ON A RESONANCE THEORY OF THOUGHT AND SPIRITUALITY

Karl Jaspers Forum ^ | August 21, 2001 | Varadaraja V. Raman

[betty boop]

ON A RESONANCE THEORY OF THOUGHT AND SPIRITUALITY

by Varadaraja V. Raman

The following theory is proposed to explain the observed phenomena of thought and spiritual/mystical experience/creativity:

PROBLEM:
(a) Thought is the subtlest emergent entity from the human brain. As of now, though it is taken to arise from complex biochemical (neuronal) processes in the brain, we have no means of detecting any physical aspect of thought.

(b) All sensory experiences (light, sound, smell, taste, sound) result from an interaction between an external agent (photon, phonon, etc.) and some aspect of the brain.

HYPOTHESIS:
(a) It is proposed that, like the electromagnetic field, there is an extremely subtle substratum pervading the universe which may be called the universal thought field (UTF). This may even be trans-physical, i.e., something that cannot be detected by ordinary physical instruments. Or it may be physical and has not yet been detected as such.

(b) Every thought generated in the brain creates its own particular thought field (PTF).

Theory based on the above hypotheses:
(a) Just as EM waves require the complex structure of the brain to be transduced into the experience of light and color, the UTF requires the complex system of the human brain to create local thoughts. In other words, when the UTF interacts with certain regions of the brain, thoughts arise as by-products.

(b) Interactions between PTFs and brains generate other PTFs. Indeed every thought is a different reaction-result to either the UTF or to a PTF.

(c) There is an important difference between UTF and PTF. UTF does not require a material medium for acting upon a brain. But a PTF cannot be transmitted from one brain to another without a material medium, such as sound, writing, signs, etc.

(d) In some instances, as with molecular resonance, certain brains are able to resonate with the UTF in various universal modes. Such resonances constitute revelations, magnificent epic poetry, great musical compositions, discovery of a mathematical theorem in a dream, and the like, as also mystic experiences.

(e) This perspective suggests that there can be no thought without a complex brain (well known fact); and more importantly, that there exists a pure thought field (UTF) in the universe at large which may be responsible for the physical universe to be functioning in accordance with mathematically precise laws.

ANALOGIES:
The following parallels with other physical facts come to mind:

(a) Phosphorescence & luminescence: When radiation of shorter wavelengths falls on certain substances, the substances emit visible light immediately or after some time. Likewise when the UTF falls on a complex cerebral system, it emits thoughts of one kind or another.

(b) One of the subtlest entities in the physical universe is the neutrino, which does not interact with ordinary matter through gravitation, strong, or electromagnetic interaction. Being involved only in the weak interaction, it is extremely difficult to detect it. The UTF is subtler by far than the neutrino, and may therefore (if it be purely physical) it may be far more difficult to detect.

---

Prof. Varadaraja V. Raman
Physics Department, Rochester Institute of Technology
e-mail VVRSPS@ritvax.isc.rit.edu

---

KARL JASPERS FORUM
Target Artcle 39
ON A RESONANCE THEORY OF THOUGHT AND SPIRITUALITY
by Varadaraja V. Raman
18 June 2001, posted 21 August 2001
 

[betty boop]

p.s.: Thank you for the links! Will definitely visit them soon.

[Virginia-American]

A Logical Interpretation of a Delayed-Choice, Quantum Eraser Experiment

Thanks, that looks like an interesting paper. I'd never heard of the quantum eraser before this thread.

It's interesting how you can find real science even on a thread whose title sounds (to me at least) positively loopy.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your reply! You raised an interesting point, so I looked up the two words in the lexicon. Here they are:

pneuma - spirit

diakrisis - discern

They mean what I thought they meant in context. If you see something different though, please let me know!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for your post!

Indeed, ants do show collective conscious behavior and would be much easier to study that the larger animals.

BTW, the behavior of Musk Oxen always gets to me. When under attack, they form a circle with their rears to inside - very much like "circling the wagons."

Emperor penguins circle also, face to inner and then rotate positions so that no penguin has to spend too long on the outside during an blizzard. How curious the behavior!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for the reading suggestions!

[SupplySider]

A "thought-provoking" post :)

Ancient Indian philosophers held that consciousness is not a product of the brain, but rather the mind, brain, and even the environment are products of universal consciousness.

[Aric2000]

Or as we call it, solipsism, and you just gotta love it!!

[unspun]

So, you would like more about the abilities of some animals, to conceptualize and communicate, would you?

Here are some links:

http://ilectric.com/browse/web/Science/Social_Sciences/Anthropology/Linguistic_Anthropology/Ape_Sign_Language/

http://www.koko.org/

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/perception/projects/primatech/

And for thoroughness' sake, an attempt at debunking (one will find somebody to debunk just about anything, especially on the 'net):

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1175/6_32/56883557/print.jhtml

[unspun]

So, you would like more about the abilities of some animals, to conceptualize and communicate, would you?

Here are some links...

Oops, and how could I have skipped this one (which will be especially interesting to you two, etherial abstractionist enthusiasts* that you are ;-):

http://www.enformy.com/$poster.html

______________________________________________________
*pinging cornelis, so he can shake his head ;-)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up and the link!

[betty boop]

Ancient Indian philosophers held that consciousness is not a product of the brain, but rather the mind, brain, and even the environment are products of universal consciousness.

SupplySider, thank you for this most interesting observation. I've been pondering the resemblance between this ancient insight of universal consciousness as the source of structure in the universe and Grandpierre's universal vacuum field/primary consciousness of the universe myself lately. I also caught resonances to this Eastern cosmological view in Evan Harris Walker's The Physics of Consciousness, and even Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science. Perhaps physics will demonstrate the accuracy of this very ancient description in due course.

One thing the ancients did not wonder about, however, is how the universe came to have this structure. The issue never comes up, for the thinkers of both ancient India and classical Greece considered the universe to be eternal, not having any beginning in time. It "just is" the way it is: It's pointless to ask why it is the way it is and not some other way.

Yet physics tells us the universe did, indeed, have a beginning; and it would appear to have been a beginning of a nature or quality that structures the evolution of the universe in all its parts. In other words, the universe has a logos (to use the ancient Greek word) that gives it its structure as it evolves in time. The "picture" of that evolution may closely resemble what the ancient Indian philosophers describe.

It seems to me that if we speak of a logos of the beginning, then we are speaking of intelligent design. Which to my mind at least, implies an intelligent, willing designer.

This never was a problem in Indian philosophy, as far as I can tell. The question "what consciousness," what will or intelligence lies behind the order of the universe, doesn't come up. The question of ultimate cause may not be a proper question for science per se. But that doesn't make the question "go away."

Just some stray thoughts.... Thank you so much for writing, SupplySider.

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed, the significance of a beginning cannot be overstated. Even in multi-verse theories, there is always a beginning.

Thank you so much for the excellent analysis! Hugs!

[ALS]

"It seems to me that if we speak of a logos of the beginning, then we are speaking of intelligent design. Which to my mind at least, implies an intelligent, willing designer."

The stickler that sings its siren song with each moving molecule.

[betty boop]

Indeed, the significance of a beginning cannot be overstated.

Indeed! It drives evolution. Here's an interesting description of the beginning as it relates to evolutionary theory (Grandpierre, "The Physics of Collective Consciousness," 1996):

"The evolution of consciousness -- as the evolution of the Universe shows us -- actually is in contrast to the presently accepted evolutionary theories, which want to build up the whole from the parts. In reality, evolution started from the whole and progessively differentiated into parts, from the timeless-spaceless form (e.g., the 'implicit order' or 'pre-space' of D. Bohm and J. A. Wheeler), through galaxies, through the development of the Solar System and the Earth, the appearance of the biosphere and mankind, until the human individual. 'Cosmologies of wholeness' are emerging (see Laszlo, E., 1993; Harris, 1988). All of the cosmic evolution formed sub-systems within systems. Evolution begins with 'systems,' 'elements' develop only later on. Every system originates as a subsystem of a larger, inclusive system. The organization of the sub-system is made by the creator system, and the organizational factor acts from within, as well. This fact assumes the creator system is in a certain way transformed into the to-be-created subsystem, the 'whole' is transformed to the 'part.' This global-local transformation is a necessary condition of the generation of the new system. Therefore, the Universe acted continuously as an agent with organizing ability, and is progressively transformed from the largest of its subsystems into the smallest ones. The trend of evolution is simultaneously going towards a higher complexity and this way towards more and more complex subsystems, and in this way the real evolution is also accompanied by the state of becoming more and more complex and towards higher and higher forms of consciousness. Ervin Laszlo remarked: 'Evolution acts on species and populations and not only -- or even mainly -- on individual reproducers. Individual variations do not contribute significantly to the emergence of new species.'..."

[William Terrell]

The prof sets up a theory for having a thought. But there is also using thought in a directed way. That implys that by will I can affect the UTF using directed thought, a necessary assumption using his model.

Some nonChristian religious or spiritual philosophies refer to a "universal consciousness" where all knowledge and every nuance of every idea exists already. Nobody ever generates an idea, they all come from the universal consciousness.

I strikes me that if the UTF exists, and it bears some resemblance the the universal consciousness, then I can direct the UTF to serve me up an idea on demand. Indeed, it seems to work that way.

Putting a purely religeous spin on it, the UTF would be the Mind of God with which every person has continuous contact. Perhaps we see here the direction and nature of prayer.

[Alamo-Girl]

Ah, yes, I remember than one from Grandpierre! Thank you for posting it!!!

His was the only article I could find on the evolution of consciousness and that part about "global-local transformation" certainly makes sense for the situation of "there must be a beginning."

Or to put it in more Judeo-Christian terms, in the beginning God created everything of Himself. There was nothing else of which anything could be created. And the process of creating is also therefore of Himself. What arises from the creating process is new consciousness - the individual being and perhaps also a collective of consciousness.

I believe this is all according to His plan, leading ultimately to His Kingdom coming (after all the dross is culled.)

Just my two cents...

[Aric2000]

OR as someone put it once to me, life, evolution, conciousness, is the universe contemplating itself.

[djf]

I sent you a freepmail.

[betty boop]

I strikes me that if the UTF exists, and it bears some resemblance the the universal consciousness, then I can direct the UTF to serve me up an idea on demand. Indeed, it seems to work that way.

Interesting, WT. Thinking through the speculation, the "UTF" or primary consciousness/universal vacuum field or whatever we are to call it, appears to be a repository of all true statements about the universal system and, thus, all its subsystems. In a certain way, it's a kind of universal instruction set. It is accessible to deeper levels of the mind. Indeed, Plato suggested that the unconscious mind was in full possession of all the contents of the UTF. And that the learning process, the acquisition of true knowledge, was basically concerned with making the contents of the unconscious mind available to consciousness by means of intention and anamnesis, or "memory."

Needless to say, such ideas sound very strange to postmodern ears. But postmodern life is (arguably) so cut off from its cosmic roots that most of the time we who live in it can't tell "which end is up." We are challenged when having to discriminate a pure abstraction from the real thing to which it refers. We have no true standard by which to make judgments, because we have cut ourselves off from the ground of our own being.

If all this sounds perfectly incomprehensible, let me try to put it in perspective for you with a line from a corny little film that I happen to like a lot, Doc Hollywood.

It's the story of small-town life, of close human communities shaped by a common culture and worldview, that stay close to nature (in terms of social relations, and involvement with agriculture, animal husbandry, etc.). Into this milieu is deposited a small-town-born, but highly "citified" young doctor, ambitious to become a wealthy plastic surgeon in trendy L.A. He gets waylaid on his trip West by a car accident, that ends up with his having to perform "community service" at the local hospital. Where he meets Lou, the fetching ambulance driver. Who's "been to the big city," but came back home to her roots, where she firmly plans to stay. Needless to say, they fall in love.

It all works out in the end, after various twists and turns. But at a certain point in the film, when she is explaining to Doc why she needed to "come home," Lou said this, in light of her experience in the big city and her thorough meditation on it: "Most people live on the world, not in the world."

I think Lou's statement is profoundly true; and I think whether we live on or in the world has a lot to do with how we relate to the primary consciousness of the universe.

Just a meditation on your meditation, WT! FWIW. Thank you so much for writing -- it's good to see you!

[William Terrell]

Well, if you tapped onto a full idea it wouldn't be any different than a memory, I reckon, and indeed, becomes a memory almost instantly. So in a sense we don't generate any ideas, we remember them because we have always known what they were. Only in an instant case, where we need to remember, the idea seems to occur.

Post modern life might be all that closed off. It might just be being used in selfishness, greed and arrogance. Perhaps enough of such willful thought based on those destructive states of being has the effect of influencing minds not associated with the source, but connected to the UTF.

Might be what our current culture war is really about and where it's being fought. One person can talk to another and influence them. The words used may not be that important, just the intensity and belief of that idea or those ideas transmitted, using the voice or gesture as a mere carrier wave.