Author Archives: Candidasa dasa, UK

God & Science: on Mystic Perfections and Long-Distance Hypnosis
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(chapter summary from God and Science by Richard L. Thompson)

In 1920 Professor Leonid Vasiliev of the University of Leningrad, Russia performed an experiment where he would monitor a subject in a darkened room, detecting when she would fall asleep. A psychic would then be directed to a special lead-lined room some distance away. There the psychic would find a sealed envelope with instructions written by a neutral third party to either:

  1. Remain in the room and issue a command to the subject to fall asleep
  2. Exit the room and issue the same command
  3. Exit the room and issue no command

The resultant average time it took the subject to fall asleep were:

  1. 4:43
  2. 4:13
  3. 7:24

The experiment suggests that telepathic influences are very real and do not work via electromagnetism, since these waves are blocked by lead. Professor Vasiliev work was eventually canceled by the Russian government, since it was investigating phenomena ??oewhich considering the time and place, cannot be perceived??.

In contrast, these kind of mystic powers are quite common in the Vedic literature. However, they are also condemned, not because they couldn’t possibly be true, but because they distract from the path of service to God, which is the true goal of life.

Fresher’s Fair 2005
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The University Fresher??(TM)s Fair finished today. In the first week of University, the new students get a whole load of events, advertising from various clubs and societies, free stuff and so much sense stimulus that they practically loose all intelligence and discrimination. Indeed, most of the men looked totally spaced-out, walking around with a dazed look on their faces and most of the women looked angry and frustrated.

The young first-year students also didn??(TM)t look nearly as young and innocent as I remember them looking just three years ago. 18-year olds looked more like they were approaching 30. Excess indulgence in sense gratification is so degrading. A sad state of affairs.

This event marked the rebirth of Vedicsoc after the summer break. The Vedic society is a university club that aims to teach things related to the Vedic literature (like e.g. Krishna consciousness).

We distributed 1500 flyers and 400 prasadam sweets (coconut ice) throughout the two days we were allocated a stall. ??oeWe?? included Ben, Felix, Shilpa and myself. Ben was really getting into it towards the end of the last day. He was stopping nearly everyone and getting them to sign up for the email newsletter. Felix used his sankirtan skills to induce people to join-up without them even realizing. Shilpa was also very good. She quickly made friends with people and got them interested in that way. She attributed her natural sankirtan abilities to her long-time retail sales experience (selling iPods in Selfridges). Besides distributing flyers, I managed to distribute one POY and one SSR to interested students.

The most common question I got was: “This isn’t a religion, is it?“
Could anyone offer some advice for what is a good response?

My body, though improved in health, still is no where near suited for sankirtan-like activity. Distributing Vedicsoc material from 10am till 4pm for two days wiped me out completely. It was pretty intense being in a huge hall, with blaring music, trash everywhere, wall-to-wall people, 160 other societies and countless commerical companies competing for the students??(TM) attention. Time to get some rest.

Acupuncture (part 3)
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I??(TM)ve been to Dr Philip Weeks again. He was very much pleased with my progress. The ulcerative colitis is certainly still there, but much less prominent than before. Indeed, I certainly feel a lot better.

Philip did some more acupuncture on me. He concentrated on clearing ??oedamp?? from my body. As usual, some acupuncture points resulted in a more prominent weird tingle/shock feeling than others. Sticking some needles into my thumb joints resulted in the most powerful sensation. My entire arm all the way up to the shoulder was (briefly) paralyzed.

The treatment certainly worked. I??(TM)m now feeling much better still. I appear to finally be able to consistently properly digest food (excluding wheat and dairy). However, I??(TM)m still taking probiotics, digestive clay and slippery elm powder, asacol (western drug) and Philip??(TM)s own custom herbal tincture. Ah, trials and tribulations of the body.

Acupuncture works by re-routing the prana/life-force/chi/electric energy of the body. By sticking a small metal needle into an energy relay station, the energy flow is re-wired. An expert acupuncturist can re-wire to body??(TM)s energy to heal almost any disease.

Interestingly, kundalini chakra yoga attempts much the same thing. This style of yoga uses specific postures and breathing techniques to re-wire the body??(TM)s energies. Same with Tai Chi, Falun Gong, etc, etc.

Even more interestingly, in ancient Vedic times, expert mantra chanters could use the sound vibration of specific Sanskrit syllables to influence the energy around them in miraculous ways. A doctor could heal even the most serious of injuries just by chanting the necessary mantras. A warrior could similary kill thousands of people by the power of mantra. Sadly (or perhaps luckily), the science is pretty much lost in this day and age.

God & Science: Challenges Facing Science and Religion
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(chapter summary from God and Science by Richard L. Thompson)

In the Vaisnava tradition God takes the form of Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. In Christianity there are the similar ideas of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Both emphasis a personal supreme being. This is in contrast to the scientists such as the biologist Julian Huxley who said: ??oeI am an atheist, in the only correct sense, that I don??(TM)t believe in a supernatural being who influences natural events.??

Thompson poses the argument that both there are a lot of things that both science and religion does not know. This grey area in between the two fields should be investigated. Here are some of the issues:

God and the Laws of Physics
Isaac Newton believed that God influenced the physical reality by making small adjustments. Indeed, modern chaos theory shows that arbitrarily small changes can be used to systematically control a large, complex system.

Special Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein??(TM)s special theory of relativity shows how time and space interact at very high speeds. They are actually just different manifestations of the same thing. Time, i.e. past, present and future, is just an illusion. Question: how and why do we consciously perceive the jumbled space and time continuum linearly?

Quantum Physics
The famous collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanism occurs completely by chance. Some people like William Pollard see this as a chance to introduce a matter-spirit interface. God could influence events by subtly adjusting the random quantum fluctuations without us noticing. However, John Polkinghorne, a physicist and priest, calls this idea far-fetched.

The Brain and Consciousness
Francis Crick has stated that all joys, sorrows, memories, ambitions, sense of identity and free will are no more physiochemical brain processes. However, thus far no one has been able to even suggest a way in which the brain??(TM)s processes can be linked to conscious experience: the redness of red.

Life after Death
John Polkinhorne, attempting to give a scientific view of the Christian doctrine of resurrection, sees the body as a machine and resurrection as the recreation of the exact pattern of physical atoms of the dead person in a different place. Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita explains that the body is a machine occupied by the soul. It transmigrates between bodies via reincarnation. Researches such as Ian Stevenson have documented a great deal of empirical evidence for such transmigration.

NDEs
Near death experiences point towards the survival of consciousness after the death of the physical body. The dying person usually sees his or her own body from above and then enters some other world with bright light, beautiful scenery, etc. However, the particular experience a person has is very dependent his or her particular religious beliefs. This suggests that the near death experience might be fabricated or imagined, although the people experiencing them attest that they are real.

UFOs
The phenomenon of alien abductions can be somewhat linked to religious texts. Powerful alien life forms might, for example, correspond to Christian angels and demons. Aliens are also remarkably similar to the Vedic demigods. These have the power to levitate, pass through solid matter, appear and disappear suddenly and mysteriously and display halos of light.

The Fossil Record
Modern Geology asserts that the earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago and that the first humans evolved no more than 100,000 years ago. Some Christian traditions deny these numbers based on Biblical stories. Hinduism??(TM)s scriptures roughly correspond to modern figures. Carl Sagan said: ??oeThe Hindu religion is the only one of the world??(TM)s great faiths in which the time scales correspond, no doubt by accident, to those of modern scientific cosmology.??

Darwin??(TM)s Theory
Life, according to neo-Darwin theories, manifest entirely by chance. It origins of life is like a ??oeblind watchmaker??. The Roman Catholic church agrees somewhat, but proposes a guided evolution, where God gently nudges the process every once and a while. Darwin??(TM)s theory has never been able to explain how complex organs come into existence. Michael Behe has, for example, published a book explaining how the findings of biochemistry are extremely difficult to explain using Darwin??(TM)s theory. Bio-molecular evolution is not understood by modern science. Could there be some intelligent design, or has science just not yet found the mechanistic explanation?

Conclusion
Our ignorance is overwhelming. Both scientists and religionists have much to learn. We must avoid imposing a final conclusion, either from scientific rationalism or from religious dogmatism.