Mystics and Scientists in the Twenty-First Century
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Network Review 2017/1 15 Mystics and Scientists in the articles Twenty-First Century: Science and Spirituality Revisited Fritjof Capra 40th Anniversary Mystics and Scientists Conference Horsley Park, Surrey, 7-9 April, 2017 Introduction I am sorry I can’t be with you at this unique anniversary conference, but I’m really happy to be able to share some thoughts with you in this way. What I’d like to share with you is my view of the relationship between science and spirituality, and how it has evolved over the last 50 years or so. I was trained as a physicist and spent twenty years, from profound change of worldviews, or paradigms, that is now 1965-85, doing research in theoretical high energy physics. happening in all the sciences and throughout society — a From my early student years, I was fascinated by the dramatic change from the mechanistic worldview of Descartes and changes of concepts and ideas that occurred in physics Newton to a holistic and ecological view. during the first three decades of the twentieth century. At the age of nineteen, I read about this revolutionary period I received my Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of in science for the first time in a book by Werner Heisenberg, Vienna in 1966, spent two years at the University of Paris, and one of the founders of quantum theory. The book, which has then moved to the University of California. During the next two since become a classic, is called Physics and Philosophy. In it years, I experienced the so-called counterculture in California Heisenberg gives a vivid account of the experience of a small as a profound and radical personal transformation, which group of physicists — Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang included a deep interest in Eastern spiritual traditions, the Pauli, and others — who were the first to explore physical practice of meditation, and a strong sense of empowerment. phenomena involving atoms and subatomic particles, which brought them in contact with a strange and unexpected The Dance of Shiva world. In their struggle to grasp this new reality, During that time, I had a unique experience that those scientists became painfully aware set me on the road that led to the writing of that their basic concepts, their language, my first and still best known book, The Tao and their whole way of thinking were of Physics. I was sitting by the ocean inadequate to describe atomic one late summer afternoon, watching phenomena. Their problems the waves rolling in and feeling the were not merely intellectual, but amounted to an intense rhythm of my breathing, when I emotional and, one could say, suddenly became aware of my even existential crisis. It took whole environment as being them a long time to overcome engaged in a gigantic cosmic this crisis, and in the end dance. Being a physicist, I they were rewarded with knew that the sand, rocks, deep insights into the nature water, and air around me were of matter and its relation to made of vibrating molecules the human mind. and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which When read Heisenberg’s book interacted with one another by as a young student in Vienna, creating and destroying other I understood probably less than particles. I knew also that the half of it, but the book became my Earth’s atmosphere was continually companion throughout my career bombarded by showers of so-called as a physicist and had a profound “cosmic rays” — particles of high impact on my thinking. It prepared energy undergoing multiple collisions as the ground for my understanding of the they penetrate the air. www.scimednet.org 16 Network Review 2017/1 All this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy In accordance with the original meaning of spirit as the physics, but until that moment I had only experienced it breath of life, spiritual experience can be described as through graphs, diagrams, and mathematical theories. As a non-ordinary experience of reality during moments of I sat on that beach in meditation, my former experiences heightened aliveness. Our spiritual moments are moments came to life. I “saw” cascades of energy coming down from when we feel intensely alive. The aliveness felt during such a outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed “peak experience,” as psychologist Abraham Maslow called in rhythmic pulses. I “saw” the atoms of the elements and it, involves not only the body but also the mind. Buddhists those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of refer to this heightened mental alertness as “mindfulness,” energy. I felt its rhythm and I “heard” its sound; and that and they emphasise that mindfulness is deeply rooted in the articles moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of body. Spiritual experience is an experience of aliveness of Dancers worshipped in Hinduism. mind and body as a unity. At that time, I had already become very interested in Moreover, this experience of unity transcends not only the Eastern mysticism and had begun to see some striking separation of mind and body, but also the separation of self parallels to modern physics. I had been particularly and world. The central awareness in these spiritual moments attracted to the puzzling aspects of Zen Buddhism which is a profound sense of oneness with all, a sense of belonging reminded me of the puzzles in quantum theory, described to the universe as a whole. This sense of oneness with the so vividly in Heisenberg’s book. At first, however, relating natural world is fully borne out by modern physics, and in physics and mysticism was a purely intellectual exercise. fact by modern science as a whole. It took me several years to overcome the gap between However, this is not necessarily true for religion, and rational, analytical thinking and meditative consciousness; here it becomes important to distinguish between the to experience how the mind can flow freely; how spiritual two. Spirituality is a way of being grounded in a certain insights come on their own, without any effort, emerging experience of reality that is independent of cultural and from the depth of consciousness. historical contexts. Religion is the organised attempt to understand spiritual experience, to interpret it within a The unforgettable experience of the Dance of Shiva was particular historical and cultural context, and to use this followed by many similar, though less powerful, experiences; interpretation as the source of moral guidelines for the and gradually I came to realise that modern physics leads religious community. us to a consistent view of the world that is harmonious with ancient Eastern wisdom. I took many notes over the years, In many spiritual traditions — for example, in the various wrote a few articles about the parallels I kept discovering, schools of Buddhism — the mystical experience is always and finally I summarised my discoveries in The Tao of primary; its descriptions and interpretations are considered Physics, published first in London and Berkeley in 1975 and secondary and tentative, insufficient to fully describe the now available in over 40 editions and over 20 languages spiritual experience. In a way, these descriptions are not around the world. unlike the limited and approximate models in science, which are always subject to further modifications and Science and religion improvements. At first glance, it seems strange that one could draw parallels In the history of Christianity, by contrast, theological between science and mysticism, because scientists and statements about the nature of the world, or about human spiritual teachers pursue very different goals. While the nature, were often considered as literal truths, and any purpose of the former is to find explanations of natural attempt to question or modify them was deemed heretical. phenomena, that of the latter is to change a person’s self This rigid position of the Church led to the well-known and way of life. However, in their different pursuits, both are conflicts between science and fundamentalist Christianity, led to make statements about the nature of reality that can which have continued to the present day. be compared. In fact, fundamentalist attitudes are not limited to Before I go into more detail, I need to say a few words about religious leaders. Scientists, too, can be fundamentalists, religion. The view of science and religion as a dichotomy has forgetting that all their models and theories are limited and a long history, especially in the Christian tradition, and has approximate, and ignoring the important role of metaphors recently been revived in several books written by scientists — in religion as well as in science. When that happens, the like Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, and others. On the debate between scientists and religious leaders soon turns other hand, there are many scientists who see no intrinsic into a dialogue des sourds, as the French call it, a “dialogue dichotomy between science and religion, or science and of the deaf.” spirituality. At the very core of this confusing situation, in my opinion, lies the failure of many authors to distinguish clearly My main thesis between spirituality and religion. Now let me summarise the main thesis of The Tao of Physics. My main thesis is that the approaches of physicists and To understand the nature of spirituality, it is useful to begin mystics, even though they seem at first quite different, share with the root meaning of the word “spirit.” The Latin spiritus some important characteristics. To begin with, their method means “breath”; and interestingly this is also true for the is thoroughly empirical. Physicists derive their knowledge related Latin word anima, the Greek psyche, and the Sanskrit from experiments; mystics from meditative insights.