source. Sripad Puri Maharaja is engaging the scientists to think about higher order concepts of Life and its utmost relevance for conceiving our true identity for more than four decades. He is the visionary behind the ‘Science and Scientist’ annual conference series and we are all eternally indebted to him for his love, affection and extraordinarily meritorious guidance. Nobel Biologist Prof. George Wald (middle) with Sripad Bhakti Nobel Biologist Prof. George Wald (right) interacting with Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (right) and Srila Bhaktisvarupa Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (left) Damodara Goswami Maharaja, Ph.D. (left)
Canadian mathematician and biologist Prof. B.C. Goodwin Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (left) (right) from University of Sussex interacting with Sripad interviewing Dr. Rene Thomas from Institut Des Hautes Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (left) Etudes Scientifiques, France (right)
Dr. G. Malli, (middle) Prof. Emeritus, Dept. Chemistry, Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (right) Simon Froser College, Canada discussing with Sripad receiving instructions from his spiritual master, Srila A.C. Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (right) Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja Prabhupada (left) Scientific Sankirtan Under the Guidance of Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D.
mr?for (^t m ) cn ' c\ AMBASSADOR OF INDIA KATHMANDU (NEPAL)
Message
It gives me immense pleasure to learn that 3rd International Conference on Science and Scientist - 2015 is being organised in Kathmandu by Nepal Bharat Friendship Society in association with DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharti, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, India, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and Biotechnology Department of Tribhuvan University.
We live in the era of science and technology. Science and technology can help developing countries leapfrog in achieving their goal of sustainable development. In the economic, scientific and research field, India has shown steady growth and achieved new targets. Recently, India successfully launched the Mangal Yaan (Mars Orbiter), and became the 6th country in the world to send Inter-planetary unmanned missions.
The recent visit of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India to Nepal in 2014, has further opened doors for institutional partnerships between India and Nepal in diverse areas. His address in the Constituent Assembly cum Parliament of Nepal envisaged partnership between India and Nepal, focusing on Highways, Information-ways and Trans-ways.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India is ready to develop a satellite specifically for the region by 2016. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has decided the SAARC satellite would be a communication-cum- meteorology satellite to aid the neighbouring countries for communication and weather forecasting. India's satellite-based navigation system will serve the interests of the entire region.
India and Nepal can cooperate in the field of science and technology, health, dairy, sustainable agriculture and disaster management. India remains committed to working in partnership with Nepal in its quest for economic stability, and graduation from LDC states.
I wish the International Conference on Science and Scientist -2015 every success.
Ranjit Rae Ambassador
SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
Third International Conference “Is Science able to explain the Scientist?” Science and Scientist – 2015: www.scsiscs.org/conference
Organised by: Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, West BengalBengal,Bengal , IndiaIndia:::: www.scsiscs.org Bhakti Vedanta Institute of Spiritual Culture & Science, Princeton, NJ, USAUSA:::: www.bviscs.org Nepal Bharat Friendship SocietySociety,, Kathmandu, Nepal D.A.V. Sushil Kedia Vishwa BharatiBharati,, Lalitpur, NepalNepal:::: www.davnepal.com Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, NepalNepal:::: www.biotechtu.edu.np
OOOrganizOrganizrganizinging CommitteeCommittee::::
CONFERENCE CHAIR Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D., Serving Director, Bhakti Vedanta Institute of Spiritual Culture & Science – Princeton, NJ, USA PATRONS Sri Anil Kedia, Chirman, DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati – Lalitpur, Nepal Prem Lashkari, President, Nepal Bharat Friendship Society – Kathmandu, Nepal
and Scientist – 2015 SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Ph.D., General Secretary, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute of Spiritual Culture & Science – Siliguri, West Bengal, India Bhakti Vijnana Muni, Ph.D., President, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute of Spiritual Culture & Science – Siliguri, West Bengal, India Nabin Sharma, M.D., Managing Director, NAME Institute for Medical Education – Kathmandu, Nepal Mohan Kharel, Ph.D., Professor, Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University – Kathmandu, Nepal Sri Janardan Ghimire, Lecturer of Tribhuvan University, University Campus – Kathamndu, Nepal Rajani Malla, Ph.D., Professor and Head, Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University – Kathmandu, Nepal Sangita Shrestha, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer & Head, Molecular Biotechnology Unit, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology – Kathmandu, Nepal Kanchan Chowdhury, Ph.D., Professor and Head Department of Cryogenic Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology – Kharagpur, India Asok Kumar Mukhopadhyay, M.D., Professor & Head, Department of Laboratory Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences – New Delhi, India Sundeep Mishra, M.D., Professor, Department of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences – New Delhi, India Nandini Bondale, Ph.D., Scientist, School of Technology and Computer Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research – Mumbai, India Debi Prasad Mishra, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur, SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS | Science UP, India Pabitra Ranjan Maiti, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology – BHU, Varanasi, India
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Shuvendu Narayan Patel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology – Pilani, Rajasthan, India Pankaj Biswas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology – Guwahati, Assam, India Bhagawat Prasad Nepal, M.D., Professor and Associate Dean, School of Medical Sciences, Kathmandu University – Kathmandu, Nepal Sanjay Nath Khanal, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kathmandu University – Kathmandu, Nepal Umesh P. Khanal, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology and Imaging, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital – Kathmandu, Nepal Karma M. Bhurtyal, M.D., Resident, Clinical Pharmacology, Tribhuvan University, Teaching Hospital – Kathmandu, Nepal Mrs. Bhubaneswari Rao, Principal, DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati – Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal
ADVISORY COMMITTEE Jiba Raj Pokharel, Ph.D., Vice-Chancellor, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology – Kathmandu, Nepal Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, M.D., Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences – Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
LOCAL COORDINATORS His Grace Ram Mani Prabhu, Representative, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute – Kathmandu, Nepal
Subarna Dasanudas, Chairman, Jagannath Foundation – Kathmandu, Nepal
Mr. Laxman Dangol, Editor, RevoScience Media – Kathmandu, Nepal
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CONTENTS
MESSAGES 5
PRESS RELEASE 15
LOGIC OF LIFE: Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. 17
PROGRAM OF THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ‘SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST – 2015’ 23
PLENARY SESSION TO INTRODUCE THE THEME OF ‘SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST – 2015’ 29 Consciousness is Beyond the Grasp of Reductionism: Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Ph.D. 29
Sentience, Information and the Vedantic Concept of Reality: Bhakti Vijnana Muni, Ph.D. 34
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– SESSION: SCIENTIFIC CRITIQUE OF SCIENCE 40 The “Non-Local Self” is the Key: Basuthkar J. Rao, Ph.D., FNA, FASc, FNASc 40 Functional Geometry and Neuronal Basis of Consciousness: Prof. Sisir Roy, Ph.D. 42 Selfhood and Fear of Death: Reflections from a practitioner of cognitive science: Garga Chatterjee, MD, Ph.D. (Harvard) 50
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance and Branching of the Central Dogma:
Scienceand Scientist | | Two recent revelations in the molecular basis of inheritance: Rakesh K. Mishra, Ph.D. 55 Bacterial Sentience: Brain is not the Source of Mind: Rajani Malla, Ph.D. 58 Embryonic Origin of Heart Beat in Mammals: A mysteryEmbryonic Origin of Heart Beat
in Mammals: A mystery: Sonali Bhakta & Shonkor Kumar Das, Ph.D. 62
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SESSION: SCIENCE OF SPIRITUAL BIOLOGY 65
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Superpowers and the Stubborn Illusion of Separation: Dean Radin, Ph.D. 65 The Balancing Role of Entropy and Syntropy: Ulisse Di Corpo, Ph.D. & Antonella Vannini, Ph.D. 72 The Transcendence of Consciousness with Physical Body Along with Pran:
PROGRAMME Mohan Kharel, Ph.D. 81
Sleep and Its Impact on Consciousness and Health: Prof. Sundeep Mishra, M.D. 87 Review on Ayurvedic Concept of atma (Soul): Dr. Sushanta Sahu and Dr. Deba Prasad Dash 94
SOUVENIR Experimental Philosophy, Astral Projection and the Science of Spiritual Biology: John Yates, Ph.D. 97
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SESSION: PHILOSOPHICAL AND SPIRITUAL APPROACHES TO REALITY 104 The Highest End: Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Goswami Maharaja 104 Devotion and Its Glories: Srila Bhakti Prapanna Tirtha Maharaja 105 Free Will and Self Determination: Tariq Muneer 106 Understanding the Concept of Vyāhrti: Religion to Science: Shri Janardan Ghimire 108
SESSION: ONTOLOGICAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN LIFE AND MATTER 109 Scientific and Cultural Analysis on the Metaphysical Dimension of Life: An empirical approach: Bharat Giri 109 Retrocausality and Signal Nonlocality in Consciousness and Cosmology: Jack Sarfatti, Ph.D. 113 A Scientific Understanding of Rabindranath Tagore’s Philosophy: in Gitanjali as Expressions of Universal Consciousness and the Fundamental Nature of Reality Dependent on Our Knowing or Experiencing of It: Joy Roy Chowdhury 124 Toward a Scientific Understanding of Psychic Phenomena: Monalisa JDM 128 Approaching Consciousness via Other Experimentally Proven Non-Intuitive
Phenomenon: Archit Goel 133
Understanding atma (soul) From the Ayurvedic Perspective: Kumar Aurojyot 137
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The Process of Rebirth: Basudev Misra 139 – Supremacy of Vaidik Darsan in Explanation of Evolution of Life: J.N. Himali Pandey, M.D. 147 The Soul Hypothesis: Analytical Study on Concept of Soul: Ram Deo Pandit 148 Fredrich Max Mueller’s (Max Muller) Interpretation of Sanatan Dharma: A critical review: Ashok Rathore, Ph.D., Satya Dev Sharma, Ph.D. and Harpal Singh Sethi 149
Scienceand Scientist | | POSTER PRESENTATIONS 150
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 151
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MESSAGE FROM CONFERENCE CHAIR SCIENCE & SCIENTIST – 2015
Science is the body of Man's knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world derived by following a systematic methodology based on evidence. As a body of knowledge, it exists, but not as a mechanical body that can be analyzed in terms of physics and chemistry. Rather, physics and chemistry are subsets of Scientific knowledge that are products of Science. In turn, Science is the product of the rational activity of Scientists. It is the peculiar perversion of modern materialistic science to think they can invert this natural sequence.
But the enthusiasm to explain biological life in terms of physics and Srila Bhakti Madhava chemistry has led mechanistic science to a threshold, beyond which it has not Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. been able to cross. The phenomenon of life has proven itself to be inaccessible to mere physical and chemical scientific explanation, despite the most Serving Director, Bhakti Vedanta Institute,
strenuous efforts of thousands of scientists worldwide.
Princeton, NJ, USA
Twenty-first century biology has revealed a level of detail and
2015 Conference Chair
– complexity of even the most simple biological organisms that was unavailable Science and Scientist – 2015 and unimaginable to scientists even a few decades ago. They are now faced with evidence that suggests that all living organisms appear to exhibit an essentially sentient nature of regulation, manipulation and control even at the cellular level. This has given rise to the new field of cognitive biology.
This may be an unexpected surprise to mechanistic science, but mankind has always understood that
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the difference between life and non-life is sentience. It is one of the chief shortcomings of mechanistic science that it has attempted to explain everything in the universe except sentient phenomena such as life, mind and intelligence. Even the most ancient science of Samkhya did not avoid incorporating such obvious features of Nature within its system.
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The natural progress of science has led to the need to broaden its scope to include such features that all rational people know are part of their reality. The work of our Institutes is to encourage this type of
scientific research for the benefit of Mankind, and to follow the evidence wherever it may lead.
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MESSAGE FROM PROMINENT PEROSNLITIES
Science I laud the efforts of the Bhakti Vedanta Institute in bringing together the wisdom of the greatest scientists and sages together. The deeper understanding of reality can only come about through a cooperative effort such as this. The survival of our planet as well as the human species depends on the understanding of consciousness in the universe. I’m grateful for your contribution. Yes – science is an activity in consciousness. Theories are conceived in consciousness, experiments are designed in consciousness, observations are made in consciousness. Current science based on subject/object split is endangering life on our planet through extinction of species, climate change, ecodestruction, mechanized death. Only a science based on the experience of non dual awareness/reality can save us.
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--- Deepak Chopra, M.D. (Popular Indian-born American author and public speaker)
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Scienceand Scientist | | Today post-materialist science is of utmost importance because only such new models of us will integrate our polarized worldviews -- scientific materialism and religious/spiritual. Here you will have a sample of a variety of approaches: holism, alternative medicine, transpersonal psychology, quantum consciousness, to mention a few. Many of the models discussed for example, my favorite the quantum model, are integrative. I am enthused that the SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST CONFERENCE is helping to integrate our worldview. I wish the conference great success.
--- Amit Goswami, Ph.D. (Theoretical Nuclear Physicist who has worked at The University of Oregon Institute for Theoretical Physics)
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MESSAGE FROM PROF. Dr. JIBA RAJ POKHAREL, VICE- CHANCELLOR, NEPAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
I am immensely delighted to know that third international conference entitled Science and Scientist – 2015 is being organized in Nepal for the first time by Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute in collaboration with several other renowned institutes. The presence of significant numbers of scientists from Nepal as well as from abroad including India is a hallmark of this seminar. It has provided an unique opportunity to share information, knowledge and thought in this very important issue. Several seminars are organized on science related issues every year but this seminar is different from these conventional ones in view of its innovative approach towards Prof. Dr. Jiba Raj science and scientist. Pokharel
The theme revolves around the fact that science has not yet been able to delve Vice- Chancellor into the biological world decisively despite incredible advances made by it in several Nepal Academy of Science fields. This seminar will be a unique platform to think about this mysterious field of and Technology, Lalitpur, knowledge. I am looking forward to this seminar with heightened interest and Nepal
enthusiasm.
Nepal Academy of Science and Technology is highly pleased to take part in this seminar in view of its role of 2015 2015
promotion of science and technology in the country. I like to thank the organizers for providing us this rare opportunity – to participate in this important event.
I wish the seminar a grand success.
Prof. Dr. Jiba Raj Pokharel
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MESSAGE FROM Dr. D. P. MISHRA, PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING, IIT –KANPUR
I am pleased to learn that the Third International Conference Science and Scientist – 2015 is being organised by Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute in collaboration with the Tribhuvan University, Nepal and DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwabharati, Kathmandu, Nepal. I had a great privilege to participate as a guest of honour in the inaugural session of Science and Scientist – 2013 organised at Synergy Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. Spirituality is the foundation of human life that is enshrined in Indian scripture. It must be practised while realizing the pervasiveness of pure
consciousness. Efforts must be made to realize the potential lying hidden in each Dr. D. P. Mishra individual. The objective of human interaction is to manifest the divinity being lying within one individual. The metaphysical world can be comprehended with the help of Professor, Department of spirituality while physical world is to be understood by the natural science. Hence Aerospace Engineering, there is urgent need to work on both fronts and find a bridge between both aspects, IIT – Kanpur
which is very essential for leading a balanced purpose of life in this beautiful world.
Unfortunately, modern science and technology is based on wrong philosophy of chronic materialism, which has spoiled
environment of our beautiful planet almost to the point of no return. Hence it is important to relook at the philosophy 2015
of natural science based on the tenets of spirituality. I feel that this conference can provide new direction to this – important aspect of modern science and technology at this critical phase of human evolution. I wish all the success for this conference.
Prof. D. P. Mishra Scienceand Scientist
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Elevation of knowledge is to raise from the level of observation to acquisition through experimental verification and in the second phase, from empirical finding to experiential realization triggered by a spiritual spark.
To know about origin, nature, inter-relativity, expansion and destiny of universe and life forms, we may need a dual knowledge apparatus; science and spirituality, where the first imparts the palpable dimensions and latter covers the dimensions behind and beyond. Hence right track of science shall naturally provide glimpses of uncertainty, vacuum, mystery and ambiguity which shall be duly settled by effective spiritual pursuits.
But confining every element, behaviour and force of the universe within the walls of matter seals our endeavors and experiences beyond matter-deals, thus making the other side of wisdom to face neglect and extinction. Due to severe prejudice, material dogmatism and inability, everything that is beyond matter (transcendental) is perceived or propagated as a product, part or a special composition of matter.
Human intelligence that perceives, frames and governs all external systems of ‘order, control and purpose’ has failed to see the same triad inherent in their own functions and framework. It may be certainly impossible for science to adapt everything in the name of spirituality into its fold but it has vast scopes to introduce the substance other than and beyond matter that coexists and co-functions with matter.
Absolute life (soul) is different from associated life (organisms or living beings). In the second form, life is accompanied with a material gadget to execute its imprints and impulses. Studies on the marvels of cells, DNA and genes reveal only their reflective abilities and associate responsibilities for life functioning and never support ‘life forming’ or
‘independent life functions’. So life is neither the function of an intrinsic bio-component nor the collective product of 2015 divisional systems but a distinct element. This verdict will eventually nullify the possibility of life emergence from – distinct and low graded chemical bases. Really, it is the life that induces its bio-associates to generate organic chemicals needed for its operations.
It is observed that scientific spirit, temper and action are more diverted and invested in comprehending and activating external elements and forces rather than in realizing themselves and acting upon. With little knowledge about consciousness, they have adventured into creation of super-intelligent machines that has alarmed even advocates and promoters of boundless scientific progress.
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This conference is a part of series of knowledge missiles to enlighten the scientists to focus on ‘self’, in the light of | which science can have a structured and salubrious journey. With its initial mission of establishing trans-material and supra-neural form of consciousness and biogenesis, it has to yet face toughest challenges of vindicating and elucidating soul, rebirth, salvation and supreme theories.
Both repudiators (like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking) and defendants (like John Eccles, Richard Smalley and Francis Collins), of anti-Darwinian ‘life origin’ theories, claim scientific education, thorough research and precise derivations. It needs broader analysis and deeper understanding to comprehend, educate and establish perfect ‘life’ wisdom and I hope that this institute is striving its level best to achieve the same.
I wish the organizers success both in the present and all prospective events and ventures.
Prof. S.A.R.P.V. Chaturvedi Distinguished Professor
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FROM THE DESK OF COORDINATOR
Last Month, Dr. Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Dr. Bhakti Vijanana Muni, Mr. Anil Kedia, Smt. Bhubneshwari Rao and Prof. Mohan Kharel approached us (Nepal Bharat Friendship Society) to organize “The 3rd International Conference on Science and
Scientist – 2015” in Kathmandu.
We feel the Topic has great relevance to the modern science and is indeed a noble and 2015 on quite different subject area which we have not taken up before. On behalf of the – Nepal Bharat Friendship Society, I feel highly honored to organize this Conference in Nepal jointly with Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, India and DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati, Nepal with the Technical support of Nepal Academy of Science and Prem Lashkari Technology (NAST) and Tribhuvan University (Biotechnology Dept.). President, Nepal Bharat
The event will create a platform for Scientists and Philosophers to alleviate knowledge Friendship Society – towards the subtle nature of reality. Eminent resource persons from different parts of Kathmandu, Nepal
Scienceand Scientist India, Nepal and other countries will exchange their ideas with the young researchers and students attending the | | conference. It will help in Nation building by the potential growth of science and technology in the light of spiritual wisdom of Vedanta.
We believe that this conference will be helpful in giving a new dimension to the age-old friendly relations and will
strengthen the better understanding between Scientists, Scholars and People of both the countries Nepal and India.
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A special appreciation goes to Dr. Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Dr. Bhakti Vijnana Muni and Mr. Anil Kedia, the key brain
behind the theme conceptualization and program design of the conference. A special thanks goes to Mrs. Bhubneshwari
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Rao, Prof. Mohan Kharel and Mr. Janardhan Ghimire for their invaluable contribution and inputs to the program.
I am very grateful to the Chief Guest Rt. Hon. Shri Parmanand Jha, Vice-President of Nepal, Guest of Honour H.E. Shri Ranjit Rae, Ambassador of India to Nepal, Scientists, Scholars and eminent personalities from India, Nepal and
other countries, without their support it may not be possible for us to organize this conference.
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Thank you.
Prem Lashkari SOUVENIR President, Nepal Bharat Friendship Society Kathmandu, Nepal
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MESSAGE FROM Mr. ANIL KEDIA, CHAIRMAN, DAV, SUSHIL KEDIA VISHAWABHARATI
The true sage or an enlightened person is very careful. He avoids what may cause hurt in the minds of those with whom he is cast. He avoids classing of opinions, collision of feelings, and does not resent anyone. His great concern is to make everyone at ease and at home. He has kind eyes on all of his company. He is tender towards the bashful and merciful to all. He can recollect with whom he is speaking and guards against unseasonable allusions or topics which may irritate. He is seldom prominent in conversation and never wearisome. He makes light of favors and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled and never defends himself by even a mere retort. He has no ears for slander or gossip. He is never mean and never takes unfair advantage. From a far sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend. He has much good sense to be affronted Mr. Anil Kedia at insults. He is too well employed to remember injuries. He does not bear any malice. He is patient, forbearing and resigned on philosophical principles. He submits to pains Chairman, DAV Sushil because it is inevitable to bereavement because it is often irreparable, and to death, Kedia Vishwabharati, because it is his destiny. If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined Lalitpur, Nepal
intellect preserves him from the blundering controversy of better, though less
educated minds. He may be right or wrong in his opinions, but he is quite clear and is never unjust. He is as simple as he is forcible and as brief as he is decisive. Lord Krishna imparted divine knowledge to Arjuna in Geeta. When Krishna
showed the Bishwarupa to Arjuna, he obtained realized knowledge about how the Lord manifests Nature by the activity
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of His external energy. This vishwarupa of Krishna is nothing but the exposition of law of nature. That is why nature is – speaking the language of the Lord. The material things and everything arises from the Lord’s energy and also vanishes in due course of time. Here nothing is stable or permanent. Everything is transient and in a state of flux. The visualization of true nature of things through the third eye (the insight) helps a man in understanding the whole nature as it is. This makes him detach from materialistic things and that brings about peace to humans and ultimate liberation from the results of karmas. That is why Lord Krishna says,
anapeksah sucir daksha udaasino gata vyathah
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sarvaarambha parityaagi yo mad bhaktah sa me priyah
This verse also has been translated in different ways drawing different meaning from it. The deepest meaning is that Lord likes those who do not aspire for anything that is against His devotional service. They are always engaged in purifying the pollution in their own minds and are neutral to every happening outside and inside within his inner world and does not allow any defilement to cling. In other words he does not let any defilement to influence him. Such a person becomes free from all sorrows (vyatha). So Lord Krishna wants every human being come out of ignorance and vyatha by practice of Gita. Actually one has to perform. As Nanak has said, “Ki ye hoi. Kathe na hoy, bade na hoyi, sune na hoyi -- kiye hoi.” The test of pudding is in its rating. Merely admiring the pudding can’t help. Better we go to a vipassana course to the insight meditation and then read Gita which will reveal the entire truth.
Mr. Anil Kedia Chairman, DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwabharati
Lalitpur, Nepal SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
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PRESS RELEASE: Third International Conference Science and Scientist – 2015
The third international conference ‘Science and Scientist – 2015’ is being organized by Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, WB, India and Bhakti Vedanta Institute, Princeton, NJ, USA in collaboration with the Nepal Bharat Friendship Association, DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati, and Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. The conference will be held during April 17-18, 2015 at Buddha Hall, DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati, Lalitpur, Nepal.
The conference will feature leading scientists from Nepal, India, US and Europe. Renowned Scientists and thinkers presenting papers in the conference include Dr. B.J. Rao (TIFR-Mumbai), Dr. R.K. Mishra (CCMB-Hyderabad), Dr. Sisir Roy (IISc Bangalore), Dr. Sundeep Mishra (AIIMS New Delhi), Dr. Garga Chatterjee (ISI Kolkata), Dr. D.P. Mishra (IIT-Kanpur), Dr. Dean Radin (Chief Scientist, IONS, USA).
Science and Scientist – 2015 will highlight the ontological distinction among mechanical, chemical and biological systems. It was unimaginable for Darwin and other 19th century scientists to know about the level of complexity that the 21st century biological sciences are revealing. As all living organisms’ activities and their physiological processes can be described as goal-oriented or governed by teleology, they are not the same as mechanical and chemical systems. Life
displays sensory activities, mental dimension, intelligent decisions and will. Experiences like inspiration, appreciation of
beauty, love, affection, charity and so on that are integral aspects in the process of doing scientific research and making
2015 discoveries not understood in science. All theories, formulas and equations have come from the thinking activity of the
– scientists, but thought itself is not explained in science.
Although the theory of Abiogenesis claimed that life first came from matter there is no demonstration of it. They had neglected the sentient concept of life in the 19th and 20th century. But the timeless Vedantic understanding is that the law of life is Biogenesis and everything came from within consciousness. Conference Chairman, Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (Serving Director, Bhakti Vedanta Institute, Princeton, NJ, USA) explains, “From the reader’s perspective, a book is composed of alphabetical letters; but the book itself did not originate from
Scienceand Scientist these letters. Ultimately it is from the ideas of the author that the letters of the book come to be. In | | the same way, the molecules of a biological organism are the result, not the origin of life. This exemplifies the difference between the order in which we come to know things (ordo cognoscendi) and the order in which something comes to be (ordo essendi).”
Supporting these views are works of leading Nobel biologist Barbara McClintock and others who have shown the OF OF ABSTRACTS
incompleteness of the Central Dogma of Crick. This shocked the foundations of molecular biology hardest. Subsequently it is being shown that DNA alone is not sufficient to explain the cell. There is no dominant genomic unit within the cell, rather the Cell itself is a wholistic functional unit of life, based upon the sentient concept. Cells and
& & BOOK organisms sense their environment and transmit that information to their genomes. Those who still think that variation
(mutations) is random are surprised by new evidence, e.g. genome is a Read-write storage system rather than being a Crickian Read only system. Genome formatting and compaction, chromatin formatting, and epigenetic regulation, and so on that were not possible in the Central dogma are now regular features of standard molecular biology. In this way transduction, natural genetic engineering, error recognition, and repair and controlled orchestrated goal oriented
PROGRAMME structure-function integrity of the cell have challenged any mechanical concept of the cell.
As life is a systemic web of all life, research is confirming that all species are co-dependent and co-producing and none can be considered in isolation. Eugene V. Koonin (Russian-American biologist and Senior Investigator at the National
SOUVENIR Center for Biotechnology Information, Rockville Pike Bethesda, USA) has established from phylogenetic analysis that even at a genetic level there is no Darwin’s tree of life. There is no universal ancestor that can be established and all species must be considered to have arisen simultaneously. Fossil record (Cambrian explosion) also shows that all species are found simultaneously in different layers. Stasis in the fossil record confirms that ‘self-preservation’ is an intrinsic characteristic of all life forms. Past embryology was less interested in the evolution studies based upon genetics. Even 15
the leading embryologists of earlier times like Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch had observed the fundamental importance of epigenesis, rather than that of nuclear material. They had concluded that zygote to adult embryonic development of every species follows a fixed unique blueprint leading to the production of an adult organism of that particular species only. This spectacular realization forced Driesch to reject the idea of living organisms as physical machines. The idea and evidence of species preservation is a natural characteristic of life and it offers a significant challenge to Darwinian gradualism.
This scenario shifted modern biology and science towards a less mechanistic, more sentient, wholistic, systemic and organically integrated ‘web of all life.’ This is an encouragement to the students of the Vedantic concept of Reality. ‘Science and Scientist – 2015’ proposes that modern scientific research and development seem to be leading to a detente between science and the more spiritual ideas of soul and God as found in all world religions. The progress of science continues to leave behind old and outworn ideas and embrace more comprehensive ones that may more adequately express life and its origin. A more subjective view of atom was already introduced by the great fathers of quantum mechanics like Schrödinger and Bohr. Schrödinger often spoke of the wisdom of the Upanishads. Einstein also often talked about God in his arguments. Scientists like Robert Lanza have considered that a Biocentric universe could be a solution to these problems. Dr. Amit Goswami, Theoretical Quantum Physicist, USA gave his message that, “Today post-materialist science is of utmost importance because only such new models of us will integrate our polarized worldviews. I am enthused that the SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST CONFERENCE - 2015 is doing exactly that”.
For Further queries and information, please check ‘Science and Scientist 2015’ Conference Website:
www.scsiscs.org/conference
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THE LOGIC OF LIFE Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. Serving Director, Bhakti Vedanta Institute, Princeton, NJ, USA & Conference Chair ‘Science and Scientist – 2015’
Modern science generally assumes that the same laws of logic apply to mechanical, chemical and biological entities alike because they are all ultimately material objects. This may seem to be so obvious that there would be no need to validate it -- experimentally or logically.
In this article we would like to critically examine this assumption and show that from an experiential/observational level, as well as from a rational/logical level, it is not valid. This becomes apparent, for instance, when we consider the simple observation in which we distinguish animate from inanimate objects: those objects that seem to spontaneously move themselves and those that move only when impelled by some applied force outside or beyond the object. This distinction may be valid at the macroscopic level more than at the level of theoretical atomic particles. Thus the detailed nature of spontaneous movement must also be understood.
We consider animate objects to be living, and the inanimate ones dead. Yet we consider both as being material objects
since they are both composed of atoms and molecules. Even if the composition may be a little different for the two, still
the living objects can die and thus become the same as the dead objects. Thus the difference does not seem to be
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– specifiable within the material aspect of the object.
This means we are left with the question: what automates the animate living objects that does not seem to be present in the dead ones. At first we may try to answer this question by claiming that it is the chemical reactions going on in the animate object that are causing it to move. After all, chemical reactions can occur on their own in any laboratory by a process as simple as mixing two reactive chemicals together.
Of course there is a serious problem with that explanation. Chemical reactions generally produce a stable product – just Scienceand Scientist
| | like acid and alkali when added together produce a salt. The reaction seems to occur spontaneously, but it does not go
on and on for many years. It does not sustain itself. In the living object or living organism there occurs sustainable chemical activity of a special type called biological activity. That activity can become very complex, even defying all explanation at a simple chemical level because of the intricacy involved.
But living organisms exhibit further peculiar traits that we call behavioral symptoms that are not found in inanimate
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objects. That is, organisms exhibit growth, irritability, reproduction metabolism, and so on. The point is that animate and inanimate objects, even at the simple level of observation do exhibit important differences. Objects that participate
in chemical reactions are different from objects that do not react with each other. And animate objects or organisms
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behave in manners that chemical objects do not exhibit.
Over two millennia ago, Aristotle made an attempt to explain by philosophical analysis the peculiar nature of living organisms. He considered dead matter to be what he called dunamis or potentiality, and matter in action energia or
actuality. The word “actuality” implies “act.” And the Greek word energia means “energy.” According to scientists, the
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concept energy means “the ability to do work.” A certain amount of energy can do a certain amount of work. This is how energy is determined and measured.
Yet what is it that moves dead matter (dunamis or potentiality) into action (energia, act-uality). Aristotle called that SOUVENIR actualizing force enetelechia or entelechy. This peculiar word comes from teleos or teleology, and specifically it refers to inner (en) teleology. It means purpose or end in the sense of aim.
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We may at first think of teleology as external purpose, as is the case when a carpenter builds a chair from wood. The wood is the original matter, and the chair is the end product – the idea of the chair in the carpenter’s mind is actualized in the form of the wood as a chair. Any artifact can be viewed from this perspective of external teleology.
But inner teleology is quite different. According to Aristotle there are many types or kinds of being or matter. For instance, the being of an animal is different from the being of a bird or of a man. Thus the dunamis or potentiality has different potencies depending on the kind or species of creature that it is. For example, the seed of an oak tree, or the egg of a chicken have certain potencies within them characterizing the type of matter they are. When their potency is awakened their entelechy will drive them to actualize as a tree or chick.
If we consider Aristotle’s ideas from the modern viewpoint, we find a similar concept is utilized in biology. The specific genetic and phylogenetic material of each type of organism is unique due to the different arrangements of the amino acids in the DNA code and other specific proteins, enzymes, mitochondria, and so on that are part of the makeup of the various kinds or species of life. The specific type of matter will therefore determine what kind of creature will develop from it. So it is a tribute to the brilliant intelligence of Aristotle that his conceptions, in its general principle, is still quite valid even today.
Of course, modern science has not found out what corresponds to the entelechy, the mysterious force that causes a particular glob of protoplasm to differentiate and almost magically develop into whatever life form it eventually becomes. It is much too complex and specific to be understood as the result of a series of standard chemical reactions.
Various experiments have been done on the zygote (fertilized egg) to show that there is a definite directive process involved that continues despite severe modification of the basic structure at an early stage of development.[1]
It is almost as if there were an invisible pattern, concept or idea that was imprinted in the specific type of matter that 2015 directed toward development into the specific creature that it becomes. Aristotle considered the situation from this – point of view and concluded that there is a soul that was responsible for this.[2] A couple of thousand years latter G.W.F. Hegel also demonstrated in his Science of Logic[3] that there is a Concept involved in the determination of its corresponding content. In between these two towering figures of philosophy, Immanuel Kant also developed the same themes in his philosophical analysis of the scientific understanding of organisms.[4]
I think it will be very useful to look at the way Hegel organized the various types of objects that we observe in Nature,
viz. the mechanical, chemical and biological, according to what he called the Concept (Begriff). The Concept, for Hegel, Scienceand Scientist | | is basically a dynamic or organic unity of the different moments or parts that make up the Concept and its content. We will start with his application of this idea to the mechanical object.
Mechanical Objects Mechanical objects do not have an internal relationship of parts. Thus you can divide a rock and it becomes two rocks, but the basic nature of the rock does not change. What lacks internal relation like this, is said to have merely an external relation to what is other than itself. Thus rocks are related to other rocks by the external force of gravity, or other causal factors. Objects that lack internal relatedness possess merely external relatedness. Planets relate to each other externally, as in the solar system, explicable by the laws of gravity and motion. Newtonian gravity depends upon mass, but the internal composition of that mass does not play any role in determining their attraction to other planets. Thus gravity acts in a purely external way to unite the planets into the solar system.
In mechanistic objects, the unifying Concept (in this case, gravitational force) exists only implicitly, and therefore only explicitly or externally to the object. Mechanics views a
system as having separable, independent parts that are fully understandable outside their SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
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connection within the system of which they are parts. When the parts of a system retain the same identity when isolated from the system as when connected within it, it is called a mechanical system. This is the particular logical character or nature that is implied when we refer to a system as being mechanical.
Chemical Objects Now, those entities that show an intrinsic affinity toward other entities leads to the next type of object – the chemical object. Chemical objects have parts that are internally related. They are not the same when isolated from each other as when they are connected or united with each other. Thus, for example, a salt crystal cannot maintain its identity when divided at its most fundamental molecular level since sodium and chloride atoms when divided would form two distinct substances – sodium and chlorine. External relations are formed due to the intrinsic properties of the individual parts of a chemical reaction. Thus an acid is intrinsically related to an alkali, which combine to form a neutral salt. Their unity, the neutral salt, is a completely different substance compared to the distinct parts in their isolation.
Furthermore, to speak of nascent acid would be a misnomer. A substance is acidic only in relation to alkaline substances.
Its identity or definition as an isolated entity is incomplete
and can only be understood in its relation with another
object. On the other hand, mechanical objects possess an 2015
individuality that is complete in itself without reference to – another object.
The unity of a mechanical system, like the solar system, made up of mechanical objects, is established externally in the form of a law, which reigns outside of and over the parts and by which the parts of the system are regulated. On the other hand, the unity of the chemical system is intrinsic to the parts, arising from their intrinsic natures. The ordered structure of a crystal is based on the nature of the constituent parts of a chemical system. Still, the parts of a chemical system retain their identity even apart from the interactive system, so that their initial and final states can be
Scienceand Scientist differentiated. In this sense the parts are both independent as well as dependent. For example, an acid and alkali can be | | isolated in different bottles and then added together to form a third substance – a neutral salt.
Biological Systems Those parts that cannot be
separated from a system
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without destroying it as a working system, can no
longer be called parts but are
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participants or members of a dynamic whole. The participants are as essential to the whole as the whole is to
the participants – this is the
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biological system or organism. Here we are removed from the stasis of fixed objects and are in the milieu of pure SOUVENIR dynamical activity. Participants cannot be isolated from the whole in which they are participants and remain what they are. A DNA molecule can no more be what it is as a producer 19
of protein molecules, than the protein molecules can be what they are as produced from the action of DNA, and producing the DNA. Each participant is cause and effect of every other participant, as Kant defined organism. Therefore nothing in an organism is without purpose, nor is the organism as a whole without purpose in the environment. Thus everything in the organism is both purpose [end] and means.
Life is a unity in multiplicity. It is a process as a united flow, but it consists of many instantaneous moments – like the frames of a movie. The tendency of abstract understanding is to either think of a unity OR a multiplicity. Pure multiplicity is indicative of the atomic thinking of material reductionism. Pure unity is the indeterminateness of abstract monism. Unity in multiplicity is the comprehensive thinking of dialectical reason. Life has to be comprehended as a process in which its participants are simultaneously both ends and means to one another.
The living organism internally assimilates itself and produces itself. This self-consumption and self-production is its metabolism, by which it anabolizes and catabolizes, creates and destroys its own cellular substructure in order to maintain its own superstructural integrity. Likewise, the superstructural system assimilates the outer environment of which it is an integral participant. It both consumes and produces the environment in which it lives, but on a localized scale, unlike the totality of its destructive and constructive activity that occurs within itself. Reproduction is a production of itself as a totality but in a localized portion of the environment. It is a process of preservation of the species.
Its inner metabolic process is the preservation of its particularity. Its assimilation and defense against the environment is
the preservation of its individuality. And the reproduction of itself as a species is the preservation of its universality. The particular, individual and universal aspects of the living process are characteristic of what is called a Concept. A Concept has three aspects: universal, particular and individual. For example, in biology we speak of genus, species and specimen.
Mammal is a genus (general or universal), whereas tiger is a particular species or kind of mammal, and the individual 2015 tiger that we meet in the jungle is a specimen. All three of these aspects are required in order to completely specify the – individual identity of whatever is experienced.
The living organism, therefore, ultimately has the Concept as its substance when it is comprehended completely. Thus, the categories of understanding that seek to fix identities in their identity (e.g. A=A, B=B, etc.) cease to be applicable to the living organism whose participants do not possess isolated identities but are identified only in their mutual relations. Unlike chemical objects, the participants of a biological system are produced by as well as productive of the
other participants. Scienceand Scientist | |
The proper understanding of inner teleology requires that we grasp that there is not one thing being driven by another outside of it or beyond it, but a single nature actualizing itself, sustaining its own reality. Teleology is in the organism in the same way that reason is in the thing studied. The self-differentiating unity of organic teleology is not observationally but conceptually grasped. In other words, in the same way that gravity cannot be directly observed but is deduced from the behavior of bodies, we cannot observe teleology but it must be logically concluded because the behavior of the participants cannot be explained by either mechanical or chemical principles. As previously explained, that which is logically concluded involves thought, and thought when developed in form is called a Concept.
The Objectivity of the Organism Hegel briefly summarizes what has been explained above in his Science of Logic[3]. In the first stage of comprehending the objectivity of the organism, when the Concept is not explicitly known, and is thus only implicit or potential for knowledge as inner unity, we determine only the purely external relationship of parts known as mechanism. Here the totality of the determinations of the Concept appear merely as the external immediacy of its self-subsistent, independent parts, in other words, as an ordered aggregate.
In the second stage of comprehending the organism as an object the immanent law of the parts is established so that SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS particular relationships between the parts is revealed. This is chemism.
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In the third stage, the essential unity of the object is comprehended as distinct from the self-dependence of the parts, and posited as a subjective end which is opposed to the objectivity that it utilizes as means to fulfill its purpose. This is teleology or the biological object.
This end or purpose is actually the Concept which is related to objectivity for the purpose of removing its defect as being merely subjective. As actualized end it is the return of the Concept to itself from its externally posited being and in this internal unity with itself is called the Idea.
Conclusion In his book “This is Biology,”[5] leading biologist Ernst Mayr wrote, “It is a little difficult to understand why the machine concept of organism could have had such long lasting popularity. After all, no machine has ever built itself, replicated itself, programmed itself, or been able to procure its own energy. The similarity between an organism and a machine is exceedingly superficial.”
Immanuel Kant, like Aristotle before him and Hegel after him, understood that an organism had to be distinct from both mechanical and chemical systems, and could only be understood within a teleological framework. For Kant, teleology exists when two criteria are met: 1. The parts of a whole are possible only through their relation to the whole.
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2. The parts are combined into a whole by being reciprocally the cause and effect of their form.
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He therefore proclaimed that “There will never be a Newton of a blade of grass.”[4] This is because there is no – regulative law that can be formulated for a teleological system. As previously explained, law applies only externally to mechanical systems, whereas teleology is an effect that is internal to the unity of the system.
What Hegel called the Concept, Aristotle called the soul. This additional element is needed to describe the living organism, and it cannot be completely explained without it. This is the conclusion of some of the greatest philosophers of Western culture. And it has its counterpart in Eastern philosophy as well. In fact, it is the teaching of all the great religions of the world.
Scienceand Scientist | | Only modern science has insisted on trying to explain life on a purely mechanical-chemical level, and has failed repeatedly to even come up with a definition of life on that basis, as it must since life and matter are inherently understood as being distinct principles. Reason is one, thus modern science, as the honest study of reality, must eventually concur with the same truths that human reason has established in our philosophical and spiritual traditions. It
is due to the progress of science that we are led to acknowledge the limits of science and the importance of recognizing
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life as a distinct principle beyond the mere material or naturalistic conception of Nature. The whole concept of Nature, itself, cannot be encompassed simply in terms of atoms, molecules and their physical and chemical reactions. A deeper
truth has to be sought in the corresponding reality of thought and spirit. It is hoped that this brief introduction to the
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logic of life will inspire further study into this deeper reality.
References: [1] Starr, C. (2005). Biology: Concepts and applications, Thomson Brooks/Cole, p. 650.
[2] Aristotle, De Anima, (On the Soul) trans. R.D. Hicks, Prometheus Books, 1991.
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[3] G.W.F. Hegel, Science of Logic, trans. A.V. Miller, George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1969, p. 710. [4] Immanuel Kant, Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766); Critique of Judgment, 1790, trans. W. Pluhar, Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987. §§ 75, pp. 282-283. [5] Mayr, Ernst. (1997). This is biology: The science of the living world, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, SOUVENIR Cambridge.
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PROGRAM OF THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST – 2015
17th April 2015 (FRIDAY)
07.30 – 08.30 Registration Setting up Posters & Banners
08.30 – 9.00 Mahaprasadam: Snacks & Herbal Tea Break
09.00 – 12.00 Auspicious Lamping, Invocation, Inaugural Session & Press Conference
Chief Guest: His Excellency Parmanand Jha Honorable Vice President of Nepal
Guest of Honor: Sri Ranjit Rae Ambassador of India to Nepal
Special Guests: Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Goswami Maharaja
Successor Sevaite-President-Acharya, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
Srila Bhakti Prapanna Tirtha Maharaja 2015
Senior Preacher, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math – His Holiness Prof. S. A. R. P. V. Chaturvedi Distinguished Prof., Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies, Hyderabad, India Hira Bahadur Maharjan, Ph.D. Vice Chancellor, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal Jiba Raj Pokharel, Ph.D. Vice Chancellor, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology,
Lalitpur, Nepal Scienceand Scientist
| | Suresh Raj Sharma, Ph.D.
Leading Educationist and Founder Vice Chancellor of Kathmandu, University, Nepal D.P. Mishra, Ph.D. Prof., Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology- Kanpur, India
OF OF ABSTRACTS Basuthkar J. Rao, Ph.D., FNA, FASc, FNASc
The Sir J. C. Bose Fellow, Senior Prof., Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
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12.00 – 12.10 Herbal Tea break
12.10 – 13.30 Plenary Session to Introduce the Theme of ‘Science and Scientist – 2015’
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Chairpersons: Basuthkar J. Rao, Ph.D., FNA, FASc, FNASc, The Sir J. C. Bose Fellow, Senior Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India & D.P. Mishra, Ph.D., Prof., Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute SOUVENIR of Technology-Kanpur, India
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Plenary Talk 1: Consciousness is Beyond the Reach of Reductionism Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Ph.D., Gen. Secretary, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, India
Plenary Talk 2: Sentience and Information Bhakti Vijnana Muni, Ph.D., President, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, India
13.30 – 14.30 Mahaprasadam: Lunch
14.30 – 17.30 Session: Scientific Critique of Science
Chairpersons: Mohan Kharel, Ph.D., Prof., Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal & Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Ph.D., Gen. Secretary, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, India
Talk 1: The “Non-Local Self” is the Key!
Basuthkar J. Rao, Ph.D., FNA, FASc, FNASc, The Sir J. C. Bose Fellow, Senior
Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
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Talk 2: Functional Geometry and Neuronal Basis of Consciousness – Sisir Roy, Ph.D., Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangaluru, India
Talk 3: Selfhood and Fear of Death: Reflections from a practitioner of cognitive science
Garga Chatterjee, MD, Ph.D. (Harvard), Assistant Professor, Indian Statistical Scienceand Scientist | | Institute, Kolkata, India
Talk 4: Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance and Branching of the Central Dogma: Two recent revelations in the molecular basis of inheritance Rakesh K. Mishra, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
Talk 5: Bacterial Sentience: Brain is not the Source of Mind Rajani Malla, Ph.D., Professor and Head, Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University – Kathmandu, Nepal
Talk 6: Embryonic Origin of Heart Beat in Mammals: A mystery
Sonali Bhakta & Shonkor Kumar Das, Ph.D., Bioresearch Laboratory (Cancer and SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Herbal Research Center), Dept. of Anatomy & Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh
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17.30 – 18.00 Mahaprasadam: Snacks & Herbal Tea Break & Poster Session
18.00 – 19.00 Panel Discussion: Revolution in Scientific Understanding of Life and Its Origin Panelists: Bhakti Vijnana Muni, Ph.D. President, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, India Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Ph.D. Gen. Secretary, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, India D.P. Mishra, Ph.D. Prof., Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology- Kanpur, India Rakesh K. Mishra, Ph.D. Principal Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India Basuthkar J. Rao, Ph.D., FNA, FASc, FNASc The Sir J. C. Bose Fellow, Senior Prof., Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
Mohan Kharel, Ph.D.
Prof., Central Dept. Biotechnology, Tribhuvan Univ., Kathmandu, Nepal
Sisir Roy, Ph.D. 2015
Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of – Science Campus, Bangaluru, India Garga Chatterjee, MD, Ph.D. (Harvard) Assistant Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India Sundeep Mishra, M.D. DM Cardiology, FACC, FSCAI, Prof of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, India 19.00 –20.30 Cultural Program
Drama on ‘Deliverance of Jagai and Madhai’ Scienceand Scientist By: Students from Sathya Sai School, Kathmandu, Nepal
| | Nepal Cultural Dance By: Students from Central Dept. Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal Harinama Sankirtan By: Devotees from Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
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20.30 –21.30 Mahaprasadam: Dinner
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18th April 2015 (Saturday)
8.30 – 09.00 Mahaprasadam: Snacks & Herbal Tea Break
09.00 – 12.00 Session: Science of Spiritual Biology PROGRAMME
Chairpersons: Sisir Roy, Ph.D., Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangaluru, India & Bhakti Vijnana Muni, Ph.D., President, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute
SOUVENIR Talk 1: Superpowers and the Stubborn Illusion of Separation Dean Radin, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences & Volunteer Faculty, Department of Psychology, Sonoma State University, USA 25
Talk 2: The Balancing Role of Entropy and Syntropy Ulisse Di Corpo, Ph.D. and Antonella Vannini, Ph.D., Statistics & Social Research, Rome, Italy (World Institute for Scientific Exploration (WISE), Rome)
Talk 3: The Transcendence of Consciousness with Physical Body Along with Pran Mohan Kharel, Ph.D., Professor, Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
Talk 4: Sleep and Its Impact on Consciousness and Health Sundeep Mishra, M.D., DM Cardiology, FACC, FSCAI, Professor of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, India
Talk 5: Review on Ayurvedic Concept of atma (Soul) Sushanta Sahu and Deba Prasad Dash, M.D.(Ay.), Gopabandhu Ayurveda
Mahavidyalaya, Puri, India
Talk 6:
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Experimental Philosophy, Astral Projection and the Science of – Spiritual Biology John Yates, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Fundamental Studies, London (Founding Editor
of International Journal of Theoretical Physics) 12.00 – 12.15 Mahaprasadam: Snacks & Herbal Tea Break
12.15 – 13.30 Session: Philosophical and Spiritual Approaches to Reality
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Chairpersons: D. P. Mishra, Ph.D., Prof., Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, India & Deba Prasad Dash, M.D.(Ay.) , Head, Dept. Panchakarma, Gopabandhu Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Puri, India
Talk 1: The Highest End Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Goswami Maharaja, Successor Sevaite-President- Acharya, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
Talk 2: Devotion and Its Glories Srila Bhakti Prapanna Tirtha Maharaja, Senior Preacher, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
Talk 3: Free Will And Self Determination Tariq Muneer, Director, Islamic Information Center, Hyderabad, India SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
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Talk 4: Understanding the Concept of Vyāh ti: Religion to Science Janardan Ghimire, Host, Kantipur FM Radio, Kathmandu & Lecturer Sanskrit Dept. Tribhuvan Univ., Kathmandu, Nepal
13.30 – 14.30 Mahaprasadam: Lunch
14.30 – 17.30 Session: Ontological Distinction Between Life and Matter
Chairpersons: Rajani Malla, Ph.D., Head, Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal & Sundeep Mishra, M.D., Professor of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, India
Talk 1: Scientific and Cultural Analysis on the Metaphysical Dimension of Life: An empirical approach Bharat Giri, Independent Research Scholar, Kathmandu, Nepal
Talk 2:
Retrocausality and Signal Nonlocality in Consciousness and
2015
– Cosmology Jack Sarfatti, Ph.D., University of California, USA
Talk 3: A Scientific Unde standing of Rabind anath Tago e’s Philosophy in Gitanjali as Expressions of Universal Consciousness and the Fundamental Nature of Reality Dependent on Our Knowing or
Scienceand Scientist Experiencing of It | | Joy Roy Chowdhury, UK Assessment Tomorrow
Talk 4: Toward a Scientific Understanding of Psychic Phenomena
Monalisa JDM, Head of International Development, Art-Vantage, UK
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Talk 5:
Approaching Consciousness via Other Experimentally Proven
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Non-Intuitive Phenomenon Archit Goel, Private Researcher, Pune, India
Talk 6:
Understanding atma (Soul) From the Ayurvedic Perspective
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Kumar Aurojyoti, Consultant, Ayurdwar, Puri
Talk 7:
SOUVENIR The Process of Rebirth Basudev Misra, Retd. Govt. Servant, Defense Production, Ordnance Factory Board, Kolkata
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Talk 8: Supremacy of Vaidik Darsan in Explanation of Evolution of Life J. N. Himali Pandey, M.D., Chief Consultant Physician General and Internal Medicine, Advocate, Journalist and Philosopher, Kathmandu, Nepal
Talk 9: The Soul Hypothesis: Analytical study on concept of soul Ram Deo Pandit, Central Department of Sanskrit, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu
Talk 10: F ed ich Max Muelle ’s (Max Mulle ) Inte p etation of Sanatan Dharm: A critical review
Ashok Rathore, Ph.D., Satya Dev Sharma, Ph.D. and Harpal Singh Sethi 17.30 – 18.30 Valedictory Ceremony
2015 2015
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PAPERS OF ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Plenary Session to Introduce the Theme of ‘Science and Scientist – 2015’
Plenary Talk 1: Consciousness is Beyond the Grasp of Reductionism Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Ph.D. Gen. Secretary, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, West Bengal, India Email: [email protected], Mobile: +91-9748906907
Biology Demands a Shift of Lens from the Parts to the Whole After Descartes, science, has adopted a ‘divide and conquer’ path in its analytical evaluation of the natural world and it is based on the assumption that complex problems can be solved by dividing them into
smaller and simpler units. This is an attempt to reduce the whole into its
more basic units and hence is known as ‘reductionism’. Reductionistic
mindset is the predominant in science over the past two centuries. Even
2015
– though reductionistic approach provided a tremendous success in providing solution to the immediate practical problems, this approach finds its limits in biology which deals with ‘animated cognitive wholes’. Unlike mechanical and chemical systems in biology a unifying cognitive field produces a complex interplay between parts and which in turn yields a behavior that cannot be comprehended by the mere investigation of the parts alone. In a living cell, genes and their respective products
interact collectively to carryout various goals oriented functions. Defying reductionistic view that a single genetic Scienceand Scientist
| | mutation is responsible for most phenotypic defects, the phenotypic traits emerge from the combined efforts of several
individual molecules.[1] Diseases like cancer, asthma, or atherosclerosis cannot be explained by a single genetic mutation.[2] To study complex genetic interactions there is a shift from a component level to system-level perspective. However, this is also an outcome of mechanistic thinking because it uses the technical knowledge acquired from systems engineering. This approach started from Norbert Weiner’s cybernetics[3] and Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s ‘General
Systems Theory’.[4] Under systems biology chaos theory, nonlinear dynamics, complex systems science and
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computational science are applied to biological systems to comprehend how biological functions and behaviors arise from the complex interaction of multiple components. However, this approach could not able to answer: how cellular
division, cell activation, differentiation, and apoptosis appear from the interaction of genes?, and how does
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consciousness appear from the interactions between neurons?. Therefore, empirical evidence emphasizes that biology should shift its lens from the parts to the whole.
Difference Between Organism and Machine
The “identity theory” explains that states and processes of the mind are alike to states and processes of the brain.
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Therefore, following the concept of identity theory, scientists and philosophers are believing that the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile.[5] This is why, till now the major focus of consciousness studies are based on brain research.
SOUVENIR Even though 21st century biology established that starting from human to smallest cells (bacteria without brain organ), all living organisms are conscious entities[6], there are several enthusiastic propositions in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), where it is claimed that by simulating the neuronal network in the brain we can produce conscious machines. The proponent of strong AI claimed that conscious thought can appear in computers equipped with 29
appropriate algorithms. In AI it is assumed that brain contains definite webs of neurons and each of them represents a definite function governed by the laws of physics. Therefore, the effort of entire attempt is to find a definite set of equations that can represent different web of neurons. Once the equations are known, they can be solved or simulated by a sufficiently powerful computer. This hypothesis assumes mind of a living organism as ‘computer made of meat’ governed by laws of physics. Once these laws are understood, the computing machine can be produced, which can solve the differential equations of mind in real time and thus it can exhibit the behavior exactly like living organisms: intelligence, experience, judgment, appreciation, understanding, self-consciousness, and free will.
Often Turing test, an imitation game proposed by Alan Turing in 1950, is taken as the criteria of machine intelligence in Strong AI. In this test interrogator asks question to a human being and a machine, and if the interrogator fails to distinguish between human and machine then machine is declared as intelligent.[7] Searle used the Chinese Room argument to establish that Turing test is not the proper means to establishing the machine intelligence.[8] In a Chinese room, a man who does not understand Chinese language can translate the incoming and outgoing messages in Chinese by simply executing pattern replacements following the rules. Chinese observers outside the room may feel that room passes the Turing test by
communicating in Chinese, but in reality the man in the room has no real understanding about the meaning of that conversation. In this way Searle explained that a machine may pass the Turing test but does not guarantee
that it has developed thinking, understanding or the ability to grasp the 2015 meaning. On the other hand, living organisms have the ability to grasp the – meaning and such ability cannot be produced in machines by any computer programs.
With ample empirical evidence and emphasis of halting problem (is there a program which determines whether any given algorithm halts for a given input?) Sir Roger Penrose (a mathematician and physicist at Oxford University) also explained the non-algorithmic nature of mind in his book The Emperor’s New Mind.[9] In his book he continually highlights that mental processes are intrinsically more potent than computational processes. Penrose asks “Can
algorithm discover theorems like Turing’s and Gödel’s”. Our minds may come up with solutions to different questions Scienceand Scientist | | for which there is no general algorithm. Therefore we must know what algorithms cannot do. In the context of consciousness, although computers are intricate electronic devices that can carry out much complex tasks, yet they are no different than mere mechanical devices like machines of levers, wheels and valves. However complex a computer may be but they can never develop understanding and thinking.
In-Computability of Consciousness There are several serious attempts to find a precise neural correlates of different aspects of consciousness. There are cases reported where damage to different definite areas of the cortex has led to damage of either experience of color or it may interfere with the perception of shape and so on. However, despite that knowledge we still do not know how the neural correlates coalesce to produce subjective experiences. Tononi[10] tried to tackle this with a theoretical framework “Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness (IITC)”. Tononi thought that human brain integrates information and that is what it produces conscious behavior.
SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Influenced by information theory, it is assumed in IITC that consciousness is an information processing phenomenon and therefore it is possible to quantify consciousness in terms of system’s capacity to integrate information. The 30
foundation of Tononi’s IITC is based on two thought experiments: (1) generation of information and (2) integration with previous memories (integrated information). Artificial smell detectors may distinguish between two different aromas but can they experience the aroma like human? Ignoring all other aspects, the detector’s ability to distinguish between two aromas may be based on the single molecule that separates the two aromas. Such distinction between two aromas is binary one and it can be encoded by a single bit. However, there are more than 10,000 different smells detected by dedicated olfactory receptor neurons lining the nose of the human.[11] Smell identification by a human generates a response that distinguishes between 10,000 possibilities and from the information point of view it generates
log2 10,000 = 13.3 bits of information. The main point that Tononi emphasized in his first thought experiment is that the explanations of experience necessitate a situation where they distinguish between several possible choices; in other words, they must generate information. In second thought experiment Tononi explains that information alone is not enough for conscious experience. It is possible to increase the capacity of artificial smell detectors where they can distinguish between smells much more than 10,000. However, mere producing more information than that of human nose cannot provide the artificial smell detectors the ability to experience the smell the way human does. Tononi explained the major difference between artificial detector and human experience is that in case of artificial detector each aroma is detected in seclusion of every other aroma. Even if the entries of other aromas (except the one detected) are deleted from the database of the machine we will find exactly the same response by the artificial detector.
Human nose has different neurons which are specifically equipped to sense particular smells. It may be possible that by
selective damage of certain olfactory receptors an individual may lose the ability to smell a particular aroma. In case of
human subject even though the process of detection of a particular aroma is not itself integrated, the experience of smell
is thoroughly integrated concerning the type of information it records in response. When someone smells a particular 2015
aroma the effect that it has on subject’s brain is integrated across many aspects of his/her memory and it is impossible – for a neurosurgeon to eliminate the memory of that experience without affecting anything else. Reductionistic view of consciousness finds its limits here because the changes in the memory caused by subject’s experience are not localized to any one part of her brain. The irreversible changes to memory are rather extensively dispersed and inseparably interlinked with all the rest of subject’s memories. This is known as integrated information in subject’s memory. However, deleting so called experience in case of an artificial smell detector or even in the case of a video camera is very easy. In the database of the system the variables can be edited to erase a particular memory and in the case of a video camera also we can delete the footage recorded in certain time interval. This deletion action will not alter the
Scienceand Scientist subsequent information that is generated. Due to this distinction Tononi feels unlike detection by human subject, the | | information produced by artificial machines is not integrated. Computation is reversible but cognition is not[12] and that is why Maguire et al.[13] stated that “a form of magic is going on in the brain, which is beyond computational modeling”.
Conscious behavior are an outcome of integrated information in mind and those conscious responses cannot be
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decomposed or disintegrated into a set of causally independent parts. Consciousness is a fundamental property of animated objects – ‘living organisms’ that distinguish them from inanimate objects – ‘matter’. It is impossible to break
consciousness down into a set of independent components. Conscious actions are outcome of behavior of a unified,
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integrated organic whole. The failure of means to produce machines that can produce integrated information is the reason why scientists in this field believe that machines can never develop the ability to have subjective experience.
Consciousness is Beyond the Reach of Design
In Analytic German philosopher Immanuel Kant explained the concept “natural teleology” or “natural purpose” or
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“natural end” (Naturzweck) (§§64-65). Keeping artifacts (like chair or watch) in mind in “Critique of Aesthetic Judgment” Kant develops the idea of a “natural end” from that of an end, “the object of a concept in so far as the latter is regarded as the cause of the former” (§10, 220). Artifacts are produced from the concepts in the mind of the designers and hence, concepts play a vital role in the causal history of such objects. The central theme of Kant’s “Critique of SOUVENIR Aesthetic Judgment” is that the idea of end is not limited to artifacts alone and the living organisms (products of nature) also meet the criteria as ends and are termed as “natural ends”. Something can be considered as end if it was produced by the process of design which in turn is a reductionistic path, where whole can be produced from its parts. However,
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living organisms do not belong to that category of end and that is why Kant explained (§§64-65) that an object can qualify as a natural end only “if it is cause and effect of itself” (370).
To distinguish living organisms from artifacts Kant explained for both the cases how two different necessary conditions are satisfied for ends. The condition applicable for ends is that “the parts... [be] possible only through their relation to the whole” or each part exists “for the sake of the others and of the whole” (373). In designer’s concept of the whole this condition is satisfied in the case of artifacts by a linear causality. The legs and the seat of a chair or balance wheel, hairspring, gear system and so in watch can exist only in virtue of designer’s concept of the whole. In other words, the legs of the chair or the hairspring of the watch exist only in order that the chair or watch as a whole should exist. In the case of living organisms (Naturzweck) this condition is satisfied in a circular causality of the organic whole: “the parts [must] combine themselves into the unity of a whole by being reciprocally the cause and effect of one another’s form” (373). Even though in both artifacts and living organisms the ends are determined by purpose (a cognitive act), in the case of artifacts the purpose (designer) is outside the system (external teleology) and in the case of living organism the purpose is within (internal teleology). Following a linear logic, in the case of artifact parts are produced and combined into a whole by the designer. On the other hand, following a circular logic the body of the living organism appears from another living organism by a developmental process (cell division) and not by the linear accumulation of parts – design. Moreover, life (Naturzweck) has fundamental “formative force” (bildende Kraft) that is responsible for an organism’s self- causing character. It is impossible for a designer to produce artifact with these two fundamental characters (Naturzweck and bildende Kraft) that life has. As Kant explained, “one wheel in the watch does not produce another, and still less does one watch produce other watches” (§65, 374). The empirical evidence in frontier biology also confirms Immanuel
Kant’s statement[14] “there will never be a Newton of the blade of grass, because human science will never be able to explain how a living being can originate from inanimate matter”. For confirmation, in his book “This is Biology,”[15] 20th century’s leading evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr wrote, “It is a little difficult to understand why the machine concept
of organism could have had such long lasting popularity. After all, no machine has ever built itself, replicated itself, 2015 programmed itself, or been able to procure its own energy. The similarity between an organism and a machine is – exceedingly superficial.”
Soul Hypothesis Abiogenesis and materialistic evolution theory explain that first life came from the accumulation of inert matter and biodiversity is a result of random mutation and natural selection. Materialistic evolutionary theory and principles in biology are applied directly to behavior, and they avoid the psychological, or cognitive, level analysis. Both abiogenesis
and evolution theory are outcome of mechanistic or reductionistic thinking and that is why they cannot explain how Scienceand Scientist | | organism got the cognitive features like thinking, feeling and willing. These concepts also do not explain how matter developed two fundamental characters (Naturzweck and bildende Kraft) that life has.
In the past, philosophers, scientists, and people in general, had no problem in accepting the existence of consciousness in the same way as the existence of the physical world. After the advent of Newtonian mechanics (the notion that everything can be explained mechanistically), science embraced a complete materialistic conception about reality. The reductionist interpretation of life (abiogenesis) does not recognize the scientific validity of ‘soul’ – the ‘inner reality’. In this reductionist paradigm our life is defined in terms of objective science and not in terms of the intrinsic spiritual nature and morality. Present environmental issues also confirm that reductionistic view has also contributed towards the destruction of our sense of connectedness with nature and the universe. Modern reductionist science is frequently bewildered with the assumptions upon which it is based and in that bewilderment knowledge systems which do not include reductionist assumptions are ignored and often excluded as being ‘non-scientific’. Noble prize winner, Szent- Györgyi brilliantly explained the perplexities of reductionistic approach from his own experience: “As scientists attempt to understand a living system, they move down from dimension to dimension, from one level of complexity to the next lower level. I followed this course in my own studies. I went from anatomy to the study of tissues, then to electron microscopy and chemistry, and finally to quantum mechanics. This downward journey through the scale of dimensions
has its irony, for in my search for the secret of life, I ended up with atoms and electrons, which have no life at all. SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Somewhere along the line life has run out through my fingers. So, in my old age, I am now retracing my steps, trying to fight my way back.”[16] Therefore, the repeated attempts to reject the inner reality – noumenal realm, based on the 32
limited scope of modern reductionistic approach in science should be questioned. Kant emphasized the importance of distinguishing between the distinct realms of phenomena and noumena. Phenomena are the mere appearances and are nothing but our experience. On the other hand, noumena are the things themselves. All of the present reductionistic approach in science to grasp reality is only applicable to phenomenal realm, not the noumenal. The thing in itself (Ding an sich) is entirely independent of our experience of it and hence reductionistic science is utterly ignorant of the noumenal realm. In Kant’s view, the most fundamental laws of nature (mathematical models), may be knowable accurately because they do not make attempt to explain the world as it really is but rather describe the mere structure of the world as we experience it. Empirical science may be true explanation of phenomenal realm but we need the help of philosophical explanations to comprehend the noumenal realm.
In Vedanta it is described that the atma (soul) is responsible for animating the bodies of all living organisms, from the simplest single cell to complex multicellular organisms. The immortality of atma is explained in Srimad Bhagavad-gita verse 2.20 and the same is also described in Katha Upanisad verse 1.2.18, na jayate mriyate va vipascin nayam kutascin na babhuva kascit ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano na hanyate hanyamane sarire – “For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.”, where the word vipas-cit means learned or with knowledge. According to Vedantic understanding atma is eternal and fully cognizant.
Vedanta explains that consciousness is one of the symptoms by which the existence of the atma can be inferred. Although
scientists cannot sensually perceive the atma, still they can infer its existence just from the presence of consciousness in
all biological systems. As the presence of the sun can be inferred from the sunlight, similarly existence of the atma can 2015
also be understood from the presence of the different varieties of consciousness in various living organisms. – Furthermore, Srimad Bhagavad-gita verse 18.61 states, isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati bhramayan sarva- bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya – “all living forms (sarva-bhutanam) are machines (yantra) made of material energy (maya) of a Unitary Supreme Cognizant Being, Krsna (isvara), and Krsna’s Paramatma (super-soul) feature is guiding the conditioned atma situated within that machine”. Hence, Paramatma (infinite consciousness) is also known as the ground or sustainer of the atma (finite consciousness). This explanation of Srimad Bhagavad-gita is self evident from the scientific evidence. Living entities, from bacteria to humans, do not have full knowledge or control over the complex biological process that are sentiently going on within their bodies and yet those processes go on very perfectly. This perfect
Scienceand Scientist maintaining principle is Paramatma. However, Vedanta explains laws of Karma (actions and reactions of good and bad | | activities performed by the living being) as the cause of any abnormal condition (diseases, errors in biological process, cancer and so on) that affects the body of an organism.
It should be noted that, the machine description of different bodily forms in the above verse for different species should
not be misunderstood with the artifacts. Unlike artificial machines, the bodies of all living organisms (from bacteria to
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humans) are inimitably complex. A frog’s zygote will never develop into a puppy. Life intrinsically preserves its species type. Darwinian objective evolution theory using the laws of physics and chemistry cannot explain why species like,
bacteria, fish, frogs, banyan trees, lions and so on appeared. On the other hand, the conception of Vedanta holds that
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different forms (species) are original archetypes that accommodate different varieties of consciousness through which the transmigration of the soul (atma) takes places on the basis of the evolution of consciousness. For example, Visnu Purana states, “jala-ja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam trimsal-laksani pasavah catur-laksani manusah – There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are also 2,000,000 nonmoving
living entities (sthavara), such as trees and plants. There are also 1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles, and there are
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1,000,000 species of birds. As far as quadrupeds are concerned, there are 3,000,000 varieties, and there are 400,000 human species.” According to Vedanta, species identification and classification are based on a cognitive paradigm, where the body is a biological expression of the consciousness of the soul (atma). Therefore, the different species described in above verse are representations of different varieties of consciousness. The transmigration of the soul (atma) is described SOUVENIR in Srimad Bhagavad-gita 8.6: yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajanty ante kalevaram tam tam evaiti kaunteya sada tad bhava- bhavitah – “The soul (atma) obtains a body in next life based on the consciousness in which it left the previous body.” Animals and lower species of life do not have enough intelligence to understand these descriptions of ancient wisdom.
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However, a sober human being may easily understand his/her entanglement in the dangerous cycle of endless transmigration and thus inquire about their true identity as the immortal soul under an expert spiritual guide.
References: [1] Kauffman, S. (1993). The origins of order: Self organization and selection in evolution. New York: Oxford University Press. 734 p. [2] Ahn, A.C., Tewari, M., Poon, C.S. and Phillips, R.S. (2006). The limits of reductionism in medicine: Could systems biology offer an alternative? PLoS Med., 3(6):e208. [3] Weiner, N. (1948). Cybernetics (Or control and communication in the animal and the machine). Cambridge (Massachusetts): MIT Press. 212, p. 22. [4] Von, B. L. (1968). General system theory. New York: George Braziller, Inc. 295 p. [5] Place, U. T. (1956). Is Consciousness a Brain Process? British J. Psychology, Vol. 47, pp. 44-50. [6] Shapiro, J. A. (2007). Bacteria are small but not stupid: Cognition, natural genetic engineering and socio- bacteriology. Stud. Hist. Phil. Biol. & Biomed. Sci., Vol. 38, pp. 807-819. [7] Turing, A. M. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, Vol. LIX, No. 236. [8] Sarle, J.R. (1980). Minds, brains, and programs. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 3, pp. 417-457. [9] Penrose, R. (1989). The Emperor’s New Mind. Oxford University Press. [10] Tononi, G. (2008). Consciousness as integrated information: a provisional manifesto. The Biological Bulletin, 215(3), 216–242. [11] Alberts, B., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. and Walter, P. (1994). Molecular Biology of the Cell. 4th
ed. New York: Garland Publishing.
[12] Bringsjord, S. and Zenzen, M. (1997). Cognition is not computation: The argument from irreversibility. Synthese, Vol. 113(2), pp. 285–320.
[13] Maguire, P., Moser, P., Maguire, R. and Griffith, V. (2014). Is consciousness computable? Quantifying integrated 2015 information using algorithmic information theory. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, and B. Scassellati (Eds.), – Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [14] Kant, I. (1790). Kritik der Urteilskraft, Refer: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/3507/85 [15] Mayr, E. (1997). This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. [16] Gyorgy A. (1972). What is life? In The Physical Basis of Life. Del Mar, CA: CRM Books, p. 5.
Plenary Talk 2: Sentience, Information and the Vedantic Concept of
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Reality Bhakti Vijnana Muni, Ph.D. President, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Siliguri, India Email: [email protected], Mobile: +91-9163516981
Introduction For over 200 years, a vain attempt at realizing a materialistic concept of life and universe and their origin has been vigorously pursued. In this pursuit of a reductionist paradigm, concepts like identity, self, mind, senses and intellect were no longer considered as aspects of the mainstream scientific study. Darwinian evolution had no place for subjectivity. However concept of information and consciousness has become a very important subject today although none of the frameworks has deduced it properly. This confirms that the spiritual and philosophical approach which begins the study of Reality with the triad of self, World and God is the legitimate approach to conceive a comprehensive Concept of Reality.
What is Information The interest in the concept of information predates the modern mathematical concepts of information like the Shannon and Fisher Information. Schrödinger had asked about information in terms of negentropy, “It is by avoiding the rapid decay into the inert state of ‘equilibrium’ that an organism appears so enigmatic... What an organism feeds upon is SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS negative entropy.” Schrödinger implied the ability of the living beings by which it not only avoids the effect of entropy 34
but also increases its organization.[1] Today the use of information is being extended to attempt whole-organism genome-phenome descriptions as well as the treatment of causal processes within the cell and the brain.
Some of the most common usages of the term Information is in terms of Shannon’s entropy or Kolmogorov’s compressibility.[2,3] It is explained in terms of a sequence of symbols from an alphabet. Information processing in the communication and technical apparatus consists of a map or functions of inputs and outputs. But the appeal to information in this sense is not explanatory. We don’t explain how an organism does what it does. Information in this sense can be calculated whenever there is contingency and correlation. For example we can infer something of the past of a tree from its rings. But we can’t say much from this about the process of ring formation. It is only a quantitative framework for ordinary correlations or causal connections. Only in this correlative sense we can say genes contain information about whole organism phenotype.
But there is also the question of semantics and intention where we need a far richer sense of information.[4] Shannon sense of Information is inapplicable here for it does not give a relationship between genes and phenotype in the form of the distinctive instruction like mode of causation. Form of information that describes genetic code, signaling systems, perception, cognition, language, transcription, editing, translation, development and whole organism is necessary. Some biologists have argued that information is a fundamental category just like matter and energy as genes themselves are made up of information.[5] Biology is concerned with living organisms, their structure, function, activities,
distribution in space and time as well as their developmental histories. As these activities are best understood in terms
of information processing, biology has come to apply informational concepts even at the molecular level. Now we have
many informational terms like genetic codes and their information content, expressions, interpretations and the 2015
execution of programs. However, the need to deal with ideas like intention and semantics is creating a foundational – problem to the materialists. The amount of information in the process is measurable as it can be written down as an algorithm. However, it is the source of this information that brings great difficulty as we do not understand the logic of cognition and whole organism causality in the gene-centered reductionist view.
In the beginning (Central Dogma) it was believed that the description of the biological being was well established in the role of DNA, RNA and manufacture of proteins in the cell. This was represented in a set of facts where the genetic codes mapped triplets of DNA bases to individual amino acids. This idea has subsequently been challenged and proven
Scienceand Scientist incomplete.[6] Moreover, any message that carries any semantic information must have a capacity to misrepresent and | | also accurately represent it. There must be a capacity for error. Shannon information does not have that feature because we cannot say that a variable carried false information about another. But genes carry a message that is supposed to be expressed whether or not it is actually expressed. This then demands a concept of information that is richer. To overcome these difficulties, the teleo-semantic approaches have been one idea to study the evolution of genetic
machinery as a whole. But these have dealt a death effect on the reductionist paradigm. Even though the attempts have
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focused on conceiving a naturalist and yet a semantic specification of the gene, it leads to the concept to the realm of symbolic phenomenon. In symbolic phenomenon processes have a prescriptive and indicative content. Then can any
random arrangement of molecules based upon the idea of natural selection explain how semantic properties and mental
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states arise? The usual argument goes like this: Heart is meant to pump blood but not make the thumping sounds. But there are limitations in this approach. For example hands are for working but hands do not represent working. Enzymes do not instruct the activity of catalyzing reactions. These do not become information carriers in a richer sense more than Shannon. There is also the problem of arbitrariness that arises in the action of gene, developmental resources and
the phenotypic outcomes as these require interpretations. We cannot tell why a particular signal will be interpreted to a
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particular outcome based upon the idea of randomness. Semantic functions are highly specific and goal oriented that requires mediation between two cooperating devices, i.e. a producer and a consumer device.[7]
The Genetic Code SOUVENIR There are many issues like the ‘language like combinatorial structure’ of the genetic code and the function of the cell. The mapping rule has many features that look arbitrary and imprecise from mechanistic approach of the geneticists. This very narrow sense of Crickian understanding of the gene has become questionable and incomplete in the light of evidence. These are true everywhere, i.e. in bacteria, prokaryotes and the eukaryotes of all kinds. Genes have a 35
property by which it codes for amino acid sequences. But there is no indication that genes code for whole-organism phenotypes. Any genetic basis for the wholesale use of informational or semantic language in biology is impossible. However, Crick had somehow very ambiguously considered that the structure of the genetic code was a frozen accident which had contingently arisen in the beginning. All these ideas have become untenable in light of advanced research in experimental biology as well as computational studies of models.
Signaling Systems The Informational language is applicable intricately with the concept of signaling systems in biology. There are many aspects of cellular signaling which are describable only by an informatic language. These include the chemical messages, the allosteric effects and cellular guidance. For example the DNA binding proteins and their cognate formatting signals function cooperatively in a combinatorial manner. In lac Operon there are interactions between RNA polymerase and CRP at the lacP and crp sites that stimulates the transcription process. In other words living cells do not operate randomly or blindly. They cognize and acquire information about their external environment continuously. At the same time they monitor their internal situations. Cells use this information to respond and guide the processes that are essential to their survival, growth, and reproduction. They monitor, control and adjust their metabolism with respect to the available nutrients. They repair damages as they occur both in normal conditions as well as in the catastrophic situations. At the same time cells interact appropriately with the other cells. In a multicellular context, cells can even commit programmed cell death or sacrifice itself for the whole colony interest. This means there is an elaborate sensory system which picks up signals about the chemicals in the environment and the ongoing intracellular events. In this way Shapiro explains that life requires cognition at all levels.[8]
Similar examples are the hormonal signaling systems and the intercellular communication systems of the organisms. Here one part of the body conditions the activities of another by means of an intermediate molecule. The hormones are
routinely described as chemical messages. There exists a symbolic form by which effective action is guided. These 2015 actions can be written down as precise algorithms that involve the usage of choices or Boolean logic. It can be used as a – map to make good decision about what to get off and on. There are informatics concepts like ‘receptor’, allosteric effects and so on in cell signaling. In this way hormones and cell membranes are easily semantically characterized. Development or ontogeny proceeds reliably and predictably. The control is not central but distributed in the organism as a whole. There are DNA sequence readers but no higher level readers that inspect the growing of limbs, buds and organs in the embryo. It indicates limitations in the concept of gene determinism. Gene can be said to code for protein molecules but we cannot be so certain for anything further downstream.[9]
Scienceand Scientist | | Information is Meaningless and Knowledge is Meaningful It has been argued that the predominant contemporary thinking in other disciplines has always influenced the history of biological and evolutionary thought. For example the Darwinian evolutionary thinking was influenced by the existing competitive and capitalist concepts of market. Similarly computer science and the information theory are influencing the biological thought today. In addition, companies have to deal with something called ‘knowledge management’ in this information age. Miller has considered this in some detail by identifying some contradictions that can be found in the notion of knowledge management.[10]
Shannon has mentioned that the semantic aspects of communication were irrelevant to the engineering problem.[11] The significant aspect for him was that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages. But in knowledge management, it is necessary to distinguish information from knowledge. In the actual world of real people and relations we intend to connect people with reusable and codified knowledge that is meaningful to both the sender as well as the recipient. Thus knowledge is a core asset. Sometimes we take it for granted that meaning is intrinsic to messages in the form of words, sentences, and so on. So we imply some meaning to our idiomatic expressions such as, “If I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times.”[12] In this way we attach meaning to our words. Without meaning, words are empty. A book of poetry contains soulful reflections of the author on a subject. Without the author, why should a
particular arrangement of letters of an alphabet have to convey any meaning? We rarely stop to consider these deeper SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS aspects of reality in the form of information. Knowledge management is qualitative from outset and cannot be expressed in the mathematical definitions of information alone.[13] When information includes meaning it is called 36
knowledge. In itself information has no intrinsic meaning, so knowledge means that meaning has to be personally assigned to information. Sveiby[14] enumerates several distinctions between information and knowledge. Information is static, independent of individual, explicit, digital, easy to duplicate, broadcast and has no intrinsic meaning. But knowledge is dynamic, dependent on individuals, tacit, analogue, must be recreated, and requires a personal aspect, either face to face or at a distance, and meaning is assigned by persons dynamically. Knowledge is personal and information is an abstract impersonal feature of personality. Knowledge means what we know, but syntactic information is devoid of any knowledge or meaningfulness in itself, when viewed objectively as a symbol.
But still information has its importance because it provides triggers to an alert person or interpretation by a cognitive agent like humans. The life-long learning process could be accepted as the on-going re-construction of meaning stimulated by a perpetual series of I=0 events (I=0 is an expression coined by Miller to express that information has zero intrinsic meaning[15]). Information becomes knowledge at the moment of its human interpretation. Abstract symbols need mediation through personal experience to have any meaning. According to Myer words have no meaning and there is no direct relationship between the thing we are talking about and the words we use.[16] Meaning is not intrinsically in the object or in the symbol but in the interaction of these through the human person. The most important necessity in knowledge management includes the dimension of humanness. In this way it becomes managing what people know and not merely what string of symbols are etched on a physical matrix. Therefore it is impossible to categorize and catalog knowledge through the limited notions of symbol manipulation that we have learnt in
mathematics and physical-chemical sciences.
What all this Means in the Study of Life? 2015
By the turn of the 21st century, living organisms became recognized as intelligent, sentient and cognizant beings. They – are goal oriented and adaptable within the definition of species. A standard test for animal intelligence is placing food within a maze. The same is found true for plants, for they also cooperate and compete for sunlight. The limited abstract symbol manipulations and the laws of analytical thought that underlie the logic of mechanisms don’t work for living organisms. We cannot start from raw materials of matter and construct any living organism. Louis Pasteur experimentally showed that life can never be created from non-living matter and that Life can come only from Life. In addition all other experiments have been done only with already existing living organisms, which only demonstrate that the logic of life is not to be found within mechanisms. Like animals and human beings, scientists have observed from the
Scienceand Scientist studies on plant movements that plants also play as well as sleep and in this way there is the question of desire and | | fulfillment in them also.[17,18] All these discoveries mean that the paradigmatic logic of living organisms is that they are ‘knowing beings.’ The cellular processes can be written down as a series of algorithmic instructions in which the whole cellular apparatus participates without any Cartesian dualism. The teleological concepts of Kant are confirmed within the biological world as the systemic concept of new biology. The seed is the cause of the whole tree and the tree is cause
of the seed. The cause and effect co-produce each other. Within the seed, consciousness and knowing capacity is already
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there by which it comes out and it is nothing new. Shapiro coined a term called “Natural genetic Engineering” meaning that the cells have the knowledge gaining capacity to engineer their own DNA to adapt to the functional demands of
their existence. In this way a cell comes from a previously existing cell of the same species and the species self-
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preserves.
An information can be transmitted telegraphically, by media, by print or by voice instantly but we cannot be sure whether our message was received well meaningfully as we intended unless we had a personal knowledge of whom we
are exchanging messages with and how they have interpreted it. The particular moods, thoughts and particularities that
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are there within each of us in our consciousness are not explainable with abstract symbols alone. Thus the distinction between living organisms and artifacts is firmly in process of being established as a difference between knowledge paradigm and information paradigm. An engineer arranges wood, metal, stones and so on according to the abstract thought in his mind in that physical matrix to make it work according to physical laws. He applies his knowledge to SOUVENIR make an artifact work. A person who has not designed it but is well versed in design principles would conclude that intelligence was involved there but was external to it. When we see a well-structured sequence of symbols, we infer there was some intelligence external to it. An artifact works strictly according to the laws of physics and chemistry and initial conditions. There is no more intelligence present intrinsically to find newer end-points. However in the living 37
organisms there is an intrinsic knowledge seeking phenomenon. As intelligence or cognition is present intrinsically in the living organisms, they are internally teleological processes. They are end-point determining processes and not describable by initial conditions, physical laws and mathematics alone.
Semiotic Approach Semiotics is the science of sign systems. Even though it is there at the level of language and communication processes, it is also inseparably and intimately connected with organisms at all levels when they are alive. Living systems are always semiotic and differ from non-life systems which are non-semiotic. Biology or life is coextensive with semiosis as it is intertwined with the concepts of function. They are teleological concepts as they are determined with respect to an end. Teleological processes that are specially organized with respect to specific ends or referents are unique to living processes. This identifies a threshold zone below which semiosis is not defined but above which there can be several stages of semiotic differentiation. Biology is incomplete as a science in the absence of explicit semiotic grounding.[19]
Neo-Darwinian biology as practiced all over the world was practiced on an asemiotic conception of life. It is reduced to mere molecular chemistry which is infeasible in light of evidence. Biologists can’t explain the nature of organic function by only the three dimensional structure of molecules. For example hemoglobin functions as a transporter for oxygen. But that is a reflection of the need of multicellular organisms to provide energy for the metabolism of somatic tissues. Then it implies that Hemoglobin must have some structural features that are conducive to binding and transporting oxygen in blood. Additionally the oxygen binding regions of the hemoglobin molecule must be conserved. Different forms of hemoglobin must differ in specific ways that correspond to different oxygen transport requirements. However
these empirical facts are always contextually constrained, which is further constrained by function and vice versa. This predictive power based upon the functional aspect is more than chemistry. We have to also ask ‘What it is for – the purpose.’ This regulatory, information-carrying, or signaling kind of character embeds the molecules in a wider system
that has an irreducible sign-processing character. Most of the predictive power of biology is lost if this semio-functional 2015 analysis is excluded.[20] –
According to Kant’s teleological principle, organisms possess a formative power to construct themselves. Every part is reciprocally both the ends and the means. Teleology is something external in artifacts but is an internal concept in organisms. Thus function is an internal concept of organisms and is inseparable from its being or concept. This function is intrinsically related to organization, signification, and the concept of an autonomous agent or self.[21] In perception, signs grant that something is the case. Consequently based upon these signs (a kind of information), the organism makes
a decision to act. This functional cycle has an ‘if–then structure’, or a Boolean structure that organisms make use for its Scienceand Scientist | | decision making processes. This sign action is of course based upon the principle of self-preservation. This means we need to include the concepts that can address agency, normativity, teleo-functionality, form-generation, differentiation of a sign vehicle from the dynamics of the reciprocal form-generating processes, categorization and inheritance of relations.
Jacob von Uexkull, one of the founders of semiotics (particularly zoosemiotics) in modern times, explained that organisms are as embodiments of semioses and inseparable from the environment. But yet they did not loose their essential nature. In this way Uexkull gave the concept of umwelt.[22] Organisms live in a self-centered world that relates itself with all else. From this the concept of semiotic niche was inferred. This is defined as the totality of signs in the surroundings of an organism. Organism must meaningfully interpret these signs for its own welfare and balance, for example, distinguish relevant from irrelevant food items and threats. It must identify the necessary markers of the biotic and abiotic resources. In this way organisms search its needs in the form of water, shelter, and so on. Semiotic niche is seen as the external counterpart to its umwelt (Its internal Concept).
Aristotle had previously given a concept of causality in which purpose was an integral aspect of causality. Modern science ignores purpose and mind by neglecting the final and formal causes. Modern science has only a truncated
understanding of the Reality. From a truncated limited understanding what we can get is only a limited validity. If they SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS intend to include deeper phenomenon, they will face limitations. Reason is also certainly a part of the solution. In other words, we cannot conceive of an object without a subject and a subject without an object. Life means an object that 38
reflects onto itself. Life means sentience, where a subjective paradigm is intrinsic, and not merely external to it. Life is a sentient object. Life is both a subject as well as an object, both a mind and body. It is an object that is object to itself. Life as subject means that it is for itself. It thus supersedes matter as it is an object for a subject. We need both matter as well as subjectivity. Hegel deduced a systematic concept of Reality by using the dialectical logic, or Spekulative Thinking. Both Identity and Difference are necessary determinations of Reality. This kind of new thinking is necessary for the science of future. How is subjectivity possible? We will have to add the structure of subjective activity by identifying our thought with the object. But there is a difference between the object and the thought as well. We have to recognize the mediation by the object. Hegel was an ideal realist. That way of thinking has to take precedence. Then we must come to the relation between God and human. From this we must start. We will have to learn how to live in that relation between God and all. We have to learn how to see God in front of our eye and everything before the eye.
The Solution in Vedantic Paradigm The Vedantic school explains that the prime symptom of life is consciousness, in agreement with much that is developing in modern post-gene-centric cognitive biology. Consciousness cannot be produced from any non-living source, and certainly not from the genes or neurons. Yet it is found in all living organisms until their death after which the physical body loses its cognitive abilities fully. Consciousness can directly contact consciousness. Furthermore at death since consciousness leaves and can never be brought back, science must take up the study of death in right earnestness to understand the living process. Aristotle had explained that soul is the first principle in living organisms.
Vedanta gives elaborate explanations of the soul in the Bhagavad-Gita. The soul is called atman in Vedanta. The approach
is to begin the study from the triad of self, world and God. There are five categories, viz., atman, Ishvara (God), prakrti
(Nature), kala (time) and karma (fruitive activity). Of these only karma is transient or temporary. Vedantic concept of 2015
the living organism includes the organic concept of senses, mind, intellect, identity (ego) and consciousness. Only with – the aid of an Organic Whole Concept of All Reality, can we enter into a complete understanding of the nature of senses, mind, intellect, ego and consciousness and arrive at the true concept of biology. I humbly acknowledge the guidance that I am always receiving from my spiritual masters Sripad Bhaktisvarupa Damodar Maharaja (Dr. T.D. Singh) and Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, PhD. They have taught me the basic concepts of Vedanta, Hegelian Spiritual Dialectics as well as Science.
References:
Scienceand Scientist [1] Schroedinger, E. (1994). What is life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell. | | [2] Shannon, C.E. (1948). A mathematical theory of communication. The Bell System Technical J., Vol. 27, pp. 623-656. [3] Buhrman, H., Fortnow, L., and Laplante, S. (2002). Resource-bounded Kolmogorov complexity revisited. SIAM Journal on Computing, Vol. 31(3), pp. 887-905. [4] Godfrey-Smith, P. (2007). Information in biology, In The Cambridge Guide to the Philosophy of Biology, David, L.H. and
Michael, R. (eds.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 103-119.
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[5] ibid. [6] Shapiro, J.A. (2006). Genome informatics: The role of DNA in cellular computations. Biological Theory, Vol. 1, pp.
288-301.
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[7] ibid. 5. [8] ] Shapiro, J.A. (2002). A 21st century view of evolution. J. Biological Physics, Vol. 28, pp. 745-764. [9] ibid. 5. [10] Miller, F.J. (2002). I=0, Information has no meaning. Information Research, Vol. 8(1).
[11] ibid. 2.
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[12] ibid. 10. [13] Pfeffer, J. and Sutton, R.I. (2000). The knowing‐doing gap – how smart companies turn knowledge into action, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
[14] Sveiby, K. The new organizational wealth: Managing and monitoring knowledge‐based assets, San Francisco, CA: SOUVENIR Barrett‐Kohler. [15] ibid. 10. [16] Myers, G.E. and Myers, M.T. (1998). The dynamics of human communications, NY: McGraw Hill.
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[17] Brenner, E., Stahlberg, R., Mancuso, S. and Vivanco, J., Baluska, F. and Vanvolkenburgh, E. (2006). Plant neurobiology: an integrated view of plant signaling. Trends in Plant Science, Vol. 11(8), p. 413. [18] Refer: www.ted.com/talks/stefano_mancuso_the_roots_of_plant_intelligence.html [19] Kull, K. et al. (2009). Theses on Biosemiotics: Prolegomena to a theoretical biology. Biological Theory, Vol. 4(2), pp. 167-173. [20] ibid. 19. [21] Kant, I. (1952). The Critique of Judgement, (Meredith JC, trans.), Oxford University Press, Originally published in 1790 by Kritik der Urteilskraft, 1952. [22] Uexkull, J. (1940). The theory of meaning. Semiotica, Vol. 42, pp. 25-82, Originally published in 1940.
Session: Scientific Critique of Science
Talk 1: The “Non-Local Self” is the Key! Basuthkar J. Rao, Ph.D., FNA, FASc, FNASc The Sir J. C. Bose Fellow, Senior Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
All of us, at some point or the other, start questioning and wondering about the “design” around us and also that one is
part of. Empirical science helps, but hardly helps beyond a point. The method of science binds itself into limitations and probabilities. The limitations become even more glaring when one starts enquiring into fundamental issues such as
Universe versus Multiverse, Unified Theory versus Quantum Gravity, Living versus Non-Living, Cognition versus 2015 2015
Consciousness, Evolution versus Creation and so on. Empirical Science is designed to give insights through objective – details, which in turn beget more details and so on and so forth. Another style of enquiry is that proposed in Upanishads, the Para Vidya, an enquiry into “Oneself”, knowing which one seems to know All. The corner-stone of Para Vidya is a set of Axioms one needs to understand, imbibe and contemplate on. Gaining of Para Vidya is, after a formal initiation, largely a do-it-yourself process, in which most of us may not only be naïve but also somewhat pretentious. The real query is how to gain both Para Vidya and combine it with Apara Vidya (Empirical science). The methods followed in both are so different that the Truth in one can NOT be verified or even verifiable by the other. This is a classic case of “tool-
kit incompatibility”. Hence all the discussions held in this context generally turn out to be in vain to some extent, but Scienceand Scientist
| | also distracting. Can one do the next best; namely, synthesize a method that combines the intuitive prowess of Para Vidya with the rigorous analytics of Apara Vidya without one “gobbling” up the other? Or can one use Para Vidya on issues where Apara Vidya seems to reach an impasse on? These two queries seem very pertinent and require impassionate sharing of views between individuals who are deeply interested in these.
I often ask: after learning so much of empirical details of the complexities of living systems (protein-machines, cellular regulations, tissue-homeostasis, organismal cross-talk with its environment, biological adaptations, evolvability and evolution in population dynamics and so on), living systems certainly appear much more than the “sum of their components” and well regulated interactions of chemical entities. There is no doubt in my mind that all practicing and thinking biologists, at one time or the other, must not only have gone into a “wonderment” of the complex designs in Biology, but also realized that it is almost “impossible” to “recreate” living matter Ab intio even after delineating all the required exquisite chemical details of a living cell or system. Self-organization principles of a physical system provides some very rudimentary level of insights on how living entities must have come into existence, but fall woefully short in taking us close to the ability required for “recreating life” Ab intio. Even though practicing biologists correctly claim that everything in a living cell is shaped by the laws of Physics and Chemistry, the ultimate integrated sum of a living state SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS appears beyond the bounds of empirical method of science. A new domain in biology describing network systems 40
(Systems Biology) elegantly provides the details of non-linear dynamics of interactions, but can’t explain the origin and sustaining prowess of the same in a dynamically evolving living state.[1,2] Darwin’s natural selection again is too simple and naïve a theory that hardly provides any logical explanations on how complex patterns are selected, evolved and sustained among highly stochastic genomic processes that seem to thrive through genetic drift rather than natural selection.[3] There are plenty of examples where “directed mutations” seem to have driven evolutionary changes significantly than random changes.[4,5] I do not want to belabour these limitations any further, but want to revert back to the original two queries I posed for trying to find the best middle-ground between the two methods of enquiries, namely, Para Vidya and Apara Vidya. To me, it appears that defining the “state of Living” requires combined knowledge of both Para and Apara Vidya. It is a clear case where Apara Vidya comes to an impasse where Para Vidya should start. I also want to emphasize here that there is a real danger of Para Vidya getting coloured by needless Religious Symbolisms and the attendant distractions. Therefore one of the important requisites is to cleanly subtract religious symbolisms from this pursuit and usher in spiritual openness. I am most fascinated by the tenets of spirituality which invokes the dictum that the “Creator and the Creation” are one and the same and yet they are different. In this frame-work, one functions within the paradigm of a “non-local self” that strongly helps drive religious symbolisms away. It is the dictum that the “Creator and the Creation are one and the same and yet they are different” essentially sets the tone for bringing in Para Vidya into resolving some fundamental queries eluded to earlier. In this context, I also want to bring to notice a
fascinating dialogue that has just begun in Theoretical Physics on a cosmological issue: whether we are part of a
Universe or Multiverse (many Universes)? The cosmological theory on inflationary universe strongly invokes a 2015
paradigm of Multiverse.[6,7] The Scientific American article lucidly points out to interesting possibilities: a multiverse – with the same Laws of physics operational at every level or very different Laws governing different units in a multiverse. This debate tries to assuage a bewildering query: how come the Fundamental Constants applied to our Universe are so fine-tuned and low that this gave rise to conditions enabling Life on one of its planets, the Earth? Multiverse theory of varying Laws of Physics opens up the in principle possibility of varying Physical Constants and therefore a plethora of possibility of Life elsewhere. Are we then to bind ourselves within the confines of accessible Universe spanning 42 billion light years, beyond which our empirical science is “blind” or theoretically explore beyond,
Scienceand Scientist limitlessly? Then arguments such as “If a theory is elegant enough, it needs no experimental proof” have to be | | accommodated.[8] The pros and cons of such arguments are strong on either side. But, to me it is a case where Apara Vidya needs the succor of Para Vidya.
Confines of empirical science and its methodology, however uplifting and beneficial to the man-kind may be, does not
OF OF ABSTRACTS seem to fully explain the contours of our existence or even appeal fully to a deeply enquiring mind. The limitations are
explained as below: The information-processing paradigm of brain has dominated neurocognitive research till now.
Deep inroads are made in this. The brain certainly processes information for input and output very efficiently. They
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pre-process sensory stimuli before constructing the underlying meaning, and then they post-process cognitive read-out to control appropriate actions and express the meaning. Neurobiologists have thoroughly documented sensory information processing bottom up, and neuropsychologists have analyzed the later stages of cognition top-down, as they are expressed in behavior. However, a grasp of the intervening process of perception in which meaning forms requires
PROGRAMME detailed analysis and modeling of neural activity, has not been achieved well enough.[9] This is largely due to the caveat
that no physical or chemical measurement of brain activity is a direct measure of this meaning. Meaning can be experienced only subjectively within oneself, and one can infer it in others from the behavioral context in which measurements are made, but one cannot measure it. An equally important caveat is that no measurement of brain SOUVENIR activity makes sense unless the investigator has sufficient control over the behavior of a subject to be able to infer the teleology of the subject, whether animal or human, at the time of measurement, that is, the history, intention, expectation, motivation, and attentiveness of the subject. Therefore empirical science is bound by such limitations when human thinking forms the basis of scientific judgments and theory building processes. The subjectivity and conditioning 41
of human cognitive processes can greatly “cloud” or even “clutter” the empirical science which one must be aware of. In fact the subjective “truth” deciphered by mind can simply be a “reflection” of the “known”, whereas the pursuit is actually meant towards deciphering the “unknown”. Empirical Science therefore needs help. An equivalence of “Mutualism” is required between the method of science and the method that stems from “non-local self”. Almost all empirical science followers realize this during the moments of their deep insights or discoveries, when the intellect is operating through the plane of “non-local self”. The subjectivity is at its best then, guided by inner “intuition”. Most discoveries get unveiled at that plane.
Hari Om Tat Sat!
References: [1] Brenner, S. (2010). Sequences and consequences. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B., Vol. 365, pp. 207-212. [2] Rajapakse, I., Groudine, M. and Mesbahi, M. (2012). What can systems theory of networks offer to biology? Plos Computational Biol. Vol. 8, e1002543. [3] Lynch, M. and Conery, J.S. (2003). The origins of genome complexity. Science, Vol. 302, p. 1401. [4] Cairns J., Overbaugh J. and Miller, S. (1998). The origin of mutants. Nature, Vol. 335, p. 142. [5] Cairns J. (1998). Mutation and cancer: the antecedents to our studies of adaptive mutation. Genetics, Vol. 148(4), pp. 1433-1440.
[6] Ellis, G.F.R. (2011). Does the multiverse really exist? Scientific American, Vol. 305(2), pp. 38–43.
[7] Steinhardt, P. (2014). Big bang blunder bursts the multiverse bubble. Nature, Vol. 510, p. 9.
[8] Ellis, G. and Silk, J. (2014). Scientific method: Defend the integrity of physics. Nature, Vol. 516(7531), p. 321. 2015
[9] Freeman, W.J. (2003). A neurobiological theory of meaning in perception. International J. Bifurcation and Chaos., – Vol. 13, pp. 2493-2511.
Talk 2: Functional Geometry and Neuronal Basis of Consciousness Sisir Roy, Ph.D.
Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangaluru, India & Indian Scienceand Scientist | |
Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India “If consciousness is in fact defined (and different) at every moment of time, it should also be related to points in space: the truly subjective observer system should be related to space-time points.” from “Quantum Theory and Time Asymmetry”, Zeh (1979).
Introduction The relationship between the brain and the external world is determined by the ability of the central nervous system (CNS) to construct an internal model of the world accomplished through the interactive relationship between sensory and motor expression. The CNS diffracts the external world into internal parameters which modulate its activity. Neurons are arranged in functional areas which define specific parameters reflecting certain useful properties of parts of the world. However, the activity in these areas is also modulated by intrinsic characters and internal trends. Thus the parameters which internalize the world are not realized as themselves, they only control the activity, or dually, the activity is a function of the parameters. They are evolved to transform very specific sensory transduction concerning the external world via specialized sensors which allow the acquisition of information related to external world.
Pellionisz and Llinás (1982, 1985) have proposed that the correspondences between covariant vectors (for sensory
effects) and contravariant quantities (for motor preparation and effectuation) constitute structures of metric spaces of SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS the internal geometry associated to the functional states of neurons. This provides the brain with internal models of the world. It has been further developed by Roy and Llinás (2008) considering the dimension of time in this geometry 42
popularly known as dynamic geometry. The concept of stochasticity introduced in the metric of dynamic geometry which represent chaos at the level of individual neuronal level whereas, on the contrary, this very stochastic metric stabilizes smooth oscillations for ensemble of neurons at larger scale. In this model, the evolutionary realm provides the backbone for the development of functional geometry for internal world. Almost a century ago, Mach (1959) investigated this issue in the context of the analysis of sensations and geometry. He emphasized at that time that without co-operation among sensory perceptions, in the sense of inductive reasoning, the understanding of a scientific geometry would be inconceivable. This is consistent with Hindu geometry (a term coined by Mach himself) where inductive reasoning is dominant in contrast to the deductive reasoning which is dominant in Greek geometry.
In this theory internal space is viewed as isomorphic to the external world allowing successful operational interactions between them, with the possibility of functional prediction necessary for the implementation of even the simplest motor coordination paradigm guided by brain function. Accordingly, CNS is regarded as a sensory–motor transformation entity that handled sensory input such that well executed motor output is delivered back to the external world in a physically acceptable fashion, totally different in kind, shape and functionality to the structure and characteristic of the external world. Under these considerations, CNS is represented by a metric tensor associated to internal space which transforms covariant vectors (sensory inputs) into contravariant vectors (motor outputs). The covariance relates both due to the fact that the sensory apparatus measures large sets of parallel, but independent, multiple fiber input determinations, and to the fact that a given external percept must co-vary with the dynamic
variance in the external world it measures. In the brain, such covariant input must be converted into a contravariant
vector representation. This internalized and transformed vector description can then be used to activate, in a
coordinated, independent manner the manipulative counterpart of the motor response (a totally different functional 2015
space) that makes the object–subject interaction possible. –
In modern neuroscience, three apparently distinct queries in brain functions can be stated as: . The unknown related to how the brain represents the world and how it performs transformations on this representation. . The unknown related to sensorimotor coordination. . The unknown related to the physical basis for perceptual organization.
Scienceand Scientist
| | The framework of dynamic geometry helps us to answer these issues in a consistent manner where mind is considered
to be the functional states of neurons characterized by the geometric property of the internal world. CNS is considered to be like a musical instrument which produces varieties of patterns in sound. When a stimulus arrives in the system, i.e., CNS, it causes perturbation to the geometry similar to the modulation of strings of a musical instrument.
In this paper we study two important aspects of brain functions:
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. The conscious activities of brain and its association to functional geometry . Information processing in brain.
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At first, we will recapitulate the characteristics of functional geometry in section II and the concept of self-awareness and neuronal circuits will be dealt with in section III. In section IV neuronal basis of consciousness will be discussed. The information and consciousness will be critically analyzed in section V.
Functional Geometry and Central Nervous System
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A central question concerning present-day neuroscience is that of understanding the rules for the embedding of “universals” into intrinsic functionalspace. However, one needs to understand the fundamental structure of this internal space or functional geometry before going into the details of its applications. They can be stated as follows:
SOUVENIR 1. For any geometry, one needs to define the “smoothness” property of the manifold. Thus in functional geometry, the existence of derivatives associated with the sensory covariant vector and motor contravariant vector is the prerequisite of the functional manifold, and so a definition of differentiability in the functional space becomes necessary.
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2. Non-orthogonal coordinate axes have been considered to be associated with covariant and contravariant vectors based on physiological observations. So one must consider the non-orthogonal frame of references in this type of functional space.
The relationship between covariant and contravariant vectorial versions is characterized by the metric tensor (see Fig. 1). For example, for head-neck movement, the covariant to contravariant transformation can be described in Fig.2. The analysis of the contravariant character of the forces exerted by the muscles which such a geometry must accommodate includes an overcomplete set of possible dynamic configurations associated with a non-orthogonal frame of reference leading to similar motor execution. Accordingly, the CNS must calculate an inverse solution via the mathematical indeterminacy, inherent in the CNS in a manner, similar to that implementation in Moore–Penrose –based generalized inverse solutions.
“A common use of the Moore–Penrose pseudoinverse (hereafter, just pseudoinverse) is to compute a 'best fit' (least squares) solution to a system of linear equations that lacks a unique solution. Another use is to find the minimum (Euclidean) norm solution to a system of linear equations with multiple solutions. The pseudoinverse facilitates the statement and proof of results in linear algebra” The pseudoinverse is defined and unique for all matrices whose entries are real or complex numbers. It can be computed using the singular
value decomposition.;; From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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The motion of an object in the external world does not engender simultaneity of space and time in its counterpart functional space because the conduction speeds through various axons are different for a given stimulus.
Next, let us consider the possible geometrical structures for the CNS. To define any metric tensor, one needs to address a well-defined distance function that satisfies all the axioms of metric tensors. From a global point of view, the anatomy of the brain does not present a smooth and linear representation of the external world. So a distance function must be constructed which can be defined as functionally isotropic. In fact, the multidimensional spaces of the CNS are, for the most part, not definable in well-known geometries such as Euclidean or Riemannian spaces. Indeed, if we consider, for instance, the olfactory space with more than 10,000 different categories, we find that this space is defined by the chemical and biochemical properties of the odorant substance. This, in turn, can only be defined by the requirements of the organism. Accordingly, unlike Euclidean or Riemannian spaces, this olfactory space cannot be defined independently of the measurement instruments. The present author along with Llinás (Roy and Llinás 2008) constructed a probabilistic metric space as the internal space considering the chaotic nature of neurons. Based on this idea, the chaotic nature of neuronal oscillation gives rise to probabilistic nature to the CNS.
The theoretical predictions of functional geometry have been subsequently verified from the experimental observations
by Gielen and Zuylen (1986).
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SOUVENIR Issue of Simultaneity The issue of simultaneity between the event in the external world and the event in the internal event is of fundamental significance in cognitive world. The delay in conduction speeds along different axons and the integration time for individual neuronal elements in the circuit are both of the same order of magnitude as the temporal quanta. Because it specifies the temporal progression of the motion event in its entirety, as a sum total of all its kinetic quanta. 45
However, temporal extent of motion event include considerations relating to the length of the path, the type of movement and the type of agent. Not only that, seen from the point of view of the relation between what we may call the internal temporal format (relating to the temporal characteristics of individual kinetic quanta) and the external temporal format (relating to its temporal extent), they represent a link between the two with respect to the reference to the temporal progression of their sum total. It is important to be noticed that the temporal progression of individual quanta is overshadowed in favor of the reference to the temporal progression of their sum total result. But the evaluative potential, underlain by their intrinsically relative nature, are endowed with an evaluative potential too. Which is connected with the ultimate goal, incorporating the culmination point.
Recent neurophysiological observations indicate that quanta of time exist for both motor execution and sensory perception. The latter is of the order of (10–14) ms and is associated with gamma band (40 Hz) oscillatory activity in the brain. Again, the delay in conduction speeds along different axons and the integration time for individual neuronal elements in the circuit are both of the same order of magnitudes of the temporal quanta. So, in spite of such delays, the concept of simultaneity of the external event will be considered valid for functional space. We call it as operational definition of simultaneity. In the present context, the operational definition has been used to study one event at a certain place and particular instant of time in the external world as cogitated by the brain as a single entity. So, the simultaneity considered here, is between the event in the external world and the event in the internal world.
The Brain as a Self-Referential System: In vitro recordings from neurons in the inferior olivary nucleus, demonstrated for the first time, that phase reset in
neuronal intrinsic oscillations (Leznik et al. 2002) differs from typical oscillatory systems. Here, the phase reset is controlled by input parameters and does not depend on the time moment, i.e. the initial phase, when the input is received. In this sense, the phase reset is self-referential and ignores the history of the system. Makarenko and Llinás
(1998) and Kazantsev (2003) proposed a mathematical model using a set of non-linear differential equations to describe 2015 the self-referential phase reset (Kazantsev et al. (2004)). The main motivation of this modeling was to implement phase – resetting into a motor control system based on a dynamic theory, 40 Hz oscillations and the quanta of time.
Neuronal Basis of Consciousness Edelman and Tononi (2000) proposed the hypothesis of dynamic core where they claimed that dynamic core provides a neuronal reference space for conscious experience. This space is considered as N-dimensional neural space where the number of dimensions is determined by the number of neuronal groups that are part of dynamic core at the moment. These
neuronal groups are segregated into various neuronal domains specific to various functions, such as form, colour or Scienceand Scientist | | orientation discrimination, proprioceptive or somatosensory inputs and so on. For example, the pure sensation of red is considered to be a particular neural state identified by a point within the above defined N-dimensional neural space associated with the activities of all groups of neurons that constitute the dynamic core.
However, this proposal is too abstract and many conceptual issues related to neural manifold supporting this N- dimensional space are not addressed in the proper spirit of neural circuits and geometric standpoint.
On the other hand, the proposal of functional geometry by Pellionisz and Llinás addressed these issues in a more realistic and comprehensive manner. Llinás et al. (1998, 2009) proposed an interesting model how consciousness is related to neuronal circuitry in the brain. Llinás (2001) proposed that the dialogue between the cortex and the thalamus generates consciousness. Within this framework the most of the inputs to the thalamus comes from the cortex rather than from peripheral sensory systems. He proposed that brain is a closed system which is modulated by the sensory inputs and sustain its own activities associated to the intrinsic electrical properties of neurons and their connectivity. The interplay between these two main characteristics is the cause of the establishment of global resonant states which we know as cognition.
The intriguing feature of this model is the precise temporal relations produced by the neurons in the cortico-thalamic SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS loop. Functional geometry is considered to be this temporal mapping which involved oscillatory activity at different spatial scales, ranging from individual neurons to the cortical mantle. Especially the 40 Hz oscillations are supposed to 46
be as the candidates for the productions of a temporal conjunctions of rhythmic activity over large ensemble of neurons. 40 Hz oscillations or Gamma rhythm are sustained by a thalamo-cortical resonant circuit involving pyramidal neurons in layer IV of the neocortex, relay thalamic neurons and reticular nucleus neurons.
Information and Consciousness Brain not only processes information but also interprets it. Recently, Packett (2014) published a comprehensive review on the problems with the theories that equate consciousness with information or information processing. Brain is involved somehow generating conscious experiences particularly the subjective experiences like redness of flower, love etc. What we call “qualia”. The theories of consciousness have been broadly classified “Some clear cases of abstracta are classes, propositions, concepts, the letter “A”, and Dante’s Inferno. Some clear cases of cocreta are stars, protons, electromagnetic fields, the chalk tokens of the letter “A” written on a certain blackboard, and James Joece’s copy of Dante’s Inferno”.
Recent classification of consciousness theories points to “process theories” and “vehicle theories”. They can be defined as Process theories assume that consciousness depends on certain functional or relational properties of representational vehicles, namely: the computations in which those vehicles engage. On this view, representational contents are conscious when their vehicles have some privileged computational status, independently of any particular intrinsic property of those vehicles. What counts is ‘what representational vehicles do, rather than what they are’...For vehicle theories, on the other hand, consciousness is determined by intrinsic properties of representational vehicles, independently of any computations in which those vehicles engage.
The most challenging issue is how realistic these theories are,-- from the perspective of the theory of information and its
current understanding. Packett (2014) critically investigated the process theories like Chalmers process theory, 2015
Tononi’s process theory as well as Mcfadden’s theory. The main point of analysis was how to define information for – subjective experience and objective one. We emphasize that most of the people like Packett missed the crux of the problem in the following sense: • The very concept of information what we use in the context of science and technology can be applied to biological system in general and particularly to brain. Various measures of information has been proposed in science and technology, for example, Shannon information measure, Fisher information etc. • The discovery of lock and key concept in biological domain introduces the concept of “specificity”. No information measure so far defined, does not corroborate the concept of specificity. This remains one of the
Scienceand Scientist most challenging issues. | | • More recent works in “genomics” in relation to gene specific tissues raise new doubt whether the above lock and key concept should be considered as dynamic lock rather than static lock in the conventional sense. • It raises doubt whether the very concept of information in the conventional sense (Shannon, Fisher) is at all applicable to living organisms. If it is applicable, then what will be the measure for this kind of information.
Since to interpret the information (as brain does) one needs to define the proper measure of information.
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Unless these issues are clarified it is not proper to analyze various theories of consciousness from the point of view of information theory.
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Space, Time and Number in the Brain We have already discussed the role of functional geometry, metric spaces, crudely speaking the distance function to understand how brain internalizes the external world. So it is relevant to discuss the foundations of mathematical thoughts like space, time, number and geometry in the brain. Dehaene and Brannon edited a book devoted to the search
of mathematical foundation of the thoughts in brain from physiological perspectives. In the beginning of the book they
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In his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant famously argued that they provide “a priori intuitions” that precede and structure how we experience our environment. Indeed, these concepts are so basic to our understanding of the external world that we find it hard to SOUVENIR imagine how any animal species could survive without possessing mechanisms for spatial navigation, temporal orienting (e.g., time- stamped memories), and elementary numerical computations (e.g., choosing the food patch with the largest expected return). In the course of their evolution, humans and many other animal species have internalized basic codes and operations isomorphic to the physical and arithmetic laws that govern the interaction of objects in the external world. 47
Although space, time and number are very abstract notions, they are well-defined from a mathematical point of view and as noted by Randy Gallistel, enter into formal operations that are easily captured by the standard laws of arithmetic. This way, unlike other semantic domains, the domains of space, time and number offer a unique opportunity to study how, in a restricted semantic area, abstract conceptual notions are encoded and manipulated at the brain level. The questions can be put in a very simple way: how do populations of neurons encode a distance, a size, a location, a clock time, a duration, or simply a number/AND, how do these neural codes interact with each other to implement behavioral relevant computations?
Though the concepts of distance, geometry, space, time and so on are well defined concepts in mathematics, in the context of CNS or simply brain, the relevant question can be framed as:
How the ensemble of neurons encode the location, temporality, a size or a distance or simply a number? The next question is: how the corresponding neural codes interact with each other or implement behaviorally?
Historically, the first domain where a psycho-neural reduction of this kind was attempted was the sense of SPACE. The discovery of place cells, and subsequent pioneering research led by John O’keefe, Lynn Nadal and Bruce Naughton among others, provided the first glimpse into the neural coding of spatial location. Not only the discovery of place cells give the first indication of spatial location, it has undoubtedly facilitated by the numerous animal models of navigation behaviour proposed by Tolman and others, suggesting the presence of animals construct mental “maps” of their
environment. However, Deredikman and Moser’s novel idea solves some and also raises some problem too. It remains still unclear, for example, for many migratory or foraging animals, the bearing between two distant locations, which are
prerequisite, -- how it ever yields the highly integrated and formalized sense of Euclidean space experienced by humans. 2015 2015
Jennifer Coull, Dean V. Buonomano and Rodrigo Laje studied the neural coding for time. Using fMRI, Coull mapped – out the relevant areas of the cortex and underlying nuclei for humans. The issue of neural code for number has been addressed by Andreas Nieder and his works which indicate to a network in the brain which overlaps with that of Jennifer Coull’s timing system. Dean Buonamano and Rodrigo Laje reviewed the various theoretical possibilities and the available data for how time might be encoded neuronally. In addition to the most obvious possibilities, like neuron oscillators, ramping units and delay lines, they introduce the interesting concept of a “population clock”; the coding of time by the intrinsic, potentially chaotic dynamics of a recurrent network. The noisy and complex dynamics of neural
networks, instead of being an obstacle, is harnessed and provides a simple mechanism by which a broad diversity of Scienceand Scientist | | temporal basis functions, via simple learning mechanisms, can encode virtually any function of time.
Andreas Nieder has addressed the issue in detail regarding neural code for number which points to a brain network, overlapping with Jennifer Coull’s timing system. This remarkable observation has been supplemented by Michael Platt, Elizabeth Brannon and Jamie Roitman’s discovery of other neurons whose firing varies monotonically with the number of objects. However, Nieder proposed an intermingled coding scheme, with some neurons specializing in concrete numerosities such as sets of objects, others in continuous such as length and others in symbols, say, Arabic numerals and so on.
However, out of these specific pointed studies, i.e., focusing on a specific dimension of space, time or number, it remains interesting to see whether all the connected principles converges to a concrete principle for the neural coding or brain architecture for which quantitative computation will ultimately emerge. Fortunately, Christopher Burgess, Nicolas Schuck and Neil Burgess partially tackled this difficult issue. Taking a theoretical stance, they showed that many detailed properties of spatial grid cells can be explained by a process of integration based on membrane oscillations. Their model offers an elegant, if still tentative, solution of the problem of path integration.
At the end of our discussion, it is found that the education of formal mathematical concepts considerably enhance the SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS human ability to reason about space, time and number.
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Finally Dehaene and Brannon raised an important issue:
Can the concept of “mathematical intuition”, as put forward by many mathematicians such as Henri Poincaré and Jacques Hadamard, be traced back to preexperiential Kantian representations already present in other animals, or can even our intuitions change as we acquire advanced mathematical knowledge?
References: [1] Buonomano, D.V. and Rodrigo, L. (2011). Population Clocks: Motor Timing with Neural Dynamics in Space, Time and Number in the Brain, Dehane, S. and Brannon, E. (eds.), p. 71-85. [2] Burgess, C., Schuck, N.W. and Burgess, N. (2011). Space, Time and Number in the Brain, Dehane, S. and Brannon, E. (eds.), Oxford University Press, pp. 59-69. [3] Chalmers, D.J. (1996). The Conscious Mind in Search of a Fundamental Theory, New York: Oxford [4] Coull, J.T. (2011). Discret Neuroanatomical Substrates for Generating and Updating Temporal Expectations, In Space, Time and Number in the Brain, Dehane, S. and Brannon, E. (eds.), p. 87. [5] Dehane, S. and Brannon, E. (eds). (2011). Space, Time and Number in the Brain, Elsevier. [6] Edelman, G. and Tononi, G. (2000). A Universe of consciousness: How matter becomes imagination, Basic Books. [6] Gallistel, R. (2014). It’s the Neuron! How the Brain Really Works. Psychology and Cognitive Science, Rutgers, (http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~galliste/).
[7] Gielen, C.C.A.M. and van Zuylen, E.J. (1986). Coordination of arm muscles during flexion and supinatton:
Application of the tensor analysis approach. Neuroscience, Vol. 17(3), pp. 527-539.
[8] Jennifer, T.C., Jullien, C. and Frank, V. (2014). Increasing activity in Left Inferior Partial Cortex and Right 2015
Prefrontal Cortex with increasing Temporal Predictability; An fMRI Study of the Hazard function. Procedia-Social and – Behavioral Science, Vol. 126, pp. 41-44 [9] Kazantsev, V.B., Nekorkin, V.I., Makarenko, V.I. and Llina´s, R. (2003). Olivo-cerebellar cluster-based universal control system. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., Vol. 100, pp. 13064-13068. Kazantsev, V.B. et al. (2004). Self-referential phase reset based on inferior olive oscillator dynamics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., Vol. 101, pp. 18183-18188. [10] Leznik, E., Makarenko, V. and Llina´s, R. (2002). Electrotonically mediated oscillatory patterns in neuronal ensembles: An in-vitro voltage-dependent dye imaging study in the inferior olive. J. Neurosci., Vol. 22(7), pp. 2804-
Scienceand Scientist 2815. | | [11] Llina´s, R., Ribary, U.C. and Pedroarena, C. (1998). The neuronal basis for consciousness. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, Vol. 353, pp. 1841-1849. [12] Llina´s, R. (2001). I of the Vortex; from neurons to self, MIT Press. [13] Llina´s, R. and Roy, S. (2009). The ‘prediction imperative’ as the basis for self-awareness. Phil.Trans. R. Soc. B,
Vol. 364(1521), pp. 1301-1307.
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[14] Mach, E. (1959). The Analysis of Sensations. Dover Publications Inc., NY. [15] Makarenko, V. and Llina´s, R. (1998). Experimentally determined chaotic phase synchronization in a neuronal
system. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 95: 15747–15752.
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[16] McFadden, J. (2002). Synchronous Firing and Its Influence on the Brain's Electromagnetic Field: Evidence for an Electromagnetic Field Theory of Consciousness. J. Consciousness Studies, Vol. 9 (4), pp. 23-50. [17] Moser, E., Kroppf, E. and Moser, M. (2008). Place cells, grid cells, and the brain's spatial representation system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, Vol. 31, pp. 68-81.
[18] Neider, A. and Miller, E.K. (2004). A Parieto-frontal network for visual numerical information in the monkey.
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Procd. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 101(19), pp. 74527-7462. [19] Andreas, N. (2011). The Neural Code for Number in Space, Time and Number in the Brain, Dehane, S. and Brannon, E. (eds.), p. 103. [20] O’Keefe, J. and Dostrovsky, J. (1971). The Hippocampus as a spatial map; Preleminary evidence from unit activity SOUVENIR in the freely-moving rat. Brain Res., Vol. 34, pp. 171-175. [21] Suasan, P. (2014). Problems with theories that equate consciousness with information or information processing. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, Vol. 8, Article 225, p. 1, 25 Nov.
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[22] Pellionisz, A. and Llinás, R. (1982). Space-Time Representation in the Brain. The Cerebellum as a Predictive Space-Time Metric Tensor. Neuroscience, Vol. 7, pp. 2949-2970. [23] Pellionisz, A. and Llinás, R. (1985). Tensor Network Theory of the Meta-organization of Functional Geometries in the CNS. Neuroscience, Vol. 16, pp. 245-274. [24] Roy S. and Llinás R. (2008). Dynamic Geometry, brain function modeling and consciousness. Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 168, pp. 133-144. [25] Roitman, J.D., Brannon, E.M. and Platt, M.L. (2012). Representation of numerosity in posterior parietal cortex. Front. Integr. Neurosci., doi: 10.3389/fnint.2012.00025 [26] Tolman, E.C. (July 1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, Vol. 55(4), pp. 189-208.
Talk 3: Selfhood and Fear of Death: Reflections from a practitioner of cognitive science Garga Chatterjee, MD, Ph.D. (Harvard) Assistant Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
On the outset, I think it is worth mentioning that I am thanatophobic – that is I fear death morbidly. I think this bit of information might add some perspective that might be otherwise missing in this presentation.
The question of death for thanatophobics, overt and covert ones, revolves around strategies of denial of death or transcending death and sometimes trying to transcend death by denial. Death, when it is looked upon as the marking of the end of the conscious self, throws up another possibility. Death loses its power to evoke fear when there is no
consciousness. So, consciousness is that platform where death can cast its shadow to frighten. However, when death 2015 physically descends on the platform, the platform itself breaks down. This is a strange bind, if we assume that death – marks the end of consciousness as we know it. To make things clearer, I will equate consciousness with a very important subset of it, self awareness. From self awareness stems the idea of the awareness of end of self awareness, sooner or later, and hence the fear of it. This is where studies into the very nature of awareness and consciousness have relevance for thanatophobics, and if I may add, for “non-thanatophobics” too.
But there have been other strategies – some very extensive in reach but for effectivity I cannot vouch. These strategies
are, arguably, older than “human” culture itself – the Homo neanderthalensis had elaborate burial schemes.[1-3] This belief Scienceand Scientist | | in afterlife was greatly universalized by religions which did provide a soothing framework. The concept of afterlife was present in almost all early religions. And within this framework, time and again, the possibility of physical immortality was also raised, for example, the immortal characters like Ashwatthama and Hanuman, in Hindu cosmology. But clearly, this wasn’t enough. And, if I may say, this has never been enough. It is quite possible, that with the non- availability of examples of physical immortality, people turned to altering the definition of immortality. Hence, we have princes and even lesser mortals trying to build stupendous structures, presumably, ones that wouldn’t wither away with time. Writers and other creative ones have sought to “live on” through their literary and other creative endeavors. By such strategies, almost in a self-delusional way, the concept of immortality has been changed. This nonetheless left the problem of transcending the purely physical aspect of death. The religious theories of afterlife invoking concepts of the spirit have provided a theoretical framework to bridge this gap and if I may say, has done this quite effectively, until recently. As the lit-up city grows and with it grows the paramountcy of science in the lives of people, the spirit has had fewer and fewer refuges to take, and is being pushed to the margins. The fire-spitting fox of the cremating ghats of yore – its all methane and chemical reactions they tell you. Also, too many reincarnations have been exposed as hoaxes – giving a general loss of respectability to the idea, with a consequent rise in skepticism inherently associated. With advances in psychiatry, if not in treatment, kinds of behaviour that would have been considered supernatural or belonging to the netherworld even a few decades ago, have been brought into its fold. This expanding horizon, for
better or for worse, has indeed brought us face to face with a question that the earlier theorizations did approach, and SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS did answer, but answers have become untenable now. The most basic question, if I go back to the premise which I earlier alluded to. None of these strategies effectively deal with the phenomenon of the ending of the self from the 50
standpoint of the nature of self and awareness, beyond indirect references to the self. I consciously use the term “indirect”. What I mean is that these strategies lack the quality of demonstrability. And hence thanatophobia, for the skeptics and the ones jarred by the loss of earlier repositories of belief, remains. This loss of confidence spurted human endeavor in a few channels. I will however limit myself to a few prominent ones here.
Modern thanatology has touted itself to be the scientific study of death. What it has achieved till now is however very short of its ambition. It has been a subject primarily concerned with detailed descriptions of dying – with special references to the somatic changes in the dying body, the emotional attitudes of a person as he/she approaches death. It has also gone into detailed descriptions of bereavement. The most famous if not the greatest thanatologist of recent times was Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.[4] She popularized thanatology and incited social commentary, mostly due to her classic “On Death and Dying” where she describes the phases a person whose death is imminent goes through – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Thanatology is mostly studied with the aim of providing palliative care to the dying individual. Thanatology recognizes that, ultimately, death is inevitable. It works to develop guidelines to ease the process of dying. The question is – does it do so effectively? The great disadvantage thanatology faces is that it does not directly explore the meaning of life and of death, and hence doesn’t associate itself with the questions of self, consciousness and awareness. The phases Kubler-Ross talks about – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, are all human states we can empathies with and is no good for thanatophobics and actually may be quite worse. Because we can empathize with those states, we can put ourselves in the position of the dying, and feel all the
more scared – any description doesn’t give detachment.
Now, lets see what Western medicine has tried over the years. In earlier days, there were crude attempts to reanimate 2015
corpses by electrocution, and those attempts ended in pathetic spasms. And till now, we know of no method by which – dying can be avoided. No solace here. Also, there are any numbers of anti-ageing pills of dubious effectivity, but to defer death is not to abolish it, and hence the thanatophobic is still scared.
And it is this strain that led to the Cryonics movement, finding its fiercest popularizer in Robert C Ettinger.[5] What’s the cryonicists state is simple – death as we know it is an ad-hoc definition. The body cannot be reanimated by the technology of the day. Hence it is dead. But, they argue, what if some future technology fared better is a similar situation? Should we die in conditions and states that would be considered easily treatable in 400 years. What do we do
Scienceand Scientist then? Simple enough, they say. You freeze the dead body, as soon as possible, in a way that most tissues and particularly | | the brain remains intact. And there you stay, until future technology catches up to wake you up from hibernation. What if there is no such future technology forthcoming? The cryonicists have a particularly powerful answer here. If you are frozen, you may or may not have a shot at transcending death but if you are buried or cremated or fed to vultures, you stand absolutely no chance. A powerful argument indeed. But the “what if” question raised is as valid and after all you
cannot put a number on how probable what outcome is, inspite of cloning, nanotechnology and what not.
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Many thinkers in modern medicine have had views which are not as gung-ho as earlier days. The strain of inevitability
associated with death confers upon it, for some physicians, a state, that is unavoidable and hence not something that is to
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A viewpoint where death is looked upon as a physiologic, hence “normal” event finds its way to the present discourse of medicine. “Natural death does not come to pass because of some (replaceable) missing element, but because the
evolution of the individual from womb to tomb has arrived at its final destination. To accept death as a physiologic
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event is to advance thanatology and to disburden medical colleges and hospitals of a lot of avoidable thinking and doing.”[6]
So, in the absence of a direct objective approach to the nature of selfhood, any escape from thanatophobia, at least for SOUVENIR the materialists remain elusive. Psychological sciences have long taken the onus upon themselves to get this job done. For a long time, true to Skinnerian traditions, psychology had dissociated itself from looking or trying to know about the brain, the broad platform if not the basis of selfhood. The Skinnerians, better generalized as behaviourists, have argued for an hard-wired theory of human behaviours, unconcerned with mental life. They look upon all that we do as a 51
sequence on stimuli and reactions and so forth. Looking upon the brain as a “black box” has its own advantages – no explanations are needed, only behavior sequences under varied conditions and manipulations need to be catalogued with no reference to the mental events that are the key to such behaviours.
Another earlier strain with much even lesser emphasis of the real basis of the self was the psychoanalytic schools led by various “giants”. However, any materialist has a deep problem with explanations involving words like ego, superego, id and other complex complexes – these constructs lack even the basic premise that they be derived in terms of observable brain structure-function interactions. Nor did it have any spiritual basis for their claims. Fashionable for a long time, it has had its demise from the Psychology and neuroscience discourse of today. Nearly purged in the West, for good or for bad, these ideas continue to dominate Indian “Psychology” departments. This is not so aberrant, for this is true for many other such transplanted concepts.
These spin-offs from mind studies and the sway they held in people’s minds actually made the study of consciousness, self and awareness in experimental settings nearly taboo. Experimental psychology has had old roots and early on introspective arm-chair psychology was the preferred, if not the only method to do it. In fact, inferences on how long a number string can be remembered and hence about memory capacity were obtained this way. But as far as thanatophobia and the study of self and awareness is concerned, introspective psychology has its internal limitations. When you think about yourself, all the correlates of the state of the being of one-self is at the level of thoughts and emotions directly available to the introspective experimenter. Hence thoughts about the self, the end of self and thanatophobia would, in such an approach, invariably involve the macro-whole self and its ending. Now that is not a
happy thought. Saddening enough, this wouldn’t be a good approach for a thanatophobic.
For the last 20 years however, the self and consciousness, has taken centrestage again. This “back to the brain” approach
is exemplified by the burgeoning discipline of the cognitive neurosciences. This domain of knowledge is now evolving 2015 which takes on the question of self, face to face. This branch of the mind sciences is becoming the realistic knowledge – system where such questions can potentially be dealt with sufficient objectivity. The cognitive neuroscience researcher is at a unique vantage point, from where he can deal with death and self with a strategy different from all those mentioned earlier.
This is best shown by some of the phenomenon being used in laboratories to study visual awareness and at least two recent results that have huge implications about our self-hood in general. These windows to awareness are powerful
paradigms that enable us to tinker around experimentally and know more about the nature and process of awareness as Scienceand Scientist | | it comes forth from the brain. Binocular rivalry has now been known for sometime. When two dissimilar visual stimuli are presented individually to each eye, the percept changes from one to the other, in a patterned manner which now, due to the work of Nikos Logothetis and others, fairly predictable. What is special about this phenomenon is that here the external stimuli and the world remains unchanged but neural processes chose between two streams of incoming stimuli, gating awareness to one and allowing the other, then shifting back again. So, the process by which awareness to one object and not to the other, lies not in perturbations in the external world, but in perturbations in the brain. Phenomenons such as these are being widely studied to get to the nature of visual awareness. In fact, some molecules, for example psylocibin, have been shown to perturb this nature of patterned alteration of percepts during binocular rivalry.
More recently, a group at University College, London has been applying this technique to explore the stream of consciousness – how conscious awareness changes spontaneously over time. To do this, they turned to 'binocular rivalry'. This phenomenon is one example of a more general type of visual illusion known as 'bistable perception' – such as the drawing of two women, one young and one old, within the same image, or Rubin's face/vase illusion, which can appear as the profiles of two faces or a vase, but never both at the same time.
In a study[7] published by Dr. Yukiyasu Kamitani of ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan and SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Dr. Frank Tong of Princeton University (now at Vanderbilt), showed parallel lines of 8 different orientations to the subjects. Each of these eight different orientations produced neural activity in the brain. As the subjects were looking at 52
these lines, they were being simultaneously scanned in a specialized MRI scanner, a technique known as functional MRI (fMRI). The scans showed the activation of visual areas as anticipated normally. What the duo has been able to accomplish is astonishing. They have written a program by which they could tease out orientation specific information about the orientations being shown at that time and hence predict the stimulus (orientation of the parallel line) with accuracy. What this study did was that it could predict which of the 8 orientations was being shown at a given point of time! Now, think of that. Lets say, you were shown the picture of a cat and then the picture of a dog. What this study says is that it is possible just by specialized analysis of your brain scan as you were looking at the pictures whether you were looking at a cat or at a dog!
However, that’s not the end of the story. In the same paper they report another experiment which is of greater significance. In this experiment, parallel lines of two different orientations were superimposed on each other and the subjects were told to pay attention very carefully to one of them, that is, concentrating very hard on one. Neural processes like attention modulate the way visual information is processed. As before, the subjects were scanned during this activity. The research team analyzed the scans and they could predict which of the two orientations the subject was concentrating on! This is like telling you “I know what you are thinking”. Very spooky, indeed. This study actually distinguishes between what was shown (the two sets of superimposed orientation lines) and what was seen (the attended orientation set). In fact, the far reaching effects of this technology was quickly acknowledged as Dr. Frank Tong was named one of the 50 innovators of the year by Scientific American.
The work[8] by Dr. Geraint Rees and Dr. John-Dylan Haynes of University College, London takes it further. In another
study published in Nature Neuroscience, they report what really involves decoding information from the brain that the 2015
person in question is not even aware of! Dr. John-Dylan Haynes and Dr. Geraint Rees showed a set of oriented lines to – the subject, but very briefly. The exposure was too short for the subjects to be consciously aware of the orientation shown. This was followed by another pattern which was the “mask” and which the subjects consciously perceived. In this visual illusion, the subjects cannot describe what they first say. They do remember the second that is the masking stimulus. That the subjects cannot remember or guess the orientation that was shown to be them briefly is one thing. But the visual stimuli did register in the subject’s brain. The study indicates that the V1 columns of the primary visual cortex of the subject brains did register this information, although this information was not available to the subject’s awareness. This is a very crucial dissociation. This raises questions whether the conscious mind or the awareness module
Scienceand Scientist have access to this information, which is there in V1 columns. And just how do we know that the information was | | there? Using a technique similar to that used by Dr. Tong’s group, the UCL group could predict well above chance by analyzing the brain scans of the subjects, which stimulus the subject was shown before the mask. Dr. Rees says that the two experiments (his and Dr. Tong’s) show that neuronal activity in V1 is necessary but not sufficient for the mind to be aware of the orientation data it holds. By the analysis of functional MRI data of brain activity, the UCL group could
thus make out which image had been shown, almost miraculously, when even the subjects themselves report not being
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able to remember it or rather remember seeing it. The results show how the brain reacts to visual stimuli, even in cases when they are "invisible" to our conscious mind.
& & BOOK
The implications of this study combined with others of the same kind are tremendous. So, a brain (the experimenter’s) can know more about the state of another brain (the subject’s) than the subject knows. Information that is not available to the awareness of one’s self can be available to others – that too about one’s real time state and what he/she is viewing but not seeing. This is very different from a physician looking at a scan and saying than one has had a stroke. There is no
prediction of real-time perception involved.
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So, to study about the self, one can learn from others. That is the promise of cognitive neuroscience. Now, I would like to shift to the cognitive neuroscientist – the way this seeker engages with the self question, the sought. The cognitive neuroscientist has given up introspection and looks at other minds to find answers about his own self – learning things SOUVENIR about others and the observed themselves don’t know. This vantage, beyond introspection, but retaining the fervor the “truth-seeking” hermit is its specialty.
What is so special about this vantage that is of interest to thanatophobics? Consider this. The cognitive neuroscientist is trying to learn and understand self and awareness. How does one go about doing that? The cognitive neuroscientist 53
observes the neural function of others. This is the first level of dissociation. The observed entities are different – not in the Kubler Ross sense of observing behaviour. A very important change is the level of observation has taken place. It no longer involves mental states like anger, denial, sadness, etc. The problem with these levels are that these are states with which the experimenter can empathize with and hence the fear can be felt and transmitted, even when learning about the nature of the self in the process. In cognitive neuroscience, this understanding of the self is reduced to the levels of neural columns, brain regions, electrical brain activity patterns, and so on. Now, these are neural correlates which further the cognitive neuroscientist’s understanding of the self but does not burden him. These are not things one can empathize with. Thus we have a very important dissociation that emerges – one seeks to know more about the self, knows more and more, however this knowledge in no way brings in any correlate that one may project onto oneself, per se. There is a gap of translation, which is advantageous in this case. But it is again true at the same time that the cognitive neuroscientist knows more and more about the physical self and awareness and consciousness.
Hence one approaches what one aims to approach but in a path that is not full of the thorns that fill other paths – namely, the projection of empathizable states to oneself. This is exciting for the subset of materialists and if I may say, others too, who are thanatophobics. To a zealot thanatophobic, the cognitive neurosciences provide a way to deal with the death question – and most perfectly suited is the thanatophobic who is also a cognitive neuroscientist. Thanatophobia has driven endeavors in human creative thought and cognitive neuroscience is a tool to some – not to deny death, not to conquer it, but to continue to know it till one faces it. The impetus to know the self (and by implication the end of the self) can be a powerful driving force. The cognitive neuroscientist is almost perpetually “getting there”.
I have had the pleasure to talk to many cognitive neuroscientists and over the 2nd pitcher of beer, almost invariably the question of selfhood and death comes up. It is my suspicion and I cannot provide any proof that being a cognitive
scientist puts you in unique perch but at the same time, the inspiration of many cognitive neuroscientists might be from 2015 thanatophobia, implicit or explicit. This might be more so for people who are dealing with functional systems that – constitute the self – awareness, memory, perception, and so on. I must stress again that this is a suspicion, a very deep suspicion at that, but then that’s just about it. Transcending death, as I say earlier, can be a powerful impetus. The cognitive neuroscientist can seek escape from thanatophobia by engaging with the nature of awareness and consciousness.
Most followers of overtly self-delusional methods for transcending death and in effect life itself, one might find solace in
Ambroise Pare’s words.[9] If you don’t know how to die, don’t worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, Scienceand Scientist | | fully and adequately. She will do the job perfectly for you; don’t bother your head about it!.[2] For the rest of us, the still scared, cognitive neuroscience is a good bet.
References: [1] Solecki, R.S. (1975). Shanidar IV, a Neanderthal flower burial in N. Iraq. Science, Vol. 190(28), p. 880. [2] Sommer, J.D. (1999). The Shanidar IV 'Flower Burial': A Reevaluation of Neanderthal Burial Ritual. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Vol. 9, pp. 127-129. [3] Wild, E.M., Teschler-Nicola, M., Kutschera, W., Steier, P., Trinkaus, E. and Wanek, W. (2005). Direct dating of Early Upper Palaeolithic human remains from Mladeč. Nature, Vol. 435, pp. 332–335. [4] On Death and Dying, (Simon and Schuster/Touchstone), 1969. [5] Robert, C.W.E. (1964). The prospect of immortality. Doubleday & Co. [6] Kothari, M.L., Mehta, L.A. and Kothari, V.M. (2000). Cause of death--so-called designed event acclimaxing timed happenings. J Postgrad Med., Vol. 46, pp. 43-51. [7] Kamitani, Y. and Tong, F. (2005). Decoding the visual and subjective contents of the human brain. Nat Neurosci., Vol. 8(5), pp. 679-685. [8] Haynes, J.D. and Rees, G. (2005). Predicting the orientation of invisible stimuli from activity in human primary
visual cortex. Nat Neurosci., Vol. 8(5), pp. 686-691. SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS [9] Ambroise Pare. Of Physiognomy.
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Talk 4: Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance and Branching of the Central Dogma: Two recent revelations in the molecular basis of inheritance Rakesh K. Mishra, Ph.D. Principal Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
Abstract It is well established that the blueprint of life – the entire information set up of an organism – is within its genome. Not much, however, is known as to what the elements of this information system are. We know about genes that codes for proteins which are the building material and workhorses of body. In humans, only about 1.5% of the genome constitutes this part, remaining part of the genome, the non-coding part, contains variety of regulatory elements that control genes.[1,2] It is in this non-coding part of the genome much differences are found that make distinctions in life forms. It is amazing that even very small difference can lead to profound distinctions while at other locations, differences may not be of functional relevance.
Difference between human and chimpanzee genome can be as little as 1%. At the same time, difference between two humans can be just about 0.1%. How such a small difference in the genome, that too mostly outside the coding part of
it, leads to such profound distinctions that human and chimpanzee are so different and each human being is an unique
individual? Even identical twins can be different in thinking and behaviour, although genetically identical. These
2015 observations indicate that genomic variations in the form of DNA sequence do not reflect the magnitude of biological
– output.
Recent new developments discussed here provide new insight and open new ways in our understanding of genomic and genetic regulatory mechanisms that provide possible explanations to this seemingly giant problem.
‘Packaging Codes’, Epigenomes and ‘Non-Coding’ Part of Genome Each human contains several trillion cells and if DNA, the genetic material, was to be stretched out end to end, it will
Scienceand Scientist cover more than 50 round trips from Earth to Sun! That is an amazing amount of genetic information that contains the | | blueprint of our physical and functional existence. Even each cell of our body contains more than 3.5 meter long DNA thread which is contained in the nucleus of a diameter of 10 micrometers. It is mind boggling how such a tremendous degree of compaction is achieved and that too each functional feature of the DNA is available for precise expression – transcription, replication, and so on. In fact, packaging of the genomic DNA in the nucleus offers a great opportunity to
have different functional version of genome. For instance, identical genome that is present in all cells can be packaged in OF OF ABSTRACTS
a cell type specific manner – such that only ‘desired’ genes are available for expression in which ‘unwanted’ genes are hidden from the transcription machinery and by that are not accessible for expression. This hypothesis predicts as many distinct packaging versions as the cell type. Accumulating evidence supports this view and it is generally emerging that
& & BOOK identical genome in an organism exists as multiple epigenomes in different cell types as the functional form in the
nucleus.[3,4] The big question, however, remains how this differential and distinct packaging is achieved, apparently during the process of embryonic development and differentiation. Several lines of studies, including some from our laboratory, indicate that this ‘packaging code’ of the genome is embedded in the so called ‘non-coding’ part of the genome.[5] This is an active area of research in field of genomics and developmental biology.
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Limited Understanding of Developmental Program Each cell of our body contains identical genome (DNA sequence). Then how brain cell, liver cell, muscle cell, and so on, look so different. When a liver cell divides, it gives liver cell and another cell type. Humans have over 220 cell
SOUVENIR types emerging out of identical genome sequences during embryonic development. Moreover, there are organisms that go through metamorphosis during their development. For example, insects go through larval stage where they look different and live a completely different life style compared to adults. Similarly, frogs go through the stage of tadpole that looks and lives like fish – a life style so distinct from that of adult frog. These simple observations suggest that
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identical DNA can provide very different functional or phenotypic output under developmental program. It is an important area of modern biology that is being intensely investigated.[3]
These observations support that it is not the number of genes but more non-coding DNA, that has regulatory features, has accumulated during evolution of complexity. While genome size has steadily increased with the evolution of complexity, number of genes has remained static among even relatively distant organisms. It is, therefore, obvious that it is the proportion of non-coding DNA and not more number of genes that leads to the complexity. While it is generally emerging that the complexity has evolved by accumulating more regulatory elements in the non-coding part of genome, it is a major challenge to resolve how a more sophisticated regulation of existing genes leads to more complex life forms.
A lot remains to be understood about transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes that involves intra- and inter- chromosomal long-range interactions. New techniques that address the 3D analysis of the nuclear architecture and chromatin interactions have infused fresh excitement into the field of the spatial organization of chromatin networks, long-range interactions and functional consequences of such interactions. Repetitive elements, present in abundance in complex genomes are strong contenders for a key role in these mechanisms by marking sites of interaction of the linked loci, leading to their clustering/compartmentalization and coordinated regulation of gene expression as the functional consequence of this organization.[2] Association or overlap of repeats with a variety of other regulatory elements can significantly expand the repertoire and efficiency of such a mechanism. One indication of a direct role of repeat elements in genomic packaging and coordinated expression is emerging from the non-random distribution of such
elements and their association with sets of genes that are functionally related.[6,7] Identification and analysis of repeats in context of the regulatory feature of the genes linked to such elements and characterization of proteins that can interact with repeats and the transcripts emerging from repetitive DNA will allow us to gain a better understanding of
genome organization and regulation. The potential of repeat elements to function as switches operated by a very small 2015 number of interacting factors (RNA/proteins) as a part of genomic packaging code and gene regulation processes – provides a new perspective on evolutionary mechanisms that have shaped complex eukaryotic genomes.
‘Intelligent’ but Transient Evolution There is more than that which meets the eyes, beyond what is written in the DNA sequence that implements our genetic information system. Clear evidence is accumulating that parental experience/environmental effect, accumulated in form of epigenetic modifications like DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin structure, and
so on, is transmitted to the next generation.[8] This transgenerational inheritance raises a big debate of how information Scienceand Scientist | | is accumulated and transmitted to the next generation and impact it may have on evolutionary theory. The major difference in this new view is that heritable changes may not reflect change in DNA sequence which once established become reversible and epigenetic changes are completely reversible.[9] The big question is if we can consider complex genomes have features to respond to environmental changes and register them as heritable epigenetic modifications then can we call it as an ‘intelligent but transient evolution’. Such ‘trial’ evolutionary changes can revert if not found suitable later. This, however, is only very beginning of such ideas.
Incompleteness of Central Dogma Recent advances suggest that central dogma is not complete, it has branched (Figure 1). RNA world has gained increasing importance in the recent past as its role beyond coding for proteins and components of translational machinery is becoming more and more prominent. Recent studies have shown pervasive transcription throughout the genome generating large number of non-coding RNAs while few of these RNAs have been shown to perform varieties of functions (please see the list below).[10] Among these regulatory RNAs, the long non-coding RNAs form an interesting class which, with their ability to bind to a variety of targets and play pivotal roles in the cellular processes including regulation of gene expression. While non-coding RNAs are well-known for their role in repression of gene expression, their role in gene activation is beginning to emerge.[10] It is well accepted now that entire genetic
information does not go through proteins, much of it is terminated at RNA level where the RNA is the final product. SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
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Figure 1. Branching of the central dogma of biology. Non- coding RNAs (ncRNAs) as the end product of genetic information. The New Central Dogma emerging from recent advances that suggest diverse functions for non-coding RNAs. The ncRNAs can be final functional molecules, as efficient cellular workhorses as proteins. (Taken from Krishnan and Mishra FEBS Journal 2013).[10]
The global picture of gene regulation has changed since the emergence of RNA as a regulatory molecule. Such non-
coding RNAs constitute a major proportion of this RNA world. We suggest that RNA, as a versatile regulatory
molecule, is as robust and diverse as proteins. This, therefore, adds a new angle to the central dogma of biology where
RNA was just a passive messenger of the genetic information from the DNA to be coded into proteins. Now it belongs 2015
to a class of molecules that has independent and widespread functions in the cell. From the pace at which the RNA – world is expanding, non-coding RNAs are emerging as major regulatory and structural components of cellular processes. Major expansion of such RNAs as activators of gene regulation by a variety of mechanisms is already changing our picture of the nuclear process and this trend is set to continue. As shown in the box below, functional RNAs offer series of advantages and equal efficiency. Therefore, the central dogma stands modified in this context.
What Goes in Favour of Branching of the Central Dogma lncRNAs and Proteins: Scienceand Scientist -
| | Both are end product of genetic information: functional molecules.
- Both display sequence dependent secondary structures that help in specific interactions with DNA, RNA and protein - Amplitude of genetic information is dependent on rate of transcription and stability of the RNA in both the cases, although proteins can be further amplified during translation.
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Advantage RNA: - Specificity can be of ultimate degree for lncRNAs due to availability of base pairing. -
& & BOOK RNA as a functional molecule bypasses the time and cost of translation.
- Lack of coding restraint gives more space for sequence diversity. - Not essential for survival and thus serve as sink for many mutations, thereby, fine-tuning gene regulation and accelerating evolution.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, we have experienced two major developments in understanding the genetic basis of life forms and the mechanism of the regulation of genetic information. One is that much of the genome that is non-coding has key regulatory features that help in packaging the genome of cell type specific manners and, by that way, regulate
SOUVENIR accessibility of genes to regulate their expression. The second one is that defying the central dogma, much of RNA transcribed from non-coding part of genome is turning out to be the final product of the genetic system and does not need to be translated into protein. These developments also change our view of the developmental program and evolutionary process.
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References: [1] Lander, E.S. et al. (2001). Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome. Nature, Vol. 409, pp. 860-921. [2] Kumar, R.P., Senthilkumar, R., Singh, V. and Mishra, R.K. (2010). Repeat performance: How do genome packaging and regulation depend on simple sequence repeats? Bioessays, Vol. 32, pp. 165-174. [3] Consortium, R.E. (2015). Integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes. Nature, Vol. 518, pp. 317-335. [4] Mishra, R.K. (2009). In Chromosomes To Genome. R.K. Mishra (eds.), I.K. International, p. 31. [5] Mishra, R.K. (2014). Genomic packaging and epigenetic regulation of genes. Molecular Cytogenetics, Vol. 7, I25. [6] Subramanian, S., Mishra, R.K. and Singh, L. (2003). Genome-wide analysis of Bkm sequences (GATA repeats): predominant association with sex chromosomes and potential role in higher order chromatin organization and function. Bioinformatics, Vol. 19, pp. 681-685. [7] Subramanian, S., Mishra, R.K. and Singh, L. (2003). Genome-wide analysis of microsatellite repeats in humans: their abundance and density in specific genomic regions. Genome Biol., Vol. 4, R13. [8] Puri, D., Dhawan, J. and Mishra, R. K. (2010). The paternal hidden agenda: Epigenetic inheritance through sperm chromatin. Epigenetics, Vol. 5, pp. 386-391. [9] Dickins, T.E. and Rahman, Q. (2012). The extended evolutionary synthesis and the role of soft inheritance in evolution. Proc. R. Soc. B, Vol. 279, pp. 2913–2921. [10] Krishnan, J. and Mishra, R.K. (2014). Emerging trends of long non-coding RNAs in gene activation. The FEBS Journal, Vol. 281, pp. 34-45.
Talk 5: Bacterial Sentience: Brain is not the Source of Mind
Rajani Malla, Ph.D.
Professor and Head, Central Department of Biotechnology,. Tribhuvan University – Kathmandu, Nepal 2015 2015
–
Bacteria and Humans As compared to other living entities bacteria can easily survive the crisis because of their special abilities to adapt to the environmental changes. The simplest living entities, yet the last to be studied in detail – are bacteria. Bacteria also occupy and are indispensable to every other living being on Earth. Without them, life’s essential processes would quickly grind to a halt, and Earth would be as barren as Venus and Mars. Most of the cells in our body are not even technically “human”, in fact, foreign cells outnumber ours by 10 to 1. Strictly by the numbers, the vast majority —
estimated by many scientists at 90 percent of the cells in what we think of as our body are actually bacteria, not human Scienceand Scientist | | cells.[1] Without these other organisms we would die. Within days of being born we had the instincts necessary to colonize our bodies with the appropriate bacteria and germs. We thank the different creatures that abide in our body, because without all of them we simply wouldn’t be “what we are”. They carry out vital functions such as helping us digest food and even fighting viruses. Unfortunately, we tend to kill them by the millions when we use antibiotics. An antibiotic does not discriminate between friend and foe: it kills all bacteria in our body.
Symbiogenesis – A direct challenge to Darwinism In contrast to conventional evolution theory (survival of fittest), symbiogenesis establishes that life did not take over the globe by competition, but by cooperation. Lynn Margulis believed that long-stable symbiotic associations between two or more organisms can result in noble transformations that are favorable for all of them. Margulis explained genomic mergers as the most important cause of genetic variability. Many examples of symbiogenesis are explained by Margulis and Sagan[2] in the book Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species. Bacteria also have a remarkable capacity to combine their bodies with other organisms, forming alliances that may become permanent. A species of ‘glow in the dark’ squid is also an example of symbiosis and it has an organ which accommodates light-emitting bacteria. Cows have microbial symbionts in their rumen which help them to digest grass. Fully 10 percent of our own dry weight consists of bacteria, some of which – like those in our intestines that produce vitamin B12 – we cannot live without.[1] Either engulfed as prey or invading as predators or as endosymbionts these bacteria took up residence inside foreign cells, SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS forming an uneasy alliance that provided waste disposal and oxygen-derived energy in return for food and shelter. Even
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though symbiotic cooperation may help organisms to succeed in the struggle for existence, Natural Selection has nothing to do with such origins.
Bacterial Sentience We are made up of a community of organisms, this is a fact. Beyond this fact, we believe that we are a community of organisms who have come together in a common consciousness that is more brilliantly complex than we could ever hope to understand. If all creatures are conscious in some way or other, then consciousness is not something that evolved with human beings. Different degree of consciousness has always existed with each species. It seems probable that any organism that is sensitive in some way to its environment has a degree of interior experience. Are microbes far more sentient than we give them credit for? Many single-celled organisms are sensitive to physical vibration, light intensity, or heat. Who are we to say they do not have a corresponding degree of consciousness? We should not impose our ideas on nature and should allow nature to reveal her to us. Bacteria can distinguish “self” from “other,” and between their relatives and strangers.[3] For the most primitive beings in the web of life, some researchers claim, “simple” might not mean “stupid”.[4] Bacteria, long perceived as simple creatures, are now recognized to be smart beasts that can conduct intricate social life while using sophisticated chemical language, one we have only recently begun to decode. The bacterial power of cooperation is manifested by their ability to develop large colonies of astonishing complexity. Paenibacillus vortex is a species of pattern-forming bacteria, first discovered in the early 90's by Ben-Jacob’s group. It is a social microorganism that forms colonies with complex and dynamic architectures. P. vortex
colonies behave much like a multi-cellular organism, with cell differentiation and task distribution. Accomplishing such
intricate cooperative ventures requires sophisticated cell-cell communication. They can communicate, prey in packs,
and have social intelligence.[5] 2015
– Bacterial Cooperation and Communication Bacteria use chemicals to talk to each other and to nonbacterial cells as well. These exchanges work much as human language does and “linguistic communication” enabling bacteria to engage in intentional behavior both singly and in groups.[6] In other words, they have “social intelligence” and some of them hard to understand unless you are another bacterium or a devoted bacteriologist. One of the most straight forward cases is demonstrated by Bacillus subtilis. If B. subtilis individuals are growing in a food-poor area, they release chemicals into their surroundings. These essentially tell their neighbors: “There’s not much food here, so clear off or we’ll both starve.” In response to these chemical messages,
Scienceand Scientist the other bacteria set themselves up further away, completely changing the shape of the colony. Cooperation is the key | | to the bacteria’s survival. And, cooperation requires a highly advanced level of communication. In 2004, Ben-Jacob proposed bacterial communication contained semantic and pragmatic aspects. According to Ben-Jacob cancer cells also are intelligent, similar to bacteria colonies.[6] His theory is that if cancer cells are a society of smart and communicating cells, then by disrupting their channels of communication, humans can make it hard for cancers to spread and evolve
resistance. Cancer seems to destroy the communication of the immune system or causes it to send false messages. Thus,
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immuno-therapy is a big thing in cancer research.
Many single-celled organisms can work out how many other bacteria of their own species, are in their vicinity – an
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ability known as “quorum sensing”. Each individual bacterium releases a small amount of a chemical into the surrounding area – a chemical that it can detect through receptors on its outer wall. If there are lots of other bacteria around, all releasing the same chemical, levels can reach a critical point and trigger a change in behavior. Pathogenic bacteria often use quorum sensing to decide when to launch an attack on their host. Once they have amassed in
sufficient numbers to overwhelm the immune system, they collectively launch an assault on the body. Jamming their
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signals might provide us with a way to fight back.
Not only can bacteria be talkative and co-operative, but they also form communities. When they do, the result is a biofilm, most familiar as the thin layers of slime that coat the insides of water pipes, or kitchen surfaces. Biofilm SOUVENIR extracellular polymeric substance, which is also referred to as slime, is a polymeric conglomeration generally composed of extracellular DNA, proteins, and polysaccharides. Biofilms may form on living or non-living surfaces and can be prevalent in natural, industrial and hospital settings. They’re also found in biological refuges, like the inner linings of human digestive systems – anywhere, in fact, where there is plenty of water. 59
Bacterial Intelligence Many different species of bacteria live side by side in “bacterial cities”, munching one another’s wastes, cooperating to exploit food sources, and safeguarding one another from external threats – such as antibiotics. Similarly, some bacteria move according to the presence of chemicals in their environment – a behavior called chemotaxis. Bacteria use chemotaxis to find nutrients, avoid toxic chemicals, sense pH, and interact with host organisms in symbiosis and pathogenesis. E. coli, for example, move if a few molecules of food are dropped into their environment. Another group of bacteria align themselves to the Earth’s magnetic field, allowing them to head directly north or south. Known as magnetotactic bacteria, their special ability comes from specialized organelles loaded with magnetic crystals, magnetosome. But perhaps the most striking feat of microbial navigation is performed by the slime mould Physarum polycephalum. This organism has been shown to exhibit intelligent characteristics similar to those seen in multi-celled creatures. For example, a team of Japanese and Hungarian researchers have shown P. polycephalum can solve the Shortest path problem.[7] This colony of amoeba-like organisms always finds the shortest route through a maze.
Communication Between Human Gut and Brain Through Microbiota The bacteria in our guts can influence the working of the mind, says Frank Swain.[8] Many of these microbes actively help digest food and prevent infection. And now evidence is emerging that these tiny organisms may also have a profound impact on the brain too.[8] They are a living augmentation of our body – and like any enhancement, this means they could, in principle, be upgraded. We can hack our microbiome to make ourself healthier, happier, and smarter too. The bacterial microbiota in the gut helps normal brain development, says John Cryan, (Professor of Anatomy and Neuroscience at University College Cork): “If we don’t have microbiota we have major changes in brain
structure and function, and then also in behaviour.”[8] In a pioneering study, a Japanese research team showed that mice raised without any gut bacteria had an exaggerated physical response to stress, releasing more hormone than mice that
had a full complement of bacteria. However, this effect could be reduced in bacteria-free mice by repopulating their gut
2015 2015
with Bifidobacterium infants, one of the major symbiotic bacteria found in the gut. Cryan’s team built on this finding, – showing that this effect could be reproduced even in healthy mice. “We took healthy mice and fed them Lactobacillus (another common gut bacteria), and we showed that these animals had a reduced stress response and when this bacteria was fed to mice it reduced stress and anxiety. But why should bacteria in the gut affect the brain? There are several different ways that messages can be sent from one organ to the other. It can be hormones or immune cells via the bloodstream, or by impulses along the vagus nerve, which stretches from the brain to intertwine closely with the gut. Through these pathways, actions in one produce effects in the other.
E. Coli Chooses the Best Sugar to Eat Scienceand Scientist | | When bacteria grow on a mixture of high and low-growth-rate sugars, the growth process occurs in two distinct ways. By the simple but elegant procedure of mixing the sugars in various proportions, Jacques Monod, proved that the bacteria completely consumed the preferred sugar before starting to consume the less rapidly utilized sugar. This was a striking discovery. Monod called the two-stage growth process diauxy, which means “double growth.” It implied that the bacteria could distinguish between the two sugars and adjust their metabolism to utilize the preferred sugar first until it was completely consumed. Then, when the preferred sugar was no longer available, the bacteria took a certain time to readjust their metabolism and subsequently began to utilize the less rapidly utilized sugar. Bacteria constantly pick up information from inside and outside the cell and function adaptively based on what they have sensed. A key example dates back to pre-molecular days, when Jacques Monod (1942) demonstrated that E. coli can discriminate between the sugars glucose and lactose.[9] The molecular biology underlying this discrimination is now well known and serves as the basis for understanding how cells express genomic protein coding information.
Bacterial Cooperation and Altruism Furthermore, bacteria cooperate: they can group together to take on tasks that would be difficult or impossible for one to handle alone. In a textbook example, millions of individuals of the species Myxococcus xanthus can bunch up to form a “predatory” colony that moves and changes direction collectively toward possible food sources. In nature, when M.
xanthus swarming cells are unable to find sufficient nutrients, they enter a developmental process in which they SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS aggregate forming raised pigmented mounds, termed fruiting bodies. Within the fruiting bodies cells differentiate to form spores. Spores are metabolically dormant cells that can withstand prolonged periods of starvation.[10] Some 60
examples of bacterial cooperation have even led researchers to propose that bacteria exhibit a form of altruism. For instance, some strains of Escherichia coli commit suicide when infected by a virus, thereby protecting their bacterial neighbors from infection.[11] The bacteria are not putting themselves at risk for the sake of others they are actively switching on death-pathways. A bacterium that activates a death pathway will die.
Conclusion: Bacteria Refutes the Dogma that the Mind is Inside the Brain In consciousness studies the mind is assumed to correlate with the integrated activity of large populations of neurons distributed across multiple cortical and subcortical brain regions.[12] Plant and bacteria offers a direct challenge to this simplistic view of consciousness. Even though without neurons (without brain organ) both plants[13] and bacteria can also display several sentient behavior. Not only unicellular organisms can display cognitive behavior, but also the individual cells in the multicellular organisms also display individual cognitive behavior. Gametes of multicellular living entities exhibit intelligent cell-cell communication and chemotaxis.[14] Sperm cells and oocytes use several cognitive transmitters.[15] Even plant cells also have sensory perception and integration of these multiple sensory perceptions into adaptive actions helps them in signaling and communication.[16] Plant cells and neurons in other multicellular organisms produce sentient action potentials.[17] Root cells of plants exhibit sentient features at the transition zone interpolated between the apical meristem and elongation region.[18] All this prove that brain is not the source of consciousness. Wherever there is life, there is consciousness and wherever there is consciousness, there is life. Every conscious system comes from a pre-existing conscious system by a developmental process and not by an evolution process presumed by Darwinism.
References:
2015 [1] Bacterial bonanza: Microbes keep us alive. NPR: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129862107
– [2] Margulis, L. and Sagan, D. (2002). Acquiring genomes: A theory of the origins of species. New York: Basic Books. [3] Ben-Jacob, E., Shapira, Y., and Tauber, A.I. (2006). Seeking the foundations of cognition in bacteria. from Schrödinger’s negative entropy to latent information. Physica A, Vol. 359, pp. 495-524. [4] Shapiro J.A. (2007). Bacteria are small but not stupid: cognition, natural genetic engineering and socio-bacteriology. Stud. Hist. Phil. Biol. & Biomed. Sci., Vol. 38, pp. 807–819. [5] Shapiro, J.A. and Dworkin, M. (1997). Bacteria as multicellular organisms, Oxford University Press. [6] Jacob, E.B., Becker, I., Shapira, Y. and Levine, H. (2004). Bacterial linguistic communication and social
intelligence. Trends in Microbiology, Vol. 12(8), pp. 366-372.
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[7] Zhang, X., Wang Q., Felix T.S. C., Madhavan S. and Deng Y. (2014). A physarum polycephalum optimization algorithm for the Bi-objective shortest path problem. Int. J. Unconv. Comp., Vol. 10, pp. 143-162. [8] Swain, F. (2014). Can your gut bugs make you smarter? Beyond Human: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140221-can-gut-bugs-make-you-smarter [9] Shapiro, J.A. (2011). Evolution: A view from the 21st century, FT Press, p. 8.
OF OF ABSTRACTS [10] Shimkets, L.J. (1999). Intercellular signaling during fruiting-body development of Myxococcus xanthus. Annu Rev
Microbiol., Vol. 53, pp. 525-549. [11] Lewis, K. (2000). Programmed death in bacteria. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, Vol. 64 (3), pp. 503-
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[12] John, E.R. (2001). A field theory of consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, Vol. 10, pp. 184-213. [13] Geddes, S.P. (1920). The life and work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose. Longmans, Green. p. 146. [14] Hu, J. H., Yang, N., Ma, Y. H., Jiang, J., Zhang, J. F., Fei, J. and Guo, L. H. (2004). Identification of glutamate receptors and transporters in mouse and human sperm. J. Andr., Vol. 25, pp. 140-146.
PROGRAMME [15] Bray, C., Son, J. H., Kumar, P. and Meizel, S. (2005). Mice deficient in CHRNA7, a subunit of the nicotinic
acetylcholine receptor, produce sperm with impaired motility. Biol Repr., Vol. 73, pp. 807-814. [16] Trewavas A. (2007). Response to Alpi et al.: Plant neurobiology—all metaphors have value. Trends Plant Sci., Vol. 12, pp. 231-233.
SOUVENIR [17] Fromm, J. and Lautner, S. (2007). Electrical signals and their physiological significance in plants. Plant Cell Environ., Vol. 30, pp. 249-257. [18] Baluška, F., Mancuso, S., Volkmann, D. and Barlow, P. W. (2004). Root apices as plant command centres: the unique brain-like status of the root apex transition zone. Biologia, Vol. 59, pp. 9-14.
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Talk 6: Embryonic Origin of Heart Beat in Mammals: A mystery Sonali Bhakta & Shonkor Kumar Das, Ph.D. Bioresearch Laboratory (Cancer and Herbal Research Center), Dept. of Anatomy & Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh
Abstract Heart is the organ that starts to function first in the vertebrate embryo. Approximately 24 hours after the induction of the embryonic heart (HH stage 4 in chick; E7.25 in mouse), the pericardiac mesoderm forms a primitive tubular heart, which starts beating at HH stage 10 in chick, E8 in mouse and about 3 weeks of gestation in human. In human, it starts beating completely by 4th week of its development that is particularly the origin of life. The heart generates these beats by the spontaneous electrical impulses which are vital to all the cardiac functions and organize the sequence of muscle contraction during each heart beat which subsequently optimize the cardiac stroke volume. The rhythmic electrical depolarization waves (action potential) trigger myocardial contraction (myogenic) spontaneously that is responsible for transmitting signals from cell to cell. The heart beat begins at the region of pacemaker or atriovetricular node (AV node) which has a spontaneous rhythmic depolarization time, faster than the rest part of the myocardium due to the presence of the bundle of HIS. The bundle of HIS is the fundamental part of this rhythmic beating, located at the region of pacemaker or AV node. It is the collection of heart muscle cells specialized for electrical conduction that is able to transmit the electrical impulses from the AV node to the point of the apex of the fascicular branches. These fascicular
branches then lead to the purkinje fibers, which provide electrical conduction to the ventricles, causing the cardiac
muscle of the ventricles to contract at a paced interval. Various explanations exist regarding the origin of the heart beat or the bundle of HIS in mammalian embryos proposing that the bundle of HIS develops from the interventricular
septum. On the other hand, some considered that the bundle of HIS is formed by the AV node; even some other 2015
scientists suggested that cells from the dorsal wall of the AV canal contribute in the formation of this bundle, while – some took the bundle of HIS as a derivative of the bulboventricular ring. All these findings were unable to reach an actual embryological origin of the bundle of HIS which is the origin of heart beat at the AV node region or the pacemaker region that is the proof of the presence of life in the maternal womb, but how this first beating starts is still a mystery.
Introduction
Heart beat is the electrical impulses of the heart that organize the sequence of the myocardial contraction and is Scienceand Scientist | | important for optimizing the cardiac stroke volume. To the end, the pattern and timing of these impulses determine the rhythmic contraction of the heart (heart rhythm). The heart spontaneously generates electrical impulses, and these electrical impulses are vital to all the cardiac functions. The electrical system of the heart is fundamental to cardiac function, but how this vital electrical impulse (heart beat) is generated and propagated normally is still a mystery [1].
Origin of Heart Beat The heart beat begins at the region of the pacemaker or AV node which has the spontaneous rhythmic depolarization time, faster than the rest part of the myocardium as the bundle of HIS is present in this region which is the fundamentals to the heart beat. The bundle of HIS is the bundle of specialized cardiac muscle fibers which carries the electric impulses for the co-ordinated contraction of the heart. The bundle begins at the AV node region located at the inferior interatrial septum and passes into the subendocardium through the right fibrous trigone to the interventricular septum, after which it divides into right and left limbs that pass along either side of the septum, branching to the walls of the ventricles (Fig. 1).[2]
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Fig 1: The origin of heart beat (pacemaker region or AV node region)
2015 Theories of Heart Beat – Old Theories Various explanations have been advanced for the origin of the bundle of HIS in mammals since the ancient time. With regard to the origin of the bundle of HIS in mammalian embryos, even more controversies exist in the literature. Some investigators proposed that the bundle of HIS develops from the interventricular septum [3-5]. On the other hand, some considered that the bundle of HIS is formed by the AV node; even some other scientists suggested that cells from the dorsal wall of the AV canal contribute to the formation of the bundle[6], while others have proposed that the bundle of HIS is derived from the atrioventricular ring.[7-9] All these findings are based on the morphological features.
Scienceand Scientist | | Recent Theories Some recent studies have claimed that the upper portion of the bundle of HIS cells derived from the low interatrial septum. With the development of the sinoatrial node (SA node), a band of specialized conducting cells start to create the bundle of HIS that sends a branch to the right and left ventricles. The major conducting pathways originate from the
cardiogenic mesoderm but the SA node may be derived from the neural crest [10].
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Embryological Development of Heart beat
The first soft organ of the body that starts to function in the vertebrate embryos is the heart. Approximately 24 hours
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after the induction of the embryonic heart (HH stage 4 in chick; E7.25 in mouse), the pericardiac mesoderm forms a primitive tubular heart, which starts beating at HH stage 10 in chick, E8 in mouse and about 3 weeks of gestation in human.[11] Heart maintains its physiologic pumping function while it is continuously remodeled until the four- chambered organ is formed (Fig 2 and 3).[12]
PROGRAMME
First Beating of the Heart (Origin of Life) is a Mystery The human embryonic heart begins beating approximately 21 days after conception, or five weeks after the last normal menstrual period (LMP), which is normally used to consider as the date of pregnancy or the evidence of origin of life in the mother womb according to the medical community. The rhythmic electrical depolarization waves (action potential) SOUVENIR trigger myocardium to contract spontaneously within the myocyte itself. The heartbeat is initiated in the pacemaker regions or AV node region and spreads to the rest of the heart through a conduction pathway. Pacemaker cells develop in the primitive atrium and sinus venosus to form the SA node and AV node, respectively. Conductive cells develop the bundle of HIS and carry the depolarization into the lower heart. The embryonic heart begins beating at a rate close to
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the mother’s one that is about 75-80 beats per minute (BPM). The embryonic heart rate (EHR) then accelerates linearly for the first month of beating, peaking at 165-185 BPM during the early 7th week (early 9th week after the LMP). This acceleration is approximately 3.3 BPM per day or about 10 BPM at every three days that might reach 100 BPM in the first month.[13] In true sense, how this beating starts from the specialized type of myocardium (bundle of HIS) is still a controversial matter.
Fig 2: Chick embryo at stage HH 11 when the heart beat starts
2015 2015
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SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Fig 3: Chronological embryonic development of the heart at different stages
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Conclusion The embryological origin of the bundle of HIS is considered as the origin of heart beat, located at the AV node or pacemaker region which is the proof of the presence of life in the maternal womb indeed. Inspite of the continuous researches till date, it is still tough to state the matter more precisely. This might be a philosophical problem hope to be addressed in the near future.
References [1] Richard, N.F. (2012). Electrophysiologic testing, 5th Edition. John Willey & Sons Ltd. (online library.willey.com/book/10.1002/9781118399613). [2] Refer: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/bundle+of+His [3] Viragh, S.Z. and Challice, C.E. (1977a). The first embryonic AV conduction pathway. Devl. Biol. Vol. 56, pp. 382- 396. [4] Viragh, S.Z. and Challice, C.E. (1977b). The development of conduction system in the mouse embryo heart. Devl. Biol., Vol. 56, pp. 397-411. [5] Viragh, S.Z. and Challice, C.E. (1982). The development of conduction system in the mouse embryo heart. IV. Differentiation of the atriventricular conduction system. Devl. Biol. Vol. 89, pp. 25-40. [6] Truex, R.C., Marino, T.A. and Marino, D.R. (1978). Observations of the development of the human atrioventricular node and bundle. Anat. Rec., Vol. 192, pp. 337-350.
[7] Benninghof, A. (1923). Uber die beziehungen des reizletungsystems und der pappilarmuskeln zu den kontunfasern gasselschaft.
Vol. 32, pp. 185-208.
[8] Wenink, A.C.G. (1976). Development of the human cardiac conducting system. J. Anat., Vol. 121, pp. 617-631. 2015
[9] Anderson, R.H.A., Becker, A.E. and Wenink, A.C.G. (1977). The development of the conducting tissues. In – Cardiac Arythmias in the Neonate, Infant and Child, N.K. Roberts and M. J. Janse (eds.), New York: Appleton Century Crofts, pp. 1-28. [10] Theresa, B. and Laura S. (2009). Human Anatomy and Physiology, 8th edition. Benjamin Cummings, USA, pp. 223- 237. [11] Sissman, N. (1970). Developmental landmarks in cardiac morphogenesis. Comparative chronology. Am. J. Cardiol. Vol. 25, pp. 141-148. [12] Thomas, B. (2003). Hart development: molecular insights into cardiac specification and early morphogenesis.
Scienceand Scientist Developmental Biology, Vol. 258, pp. 1-19. | | [13] Obgyn.net (2000). “Embryonic Heart rates compared in assisted and non-assisted pregnancies” (http://www.obgyn .net/us/us.as?page=/us/ccotm/0001/ehr2000).
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Session: Science of Spiritual Biology
Talk 1: Superpowers and the Stubborn Illusion of Separation
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Dean Radin, Ph.D. Chief Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences & Volunteer Faculty, Department of Psychology, Sonoma State University, USA (Reprinted with permission from ISSSEEM. This article was first published in the ISSSEEM Journal of Subtle Energies and is available for
download on the ISSSEEM website at http://journals.sfu.ca/seemj/index.php/seemj/index)
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Since the dawn of humanity, people have investigated the relationship between intention and the physical world through practices like prayer and meditation. Starting a half-century ago, science began to systematically explore these relationships in the laboratory. After briefly reviewing the history of this scientific exploration, I will discuss two recent SOUVENIR experiments. Both were conducted to explore the nature of the mind’s eye and its interaction with physical systems distant in space or time. In one, an eyetracking system was used to test whether seers could actually “see” future events. In another, meditators and non-meditators were asked to use their mind’s eye to “see” a beam of photons in a light-tight optical apparatus. Both experiments provided intriguing glimpses of the role of the human mind in weaving the fabric of
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reality. I will also discuss an experiment that examined the effect of highly focused intention applied toward food by measuring the food’s influence on people who consumed it. Finally, I will touch on the predicatable stages of acceptance of new ideas.
This talk is about the stubborn illusion of separation. What I mean by this phrase is illustrated visually in Figure 1. When most people look at this image, what they see is a dark spot in the middle, a slightly lighter ring surrounding that, an even lighter ring surround that, and so on to the outside. But if I start covering up the boundaries between the rings, what you find is that the background is actually all the same illumination level (Figure 2). This image is called the Craik- Cornsweet Illusion, named after the two psychologists who studied this effect in detail. The reason the illusion works is because in real life when you see objects with this type of shading, you’ve learned through experience that the objects are probably at different heights, like steps. This illusion is a simple but effective way of illustrating that our expectations drive what we perceive. We don’t see the world as it is – we see what we expect to see.
What else drives our expectations? One of the strongest drivers is authority. I’ll use as an example what might well be the longest-standing scientific mistake in history, based on Aristotle’s writings. For two millennia, Aristotle was the voice of authority when it came to understanding the natural world.
Among many other things, Aristotle wrote that “the day-fly [or house fly], as it is called, uses four feet and four wings,” and this was his image of what a fly looked like (Figure 3). Does this look like an ordinary house fly to you? To most people it
kind of looks like a fly, except that 2,000 years after Aristotle wrote this, the Dutch
scholar, Jan Swammerdam risked heresy by saying, in effect, “With all due respect to Aristotle, if you actually look at a fly, you’ll see that it has six legs and two
wings.” In other words, for over 2,000 years people were swatting at flies, and 2015
thinking, “Hmm, Aristotle said these things had four legs, but this one I’m looking – at has six legs, so I suppose it must be a mutant, or maybe two legs fell off. I guess I won’t tell anyone about it.” This is a case where authority reigned supreme until someone was courageous, or stupid, enough to point out a problem. The moral of Figure 1. Craik-Cornsweet the story is that it’s exceptionally difficult to see beyond our expectations, and Illusion especially what authority leads us to believe.
What does authority tell us today? In the form of the scientific mainstream, authority tells us that (a) quantum effects Scienceand Scientist | | are irrelevant in understanding human experience, (b) for all practical purposes objects at the human scale are completely separate, (c) consciousness emerges from brain activity, (d) intention acts only inside the head because it, like consciousness, is an illusion generated by the brain, and (e) there’s no evidence to the contrary. Taken together, such assertions help explain why authoritative assertions tend to persist, sometimes for generations. Our collective expectations lead us to ignore evidence that would contradict what authority has told us must be true.
Before we go any further, I have to confess that by virtue of being a speaker at this conference, I’m placed Figure 2. Craik-Cornsweet into the role of an authority, which makes me Illusion with uncomfortable. As Einstein once said, he distrusted authority so much that the universe punished him by making him one. That’s how I feel; most of the time I really don’t feel like I understand anything, but I do have some ideas and the opportunity to talk about Figure 3. Aristotle’s fly them. I might be completely wrong, but I don’t think so.
Illusion with SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Contrary to prevailing authority, I believe that quantum mechanics is intimately connected to consciousness. A very good book on this issue is Quantum Enigma, by Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner, both physics professors at the University of California at Santa Cruz. They describe what they call the skeleton in the closet of mainstream physics – 66
the idea that as much as you’d like to try to extract consciousness from quantum theory, it just isn’t possible. Now, a lot of working physicists don’t pay much attention to that aspect of quantum mechanics, because you don’t need it for most practical purposes. But when it comes down to the real essence of how quantum theory works, it turns out that you cannot remove consciousness. Eugene Wigner, the Nobel Laureate physicist who was one of the founders of quantum mechanics, stated it most simply: “It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness.” There are many other statements like this by quantum theorists, because they realized that a comprehensive description of any physical system intimately includes the observer.
I would also propose, as an alternative to orthodox authority, that objects are not entirely separate. This is not only true at the quantum level via quantum entanglement; it’s probably also true at the macroscopic level. Further, mind is not completely identical to brain, intention does act at a distance, and there is substantial evidence – even extraordinary evidence – in favor of these claims. The title of my talk includes the word “superpowers.” Popular culture is saturated with images and concepts of superpowers. These stories are part of the zeitgeist, and they always have been. There is emotive power underlying these stories, something that most of us resonate with. You could say that maybe these superstitious beliefs reflect wishful thinking in uncertain times. But maybe not – maybe there’s something more. The usual skeptical response to superpowers is: Well, there are billions of people out there having trillions of experiences, and so all we hear the weird stuff. What people claim to be paranormal or psychic is a very tiny class of coincidences that are just plain weird – but because those weird things are the very stories that are repeated so often, that’s why the
media gives the impression that the paranormal is everywhere. But beyond that explanation, there are plenty of other
valid reasons why we can dismiss all those amazing tales of the paranormal, as portrayed on television and in the movies.
They include illusions, delusions, wishful thinking, cognitive biases, and fraud – these things cannot be dismissed 2015
lightly. So when I’m talking about superpowers, I’m not talking about the comic book hero, because Superman is not – even human. But I am talking about something like Spiderman, because Spiderman is a human – slightly mutated but nevertheless human – who has certain enhanced skills. In particular, I’m talking about Star Wars Jedis and the kinds of things that Jedis are portrayed to be able to do. The evidence that some of those skills are real is surprisingly good. I’m going to go through a bit of that evidence, and I’ll return specifically to Alec Guinness (who played the Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars) a bit later.
My first claim is that objects are not as separate as they appear to be. That’s what physics has learned through the
Scienceand Scientist verification of “quantum entanglement” in the microscopic world. But what about minds? Are minds as separate as they | | appear to be? Well, if the mind is identical to the brain, then minds must be isolated––and Jedi powers must be pure fantasy. But what do controlled experiments say? Well, laboratories that have studied telepathy in a systematic way, starting from about the 1920’s, including such places as City University of New York, McGill University in Montreal, Harvard, Duke, Cornell, Stanford, Cambridge, and the Universities of Leningrad, Gotenberg, Edinburgh, and
Amsterdam.
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Without going through the details of the experiment, it’s basically a test where you have to choose one out of four
correct targets – and so you’d expect to get a 25% hit rate by chance. After some 3,145 test sessions conducted in 25
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different laboratories over about four decades, the overall hit rate result is 32%, not 25%. The participants in these tests are typically college sophomores, not people who make special claims about telepathic ability. This research has been reported in mainstream psychology journals, and repeatedly discussed, and the overall odds against chance of this effect – after 88 experiments – is 29 quintillion to 1 (that is, 29 million trillion to 1). Surely that counts as extraordinary
evidence. So we know that whatever’s going on in these experiments absolutely isn’t chance. We also know that it’s not
PROGRAMME
due to a long list of possible design flaws, or selective reporting, or fraud. What do confirmed skeptics report when they try the same experiment? First, a few words about skepticism. It is a vital and necessary part of science. But you often encounter people who are so skeptical that the very concept of telepathy is exceedingly threatening to them. So it’s unusual to find skeptics who will actually go ahead and challenge their fears by conducting an experiment. SOUVENIR Fortunately, there are a few exceptions. One was described in an article published in the journal, Humanistic Psychologist, in 2005, by two psychology professors, one at the University of Georgia and the other at the University of Notre Dame. They clearly did not believe in telepathy. But to their credit, they nevertheless conducted the same kind of experiment that I just described, and they found that after a series of eight studies, they obtained an overall [statically significant] hit 67
rate of 32% – which is exactly the same overall average result found in the previous studies. But then they went on to say that this result was “precariously close to demonstrating humans do have psychic powers.” So they conducted one additional study based on an ad hoc “psychic theory” they came up with, and that study obtained a significantly negative result, so they concluded that telepathy wasn’t real after all. I can’t think of a more dramatic way of illustrating the power of wishful thinking. If telepathy is real in experiments where you ask somebody to report something consciously, then it ought to exist unconsciously as well. It turns out that many experiments have looked at unconscious, psychophysiological analogs of telepathy. To give just one example, say you take a couple, isolate them both in dimly lit rooms, and then ask them to think about or “feel the presence” of the other person. Then at random times you flash a light in the eyes of one person (the “sender”) and see what happens in the brain of the other person (the “receiver”). The receivers in this experiment have no idea when the light flashes will occur. They’re sitting alone in a dark room just having their EEG recorded. So if telepathy is real, and one person sees a light flash, then the other person’s brain should react. This type of experiment has been repeatedly conducted in a half-dozen different laboratories starting in the 1960s, and the overall evidence is very clear: there is an EEG “brain correlation” effect that shows up in these studies. More recently, my colleagues have conducted the same type of experiment using functional MRI to find out where in the brain these effects are occurring. For light-flashing type experiments, the effects appear in the visual cortex, with highly significant results.
So does telepathy exist? If you were to ask a court of scientific opinion charged with looking at all of the previous studies involving waking states, altered states, correlations in the autonomic and the central nervous system, and confirmed in functional MRI, the jury’s answer would very likely be yes – with very high certainty – that telepathy exists.
What this implies is that like quantum entanglements among elementary particles, minds too are not as separate as they appear to be: they are connected nonlocally. If these nonlocal connections genuinely resemble quantum
interconnections, then minds should also not be as separate in time as they appear to be. This can become difficult to 2015 think about because our language is sequential and linear, and we are no longer in a linear realm when we start talking – about effects through time – but nevertheless, we can do experiments on it.
Remember that I mentioned Obi Wan Kenobi from Star Wars? Some of the Jedi’s abilities involved premonitions. And as it turns out, the actor who played Obi Wan Kenobi had an actual Jedi-moment of his own. Here is a interview with Sir Alec Guinness:
Interviewer: You also met Dean, didn’t you –James Dean? Scienceand Scientist | | Guinness: Well, my very first night in Hollywood I met James Dean. It was a very very odd occurrence. I’d arrived off the plane, and you know, it took a long time in those days – about 16 hours for a flight – and I’d been met by Grace Kelly and various people, but then I found that I was alone with myself for the evening, and a woman I knew, I phoned her up and said, “Let me take you out to dinner,” and we went to various places and she was wearing trousers, and they wouldn’t let her in any of the smart Hollywood restaurants. Think of it – you know, it was 1952 or ‘54 – something like that. However, we finally went to a little Italian dive and that was full, and so we got turned away. I was hungry by then. Then I heard feet running down the street, and it was James Dean and he said, “I was in that restaurant and you couldn’t get a table – my name is James Dean,” he said, “Would you come and join me?” So we said yes, it was very kind of him. Then, going back into the restaurant, he said, “Oh, before we go in, I must show you something – I’ve just got a new car.” And there in the courtyard of this little restaurant was – I don’t know what the car was – some little silver, very smart thing, all done up in cellophane, with a bunch of roses tied to its bonnet. And I said, “How fast can you drive it?” And he said, “Oh, I can do 150.” And I said, “Have you driven it?” He said, “No, I’ve never been in it at all.” And some strange thing came over me, and in some almost different voice I said, “I won’t join your table unless you want me to, but I must say something: please do not get into that car, because if you do,” and I looked at my watch – I said, “If you get into that car at all, it’s now Thursday … 10:00 at night, and by 10:00 at night next Thursday you’ll be dead if you get into that car.” He waved it off as nonsense. So we went off and had dinner – we had a charming dinner – and he was dead the following Thursday afternoon in that car. It was one of the oddest things.
Interviewer (shocked): Had this ever happened to you before? SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Guinness: No, I’m glad to say. It was part of a very very odd, spooky experience. He was – I liked him very much – I would’ve loved to have known him more. 68
I think this is an excellent example where fact and fiction blur. Here’s an actor who played a Jedi with superpowers, and he actually had that experience in real life!
Now here’s how we test for these curious time slips in the laboratory. I call it a presentiment test, a feeling about an event in the future. You sit a person down in front of a blank computer screen, and you record some aspect of their physiology – skin conductance is a convenient measure – and then, when the participant is ready, he or she presses a button. The screen remains blank for five seconds, and then the computer randomly selects one picture out of a large pool of pictures and presents it. The picture remains on the screen for three seconds, then it goes away. The screen remains blank for ten seconds and then the participant can repeat this at will. In a typical test session, 30 to 40 trials like this are run in a row. The pictures come from an international standard pool of about 800 pictures, which was developed for the National Institutes for Mental Health for laboratory studies of emotion. Each picture has a standardized rating of the degree to which it is emotional (to most people), and its valence (positive or negative emotion). When the session ends, we average all of the emotional trials the participant saw, and separately average all of the calm trials. Then we look at the difference in physiological measurements before the stimulus picture appeared. The prediction is that before the emotional pictures, physiology will show more activation than before the calm pictures.
I’ve conducted four studies of this type with over a hundred participants, using skin conductance measures. The results
indicate that people can unconsciously feel what they’re about to experience. The overall odds against chance in favor of
presentiment were 33,000 to 1. This same type of experiment has been repeated now many times. My colleague Dick 2015
Bierman, from the University of Amsterdam, got almost exactly the same results that I did in this experiment. He did – this initially thinking that I must have made a mistake, because the results looked too good – but he was quickly able to replicate the same result. Then Rollin McCraty at the Institute of Heartmath replicated the effect, using heart rate variability as the principal measure – and again, he found that people’s heart rates changed in accordance with what their future was about to be.
I’ve conducted similar studies using a simple light flash as the stimulus, to see whether the brain responded before seeing a light flash as opposed to before no flash. In this test you press a button and four seconds later you either see a
Scienceand Scientist flash or no flash, determined randomly. When you later analyze the EEG signals, you find a difference in slow cortical | | potentials that is consistent with a presentiment effect. The difference is in what’s called a “readiness wave,” and what it means is that people are unconsciously behaving differently just before a light flash than before no light flash. This experiment has also been conducted in a functional MRI, to find out where in the brain this effect was occurring. My colleague Dick Bierman did this, and he found that it occurred primarily in the amygdalae, the emotional processing
centers of the brain. This makes sense, because the stimuli in most of these experiments involves emotional responses.
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To make sure that these presentiment effects are what they appear to be, we go through a long list of conventional explanations. We’ve looked at possible artifacts like sensory cues, nonrandom target sequences, protocol flaws,
physiological artifacts, selective reporting, multiple analyses, programming errors, statistical violations, subject fraud,
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and anticipatory effects, and none of them are able to explain the results. What we end up with is very good evidence for short-term precognition – a matter of three to five seconds in advance of a stimulus. There have been nineteen of these studies conducted to date, of which seventeen had results in the predicted direction and ten were statistically significant. This is an impressive replication rate for a new kind of experimental paradigm. The most recent experiment
I conducted investigated presentiment in pupillary dilation. The pupil is an interesting object of study because it
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provides a very sensitive measure of emotional response. You can also see where the eye is looking, which provides information about the real-time allocation of attention. We predicted, and found, that before emotional trials the pupil was dilated more than before calm trials.
SOUVENIR We were able to infer which side of the brain was more active during presentiment. We know, for example, that right- handed people tend to look to the left when answering questions having to do with affect. So now we could also ask, did they also look to the left before seeing an affective picture? If they did, then it suggests that we not only get a sense of what is about to occur, but we also know something about its degree of emotionality. So we looked at this data and 69
found that for the calm trials, the eye was not looking significantly to the left or the right. But before the emotional pictures, the eye was indeed looking significantly to the left.
From these experiments we can infer that separations in space and time are, as Einstein showed, stubborn illusions. From other experiments, there is growing evidence that separations between mind and matter also are illusions. One way to demonstrate this is with Young’s double-slit apparatus. This is one of the most elementary and yet fundamental demonstrations in physics, because it captures the essential mystery of quantum mechanics. The way it works is this: If you shine a light through a single optical slit, the light that comes out resembles (in its most elementary form) a pattern consistent with what you’d expect if light behaved as a particle. But if you shine a light through a double slit, you get an interference pattern, which is consistent with light behaving as a wave. This is the classical way to demonstrate that light behaves as a particle or a wave depending on how you look at it.
One of the surprises about light is that if you send single photons through a double slit, you end up not with a particulate pattern, which you might expect given that you were shooting individual objects through the slits, but rather you end up with an interference pattern. This would not be expected if “particles” of light were behaving like separate objects. What’s more remarkable is that if you use a detector to see which of the two slits the photon went through, then the interference pattern will disappear, and you’ll see a particulate pattern instead. Physicists call this disappearance a “collapse of the quantum wave function,” and the reason it disappears is because you gained information about which path that the photon took. Knowledge alone is sufficient to collapse the system from indeterminant waves into determinant particles. And here is where consciousness enters the quantum world. Your knowledge of what’s
happening changes the way that the quantum system behaves.
What if you asked someone to gain this information purely mentally? That is, what if you asked a person to imagine that
they could see which slit the photon was going through, not with their eye, but with their mind’s eye – would you get 2015 an interference pattern? If the mind’s eye is only a fantasy inside your head, then it doesn’t do anything out in the real – world, and you’ll get an interference pattern. But if the mind’s eye is causal in some way, and can gain knowledge at a distance, then the interference pattern should collapse.
This is very similar to the idea of Schrödinger’s cat – that famous paradox where you take an unfortunate kitty and you put it in a box, and at some probabilistic time in the future a radioactive particle causes a flask to be broken with poison in it, causing the cat to be killed. Before you look at this system, you don’t know whether the cat is alive or dead. From a
quantum perspective, before observation, the cat is simultaneously both alive and dead. Schrödinger presented this Scienceand Scientist | | paradox as an absurdity, where he was actually arguing that this couldn’t possibly be true. But actually, it turns out that it is true, at least at the quantum scale, and maybe even in the macroscopic world.
To test this idea, we used an optical device called a Michelson interferometer. It’s basically the same as a double slit apparatus, but easier to work with when trying to explain to someone what they should do with their mind. With this device, incoming photons hit a half-silvered mirror; half of them go through it and half bounce off. The resulting two beams then bounce off two solid mirrors, the beams reconnect, and in the process they form an interference pattern. A very sensitive digital camera is then used to record this interference pattern.
People in this experiment were asked to put their mind’s eye into one of the two photon beams in the interferometer, so as to “see” the incoming photons, or cause them to be deflected, or to gain knowledge about the photons. Or they were asked to withdraw their mind’s eye from the photon beam. These instructions were alternated in a randomly counterbalanced way. Then we examined the results to see if there was a change in the interference pattern under the two conditions. If there was, it would suggest that the act of putting your mind’s eye in the box causes a measurable effect at the quantum level.
The Michelson interferometer was placed inside a light-tight, shielded room, and we had the participants sit quietly SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS outside that room. The camera was controlled from outside the shielded room by a computer. We ran 18 experimental sessions, half performed by advanced meditators and half by non-meditators. The overall results, with all participants 70
combined, significantly deviated from chance. We also ran a series of calibration trials to check out the equipment, and those results were not significant, indicating that the results of the experiment were not due to an artifact. Then, when we separated the results of the meditators from the non-meditators, we found that all of the experimental effects were due to the mediators. It was an extremely significant result: odds of 106,000 to 1 for the mediators.
The reason we used meditators and non-meditators in the test was because the task requires, in essence, that you place your mind “over there” for 30 seconds, and then you put it “over here,” alternating back and forth according to the instructions. A trained meditator can do that task for 30 seconds, but a non-meditator can do it for maybe two seconds, and then they start thinking about lunch. I expected that if this experiment was going to work at all, it would probably work best with people who are disciplined at doing things with their minds. In this case, that’s exactly what happened, so we’re planning a follow-up series of similar studies, again with very advanced meditators.
What we’ve seen so far is that separation in space and time, and between mind and matter, are illusions. We’re not talking about illusions at the macroscopic level, rather at a deeper level of reality. So one might ask whether these microscopic effects influence the everyday world in practical terms. To find out, we conducted an experiment to see whether the act of intention alone would affect food. Why food? I wondered whether the act of intention in cooking – the love that goes into the food – could be considered a kind of “ingredient.” In the experiment we conducted, we used chocolate. In this case, the experiment involved asking people if they would be willing to eat chocolate. In fact, not only
would they be willing to, they had to as part of the experiment. So it was very easy to recruit people for this study. We
used the gold-standard, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled design in our study, the same type of design you
would use to test the efficacy of a new drug. 2015
– Some of the chocolate was exposed to the meditative intentions of Venerable Geshe Sopa and his senior monks. Geshe Sopa is a Tibetan Buddhist monk and was the tutor of the Dalai Lama. We also asked Mongolian shaman Banzar Zorigtbaatar to apply his intention toward the “treated” chocolate. They were both asked to intentionally impress into the chocolate the intention that anyone who ate the chocolate would experience an enhanced sense of energy, vigor and well-being. Geshe Sopa and two senior monks spent twenty minutes doing the intention. They had a large batch of chocolate in front of them that we then divvied up for the experiment. The Mongolian shaman spent about an hour doing a ritual involving a lot of chanting and beating of drums. This study was published in the journal Explore: The
Scienceand Scientist Journal of Science and Healing last year (2007). And by the way, the experiment I mentioned earlier on the effects of | | intuition at the quantum level was published in the same journal, this past January (2008).
We recruited 62 people and assigned them into four groups. The groups were matched on age and degree of neuroticism. We used the Neo-PI scale to measure neuroticism, because since our main measure was mood, it turns out
that the more neurotic you are, the more your mood will fluctuate. So we used neuroticism as a covariate in our
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analysis. We also asked people how much chocolate they tended to eat on average. The reason is that if somebody eats a pound of chocolate a day, by asking them to eat a little bit more for this experiment, we wouldn’t expect to see much
of an effect because they’d likely be saturated with chocolate already. So we predicted that for people who only ate a
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little chocolate on average, they would show a bigger intentional effect than people who tended to eat lots of chocolate. One thing you’d expect to find in an experiment of this type is that on the first day of the experiment, most people would report some improvement in mood because of the novelty of being “forced” to eat chocolate. But typically, mood enhancement as a result of eating chocolate lasts only about twenty minutes; then the effects of the caffeine and
other mood-enhancing biochemicals would begin to fade. What we were hoping to find is that intention would sustain
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the short-term mood enhancement effect normally produced by chocolate. Our primary outcome measure was change in mood, as measured with the Profile of Mood States, a well-known mood measurement scale.
We asked participants to record their mood daily over the course of a one-week period. On the middle three days of SOUVENIR the week, we asked them to eat chocolate. We actually gave a prescription: at 10 a.m. you must eat half an ounce, and at 3 p.m. you must eat half an ounce. They had little packets of prepared chocolate, blindly labeled so they couldn’t tell (and neither could we) whether they were eating the regular or the identically-looking intentionally treated chocolate. What we found was that on the first day of eating chocolate, overall all subjects’ mood improved. On the second day, 71
mood bounced back in the control condition, but it remained improved in the intentional condition. By the third day we saw a significant difference between the two conditions. People eating the intentional chocolate reported a 67% improvement as compared to the control chocolate. The people involved in this test were matched so the differences we saw were not due to mundane differences among the participants. When we looked at the subset of people who ate less than the average amount of chocolate per week (3.2 ounces for this population), the “intentional group” showed a surprising 1,000% improvement. This proof of principle experiment showed that highly focused intentions influenced mood states associated with consuming food. Previously reported experiments looking at conceptually similar effects of intention on various target substances have reported similar outcomes.
When faced with a new idea, there are several predictable stages of acceptance. These ideas are not new to this audience, but from the mainstream perspective, they are very new. The first stage of acceptance is: “It’s impossible, because there’s no evidence.” What this means is, “I’ve not seen the evidence” – not that there is literally no evidence. Stage two is: “Well, maybe it’s possible, but it’s not very interesting,” or perhaps, “It’s so weak maybe it will go away.” Stage three is: “It’s real and important, so patent it.” Stage four is: “Critics claim that they thought of it first.” Stage five is: “No one remembers it was controversial.” Stage six is: “Insurance covers it.”
So where are we now in terms of these kinds of phenomena? I think that – for what I’ll refer to as the “scientific superpowers” – stage one was roughly from the 1500s to about 1950. Stage two was approximately the last half of the last century. Stage three is, I think, emerging now. One piece of evidence supporting that idea is the appearance of patents. In the patents pending arena, you can presently find applications for enhancing the efficiency of electrochemical
processes with intention; electronic circuits that influence you at a distance, programmed by intention; novel forms of communication systems related to mind/matter interaction effects; and a process that predicts lotteries based on a precognition effect. Patents that have already been issued include means of achieving direct mind/machine control, an
intuition training system, and an ESP testing system. 2015
– I predicted about twenty years ago that because the stages of acceptance of new ideas are so predictable, that when you reach stage three you should start to see a trickle of patents. This is because at that point, entrepreneurs will see beyond the stage where effects are considered weak and uninteresting, and they will recognize that there’s money to be made. So they will begin to protect intellectual property, just in case. We’re presently up to seven patents or patents pending, and I may have missed a few. The first patent was issued in 1998. Between 2000 and now we’re beginning to see a steady trickle. And so I predict that in another twenty years, we’ll see a flood. By then these effects will no longer be
seen as weak and uninteresting, but robust and important. Scienceand Scientist | |
In conclusion, experiments of the type I’ve discussed, plus a large and growing supporting literature, suggest that all objects, including mind and matter, are connected though space and time. This may be the source of real superpowers. This paper is based on Dean Radin’s Address, presented at the Eighteenth Annual ISSSEEM Conference, Energy, Intent, and Healing (June 19-26, 2008).
Talk 2: The Balancing Role of Entropy and Syntropy Ulisse Di Corpo, Ph.D. and Antonella Vannini, Ph.D. Statistics & Social Research, Rome, Italy (World Institute for Scientific Exploration (WISE), Rome)
Abstract In the book “The Voice of Truth” Gandhi states[1]: “There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it,
although I do not see it. This invisible force makes itself felt and yet challenges any demonstration, because it is so different from SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS everything that I perceive with the senses.”
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In the 1920s equations derived from relativistic quantum mechanics gave two solutions. In the second solution, energy was associated with time flowing backward-in-time and all physicists agreed that this second solution could be discarded since it gave no physical interpretation. But in 1941 Luigi Fantappiè (1901–1956), who was one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his time, wanted to look at the backward-in-time solution from a pure mathematical point of view. As he started to list the properties of this solution, he found a dimension descriptive of life as opposed to matter. The entropy/syntropy theory[2] posits that this dimension, which is invisible to us, although we can feel it in subjective and qualitative ways, is the essence of life. Fantappiè saw that if his finding was correct it would change the whole basement for understanding the cosmos. His work was not at all recognized by his colleagues and in reality forgotten after his death.[3]
Introduction Few people know that the mass-energy relation E = mc2, which is usually attributed to Albert Einstein, had been published by several others before, including: 1. the Englishman Oliver Heaviside[4] in 1890 in his Electromagnetic Theory vol. 3; 2. the Frenchman Henri Poincaré[5] in 1900; 3. the Italian Olinto De Pretto in 1903 in the scientific journal “Atte” and registered at the “Regio Istituto di Scienze”.[6]
In deriving this equation, Einstein’s predecessors made assumptions that led to problems when dealing with different
inertial systems, since the quantity of motion was not present in the equation. Einstein succeeded where others had
failed by deriving the formula in a way that was consistent in all frames of reference. He did so in 1905 with his
equation for Special Relativity, which adds momentum to the energy mass (E = mc2) equation: 2015
– E2 = m2c4 + p2c2 where E is energy, m is mass, p is momentum and c is the constant of the speed of light
This equation is known as energy/momentum/mass. However, since it is quadratic, it has two solutions for energy: one positive and one negative.
The positive or forward-in-time solution describes energy that diverges from a cause, for example light diverging from a
Scienceand Scientist light bulb or heat spreading out from a heater. But in the negative solution, the energy diverges backward-in-time from | | a future cause; imagine beginning with diffuse light energy that concentrates into a light bulb. This, quite understandably, was considered an unacceptable solution since it implies retrocausality, which means that an effect occurs before its cause. Einstein solved this problem by assuming that the momentum is always equal to zero; he could do this because the speed of physical bodies is extremely small when compared to the speed of light. And so, in this
way, Einstein’s complex energy/momentum/mass equation simplified into the now famous E = mc2 equation, which
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always has positive solution.
But in 1924 Wolfgang Pauli (Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize 1935) discovered that electrons have a spin which nears the
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speed of light. Soon after the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein and the German physicist Walter Gordon proposed the Klein-Gordon equation, in order to describe quantum particles in the framework of Einstein’s relativity. This equation uses the energy/momentum/mass equation of Special Relativity and yields two solutions: a forward-in-time wave solution (retarded waves) and a backward-in-time wave solution (advanced waves). But since the negative time solution was
considered unacceptable, it too was rejected.
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Nevertheless, in 1941, while working on the d’Alembert operator, which combines special relativity with quantum mechanics, the mathematician Luigi Fantappiè[7] realized that the forward-in-time solution (i.e. retarded waves) describes energy and matter that diverge and tend towards a homogeneous and random distribution. For example, when heat SOUVENIR radiates from a heater, it tends to spread out homogeneously in the environment; this is the law of entropy, which is also known as heat death. Fantappiè showed that the forward-in-time solution is governed by the law of entropy, whereas the backward-in-time solution (i.e. advanced waves) is governed by a symmetric law that Fantappiè named syntropy (from the Greek syn = converging, tropos = tendency). The forward-in-time solution describes energy that 73
diverges from a cause, and requires that causes be in the past; the backward-in-time solution describes energy and matter that converge towards future causes (i.e. attractors). The mathematical properties of the law of syntropy are energy and matter concentration, an increase in differentiation and complexity, a reduction of entropy, the formation of structures, and an increase in order. These are also the main properties that biologists observe in life and which cannot be explained in the classical (time forward) way. This realization led Fantappiè to formulate “The Unitary Theory of the Physical and Biological World”, first published in 1942, where he suggests that we live in a supercausal universe, governed by causality and retrocausality.[8]
Experimental evidence The entropy/syntropy hypothesis entails the existence of retrocausality. However, in the laboratories of physics it seems impossible to perform experiments that can demonstrate the existence of retrocausality: 1. According to the Absorber Theory of John Archibald Wheeler (American theoretical physicist) and Richard Philips Feynman (American theoretical physicist), also called Wheeler-Feynman time-symmetric theory, which is an interpretation of electrodynamics, all time-reversal symmetries lead to predictions identical with those of conventional electrodynamics. For this reason it is impossible to distinguish between time-symmetric results and conventional results.[9] 2. In his Transactional Interpretation of quantum mechanics, John Cramer (Professor of physics at the Washington State University in Seattle) states that “Nature, in a very subtle way, may be engaging in backward-in-time handshaking. But the use of this mechanism is not available to experimental investigators even at the microscopic level. The completed transaction erases all advanced effects, so that no advanced wave signaling is possible. The future can affect the past only very indirectly, by offering
possibilities for transactions.”[10]
Fantappiè failed to devise experiments that could test his retrocausal hypothesis, but 70 years later the authors of this
paper formulated the following testable hypothesis: “if life is sustained by syntropy, the parameters of the autonomic nervous 2015 system that supports vital functions should react in advance to stimuli.” And indeed an impressive number of studies have now – shown that the autonomic nervous system (as measured by skin conductance and heart rate) can react before a stimulus is shown. The first experimental study of this kind was conducted by Dean Radin[11], Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, who monitored heart rate, skin conductance, and fingertip blood volume in subjects who were shown a blank screen for five seconds, followed by a randomly selected calm or emotional picture for three seconds. Radin found significant differences in the autonomic parameters preceding the exposure to emotional pictures versus calm pictures.[12]
Scienceand Scientist | | In our experiments we used heart rate (HR) measurements in order to study Fantappiè’s retrocausal hypothesis. A detailed review of the experiments can be found in the book “Retrocausality: experiments and theory.”[13]
Trials were divided in 3 phases: 1. Presentation phase: 4 colors were presented one after the other on the screen of the computer. Each color was shown for exactly 4 seconds. The subject was asked to look at the colors and heart frequency was measured at fixed intervals of 1 second. For each color 4 measurements of the heart rate (HR) were saved: one each second. The presentation of the color was perfectly synchronized with the HR measurement. When necessary the synchronization was re-established showing a white image before the presentation of the first color in phase 1. 2. Choice phase: an image with 4 color bars was shown in order to allow the subject to guess the color which the computer would select in phase 3. 3. Target phase: the computer randomly selected the target color and showed it full-screen on the computer.
Hypothesis: in presence of Fantappiè’s retrocausal effect differences should be observed between HR measurements in phase 1 in concomitance to the color presented as the target color in phase 3. The presentation of the color in phase 3 was considered to be the cause of the HR differences observed in phase 1.
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Trials were repeated 100 times per subject. Subjects were assisted only during the first trial and left alone for the remaining 99 trials. The first trial was therefore considered a test trial and not used in data analyses. In the following figure HR differences for one subject are graphically represented.
Figure 1. Experimental trials
In the absence of a retrocausal effect, lines should vary around the base value (the 0.00 line). But results, obtained
comparing the average HR value of the 99 trials according to the target color selected in phase 3, show that in phase 1
HR measurements associated to target colors differ significantly from the baseline.
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– Several experiments were conducted in order to search for artifacts. For example, in one experiment the target was always selected in phase 3 by the computer, but it was randomly replaced with a gray color. The retrocausal effect appeared only when the target color was shown to the subject in phase 3, excluding in this way the possibility of forward-in-time processes which could affect the random selection of the color in phase 3.
Even though strong anticipated heart rate differences were observed, no ability of the subjects to guess the target was noticed. In other words the anticipatory information which is observed in heart frequencies seems to be invisible to the
rational conscious side of the brain.
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Visible and Invisible The entropy/syntropy theory posits that the total amount of energy is the sum of energy in the syntropic state (concentrated) and energy in the entropic state (dispersed):
Total Energy = Syntropic Energy + Entropic Energy
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Since the first law of thermodynamics, the law of conservation of energy, states that energy is a fixed quantity which
cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed, Energy can be replaced with the number 1 and the equation
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changes into:
1 = Syntropy + Entropy
which shows that entropy and syntropy are complementary polarities of the same unity:
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Syntropy = 1 – Entropy
Entropy = 1 – Syntropy SOUVENIR
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Figure 2. Heart Rate differences in phase 1 for each target color selected in phase 3
(data relative to one subject)
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In “Syntropy: definition and use” Mario[14] Ludovico writes: –
“I deem it impossible to grasp the concept of syntropy without having assimilated the concept of entropy, since not only are the two concepts in a strict mutual connection but entropy and syntropy are also complementary concepts. In other words, where it is possible to measure a level of entropy there is a complementary level of syntropy.”
The entropy/syntropy theory suggests that we live immersed in forces and entities that we cannot observe directly but which exist objectively, independently of any human perception. One such force is gravity. Suppose we hold a small
object like a pencil between our thumb and forefinger and then release it. We observe that it falls to the floor and we Scienceand Scientist | | say that the force of gravity causes it to fall. But, do we actually see any downward force acting upon the pencil, something pulling or pushing it? Clearly not. We do not observe the force of gravity at all. Rather we deduce the existence of some unseen force (called gravity) acting upon unsupported objects in order to explain their otherwise inexplicable downward movement. According to the entropy/syntropy theory half of the forces acting in the universe are entropic (visible) and half are syntropic (invisible) and nothing takes place without the interplay of both these forces. We constantly experience observable effects that have unobservable causes, behaviors that cannot be explained observably and phenomena in the visible reality that arise from the invisible reality.
The description of two complementary forces, one diverging and one converging, one visible and one invisible, one destructive and one constructive, can be found in many philosophies and religions. In Hinduism the law of complementarity is described by the dance of Shiva and Shakti, where Shakti is the personification of the female principle and Shiva of the male principle. They represent the primordial cosmic energy and the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe. Shiva has the properties of the law of syntropy, whereas Shakti has the properties of the law of entropy and they are constantly combined together in an endless cosmic dance.
Shakti can never exist apart from Shiva or act independently of him, just as Shiva remains a mere corpse without Shakti.
All the matter and energy of the universe results from the dance of the two opposite forces of Shiva and Shakti. Shiva SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS absorbs Shakti (energy) turning it into a body and absolute pure consciousness, the light of knowledge. According to Hinduism knowledge, intelligence and consciousness would come from the future (Shiva), whereas fearsome, ferocity 76
and aggressiveness would come from the past (Shakti). Shakti is the energy of the physical and visible world whereas Shiva is the consciousness which transcends the visible world. However, each aspect of Shiva has a Shakti component, linked to the physical world. The evolution of this endless dance between Shakti and Shiva has the function to bring life towards Unity.
Figure 3. Taijitu symbol Figure 4. Endless cosmic dance between Shiva and Shakti
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– In the Taoist philosophy all aspects of the universe are described as the interplay of two complementary and fundamental forces: the yang principle which is diverging, and the yin principle which is converging. These two forces are part of a unity. In the visible side of reality, when one increases the other decreases, but as a whole their balance remains unchanged. This law is masterfully represented in the Taijitu symbol, that is the union of these opposite forces, the yin and the yang, the diverging and converging forces whose combined action moves the universe in all its aspects: the sexes, seasons, day and night, life and death, full and empty, movement and repose, push and pull, dry and wet. Water takes on yang steaming form and yin icy form. Within the yin there is yang, and within the yang there is yin. All of
duality is yin and yang even as in life and death. In the Taijitu the yang principle is represented by the white color and has
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entropic properties, whereas the yin principle is represented by the black color and has syntropic properties. The tangible and the intangible. The Taijitu is a wheel that rotates constantly, changing the proportion of yin and yang (syntropy and entropy) in the visible and the invisible sides of reality. The Taijitu shows that a property of the law of complementarity is that opposites attract each other. This law is well known in physics, but it is also true at the human level where people on opposite polarities are attracted to each other, as in males and females. Since the balance of these
OF OF ABSTRACTS opposite forces remains unchanged the Taoist philosophy suggests that the aim is to harmonize the opposites, thus creating
unity.
& & BOOK In the psychological literature of the 20th century Carl Gustav Jung added synchronicities (i.e. syntropy) to causality (i.e.
entropy).
According to Jung, synchronicities are the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, yet they are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner. The
PROGRAMME concept of synchronicity was first described in this terminology by Carl Gustav Jung in the 1920s. The concept does not
question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by causes, they may also be grouped by finalities, a meaningful principle. Jung coined the word synchronicities to describe what he called “temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events.” He variously described synchronicity as an “acausal connecting
SOUVENIR principle,” “meaningful coincidence” and “acausal parallelism.” Jung gave a full statement of this concept in 1951 when he published the paper Synchronicity – An Acausal Connecting Principle[15], jointly with a related study by the physicist Wolfgang Pauli. In Jung’s and Pauli’s description causality acts from the past, whereas synchronicity from the future. Synchronicities would be meaningful since they lead towards a finality, providing in this way a direction to events
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correlated in an apparently acausal ways. Jung and Pauli believed that causality and synchronicity both act on the same indestructible energy. They are united by this energy, but at the same time they are complementary.
Figure 5. Jung and Pauli representation of causality and
An extension of Thermodynamics synchronicity
During the nineteenth century, the study and description of heat lead to a new discipline: thermodynamics. This discipline, which can be traced back to the works of Boyle, Boltzmann, Clausius, and Carnot, addresses the behavior of
energy, of which heat is a form. The study of the transformation of heat into work led to the discovery of three laws:
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1. The law of conservation of energy, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed. – 2. The law of entropy, which states that energy always moves from a state of availability to a state of unavailability. When transforming energy (for example from heat to work) part is lost to the environment and entropy is a measure of the quantity of energy that is lost. When this lost energy is distributed in a uniform way, a state of equilibrium is reached and it is no longer possible to transform energy into work. Entropy measures how close a system is to this state of equilibrium. 3. The law of heat death, which states that dissipated energy cannot be recaptured and used again, and that the entropy of
an isolated system (which cannot receive energy or information from outside) can only increase until a state of Scienceand Scientist
equilibrium is reached. |
Entropy introduces into physics the idea of irreversible processes. It maintains that energy always moves from a state of high potential to a state of low potential, tending to a state of equilibrium. In this regard, Sir Arthur Eddington stated that “entropy is the arrow of time,” in the sense that it forces physical events to move from the past to the future.[16] Our experience continually informs us about entropy and the irreversible process that leads to the dissipation of energy and heat death: we see people become old and die; we see a fire losing intensity and turning into cold ashes; and we see entropy increasing in the world through pollution, depleted energy, and desertification. The irreversibility of entropy entails a one-way movement from order to disorder. Entropy measures the evolution of a physical system, and it is always associated with an increasing level of disorder.
Yet life defies entropy since it becomes more complex over time through growth and reproduction; it turns the disordered atoms of the physical universe into very highly ordered molecules. Living systems evolve towards increasing order, towards higher forms of organization, diversification and complexity, and can avoid the heat death associated with reaching a maximum level of entropy.
Scientists have long debated this paradox. Erwin Schrödinger, who made many important contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, responded to the question of what allows life to counter entropy by noting that SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
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“It feeds on negative entropy. It is by avoiding the rapid decay into the inert state of ‘equilibrium’ that an organism appears so enigmatic; so much so, that from the earliest times of human thought some special non-physical or supernatural force (vis viva, entelechy) was claimed to be operative in the organism, and in some quarters is still claimed.”[17]
A similar conclusion was reached by Albert Szent-Györgyi:
“It is impossible to explain the qualities of organization and order of living systems starting from the entropic laws of the macrocosm. This is one of the paradoxes of modern biology: the properties of living systems are opposed to the law of entropy that governs the macrocosm.”[18]
Szent-Györgyi went on to suggest the existence of a law symmetric to entropy:
“A major difference between amoebas and humans is the increase of complexity that requires the existence of a mechanism that is able to counteract the law of entropy. In other words, there must be a force that is able to counter the universal tendency of matter towards chaos and energy towards dissipation. Life always shows a decrease in entropy and an increase in complexity, in direct conflict with the law of entropy.”
While entropy is a universal law that leads to the dissolution of any form of organization, life demonstrates the existence
of another law. The main problem, according to Szent-Györgyi, is that:
“We see a profound difference between organic and inorganic systems ... as a scientist I cannot believe that the laws of physics become 2015
invalid as soon as you enter the living systems. The law of entropy does not govern living systems.” –
Similar considerations were contemplated by the French paleontologist, philosopher, and Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who recognized the need for a law symmetrical to entropy. In his influential book The Phenomenon of Man he noted:
“Reduced to its essence, the problem of life can be expressed as follows: once we admit the two major Laws of Energy Conservation and of Entropy (to which physics is limited), how can we add, without contradictions, a third universal law (which is expressed by biology)
Scienceand Scientist ... The situation is clarified when we consider at the basis of cosmology the existence of a second kind of entropy (or anti-entropy).”[19] | |
But in their present form, the laws of thermodynamics cannot accommodate syntropy. In order to do so the laws would need to be expanded.[20]
Concluding Observations
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The implications of the extension of science to include the backward-in-time energy solution were described by Fantappiè in the following letter to a friend:
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“In the days just before Christmas 1941, as a consequence of conversations with two colleagues, a physicist and a biologist, I was suddenly projected into a new panorama, which radically changed the vision of science and of the Universe which I had inherited from my teachers, and which I had always considered the strong and certain ground on which to base my scientific investigations. Suddenly I saw the possibility of interpreting a wide range of solutions (the anticipated potentials) of the wave equation which can be considered
the fundamental law of the Universe. These solutions had been always rejected as impossible, but suddenly they appeared possible, and
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they explained a new category of phenomena which I later named syntropic, totally different from the entropic ones, of the mechanical, physical and chemical laws, which obey only the principle of classical causation and the law of entropy. Syntropic phenomena, which are instead represented by those strange solutions of the anticipated potentials, should obey the two opposite principles of finality (moved by a final cause placed in the future, and not by a cause which is placed in the past) and differentiation, and also be non- SOUVENIR causable in a laboratory. This last characteristic explains why this type of phenomena has never been reproduced in a laboratory, and its finalistic properties justified the refusal among scientists, who accepted without any doubt the assumption that finalism is a “metaphysical” principle, outside Science and Nature. This assumption obstructed the way to a calm investigation of the real existence of this second type of phenomena; an investigation which I accepted to carry out, even though I felt as if I were falling into an abyss, 79
with incredible consequences and conclusions. It suddenly seemed as if the sky were falling apart, or at least the certainties on which mechanical science had based its assumptions. It appeared to me clear that these syntropic, finalistic phenomena which lead to differentiation and could not be reproduced in a laboratory, were real, and existed in nature, as I could recognize them in the living systems. The properties of this new law, opened consequences which were just incredible and which could deeply change the biological, medical, psychological, and social sciences.”
The introduction of syntropy in physics would be primarily theoretical, but in the life sciences such as biology, medicine, psychology and sociology it would carry important pragmatic implications. These disciplines now approach pathologies, illnesses and social crises in a causal mechanistic way, which leads, in an increasingly alarming fashion, to incorrect diagnoses, inefficiency and increased costs.
But probably most important, the entropy/syntropy theory provides a paradigm shift which allows to unify science and spirituality and to move from duality to non-duality.
Social and cultural milestones are marked by counter-intuitive discoveries. For example, it was once intuitive to believe the Earth flat and that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Today it is intuitive to imagine that time flows from the past to the future, but counter-intuitive to imagine that past, present and future coexist. In the paper “A novel interpretation of the Klein-Gordon equation,” K. B. Wharton concludes that:
“It is obvious that quantum mechanics is counter-intuitive, but it must be counter-intuitive for a reason – some human intuition that
fundamentally contradicts some physical principle. One example of this would be the well-known conflict between our direct experience of time and the more symmetric treatment of time in fundamental physics. If the counter-intuitive aspects of quantum mechanics could be explained via classical fields symmetrically constrained by both past and future events, then it would be a mistake to reject such a
solution based solely on our time-asymmetric intuitions.”[21] 2015
– The change that is emerging on the horizon involves the shift from the mechanistic vision to the new supercausal and syntropic vision, which requires the counter-intuitive fact that time flows differently from how we perceive it in our conscious everyday experience. While dealing with mechanistic and simple systems, the cause and effect approach is adequate, with complex living systems retrocausal forces take a prominence and quantum forces enter into the equation of life.
One last aspect of this theory is that it introduces love into the realm of modern science. Syntropy, like love, has the Scienceand Scientist | | power to transform and unite the disparate elements in our lives. As the organizing principle of creation, evolution, and life itself, love deserves a primary role in our world view.[22] Nobody has expressed this recognition better than Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, when he predicted that:
“Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”[23]
References: [1] Gandhi, M.K. (1968). The voice of truth, Nvajivan Trust, Ahmedabad. [2] Di Corpo, U. and Vannini, A. (2014). The balancing role of Entropy/Syntropy in living and self-organizing systems: Quantum Paradigm, www.amazon.com/dp/B00KL4SP70 [3] Drageset O. (2015). Negative energy explained by the imaginary speed of light. Physical Essays, Vol. 28, pp. 92-94. [4] Auffray J.P. Dual origin of E = mc2:http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0608289.pdf [5] Poincaré, H. (1900). Arch. Néerland. Sci. Vol. 2, pp. 252-278. [6] De Pretto, O. (1904). Lettere ed Arti, LXIII, II, pp. 439-500, Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze. [7] Luigi Fantappiè (1901-1956) was considered one of the foremost mathematicians of the last century. He graduated
at the age of 21 from the most exclusive Italian university, “La Normale Di Pisa,” with a dissertation on pure mathematics SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS and became a full professor at the age of 27. During the university years he was roommate with Enrico Fermi. He
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worked with Heisenberg, exchanged correspondence with Feynman, and in April 1950 he was invited by Oppenheimer to become a member of the exclusive Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and work with Einstein. [8] Fantappiè L. (1942). Sull’interpretazione dei potenziali anticipati della meccanica ondulatoria e su un principio di finalità che ne discende, Rend. Acc. D’Italia, Vol. 4(7). [9] Wheeler, J.A. and Feynman, R.P. (1945). Interaction with the Absorber as the Mechanism of Radiation, Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 17(2–3), pp. 157–161. Wheeler, J.A. and Feynman, R.P. (1949). Classical electrodynamics in terms of direct interparticle action. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 21(3), pp. 425–433. [10] Cramer, J.G. (1986). The transactional interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 58, pp. 647-688. [11] Dean Radin is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). [12] Radin, D.I. (1997). Unconscious perception of future emotions: An experiment in presentiment. J. Scientific Exploration, Vol. 11(2), pp. 163-180. [13] Vannini, A. and Di Corpo, U. (2011). Retrocausality: experiments and theory, Kindle Editions, ASIN: B005JIN51O. A brief video presentation is available at http://youtu.be/5lvwlt1oBbQ. [14] Ludovico, M. (2008). Syntropy: Definition and Use. Syntropy Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 139-201. [15] Jung, C.G. (1951). Synchronicity – An acausal connecting principle, Princeton University Press, www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Connecting-Principle-Collected-Bollingen/dp/0691150508 [16] Eddington A. (1935). New pathways in science. Cambridge Univ. Press 1935.
[17] Schrödinger, E. (1944). What is Life? http://whatislife.stanford.edu/LoCo_files/What-is-Life.pdf
[18] Szent-Györgyi, A. (1977). Drive in living matter to perfect itself. Synthesis 1, Vol. 1(1), pp. 14-26.
[19] Teilhard de, C.P. (2008), Il fenomeno umano. Queriniana, Brescia. 2015
[20] Vannini, A. and Di Corpo, U. (2012). The new thermodynamics and life, Syntropy, Vol. 2, pp. 33-46. – [21] Wharton, K.B. (2009). A novel interpretation of the Klein-Gordon equation. Foundation of Physics, Vol. 40(3), pp. 313-332. [22] Di Corpo, U. and Vannini, A. (2015). Syntropy the spirit of love, ICRL Press, Princeton, NJ, 2015. [23] Teilhard de, C.P. (1967). On love. NY: Harper & Row, pp. 33-34. (From P. Teilhard de Chardin, “The Evolution of Chastity.”)
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Talk 3: The Transcendence of Consciousness with Physical Body Along with Pran Mohan Kharel, Ph.D. Professor, Central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
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Several levels of consciousness such as: 1 Pranic, 2. Sensory, 3. Emotional, 4. Mental, 5. Witnessing, 6. Supra-cortico, 7. Enlightened and 8. Divine levels can be stratified. Here, first two levels are more focused as those are very closely
& & BOOK associated with physical body. According to materialistic scientists or biologists all things including higher level of
consciousness can be explained only through DNA. However, even primary analysis suggests that all levels of consciousness including pranic level cannot be explained on the basis of DNA itself. Rather critical analysis suggests there is an existence of preliminary level of consciousness i.e. Pran in a body which transcendence the consciousness through physical body.
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For the background of the study many scientific studies can be taken which have shown effect between psyche to the physical entities. Dr Masaru Emoto found the most beautiful and organized crystals when he sent loving thoughts to the water and no beautiful ice crystals when he sent harsh and hateful thoughts.[1] Similarly Robert John and his colleagues
SOUVENIR of Princeton Anomalies Research Institute, PEAR, used RNG (Random Noise Generator) machines for study of collective consciousness.[2] As a RNG machine generates a totally random noise, it translates into a binary state, a 1 or 0. Since the noise is random, we expect a 50-50-chance occurrence of both 1s and 0s. PEAR wanted to test whether a human collective consciousness exists by using RNG devices. The project used 21 universities’ results over the Internet facilities including their own at Princeton as a central computer and found that the RNG devices could register shocking 81
global events that moved the consciousness of masses collectively. Another potential source is from Epigenetic studies. We know the methylation in DNA sequence particularly in CpG sequence prevents duplication process. In the normal cell, promoter-associated CpG islands are predominantly unmethylated whereas CpG sites within gene bodies are sparse and generally methylated. This process gives a ‘stop’ or ‘go ahead’ signal for expressions as per methylation or demethylations like in ‘on’ and ‘off’ system, despite DNA template being the same. In a sequence of 3.1X109 bp of DNA, the knowing of expression of gene based on the type of deeds i.e. better expression for superior deeds (Karma) and worst for inferior deeds is no less than divine phenomena (Kharel, 2014).[3]
Origination of the Pran, the Life’s Vital Energy To dig out the pranic consciousness that appears in inert physical matter say DNA, let us take the case of DNA duplication by referring a method called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).[4] It shows how DNA duplicates showing symptoms of Pran, but not other molecules (Table. 1).
Table 1. Replication of DNA, such as in PCR, shows that DNA comes in duplication with life, not other biomolecules. Reagents/Conditions Required Chemicals Production Role Buffer Tris No Support Enzyme DNA polymerase No Support Nucleotides dNTPs No Support Template DNA and Two set of primers and DNA Copies of Duplication of DNA Primer sequence the DNA
Water d H2O No Support
pH 6-7 No Support
Temperature 54-940 C No Support 2015 2015
Here, we can see union of primer and its counterparts DNA template, zipper by zipper. The warmness generated – through the intimate contact between them is the site where perhaps life energy originates and pushes the process of formation of another life. In that point, perhaps some special energy inspired by say by Divine blessing to DNA triggers the Pran; and this one instigates the molecule to come in life with the ability of replication. It must be the divinely blessed special molecule, as no enucleated cell (cell without nuclear DNA) can possess the ability to be live or to divide, whereas DNA can duplicate by itself without being within a cell as in PCR, upon getting proper requirement fulfilled. Therefore it is a primary substrate for super-power residing in which conscious activities including pran is regulated.
Scienceand Scientist | | Not only the DNA, arrival of Pran like consciousness can further be noticed when there is union of two opposite like entities and generation of some kind of third force, perhaps stimulated through the warmness of them.
Pairing of two specially identified counterparts create the third force, the Pran Pairing of specially identified counterparts such as ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’, as explained by Taoism since thousands of years ago, confirms the theory that two defined complementary like forces produce the third force ‘Chi’ (Table. 2). Table. 2 further gives the reference of Hindu’s yogic principle. It says that from the closely running air stream in respiratory track during respiration, the ‘Ida’, the inhalation of air and ‘Pingla’ the exhalation of air produce the third force ‘Susumna’. To this pranic energy, Nepalese Hindu refer with the term ‘Sas’ and Egyptian literatures refer it as ‘Ka’.
Table 2. Pairing of two special counterparts creates the third force, the vital energy of life. Production of vital energy Pairing objects Explained by (Pran like vital energy) Yin- Yang Chi Taoism Ida – Pingla Susumnna Yogic Philosophy Primer- DNA tamplet Copy of DNA Molecular Biology
Fertilization of ova and sperm Offspring Biological Processes SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Mother Cell puff the life energy to Daughter cells Biological Processes daughter cell 82
Also, Table. 2 points to the event of union of two specially formed haploid cells called gamates (ova and sperm) and their complete union in zygote by dissolving each other through the process of fertilization and the finally emerging into an individual via fetus – like a third force. Applying the same principle in cell culture, the mother and daughter cell share an energy so that the daughter cell takes birth as independent entity with life (Table. 2). Perhaps mother cell puffs a divine pranic energy so that the new one becomes live. Otherwise no cell is created out of the dead cell, and no cell is synthesized successfully through artificial effort, no matter how much chemicals or money we pour on it. Craig Venter (2010) who created first synthetic cell at the cost of 40 million dollar has also acknowledged the importance of life and said that “.. We do not consider this to be creating a life from scratch but rather we created new life out of already existing life”.[5] Objectively, we know that before and immediately after death, the chemical composition, the weight and the number of molecules in a body or a cell would be the same, but once the cell or the organism dies, the life cannot restore. Hence the consciousness of life cannot be synthesized nor can it be restored back once it leaves after death from human capacity. Although Alberts et al (2002) have acknowledged that life energy must have come as free energy from the environment, as well as raw materials for making life[6], but they remain unspecific about the source of that free energy from where and what form it comes. There are also some biologists who argue that ATP may be the source of energy, but ATPs themselves neither replicate nor do they continue to exist after burning; it just works as fueling agent. Even western people like noble prize winner Sir John Eccles (1973) confirms the existence of the pranic energy. He termed it as “fire” and he elaborated that this fire communicates to the external world.[7] Thomas Alba Edition (1847- 1931) said “When a man dies, the life energy deserts the body and goes out in the space and … enters
another cycle of life”.[8]
Zillion and Zillion cells of flora and fauna of the world divide in each fraction of fraction second. 99.9999% of those 2015
infinite number of cells become normal without any mistake in the process. Otherwise there would have been – anomalies with abnormal growth everywhere resulting into countless cancerous states, consequently no evolution at all. But throughout whole history of biology, we see no such abnormalities. Who would have asked the matter to perform the unimaginably huge task so systematically and so intelligently, if it is not attributed to divine source? How can we rationalize the whole of beauty of nature, which is so motherly and so systematic, would be the product of the random events?
Transcendence of Consciousness Through Matter
Once emergence of pranic consciousness in a body is initiated as a preliminary force then qualitative change is achieved Scienceand Scientist
| | thereby being overlapped by higher and higher level of consciousness. John Hospers (1959) gives an interesting example
of transfer of an event of bell ringing into mental state after examining by mind.[9] According to him when there is production of sound, the vibration cause air particle to strike to ear drum, then the perilymph then endolymph via auditory fluid and then hair sticking out from auditory nerve. Hospers adds further all those events, no matter how much technically unobservable, are going inside human head. The hearing of sound finally becomes no longer a physical
event, locatable inside head. After that it imparts other invisible higher empires such as emotion, thought or reason.
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(Table. 3)
Table 3. Examples of some cases of transcendence of consciousness from physical state to subjective state via material
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objects. Physical State Subjective State
Object Case Transcendence Evaluation by mind Greater Purpose
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Ringing a bell. Response to sound Triggering to Ear Harsh or pleasing vibration wave/message emotion
Embryological Accomplishment of pattern Embryo Beautiful or ugly Beauties in Nature SOUVENIR Patterning or color
Reciprocal Support with Making the earth like Eco systems Any ecosystem Witness of Evolution system by system heaven
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The case of embryological development say that of patterning in insect embryo mentioned in Table. 3 implies that the development finally contribute to the whole body resulting into a beauty with greater purpose. Similarly the example of micro ecosystem contributing to macro ecosystem and macro ecosystem reciprocally serving to micro system thereby moving towards purposive direction is also suggestive of integration of intelligence in physical objects by supreme intelligence. Its relation is like that of operator and computer, in which later works based on the mind of former.
The influence of consciousness from even higher (subjective state) to the further higher (eternal state) is elaborated as in Table. 4.
Table 4. Examples of cases of Transformation of consciousness from subjective state to eternal state Subjective State Eternal State Object Case Transformation Evaluation by mind Greater Purpose Physical Body ( Anna & Worldly Manomaya Kosh Vigyanmaya Kosh Anandamaya kosh Pranmaya Consciousness kosh) Astral/Causal Blissful state in Eternal Consciousness Devoid of Karma Union with the soul Bodies Samadhi
If we go further higher level, Mana, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahankar are observed by higher consciousness, the Antaskaran.
The Antaskaran is observed by further higher witnessing consciousness. The witnessing consciousness is, according to
Vashistha rishi, observed by Brahma or soul (Vashitha rishi). This state of Brahma is characterized by sages or rishis 2015 2015 either as non-dual (Adwait) or non material blissful state with heavenly scene (Vishista Non-dualism). Showing above relations is just to project how lower are linked with above level, ultimately being governed by ‘one’. However, the – further discussion about the higher levels of consciousness is not the scope this article.
Ancient explanation on mixing of Matter and Psyche Pnachtanmatra is the experience of Panchtattwa through sensory organs (nose, tongue, eye, skin and ear). According to the Table. 5, if we spilt the matter (Panch-tattwa), the earth (having ingredients of solid particle plus water plus fire plus air plus space) can convert into water/liquid then water into fire, and fire into air and air into space (sky).
Scienceand Scientist | | Table 5. Composition of Panch-Tattwa and experience of them (Panchtanmatra) by sensory organs of a body
Constituents in each of the medium Gynendriya (sensory Panchatanmatra Pancha-Tattwa (physical entities) organs) (Experiences)
Sky Sky Ear Sabda (sound) Air Air+Sky Skin Sparsa (sensation) Fire Fire+Air+Sky Eye Rupa (sight) Water/liquid Water+Fire+Air+Sky Tongue Rasa (test) Earth Earth+Water+Fire+Air+Sky Nose Gandha (smell)
Katha Upanisad II, 2-15:I gives the glimpses of the scenario of that time as: “Not there sun shines, nor the moon, nor the stars. Everything shines only after the shining spirits, through its light all this shines”.[10] Kulagyana-Nirnaya bridges the link of matter with consciousness as: all matter are consumed into energy (Shakti), energy is consumed to Naada (Sound) and Naada is consumed in speed (Kirya) and speed is consumed in knowledge (Gyan), and knowledge is consumed to Ichha (wish) and wish is consumed to ultimate consciousness (Para Shaiva).[11] SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Yogic philosophy forwards another view but confirming the same intermixing between matter and consciousness. It says when Nature tends to come into existence after the event of Pralaya, then Brahma firstly creates Mahat components, the 84
components of the Universe, such as: Mahat sky, Mahat time, Mahat direction (Yogeshworananda).[12] Then it creates Mahat Sat, Mahat Raj and Mahat Tama properties and they create respective properties in an individual (Byashti) as: • Mahat Sat Samasti Chitta (Byashti) Chitta • Mahat Raj Samasti Buddhi (Byashti) Buddhi • Mahat Tama Samasti Ahankar (Byashti) Ahankar (Ego)
Yogeshworananda elaborates further that the Byashti Ahankar itself is splitted in three categories: Sat, Raja and Tama Ahankar which produce Gynendriya, Karmendriya, and Panchatanmatra respectively, where as Mana is the joint product of the Sat and the Raj Ahankar.
Sankhya’s or Yogic philosophy also sees an interrelations between Purush (Supreme Consciousness) and Parkiti (Nature, Jagat).[13] They say that the Purush overlapping Prakriti makes Prakriti shine as sliver cord around the periphery of cloud. They elaborate further: The undynamic Purush seems to be dynamic because of movement of cloud in the background and the Prakriti (which is semi intelligent) looks divinely because of background of Purush. Vashita Rishi, the Guru of lord Ram Chandra, teaches as: the final left-over of Vasana and Kamana continue to create the fleshy body, sensory organs, Prana, Mana, Buddhi, Chhita and Ahankar, cycle after cycle.[14]
ete hi cidvilaasaantaah manobuddhindriyaadayah
asantah sarva evaaho avadhaanam vinaa sthitaah
That means, all scriptures support the most general statement of Atharva Veda (18.2.24) that body consists of
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– Appearance (Physical), Asu (vital energy) and Manas (Psycho-mental faculties).
Conformation of Existence of Consciousness in Each Unit of a Biological Being Within cell, there is a pool of millions of molecules equipped with signaling, receiving, or holding abilities along with neurotransmitting molecules having their own regulatory systems. Cytosol and nucleus are filled with around one billion protein molecules in addition to organnels such as mitochondria, endosplasmic reticulum, golgi-bodies, ribosome, lysosome, centrioles.[15] Thousands of receptor molecules peeping from the surface of the cell receive signal
from another molecule called ligand. The receptor molecule, upon getting signal from ligand, sends necessary message
Scienceand Scientist | |
to millions of molecules inside the cell. Those molecules then perform their duty accordingly as per signal coming from ligand. Not only molecular biologists, but psychologist Josephine F Wilson (2003) also mentions the same thing.[16] Taking an example of nurotransmitting molecule acetyalcholine, he elaborates its intelligent mechanisms.
The intelligent phenomena of each of the molecules within the cell can further be realized when the phenomena of
transport of protein molecules from nucleus to endosplasmic reticulum to golgi-bodies, and to lysosomes, ribosome
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along with the mitochondrial compartment is realized. The formation and maturation of protein starts from nucleus then travels to endoplasmic reticulum to golgi-body and then finally to lysosome for digestion without making any error
in the route where more than one billion protein molecules are floating.[17] The discipline and the obedience the
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molecules maintain amidst billions of molecules is equivalent to the sincere actions adopted in the heavenly empire. Each of the molecules thus functions exactly the way it is supposed to – never violating or cross-flooring its duty. They do not have a free will like humans; but they do perform their work intelligently without violating their role.
If we talk about the regime of antibodies, out of trillion and trillions varieties of antibodies secreted by the B cell, one or
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two antibodies, which are the real candidate to suppress the given antigens (bacteria, virus, poison, metals, and so on), recognize its enemy i.e. antigen and take responsibility to handle the threat. Whereas, on the other hand, single embryonic cell (zygote) possesses memory to differentiate into tissue or organs and finally results into a normal and fine
SOUVENIR whole body. In that process they make no mistake. For example, embryonic cells meant for forelimb do not differentiate into hind-limb or vice-versa. Similarly, cells meant for eyes do not differentiate into ears or vice-versa.
With regard to cell division, according to Alberts et. al (2002), the concentration level of cyclin–CDK (Cyclin Dependent Kinase, a protein complex ), plays a crucial role for the cell division.[18] Their self-knowledge about 85
lowering and alleviating concentration levels propel the cell whether to proceed for division or not. In the division process, not only the chromosomes (23 pairs in human), but all millions of molecules along with intra and inter-cellular compartments like endoplasmic reticulum, golgi-bodies, lysosomes also get divided so that an equal number of molecules goes in daughter cells. The separation of an unimaginable number of molecules almost equally in such a systematic order, without partiality to any of divided ones is no less than an intelligent affair. It occurs not only in one or two cells, not only in tens of billions cells present in a body and it happens not only one or two individuals, but it happens in billions and billions individuals of all biological species from bacteria to trees, and insects to human beings. Another amazement is the balance of sex ratio that exists in each population of each species. Whether it is in plants or animals, the sex ratio would be 1:1, almost equally distributed in every species.
With all the analysis above, it can be now argued that even the very preliminary level of consciousness, the pranic, sensory and cellular level have not emerged from the source of physical entities (DNA) but some intelligent power works on it as substrate then the consciousness transcendence in the bio-matter via Pran.
References [1] Emoto, M. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto [2] Pear, R.J. http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/jahn.html [3] Kharel, M. (2014). The Conscious Realms: Prospect of Rebirth. Pp. 85-102. [4] PCR protocol [5] Venter, C. (2010). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology 21:43, 26 August 2013.
[6] Alberts, B. et al. (2002). Molecular Biology of the Cell. [Fourth Edition] Garland Science, Taylor and Francis Group. p
10. [7] Eccles, S.J. (1973). The Understanding of the Brain, Summary of His Philoosphy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Eccles_(neurophysiologist) 2015
[8] Edison, T.A. (1847 – 1931) an American inventor who developed phonograph, the motion picture camera, and – electric light bulb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_EdisonVenter Criag [9] Hospers, J. (1956). An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis. Allied Publishers. [Thiroux, J.P. (1983). Aspect of Being Human and Mind and Brain. Philosophy- Theory and Practice. McMillan Publishing Company, New York. Collier Mac Millan Publisher, London, p. 84. [10] Katha Upanishad II, 2-15:[In Dr. Chandradhar Sharma, 1994 A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy. Motilal Banarasidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Delhi 110007, Varanasi 221001, p. 22.
[11] Nirnaya, K. (2014). Personal Communication with Swami Krishna. Scienceand Scientist | | [12] Yogeshworananda, P. (1996). Atma Vijan (Science of Soul). Yog Niketan Trust. Punjabi Bag. New Delhi 1100026, pp. 106-109. [13] Sharma, C. (1994). A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy. Motilal Banarasidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Delhi 110007, Varanasi 221001, pp. 149-156. [14] Chakraborty, B.G.K.C. (2011). Yog Vasshistha Sar. Manolaya (Chapter 4), Adwait Sanstha Nepal. Compose World. Pvt. Ltd., p. 68. [15] Alberts, B. et al. (2002). Molecular Biology of the Cell, [Fourth Edition] Garland Science, Taylor and Francis Group. Chapter 15, Pp. 852-880. [16] Wilson, J.F. (2003). Biological Foundation of Human Behavior. Thomson -Wadsworth, UK, USA, pp. 62-75. [17] Alberts, B. et al. (2002). Molecular Biology of the Cell, [Fourth Edition] Garland Science, Taylor and Francis Group. Chapter 12, pp. 669-701. [18] Alberts, B. et al. (2002). Molecular Biology of the Cell, [Fourth Edition] Garland Science, Taylor and Francis Group.Chapter18, pp. 1028-1061.
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Talk 4: Sleep and Its Impact on Consciousness and Health Sundeep Mishra, M.D., DM Cardiology, FACC, FSCAI Prof. of Cardiology, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Introduction: Brain is the communication hub of information within the body (just as heart is communication hub of blood). It is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other. The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces an enormous amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive medical equipment (such as an EEG), measuring electricity levels over areas of the scalp. At one particular moment an individual is producing one particular frequency of waves. On the other hand, brain also has cells which emit electricity even without receiving any input called pacemaker cells or Place Cells. In a living body it is difficult to access brain but Place Cells can be recorded as brain wave activity. These brain waves (electrical activity of the brain) are like a window to look at what is going on in the brain at any given time. These waves are generated by circulation/movement of electrons (electricity) within the brain. There are 5 types of waves and at one time more than one wave can present but whichever wave predominates, the brain is said to be in that phase. The waves are classified thus according to frequency but the strength of wave is gauged by amplitude. Gamma (γ) wave is the fastest, followed by Beta (β), Alpha (α), Theta (ф) and Delta (δ) being the slowest.[1] During wake gamma, beta or alpha may be
present but during sleep theta or delta are present co-related with the activity of brain. During different sates of consciousness different types of waves may be present.
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– Brain Waves: There characteristics of these waves are as follows[2]: (Figure. 1) 1. Gamma (γ) wave: Range 30-70 Hz – The Wave of Binding Problem (the Voice of Alert Consciousness ) - Working Memory– Physical and Mental Activity Gamma waves are the fastest of the brain wave frequencies, most recently discovered and signify the highest state of focus possible – they’re associated with peak concentration and are considered to be the brain’s optimal frequency for cognitive functioning. It is the wave associated with processing of various attended stimuli (visual, auditory, touch) and the grouping of the various features of a given stimulus, particularly visual, into a coherent whole. In other words
Scienceand Scientist it deals with how a series of different stimuli are broken down into individual components of information; which | | again is integrated together to be perceived as an object; how many different objects are combined with qualitative aspects of information into a single event; how series of discrete events are integrated into an experience (Knowledge), a perception of physical world as distinct from self which then is further assimilated with the model of self to create consciousness with complete understanding of a situation (Wisdom) and therefore bursts of insight. Gamma brain waves (and to a lesser extent, beta brain waves) appear to be the component of intention to direct
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Figure 1. Brain Waves 87
How Processing Happens in Brain: 1. Segregation problem: a practical computational problem of how brains segregate elements in complex patterns of sensory input so that they are allocated to discrete “objects”. 2. Combination problem: the problem of how objects, background and abstract or emotional features are combined into a single experience. Gamma oscillations are short-lived and typically emerge from the coordinated interaction of excitation and inhibition, which can be detected as local field potentials. They couple with slow waves just before initiation of action (thus they are pre-requisites to any impending action).
When is it Present? This wave is associated with heightened levels of perception and consciousness – but there’s also an interesting positive effect: high gamma activity works as a natural anti-depressant, boosting your mood, empathy, and compassion. It always co-exists with other waves (the magnitude of gamma oscillation is modulated by slower rhythms) and present during the both the states of wakefulness and sleep. It is essentially concerned with perception of physical reality. These waves are also noted during Buddhist meditation of compassion & music listening experiments. Gamma emissions are generally associated with people who are exhibiting a ‘higher consciousness’ of thinking. Indeed, these emissions are often recorded during the transcendental meditational states of Tibetan Buddhist.
2. Beta (14-40Hz) – The Waking Consciousness And Reasoning Wave (The Voice of Linear Thinking Quantity)
Beta brain waves are associated with normal waking consciousness and a heightened state of alertness, logic and critical reasoning. Basically beta waves deal with quantitative aspects – A Symbol (serving as a unit) and a measurement (to
measure the quantity). From an individual stand-point it requires selective attention (focus) and intense concentration. 2015 2015
Sometimes the concentration is so intense that one even forgets self (becoming rather unconscious) being focused with object at hand. Thus it is different from consciousness. However, when it is accompanied by gamma waves this – information becomes knowledge or wisdom. These waves are thus related to concentrated mental activity such as solving math problems. But, while Beta brain waves are important for effective functioning throughout the day, they also can translate into stress, anxiety and restlessness. The voice of Beta can be described as being that nagging little inner critic that gets louder the higher you go into range. Therefore, with a majority of adults operate at Beta; it’s little surprise that stress is today’s most common health problem.
When is it present? Scienceand Scientist | | If you are alert and awake, you are in Beta now. In meditation, beta waves have been noticed only in very experienced practitioners that too in a state of ecstasy and concentration.
3. Alpha (7.5-14Hz) – The Deep Relaxation Wave (The Voice of Intuition) – Mental Passivity Associated with relaxed wakefulness, and creative thought where attention may wander and free association is favored. These waves deal with non quantitative (qualitative) aspects for example emotions (happiness or sadness), beauty, love, and so on. They are also correlated with a generally tranquil, pleasant, almost floating feeling. It serves as the gateway to subconscious mind and lies at the base of conscious awareness. The voice of Alpha is that of intuition, which becomes clearer and more profound the closer it gets to 7.5Hz. However it becomes intuition only when it is integrated with the model of self (gamma activity). Alpha brain waves appear to be tied to personal measurement (and general sense) of purpose.
When is it Present: Alpha brain waves are present in deep relaxation and usually when the eyes are closed, when one slips into a lovely daydream or during light meditation. It is an optimal time to program the mind for success and it also heightens your
imagination, visualization, memory, learning and concentration. Alpha brain waves have been linked to states and SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS feelings such as higher levels of self-respect, a less obsessive approach to achieving perfection, a decrease in the fear of failure, an increase in passion, a higher sense of satisfaction in life, and an impressive level of physical health and vitality 88
– and on top of all that, alpha brain waves lead to a general sense of connectedness, a feeling of no longer being alone. These are the waves most associated with expressing a strong inner sense of purpose, and are probably the closest that we will come to a scientific measurement of ‘love’. They are most prominent waves during meditation. Use of pyschotropiuc drugs especially Cannabis (marijuana) and even alcohol in some instances has also been linked to an increase in alpha waves in brain. That’s why many people love the high they got from using drugs. On dark side, abnormal parietal-occipital alpha waves have been found in Autistic child and there is also an abnormality in coupling with gamma waves.
4. Theta (4-7.5Hz) – The Light Meditation and Sleeping Wave (The Silent Voice) It is the realm of sub-consciousness and leads to a sense of deep spiritual connection and unity with the universe. The mind’s most deep-seated programs are at Theta and here one experiences vivid visualizations, great inspiration, profound creativity and exceptional insight. It is the domain of deep seated learning, memory and personality development. But again unless it is integrated in the model of self it is of no use. The coupling between theta and gamma activity is thought to be vital for memory functions, including episodic memory, (memory of a particular episode). The tight coordination of spike timing of single neurons with the local theta oscillations is linked to successful memory formation in humans, and more stereotyped spiking predicts better memory. Further, its border with alpha is that which is most interesting (from 7Hz to 8Hz), where the optimal range for visualization, mind programming and using the creative power of mind begins. It’s the mental state which may be used to consciously create one’s own
reality. At this frequency, one is still barely conscious of surroundings but the body is in deep relaxation. Thus alpha –
theta state is the border between the conscious and the subconscious world, and it’s theorized that by generating theta
brain waves while still awake, one might be able to access and influence the subconscious parts of brain that seems to
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– take control in sleep. Further, it’s been suggested that while in the theta state, the mind is capable of incredibly deep and profound learning, healing, and growth.
When is it present? Theta brain waves are the natural resting state of the brain during light and also REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the time when one experiences lucid dreams. It’s also the state most associated with hypnosis and deep meditation. Subjects can be easily awoken from this stage of sleep, and it has many interesting properties. Theta-Alpha interface or twilight
state (hallucinations) is also a region which a host of artists and scientists have credited with creative solutions and Scienceand Scientist
| | inspiration for their work. It is also predominant in child who is actively seeking information and learning.
5. Delta (0.5-4Hz) – The Deep Sleep Wave The Delta frequency is the slowest of the frequencies and is experienced in deep, dreamless sleep and in very deep, transcendental meditation where awareness is fully detached. Here generally there is no awareness of body or external
environment. Delta is the realm of unconscious mind, and the gateway to the universal mind and the collective
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unconscious, where information received is otherwise unavailable at the conscious level. It also (along with theta) appears to be a state most conducive to influence and the receiving of information. It is particularly been purported to
aid in the formation of declarative and explicit memory formation. Among many things, deep sleep is important for the
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healing process – as it’s linked with deep healing and regeneration. Hence, not having enough deep sleep is detrimental to health in many ways than one. Delta acts as a form of radar – seeking out information – reaching out to understand on the deepest unconscious level things that we can’t understand through thought process. It provides deep intuition, empathetic attunement and instinctual insight, divine knowledge, inner peace & personal growth and trauma recovery.
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When is it Present? Deep sleep is the most common. Some meditative states are also associated with the increased presence of delta waves and seem to occur mostly in very experienced practitioners (Yoga Nidra). It is most difficult state in meditation possibly
because entering a delta state and maintaining consciousness at the same time is tremendously difficult. Also related SOUVENIR with the state of Samadhi, the deepest state in meditation as appeared in ancient Indian Yoga text. Absence/Disruptions in delta activity are seen in adults during states of intoxication (alcoholism) or delirium; various neurological disorders such as dementia, schizophrenia, Parkinsonism; and even non-neurological disorders like diabetes, ADHD and Coma. Sleep walking and sleep talking most often occur during periods of high delta wave activity. 89
What is Consciousness? Consciousness is the subjective experience of reality both non self (physical world) and self (as mind) seen as distinct. Human have a tendency to believe that physical world is real and so for them ability to perceive physical environment and differentiating it from self translates into consciousness (rational/onsensus consciousness). There are several types of physical consciousness: Wakefulness; Sleep and Dreams; Altered States of Consciousness; and Higher Consciousness. Physical consciousness is associated with working memory, the ability to keep a few pieces of information in mind at a time. It correlates with groups of neurons oscillating at a high frequency but out of sync with each other. It’s the brain’s ability to keep bundles of neurons simultaneously oscillating at 40 Hz that determines how much information mind can hold at any given time.
Figure 2. Processing of Information
Wakefulness Sensing happens via the 5 senses, of which sight is the most important. Data collected through the senses is sent to a
memory buffer, which temporarily stores the information. However a part of the information is recognized as important and sent for processing. Processing involves both non-analytical (Alpha) and analytical (Beta) sorting. At
non-analytical level (subconsciously), an item of data is broken down into its archetypal and symbolic qualities. At 2015 2015 analytic level these broken down data item is pondered upon and reassembled (integrated) into a virtual model of the mind, then stored in the working memory banks (Gamma).(Figure. 2) A single data item will have several of its – components in different memory locations, each of which is linked to the other. In other words analytic mind develops a web of connection between these individual data items, understanding the significance of each one of them in context of others and thus developing the total or big picture and take adequate immediate step if required. This seems to be a critical step in gaining Knowledge from Information and the exact difference between a man and animal (where although this process exists it is primitive in comparison to man). In fact the more these interconnections between the individual items develop the deeper the understanding of the issue (and subsequent better response). The ability to
develop these intercommunications can be simply called the IQ of an individual. On the other hand, most of the Scienceand Scientist | | information presented to an individual doesn’t get immediately processed but gets stored in the buffer. A practical example is looking at the images in an album or television for a split second while flipping through the pages/channels, and pondering on it for just a second more, then forgetting about the incident for the rest of the day. The data item, consisting of the images and all the memories and emotions evoked during that momentary second, lies stuck in the memory buffer. Through the day, such limbo-placed data items accumulate.
Sleep All living creatures follow some sort of circadian rhythms (Sleep-Wake Cycles). The exact significance of this rhythm is still not completely understood but indeed science has demonstrated that at least in humans insufficient sleep results in poor cognitive function, altered immune responses, anxiety and depression, diminished carbohydrate metabolism suggestive of diabetes and, in severe cases, hallucinations. Poor sleep habits also co-relate with diminished life expectancy. Thus sleep seems to have a multi-level regenerative function. During sleep regeneration happening not only on physical but mental, emotional but at spiritual level as well. As a matter of fact the four levels of regeneration accurately describe the true nature of sleep. Dreaming is just the conscious interpretation by mind what happens here.
Sleep and Consciousness
Mind has two components: Awareness and Processing. Awareness is the ability to observe. It is the Observer aspect of SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS mind. Awareness has several levels but awareness of self and physical environment (rational/consensus consciousness) is most basic. Likewise Processing ability could also be of thoughts, logic, language (symbols) and so on – Analytic 90
Mind or it could be of Emotions, Intuitions, non-linear, non temporal – Emotional Mind. There is another mind adept at housekeeping activities and involves repair and regeneration – Visceral Mind. This mind maintains internal balance, keeps one healthy and prevents diseases.
Light Sleep (Theta Waves in EEG): As one starts going to sleep the analytical mind starts taking back seat and awareness of physical environment also starts diminishing (input from sensory organs diminishes) instead focus shifts to mental environment.[3]
REM Sleep: Here the emotional processing predominates (analytical mind practically shuts off); Awareness of mental state (self) is profound. The data stored in buffer is relooked and useless data discarded (clear house effect); however, some data goes back to sensory part of mind manifesting as dreams, and then reprocessed and may be integrated into long term memory (and thus become available to analytical mind as well).
Deep Sleep (Delta Waves in EEG): Here visceral mind functions and awareness of real self (self beyond mind) becomes profound. However, there is no observation of either physical or mental environment.
Mechanisms at Work: A) During wakefulness an individual gets bombarded by information. Buffer quickly decides what information is
important and what is not. Important information is immediately processed but most other information get stuck
in the buffer. This happens when consciousness slightly acknowledges (and contemplates on) a piece of sensory
data, decides it is not important and therefore doesn’t take it any further. Here lies the role of sleep. At night, 2015
an opportunity is presented to clear the buffer. This is done by dumping the buffer’s contents into the cycle. – When the buffer dumps its contents, it first sends it to the subconscious, which regurgitates it into the sensory stage of the system (dreams), which then sends it to the buffer again, then subconscious once more offering another opportunity to look into the importance of an information which was not realized during the wakeful period (because of bombardment of information during this time). This time if the emotional mind (non-analytic mind) finds it important it may forward it to the analytical mind for further processing and subsequent integration into the model of self. Many times we remember trivial events of a day before and ponder on them again. This whole process is like a cow regurgitating and re-munching the food. Thus if sleep is deficient more and more
Scienceand Scientist information will keep getting accumulated in the buffer without being sorted out leading to damaging overload of | |
system even so that the system may “hang” i.e. nervous breakdown.(Figure. 3)
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Figure 3. Mechanism of Dreams
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B) The second phenomenon is that of information stored in the working memory. Humans and other mammals have a working memory store that is anatomically distinct from a long term memory store. While sleeping, a high frequency oscillating wave form (Gamma Wave) has been observed in the working memory region that appears to perform a fast replay of memories encoded during the day (Dream) and this replay is coordinated by a slower SOUVENIR oscillation (theta) to consolidate some of those memories into the long term memory store. Later this complete model (of understanding an event) also helps develop adequate response/defense mechanism to the event, (EQ) and further if next time something similar happens the individual even reflexly knows what to do. Once stored in long-term memory (if it is an important event) it may be replayed many times; to check how effectively it is
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stored; and also to be worked upon by both emotional and analytical mind in tandem to tag the items and then send its linked archetypal components into the memory banks and help developing deep understanding of the situation (Wisdom) and subsequent long term response (Personality Development).
As a matter of fact sleep works at[4] separate levels. 1. Physical Level Physical level is the most easily observable level of sleep. It is responsible for physical restoration; repair and even regeneration. A lengthy period of bodily immobilization allows the unimpeded repair of tissues, restocking of physical energy resources such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, and the release of hormones crucial to physiological development and growth of new tissue. Because of these regenerative/growth functions sleep is longer in neonates and children who are in the growth phase, If proper sleep is not available the physical body wears out and energy levels drop. Fatigue sets in, stress hormones surge, and eventually system failure occurs with the collapse of an exhausted sleep-deprived person. When stress upon the body exceeds maintenance abilities, health declines making the individual prone to numerous diseases and ultimately death. The reducing sleep duration in old is not a paradox.
2. Mental Level Clearing up of unnecessary information in buffer, and storing important information into long-term memory (discussed above).
3. Emotional level
Every human acquires information in potentially 3 ways. a) The most common and observable way is through sensory organs. The way it works is that the information is
received on the receptor of sense organs. Most information is in form of waves. Light is received as a photon 2015
(which is also a wave) and even sound or touch generates a wave, Newer scientific have demonstrated that even – smell or taste produce a wave. Actually smell or taste causes a chemical reaction on the receptor which starts to vibrate at a certain frequency which is finally transmitted to the brain for further processing.
b) Quantunm Entaglement: However, another way is through quantum entanglement with objects emitting same frequency. In waking states brain produces waves (with frequency). At this moment if one is close to another individual producing the same frequency of waves in rare cases it is possible to achieve entanglement (resonance).
In real life it can be interrelated as reading mind. However, since these are higher frequencies and therefore are of Scienceand Scientist | | shorter wave-lengths, and this kind of information can only be gained from people/objects close by. During sleep the mind slows down and the focus shifts from analytical mind to emotional mind. Likewise the waves produced are also of lower frequencies: Theta (3 Hz – 8 Hz) and Delta (0.2 Hz – 3 Hz) waves, rarely. Being of lower frequency they are of higher wave length and therefore can technically entangle (opening of chakra) with even far away (individuals and objects). In sleep this may be an important source of gaining remote information not ordinarily available by use of sense organs. However, some individuals are able to tap into this energy even during the day by slipping into alpha waves thus allowing entanglement with remote objects occurring during the day (telepathy) or even theta or delta waves in deep meditation. Thus sleep on an emotional level serves to replenish emotional reserves by opening up one’s chakras for reception of frequencies (information) from a higher metaphysical source.
c) Spiritual Level: The third way a soul can acquire information is something called Out of Body Experience (OBE). Herein a curious phenomenon happens (in sleep) whereby one’s mind can leave the body and travel to alternate realities or higher levels of this reality, known as the astral planes and thus entangle with even remote worlds. According to Robert Monroe, who’s done a lot of hands-on research into astral travel, during sleep one visits the astral planes, and can attend a ‘metaphysical school’ there where we get lessons and advice about our
current life. This knowledge is absorbed symbolically on an emotional (non-analytical) level, and after waking the SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS next day the actions are guided by these subconscious impulses to follow the lessons thus learned and thus being able to provide the so-called non-linear “Out-of-Box” solutions. Unfortunately, since the whole phenomenon is 92
out of the analytic mind it doesn’t form any new archetype (model of reality) and thus these excursions (except rarely) are not recorded into the brain’s memory banks. Rarely, by applying one’s metaphysical memory (which is very difficult to do) and dumping its experiences into the brain’s long term memory at the moment of arrival back in the body can such experiences be permanently remembered. Really what is happening is that most humans lead two lives (1. Soul me, the Child within us; 2. Physical and Mental me) one in which they are metaphysical beings running around the astral planes with full knowledge of who they really are, and the other where they are in this physical body, limited by physicality and a physical brain. Unfortunately the second type has no memory of the first type. Thus human are able to have several planes (tracks) of consciousness. During sleep, these tracks separate and each does its own thing. So it’s possible for physical consciousness and sensory system to dream, while the other part of is seeking counsel in the astral realms. During sleep emotional mind serves link for all these consciousness and can represent astral consciousness into physical consciousness by the way of symbol containing dreams. Hence, while dreams may serve the function of clearing the mental buffer, it can also be a stage for metaphysical messages. Sleep on a spiritual level allows departure of one’s astral body and associated consciousness for exploratory and enlightening trips into the astral planes.
Non Ordinary States of Consciousness 1. Meditation: All brain waves can happen but during deepest states Yog Nidra or Samadhi delta waves happen. 4 2. Dreams: Mostly theta but sometimes delta.[5,6]
3. Hypnosis: Mostly theta
4. Sex: During this process there will be an increase of slow brain waves such as delta and theta waves (so a feeling of
compassion and empathy), the stronger the waves, the more orgasmic energy. Ultimately it gets converted to
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– gamma activity at the time of ejaculation and this leads boosting of mood.[7] 5. Contemplation of art (music, painting, prose, poetry, drama) and nature – Alpha waves 6. Psychotropic Drugs: alpha waves – feeling of unity or one-ness.[8]
Abnormal States of Consciousness Coma: Here the brain falls completely silent and ceases both analytical and emotional functions and only visceral functions (maintenance) may be operational. EEG shows low frequency and very low amplitude waves (delta waves)
reflecting very weak brain activity. Many individuals have an OBE during this stage but in most cases it is not Scienceand Scientist
| | remembered. This stage may either lead to improvement in brain functions (increasing amplitude and frequency of brain waves) leading to ultimate wakefulness or may lead to flattening of wave (decrease in amplitude and frequency) and subsequent ceasing of all activity (death). Delirium: Predominant delta waves.
Higher States of Consciousness
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Transcendental States: Here an individual moves from analytic mind to emotional mind to visceral mind but awareness persists and rather expands. The keynote of it is invariably reconciliation. It is as if the opposites of the world
whose contradictoriness and conflict make all our difficulties and troubles, were melted into unity. Not only do they, as
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contrasted species, belong to one and the same genus, but one of the species, the nobler and better one, is itself the genus, and so soaks up and absorbs its opposite into itself. Subsequently he can get an OBE but the interesting part is that the observation remains intact and therefore these experiences can become a part of the memory.
References:
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[1] Meet Your Brain Waves — Introducing Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta, And Gamma.: http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/brain-waves [2] Brainwaves Frequencies and their characteristics.: http://www.meditationiseasy.com/instant_meditation/brain_waves_frequencies.php SOUVENIR [3] Stages of Sleep.: http://web.mst.edu/~psyworld/sleep_stages.htm [4] Stages of Conscious Awakening.: http://montalk.net/metaphys/117/stages-of-conscious-awakening [5] Montalk. The matrix manipulations of dream.: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_matrix11.htm
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[6] Sleep and Your Different States of Consciousness.: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power- rest/201101/sleep-and-your-different-states-consciousness [7] Brain waves and sex.: http://guardianlv.com/2013/05/brain-waves-and-sex [8] Drugs That Increase Alpha Brain Waves.: http://www.brainwavesblog.com/drugs-that-increase-alpha-brain-waves
Talk 5: Review on Ayurvedic Concept of atma (Soul) Sushanta Sahu and Deba Prasad Dash, M.D.(Ay.) Dept. Panchakarma, Gopabandhu Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Puri, India
Abstract Ayurveda the science of life and treatment, where in treatment is possible only in the living. ayu is nothing but chetananuvrutti (continuity of life). Atma is said as chetana and karta, in the entire universe the atma is only the chaitanyabhava and rest of all are achetana or jada. The synonyms point towards the fact that atma has been at times taken to mean manas, at times to mean shareera, and at times to mean indriya. The atma is actually an entity different than these: Dead bodies don’t exhibit life. Hence body and Atma are separate entities; but the previous knowledge of indriyas is maintained intact, showing that atma and indriya too are separate entities. The types, number, and parimaana point towards an understanding that: atma is one and All pervading; types are only Upaadhi Bheda. By the opinions of sthana of atma, we can say that atma being all pervading, it is present all over the body in each anu. It being independent of form
makes its abode too unlimited. That is, it is widespread everywhere. It is only for our better understanding that we limit it within bodies of living creatures. The origin of atma is impossible to trace due to its eternity. It could be
contextually taken as its origin with every new birth of a living thing i.e. at the time of entry of semen into garbhashaya 2015 2015 (Uterus) even atma is said to enter. – Introduction Only till the time the body has chetana (atma~soul) it’s said to be living and it is a subject to treatment. The factor that pervades all over the body or world is known as atma. The word Atma is derived from the “ath” or “ap” dhatu meaning which spreads all over and moving forever respectively. The atma is nirantara (eternal). The four features of atma are (1) spreads all over, (2) moulds all things into its form, (3) it enjoys the previous deeds, (4) it is eternal.
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According to Ayurveda “atma” is a dravya under the nine karana dravya which are responsible for formation of the |
Universe.
khadinyatma manoh kaala dishascha dravya samgrahah | (Charak)
Definition of atma atathi sakalam vyapnoti iti atma | The tatwa or factor which pervades all over is defined as Atma. atma is said as chetana and karta, in the entire universe the atma is only the chaitanyabhava (sign of life) and rest of all are achetana or jada (non living). It means that atma is a factor which has complete proficiency over the eternal knowledge (iha and para) hence this is known as karta[1], jnyata, bhokta.
chetanavanyataschatma tatah karta niruchyate ||(Ch. Sh. 1/76)
The word atma denotes, the atmatva jati means its entire species. The atmatva jati doesn’t have samaveta rela-tion, with murta dravyas, these are only media for its spread. manas, indriya, artha are known as karana and atma is their adhistata or karta or Master. The atma is unmanifested, eternal, all pervading and unchanged. The atma with the help of karana or SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS gneya (shareera, manas, indriya, artha) gets success in attaining the knowledge. Lord Shri Krishna says that the jeevatma is the fraction of his chaitanya (paramatma).[2] 94
mameyvansho jivaloke jivabhootah sanatanah || (Srimad Bhagvad-Gita)
Just as akasha though one, is classified as ghatakasha mathakasha even atma has upadi bhedas.[3]
Types of atma
Kanada Ayurveda Vishnu Purana bhutatma jeevatma indriyatma jeevatma paramatma pradhanatma paramatma athivahika purusha jeevatma paramatma
jeevatma It is different in different bodies, all pervading and eternal. It is master of body. Experiences his own karma. Attains knowledge of body only. Less energetic than paramatma. Proficient in attaining knowledge with the help of shareera,
manas, indriya, and so on, because it is lame. Has inseparable relation with icha, dwesha, sukha, dukha and so on.[3]
pranapanou nimeshadya...... lingani paramatmana || (Ch. Sha. 1/70-72) 2015
– sukshma sharira carries the karma shesha to the other new body after death along with 17 tattvas, they are 4 tanmatra, 10 indriya, manas, buddhi and ahankara. It also associates with eight bhavas. They are dharma, adharma, gnana, agnana, vairagya, avairagya, aishwarya, anaishwarya. It always associates with sthoola shareera. It constitutes manomaya kosha and vignanamaya kosha or anthakarana chatustaya which are manas for samshaya gnana, buddhi for nirnaya gnana, ahamkara for pride and citta for memory. It records the memory and carries the imprints of previous birth to new body in subtle form after the death hence called as karana shareera.
Scienceand Scientist paramatma | | It is superior soul of all souls. Absolute knower of creation. Utmost energetic. Neither born nor die- eternal. Supreme source of knowledge. No adhesion of vikara or dosha.[4] nirvikara parstatma satwabhoota gunendriya |
atmotpatti and sthana
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The atma is neither born nor it dies so said to be anadi and ananta i.e. eternal or nitya. But here we may consider Utpatti as the entry of atma in the body. During the time of coitus with the entry of semen into yoni the ksetrajna too enters.[5]
hrudaya is the seat of atma. atma resides in hrudaya and buddhi, it is responsible for smruti and gnana.[6]
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hrudaya chetanastanam...... || (Sushruta) atma cha sagunaschetah chintyascha hrudi sransritam ||(Charak)
atma present in the body like taila in tila, ghee in curds, water in srotas of river and agni in arani. It is vibhu and avyaya,
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hence it is invisible to ordinary eyes. Visible only to divya chakshu of yogi by tapas or yogabhyasa.[7]
...atmani gruhyate asou satyenaina tapasa yonupasyati ||
SOUVENIR atma parimana and lakshana atma is smaller in smaller things and bigger in bigger things. Charaka says atma is vibhu and hence sarvagata and mahan in parimana. Ramanuja and Vedantins mention anu pramana. Jains mention madhyama pramana. Nyaya and Vaisheshikas mention mahat parimana. A few opine it is of angustha pramana, and also as the tip of paddy grain. It blazes like rising sun.[8] 95
anoraniyan mahato mahiyan | (Srimad Bhagvad-Gita) bibhutwamat evasya yasmat sarvagato mahan | (Charak) atma exists in samavaya relation with jnyana. atma is without adhesions, prime, eternal, life force, observer and associates with manas, panchabhutas, trigunas and indriyas for attaining knowledge.[9] atma karma and Importance Light, aarkness, truthfulness, lies, good and bad deeds are all due to atma. At the time of death the atma goes out of the body along with the four bhutas with the speed of mind and takes up a new body for bhoga of karma phala of previous body. The atma is responsible for jnyana which it attains due to its association with the karanas.[10]
atmendriya manorthanam sannikarsat pravartate | vyakta tadatwe ya buddhi prataksha sa niruchyate || (Ch.Su. 10)
The atma is the vital force; it is pumaan (along with shareera and satva). It is the main adhikarana of this Ayurveda Shastra. It is for this pumaan that this shastra has been profounded. In Ayurveda, atma is considered as one among nine karana dravyas as it provides vitility and life to the mahabhutas, it is quoted just after them in order.[11] These nine are the karana for srusthi. Based on presence or absence of indriya vitalized by the atma, the karya dravyas are classified as chetana and achetana respectively.
While mentioning about Chikitsaadhikruta Purusha, whether the 24 or 25 tattva purusha or ek dhatuja purusha, presence of atma is irrefutable. Thus, chikitsa too is done to shareera only when associated with atma not otherwise. The concept of
rebirth too is due to atma leaving a body on death and getting a new body in the form of rebirth for bhoga of karmaphala 2015 of previous births. The atma is the jnyanadikarana. In attainment of knowledge the role of atma is greatest as it is atma – which gets the knowledge and it initiates the process of jnyanotpathi too.[12]
Discussion gamana in context of derivation of atma could be understood as: Movement of atma from one deha to other i.e. rebirth; movement of atma with mind in dreams; movement from one indriya to other for grasping specific indriyartha; movement of atma within the body from birth towards death.
Scienceand Scientist | | The synonyms point towards the fact that atma has been at times taken to mean manas, at times to mean shareera, and at times to mean indriya. The atma is actually an entity different than these: Dead bodies don’t exhibit life. Hence body and atma are separate entities.
Though in synonyms bheejadhatu, bheejadharma (cause for origin of life) has been used for atma, Ayurveda says it is prakruti which is capable of production and not purusha. In fact Charaka considers only 24 tattvas merging both prakruti and purusha into one that is avyakta as the cause for creation. The types, number, and parimaana point towards an understanding that: atma is one and all pervading; types are only Upaadhi Bheda. By the opinions of sthana of atma, we can say that atma being all pervading, it is present all over the body in each anu. It being independent of form makes its abode too unlimited. That is, it is widespread everywhere. It is only for our better understanding that we limit it within bodies of living creatures.
The origin of atma is impossible to trace due to its eternity. It could be contextually taken as its origin with every new birth of a living thing i.e. at the time of entry of semen into garbhashaya even atma is said to enter.[13]
Conclusion
atma is a dravya, responsible for life and activity. Its presence is essential for life, for attaining knowledge, for birth and SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS rebirth. Thus it is the most important among the nine karana dravyas. The synonyms point towards the fact that atma has been at times taken to mean manas, at times to mean shareera, and at times to mean indriya. The atma is actually an entity 96
different than these: Dead bodies don’t exhibit life. Hence body and atma are separate entities; indriyaabhighaata creates blindness, deafness and so on but the previous knowledge of indriyas is maintained intact, showing that atma and indriya too are separate entities.
By the opinions of sthana of atma, it seems more logical to say atma being all pervading; it is present all over the body in each anu. It being independent of form makes its abode too unlimited. That is, it is widespread everywhere. It is only for our better understanding that we limit it within bodies of living creatures. The origin of atma is impossible to trace due to its eternity. It could be contextually taken as its origin with every new birth of a living thing i.e. at the time of entry of semen into yoni even atma is said to enter.
References: [1] Tripathy, R.D. (2007). Charak Samhita, P. 688, Verse. 76. [2] Srimad Bhagvat Geeta, English edition, Geeta press, Gorakhpur. [3] Tripathy, R.D. (2007). Charak Samhita, P. 687, Verses. 70-72. [4] Dingari, L. (2010). Acharya’s Ayurveediya Padartha Vigyan, Chaukambha Sanskrit Pratisthan, p. 70. [5] Acharya, J.T. (2007). Charaka Samhita with Ayurveda Dipika commentary of Chakrapani Datta, Reprint ed. Varanasi (India), Chaukambha Orientalia p. 292.
[6] Shastri, A. (2009). Sushruta Samhita, Vol. 1.
[7] Dingari, L. (2010). Acharya’s Ayurveediya Padartha Vigyan, Chaukambha Sanskrit Pratisthan, p. 77.
[8] Acharya, J.T. (2007). Charaka Samhita with Ayurveda Dipika commentary of Chakrapani Datta, Reprint ed. Varanasi
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– (India), Chaukambha Orientalia p. 15. [9] ibid. [10] Acharya, J.T. (2007). Charaka Samhita with Ayurveda Dipika commentary of Chakrapani Datta, Reprint ed. Varanasi (India), Chaukambha Orientalia p. 305. [11] Acharya, J.T. (2007). Charaka Samhita with Ayurveda Dipika commentary of Chakrapani Datta, Reprint ed. Varanasi (India), Chaukambha Orientalia p. 15.
[12] Dingari, L. (2010). Acharya’s Ayurveediya Padartha Vigyan, Chaukambha Sanskrit Pratisthan, p. 70.
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[13] Acharya, J.T. (2007). Charaka Samhita with Ayurveda Dipika commentary of Chakrapani Datta, Reprint ed. Varanasi (India), Chaukambha Orientalia p. 292.
Talk 6: Experimental Philosophy, Astral Projection and the Science of
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Spiritual Biology John Yates, Ph.D.
Director, Institute for Fundamental Studies, London (Founding Editor of International Journal of Theoretical
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Physics)
Abstract We have devised a way to use the S-Matrix method to increase human understanding and to arrive at new realms of
perception. We have begun to further their use by means of experimental philosophy, the Anton syndrome, blindsight,
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and the Pinocchio paradox[4,11] and are using practical methods for Out of Body Experience research as explained in [4].
Introduction SOUVENIR Bernard Baars[1] takes the view that the mind-body problem is scientifically untestable and irrelevant and says the work of Crick and Koch[2] should be considered, encouraged and followed. “Good theory cannot rise from armchairs alone”. Certainly, and the icon of current experimental philosophy has been the burning armchair, though today people look
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also to the way experimental work has evolved to complement and strengthen traditional approaches to philosophical questions.[3]
I mention an example here[4] of how the work of Sigmund Freud has been applied by neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran.[5] It perhaps should be pointed out that Sigmund Freud himself held views which gave a thoroughly modern and Quantum Bayesianism characterization of our scientific understanding of the world.[6]
Further to[4], we may wish to avoid[9] the slippery slope of assuming consciousness to be necessarily present in animals through panpsychism to obviously amoral computers, whether PC or other, which are in any case possibly hacked by local or non local enemies. Clearly some progress may follow along such lines, but to conflate a promisingly simple idea of consciousness with too many other possibly related ideas is probably wrong. It is hard to understand where to stop. For example, modern Theory of Mind would probably allow human subjects with Wernicke's aphasia to be considered ‘conscious’. A good reason for doing so would be that such persons can often be restored to something near normal human consciousness[10] by utilising behavioral training to induce plasticity in underlying neural circuits to maximize linguistic recovery. We are not at this point attempting to justify moral reasons and it is a reasonable legal axiom that “hard cases make bad law” so we might well prefer to avoid hard cases. So we can probably readily justify brain plasticity increases in a Wernicke’s syndrome case, if we wish, as a means to produce or – more likely – increase consciousness. Further, Vilayanur Ramachandran suggests the use of brain plasticity methods in such cases to develop techniques for fundamental brain and consciousness studies.[5]
The above introduction should prepare us for some exquisite work on Astral Projection. We have given some further preparatory work and examples in some earlier pages such as[11], in which we pointed out, for example, that much earlier work may have been carried out by Acharya Bharadwaj in the holy city of Prayag (known today as Allahabad) in
the year 800 B.C. We have already referred here[4] to precautions which may be required with contemporary 2015 experimentation. –
OBE and the Ramsauer-Townsend Effect Briefly, we have devised a way to use the S-Matrix method to increase human understanding and to arrive at new realms of perception.
(a) Introduction
We note from reference [12], Appendix 6, that we gave the likely general shape of the OBE ("Out of Body Scienceand Scientist | | Experience") curve, from many experiments, both our own and those in the literature, as well as giving detailed philosophical reasons. We described a shape like that of the Verhulst equation. A sigmoidal curve like that is characteristic of many natural processes, such as those of complex system learning curves, which exhibit a progression from small beginnings that accelerates and approaches a climax over time. When a detailed description is lacking, a sigmoid function is often used. Now in reference [13] we did plots and equations showing Mantra chanting effects and similar disturbances which might arise at the upper flat part of the curve.
So at a short distance from the artificial hand, the OBE effects are well known to arise from the perception of local effects like touch – even banging the experimental table has been said to have a useful effect. At these short distances there are particularly clear results from the work of Zopf.[14]
Particularly at longer distances[15] the by now well known avoidance effect arises very frequently. That is to say, even where it is well known the subjects are taking part in an 'out of body experience' experiment, an interaction like a perceived external threat like a revolving fan or a slicing or stabbing knife provides a real and very measurable physical reaction. In this brief essay I will not describe other external implications. Video gaming has already been discussed by me[16], and there is clearly much more to be said about all these matters, for example in the important work of
Angelica Ortiz de Gortari.[17] Clearly we are entering a new arena for the human life and soul (if any). Sometimes the SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS avoidance effect may dispel the OBE altogether, but otherwise the OBE may just tend to come back .
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(b) Calculation of the Avoidance Effect In [18] we mention a "hybrid" theory of Systems Biology and Computational Biology. Lawrence[19] describes the method and gives his own software.[20] Here we use the "hybrid" idea to separate the mathematics for the avoidance effect from the earlier sigmoidal area of the graph.
So we assume a potential well - I first thought of using a Dirac delta function but probably that is not complex enough at this time for our model. We actually used a square well potential and that can be varied readily in terms of depth and length.
Griffith’s[21] equation 2.169 is useful here, to provide equation 1 here.
T is the transmission coefficient, Vo is the well depth, and E is the total energy of the particle (our subject) being considered. The well is transparent when the sine function in equation 1 is zero. So equation 2 follows, for perfect transmission; n is an integer.
Clearly, now we need to consider the Ramsauer-Townsend effect which seems to occur which almost looks like the
opposite to what we want – i.e. transparency for certain values of energy. Those are the select cases where the particle
(qua our subject) can go straight through the well without changing. This will mean that the effect of the knife blade or
the rotating fan will go unheeded – indeed maybe even un-noticed in this model. People who recall Dan Simons’s
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– “missing gorilla” experiment will appreciate that such lack of attention can readily happen.[25] And for OBE experiments, that may not be considered by some as a bug, but as a feature. It helps psychologists of doubtful sincerity to pretend that some observations are just “illusions”.
If our model is detailed enough, this will imply that the subject will note the knife without experiencing physical sensations of avoidance – he will be like the alleged Buddhist Monk, totally enured to ill effects in this matter from the outside world. “The fruit is of the same quality as the action” it says in the Hindu holy work, the Mahabharata.[22] Or in
Washburn Hopkin's words[23], “The fruit is of the same quality with the action, and good or bad there is no destruction Scienceand Scientist
| | of the action”. The Mahabharata almost seems to be an anticipation of the work of J.J. Gibson here. We must remember
that the Mahabharata is not simply a work with attempts at godly presumption or assumption, in Western Christian terms, but a serious attempt to explain the structure of the universe. And copies in Sanskrit (a language in many ways similar to modern Tamil), have been available through verbal learning for thousands of years. In simple terms, the Mahabharata need not be considered in the light of being a “Diktat” by a God, which we are obliged to follow, but as a
serious philosophical and scientific work. The God-Diktat idea would seem to be an immediate flaw in both Christian
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and Islamic studies – which could reasonably allow for their disregard. Not necessarily[24] of course, but I fear that is generally true in modern Western society.
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(c) Ramsauer-Townsend Effect No good explanation for the Ramsauer-Townsend effect existed until the introduction of quantum mechanics, which explains that the effect results from the wave-like properties of the electron. A simple model of the collision that makes use of wave theory can predict the existence of the Ramsauer-Townsend minimum. Bohm presents one such model that
considers the atom as a finite square potential well.
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It has to be stressed that whilst we find a 1D model sensitive for our purposes here, the use of the Ramsauer-Townsend effect for gases needs a 3D model, and this is explained in Appendix 1 here. This phenomenon (using de Broglie waves
here) is identical to that which occurs in light optics and is the basis for the operation of the Fabry-Perot interferometer. SOUVENIR Interestingly, the de Broglie-Bohm methods are still used to calculate the Ramsauer-Townsend Effect[26], just as they can be for Black Hole studies.[27] As Gamboa and Mendez[28] points out for Black Holes “a similar phenomenon occurs in nature for the scattering of electrons by inert atoms where, for some values of the energy, there is not scattering for
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s-waves, a phenomenon known as Ramsauer-Townsend effect. Thus, our calculation shows that the quantum scattering of particles with 3 D extremal BH is always governed by a kind of Ramsauer-Townsend mechanism”.
Holography, black holes and implicate order are three terms which also are now important in some way. There are definitely matters to examine. The use of the JME McTaggart A and B series has already been discussed in detail in that connection, and referred to throughout this blog and in a book. At this time, suffice it to say that an eternalist B series style universe model will always have problems, which is be helped out with an A series model in addition.
(d) Graphing the Avoidance Effect When T=1, there is perfect transmission, and – in the current basic model – the subject, like the Buddha, ignores or does not see the unliked stimuli. We would like to ask ourselves, what is E – for the subject and for the experiment? Well we may be able to gain some understanding of what E is by seeing how the subject behaves, and relating that to
Graph 1 below, which is just a graph of Equation 1.[29]
We can also consider the matter in terms of de Broglie waves directly, as in Figure 4 which follows.[31] 2015 2015
– Consider threats such as an attempted knife hack or involvement of a body part with the blades of a rotating fan. We want the subject to be totally enured to such threats, and yet to continue to consider themselves to be involved within the out of body scenario. The reason is to quantify and understand the psychological and physical involvement. And this will also help to establish the level of validity of the model. Now we want to use the methods of the Fabry-Perot interferometer directly here. We know the process there to be identical to the process involving the use of de Broglie waves.[20] So we apply a “shock” to the subject, which we will describe here as S1. This could be a knife threat, a rotating fan threat, or one of many other threats such as those described in the “virtual Milgram” experiments of
Slater[32] and discussed and applied by Yates.[33,34] Scienceand Scientist | |
(e) How to use a Fabry-Perot interferometer modified for de Broglie waves in a Grof Shaman Experiment to eventually define the Implicate Order
Now, if we are fortunate, the subject may already act like a Buddhist Monk. This can be determined by the usual questioning techniques and use of other techniques such as Galvanic Skin Response measurements and the other methods mentioned in earlier blogs[35] and throughout the literature. By such means, a reasonably accurate estimate can be made, to the point of being acceptable as veridical for our purposes.
If the subject is not at the Buddhist Monk level with respect to S1 – we give him or her a further “shock” which we call S2. The reason is given in Griffith’s book[21], page 407-408, Problem 11.5 . That is, S1 will produce a phase shift. That may be enough to give transparency in the S-Matrix, and produce a Buddhist Monk position in our subject. If not, we may wish to repeat the experiment and/or provide further shocks S3, S4, and so on. This is almost an inverse-Milgram experiment.
Unfortunately, so far our experiment is more like that of an Etalon use rather than of a full scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer. Slick methods like those of Zopf[14] should readily alter that successfully. Satisfactory results for this SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS experiment should allow further phase changes to move the subject even further to other states. And boredom, hatred, contempt, dislike and refusal to participate may well result. As mentioned above and in reference [35], at each stage we 100
need to seek veridicality, to allow us to proceed further. And to interpret results as we proceed. Of course we do not wish to “do a Zimbardo”[36] of the benefits implied by Section (6).[33] This can allow us to begin to think like God, and one may say, at last allow us entry to the Implicate Order.
If all this does not work, we simply alter it till it does – S-matrix methods have very wide applications. For example, we could go to the 3D case (only 1 peak there so far), we could change potentials and potential levels and so on. We should also note the Ramsauer-Townsend approach is only one effect. The overall approach will still hold.
There are also, of course, important psychological factors. For example, boredom could quickly arise and sufficient variations or different subjects are needed. Or eventually build it all into a video game – this could allow different definitions of the S-matrix etc. But such games are already in their own level of banality – a simple basic but almost veridical experiment which could see if other subjects can be brought easily into the Buddhist Monk state might be easier and will also allow additional experimental data. And how many shocks will be needed to produce anything but long term nominal boredom? There is a lot to think about but there is an approximate design here, and the simple version may work quickly, just as Kuramoto got early success with very simple synchronisation. I give the URL for videos[51] which show the synchronisation of 50 fireflies using a local dynamic Kuramoto model. In [52] a brief explanation also available. The point is, the Kuramoto model can immediately describe real fireflies that are synchronizing, and the mathematics displays the synchrony only. There is clearly an enormous scope for further useful
work here for Grof style Shamanism and the Implicate Order. We really are getting closer to Astral Projection.
Historically, the first aeroplane took hundreds if not thousands of years to devise. We are moving much quicker than
that with our Astral Projection techniques. And we have already gone far with OBE experiments. 2015
– (f) The Implicate Order How do we now get to the implicate order? We have already[37] discussed the implicate order in some detail. We know already that there are a great nomination of definitions of the human attributes like space, time, and so on. The concept of time in particular has been made subject to many definitions and some kind of eternalism seems to be in effect the most favoured one at present. But clearly if we wish to examine the implicate order, eternalist time in a simple way will leave us very restricted. The ideas of Everett or other style multiple universes, brane theory[38] and other methods, does not really help. Because up to a point, we still are under the thumb of Leibniz and simple eternalist
Scienceand Scientist time. I go back to JME McTaggart and have written at length about the need to use both the A series and the B series of | | JME McTaggart.
We need to use both A and B series and cannot rely only on one of them. A simple way to look at this is to consider the Sorites Paradox. There have been many papers written on the Sorites Paradox, but a couple of typical ones are [39,40].
They both agree that you have to take a stand on a viewpoint. And whilst it is then very easy to turn away from the
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Sorites Paradox on such grounds as vagueness – the fact remains that people still write volumes on it ! Obviously, something there ! Another even clearer example occurs in the novel “Eliza”.[41] Eliza’s husband brings home a little
book of conundrums and asks Eliza to use the book and suggest a conundrum to him – which he says he will
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immediately solve. The conundrum she gives is “What did the lady say when she fell over on the steps outside St. Paul’s cathedral”. He ponders over this and even asks his friends their views as to an answer. However, no answer is found and by then the book is lost. Eliza says “I made up the conundrum myself and assume you would be smart enough to make up the answer”. So much, one may say, for old Greek philosophers and their odd sayings. In fact, if you read the book,
the Implicate Order could give you the answer – although it was never given anywhere. The conundrum occurred from
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a knowledge of Eliza’s life style. So what is the implicate order?
Many other people – including David Bohm himself[42] – have talked about the Implicate Order but have so far made no real effort to describe it in a way which will immediately lead to results. IMO, talk is cheap, and there is probably SOUVENIR too much talk but little action on the Implicate Order. Two points immediately come to mind. The first is that most people [42-50] have either simply commented on or have tried to pursue Bohm’s own approach as outlined in [42] but not carried it out in detail. For example, in the comments made by Weber[43], we note that Bohm’s comments do not seem to take us further than Bohm himself had gone. That is not surprising for results based on such a hard to fathom 101
bleeding edge technology, and does not reflect badly on Bohm. Also, the mathematics I have seen to date[42-50] and many others has not helped either. The second point is the one I have already made, innumerable times, both here and elsewhere, about the need to bear in mind JME McTaggart’s paradox and realize that a simple mathematical answer based on eternalist views will not completely succeed. Here, we certainly use mathematics veridically, but in a way which will help us explain human matters.
In Bohm’s book[42], the well known example of rotating cylinders and ink is given. Bohm does carefully point out that this is only an illustrative example of how the implicate order might work. In a somewhat similar way, we are only using our “modified Fabry-Perot interferometer” method as something a little more than an analogy – but also as a detector and creator. The subjects who use the detector will hopefully eventually be able to slip away from the humdrum normal world. At least to a state of contemplation, and eventually much more – hopefully to soar to the realms of creation and understanding – but not in the way of David Koresh or St. Paul.[43]
Conclusion of Paper We have devised a way to use the S-Matrix method to increase human understanding and to arrive at new realms of perception. We have begun to further their use [4,11] and are using practical methods for OBE research as explained in [4].
Appendix 1 “The Ramsauer-Townsend effect may be thought of as a diffraction of the electron around the rare-gas atom, in which
the wave function inside the atom is distorted in just such a way that it fits on smoothly to an undistorted wave function outside”[30]
The well-known model of a 1-dimensional scattering problem[30], solved in many elementary quantum mechanics 2015 texts, is often put forward as exhibiting the essential features of wave mechanical behaviour that one observes in the – Ramsauer-Townsend effect. The 1-D model bears a relation to the real 3-D scattering problem that is similar to the relation which the problem of the energy levels of a particle in a 1-D box bears to the 3-D problem of the hydrogen atom, i.e. suggestive, but fairly distant as far as numerical agreement is concerned. In the 1-D scattering problem, one finds the transmission coefficient has maxima at a series of discrete energies for both positive and negative potential wells, whereas in the 3-D case there is only one maximum, and that only for an attractive potential.
References: Scienceand Scientist | | (1) Baars B. (2003). Commentary to Morten Overgaard: Foundations for a science of consciousness. J. Anthropological Psychology, No. 13, (ISSN 1902-4649). (2) Crick, F. and Koch, C. (2003). A framework for consciousness. Nature Neuroscience, Vol. 6(2). (3) Nagel, J. and Mortensen, K. (2015). Armchair-friendly experimental philosophy, In Sytsma J. and Buckwalter, W. (eds.), A Companion to Experimental Philosophy, Blackwell (forthcoming); http://philpapers.org/archive/NAGAEP.pdf (4) Yates, J. (2014). X-phi, Anton syndrome, blindsight, and the Pinocchio paradox. http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/12/x-phi-anton-syndrome-blindsight-and.html (5) Ramachandran, V.S. (2004). Anosognosia, The 5th Neuro-Psychoanalysis Congress, Rome 2004 on Splitting, Denial and Narcissism: Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives on the Right Hemisphere, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDHJDKPeB2A (6) Christopher A.F., Mermin, D. and Schack, R. (2014). An introduction to QBism with an application to the locality of Quantum Mechanics, arXiv:1311.5253v1 [quant-ph] 20 Nov 2013. (7) Yates, J. (2014). Abstract, “Husserl’s “Pure Phenomenology” and further adventures in time”, Toward a science of consciousness – The Tucson Conference 20th Anniversary, No. 266, p. 193. http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/documents/FinalCCS_BOOKofAbstracts_2014-2.pdf (8) Yates, J. (2014). Poster, "Even the journal "Nature" and David Mermin are beginning to grasp that theoretical
physics is becoming a pathological science", Toward a Science of Consciousness - The Tucson Conference 20th SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Anniversary - April 21-26, 2014 ; http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/01/how-physics-has-become-pathological.html; http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/04/below-is-poster.html 102
(9) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/12/the-churchland-and-baars-discussion.html (10) Brian N.P. and Robert, T.K. (2013). Decoding Speech for Understanding and Treating Aphasia. Prog Brain Res. Vol. 207, pp. 435-456. (11) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/10/astral-projection-at-home.html (12) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/08/noethers-theorem-neuroplasticity-obe.html (13) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/09/start-of-use-of-detailed-methods-like_14.html (14) Zopf, R., Savage, G., Williams, M.A. (2010). Crossmodal congruency measures of lateral distance effects on the rubber hand illusion. Neuropsychologia, Vol. 48(3), pp. 713-725. http://www.jove.com/video/50530/the-crossmodal- congruency-task-as-means-to-obtain-an-objective (15) Slater, M. et al. (2010). The Contribution of Real-Time Mirror Reflections of Motor Actions on Virtual Body Ownership in an Immersive Virtual Environment. http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/53296/1/634185.pdf (16) Yates, J.(2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/05/two-book-reviews.html (17) Angelica Ortiz de Gortari: http://playersexperiences.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/gtp-adventures-do-not- shoot-the-camera/ (18) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/09/ways-to-do-mathematics-for-obe-using.html (19) "Hybrid discriminative-generative approaches with Gaussian processes" in S. Kaski and J. Corander (eds) Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics, JMLR W&CP 33,
Iceland. http://jmlr.org/proceedings/papers/v33/andradepacheco14.pdf
(20) Refer: https://github.com/SheffieldML/GPy
(21) Griffiths, D.J. Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (2nd Edition) 2015
(22) Mahabharata, xii.291.2 – (23) journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5765048&fileId=S0035869X00034821 (24) Not necessarily: For example, "Temporal Modalities in Arabic Logic" by Nicholas Rescher is a fine work and I can mention many others. (25) Detailed comments and video link available here: http://bigthink.com/videos/missing-the-200-pound-gorilla-in- the-room (26) Bassalo, J.M.F. et al. (7 April, 2009). The Ramsauer-Townsend Effect and the de Broglie-Bohm quantum mechanics", arXiv:0904.1216v1 [quant-ph]
Scienceand Scientist (27) Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect due to noncommutative BTZ black hole. arXiv:1408.4481v1 [hep-th] 19 | | Aug 2014 (28) Gamboa J., Mendez M. (18 Dec 2000). Scattering in three dimensional extremal black holes. arXiv:hep- th/0006020v3 (29) Reference 10, page 82.
(30) Refer: http://web.mit.edu/8.13/www/JLExperiments/JLExp07.pdf
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(31) Burkhardt, C.E., Leventhal, J.J. (2008). Foundations of Quantum Physics. P. 119, Springer. (32) Slater, M. et al. (2006). A virtual reprise of the stanley milgram obedience experiments. DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0000039
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(33) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/09/how-man-is-believed-to-think-like-god.html (34) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/02/time-travel-and-embodied-cognition.html (35) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/05/methods-to-use-for-yates-equation_15.html (36) Refer: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201307/the-rarely-told-true-story-
zimbardo-s-prison-experiment
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(37) Yates, J. (2014). http://ttjohn.blogspot.in/2014/10/shamanism-and-implicate-order.html (38) Refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brane_cosmology (39) Refer: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sorites-paradox/ (40) Refer: http://www3.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/2007-8/20229/_HANDOUTS/sorites-solutions.pdf SOUVENIR (41) Refer: Barry, P, "Eliza": http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23783 (42) Bohm, D. and Hiley, B.J. (1993). The Undivided Universe. Chapter 15, Routledge. (43) Weber, R. (1986), Dialogues with scientists and sages: The search for unity, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (44) Dabrowski I., (1995). http://www.units.miamioh.edu/aisorg/pubs/issues/13_dabrowski.pdf 103
(45) Sheldrake R. (2013). http://www.sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/A_New_Science_of_Life_Appx_B.pdf (46) Storoy P. (2014). http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/david-bohm-implicate-order-and-holomovement/ (47) Dror IE. (2005). Cognitive technologies and the pragmatics of cognition, Vol. 12, p. 117, et seq. (48) Vimal, R.L.P. (2009). Samadhi state and dual-aspect optimal framework: https://sites.google.com/site/rlpvimal/Home/Vimal-Samadhi-LVCR-2009-III.I.pdf , at 2009-Vimal-Samadhi-LVCR- 2-3.pdf (49) Miller I. (2003). http://holographicarchetypes.weebly.com (50) Bohm D. (1990). A new theory of the relationship of mind and matter. Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 3(2), pp. 271- 286. (51) Mathematical fireflies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzRhdUkZc-s; real fireflies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lluWT6XU0Yg (52) Refer: http://nldlab.gatech.edu/w/images/6/66/Firefly_Final_Presentation.pdf
Session: Philosophical and Spiritual Approaches to Reality
Talk 1: The Highest End
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Goswami Maharaja Successor Sevaite-President-Acharya, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
2015
The revealed scriptures encourage everyone to optimistically search for the highest end of life: – asato mā sad gamaya tamaso mā jyotir gamaya mṛtyor māmṛtaṁ gamaya (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka-upaniṣad: 1.3.28) “Leave untruth and seek truth. Leave darkness and seek light. Leave death and seek immortality.”
The scriptures specify the defining characteristic of the highest end of life: yasmin jñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati yasmin prāpte sarvam idaṁ prāptaṁ bhavati
(Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad: 1.3) Scienceand Scientist | | “Enquire into that which upon knowing nothing remains to be known. Attain that which upon attaining nothing remains to be attained.”
This highest end is known as Brahman: bṛhatvāt bṛhannatvād iti brahma (Standard definition) “That which is the greatest and always becoming greater is Brahman.”
Brahman is the origin of everything: janmādy asya yataḥ (Vedānta-darśan: 1.1.2) “Creation, maintenance, and destruction arise from Brahman.”
The Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the basis of Brahman: brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham amṛtasyāvyayasya cha
śāśvatasya cha dharmasya sukhasyaikāntikasya cha SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS (Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 14.27)
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[The Lord says:] “I am the basis of Brahman, of the eternal nectar—immortality, of the eternal dharma—bhakti, and of the supreme joy—divine love.”
Our Param Guru Mahārāj, Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāja, would thus encourage everyone: “Search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Reality the Beautiful.” To enquire into anything less is a disservice to oneself and society. No time should be wasted individually or collectively on any inferior pursuit: labdhvā sudurlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte mānuṣyam artha-dam anityam apīha dhīraḥ tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anumṛtyu yāvan niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.9.29) “Having attained, after many births in this world, a rare human body, which although temporary can grant the highest end of life, a wise soul should immediately, and until the mortal body falls dead, endeavour for the highest attainment. Sense gratification (the pleasure of exploring the scope of empiric experience) can be had in any life form.”
Speculation is not a means to enquire into the highest end: achintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet prakṛtibhyaḥ paraṁ yach cha tad achintyasya lakṣaṇam (Mahābhārata: Bhīṣma parva, 5.22)
“Do not assess the inconceivable with reasoning. That which is inconceivable is beyond mundanity.”
Enquiry in the spirit of love and devotion is the only way to attain the highest end: 2015
teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te – (Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 10.10) [The Lord says:] “To those who always think of Me and serve Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.”
Our earnest request to the scholars and leaders of modern society is that they direct their attention and endeavors towards the highest end of life for the benefit of both themselves and society as a whole.
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Talk 2: Devotion and its Glories
Srila Bhakti Prapanna Tirtha Maharaja Senior Pracharak, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math
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In His sublime teachings to Srila Rupa Goswamipada, Sriman Mahaprbhu compared the growth of pure devotion to a creeper. The sincere soul aspiring to achieve the ultimate purpose of life, love for Sri Krishna, must first by the mercy of Sri Guru and Krishna receive the seed of that creeper. Srddha, or the noble faith that Krishna’s service summarily fulfils all needs is the embodiment of that seed. As a gardener, the devotee must sow that seed in the land of his own
heart and daily nourishes it with the pure waters of faithfully hearing from the pure devotees the glories of the Supreme
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Lord and accordingly chanting those glories. Cautiously he is to nurture the tender creeper, pruning the unwanted sub- branches of all anti devotional evils that stunt the natural and healthy growth of the creeper which is later to pierce the universal she’ll and even the ‘lofty’ plane of non-differentiated Brahama aspired for by the liberationists. At the same
time, he must protect it from outside aggressors, pests, and parasites that may uproot the creeper, the worst form being SOUVENIR disrespect to the pure Vaishnavas, since even the Supreme Lord consider the worship of His pure devotee as superior to His worship (mad-bhakta-pujabhyadhikah.)
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Lord Krishna saying to Uddhava in Bhagavatam the Glories of devotion very nicely. He is saying if my devotee has not fully conquered his senses, he may be harassed by material desires, but because of his unflinching devotion for me, he will not be defeated by sense gratification. Just as a blazing fire turns firewood into ashes, similarly, devotion unto Me completely burns to ashes sins committed by my devotees. The unalloyed devotional service rendered to me by my devotees brings me under their control. I cannot be thus controlled by those engaged in mystic yoga, Sankhya philosophy, pious work, Vedic study, austerity and renunciation. Only by practicing unalloyed devotional service with full faith in me can one obtain me, the Supreme Personality of God head. I am naturally dear to My devotees, who take me as the only goal of their loving service. By engaging in such pure devotional service, even the dog-eaters can purify themselves from the contamination of their low birth.
Talk 5: Free Will and Self Determination Tariq Muneer Director, Islamic Information Center, Hyderabad, India
"And the soul bears witness and the perfection given to it. Then inspired it with its evil and its good. That verily he succeeded who purified it. And he failed who corrupted it." (Quran -91:7-10)
Self-determination is the idea of a positive freedom, a freedom for actions that we originate, and that actions are “up to
us.” Such acts constitute the essence of free will. This is Mortimer Adler’s term, translating ideas from Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. It was adopted also by Robert Kane for his theory of Ultimate Responsibility. Self-
determination covers the classic problem of free will: are our actions up to us, could we have done otherwise, are there 2015 2015 alternative possibilities, or is everything simply part of a great determinism causal deterministic chain leading to a single possible future? – 1. Freewill and modern discourse a) Free will is the ability of persons to make choices unimpeded by certain prevailing factors. b) Metaphysical constraints, social constraints, mental constraints
2. Free will and Medical Science a) Now, a new study suggests that free will may arise from a hidden signal buried in the “background
noise” of chaotic electrical activity in the brain, and that this activity occurs almost a second before Scienceand Scientist | | people consciously decide to do something. b) This background noise may allow people to respond creatively to novel situations, and it may even give human behavior the “flavor of free will.” c) Though “purposeful intentions, desires and goals drive our decisions in a linear cause-and-effect kind of way, our finding shows that our decisions are also influenced by neural noise within any given moment,” study co-author Jesse Bengson, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis, wrote in an email to Live Science. “This random firing, or noise, may even be the carrier upon which our consciousness rides, in the same way that radio static is used to carry a radio station.” d) Hidden signal? To understand more about conscious decision-making, Bengson’s team used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain waves of 19 undergraduates as they looked at a screen and was cued to make a random decision about whether to look right or left. When people made their decision, a characteristic signal registered that choice as a wave of electrical activity that spread across specific brain regions. e) But in a fascinating twist, other electrical activity emanating from the back of the head predicted people’s decisions up to 800 milliseconds before the signature of conscious decision-making emerged.
f) This brain activity was not strictly a signal at all — it was “noise,” part of the brain’s omnipresent and SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS seemingly random electrical firing. In fact, neuroscientists usually consider this background noise
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meaningless and subtract it when trying to figure out the brain response to a specific task, said Rick Addante, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas who was not involved in the research. g) In other words, some hidden signal in the background noise of the brain seemed to determine people’s conscious decisions before they made them.
2015
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3. Free will and Psychology OF OF ABSTRACTS
a) Self-control furnishes the possibility of acting from rational principles rather than acting on impulse.
b) Living things everywhere face two problems: survival and reproduction. All species have to solve those basic problems or else go extinct. Humankind has an unusual strategy for solving them: culture.
& & BOOK We communicate, develop complex social systems, engage in trade, accumulate knowledge
collectively, create giant social institutions (governments, hospitals, universities, corporations). These help us survive and reproduce, increasingly in comfortable and safe ways. These large systems have worked very well for us, if you measure success in the biological terms of survival and reproduction. c) That is the reality behind the idea of free will: these processes of rational choice and self-control.
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d) Determinists rightly assert that every effect has a cause but Materialistic Determinists wrongly assume that all effects including thoughts, values, volitions, decisions or acts are caused only by physical, chemical, or physiological processes going on in human body. However, they forget that Psychological reasons (related to the soul) may also be the cause of many effects.
SOUVENIR 4. Free will and Islam a) We are free to wish and to act in a particular way but our will is always restrained and determined by exterior causes or inner disposition (nature). These causes spring from the general laws of nature.
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b) Believe or disbelieve according to Allah’s law of universal causation. Human WILL is absolutely free from compulsion but not free from causation. Everything, including our every act and decision has a prior cause. The important point to keep in mind is, however, that the cause is not always outside of us. The cause may also be within us. Our own character, which we ourselves have helped to form, our own past habits, resolutions and decisions may also be the cause of our present decisions and acts.
5. Free will and Here after a) “He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving” – (Quran - 67:2) b) It is imperative that a Human Being accept the state of his nature (disposition) after reflecting on it, utilize the faculties of soul (Passion, Anger, Reason, Justice) moderately, being conscious of having freedom of Choice from God, exercising free will with responsibility – Hence owning up the result of his actions on the day of judgment which he performed all through his life utilizing his free will. c) Thus the life after death resulting in heaven or hell will be the direct responsibility of a human being and his exercising of free will. d) “And fear the day when you shall all return to God. Then every soul shall be paid back for what it did and none shall be wronged” (Quran - 2:281).
Talk 4: Understanding the concept of Vyāhrti: Religion to Science
Janardan Ghimire Lecturer
Host, Kantipur FM Radio, Kathmandu & Sanskrit Dept. Tribhuvan Univ., Kathmandu, Nepal 2015
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Generally Vyāhrti is understood as the Mantra and most of the people are practicing without knowing the meaning of it. In the oriental system, it is significantly made clear about the area covered by Vyāhrti but it is just used at the time of Yagna without its scientific interpretation. Such as: i. भरू 嵍नये प्राणाय वाहा (bhūragnaye prānāya swāhā) ii. ā ā ā ā ā
भवु वाायवेऽपानाय वाहा (bhuvarv yave ap n ya sw h ) Scienceand Scientist | | iii. वरादि配याय 핍यानाय वाहा (swarādityāya vyānāya swāhā) भःू (bhū(s)) means the earth where the fire is located at the center and inner core of it. The fire is one of the natural light. भवु ः {bhuva(s)} means the lower space where air is located at the center part of it. The friction of which causes the Vidyut, another form of natural light. वः{svaḥ(s)} means the upper space where Sun is located at the center part of it. Furthermore, भःू (bhū(s)) changes in the form of Vasu, भवु ः{bhuva(s)} changes in the form of Rudra and वः{svaḥ(s)} changes in the form of āditya at the time of Pitrs hr āddha, according to Vedic explanation. Vasu, Rudra and Aditya are also other categories of natural light described in oriental Sanskrit.
So, “भभू वुा ः वः” (bhūbhuva: svaḥ) is the analysis of source of natural light system. But it is not understood why to add “भभू वुा ः वः” before reciting Gayatri Mahāmantra even it is not the part of 24 characters of Brahma Gāyatr i. Wonderfully, Vyāhrti is not used in other Gāyatr is except Brahmagāyatr i.
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This research focuses Vyāhrti and mainly highlights the words जातवेि (jātaveda) ह्रादिनी and तनयय配न ु (hrādinī and stanayitnu) and रवव (Ravi) which deal the relation of Light with Sound. As the hypothetical concepts prevail in Vedas and ancient Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit and Science have proven inter-disciplinary.
Session: Ontological Distinction Between Life and Matter
Talk 1: Scientific and Cultural Analysis on the Metaphysical Dimension of Life: An empirical approach Bharat Giri Independent Research Scholar, Kathmandu, Nepal
In today's world of scientific advancement, human life has changed as never before. Yet, science is unable to unveil the enigma that envelopes life. The paradoxical aspect of nature and human consciousness has not yet been solved. Scientific study so far, is still limited to the ephermal study of matter and material laws. Looking restropectively into the modern
history scientific progress took its pace merely 300 years ago after Galileo. Yet, its achievement was later manipulated
for the militarization and industrial ends, which otherwise ought to have been utilized for human enlightenment and non-violence. Galileo himself was put to trial (acquisition) by the powers of the Church. On the other hand alienated
2015 from scientific research eastern spirituality fell victim to superstition and blind faiths while its guardian lost the powers
– during the dark history of plunder and colonization.
It is no doubt that the major civilizations of the world secured valuable contribution from the South Asian region which eventually fell prey to invasion and destruction from the 7th Century onwards, by the external forces. The acharyas of the contemporary time foresaw the danger and played crucial role in keeping ancient science and spirituality safe in and beyond the Tibetan Regions. The 21st Century can make a great beginning of the era of re-enlightenment if realized on time. It is possible if the achievement of physical science is balanced with the sublime wisdom of the spiritual science
Scienceand Scientist that was left behind by the seers of the hoary past. What the modern science has begun to say that the world is in | | likeness to a beholder in fact is in accordance to the Upanisadic teaching that had been emphasizing the material world as temporary and Brahma being the ultimate reality. The error with today’s science is that while studying the matter around, it has forgotten to study the mind and its sphere of consciousness.
Emperor Constantine reigned from A.D 306 to 337 and it was during his time that the Council of Nicaea was OF OF ABSTRACTS
convened.(Baigent: 2006:88) Reincarnation Theory was banned to create psychological necessity for crusade. But why should the east become victim to this schizophrenic worldview that originated in the west? Religion in the east is not a sectarian belief but a tradition of scientific pursuit (as stated in Kurma Purana 2/29: vigyman nirmala sukchyam nirvikalpam
& & BOOK yadavyam agyanmitransarvam) that transcended all frontiers of material limitation. The seers and saints were in fact
scientists who contemplated to solve the universal cause of suffering of the humankind which had its origin within and without. The grandeur of material, spiritual and moral heights that the east had gained is evident from the Greek account of Megathenese who visited India in the Mauryan reign. The eastern science perennially influenced the Greek Civilization through which today’s world acquired its development especially in the renaissance period. After the
PROGRAMME repeated foreign attacks and suppressive rule that began as early as the 7th Century. The cultural glory of Asia did not
fail even until the 18th Century of the British rule in India which is evident from the commentaries of Richard Temple, Max Muller, Monier Williams, T.B. Macaulay and so on (Shourie: 1994:162-163). Strategic plans came to light especially from Lord Macaulay’s minute that was presented to the British Parliament in A.D. 1835 which proposes to
SOUVENIR destroy the eastern languages and culture that served as the strongest backbone for both spiritual and material prosperity in the land making the people undominatable.
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The Cultural Co-relation Found in the Structure of DNA The cultural strata of the east is fundamentally pragmatic whose exploration could lead to immense advantage to modern science. Let us take the case of Caduceus the symbol used universally in modern medical science. The two entwined serpents on a central axis infact is derived from the symbolical diagram of Kundalini Shakti, the arousal of the Serpent Power within. The left meridian (Nadi) symbolizes Pingala whereas the right one represents the Ida. The straight rod which balances the two opposing forces is the Susumna which forms the central axis balancing the twin force. The entwined structure corresponds to the double helix structure of the DNA. The wings on the top symbolize enlightenment and liberation from material bondage. This expression of Yoga Philosophy travelled northward to form Ying Yang model of cosmology and the book of change, I- Ching.
Therefore the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick is not a new phenomenon in the history of Science. It was a rediscovery of the ancient science in the light of modern study. According to Genetics the relationships between the nucleotide sequences of genes and amino acid sequences of proteins is determined by the rules of translation, known collectively as the genetic codes. The principle governing the coding and translations if well examined may have correlation to the science of Karma in spiritual perspective. The drawback in modern biological science
in context to genetics is its inability to account for the deeper psychological and action-
based (mental and physical acts) impacts on the genetic codification. The study of quantum mechanics reckons us to study mental processes rather than its projected images. This makes the study of
human consciousness more demanding. If we ponder along this line, the achievement of one branch of science is not 2015 still well applied to the understanding of other branches (of science). In this context the study of the spiritual dimension – seems still further away. The study of not just of human brain but of mind can be of advantage in the study of the true evolution of the human psyche. It is an accepted fact that human genome project can shed light on various genetic facts of a particular organism and permit examination of complete evolutionary events. Study on the impact of collective consciousness in evolution is yet another realm that modern science needs to set its priority.
Again can DNA evidence (for example) be used to identify the lost genes of the Vedic Seers? It is the time we need to
study for the achievement of higher spheres of life for the welfare and true progress of human race on earth as Scienceand Scientist | | genetically modified genes have entered the scene replacing the existing ones. Ethical questions are on the rise.
Vedic Metaphysics and Modern Science Darwin’s “Origin of Species” of 1859 spelled decline of the catastrophist view of history, even though his strongest champions, professor Gray Thomax Huxley and Haeckel refused to accept the idea of natural selection-that fittest survive. Today (one hundred and fifty five years later) proof is unobtainable and evolutionary theory is under even greater pressure than in Darwin’s time because the fossil line consists for most parts of the gaps. Nonetheless, Darwin’s unworkable theory is still accepted by the majority (Mann: 1986:59). My opinion too on the “Survival of the fittest” is not in agreement. I find more rationale in the wisdom of the ancient rhisis who taught that all lives perish both the fittest and the weak. It is the truth that prevails ultimately. Therefore the Vedas and Upanisads may have faded away from human memory but the laws they spoke about still rule the world. By definition, the Vedas are apaurusheya or non human in origin. The rhisis of the Vedas are called Mantradrsta or the seers (direct observers) of the mantras (universal laws). This means that the rhisis found or discovered the Vedas and did not create them (Saraswoti: 2013:4). The east considered the body as sacred. In the Ayurvedic perspective too the nature of body is considered important. The ancient west has also acknowledged it to some degree. In this field is well to remember the words of Hippocrates hewn in stone on medical science buildings: The nature of the body is the beginning of the medical science (Newton: 1993:13). What the Vedic rhisis saw
was the microcosm (the mind-body matrix or the skandha) that reflected the (natural) laws of the universe SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS (macrocosm). The archeological pieces of evidence found in Nepal and India also give direct and powerful examples of this quantum laws in sacred art and architecture. The popular stone images of Uma Mahesvara in Nepal of the ancient 110
Licchavi period is such a masterpiece sculpture. Uma is depicted with left hand holding mirror which is the compelling feature of the art that inspire us to see the reality within one self, matter being merely a product of illusion.
Nevertheless, in recent time a new understanding of the worldview is coming into being which was foreshadowed in eastern religion and western mysticism. Heisenberg too realized (upon studying material science) that the observer alters the observed by the act of observation and the degree of alteration is affected by the consciousness of the observer. Mind can effect space and time and in a very basic way the whole space-time continuum is a product of the mind which perceives it, a concept which has led to a great confusion inside and outside science. The search for the formative causes or overall patterns of reality, the structure and order which underlies what is, in distinction to the sub atomistic and fragmentary view of modern sciences, empirical psychology and biology, where a mechanistic rationale for life is sought in the structure and function of DNA molecules (Mann: 1986:66).
The super coiled helix structure of the DNA, the concentrically revolving energy rings of Yoga-Chakra within human body (Yoga philosophy) as well as the coiled serpentine energy again needs a mention. The general observation of the expanding spiral rings of the fossilized trilobite (sacred to Vaishnavite tradition) seems to be yet another very relevant reflection of the expanding universe within the formative stage of life on earth. The elliptical paths of the planets, the whirling spirals shape of the galaxy could not most possibly escape from influencing life on earth. Therefore, in my view astrology seems more scientific than Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
The missing dimension in Modern Astronomy
Modern astronomy may fail but ancient astrology has rarely left any serious marks of 2015
failure. The whole shortcoming is due to the fact the modern astronomy is unable to – access its relationship with human consciousness. The Sanskrit Literature ought to be studied for further development in science. Few notable personalities have already grasped this idea. And among those is Dr. Sir William Hunter. His remark: “The astronomy of the Hindus has formed the subject of excessive administration. Proof of very extraordinary proficiency.” (Sardar: 2003:293). Additionally, Mr. Weber says “Astronomy was practiced in India as early as 2700 B.C.” (ibid). Sir William Hunter further agrees. “In some points the Brahmins made advances beyond Greek Astronomy. This fame spread throughout
Scienceand Scientist the west.” (ibid: 297). Considering such account it is important that modern studies | | ought to be directed into the works of the great eastern astronomers such as Aryabhatta, Varamihir, Bhaskaracharya, and several other Sanskrit Literatures too. The contribution of Charak, Susruta and so on in the field of medicine and surgery are also lost in oblivion. The neurological account of the Royal Physician Jeevak as recorded in the Buddhist Literature is a testimony of surgical perfection attained by the Vaidyas
2500 years ago. The most influential Nepalese Sanskrit historian of our time Nayaraj Pant had always emphasized on the
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importance of Sanskrit studies being indispensible for the Pan Indian cultural studies that has made enormous impact in the Asian Region as well as the world at large (Pant: 2014:3-4).
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The Shaping of the Future On the other hand, while modern study of history and culture has alienated the scientific study of spirituality, new science has deviated towards materialism and these twin field of study has converged into a kind of a “museum model”, therefore unable to contribute to the true “enlightenment” of the humankind. Indeed, the introduction of Sanskrit
studies in modern science can ultimately pave way for the final solution to the true scientific studies.
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Aristotle believed that all the matter in the universe was made up of four basic elements, earth, air, fire and water (Hawkins: 1988:67). Using the wave/particle duality everything in the universe including light and gravity can be described in terms of particles (ibid: 70). A closer examination shows however that the differences between the two SOUVENIR kinds of experiences (scientific and mystical) lie only in their approach and not in their reliability or complexity. A mystical experience therefore, is not any more unique than a modern experiment in physics (Capra: 1991:36). The antiseptic world view of modern science is gradually breaking away as the old model of science is being replaced by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (space-time theory). The last curtain of material truth was pulled down by the ground 111
breaking discovery of particle mechanics. The sub atomic realm of science is already becoming more poetic, and mystical as conceptual and mathematical notions are gradually dissolving, leaving only the play of the supreme consciousness behind. In the eastern perception we have the realism (Arambha-Vada) of Vaishesika, the pluralism (Sanghata-Vada) of Buddhism, the evolutionism (Parinama-Vanda) of Sankhya-yoga, running in parallel lines of development from the remotest antiquity (Stcherbatsky: 1992:67). Above all, Srimad Bhagvad-Gita had played the vital role in balancing the major schools of thought in the Pan Indian Culture and even beyond it, to the Western countries. Within twenty years of Gita’s first appearance in the English Language a subtle but in the end dramatic change had come over the intellectual face of Europe (Sharpe: 1985:15).
The ban on theory of reincarnation imposed by Church in the time of Emperor Constantine was the historical error in the European Region. Nevertheless the idea of reincarnation now gaining grounds in the west can save the tradition of objective examination of truth. The 14th Dalai Lama Says: “Reincarnation is not exclusively a Buddhist or Hindu concept, but is a part of the history of human origin. It is hoped that intensive and sincere belief regarding reincarnation be carried further in order that deeper and more scientific understanding can be conceived.” The Christian Church of 13th Century completely destroyed the Cathers in their gruesome crusade. The Cathers believed in reincarnation and had separated themselves from the papacy, and were a threat to the ruling order (Hardo: xii:2009). Prospective development of humanity is self contained within the retrospective witnessing of the consciousness of life. Wholistic approach of worldview can unfold the realization of truth about life. The laws of thermodynamics alone can contribute to the fundamental explanation for re-incarnation theory.
The Ritual Spaces
The rituals have played a crucial role in shaping up cultural and spiritual cosmologies of the practitioner. A ritual is likened to the model of a scientific experiment. The repeatability of experiment and evidence based observance is what
makes any science to be considered scientific. In the spiritual perspective experiences are objective evidences alike any 2015 other physical parameters in science. As a matter of fact which one of the two is to be considered a valid objectivity, – within or without is a matter of concern. Here lies the controversy that physical science is not yet decisively final.
There is the virtual, inner matrix of private purpose and intensions, consciousness shifts or jumps, magical visualization, internalized prayers with the unseen world and karmic circumstances. All religions emphasize that the inner and outer should be aligned for a ritual to be effective. The ritual enclosure is in both worlds and frequently refers to and joins the two worlds with formulas, chants, mantras, sacrifice, oblations, libations, consecration, benediction, dedication and so
on usually with analogy, orientation, movement very precisely prescribed. Having a physical form symbolizing the Scienceand Scientist | | central axis (World Tree/Kundalini shakti) that establishes the connection in common in many traditions (Sala: 2014:96). Therefore all ingredients of mind and subtle actions are ultimately harmonized with the active sphere of consciousness which is otherwise dormant. True evolution therefore seems to be a collectively conscious process throughout the history. Even Kant never applied his category of consciousness to the historical process nor did Schopenhauer (Mann: 1986:68). In the memory of the past, life is stored in the brain, heliacal genetic code, body substance, soul and spirit – at every level of interaction with the universe (ibid:69). The understanding of how living organism functions is helped enormously by using comparative study (Nielsen: 1994:1). Professor Rene Thom of France’s Institute for advanced Scientific Studies prepared a mathematical explanation of the process of change. Changes of form (in processes as well as in objects) are real and the aim of science is to grasp the universal “ceaseless creation, evolution and destruction of forms.” Thom’s goal is to describe qualitative repeatable observations and through them the origins of forms which process he calls ‘morphogenesis’. “Morphogenesis” includes “mind” in its frame of reference as the most complex system. C.H Waddington, a paleontologist, embryologist, geneticist and evolutionist realized in investigating the development of species through time that the contours of the landscape (of change) are multidimensional (ibid:63).
Sir William Ramsay related perception to time and eternity. As we undergo mental transformations, we imagine worlds
– that is to say we construct mental cosmologies. The universes are the successive layers of perception reached during SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS the inner journey reflecting successive layers of what we perceive to be the physical world. The only obstacles to transcending the temporal universe are within us (ibid:64). Bells experiment which contributed to non-locality based 112
principles in the communication of particles (spin) can explain the ESP phenomena of the human mind, such as telepathy clairvoyance and so on. Therefore cultural alienation seems to have accounted for the vital loss of empirical objectivity in the history of scientific studies till date.
The ESP Phenomena Related Studies The study of consciousness pattern and mystical aspect of life has to be studied in greater detail to make modern science and ancient wisdom discover the missing harmony in a systematic way. The various ESP related experiences reported worldwide justify the need of scientific studies to be focused on issues such as, telepathy, Clairvoyance, Psycho kinesis, OBE (out of body experiences), near death experiences, psychic voyages, Sentiency in nature, trance, aura (kirlian photography), past life memory, and so on.
Studies on this field may help to understand the localized and empirical dimension of the human consciousness so far left in ignorance. Rational examination of the origin of all life form may find explanation in the light of phenomenon related to consciousness and its sensitivity to matter and environment ranging from the lowest to the highest sphere of Cosmology.
Conclusion The harmony of the old and the new science certainly can converge at a realistic model of study. The atomistic and
molecular science being the inner counterpart of the expanding consciousness and their consequent inter-active
environmental (Cosmological) dimension therefore can contain elements and clearer images of the reality explored.
The available evidence from the diverse cultures and spiritual experiences from around the world do not seem to 2015
contradict with modern science. At this stage the metaphysical approach is what the findings of modern scientific study – invoking the seeker of the truth.
References: [1] Baigent, M. (2006). The Jesus papers, Harper Element, London. [2] Capra, F. (1991). The Tao of Physics, Shambala Publication, Boston. [3] Hardo, T. (2009). 30 Most Convincing Cases Of Reincarnation, Jaico, Mumbai. [4] Hawking, W.S. (1988). A Brief History Of Time, Bantam, Books, London.
Scienceand Scientist [5] Mann, A.T. (1986). The Divine Plot: Astrology, reincarnation, cosmology and history. Allen and Unwin Ltd, London. | | [6] Newton,G.R. (1993). What Makes Nature Tick?, Havard University Press, London. [7] Nicholson, S. (1987). Shamanism, The Theosophical Publishing House, USA. [8] Nielsen, K.S. (1994). Animal Physiology, 4th edition, Mansa Saikia, New Delhi. [9] Pant, M.R. (2014). Ko Hun Ta Naya Raj Pant, Samshodhana Mandala, Kathmandu.
[10] Sala L. (2014). Ritual: The magical perspective, efficacy and the search for inner meaning, Nirala Publications, New Delhi.
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[11] Saraswati, S.C. (2013). The Vedas, Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, Mumbai. [12] Sardar, H.B. (2003). Hindu Superiority, Rupa and Co., New Delhi.
[13] Sharpe, E.J. (1985). The Universal Gita, Open Court Publishing Company, London.
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[14] Shourie, A. (1994). Missionaries in India. ASA Publications, Delhi. [15] Stcherbatsky, T. (1992). The Critical Conception of Buddhism, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi.
Talk 2: Retrocausality and Signal Nonlocality in Consciousness and
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Cosmology Jack Sarfatti, Ph.D. (University of California, USA) Worked as Assistant Professor of Physics at San Diego State University
(Reprinted with Permission from Ronald Becker, Managing Editor, Journal of Cosmology. (Originally appeared in Journal of Cosmology, Vol SOUVENIR 14 , 2011))
I conjecture that the intrinsic conscious mental field is analogous to a hologram described by a low frequency effective field nonlinear dissipative (non-unitary) local macroquantum coherent c-number multi-component order parameter. This order parameter landscape in our brain obeys a Landau-Ginzburg type equation for a nonequilibrium dissipative 113
structure with signal nonlocality violating microscopic orthodox quantum theory. Therefore, different parts of the brain can locally decode messages from other distant parts without having to wait for classical electrical and chemical signal keys to move slower than light. The coherent order parameter landscape is phase and amplitude locked into the distributed pattern of the electrical and chemical signals both for sensory input and motor output in a set of creative feedback-control loops. The imprinting action of the electrical and chemical signal patterns on the intrinsically mental landscape excites our inner conscious qualia and explains the “binding problem” of how the conscious mind has an undivided wholeness. The piloting reaction of those excitations in the mental landscape back on the electrical and chemical signal pattern is our volition in which thought is expressed in our motor behavior. The application of similar ideas to the cosmological dark energy and arrow of time problems is also discussed. Indeed, I suggest that the dark energy accelerating the universe is advanced Hawking-Unruh black body radiation from our future observer-dependent cosmological event horizon.
"Science proceeds as if the past was the home of explanation; whereas the future and the future alone holds the key to the mysteries of the present. When that first cell divided, the meaning of that division was to be discovered in the future, not in the past; when some pre-human ancestor first uttered a human sound, the significance of that sound was to be interpreted by human language, not by apish grunts; when the first plant showed solicitude for its seed, the interest of that solicitude lay in the promise of maternal affection. Things must be judged in the light of the coming morning, not in the setting stars." (Sedgwick, 1916)
There is now ample independent reproducible evidence in many published papers (Bem, 2011), (Bierman, 2008; Libet, 1979; Radin, 2004) for back-from-the-future “presponse” in human consciousness (Stapp, 1996). Yakir Aharonov
(Aharonov, 1998) in his back-from-the-future version of quantum theory argues that unlike classical mechanics, in quantum mechanics the initial pre-selected and final post-selected conditions are truly independent. Indeed, the uncontrollable randomness of Heisenberg’s microscope uncertainty gedanken experiment only occurs because we
integrate out the final condition in our intermediate observations. Aharonov shows with actual experiments using weak 2015 measurements that the statistical ensemble expectation values need two quantum state vectors instead of the usual one. – For example, in addition to the retarded Dirac “bra” history propagating from the past preselected initial condition to the present intermediate measurement, we also need the advanced Dirac “ket” propagating back-from-the- future post-selected final condition to the present. The present weak measurement expectation value in standard Dirac notation is different from the von-Neumann projection postulate for strong measurements, namely
(1.1)
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Aharonov and his students speculate that a final condition in our future retro-causally influences the past evolution of life on Earth. On the other hand, Michael Nauenberg wrote: “The claim of Aharonov et al. that at various stages of the measurement process, ensembles can be separated into sub-ensembles which can be associated with quantum states, leads to contradictions with the principles of quantum mechanics, and gives rise to the paradoxes of ‘impossible ensembles’ discussed in their article. Their unphysical description of the measurement process, leads them to the false conclusion that ‘quantum mechanics offers a place to specify both an initial and an independent final state", and to such outlandish statements like ‘that quantum mechanics lets one impose . . . a putative final state of the universe’." (Nauenberg, 2011)
Aharonov’s theory is still limited by what Abner Shimony calls “passion at a distance” aka signal locality. Signal locality precludes using nonlocal quantum entanglement as a stand-alone communication channel. This means that any attempt to encode and send a message from one part of an entangled system to another part will only show random noise at that second part. Decoding the nonlocally entangled stored message always requires an additional classical signal or “key” to break the code. Brian Josephson (Josephson, 1991) and myself (Sarfatti, 1998) independently suggested ways out of this Catch 22 involving generalizing quantum theory with “signal nonlocality” very much like the transition from special to general relativity where non-unitarity of the time evolution of the quantum state is analogous to non-vanishing curvature. Antony Valentini published detailed formal papers asserting that “sub-quantal non-equilibrium” of Bohm’s “hidden variables” permits signal nonlocality with profound consequences for quantum cryptography (Valentini, 2002). In addition, the discovery of dark energy accelerating the expansion of our observable universe is evidence for the idea SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS that we are retro-causal back-from-the-future hologram image computations from our future cosmological event 114
horizon (Davis, 2003) whose increasing area-entropy from the moment of inflation almost trivially explains the irreversible arrow of time.
“Quantum correlations display a subtle nonlocality. On the one hand, as Bell showed, quantum correlations could not arise in any theory in which all variables obey relativistic causality. On the other hand, quantum correlations themselves obey relativistic causality—we cannot exploit quantum correlations to transmit signals at superluminal speeds (or at any speed). …. Nonlocality and causality seem prima facie incompatible. Einstein’s causality contradicts Newton’s action at a distance. Yet quantum correlations do not permit action at a distance, and Shimony has aptly called the non-locality manifest in quantum correlations “passion at a distance.” (Popescu & Rohrlich, 1996)
On the other hand, Antony Valentini wrote: “It is argued that immense physical resources – for nonlocal communication, espionage, and exponentially-fast computation – are hidden from us by quantum noise, and that this noise is not fundamental but merely a property of an equilibrium state in which the universe happens to be at the present time. It is suggested that ‘non-quantum’ or nonequilibrium matter might exist today in the form of relic particles from the early universe. We describe how such matter could be detected and put to practical use. Nonequilibrium matter could be used to send instantaneous signals, to violate the uncertainty principle, to distinguish non-orthogonal quantum states without disturbing them, to eavesdrop on quantum key distribution, and to outpace quantum computation (solving NP-complete problems in polynomial time).” (Valentini, 2002)
I assume here as a fact that we have unconscious neurological responses before the external stimuli. This cannot be
explained by orthodox quantum theory because this presponse is non-random violating the no-signaling with
entanglement theorem based on unitary time evolution of the quantum wave function and the usual Born probability 2015
interpretation. The latter rule is that the squared modulus of the complex-valued quantum wave function is the – probability density in configuration space for position measurements of many entangled particles. In Feynman’s global path integral picture we coherently square the sum of the amplitudes for indistinguishable histories, but not for distinguishable histories.
Furthermore, I suggest that all living matter is “nonequilibrium” in Valentini’s “subquantal” sense within Bohm’s ontological interpretation of quantum theory. The latter pictures real electrons and other particles on definite spacetime trajectories influenced by the nonlocal context-dependent quantum potential as well as the classical local gauge electro-
Scienceand Scientist weak-strong forces. Therefore, we can apply ordinary non-equilibrium statistical mechanics because the “hidden | | variables” are not really “hidden” at all but correspond pretty much to our usual classical pictures contrary to Bohr’s position in his debate with Einstein. All the quantum weirdness is in the quantum potential Q for fermions and its generalization to boson field theory. Orthodox quantum theory corresponding to “subquantal thermodynamic equilibrium” of the hidden variable particles corresponds to a “fragile” quantum potential Q. “Fragile” in this context
was coined by Bohm and Hiley in their book “The Undivided Universe”. It means that the hidden variables are test
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particles that are piloted by Q, but do not directly back-react on it. Such direct back-reaction would permit stabilizing feedback-control loops between the entangled particles and their shared Q. Pumping by an external flow of energy
should establish sub-quantal nonequilibrium and long-range coherence analogous to a laser above threshold. The
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material hidden variables are then no longer passive test particles at the mercy of their intrinsically thought like Q, but modify it whilst being moved by it. This change in the shape of the Q landscape is the origin of all conscious qualia. (Stapp, 1996) That’s the model. Mathematically, in the simplest case of two identical entangled point particles in the slow speed non-relativistic limit, the extended post-quantum theory has a post-quantum potential where
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where are variables of possible virtual coordinates of where and when the particles might be whilst, in contrast, are the actual coordinates of the particles where and when they really are (Sarfatti, 2002).
SOUVENIR Borrowing from Wheeler and Feynman’s classical advanced potential electrodynamics that mutated to John Cramer’s transactional interpretation (Cramer, 1986) and Aharonov’s history and destiny double state vector theory, I replace the in Bohm’s quantum potential
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(1.3) by an entirely original Ansatz presented here for the first time to my knowledge:
(1.4)
(1.5)
(1.6) Therefore,
/(
(1.7)
2015 2015
–
(1.8)
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(1.9) The limiting case of orthodox unitary non-dissipative quantum mechanics is the very shaky ground
(1.10) When we have spontaneous broken ground state symmetry in a complex system the local order parameter is a giant coherent “one particle” (BEC) field in ordinary space. I mean the ground state of quasi-particle excitations of the brain material probably at the level of the single electron dipoles inside the protein dimers of the microtubules in the now wellknown model of Stuart Hameroff (Hameroff, 1987). Indeed, Max Tegmark’s “warm brain” objection (Tegmark, 2000) against long-range coherence is under fire by recent work on, e.g., “modular entanglement” (ME) published in
Physical Review Letters: “We will show that a most relevant feature of ME is its enhanced stability against thermal decoherence, SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS even by several orders of magnitude, compared to the case of simple LDE … From the point of view of consciousness studies, this and other papers concerned with quantum features in proteins involved in photosynthesis look to sound the death knell for the recent 116
orthodoxy that quantum features could not persist in biological tissues, thus leaving the road open for the possibility of quantum coherence and entanglement in the brain.” (Guadli, 2011)
The “Catch 22” forbidding the use of nonlocal entanglement as a stand-alone communication channel depends on the linearity and unitary time evolution of the Schrodinger equation in the configuration space for many particles. We can also use the Wigner phase space density, but there is no new physics there relevant to our quest for signal nonlocality. However, spontaneous symmetry breakdown of an invariance group G of the dynamical action means that the ground state for real particles (and the vacuum state for virtual particles) is described by the emergence of off-diagonal-long- range-order (ODLRO) in the quantum correlation functions that obey a Landau-Ginzburg equation. The formation of ordinary crystals, superconductors, and the Higgs mechanism in the standard model of quarks, leptons and gauge bosons correspond to G = T3, U1 and SU2 respectively. This mechanism gives macro-quantum long range phase coherence in an effective order parameter c-number theory whose dynamical equation is nonlinear, nonunitary and local in ordinary spacetime. Therefore, the necessary conditions for passion at a distance no longer obtain. This is what happens in all living matter in my opinion corresponding to Brian Josephson’s idea of the biological utilization of nonlocality. Of course small vibrations in the macro-quantum coherent c-number will obey the usual quantum randomness with a linear unitary evolution in the configuration space of the vibrating quasi-particles and collective modes. The coherent order parameter is a source and sink for these incoherent quantum vibrations of its amplitudes and phases. The matter quantum information wave and its boson particle hidden variables essentially fuse together because a
significant fraction of all the particles condense out of configuration space to occupy the same single-particle quantum
state in ordinary space. P.W. Anderson (1972) calls this emergence of new order on longer scales with robust phase
coherence “More is different.” There is also another kind of protection against decoherence called global “topological 2015
order” (i.e., braid groups generalizing the permutation groups of quantum statistics) found in 2D thin films with string- – like “anyons,” e.g., electrons at the ends of magnetic flux vortex tubes (Wilczek, 1982). Anyons have fractional quantum numbers and fractional quantum statistics in-between the usual fermion and boson statistics that apply only in 3D systems. Indeed, the physics on the curved spacetime 2D +1 horizons that holographically encode the interior 3D + 1 bulk gravity fields is probably anyonic. Future quantum computers immune from heat based on this idea are now actively studied and obviously this trick is probably used in our brains. However, I now go back to the local order model. The emergent macroscopic non-relativistic local unentangled nonlinear nonunitary Landau-Ginzberg
equation for the c-number ground state macroscopic coherent signal order parameter in ordinary 3D space Scienceand Scientist
| | replaces the nonlocal entangled linear unitary Schrodinger equation for the microscopic noise wave function
of N point particles in 3ND configuration space. One example of this is the superconductor Cooper pair condensate q = 2e
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There is no “i” on the RHS of this dissipative time-dependent Landau-Ginzburg equation according to Berger. In general the coefficient multiplying the time derivative is complex with an imaginary wavelike unitary part and an real dissipative
& & BOOK non-unitary part. The relative weights are highly model-dependent in a large variety of soft-condensed matter systems
found in the literature on time-dependent Landau-Ginburg effective c-number condensate emergent field theories. That is one reason it is non-unitary. The Born probability distribution breaks down in the condensate as well. Jorge Berger wrote that (1.11) “is not only nonlinear; it is also nonunitary.” He calculates both static and dynamical parts for the macro- quantum coherent Bohm quantum potential Q as follows.
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α - +
(1.12)
SOUVENIR Newton’s macro-quantum coherent corrected 2nd law for the convective “fluid” acceleration of the Bohm un-hidden variable is
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(1.13) “We have extended the de Broglie-Bohm theory, which was built for particles that obey the Schroedinger equation, to the case of electron pairs in a superconductor, which obey a more complex (nonlinear and nonunitary) equation. For the stationary regime this extension is completely natural; in the general case, in which the number of pairs is not conserved, additional postulates are required.” (Berger, 2004)
Retrocausality was found in the physics of radiation reaction by Dirac in the 1930s and applied by Wheeler and Feynman (1945) for classical electrodynamics and to quantum theory. The imposition of a perfect total future absorber for all light ensures that the world looks as if there is only past cause and future effect. Hoyle and Narlikar (1995) applied the Wheeler-Feynman idea even further to quantum theory as did Cramer (1986). Hoyle and Narlikar also applied it to cosmology. Of particular interest is their proof that the steady state cosmology obeys the perfect total future absorber final boundary condition. All of this was before the discovery of the gravitationally repulsive dark energy that is about 73% of all the stuff in our part of the multiverse that causes the expansion of 3D space to speed up rather than slow down. Our universe is evolving into a de Sitter solution described by a positive Einstein cosmological constant in Einstein’s field equation
=0 (1.14) The standard cosmological model uses a co-moving Hubble flow solution of the form (1.15) where t is the proper clock time of the force-free geodesic comoving observer at rest in the Hubble flow, i.e., zero
peculiar velocity corresponding to constant χ. We are located at . is the proper comoving distance of a galaxy from us on the 3D spacelike slice . In general
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(1.16) – Only the peculiar velocity needs to be inside the local light cone to obey special relativity. (Davis, 2003) is the speed of the Hubble flow, i.e. the deforming of the fabric of 3D space itself inside of which particles move relative to it. There is no such limitation on the recessional speed of the galaxy away from us. The cosmological redshift for retarded light of positive energy along the future light cones is computed from
(1.17)
Now it turns out that the old Bondi-Hoyle-Gold steady state model has the same scale factor as does the accelerating de Scienceand Scientist | | Sitter universe that is our future asymptote. (1.18) We then have to make a transformation to conformal time, which for our spatially flat k = 0 inflated universe on the large scale is
(1.19)
Our original metric in the new coordinates for the de Sitter case is the overall conformal factor multiplying a globally flat Minkowski spacetime.
SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS (1.20)
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Showing our future event horizon in conformal time . The condition for the event horizon in this
conformally flat case is not the usual as it would be in the hovering static LNIF representation at fixed r of this same observer-dependent metric, i.e.
(1.21) Hoyle and Narlikar (1995) argued (their eq. 2.53) that the absorption integral diverges at the future event horizon ensuring complete absorption there that, in turn, implies complete cancellation of advanced signal effects giving effective past cause/future effect, but only in the large scale limit where the cosmological metric used is a good approximation.
(1.22)
we are at r = 0 . They say that the redshift from the accelerating stretching of 3D space detected by a geodesic unaccelerating comoving observer/absorber using a conformal time clock is
(1.23)
That is, retarded light from us is infinitely redshifted for an unaccelerated comoving detector crossing our event horizon when our retarded photon arrives. Their model, however, is not water tight and is shaky ground on which to assert that
our future dark energy horizon is for sure the Wheeler-Feynman perfect absorber. The situation is very different,
indeed just the opposite, for an accelerating static observer at constant r in the metric of (1.21). His covariant acceleration, from firing rockets, is
2015 (1.24) – The corresponding black body photon Unruh temperature is
(1.25)
I posit that virtual electron-positron pairs stuck to our horizon will see this Unruh temperature, which if high enough, would provide them with enough energy to be pulled out of the vacuum to make a real electron-positron plasma. That is one effect, but it appears that it is not strong enough to provide the real pair production threshold energy .
Indeed, if we consider a virtual electron-positron pair a distance from our future horizon, then the Unruh
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temperature is
(1.26)
This is a very interesting result because the Stefan-Boltzmann to Planck’s 1900 law of black body radiation that launched quantum physics says that the energy density is proportional to the 4th power of the absolute Kelvin temperature. We
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(1.27)
which is precisely the observed dark energy density when the thickness of the horizon is the Planck distance & & BOOK
cm . However, this black body Unruh radiation that matches the dark energy accelerating our universe must be advanced Wheeler-Feynman radiation from our future event horizon arriving at the Type 1a supernovae in our past light cone for reasons given below. It cannot be coming from our past particle horizon.
Fortunately, there is another effect, the retarded photon we send out is blue shifted relative to our clamped virtual
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electron positron pair who sees our retarded photon with an enormous energy that can create a real electron pair if
(1.28)
SOUVENIR The pair production cross-section would need to be calculated as well to see if this self-induced nonlinear pair production would be sufficient to ensure the total absorber condition sought by Wheeler and Feynman.
Einstein’s general theory of relativity replaces Newton’s mass source density with in a 3+1 isotropic case. The ratio of pressure to energy density w is ~ 0 for ordinary slow moving matter and for cold dark matter viewed 119
as real on-mass-shell particles whizzing through space with peculiar speed . We have w = +1 / 3 for real transverse photons of zero rest mass. Indeed, this gives the famous factor of 2 in the gravitational lensing of light -- one of the classic tests of Einstein’s 1916 theory. Lorentz invariance of Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity combined with his principle of equivalence that special relativity is obeyed locally on scales small compared to the variable radii of spacetime curvature imply that for all virtual off-mass-shell quanta. In addition, free quantum field theory’s boson commutation rules for second quantized creation and destruction operators give positive zero point vacuum fluctuation energy density with equal and opposite negative quantum vacuum pressure. The factor of 3 causes a net anti- gravity universally repulsive field. This is exactly what we see in the accelerating expansion of our observable universe sandwiched between our past particle and future event horizons. Similarly, the anti-commutation relations for fermions that give the Pauli exclusion principle give negative energy density for virtual lepton and quark particle-antiparticle pairs with equal and opposite positive quantum vacuum pressure. This causes a net gravity attractive field – essentially an anti-deSitter (Ads) local background metric. Remember, the equivalence principle demands all forms of energy both real outside the vacuum and virtual inside the vacuum must bend spacetime. The virtual fermion-antifermion pairs will clump exactly like we see in the galactic dark matter halos that keep the stars in place and form the filaments seen on the larger scales. From a distance using gravity lensing these clumped virtual fermion pairs will mimic cold dark matter. This is why I predict that all attempts to detect real dark matter particles in the LHC, in deep mines etc. will fail as a matter of fundamental principle. Looking for dark matter particles is like looking for the motion of the Earth through the Galilean group aether with a Michelson-Morley interferometer. So far, all attempts to detect WIMPs et-al have, and will I suspect, continue to fail.
The condition for a holographic universe is that the number N of 2D pixels (quanta of Planck area ) on the hologram screen quantum computer at an infinite redshift horizon must equal the number of 3D “voxels” of scale
(quanta of volume, the term “voxel” was coined by Lenny Susskind) enclosed by the horizon that is a non-bounding 2-
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cycle closed surrounding surface enclosing point topological defect zeros in the vacuum superconducting order – parameter set – one for every pixel on the surrounding hologram screen. Therefore,
(1.29)
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle must also be modified to include the formation of small black hole event horizons to
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(1.30) where A is a quantum of area. However, it is not clear yet if A must be the Planck area, or something more like in (1.29). String theory models have strong short-range Yukawa gravity from extra space dimensions for example. Abdus Salam (1971) had the first such model back in the early 1970s that I worked on at his Trieste Institute suggesting that the universal Regge slope of the hadronic resonances were a strong finite range gravity effect in which the resonances were rotating Kerr-Newman type black holes. Today, I would instead try to use a microscopic AdS interior inverse image as it were to George Chapline Jr’s large-scale dS interiors of “dark energy” gravastars in which the event horizon is replaced by a quantum critical surface (Chapline, 2004). George is trying to prevent gravity collapse to a singularity with the inversion of radial space with time with a repulsive dark energy interior. I am trying to do the opposite on the microscopic scale using dark matter as the “Poincare stress” glue to prevent hollow shells of electric charge from exploding. This would provide extended Bohm hidden variable models of leptons and quarks with definite space-time world lines subject to the nonlocal form-dependent quantum potential Q including all the weird effects. Our observable universe has both an observer-dependent past particle horizon that is the future light cone of the moment of inflation, and a future event horizon that is the past light cone of infinite proper time that is a finite Penrose conformal time (Tamara Davis, 2005). Assuming a timelike Killing vector field so that we have a comoving Hubble flow global cosmic time in which the black body thermal cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is maximally isotropic with NASA WMAP temperature fluctuations . We are surrounded by two spherical 2D shells SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS corresponding to the two horizons on the constant CMB. Our past particle horizon shell recedes away from us, whilst we approach our future event horizon shell not reaching it in any finite proper clock time. Our past horizon is not at all 120
de Sitter, but is radiation and matter dominated. Only our future event horizon asymptotically approaches the constant value cm2 corresponding to the dark energy density
(1.1)
that we observe in our past light cones from the anomalous z redshifts of Type 1a supernovae. How is this possible? Only if we have a Wheeler-Feynman advanced wave retrocausal effect in which our future horizon must act as a total absorber to ensure only net retarded radiation from past to future – at least on the large IR cosmological scale. The hologram screen cannot be our past particle horizon because its area is too small where our past light cone intercepts it. Therefore, the retarded dark energy density would be too large since it is proportional to the inverse area of the horizon. Thus, the hologram screen cosmic computer generating all material fields must be our future event horizon in my opinion. The increasing to saturation area of our approaching future 2D horizon is the total thermodynamic entropy of our observable universe if we are back-from-the-future 3D hologram images. The universe is stranger than we imagined, though not stranger than we can imagine. I am obviously more optimistic than Birkbeck College’s J.D. Bernal who thought that the universe might be stranger than we can ever imagine.
Appendix Emergent M-Matrix Gravity The four elastic local inertial frame (LIF) gravity tetrad spin 1 Cartan 1-forms eI are a first rank tensor under the 6-
parameter Lorentz group SO1,3 (Sarfatti & Levit, 2009). Their non-trivial acceleration parts are the compensating
gauge potential connections when the globally rigid 4-parameter translation group T4 is localized to the mutable T4(x) local group and the matter field dynamical actions are kept invariant. I use two Lorentz group first-rank tensor sets
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from eight Cartan 0-forms & and define the 4x4 M-Matrix of Cartan 1-forms as –
(A1) The first line in (A1) is the 4D elastic “world crystal lattice” (Kleinert, 2008) more complicated version of the
irrotational superfluid flow as the gradient of a single Goldstone phase Cartan 0-form corresponding to the
Scienceand Scientist rim of the Mexican Hat effective Cartan 1-form of Helium 4 landscape potential for the ground state macroquantum | | coherent simple complex-valued order parameter. Define the compensating spin 1 gravity tetrad T4(x) potential connection
Einstein’s equivalence principle (EEP) connects locally coincident non-rotating timelike geodesic inertial frames (LIFs)
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with accelerating off-geodesic non-inertial frames (LNIFs), via the absolute local differential space-time interval frame invariant .
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1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 (A3)
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
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0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 The spacetime symmetry group T4(x) spin 1 gravity gauge potential Cartan 1-forms are analogous to the internal
SU2 & SU3 Yang-Mills gauge potential 1-forms. The LIF indices I, J, K are raised and lowered with the constant SOUVENIR Minkowski metric whilst the physically coincident LNIF indices are raised and lowered with the noninertial
curvilinear variable metric . The eight Cartan 0-form super-potentials & are post-inflation spontaneous broken vacuum symmetry Goldstone phases. They may be related to the SU3 QCD zero rest mass gluon colored
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condensate giving, perhaps, a profound unification of the internal symmetry strong force to spacetime gravity. However, this is simply a half-baked speculation at this stage. Note the “Yang-Mills” looking expression
(A4) This is not a weak-field perturbation theory. It works for strong gravity fields. I do not assume a non-dynamical Minkowski background with . This tetrad local gauge field formalism is background independent. The spin 2 character of gravity comes from the quadratic dependence of the Einstein metric tensor on the spin 1 tetrad local gauge potentials. Why there is no evidence for spin 0 and possibly repulsive spin 1 gravity in addition to spin 2 gravity needs to be explained since for angular momenta, group theory gives 1 + 1 = 0,1,2 spin irreducible representations. There would also be orbital angular momentum possible in entangled pairs of q-number spin 1 tetrad quanta excited out of and into the c-number condensate vacuum expectation value . Indeed, the vacuum condensate is a generally squeezed coherent Glauber state of uncertain large numbers of off-mass-shell virtual quanta. There may be a “superconducting” Meissner-Anderson-Higgs-Kibble mechanism giving rest mass to the spin 0 and spin 1 gravity quanta only keeping the spin 2 quanta massless. The torsion gap 2-form field is
(A5) in Einstein’s 1916 GR. With this constraint the six antisymmetric spinconnection Cartan 1-forms
are dynamically redundant determined completely by T4(x)’s spin 1 gravity potentials (Rovelli, 2004)
(2.89)
On the other hand, if we locally gauge the full 10-parameter Poincare group of Einstein’s 1905 special relativity we get
the Einstein-Cartan theory with a new additional dynamical torsion field spin-connection that must be added to 2015 2015
Rovelli’s eq. (2.89). I propose (A6) – The Einstein curvature 2-form (Ricci + Weyl) is for 1916 curvature-only GR is
(A7) The Einstein-Hilbert action density Cartan 0-form L is
(A8) The dynamical equations for matter fields are usually given only for inertial frames. The equivalence principle’s
universal minimal coupling allows us to use accelerating non-inertial frames easily using the space-time covariant
Scienceand Scientist | | derivatives in addition to the internal U1xSU2xSU3 covariant derivatives.
(A9) Where the set are ten matrices representing the translations and space-time rotations of the Poincare group’s Lie algebra appropriate to the number of components of the matter field , e.g. a Dirac spinor. This prescription works equally well for translationally accelerating and rotating frames in Minkowski spacetime as well as curved spacetime. We can generalize to the fifteen parameter conformal group addition the dilation and the four constant proper acceleration Rindler horizon boosts with its thermal Unruh radiation. This introduces five new classes of gravity “local phases” in addition to the 16 tetrad components and the 24 spin-connection components . This would lead to new physics that might be relevant to present anomalies like the NASA Pioneer and flyby anomalies as well as to MOND attempts to explain dark matter. A new paper claims to solve the Pioneer anomaly as a mundane heating effect. The fact that the anomalous acceleration is ~ 1 nanometer/sec2 of same order as the speed of light multiplied by the Hubble parameter appears to be merely a random coincidence and not a profound clue on the deep structure of the cosmos as many of us suspected. As Feynman said, a beautiful theory is murdered by an ugly fact.
References: [1] Aharonov, Y. and Vaidman, L. (1998). On the two-state vector reformulation of quantum mechanics. Phys. Scrip., T76, pp. 85-92 . SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS [2] Anderson, P.W. (1972). More is different. Science, New Series, Vol. 177(4047), pp. 393-396.
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[3] Bem, D.J. (2011). Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. J. Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 100, pp. 407-425. [4] Berger, J. (2004). Extension of the de Broglie-Bohm theory to the Ginzburg-Landau equation. Found. Phys. Lett., Vol. 17, pp. 287-294. http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0309143v1 [5] Bierman, D.J. and Radin, D.I. (1997). Anomalous anticipatory response on randomized future conditions. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 84, 689–690. [6] Bierman, D.J. and Radin, D.I. (1998). Anomalous unconscious emotional responses: Evidence for a reversal of the arrow of time. In Hameroff, S., Kaszniak, A. and Chalmers, D. (Eds.), Toward a science of consciousness III, Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, pp. 367–386. [7] Bierman, D.J. (2008, March). fMRI-meditation study of presentiment: The role of “coherence” in retrocausal processes. Paper presented at the symposium of the Bial Foundation, Porto, Portugal. [8] Chapline, G. (2004). Dark Energy Stars. Proc. Texas Conference on Relativistic Astrophysics. arXiv:astro-ph/0503200 [9] Cramer, J.G. (1986). The transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 58, pp. 647–688. [10] Davis, T. (2003). Fundamental aspects of the expansion of the universe and cosmic horizons. Ph.D. dissertation, University New South Wales, http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/download/tamarad/papers/thesis_complete.pdf [11] Gualdi, G., Giampaolo, S.M and Illuminati, F. (2011). Modular entanglement. Phys. Rev. Letters, Vol. 106, http://arxiv.org/pdf/1008.0860v3
[12] Hameroff, S.R. (1987). Ultimate computing: Biomolecular consciousness and nanotechnology, (North-Holland,
Amsterdam).
[13] Hameroff, S.R., Dayhoff, J.E., Lahoz-Beltra, R., Samsonovich, A., and Rasmussen, S. (1992). Conformational 2015
automata in the cytoskeleton: models for molecular computation. IEEE Computer (October Special Issue on Molecular – Computing), pp. 30-39. [14] Hoyle, F. Narlikar, J.V. (1995). Cosmology and action at a distance electrodynamics. Rev. Mod. Phys., Vol. 67(1), p. 113. [15] Josephson, B.D. and Pallikari-Viras, F. (1991). Limits to the universality of quantum mechanics. Foundations of Physics, Vol. 21, pp. 197-207. [16] Kleinert, H. (2008). Multivalued Fields (World Scientific, Singapore). [17] Libet, B., Wright, E.W., Feinstein, B. and Pearl, D.K. (1979). Subjective referral of the timing for a conscious
Scienceand Scientist sensory experience: A functional role for the somatosensory specific projection system in man. Brain, Vol. 102, p. 193. | | [18] Nauenberg, M. (2011). Physics Today (Letter to the Editor, May issue) Popescu, S. and Rohrlich, D. (1996). “Action and Passion at a Distance: An Essay in Honor of Professor Abner Shimony,” Quantum Potentiality, Entanglement, and Passionat-a-Distance: Essays for Abner Shimony, R. S. Cohen, M. A. Horne and J. Stachel, (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers. http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9605004v1
[19] Radin, D. I. (2004). Electrodermal presentiments of future emotions. J. Scientific Exploration, Vol. 18, pp. 253-
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274. [20] Rovelli, C. (2004). Quantum Gravity, Cambridge University Press.
[21] Salam, A., Isham, C.J., Strathdee, J. (1971). f-Dominance of Gravity. Phys. Rev., D3, pp. 867-873.
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[22] Sarfatti, J. (1998). Beyond Bohm-Vigier quantum mechanics. In Hunter, G., Jeffers, S. and Vigier, J-P. (Eds.), Causality and Locality in Modern Physics, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 403-410. [23] Sarfatti, J. (2002). Progress in Post-Quantum Physics and Unified Field Theory, in Amoroso, R., Hunter, G., Kafatos, M. and Vigier, J.P. (Eds.), Gravitation and Cosmology: From the Hubble Radius to the Planck Scale, (Kluwer
Academic Publishers), pp. 419-430.
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[24] Sarfatti, J. and Levit, C. (2009). The emergence of gravity as a retro-causal post-inflation macro-quantum-coherent holographic vacuum Higgs-Goldstone field. IOP J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., 174 012045 [25] Sedgwick, H.D. (1916). House of sorrow (Atlantic Monthly) reprinted in “Apology for Old Maids”, Macmillan, http://www.archive.org/stream/apologyforoldmai00sedg#page/16/mode/2up SOUVENIR [26] Stapp, H. P. (1996). The hard problem: A quantum approach. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, 196-210. [27] Tegmark, M. (2000). The importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes. Phys. Rev. E., pp. 61, pp. 4194- 4206.
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[28] Valentini, A. (2002). Subquantum information and computation. Proc. Second Winter Institute on Foundations of Quantum Theory and Quantum Optics: Quantum Information Processing, Ghosh, R. (ed.), Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0203049 [29] Wheeler, J.A. and Feynman, R.P. (1945). Interaction with the absorber as the mechanism of radiation. Rev. Modern Physics, Vol. 17, p. 157. [30] Wilczek, F. (1982). Quantum mechanics of fractional-spin particles. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 49(14), pp. 957- 959.
Talk 3: A Scientific Understanding of Rabindranath Tagore’s Philosophy in Gitanjali as Expressions of Universal Consciousness and the Fundamental Nature of Reality Dependent on Our Knowing or Experiencing of It Joy Roy Chowdhury UK Assessment Tomorrow
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we agreed as existing, postulates consciousness” – Max Planck, The observer, 1931 ‘A vast surrender was his only strength’- Sri Aurobindo, Savitri[1]
Gitanjali[2] by Tagore was published in the year 1913, a significant year in the history of sciences and arts and, indeed,
in world of culture as well. Niels Bohr came up with quantum theory of the hydrogen atom in the same year following
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from the result shown by Rutherford’s Gold Leaf Spectroscope experiment that theorized the concept of a nuclear – model of atom. Do these events have some degree of non-mechanistic quantum connection between them at David Bohm’s Implicate Level or Order? Does poetry and art meet with science as expressions of universal consciousness? Einstein said “after a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in aesthetics, plasticity, and form”. Do we have a deeper synergy between science and poetry expressed through Tagore’s music as vibrations of an underlying cosmic universal consciousness?
At that point of time in the early 20th Century, the direction in physics was at the micro-level (sub-atomic level) and an Scienceand Scientist
understanding of that with verifiable experiments and observations in a controlled environment. Bohr postulated that | atoms consist of negatively charged particles (electrons) that follow circular orbits around a positively charged nucleus. This verification of electrostatic forces including positive and negative charge distribution over a matrix together with quantum statistical analysis led to the recognition of hidden forces that operate and govern our universe and creation. Scientists previously thought that the gravitational force was the only operating force in the creation, but, at the microcosmic level or atomic level there are other forces that bind a particle with another, there are electromagnetic and strong and weak nuclear forces that too operate randomly in the creation. At a cognitive level, there was a need to observe or understand the physical phenomena taking place in the external world so as to fathom the components interacting in such a given system and the laws or principles that prevail to determine such processes.
When Tagore writes “Ah, the light dances,...at the centre of my life...” (poem 57)[3] – He is expressing his emotions at the cellular level, or at the level of the field of consciousness and if we correctly interpret that we find correspondence with the Biocentric view of Dr. Robert Lanza[4] where he ascribed the answer to the observer rather than the observed. Light or photons generate a field, every discreet packet of photons involves a field which has direct impact on the body and the mind. As Sean Carroll, Theoretical Physicist at CalTech mentioned in one of his talks delivered at the Fermilab in 2013 that every particle is actually a field and the universe is made up of fields so we can understand that. Tagore’s visual impulse of dancing light is psychokinetic in nature and the poetry is a mere reflection of that inner order of the field expressed in word-rhythm through activation of universal consciousness. Tagore dealt with the fabric of reality SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS which is expressed in the particle nature of things when observed, (The Observer Effect in Quantum Physics[5]) reconciling that with wave form of things when un-observed (the classic example of interference pattern of electrons in 124
the double-slit experiment when there is no observer) in his works through hidden symbols that interweave into one grand force by offering his songs (Git-anjali) to that unified matter or pure substance which is nothing but consciousness that precedes all actions in the creation. The effect of light dancing at a biological level or at the level of cellular of consciousness can be understood if we can comprehend what Dr. Bruce H. Lipton said in his book the Biology of Belief that cells receive and process information from signals outside the cell and that the body acts as a receiver of signals from a non-local field of information which is the consciousness field, this was mentioned also by Dr. David Bohm as the “Super-Implicate Order”.
“The sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth... (Gitanjali poem Each of these expressions, the opening of the sky, the wild wind running across and laughter that passes over terrestrial surface are scientific images understood from the thermal and bio-geochemical cycles that we experience on earth; they are the forces that account for the kinetic movement of the words in a verse; the song is itself a movement having a definite vibration; a hymn is an offering of prayer to the altar of these unified forces that we try to classify and measure; poetry here is a reconciliatory process of union through the manifested bio-diversity in the universe to explain actions of One Infinite Energy emanating from the Void (The Quantum Vacuum) as we know now after experimental evidence demonstrated that empty space is not really empty but has energy from which the universe came into being 13.7 billion years ago.
Each of these images are not a sum total or summation of collective experience over a period of time, but, rather they
are fleeting moments of life in a flux that defines what David Bohm has called the Holomovement – the totality of
movement of enfoldment and unfoldment in a process that is as dynamic as life and not static at all.
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“The time that my journey takes is long and the way of it long. –
I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light, and pursued my voyage through the wildernesses of worlds leaving my track on many a star and planet.
It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself, and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune.
Scienceand Scientist The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to | | reach the innermost shrine at the end.
‘My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said `Here art thou!'
The question and the cry ‘Oh, where?’ melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the
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assurance ‘I am!’” – (Gitanjali, Poem 12)
The words “leaving my track on many a star and planet” are significant they emphasize the fact that the physical universe
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came from the blue-print of the thought-force which is the origin of all fields and is an expression of the universal consciousness. The final assurance of the poet about his own existence after meandering through life is full of Vedantic optimism that conscious experience or the qualia grants when one has seized the potentiality expressed in the Maha-Vakya[6] – aham
brahmāsmi. Brahman or the bodily efulenge of the Absolute is the Great
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Self or the Ultimate Ground of Being to whom the collection of songs (poems, Gitanjali) is offered.
Tagore makes this point as clear as daylight, through his dialogue with SOUVENIR Albert Einstein whom he met at the outskirts of Berlin in July 1930. Tagore explained to Einstein that the world outside is not independent but dependent on us and he talked about the infinite personality of Man as not someone isolated from the world but one “who comprehends the 125
universe. There cannot be anything that cannot be subsumed by the human personality, and this proves that the Truth of the Universe is Human Truth.
“I have taken a scientific fact to explain this — Matter is composed of protons and electrons, with gaps between them; but matter may seem to be solid. Similarly humanity is composed of individuals, yet they have their interconnection of human relationship, which gives living unity to man’s world. The entire universe is linked up with us in a similar manner, it is a human universe. I have pursued this thought through art, literature and the religious consciousness of man”. (From Tagore –Einstein Dialogue published in January 1931 Issue of Modern Review)
So, Tagore was unknowingly laying credence to the Observer Effect in Quantum Physics which was understood by Noble Laureate, Physicist Dr. Brian Josephson of Cambridge University. According to Dr. Josephson – “Tagore is, I think, saying that truth is a subtler concept than Einstein realises”.
Giving importance to the idea of ‘thought’ and the place of the Observer in observation which is the process of measurement as well, Noble Laureate, Chemist Ilya Prigogine, 1984 said “Curiously enough, the present evolution of science is running in the direction stated by the great Indian poet”. Tagore’s poetry and the submission of his poetry as an offering to the Eternal Man unveils the “uttamamam rahasyam” or the highest secret of all which is the Purushottama[7] as explained by Sri Aurobindo in his Essays on the Gita. Here, it is a process of self-discovery that leads to realization (chittasuddhi or purification) which gives the primary bliss of existence. The invocation to light is an invocation to matter to open the doors of perception (Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception)
to cleanse it continually so we can taste the bliss or ‘ananda’ because “the earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last, – God, Light, Freedom, Immortality”.(Sri Aurobindo, Life Divine) Poetry here is a finer salutation to the will power or force that has driven man to endless discoveries sometimes astonishing him with awe and inspiration. But
since Tagore offered his songs to the Universal Man, the Observer, to the great temple of these forces – he, in fact, is 2015 one of the first modern poets who can be regarded as a symbol of the transcendental nature of the universal faculty since – Theoretical Physicist Dr. Amit Goswami[8] said that “the nature of consciousness is non-local, unitive and transcendental”.
Each word when selected from a repository – a kind of quantum hyperspace is therefore ready to actively engage or enter into combination with other words to derive a pattern that can determine the law of conservation of mass and energy. There is consciousness behind all these – the vowels link with consonants to connect the infinite with the finite,
to the open system with closed ones, to the spirit with matter. “A hyphen must connect Matter with Mind” (Sri Scienceand Scientist | | Aurobindo, Savitri, Book I, Canto IV)
At a physical level, Tagore was trying to express the effect of light in the domain of natural reality – on the great taxonomical bio-diversity of plant and animal life together with inanimate particles like wind, river, earth, gems and so on. Each in its own right experiences enlightenment because light is an expression of that consciousness. The core idea of a universal being and the happiness he shares with the internal and external worlds, is a kind of energy conservation, one that is equivalent to quantum psychokinesis that exist in the metaphysical realm of language deconstruction and in the linguistic harmony of image-expressions or montages.
Analytically, Gitanjali is an offering of a higher dimension to the creative unity of forces (The Theory of Everything[9]) which physicists are still trying to observe and write down as far as history of science is concerned. This quest for unification of forces in Physics from Newton to Maxwell through to Einstein and the String Theorists, is a classic example of the philosophical ground of realism that has made man think and introspect living in environmental stimuli based system of complex processes. “The light is shattered into gold on every cloud, my darling, and it scatters gems in profusion...” (Gitanjali, Tagore)
In terms of consciousness, Tagore was experimenting with language, with emotions that process image formations at SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS the sensual level to accompany the experiential learning at a universal level. It was the closest linguistic demonstration we have of the Rutherford’s Gold Leaf Experiment (1911) that showed the backscattering and deflection of alpha- 126
particles when shot through a gold foil. Tagore expresses this as ‘gladness without measure’ or the ‘flood of joy’ – a state of infinite being (akin to microscopic model of Hubble’s expanding universe), a sense of micro-gravity experience in a certain time frame of consciousness. In poem 62, he says, “My world will light its hundred different lamps with thy flame and place them before the altar of thy temple”. The temple is located as the nucleus of the atom where mass is concentrated, it’s the seat of the ‘Purushah’[10], the Brahman, the supreme Reality of Man, which is divine, and the Shakti[11] or the electrons orbits around it with a half-integer spin.
“The same stream of life that courses through my veins night and day runs through all the world and dances in rhythmic measures”. (Poem 61)
It’s this same stream of life that dances in rhythmic measures that Tagore talks about is what is referred by scientists as the ‘quantum-entanglement’, a state when a change in a particle affects all other particles irrespective of distance and time between them.
From a linguistic point of view, we can say that words affect words as they are connected to the psyche that generates emotions from an experiential time, – it is the consciousness of the indivisible particles that triggers the change so the dance takes uniformity of thoughts in a singular vision to adjust its cognitive settings to take innumerable snapshots from reality to compose simultaneously the songs or hymns that make Gitanjali what it is an ‘offering’ to itself and to the
great alter of these forces.
When we learn to explore events in history, we find that two separate events are readily interconnected in time 2015
through the underlying descent of consciousness in matter and at the same time through the cyclical process of ascent of – consciousness that conjoins with the earlier to transfigure human civilizations for a better living. This is simply the evolutionary biology at work through consciousness in the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore and through the path breaking scientific works of Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Einstein, Satyendranath Bose, C. V. Raman, Pauli, Dirac and so on.
Whether it is poetry or science or art or architecture the underlying truth remains the same and we posit reiterating Sherlock Holmes “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the
Scienceand Scientist truth”. And the truth is “what the Upanishads say: “from joy does spring all this creation, by joy is it maintained, towards | | joy does it progress, and into joy does it enter. It means that God’s creation has not its source in any necessity; it comes from his fullness of joy; it is his love that creates, therefore in creation is his own revealment”.(From Sadhana-The Realization of Life, Tagore) Tagore’s ideas were radical because he mentioned to Einstein that the world out there was not independent of our experience of it but rather it is not and modern science like quantum physics and bio-centrism
makes it clear right from the onset. Thus it can be said that finest poetry like the Gitanjali or the Vedic verses are
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integration of the laws of the universe as manifested through consciousness because “Consciousness is the ground of all being”. (Dr Amit Goswami)
& & BOOK References:
[1] Tagore, R. (1920). Gitanjali. [2] On the Nature of Reality, Albert Einstein in Conversation with Rabindranath Tagore published. (January, 1931), Modern Review. [3] Hamilton, C. (1997). The Self-Aware Universe- An Interview with Dr. Amit Goswami. In: What is Enlightenment?
PROGRAMME [4] Aurobindo, S. Savitri, Essays on Gita, Life Divine.
[5] Pilot Wave Theory, Bohmian Metaphysics, And the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics Lecture 8 by Dr. Mike Towler, TCM Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge [6] Pal, D. Existence of thought force and its characteristics. American J. Physical Chemistry, Science Publishing Group.
SOUVENIR [7] Sirag, S.P. Consciousness- A Hyperspace View [8] Lipton, B.H. The Biology of Belief [9] Lanza, R. and Berman, B. Biocentrism. [10] Huxley, A. The Doors of Perception [11] Penrose, S.R. A Computable Universe, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, UK. 127
Talk 4: Toward a Scientific Understanding of Psychic Phenomena Monalisa JDM, Ph.D. Head of International Development, Art-Vantage, UK
Abstract Psychic phenomena has always been a intriguing topic that forces one to think beyond the physical realm of existence, as the human mind is far more mysterious than what we think or can even conceive. Much of these domains yet remain fully unexplained by science, hence terming them anomalous. But it is very interesting and important for any curious investigator to widen their perspective and think beyond their mental barriers and the physical boundaries of the outer world. Psychic phenomena have a definitely proven scientific relevance more than reliance on subjective experiences or qualitative explanations. As contrary to popular belief, psychic phenomena has drawn the interests of scientists and psychologists since a long while, and over the due course led to the developments of new methodology, techniques, laboratory experimentation and statistical data analysis and approaches. There is still much to learn, with new discoveries being made every moment, modern science is on the process of further development. It is still at the very earliest stages of being capable to fully understand or explain non-physical aspects of our world, but with stirring interests and new innovative alternate thinking has opened the doors for many more possibilities to come.
Introduction “PREFACE: My primary object in offering it to the public is to assist in bringing Psychology within the domain of the exact sciences.
That this has never been accomplished is owing to the fact that no successful attempt has been made to formulate a working hypothesis sufficiently comprehensive to embrace all psychic phenomena. It has, however, long been felt by the ablest thinkers of our time that all
psychic manifestations of the human intellect, normal or abnormal, are in some way related...”
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(An Excerpt from The Law of Psychic Phenomena by Thomas Jay Hudson circa 1892) –
The human mind has been always a mystery and so its functioning, latent capacities and hidden powers seem to be more mysterious. As we probe deep into the human mind we find the mysteries of the unravel themselves. The human psyche and its wondrous potential have been woefully neglected for a very long time. Only recently, Professor Fredric Schiffer of Harvard University published his findings about the binary functions of the mind and opened an exciting new frontier of human nature. As according to The Law of Psychic Phenomena written in 1883 by a Psychical Researcher and Chief
Examiner of the US patent office Thomas Jay Hudson, categorized the three laws of Psychic phenomena which Scienceand Scientist
popularized as Hudson’s three laws which stated that man had two minds namely: the objective mind (conscious) and | the subjective mind (subconscious), the subjective mind is constantly amenable to control by suggestion and that the subjective mind is incapable of inductive reasoning. Hudson also contributed substantially to device the methodology for the scientific inquiry of Psychic phenomena and provided well documented data and his own experimental evidences with his own subjects to support and authenticate facts related to psychic science in his book A Scientific Demonstration of Future Life. So if it has ever occurred that when you think of someone and the same person instantly gives you an unexpected phone call, or the door bell rang and you knew who it was before you actually opened the door or while humming a song in your mind you turned on the radio and found the same song playing, is it sheer coincidence, are all these events occurring out of pure chance. Maybe, they are not, as we were not looking at the subject-our minds. As D.R. Hofstadter puts it “What turns a mere piece of matter from being mere matter into an animated being? What gives certain special physical patterns in the universe the mysterious privilege of feeling sensations and having experiences?”
The 20th century was an era in which a number of scientific revolutions took place, indicated not only by technological breakthroughs but also by changes in, and challenges to, our understanding of the nature of the universe. Major conventional perspectives in physics (classical and mechanical) were challenged by models such as relativity theory and quantum mechanics that gave more accurate pictures of the physical world. Likewise, in the sciences of the mind (i.e., psychology, neuropsychology, and philosophy), there were revolutions that upturned conventional viewpoints in our understanding of mental– cognitive processes and brain events. A paradigmatic shift in consciousness usually requires a SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS huge leap of faith, and it is noted that such changes in mindset are never made immediately or easily in any given scientific community or epoch (Collins & Pinch, 1982). 128
Today modern physicists tend to be interested in parapsychology because of the implication that we have a gross misunderstanding about space and time and the transmission of energy and information. Biologists are interested because psi implies the existence of additional, unexplained methods of sensing the world. Psychologists are interested for what psi implies about the nature of perception and memory. Philosophers are interested because psi phenomena specifically address many age-old philosophical problems, including the role of the mind in the physical world, and the nature of the objective vs. the subjective.
Definition of Psychic Phenomena and Its Early Scientific Interests There are five different Zener cards: a hollow circle (one curve), a Greek cross (two lines), three vertical wavy lines (or “waves”), a hollow square (four lines), and a hollow five- pointed star. Early parapsychological research employed the use of Zener cards in experiments designed to test for the existence of telepathic communication. Deriving its name from the Greek letter ψ, “psi” is also referred as a neutral shorthand term implying psychic functioning. A psychic phenomenon essentially involves the study of the
controversial subject of an anomaly known as “psi” or the human psyche (ψυχή derived from the Greek word) meaning
the mind or the soul. The reference to Psyche dates back to the ancient mythological legends of Greece where the
goddess named Psyche was responsible for the soul, the name evolved and the modern usage of the term became
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– synonymous to its current meaning and relevance in Parapsychology. The term “psi” was coined by Biologist Berthold. P. Wiesner and first used in a 1942 publication by Robert Thouless in an article for The British Journal of Psychology. Profound interest in the scientific research of psychic phenomena grew as early as in 1882 with the foundation of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London with its members including Nobel Laureates such as French Physiologist Charles Richet, Philosopher Henri Bergson, English Physicist John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh among others. Early clairvoyance experiments were reported in 1884 by Charles Richet. The Society’s popularity and membership ranged from notable scientists, scholars, educators, psychologists to even politicians. Serving as a role model in the
niche field of psychic study, it led to the formation of American Society for Psychical Research by the support of Scienceand Scientist
| | Psychologist William James. The publications of the Census for Hallucination and Phantasms of Living by the SPR remain a
cult in referencing to parapsychological literature. As early as in 1911, mainstream academic institutions like the Stanford University followed by the Duke University in 1930, started investigating into the scientific relevance of psychic phenomena by studying ESP extra sensory perception and PK psychokinesis in a laboratory setting. Engaging in a strict critical study of psychic phenomena like ESP and PK involved, experimentation using dice and cards, evidential
data using through trials and chance scores providing a more quantitative (in other words, statistical) approach to
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psychic research contrary to the popular qualitative evidence. Psychologists like William Mcdougall, Karl Zenner, Joseph .B. Rhine and Louisa. B. Rhine conducted these laboratory ESP experiments using volunteer undergraduate
students as their subjects. As a result, the publication of J.B. Rhine’s book, New Frontiers of the Mind (1937) brought
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these laboratory’s findings to the general public. In this book, Rhine popularized the word "parapsychology", to describe the research conducted at Duke University. He also founded an autonomous Parapsychology Laboratory within the University premises and started the Journal of Parapsychology, which he co-edited with fellow researcher William McDougall Rhine, along with associate Karl Zener, developed a statistical system of testing for ESP which involved
subjects guessing what symbol, out of five possible symbols, would appear when going through a special deck of cards
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called Zener cards (pictured above) specifically designed for this purpose. A percentage of correct guesses (or hits) significantly above 20% was perceived as higher than chance and indicative of psychic ability. Rhine positively stated in his first book, ExtraSensory Perception (1934), that after 90,000 trials, he felt ESP is “an actual and demonstrable
occurrence”. Today the Parapsychological Association PA is an elected affiliate of the American Association for the SOUVENIR Advancement of Science (AAAS), and is the largest scientific organization in the world.
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Classification Most of Psychic phenomena are considered anomalous as they cannot be fully explained. But current scientific investigation method includes not only qualitative approaches as used in traditional psychology, but also quantitative empirical methodologies based on data, evidence or a posterior. Psychic phenomena are broadly classified under two main categories namely either as extra sensory perception ESP or as psychokinesis PK. Given below are the scope and wider explanation-ESP or Extra Sensory Perception or psi gamma. As suggested by the term itself extra sensory perception or ESP refers to perceptions beyond normal sensory capacity. It includes psychic abilities like telepathy, clairvoyance, remote viewing and precognition and postcognition.
Telepathy also known popularly as thought transfer can be further explained as a paranormal interaction between two individuals often seperated by a distance projecting or transferring thoughts or mental imageries. Clairvoyance refers to the ability to observe or predict a future event or to provide information related to a particular object or person using one’s mental visions or premonitions. Remote viewing RV is the ability to mentally view and describe a distant geographic location.
Precognition refers to the visual ability to perceive future events before occurrence, while post cognition refers to the visual ability to perceive events occurred in the past. Psychokinesis PK or psi kappa: Previously known as telekinesis, PK refers to the power of the mind or thought power involving abilities that demonstrate mental influence over matter.
Early experiments by scientists and psychic researchers suggest that psi phenomena is not just a New Age concept but
has scientific basis as well. Following are some instances that proved the existence of psychometric abilities which involves both aspects concerning ESP and PK.
“Psychometry" as a term was coined by Joseph R. Buchanan in 1842 (from the Greek words psyche, meaning “soul,” and 2015 metron, meaning “measure.”). Buchanan, an American professor of physiology, became one of the first people to – experiment with psychometry. Using his students as his subjects, he placed various drugs in different glass vials, thereby asking his students to identify the drugs merely by holding the vials. Their success rate was more than a profound chance, and he published the results in his book, Journal of Man. To explain the phenomenon further, Buchanan theorized that all objects have “souls” that retain a specific memory.
Intrigued and inspired by Buchanan’s work, an American professor of Geology William F. Denton also conducted
experiments to see if psychometry would work with his geological specimens. In 1854, he enlisted along with the help Scienceand Scientist | | of his sister, Ann Denton Cridge. The professor wrapped his specimens in cloth to block Ann’s vision and then placed the wrapped package to her forehead. Throughout the procedure of the experiment she was able to accurately describe the specimens through vivid mental images she had received.
From 1919 to 1922, Gustav Pagenstecher, a German doctor also a psychical researcher, had certainly discovered psychometric abilities in one of his patients, Maria Reyes de Zierold. While holding an object, Maria could place herself in a trance-like state or a enter an altered state of consciousness enabling her to state facts about the object’s timeline including its past and present, along with describing sights, sounds, smells and other feelings about the object’s “experience” in the world. Pagenstecher’s theory was that a psychometrist could tune in to the experiential “vibrations” condensed in the object.
In his book The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot says that psychometric abilities “suggest that the past is not lost, but still exists in some form accessible to human perception.” With the scientific knowledge that all matter at the subatomic (Quantum) level exists essentially as vibrations, Talbot asserts that consciousness and reality exist in a kind of hologram that contains a record of the past, present and future; psychometrics may be able to tap into that record. All actions, Talbot says, “instead of fading into oblivion, [remain] recorded in the cosmic hologram and can always be accessed once
again.” SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
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Experimentation and Research Psychic phenomena as investigated through parapsychology is further augmented by the two related sub disciplines of psychological studies namely transpersonal psychology which focuses on the transcendental and spiritual aspects of the human mind or psyche and anomalistic psychology which focuses on the paranormal beliefs and subjective anomalous experiences in the traditional psychological sense.
The following are tested methodologies and experimental approaches conducted by Parapsychologists in the laboratory for further scientific investigation and collection of evidential data support. Ganz Feld is an experimental procedure for testing telepathy in a form of free-response condition known as Ganzfeld (German for “whole field”). The ganzfeld is a “special type of environment (or —a form of moderate sensory deprivation—which was developed to silence mental “noise” by providing mild, unpatterned stimuli to the visual and auditory senses. The visual sense is usually isolated by creating a soft red light which is diffused through half ping-pong balls placed over the recipient’s eyes. The auditory sense is usually blocked by playing white noise, static, or similar sounds to the recipient. The subject is also seated in a comfortable reclined, position to minimize the sense of touch.
In the typical Ganzfeld experiment, a “sender” and a “receiver” are isolated. The receiver is put into the Ganzfeld state also known as the Ganzfeld effect and the sender is shown a video clip or still picture and asked to mentally send that image to the receiver. The receiver, while in the Ganzfeld, is asked to continuously speak aloud all mental processes,
including images, thoughts, and feelings. At the end of the sending period, typically about 20 to 40 minutes in length,
the receiver is taken out of the Ganzfeld state and shown four images or videos, one of which is the true target and three
of which are non-target decoys. The receiver attempts to select the true target, using perceptions experienced during 2015
the Ganzfeld state as clues to what the mentally “sent” image might have been. –
Remote Viewing is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen geographical location or target using subjective means such as mental visions or images, in particular, ESP extrasensory perception. Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object, event, person or location that is hidden from physical view and separated by distance. Several hundred such trials have been conducted by investigators over the past 25 years, including those by the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory (PEAR) and by scientists like Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff at SRI International and Science Applications International Corporation.
Scienceand Scientist | | Random Number Generators uses modern electronic technology to develop a fully automated experiment studying the possible mind matter interactions. A random number generator (RNG), is modelled on electronic or radioactive noise, which generates a data stream that is recorded and analyzed by computer software. When a subject attempts to mentally alter the distribution of the random numbers, usually in an experimental design it is functionally equivalent to
choice alteration like getting more “heads” than “tails” while flipping a coin. In the RNG experiments, design flexibility
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can be combined with rigorous controls, when collecting a large amount of data in a short period of time. This technique has been used both to test individuals for psychokinesis and to test the possible influence on RNGs of an event
involving large groups of people like mass gatherings or festivals.
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DMILS previously also known as bio-PK is a “direct mental interactions with living systems”. DMILS examines the effects of one individuals’s intentions on a distant individual’s psychophysiological state. A type of DMILS experiment looks at the commonly reported “feeling of being stared at.” The “starer” and the “stare” are segregated and isolated in
two different locations, and the starer is periodically asked to simply gaze at the staree via closed circuit video links.
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Meanwhile, the staree’s nervous system activity is automatically and continuously monitored.
Parapsychologists have interpreted the cumulative data on this and similar DMILS experiments to suggest that one person’s attention directed towards a remote, isolated person can significantly activate or calm that person’s nervous SOUVENIR system. In a meta-analysis of these experiments published in the British Journal of Psychology in 2004, researchers found that there was a small but significant overall DMILS effect.
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Evidential Data Support Following is an excerpt from the 2010 report, where Lance Storm, Patrizio Tressoldi, and Lorenzo Di Risio analyzed 29 ganzfeld studies from 1997 to 2008. Of the 1,498 trials, 483 produced hits, corresponding to a hit rate of 32.2%. This hit rate is statistically significant with p < 0.001. Participants selected for personality traits and personal characteristics thought to be psi-conducive were found to perform significantly better than unselected participants in the ganzfeld condition
We report the results of meta-analyses on 3 types of free-response study: (a) ganzfeld (a technique that enhances a communication anomaly referred to as “psi”); (b) nonganzfeld noise reduction using alleged psi-enhancing techniques such as dream psi, meditation, relaxation, or hypnosis; and (c) standard free response (nonganzfeld, no noise reduction). For the period 1997-2008, a homogeneous data set of 29 ganzfeld studies yielded a mean effect size of 0.142 (Stouffer Z = 5.48, p = 2.13 x 10(-8)). A homogeneous nonganzfeld noise reduction data set of 16 studies yielded a mean effect size of 0.110 (Stouffer Z = 3.35, p = 2.08 x 10(-4)), and a homogeneous data set of 14 standard free-response studies produced a weak negative mean effect size of -0.029 (Stouffer Z = -2.29, p = .989). The mean effect size value of the ganzfeld database was significantly higher than the mean effect size of the standard free-response database but was not higher than the effect size of the nonganzfeld noise reduction database [corrected]. We also found that selected participants (believers in the paranormal, meditators, and so on) had a performance advantage over unselected participants, but only if they were in the ganzfeld condition.
Discussions
Yet, even though psi research is nowadays largely process oriented, one still finds recruitment of unselected participants or volunteers to be about as frequent as recruitment of selected participants. We are aware that researchers’ choices are often restricted by practical considerations (e.g., the necessity of recruiting a sufficient number of participants and/or
running as many trials as possible, both of which are warranted under the argument from statistical power), so if 2015 practical considerations are a serious issue, researchers might be advised to run unselected (i.e., naive) participants. It – may also be possible that the evidence obtained in the present study has a strong bearing on the debate about much- discussed declines in ganzfeld research, and the alleged unreliability of psi effects. But it is important to add that appearances can be deceiving: that what seems inconclusive or ambiguous, then in spite of, or due to, the statistical evidence, parapsychologists may still have some way to go to convince skeptics. A number of psychological variables, such as confidence, motivation, skill, and the like, may explain the difference. In closing, we emphasize how important it is to free up this line of investigation from unwarranted skepticism and hasty judgments, so that these communication
anomalies might be treated and investigated in like manner with other scientific psychological function. Scienceand Scientist | |
Conclusion The careful study and scientific inspection of Psychic phenomena, along with some self introspection inevitably leads one to believe in these strange occurring of the mind and matter. As we seem interconnected through an underlying current in the lattice of space-time. Even though we remain unclear about the nature and causation of these phenomena but with time and further scientific research we might come up with facts that shall restructure mass conception towards psychic phenomena and it relevance, backed by a strong evidential support and a proper scientific understanding and approach than mere faith or superstition. As Dr. Dean Radin explains in this excerpt from his book Entangled Minds: “Science is at the very earliest stage of understanding entanglement, and there is much yet to learn. But what we’ve seen so far provides a new way of thinking about psi. No longer are psi experiences regarded as rare human talents or divine gifts or “powers” that magically transcend ordinary physical boundaries. Instead, psi becomes an unavoidable consequence of living in an interconnected, entangled physical reality. Psi is reframed from a bizarre anomaly that doesn’t fit into the normal world-hence is labelled paranormal- into a natural phenomena of physics.”
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Talk 5: Approaching Consciousness via Other Experimentally Proven Non- Intuitive Phenomenon Archit Goel Private Researcher, Pune, India
Introduction Consciousness is a subjective experience it is said, but the influence of modern thinking and lifestyle has conditioned a large proportion of people to have a disbelief in its very existence, instead of attempts to explore and experience it. It would be good to have some objective clues indicating the existence and nature of such a phenomenon, which in turn would influence one to look at things differently. Acting on the premise that a single truth should have its consistent reflection in different kind of situations and environments, an attempt was made to bridge the gap between what is considered paranormal and/or subjective and between the objective world which we readily experience. It was decided to take help from Mathematics and Upanishads to represent the subjective situation, and combine the results with similar non-intuitive phenomenon, but those which can be measured objectively or are supported by good evidence. Thus a distant initial relationship between the two could be established, paving the way for more interest in the subjective subject.
Einstein and the Near Death Experience (NDE)
Near Death Experience (NDE) is a beautiful experience which a certain proportion of people have under very painful 2015
circumstances, when they are in a deep coma or are physically dead for some time, having no flow of blood in the brain – and rest of the body. With better and more organized sharing as a result of the internet, and systematic research by doctors and other people[1-3], an increasing number of cases of near death experience have come to light. Some of these may also be due to advancement in medical technology resulting in resuscitation of physically dead people under favorable conditions. As per ‘Near Death Experience Research Foundation’ (NDERF) there are more than 700 such cases each day in US alone[4], thus generating a data of appreciable size for a detailed study. It is interesting that almost all of these thousands of experiences are similar with respect to certain observations[5-7]: 1. There is a very bright joy giving light, which is identified with consciousness, with the all comprehensive
Scienceand Scientist effulgent feature of God. The person undergoing the experience sees beings made of light, and they | | themselves seem to have a subtle body made of light. 2. Many have come back saying that the concept of time is not what we think it is, it is not linear. They have said that the past, present and future all exist at the same point. Most have recounted travel back in time, and have even come back with intuitions about the future.
3. Space and distance are not a constraint, and people were accurately able to recount details of events at OF OF ABSTRACTS
different locations while they were not alive, while having an Out of Body experience.
Einstein’s special relativity theory is a most beautiful work based on theory and mathematics, which twists our & & BOOK
conventional understanding of the concept of time, distances/length and simultaneity. That time may flow at different
speeds for different people/conditions[8,9], distance/length measured by one may not be same as that measured by another[9,10], and simultaneous events may not actually be simultaneous[10-12] indeed defies conventional logic.[13] We are extremely lucky to be living in times when scientific equipment has become sensitive enough to accurately
measure and scientifically validate that all of the above is indeed correct. Time comparison via atomic clocks at earth PROGRAMME
and aboard a flight does show measurable time dilation.[14,15]
Muons, elementary subatomic particles, are formed in the upper atmosphere due to collision of atmospheric molecules with Cosmic Rays and are able to travel the 10 kilometer distance to the surface of the earth within their half-lives of
SOUVENIR 2.2 microseconds due to time dilation (from Earth perspective) and length contraction (from Muon perspective) effects of special relativity.[16,17] [17] is an experiment with similar results with mu-mesons. At the speed of Muons (0.998C), an actual proper distance of only around 660 meters can be covered in 2.2 microseconds. People working with communication/GPS satellites have to take into consideration the effect of special and general relativity. For example, a satellite providing GPS position to someone on earth, would be inaccurate by around 7 km each day 133
considering the effects of relativity (of which special relativity accounts for more than half of the impact), as the satellite time flows at a different speed than that on earth.[18] There are many more such phenomenon which are measurable and have become a part of our daily life. From Einstein’s formulae of time dilation and length contraction, we know that:
time (moving object frame) = time (object at rest),[19,20] and
length (moving object) = length (object at rest)[21,22]
where is the Lorentz Factor = , [23]
v is the speed of the moving object.
At speeds of light (v = c), Y becomes infinity, thus rendering tmoving and lmoving as zero, while trest and lrest become infinity – thus lending what can be called as a sort of omnipresence to the moving frame, i.e., for something having the characteristics of light, a point in time and space can be equated to infinite time and distance for objects at rest. For something like light, all time would appear at the same moment, and all distances could be accessible at the same point. For a body at rest like we are, time and distance are infinite, which is what we experience in the universe familiar to us
when alive. The frame in which time and distance becomes zero or loses relevance, has properties generally attributed to consciousness, and has properties similar to phenomenon observed by the people undergoing NDE, where, without
physically moving in distance and time they still are able to relate to different places and different times, while in a state
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of highly joyful and meditative experience. –
Timeless Thoughts from a Different Time Mandukya Upanishad is an ancient set of Sanskrit verses, and it explores the eternal truth and our relation to it. It speaks of different states, these are different expressions of a reality which is something very subtle, that we are not able to identify with very easily. Time and space during our waking experience, which seem absolutely real in the normal state become fuzzy when we dream and the dream world then seems real. There is also another dreamless state of deep
sleep in which both the above states do not seem to exist. This state exists, but cannot be experienced by us in the usual Scienceand Scientist
analytical and intellectual manner. The text goes on to say that all states are supported by a fourth subtle state which is | beyond everything, beyond comprehension, and yet contains and supports all that there is. Putting the above together, one of the possibilities is that the world we live in may just be a projection of a reality which is something like the fourth state above.
Following verse elaborates this state: “bhutam bhavat bhavishya iti sarvam aumkaara eva”, that is: “past, present, future – everything is this (state) only”. This state is described as “aumkaara” or Om, (a wave. Calling it a sound (wave) may limit its potential, so we may just call it a wave). This is similar to the experience described in the section above in the NDE state, and very much confirms with the thousands of consistent accounts related to the concept of time, by people who have experienced an NDE. The other 3 states mentioned above are the ones we normally observe in our day to day experience. Another verse tries to explore the features of this state: adrashtam (unseen), avyavahaaryam (not related to anything), agraahyam (incomprehensible), alakshanam (uninferable), achintyam (unthinkable), ekaatm pratyaya saaram (knowledge which can be felt deep inside (but cannot be understood or explained)), avyapdesham (undescribable), prapanchopashmam (negation of all phenomenon), shaantam (peaceful), and so on.
We see exactly this kind of struggle by people trying to put into words and describe their NDE experience while dealing with features similar to the above. The stress on incomprehensibility is interesting. As with relativity, we are increasingly observing other phenomenon like various quantum mechanics results which seem quite counter- SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS intuitive and incomprehensible and seem to have no relationship with our conventional logic and physical laws. But these phenomena do seem to exist as per specific experimental observations and measurements and mathematical 134
proofs. For example, in quantum entanglement,[24,25] two parts of a split photon behave in a synchronized manner irrespective of the barriers of distance and time. Changing the quantum spin property of one part of the photon instantaneously changes the same of the other part, howsoever far apart the two entities be, the communication (if any) causing the synchronization occurs faster than the speed of light which is not possible as per current classical assumptions of science. This has been tested and proved in various experiments.[26,27] This defies all conventional logic and even Einstein had trouble in accepting it, but is a measurable and verifiable phenomenon[28], and has already been proposed for practical applications in spy-proof cryptography, super speedy computing, and so on.[29] Although this phenomenon defies conventional scientific logic, it does exist and is measurable, thus indicating that there is something more to the science we are normally familiar with.
The popular and well-known double slit light experiment[30] demonstrates light behaving like a wave, which passes through both the slits simultaneously, but the same light behaves like a particle when under observation[31] and passes through only one slit – thus indicating the quantum mechanics result that quantum particles like light can behave as both a particle and a wave.[32,33] This perfectly verifiable scientific fact has been demonstrated for electrons, protons, atoms and even for entire molecules.[34] Thus it would be possible to say that the above result can be logically extended to our entire material world also. This would provide a light or wave-like property to all of us and everything around us, and the matter aspect of things may well be one of the properties which appears under certain conditions, eg., when under observation. The above result would confirm with what is written in various vedantic texts which say
very clearly that the material world is a sort of illusion created for us and the reality is subtle consciousness which is
present everywhere, in all things, in the entire universe. In Mandukya Upanishad, its property of reality is indicated to be
wave-like, represented by ‘Aum’. This also confirms to the NDE experience when people in a state of ‘consciousness’, 2015
shorn of their body identification relate to themselves and other beings as made of light, and cross the barriers of – distance and time, which again confirms to mathematical and verifiable results of special relativity in which light plays a central part for deriving all its results.
The end of the text is interesting and deals with light. It says “swasti naa poosan” (please provide your blessings to us O Sun (or the one who lights up and nourishes (the whole world))”. Thus, we are able to interpret and validate certain observations made in the distant past by enlightened men and relate them with familiar scientifically verifiable phenomena, and at the same time get a glimpse into the nature of what has been described as a bigger reality, the true
Scienceand Scientist nature of which may well be different than what we normally witness. | |
Concluding Thoughts This line of thought would have applications in further interpreting, analyzing and confirming or disregarding certain results of modern thought. For example, if we can establish the presence of an entity of consciousness which is related
to us, then it will certainly require a relook or deeper study of various aspects of modern scientific thought. There may
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be more to it than we currently understand and more study or a different way of looking of things may be required, eg., theories advocating self-assembly of elements into life, Darwin’s theory, Big Bang, and so on may need a relook and/or
deeper study in the above light. Just matter, in the form we see it, may not be sufficiently equipped with the
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intelligence required for complex life-forms, and there may exist an entity of intelligence, of consciousness, which is related with and supports everything. Big-bang as the start of the universe may require a relook if matter is not everything, and if the phenomenon of time and distance itself are not what they are normally considered to be. Phenomenon like Epigenetics and Bioinformation will require a lot of research with respect to possibilities in this light.
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Reaching near the state of consciousness via meditation or an NDE may not be intuitive or immediately possible for many. However, this paper explores ways and serves as a bridge via which any person educated by modern thoughts can better relate to the presence of a deeper unseen reality, using the evidence available via mathematics and results from modern scientific tools. SOUVENIR Let us end with some very appropriate words by one of the greatest minds of this planet, “What I see in nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility” – Einstein. 135
References: [1] Near Death Experience Research Foundation: www.nderf.org [2] International Association of Near Death Studies (IANDS): http://iands.org/ [3] Sam, P. et al. (2014). Aware—Awareness during resuscitation—A prospective study, in resuscitation. Official J. European Resuscitation Council, Vol. 85(12), pp. 1799–1805. [4] How many NDEs occur in the United States every day?: www.nderf.org/NDERF/Research/number_nde_usa.htm [5] Anita, M. Dying to be me. Chapter 7. [6] NDE accounts in International Association of Near Death Studies (IANDS): http://iands.org/experiences/nde- accounts.html [7] NDE accounts: www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Archives/NDERF_NDEs.htm [8] Einstein, A. Relativity-The Special and the General Theory, Chapter 9 – The Relativity of Simultaneity. [9] Mermin, D.N. Its About Time, chapter 6 – Moving Clocks Run Slowly, Moving Sticks Shrink. [10] Mermin, D.N. Its About Time, chapter 5 – Simultaneous Events, Synchronized Clocks. [11] Resnick, R. Introduction to Special Relativity, Chapter 2, Relativistic Kinematics, section 2.4 D. [12] Einstein, A. Relativity-The Special and the General Theory, Chapter 10 – On the Relativity of the Conception of Distance. [13] Resnick, R. Introduction to Special Relativity, Chapter 2 – Relativistic Kinematics. [14] Hafele–Keating experiment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele%E2%80%93Keating_experiment [15] Hafele, J. C. and Keating, R.E. (1972). Around-the-World Atomic Clocks: Predicted Relativistic Time Gains.
Science, Vol. 177(4044), pp. 166-168.
[16] Time Dilation of Moving Particles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation_of_moving_particles [17] Frisch, D.H. and Smith, J.H. (1963). Measurement of the relativistic time dilation using mu-Mesons. American J.
Physics, Vol. 31(5):http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1963AmJPh..31..342F 2015
[18] Livescience.com-8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life, Section 1-Global Positioning – System: www.livescience.com/48922-theory-of-relativity-in-real-life.html [19] Time Dilation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation [20] Resnick, R. Introduction to Special Relativity, Chapter 2, Relativistic Kinematics, section 2.4 B. [21] Length contraction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Length_contraction [22] Resnick, R. Introduction to Special Relativity, Chapter 2, Relativistic Kinematics, section 2.4 C. [23] Lorentz, F. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_factor
[24] How Quantum Entanglement Works, LiveScience: www.livescience.com/28550-how-quantum-entanglement- Scienceand Scientist | | works-infographic.html [25] 75 years of entanglement, Science News: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/75-years-entanglement [26] Juan, Y. et al. (2013). Bounding the speed of spooky action at a distance. Phys. Rev., Bibcode:2013arXiv1303.0614Y: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013arXiv1303.0614Y [27] Salart, D., Baas, A., Branciard, C., Gisin N. and Zbinden, H. Testing the speed of spooky action at a distance. Nature, Vol. 454, pp. 861-864, doi:10.1038/nature07121: www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7206/full/nature07121.html [28] Entangled photons make a picture from a paradox, Nature, doi: 10.1038/nature.2014.15781: www.nature.com/news/entangled-photons-make-a-picture-from-a-paradox-1.15781 [29] Five Practical Uses for Spooky Quantum Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine: www.smithsonianmag.com/science- nature/five-practical-uses-spooky-quantum-mechanics-180953494/?no-ist [30] Young’s Two Slit Experiment: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/21st_century_science/lectures/lec13.html [31] Wave-Particle Duality, David Darling Encyclopedia of Science: www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/W/wave- particle_duality.html [32] Müller-Kirsten, H.J.W. Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: Schrödinger Equation and Path Integral, Chapter 1. [33] Alastair I.M.R, Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality?, Chapter 1.
[34] Wave–particle duality of C60 molecules, Nature, Vol. 401, pp. 680-682, doi:10.1038/44348: SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS www.nature.com/nature/journal/v401/n6754/abs/401680a0.html
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Talk 6: Understanding atma (Soul) From the Ayurvedic Perspective Kumar Aurojyoti Consultant, Ayurdwar, Puri
Various concepts regarding atma (soul) were popular even in the time of Mahabharata. Lord Sri Krishna said in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita:
ashcharya vat pashyati kaschit enam ashcharya vat vadati tatha eva cha anyah | ashcharya vachainam anyah shrunoti shrutva api enam veda nachaiva kaschit || ~ Chapter 2 (Samkhya Yoga) / Sloka 29
Translation: Some look on the Soul as amazing, some describe it as amazing, and some hear of it as amazing, while others, even after hearing about it, cannot understand it at all.
So knowing it to be an improbable task to describe the atma (soul), I am still making an attempt on this regard with
the help of Ayurveda – the Wisdom of Life.
What is Ayurveda and What Does it Says About atma? 2015 Ayurveda is the wisdom of life which is as old as the Vedas and is scientific in nature. In the process of evolution, – according to modern science, man evolved much later. But Ayurveda existed since the beginning of time. It is described as shaswata (eternal) and anaadi (without a beginning) (Charak Sutra 30/27). There was a time when people were living in a disease free society. But eventually they suffered from various diseases. During this time the Rishis (seers) in order to save the humanity from diseases decided to learn the principles of Ayurveda from higher beings that protect the universe. And thus Ayurveda descended to Earth for the benefit of mankind. The aim of Ayurveda is to maintain the good health of a healthy person and to cure the disease of an unhealthy person (Charak Sutra 30/26). Ayurveda was the first medical science to describe and develop the branch of surgery. The use of various surgical
Scienceand Scientist instruments and the principles of plastic surgery were first written in Susruta Samhita – an Ayurvedic treatise on | | medicine and surgery. Jeevaka was a famous Ayurvedic surgeon who performed the first cranio-surgery in history. Ayurveda was also the first medical science that highlighted the aspect of preventive medicine through chapters on Swasthavritta and Sadvritta as described in Charaka Samhita. Sharngadhara Samhita, an Ayurvedic treatise first described the mechanism of respiration and the concept of Oxygen. Like this in many ways Ayurveda was the pathfinder to all
the medical systems in the world. Ayurveda is an applied science having scientific background. The fundamental
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principles of Ayurveda have been laid down after many times of experimentation. So a principle or Siddhanta of Ayurveda is formed after repeated observations of a truth in nature (Charak Viman 8/37). As per Ayurveda, life is a
combination of four factors – i.e. sharira (the body), indriya (the senses), satwa (the mind) and atma (the Soul). These
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four factors combine to produce the unique experience we call life (Charak Sutra 1/42).
atma according to Ayurveda is one among the nine karana dravyas (Causal Factors) that are the essential causes for the evolution of the whole living or non-living world or universe. The nine Causal Factors are – panchamahabhootas (five
basic elements), dik (direction), kala (time), atma (soul) and mana (mind).
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What is the Necessity of Describing atma in Ayurveda? Understanding the nature of atma is important as far as Ayurveda is concerned because, atma is one of the important factors which are essential for achieving good health. Ayurveda says a person to be healthy if “his doshas (body humors) SOUVENIR and dhatus (body tissues) are in equilibrium, his excretory functions and digestive function are working properly and his atma, senses and mind are pleased (Sushruta Sutra 15/48)”. Again from the treatment point of view a body can be treated only as long as the atma resides in the body. No treatment works on a body that is bereft of the atma and is called as dead (Charak Sutra 1/46-47). 137
What is atma? According to Ayurveda, the body is not merely a physical structure built by a combination of chemical compounds. Rather it is a result of a union between panchamahabhootas (five basic elements), sensory intelligence (indriyas), mind and atma. The five elements, the organs and the mind form the foundation of the body. The conscious part of this foundation is atma (Charak Sutra 30/22). Mind is active but devoid of consciousness. Thus atma while in combination with the mind appears to have actions. As the atma has consciousness, it is said to be the agent of action (Charaka Sharira 1/75-76). When the atma leaves the body, the later becomes non-functional or dead even if all organs are intact. In the absence of atma the organs cannot function, nothing can be felt or experienced by the body. Hence atma has been considered as the basis of all consciousness (Charak Sharira 6/4). Even at the time of the conception Maharishi Charakacharya explains, that it is not only the union of shukra (sperm) and shonita (ovum) but the union of shukra, shonita and atma which is responsible for the formation of foetus (Charak Sharira 4/5).
What are the Types of atma? There are two types of atma - paramatma and jeevatma. atma as pure consciousness which is all pervasive in the universe is known as paramatma (Supreme Soul). Individual atma that is present in every organism is known as jeevatma. This jeevatma is also known as hetu (concomitant cause), karma (non-constituent cause), nimitta (efficient cause), aksara (indestructible one), kartr (the agent), mantri (the thinker), vedita (the knower), boddha (the intelligent one), drastra (the seer), dhatri (the supporter), brahma (the creator), visvakarma (the builder of the universe), visvarupa (the prototype of the universe), purusa (the supreme person), prabhava (the source of origin), avyaya (the immutable), nitya (the eternal),
gunin (the receptacle of mahabhootas), grahana (one having capacity to unite with mahabhootas), pradhana (the nature), avyakta (the unmanifested one), pudgala (the ego), cetanavat (one having the power of sensation), vibhu (omnipresent), bhutatma (empirical soul), indriyatma (organic soul) and antratman (inner Soul) (Charak Sharira 4/8).
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Where is atma Located in the body? – The place of atma (chetana) in the body is the hridaya (cardiac region) (Charak Sutra 30/04).
What are the Characteristics of atma? The signs of living persons are – inspiration and expiration, blinking of the eyes, life, mental perception, shifting of sense organ from one object to another, mobility and stability of mind, anticipation of death, knowledge of something visualized in the right eye by the left eye, desire, hatred, happiness, misery, effort, consciousness, stability, intellect,
memory and ego (Charak Sharira 1/70-74). These signs are not available in respect to a dead body. So they are Scienceand Scientist | | considered to be the characteristics of atma. It is due to the existence of atma in the body, the sensory organs, mind and so on become functional. Here atma exists in the form of a witness (drashta, sakshi). When atma departs, the body becomes vacant and is deprived of consciousness; only the five mahabhootas remain. So a dead body is stated to have attained the state of five mahabhootas (pancatva).
What is the Nature of atma? This atma (soul) cannot be perceived by any other sense except the divine vision. It is omnipresent, it can enter into any physique, it can perform any action and can take any shape, it is the conscious element, it is beyond any sensory perception and it is due to its association with the intellect and so on that it gets involved in attachment and so on (Charak Sharira 2/32). The atma does not undergo any modification. Its presence in different types of creatures does not bear any distinction. It appears to have distinctions only on account of the specific features of the body and mind of different types of creatures (Charak Sharira 4/33).
How atma Works in the Body? The atma is endowed with the power of perception. It perceives things when it is associated with the mind, intellect, and sense faculties. If these instruments of perception are either absent or are not in association with the atma or
impeded, then there will be no perception (Charak Sharira 1/54). atma can never be separated from the mind, and so, it SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS is always endowed with consciousness by virtue of its constant association with the mind.
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What Happens to atma After Death? The atma is indestructible. It continues to live even after the body gets destroyed. It is immortal and hence fundamentally different from the body. Being guided by the associated past actions (karma), the Atma who travels with the help of the mind transmigrates from one body to another along with the four subtle bhootas. This atma cannot be perceived by any other sense except the Divine vision (Charak Sharira 2/31). Lord Sri Krishna has also said in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita 2.23: nainam chhindanti shastrani nainam dhahati pavakaha | na chainam kledayantyapo na shoshayati marutaha || Translation: Weapons cannot cut, fire cannot burn, water cannot wet, and wind cannot dry this Atma.
References: [1] Charak Samhita. [2] Sushruta Samhita. [3] Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.
Talk 7: The Process of Rebirth
Basudev Misra
2015 Retd. Govt. Servant, Defense Production, Ordnance Factory Board, Kolkata
–
Introductory A scientist should not accept or reject anything without evidence. Even for denying, she/he must seek evidence for its non-existence. Non-availability of evidence is not the same as non-existence. Evidence is the instrumentation (observation/experiment) for/against generating identical result of measurement under similar conditions that is spatiotemporally invariant. Validity of evidence is judged by spatiotemporal invariance of such perception or
measurement. Everything is interconnected and interdependent as described in Madhu Braahmanam. Nature is anything
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that exists, manifests itself through some intelligible effect directly or indirectly, and can be described in a formal language. Theory is a statement that explains the process at all times unambiguously and universally without contradictions.
In all perception by everyone, though the object of perception changes, the perception itself as: “I know… (it is like
OF OF ABSTRACTS that concept/information I perceived earlier; hence it is that)” remains invariant making it universal. It is not
measurable, because measurement is a process of comparison between similars and there is nothing similar to consciousness to be treated as a unit to measure it. Hence we have to observe different aspects of life to know how
consciousness reveals itself through inert objects to make it come ‘alive’. For searching answers to the question of life
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and rebirth, we should search clues from conscious beings. We will scientifically examine the descriptions of Gita, Shrimad Bhagavatam, the Vedas and other texts. Since freewill is associated with life and conscious actions, the perception of which is related to the uncertainty relation, causality (determinism) and according to some, retro-causality, let us discuss these first.
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The left hand side of all equations or inequalities represents free-will, as we are free to choose (or vary within certain constraints) the individual parameters. The right hand side represents determinism, as the outcome is based on the input in predictable ways. The equality (or inequality) sign prescribes the special conditions to be observed or matched
SOUVENIR to achieve the desired result. Only conscious beings can have freewill, though it is not unrestricted.
karmanyevaadhikaaraste maa phaleshu kadaachana: When Heisenberg proposed his conjecture in 1927, Earle Kennard independently derived a different formulation, which was later generalized by Howard Robertson as: σ(q)σ(p) ≥ h/4π. This inequality says that one cannot suppress 139
quantum fluctuations of both position σ(q) and momentum σ(p) lower than a certain limit simultaneously. The fluctuation exists regardless of whether it is measured or not, implying the existence of a universal field. The inequality does not say anything about what happens when a measurement is performed. Kennard’s formulation is therefore totally different from Heisenberg’s. However, because of the similarities in format and terminology of the two inequalities, most physicists have assumed that both formulations describe virtually the same phenomenon. Modern physicists actually use Kennard’s formulation but mistakenly call it Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. “Spontaneous” creation and annihilation of virtual particles in vacuum is possible only in Kennard’s formulation and not in Heisenberg’s formulation, as otherwise it would violate conservation laws. If it were violated experimentally, the whole of quantum mechanics would break down.
Our sense organs and measuring devices have limited capacity, so that they measure in phases (limited aspects in limited intervals) and then we generalize it. We see something when the radiation emitted by it interacts with that in our eyes. We touch mass that radiates light. Thus we do not touch what we see (radiation) and see what we touch (mass) – anavarne ime bhumih. Since time evolution is not uniform, but conditional on interactions, we do not see each step from flapping of the wings of the butterfly till it turns into tempest elsewhere. Creation is highly ordered and there is no randomness or chaos. Nature prohibits reductionism. Whole is a sum of its parts and more. We fault Nature to hide our inability to know everything fully. This inability introduces uncertainty in applying the result of past measurements to plan future actions.
The uncertainty relation was reformulated in terms of standard deviations, where the focus was exclusively on the
indeterminacy of predictions, whereas the unavoidable disturbance (perturbations) during the processes of measurement was ignored. A formulation of the error–disturbance uncertainty relation, taking the perturbation into
account, was essential for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. Masanao Ozawa directly measured errors and 2015 2015 disturbances in the observation of spin components. His inequality: ε(q)η(p) + σ(q)η(p) + σ(p)ε(q) ≥ h/4π suggests that suppression of fluctuations is not the only way to reduce error, but it can be achieved by allowing a system to have – larger fluctuations. Nature Physics (2012 doi:10.1038/nphys2194) describes a neutron-optical experiment that records the error of a spin-component measurement as well as the disturbance caused on another spin-component. The results confirm that both error and disturbance obey the new relation but violate the old one in a wide range of experimental parameters. Even when either the source of error or disturbance is held to be nearly zero, the other remains finite. Thus, uncertainty is universal.
Srimad Bhagavad-Gita says: you have control over your actions but not over other factors that influence the final Scienceand Scientist | | outcome. Further, it warns: maa karmaphalaheturbhuh – do not think that if you do something in a particular way, you will definitely get the desired result – it can boomerang. You cannot exist without action (maa te sangastwakarmani), hence try to refine your skills. Result determined by natural principles (God’s Will?) will follow. Freewill can only respond to it – not prevent it. “Causa sui” (self-caused cause) also depends on degrees of freedom – hence not totally free. Quantum mechanics admits statistical cause. That only shows a band width and our inability to measure precisely. Atomic time is multiple readings of many clocks to find an average second because transition time between two energy levels of the cesium atom is not uniform. Yet, the numbers of transitions are still related to the old second – a fraction of the Earth’s rotation time.
Retro-causality in QM stems from Bell’s Theorem and the non-locality it seems to entail. Bell thought that “retro- causality” conflicts with freewill and certain basic assumptions of science, and the dilemma can be avoided if the properties of quantum systems are allowed to depend on what happens to them in both future and the past. But past is not related to present in the same way as present is related to future. Space, time and coordinates arise from our concept of sequence and interval. When it is related to objects, we call the interval space. When it is related to events, we call the interval time. When we describe inter-relationship of objects, we describe the interval by coordinates. Past, Present and Future are segments of these sequences of intervals that are strictly ordered – all of future always follow
present. The same sequence is not true for past, because any past event can be linked to the present bypassing the SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS specific sequence of its occurrence but we cannot move from past to future or from present to distant future violating
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the sequence. Further, we can think of or use the information relating to past with certainty, but cannot do the same for future. This proves unidirectional time – hence strict causality.
Fantasies such as a traversable wormholes or the region near hypothetical cosmic strings have been used by some to claim that causality can be reversible – effect can sometimes precede cause. This is negated in Vaisheshika. Consider an example: A + B → C + D. Here a force makes A interact with B to produce C and D. The same force cannot act on C and D as they do not exist at that stage. If we change the direction of the initial forces, then B acts on A. Here only the direction of force and not the interval between the states before and after application of force (time) will change and the equation will be: B + A → C + D and not B + A ← C + D (C and D did not exist then). Hence it does not affect causality. There is no negative direction for time.
God is called sat-chit-aananda. aanada shakti denotes absolute freedom (swaatantryam). When limited in individuals (jiva), it becomes determinism (niyati). chit shakti denotes omnipresence (nitya satta). When limited in individuals, it acquires six stages of time evolution (shadbhaava vikaaraah), which gives rise to time (kaala). These stages: being (situation leading to its creation), becoming (its creation itself), growth (due to addition of other molecules), transformation (as a result), transmutation (due to the same effect – incompatible addition), death (change of form as a consequence) are common to both living beings and inanimate objects. sat is as defined in Chaandogya Upanishad: sa+ti+yam, which depict icchaa-gnyaanam-kriyaa. The icchaa shakti denotes eternal affluence (nitya praapti). When limited in individuals, it
becomes craving (raaga). gnyaanam shakti denotes omniscience (sarvagnyataa). Limited in individuals, it becomes
knowledge/ignorance (vidyaa/avidyaa). The kriyaashakti denotes omnipotence (sarva kartrhtwa). When limited in
individuals, it becomes part/limited exposition (kalaa).
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– If the impulse generated by the perception of something gives rise to craving (anuraaga) based on past experience, it generates thought, which is the inertia of mind that can stop only after getting the object of desire (praapti), or knowledge of the real nature of the object (gnyaanam) or sudden severe pain (kashta). Freewill for action is based on three factors: 1) Physical and genetic composition of the person that has its own interactive properties, 2) Sensory experiences of the past and the memory associated with it that leads to infatuation (raaga) or confusion
(moha) or negative emotions (dwesha), and Scienceand Scientist
| | 3) Limited disturbance (depravity or affluence) to the ratio (both intra and inter) of fixed evolutionary (shareera) and
functional evolutionary (indriya) components of the body.
These lead to diversity of response to the same situation. Diversity is a property of groups, which has many aspects across the social spectrum. Susceptibility to external conditions or emotions is an example of diversity of genetic
composition. Our emotions are based on genetic imprint and past experiences. If we could map it properly, the chain of
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differential inertia can explain all behavior – the so-called freewill that is constrained (vaddha) by available choices.
Defining Life, Body, Sensory Instruments, Mind and Intellect
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Ayurveda says: breathing is the sign of life (praana dhaaranam jeevanam). Also possession of sensory instruments is the sign of life (sendriyam chetanadravyam neerindriyam achetanam). The Upanishads say: there are two causes of life: desire and breathing (hetu dwayoh hi chittasya vaasanaa cha sameerana). If either is detached, the person dies. The body is defined as the base for holding a compact lot of atoms (arthaashraya) that is guided by the sensory instruments (indriyaashraya), to
initiate conscious actions (karmaashraya). Recently, a group of scientists at NASA, working on ice samples containing
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pyrimidine (a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen) and exposing it to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions, have produced Uralic, cytosine, and thymine – all three components of RNA and DNA, to show that these hereditary materials can be created non-biologically in a laboratory. Since these are a compact lot of atoms,
according to the above definition of the body, these are body material. The researchers found that when pyrimidine is SOUVENIR frozen in ice mostly consisting of water (also ammonia, methanol or methane), it is much less vulnerable to destruction by radiation than it would be if it were in the gas phase in open space. Instead of being destroyed, many of the molecules took on new forms, such as RNA/DNA and so on. Thus aapomaya parameshthee, who is called chitta, mahaan and Vaasudeva in Srimad Bhaagavatam is called the creator. 141
Srimad Bhagavad-Gita (18.14/15) distinguishes mechanical motion from conscious speech, mental and physical actions. It says all these have five concurrent causes: 1) base or ground or physical body on which action takes place (adhisthaanam), 2) freewill or causal body (kartaa), 3) different sensory instruments (karanam), 4) energy that operates all systems (cheshtaa) and 5) external influences (daiva). Srimad Bhagavad-Gita (18.16/17, also 13.27 to 32) declares that anyone, who thinks that the soul or atma does not induce, but does things; is misguided. While describing how a person after death acquires a new body; Srimad Bhagavad-Gita 2.22 uses the word ‘dehi’ to indicate the causal body (linga shareera) – not aatma. Let us discuss the sensory process, as it is a sign of life.
Much has been talked about sensory perception and memory consolidation as composed of an initial set of feature filters followed by a special class of mathematical transformations which represent the sensory inputs generating interacting wave-fronts over the entire sensory cortical area – the so-called holographic processes. It can explain the almost infinite memory. Since a hologram retains the complete details at every point of its image plane, even if a small portion of it is exposed for reconstruction, we get the entire scene, though the quality may be impaired. Yet, unlike an optical hologram, the neural hologram is formed by very low frequency post-synaptic potentials providing a low information processing capacity to the neural system. Further, the distributed memory mechanisms are not recorded randomly over the entire brain matter, as there are preferred locations in the brain for each type of sensory input.
The impulses from various sensory apparatus are carried upwards in the dorsal column or in the anterio-lateral spinothalamic tract to the thalamus, which relays it to the cerebral cortex for its perception. However, both for
consolidation and retrieval of sensory information, holographic model requires a coherent source which literally
‘illuminates’ the object or the object-projected sensory information – grid cells and place cells – at the site of sensory repository. For retrieval of the previously consolidated information from memory, the same source again becomes
necessary. Since the brain receives enormous information that is present for the whole life (subject to comorbidity 2015 related mental disorders), such source should always be illuminating the required area in the brain where the sensory – information (memory) is stored. Even in dream state, this source must be active, as there also local memory retrieval and experience (without physical limitations) take place. This illuminating source (shuddha prakaasha maatra roopa) of the expressed consciousness is vigyaanam.
The sensory agencies are different from sense organs. Eye is not ocular sensor (darshanendriya). But it is the power operating there that makes the eyes see things. Thus, when one dies, the eyes cannot see. The sensory agencies are
called “indriyam” to indicate that functionally they belong to Indra, which, according to Shatapatha Braahmanam (6-1-2), Scienceand Scientist | | is the central equilibrium point, which resolves into two equal and oppositely directed forces to initiate motion (sa yoayam madhyepraanah esha evendrah). Hence Indra has been described as the universal form of force (valasya nikhilaakrhtih). The sense organs function in that way (paraanchikhaani vyatrhnat swayambhuh) – they move out from their base in the body (like eyes and so on) to interact with their respective objects and back so that we see proper pictures unlike inverted pictures in earlier cameras. These are sent to the brain with the help of mind for processing.
When we write on a computer, it had to move a collective of 0’s and 1’s – the machine representation of a Word document – from a temporary memory area and send it to the CPU, through a bunch of wires. The CPU transforms the data into letters that we see on the screen. To keep that particular sentence from vanishing once we turned our computer off, the data representing it had to travel back along that bunch of wires to a more stable memory area such as a hard drive. Our mind and sense organs function like that.
At any moment, our sense organs are bombarded by a multitude of stimuli. But only one of them is given a clear channel at a time to go up to the thalamus and then to the cerebral cortex, so that like photographic frames, we perceive one discrete frame at every instant, but due to the high speed of their reception (manojavittwa), mix it up – so that it appears as continuous. Unlike the sensory agencies that are subject specific (eyes can only receive
electromagnetic radiation, ears only sound, and so on); the transport system within the body functions for all types of SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS sensory impulses. This occurs against concentration gradients with the input energy like the sodium-potassium pump in our body, which moves the two ions in opposite directions across the plasma membrane through break down of 142
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP). When sodium interacts with the surrounding water, reaction starts in less than a millisecond. After 0.4 ms, ‘spikes’ of metal shoot out from the droplet, too fast to be expelled by heating. Each of the atoms at the surface of the cluster loses an electron in picoseconds (10–12 s), and the electrons shoot into the surrounding water, where they are solvated (surrounded by water molecules) giving a deep blue color (pataro viklidhah pingah etat varuna lakshyanam).
In the sodium-potassium pump, concentrations of the two ions on both sides of the cell membrane are interdependent, suggesting that the same carrier transports both ions. Similarly, the same carrier (called ubhayandriya manah) energizing inter-neurons, transports the external stimuli from sensory agencies (sensory neurons and gnyanendriya) to the cerebral cortex and back (through motor neurons and karmendriya) as a command. These carriers are the “indriyam”. Srimad Bhagavad-Gita (3.42) indicates this sequence. Mind cannot be perceived, but is inferred from the knowledge or lack of it of external stimuli. Only if the mind transports different external impulses to the brain for mixing and comparison with the stored data, we (self) know about that (for first time impulse received about something, there is no definite ‘knowledge’).
Mathematics is the science of accumulation and reduction of numbers. It is deterministic, hence, a mechanical function. Numbers are the perception of differentiation between similars. If there are no similars, it is one. If there are similars, it is many, which, based on sequential perception, can be 2, 3….n. Two (dwi) is so called because its perception is very
fast (drhtataraa samkhyaa). Three (tri) is so called because its perception is also similar (tirnatamaa). It is established that
these numbers can be perceived even by children and animals. However, the perceptions of higher numbers are
difficult. Hence four (chatwaara) is the next number (chalitasamaa) and so on. A computer does not count “objects”. It 2015
only records the sequence of impulses. It cannot distinguish between three apples and three birds unless explicitly – programmed for that.
Compared to a computer, in perception, data are the response of our sensory agencies to individual external stimuli. Text is the excitation of the neural network in specific regions of the brain. Spreadsheets are the memories of earlier perception. Pictures are the inertia of motion generated in memory (thought) after a fresh impulse linking related past experiences. Voice is the disturbance created due to the disharmony between the present thought and the stored image (this or that, yes or no). Video is the net thought that emerges out of such interaction. Software is the memory.
Scienceand Scientist Hardware includes the neural network. Bytes and bits are the changing interactions of the sense organs (including sound | | that produces words – string) with respective fields generated by objects evolving in time.
It requires an agent to mix the signals brought in by mind and convert them to electro-chemical information and submit to a conscious agent (operator) to cognize them. In perception, these tasks are done by a transitory neural activity in
brain powered by intellect (buddhi). Though, it is not directly perceptible, it is inferred from its actions – firing of
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positrons in specific areas of brain during perception. Hence even after the breath stops, a person may not be brain dead as the intellect (and not the mind) may still be functional. While time independent mind facilitates the transport of
various external impulses, the interpretation after mixing of the state of superposition of various thoughts/inputs in
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memory (vikalpa), is done by the transitory intellect. The conscious self that cognizes the information is different from all these and referred to by Srimad Bhagavad-Gita (3.42) as He (sah) to distinguish it from Ultimate Consciousness (which is referred to as aham or ayam – as in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita 2.24). This conscious self is the base for the sensory instruments – hence called causal body (linga sharira), as it fulfills the definition of body described earlier.
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What we call action can be divided into two categories: a sequence of initial preparatory phase (prakrama) – the components of a routine repetitive action (abhikrama). These are called subsidiary actions (kratwartha karma). A combination of such subsidiary actions leads to an essential action (purushaartha karma). A group of such essential actions make a stable structure (karma vyuha) that can perform directed composite actions. The performers of such actions are SOUVENIR bound by the induced reaction (vaddha jeeva) till this inertia ceases and they come over to the automated time evolution format (perpetual functioning of their systems – abhyudaya and ultimately nihshreyasa). All other (free) species (mukta jeeva) are called perpetually evolutionary species (aashwatthika jeeva). They have two divisions: fixed evolutionary (brahma aashwatthika) and functional evolutionary (niyata karma aashwatthika). The first category is inert like galaxy, Sun, 143
Earth, Moon, atoms, and so on, which have fixed orbital positions. Our body is constituted of these. The other category mimics sentiency. It does not have a fixed position and is in perpetual motion (quantum or devaah). Thus, there is no fixed position in the quantum world. Our sensory agencies belong to this category. The first category can be perceived directly (bhaava pratyaya). The second category is inferred from its effects (upaaya pratyaya). It has another category called prakrhti layaah, which reflects consciousness. Both categories are held together by energy (prana) that arises from a base (aatma) to constitute body (pashu). The process is described in Shatapatha Braahmanam 14.4.4.1.
Once the heart starts beating in the embryo, it beats perpetually. This sustains life and its cessation is termed death. The energy that powers this perpetual action (cheshta) is called Prana. Prana is the kinetic state (kurvadroopaavasthaa) of force (vala), which is the potential state (suptaavasthaa). Its effect is action (kriyaa). Depending upon the nature of interactions, it can be of five types. The proximity-proximity variable (antaryaama) is called strong interaction, which determines nucleic composition (gandha – gandh ardane, ard himsaayaam) and generates smell. The proximity-distance variable (vahiryaama) is called weak interaction, which determines weak coupling like the n-p chain (rasa – ras gatou) that determines the chemical composition and generates taste. The distance-proximity variable (upayaama) is electromagnetic interaction that generates form (roopa – roop vimohane). The distance-distance variable (yaatayaama) is called beta decay that generates touch (sparsha – sprhsh samsparshane). We can feel touch only when something moves past us. These are intra-body functions. The inter-body functions are called gravitational interaction (udyaama), which is perceived through the intervening space as vibrating sound (shabdah – shapam dadaati iti). Hence Prashnopanishad (2.3 and 3.12) describes the same Prana functioning in five ways.
The difference between neurons in eye and the sensory instrument for ocular perception (darshanendriya) is that, while the former is a huge collection (bhoota from bhoomaa) of minimum units of form (roopa tanmaatraa) that radiates electromagnetic energy, the letter is a derivative (vishesha) of reflected consciousness (asmitaa). Like the image of the
Sun reflected in water (hence paraanchikhaani) appears disturbed (chidaabhaasa) when water is disturbed, but the real 2015
Sun remains unaffected, similarly conscious self, which reflects Ultimate Consciousness, is involved in actions, while the – Ultimate Consciousness remains unattached (Saankhya, Yoga and Brahma Sootras) and only appears to act from a distance (aaraadupakaaraka). One example given in the texts is that of a crystal placed near a red flower.
Prana, when moves objects from center to periphery, i.e., vertically is called Agni. When confined, these are the 8 types of Vasu, which are the gluons (pavaka). When loosely propagating, it is called electricity (Vidyut or pavamana). When moving out fully, it is called radiation (soryah - sooyate iti or shochi). The opposite (periphery to center) consolidating or
magnetic effect is called cool ap. When confined, it is called apah. When loosely propagating, it is called yama (yamo vai Scienceand Scientist | | avasaane isti) as it collectively transforms one system to create another system (it is different from death – mrhtyuh, which is related to individuals and not to systems. Hence after death, the body becomes cold). When loosely propagating, it is called soma (sru gatou). prana, when moves objects horizontally, is called vayu. It has many functional categories (5, 7, 11, 122), but two main functions (vaa gati gandhanayoh): displacement (prerana) and structure formation (vyuhana). The creation depends on agni and soma aided by vaayu. The vaayu responsible for structure formation is called matarishwaa.
Process of Birth Just before and after death, the only difference is the stoppage of heart-beat and it’s after effect of gradual stoppage of all types of circulation (and negligible weight loss). This must be related to consciousness and life. But what starts the initial breathing? It cannot be fertilization of egg by the sperm, as action can produce only similar chain reactions due to inertia. Fertilization is transformative, whereas heart beat is perpetually repetitive. If we do not accept rebirth, we must admit that death is the end. In that case what is beginning and what is the process of birth?
According to shrauta sotras, agni is generated due to friction (gharshana) and soma due to pressure (abhishava) between two bodies as in magnetism (which presses iron to magnets). According to chemical laws, rate of reaction rises as
temperature goes up. Thus, Rik Veda (5.44.14/15) says; when genital temperature rises (female is cool soumya SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS externally, but its secretion and electron charge is hot agneya) during fertility cycle; the not-so-hot (male is agneya externally, but its secretion and positive charge is soumya) components seek mutual company. Copulation is friction, 144
which raises temperature leading to pressing and ejaculation. This is called fertilization of the egg by the sperm (charge interaction in atoms). The proto-cells do not have a nucleus, but contain lipids that form membranes as described in Rik Veda (1.164.4).
Females do not conceive every time they copulate. This is because matarishwaa vaayu moves the fertilized egg sideways (vibrational bonding, which slows down reaction as temperature rises) to be confined in a process like magnetospheric reconnection that creates hydrothermal vents with pockets of warm water (aapah) in the womb, a condition, which is believed by scientists to have created life on Earth (Lost City expedition). RNA chains get longer, evolving complex life forms like amoebas, worms, and eventually humans, though shorter RNA molecules reproduce faster. Longer RNA chains hide near hydrothermal ocean vents, where unique temperature conditions helped these complex organisms evolve. The mechanism of transformation of salty and alkaline fluid is described in Gopatha Braahmanam. The sideways motion by Matarishwaa Vayu (as udaana) creates a reaction couple due to inertia of restoration (apaana-samaana). This starts heart beat perpetually in the new life form (vyana). This local perpetual motion is like functioning of mind (hrhdayaakhya manah. In the case of the universe, it is called swavashyas manah) that created three different streams of motions, habitats and structures, as described in Rik Veda 6.69.8 and aitareya aranyaka. While matarishwaa vayu functions from the heart, mind functions from the brain. For this reason, Ayurveda describes its location in the brain above the palate. Hence Prashnopanishad describes that the new life form is due to the causal body (formed by rayi-prana that constitute linga sharera) brought in through the mind (manokrhtenaayaatyasminsharire). This proves the role of mind as
explained earlier in the process of reproduction. But this cannot explain life. Conception is subject to uncertainty.
Hence even during IVF births, multiple trials are required (God’s will?).
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A recent report in The Journal of Neuroscience Volume 35 Number 10 reveals that not only brain cells communicate via – electrical missives, created by ions as they travel across the membranes of those cells, but altering the electrical properties of these cells during the process leading to brain forming in an embryo or fetus can dramatically change how the ensuing brain develops. Before the development of a normal brain, the cells lining the neural tube, a structure that eventually becomes the brain and spinal cord, have extreme differences in ionic charge within and outside the membrane that houses the cells. In other words, these cells are extremely polarized (prana-apana). Even the patterns of electrical potential in cells away from neural tube were crucial to normal growth. In ancient times, priests could ensure the birth of a boy through ‘pumsavanam’ without testing the sex of the fetus. Researchers also identified the molecular
Scienceand Scientist mechanisms – particularly the role of signals from calcium ions – involved in this effect. This mechanism-level | | understanding helps clarify ongoing questions about electricity’s (aindra vidyut) part in shaping the brain. From gene- editing, researchers are moving to genome alteration techniques called germline modification.
PNA, tPNA, RNA, DNA, TNA, PAH, proteins, amino acid, and so on, can be likened to accessories (for example: like
electric wires, switches, bulbs, and so on), but they are not the energy (electricity) that powers the system to make
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them functional. Atoms also are able to reproduce (so-called decay to other atoms or isotopes or isomers), able to grow (similarly as stated) and able to respond to stimuli (charge interaction). Since according to modern science these are
features of life, atoms also can be described as having a life (scientists frequently use the term half-life). However, they
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are not sentient (prasupta spandana). Plants and animals have limited intelligence (savaasanaavilaa). Human beings exhibit increased intelligence (pravrhddha spandana). There are higher forms (prakshipta spandana) also.
Information encoding that passes from a cell to its descendants can go in many directions. RNAs can be written back
into DNAs or a DNA strand can be reoriented by a protein, thereby changing the genetic program. Information
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polymers are molecules, which themselves are broken apart in water. In replication, cells create copies of themselves using enzymes, which are the proteins that underpin complex reactions, such as digestion. One property that distinguishes living beings from inert objects is their freewill – capacity to initiate action (pravrhti samarthya). Inert objects cannot do this – they only respond to stimuli. The effect (phala) of Freewill is either harmonious to our genetic SOUVENIR composition (sukha) or not (duhkha) based on release of free radicals or not. This determines our response to subsequence impulses making everything deterministic. Freewill of living beings can be physical, mental or through speech form. While the first two are similar to mechanical functioning, inert objects cannot initiate these functions. The third function has two divisions (Saraswati vaak – a derivative of bhrhgu and ambhrhni vaak – a derivative of angira, both 145
derivatives of parameshthe Prajaapati). While the later is mechanical and related to functioning of the physical world (as explained in Rik Veda 10.125), it requires a conscious agent to program or initiate it (aham rudrobhih…). The former is a fully conscious process and though some machines or computers can mimic human speech, they cannot interpret the meaning according to the context. Writing through computers we find proof for this. If you type deer in place of dear, it accepts without question. As a lady complained, when she types her name Dipti, it suggests modifications including dirty.
All life forms evolve inside the analog Conscious Sea that pervades everything, like the natural sea pervades coral, sea weed and fish. Structures form and perish – the sea is unaffected. Since it is analog like space and time and contains everything, it is called Brahman (brhhattwaat and brhhanattwaat) and mahaan. Since it is present in the smallest of particles, it is called anu. We are inside the sea, but being ignorant, are searching for the sea.
Proof of Rebirth Due to perception of determinism, sequence, classification, universality of physical laws and causality, rebirth can be proved. The living organisms as well as inert objects are made out of the same constituent material in specific combinations. But there is a universal law that restricts groupings of the body matter of living beings to organic category. Thus, though scientists are searching for the role of signals from calcium ions in development of the brain, it can only be meaningful as an organic compound and not as inorganic calcium. There is a universal rule of causality that everything cannot produce everything. Thus, the birth of a baby cannot be random interaction of atoms, but has to be only by conscious beings after the causal body of sense organs and mind, with their ability to perceive happiness/pain,
are acquired by the physical body (sambandhastu dehendriyabuddhivedanaabhih). But can we link the causal body (linga shareera) including mind of the new born to that of a previous birth?
While the cause and effect sequence have been established earlier and the effect of all actions are deterministic, freewill 2015 can change the projected outcome generating not only uncertainty, but also deterministic variety subject to universality – of physical laws, which can be classified into different groups. But who determines the universal laws? If there is such an Agency (God?) and if causality operates universally, then what is the effect of death? Every action has invariably a determinate reaction that may materialize immediately (eating satisfies hunger) or after certain interval, when suitable conditions appear or reactions take place (taking medicine cures later). Though the reactions take place in the physical body, they are cognized by the causal body. Cognition can initiate reaction in physical body. If we see a snake and become afraid, the cause of fear (snake) is away from us, but the adrenalin flow shoots up within our body. The causal
body is unable to initiate action without a physical body. Hence what does the causal body do when physical body is Scienceand Scientist | | destroyed? There is no proof that it also is destroyed. Thus, it must seek a new physical body. In that case, the new body must exhibit symptoms of prior knowledge.
A new born child has to start learning everything starting with a blank slate. How do all new born babies know that if they cry, someone will look after their needs? How does it learn to suckle when the mother brings her breast near its mouth? Other children also show some intriguing behavior. For example, a rhino mother faints after giving birth. The new born child moves far away from the mother before she regains consciousness. The child returns only after its skin hardened just like hens laying eggs sitting on walls are not broken, as it is spongy at the beginning, which hardens immediately thereafter. Surprisingly, both the mother and the child rhinos recognize each other. This is done because the soft skin of the new born cannot tolerate the affectionate licking of the mother’s thorny tongue. How does the new born rhino know to move away immediately after birth? Since this identical perception is generated every time we look at a new born baby, it proves some prior to birth connection.
If deeds of past birth are like punishing one person for the sins of another, as some opine, what explains differential behavior among twins born to the same parents? Effect is always spatially related to the cause. Since causal body is the initiator and enjoyer of the result of actions; and since the effect cannot cease without being channelized, the causal
body cannot be destroyed before such exhaustion (krhtahaanimakrhtaabhyagamashcha). The only conclusion is rebirth is SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS real. There are much more, which will require a separate book. Hari Aum.
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Talk 8: Supremacy of Vaidik Darsan in Explanation of Evolution of Life J. N. Himali Pandey, M.D. Chief Consultant Physician General and Internal Medicine, Advocate, Journalist and Philosopher, Kathmandu, Nepal
Abstract Vaidik Darsan in eastern hemisphere is the most ancient doctrine. This doctrine has been suited to harmonize and to give integrity, intimacy to human beings with the nature for the sake of survivability of human life. Since it was derived from the law of nature, it is suited to adopt the life into natural phenomenon. Because of the effort from the first earth creation i.e. Atlantic era to this creation of nature up to ninth pralaya, human created artificial ultra-modern era, but Vedic doctrine is not losing its significance and importance due to its natural law that it had endorsed. Even in these days with artificial suffocated lifestyle in which, human being has failed to adjust with the nature along with climate change, his survivability is in danger. In this juncture, Vedic Darsan is there to make human life meaningful. The materialistic theoretical philosophy which is fundamentally material utility theory has propped natural destruction making misbalance between nature and human life. This misbalance of nature will certainly destroy the equilibrium of zoo-botanical life along with natural life of the earth.
Most of the western materialistic philosophies are comsumeristic with the utilitarianism, whereas eastern spiritual
philosophical theory endorses supremacy of consciousness and leads to sustainable use of nature to adjust the life into 2015
the divinity. The divine source of nature to maintain equilibrium in the global sense is equivalent to creation, – maintenance and destruction attributing to Brahma the god of creation, Bishnu, the god of maintenance and Maheshwar the god of destruction, respectively. The strength of those components can be compared with positive, negative and zero in numeric sign and proton, electron and neutron of an atom in physics. Basically the fundamental differences between western and eastern knowledge lies on the interpretation of domain of nature, cosmic unlimitedness and cosmic unrecognized phenomenon including human behavioral and thought status.
Deepest core of medical science understands that a living human cell consists of not only its anatomy-physiological
Scienceand Scientist structural and functional correlation as a material but it has conscious concept inside the cellular life. A spermatic cell | | which travel into the female conception organ anatomo-physiological structure and function by the effect of its conscious efficiency can conjugate with desired ovum, while female ovum also plays the same role leading to its self consciousness to make zygote a human creation. The total accountability of human body’s cellular consciousness along with conscious behavior in state of his conscious level which is even genetically coded leads his spiritual expression in
content value. The feelings of illness or wellness which are detected in the cellular (conscious) corresponds with sign of
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ill or well symptoms of whole body. Taking this concept, cells can be considered as nachhetras and graham and a human body can be compared with the brahmand (universe) and several human bodies as several brahamands – showing
characteristics of interconnectedness for vitality of life as well as Cosmological function. Behind this phenomenon, there
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seems nothing but something that is super spiritual power which commands those supra magnanimous living and nonliving entities in the space; as a human body is controlling whole of his body consciously. In this way we can get a glimpse that how huge is the concept of superpower or God!
The cosmos and its knowledge is unlimited where science is still incapable to penetrate into this cosmic-variable-
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excitability. The cosmos itself is the abode of super consciousness which creates spiritual existence into the biological cell, and then into the physical matter together. A human is a product of Cosmic empire verses Nature where physical and conscious elements is in equilibrium state so that a livingness can make possible to incarnate. In understanding of natural life theory and Carbon life cycle around and in the nature, it seems that these physical and biophysically situated SOUVENIR structural phenomena are transient. Cyclic changeable substances are transient but the spiritual aspect that part-takes into these structural products of genetic character remains immortal and that is called immortal atma (the soul).
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In the conjunction of these two schools of thoughts, we can come into conclusion that spiritualistic theory or theory of super consciousness led by Vedic Darsan is an ocean of cosmic unlimited knowledge about self-realization and adaptation. It can provide relaxation, longevity, peace, prosperity and healthiness of life during its existing life cycle. The gap and distance not understood by materialistic world is building a suffocated life and living circumstances. This can be compared with a weighing machine where western materialists are in highest peak in material utility and lowest peak in spiritual weight while eastern wisdom is in highest peak in spiritual height but lowest peak in present materialistic science. This is leading to consequences like misbalance and modern philosophical dispute. The global task force for the global human peace and prosperity in the sense of material and spiritual subjects is to make this misbalanced weighing machine arrow into equilibrium state. That is the only corridor left between life and nature. Without it life cycle within the cosmic natural phenomenon is in significant declination. That is the source of Vedic Darsan’s descriptive guidance in the east. This altogether proves its supremacy of Vedic Darsan in explanation of evolution of life among all existing daughter theories of the world.
Talk 9: The Soul Hypothesis: Analytical study on concept of soul Ram Deo Pandit Central Department of Sanskrit, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu
Abstract In Keno Upanisad it is mentioned about characteristics of the soul in second mantra that we cannot see, feel, listen, think,
speak of it but by it we do it all. In this way it is beyond our imagination and expression. There are, however, several
hypothetical and conflicting concepts on soul among the various schools of Indian philosophy as well as the westerners. The Cārvāka system states that the soul consists of the living physical body and its attributes. The Nyaya and Vaisheshika
systems, say the soul is a unique substance, of which all desires, aversions, pleasures, pains, and cognitions are qualities. 2015
According to Buddhist philosophy, there is no soul. There is no distinct, permanent “self” (anatman) it’s constantly – changing. It believed in reincarnation, but it considered souls ever-changing as localized currents in a sea of consciousness and governed by karma (cause and effect).
As per Plato/Socrates/Pythagoreans, soul is a rational, emotional entity that breathes life into the body and which departs at death and can be reincarnated. Aristotle says soul is first principle of the living body, source of rationality and even intellect of soul persists after death. Western Monotheism (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Bahai) brings about, body
is infused with soul by God at conception in human. Soul has no past, but persists after death in heaven or hell Scienceand Scientist | | depending on whether you are a true believer and/or good person.
Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) says, a discrete entity called “jiva” or “atman” persists from life after life (reincarnation) and it is governed by karma. It has two main schools of thoughts: (1) Advaita – atman is part of, or one with, the divine (“Brahman”) and (2) Dvaita – atman is separate from Brahman; atman is indivisible and unchanging.
According to Jainism, all beings have a discrete, unending soul that persists from life after life. Souls go to heaven or hell according to karma, but these are not permanent states. Highest state of soul is attainment of permanent state of bliss (soul still distinct).
Taoism, a great philosophy born in part of the globe, explains soul as, all people have multiple, malleable elements which may be thought of as souls. These come from various sources, including one’s parents. Most Muslim philosophers agreed, as did their Greek predecessors, that the soul consists of non-rational and rational parts. The non-rational part they divided into the plant and animal souls, the rational part into the practical and the theoretical intellects. All believed that the non-rational part is linked essentially to the body, but some considered the rational part as separate from the body by nature and others that all the parts of the soul are by nature material.
SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS In conclusion, the analytical inference of this study discloses that those all philosophies and religions who believe or do not believe in God accepts some eternal entity behind the universal lives, which is a realization based subject, and that 148
realization cannot be defined by words. The significance of the study is that soul is not the matter of logical discussion rather it’s the subject to be realized. So, our intellectual allurement should focus to the path of self-realization and knowing it in self.
References: [1] Robinson, H. (2008). Vagueness, realism, language and thought. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. CIX, pp. 83-101. [2] Swinburne, R. (1997). The evolution of the soul, Clarendon Press, Oxford. [3] Miller, D. Searching for God knows what [4] Weiss, B. Many lives, many masters. [5] Newton, M. Destiny of souls: New case studies of life between lives. [6] Capra, F. Tao of physics.
Talk 10: Fredrich Max Mueller’s (Max Muller) Interpretation of Sanatan Dharm: A critical review Ashok Rathore, Ph.D., Satya Dev Sharma, Ph.D. and Harpal Singh Sethi
Abstract
A focus of Sanatana Dharma is the theory of Karma and immortality of soul. Soul inhabits one body after another
according to Karma in previous life. This is called belief in Reincarnation. It is not a fact that the individual dies with the 2015
death of the visible body. The forces which brought the body into existence continue shaping its destiny even after – death. The soul becomes free from this cycle called samsara when it becomes a humble devotee by serving the interest of the Absolute. Hindus are the followers of Sanatana Dharma. The Hindu belief is that God is one. It grants freedom to individuals. It simply tries to lead them from darkness to light. It reveals that there is one Truth and one true religion that the wise men describe in various ways. Ekam Satya, Viprah vividhah vadanti. This eternal truth of self-realization is the essence of human existence. All living entities are part and parcel of Brahman. One must seek Him as it is the supreme goal of life. Happiness is the real nature which he must seek. Its philosophy is linked with life and worldly affairs. In 1980’s NASA while scanning earth from a satellite discovered Ram Setu the bridge that is under water now,
Scienceand Scientist connecting from India to Sri Lanka or known as Lanka then. The bridge is made of some rare stones which are not | | found anywhere else.
Max Muller and other Europeans gained a little knowledge of Sanskrit and coined the theory of Aryan Invasion. But no where is it mentioned in religious books of neighboring country like Nepal or Sri Lanka about this Aryans migration.
Although Mueller is on record as extolling India’s ancient wisdom, his letters (printed in two volumes) tell an entirely
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different story. In an audacious letter to N.K. Majumdar, Mueller wrote – “Tell me some of your chief difficulties that prevent you and your countrymen from openly following Christ, and when I write to you I shall do my best to explain
how I and many who agree with me have met them and solved them.” Mueller also harshly criticized the view of the
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German scholar, Dr. Spiegel, who claimed that the Biblical theory of the creation of the world is borrowed from the ancient religion of the Persians/Iranians. Mueller may also be credited with the popularization of the Aryan racial theory.
However other German Indologists like August Wilhelm von Schlegal who became the first professor of Sanskrit in the
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Bonn University of Germany had written a work entitled “Upon the languages and Wisdom of the Hindus”. The Schlegal brothers had a great love for Sanskrit. Another Sanskritist Hern Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote about the Bhagavad-Gita, “It is perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show”. Arthur Schopenhauer (1845-1917) also read the Latin translation of the Upanishads. He was so impressed by their philosophy that he called them “The production of the SOUVENIR highest human wisdom”, and considered them to contain superhuman conceptions. He said, “it is the most satisfying and elevating reading which is possible in the world. It has been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my death.” It is well-known that the book “Oupnekhat” (Upanishad) always lay open on his table and he invariably studied it before
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sleeping at night. He called the opening up of Sanskrit literature “the greatest gift of our century”, and predicted that the philosophy and knowledge of the Upanishads would become the cherished faith of the West.
Nowadays modern Indologists are not the same as their crusading predecessors of the 19th Century. Nor do college Sanskrit departments award monetary prizes for ‘the best refutation of the Hindu religious system’. Yet many of the speculative theories of Mueller and his contemporizes are still treated as absolute facts. Previously, early Indologists openly expressed their biased opinions that the Vedic scriptures were often fraudulent. Due to religious prejudice, early Indologists were reluctant to give the Vedas a higher antiquity than the earliest portion of the Old Testament and place them beyond 2500 B.C. In fact, the dating that they did give to the Vedas was totally speculative and unfounded. Due to a poor fund of knowledge, early Indologists relegated all the Vedic texts and the personalities found in them to the realm of mythology. Furthermore, these texts were written by some very late anonymous persons who attributed their works to ‘mythical’ sages. Early Indologists were responsible for creating the outlandish and groundless theory of the Aryan, according to which the very existence of the Solar and Lunar Dynasties of kings are totally denied. Such an assumption was solely based upon racial, religious and political motivations. Ironically, this theory is taught in every school throughout the Subcontinent to this day! Whilst the western world turns it’s face towards Indian philosophy for the answers to life’s complexities, the greatest adversaries of Vedic culture are the uninformed Indians themselves, the uninformed ‘secular’ politicians, the journalists, the educationalists, in fact the whole Westernized cream of India. Upon gaining independence, such people denied India its true identity by retaining the British education and judicial system, without trying to adapt it to the unique Indian mentality and psychology. The result of this is a youth which apes the West. Some may argue that in order for India to progress materially, it is important for her to accept western
education and ethics. But in the last ten years in India, violence, rape, theft and other social problems have increased to a massive extent. This is only due to the atheistic western-oriented education that India has forced upon its’ youth. In fact, in every sphere of material activity, India tries to imitate the west with farcical or disasteros results. Until India
wakes up to her mistake and strive to rediscover her spiritual heritage, she will continue to produce ‘Brown sahibs’ and 2015 will remain under the yoke of the ghosts of Macaulay and the British educational system. –
Poster Presentations
Paper 1: The Impact of Meditation on Body, Mind and Consciousness 1 2
Uma BhamBhani, Ph.D. and Kamal Joshi, Ph.D. Scienceand Scientist | | 1. Asso. Prof. in Physics, Smt. C.H.M College, Ulhasnagar, Mumbai, 2. Ex. H.O.D Dept of Zoology, Smt. C.H.M College, Ulhasnagar, Mumbai, India Paper 2: A literary Review on Psycho (Mind) - Somatic (Body) Disorder and Its Treatment in Ayurveda Snehalata Pradhan 2nd Year PG Scholar, Dept. Kayachikitsa, Gpabandhu Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Puri, Odisha, India Paper 3: Scientific Basis of Ashtang Yoga for the Enhancement of Consciousness Ranjana Abhang, Ph.D. Ex-Assistant Director of Scientific Research Department, Kaivalyadham Yoga Research Institute, Lonavala, District Pune, Maharashtra, India
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the beginning we offer our deepest respectful dandavat pranams to our most revered and worshippable Gurus Srila Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Goswami Maharaja, Ph.D. and Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, PhD. Their pure satisfaction is our only aspiration. Sripad Puri Maharaja has been guiding us in this service for past many years. Only due to his causeless mercy and insightful wisdom this service of ‘Science and Scientist’ conference has taken form. We always pray for the guidance of our Acharyas and are always eager to have the opportunity for rendering however insignificant and remotest but pleasing service to them. We pray that they may forgive us of all our offenses at their holy feet and give their blessings by engaging us in their services of the Scientific Sankirtan Mission. This vision for Scientific Sankirtan was originally provided by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja Prabhupada to Srila Sripad Maharaja and Sripad Puri Maharaja. The vision was further nourished by Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaja, the great preacher of the Rupanuga Sampradaya and follower of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada. We are also indebted to the blessings of Successor President Sevaita Acharya of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Goswami Maharaja and Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaja for their blessings towards the seva of Scientific Sankirtan Mission. We beg the forgiveness of all our Acharyas for any mistakes that may have
occurred unknowingly.
2015
We express our sincere appreciation and indebtness to Shri Anil Kedia, Chairman of DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwabharati, – Lalitpur, Nepal, Mrs. Bhubaneshwari Rao, Principal of DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwabharati, Lalitpur, Nepal and Shri Janardan Ghimire Ji for all their help and in the form of providing their cooperation and venue for the organization of the conference. We also especially thank Prof. Mohan Kharel, Ph.D. and Prof. Rajani Malla, Ph.D. from Central Dept. of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University for their constant support and encouragement in all facets of conference organization. We would also like mention Shri Laxman Dongol, Dinesh Subedi and all Kakarvitta devotees, Shri Banwari Lal Mittal, Dinesh Agrawal, Dr. Naveen Khanal, Director NAME Institute, Kathmandu, Shri Suman Koirala,
Scienceand Scientist Director Satya Sai School, Mrs. Anju Bhattarai, Director Euro International School, Shri Deepak Paudel, Shri Sivaram | | Bhist, Shri Binod Purush Neyopane, Shri Devendra Narayan Shrestha, Shri Khem Acharya, Satmarga Aviyan, Nepal, Shri Raja Ram Rijal, Shri Bharat Giri, Shri Gayatri Dhungel Ji, Shri Kamal Shrestha, Shri Babu Kaji Maharjan, Shri Joy Roy Chowdhury and his team and all others for their sincere help and well wishes for successfully helping the conference become a grand success. They have helped in organizing the conference venue, proceedings, finances,
OF OF ABSTRACTS support, media and various other ways and avenues. We are also thankful to all the faculty, staff, students and
volunteers who have given their invaluable energy in successfully organizing the conference.
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We are further thankful to all the devotees of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math who have helped in making the conference a grand success. Special thanks go to Prof. Chaturvediji, head Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust for all his help. We are thankful to each and every one of them for the goodwill that they have shown to us. We are also indebted to honorable Vice President of Nepal His Excellency Shri Paramanand Jha, and all the scientists from reputed and leading scientific
PROGRAMME institutions of India and Nepal as well as all the other respected speakers and delegates who have all contributed to make
the conference a grand success. We thank further Sripad Ram Mani Prabhu for his help. We humbly pray for the blessings of Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga upon one and all so that we all will be encouraged to make more progress in service life. We are indebted to all of them and pray for the spiritual progress of all to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga. SOUVENIR
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Conference Sponsors
Best Wishes for successful completion of the third International Conference
“Science and Scientists -2015”
HICAST, Kalanki, Kathmandu Programs: B. Sc. Ag, B. V. Sc., M. Sc Ag, M. Sc. Ag-Business Management, Research
and Training, Publication, Conferences
www.hicast.edu.np 2015
Best Wishes for – successful completion of the third International Conference
“Science and Scientists -2015” Scienceand Scientist
HICAST, Kalanki, Kathmandu |
Programs: B. Sc. Ag, B. V. Sc., M. Sc Ag, M. Sc. Ag-Business Management, Research and Training, Publication, Conferences www.hicast.edu.np
Special Thanks to: 1. Binod Purush Neupane
2. Devendra N. Shrestha 3. Rajaram Rijal 4. Bharat Giri
5. Sivaram Bista SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS 6. Gayatri Dhungel 7. Deepak Paudel 152
Best Compliments and Wishes for the Success of "Science and Scientist – 2015" from:
2015
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Scienceand Scientist
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Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust
Motto: Service, surrender, sacrifice
Slogan-‘Let none suffer’ • An ISO 9001:2008 certified organization and member of World Association of NGOs • Founded in 2000. Associated with numerous national and international research and welfare organizations and parental body and promoter for hundreds of grass root organizations. • Organizes, guides and supports free teaching and training programs, and workshops on personality development and empowerment disciplines like career development, character moulding, memory booster, mind potential, emotional balance and stress management across the country • Conducts discussion forums on various issues like poverty alleviation, self- employment, health awareness, rural empowerment, women empowerment and good governance, by organizing seminars, workshops, field studies and also by ‘guiding and training’ volunteers and by providing financial assistance. • The vital objective of our trust is knowledge dissemination. It has a special wing ‘Forum of Scientists aiming at Peace and Harmony (FOSAPAH) constituted for scientific awareness and action campaigns. It has organized and supported more than 900 conferences of national and International standards on various topics like Education research and Pedagogy, Arts, culture and cross-cultural relations, Law, Justice, Human rights, Democracy, Good governance, National Security,
Economic crisis, Inter-faith dialogue and peace, Environmental issues like CTS | Science and Scientist climate change, Seed breeding, Agronomy and Plant Bio-technology, Nano- technology, Medical Ethics, Bio-ethics and Media ethics, Energy solutions, life and consciousness studies and many more. • The trust is managed by a team of committed personalities and guided by a panel of highly knowledgeable and dynamic dignitaries. • We have centres and coordinators in many parts of the country (Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Shimla, Dehradun and Jammu) and abroad (USA, UK, Australia, Germany, Singapore and Hungary)
Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust 40, Bhaktavatsalam Road, SOUVENIR PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRA Mylapore, Chennai-600004, India Ph: 044-2499 0986 Email: [email protected] Website: www.sriramanujamissiontrust.info GOLD SPONSOR