The Science

Advances in science are occurring daily that only add to the new view of what is the essence of our universe, our world, our bodies, ourselves.

Biology, genetics, psychology are all growing by leaps and bounds, but physics offers the most compelling and remarkable discoveries which are turning our traditional views on their heads.

A number of theories are being used to try to explain what scientists today are finding, including field theory, the holographic principle, chaos theory, and others.

The mechanistic view of Newton that the universe operates in a mechanical fashion was irretrievably dashed by Einstein's work showing that gravity operates as a field, distorting and curving space, and his theories of light that confounded preexisting theories, giving it properties of both a particle and a wave.

The message of E=MC2 is that matter is nothing more than a form of light. Or, as some have said, "frozen light." Gary Zukov, in his book "The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics" (William Morrow; New York; 1979), explains the difficulties of trying to explain the physical universe within the context of what quantum mechanics has discovered.

Consider a piece of wood, for example.

Wood fibers, we know, are actually patterns of cells. Cells, under magnification, are revealed to be patterns of molecules. Molecules, under higher magnification, are discovered to be patterns of atoms, and atoms have turned out to be patterns of subatomic particles.

"In other words," says Zukov, "matter is actually a series of patterns out of focus. The search for the ultimate stuff of the universe ends with the discovery that there isn't any.

"If there is any ultimate stuff of the universe, it is pure energy, but subatomic particles are not 'made of' energy, they are energy. This is what Einstein theorized in 1905. Subatomic interactions, therefore, are interactions of energy with energy. At the subatomic level there is no longer a clear distinction between what is and what happens, between the actor and the action. At the subatomic level the dancer and the dance are one."

Our beliefs about the very fabric of the universe are under review, with verifiable studies of subatomic particles behaving in ways that defy logic -- or, at least, defying the Newtonian mechanical view of the universe.

For example, among other discoveries, it has been shown that electrons may wink in and out of existence, changing from particle to wave and back again, appearing to "jump" from one place to another; that time itself may not follow orderly rules.

Some of the most intriguing findings include that when one element of matter is disturbed or changed, an identical particle removed from it is changed as well.

Further, the very act of observing a phenomenon, it is believed, can change that phenomenon.

Today, the view of "matter" is being redefined as complex aggregates of matter (molecules) seen as specialized energy fields.

Dr. Richard Gerber, M.D., in "Vibrational Medicine: New Choices for Healing Ourselves" (Bear & Co., Santa Fe, N.M.; 1988), says that just as light has a particular frequency or frequencies, matter has frequency characteristics. The higher the frequency of matter, the less dense, or more subtle the matter.

The universe itself may be seen as operating as a hologram where each piece contains a blueprint of the entirity within it; and every piece of "matter" is both linked to and affected by other "matter" elsewhere by subtle energy systems we cannot measure.

This theory is bolstered by findings in genetics that every cell in the human body contains the master DNA library on how to create an entire human being. The birth of "Dolly," a cloned sheep in Scotland, is the physical demonstration of this theory.

In hospitals across the country, physicians are finding the effects of "vibrational medicine" through such practices as Reiki and Therapeutic Touch, to be beneficial toward healing.

They cannot explain how it works, but it is shown to work.

Training in Reiki, for example, has been highly recommended for health care professionals working in hospital intensive care units.

Vibrational medicine attempts to heal illness by manipulating these subtle-energy fields via directing energy into the body instead of manipulating the cells and organs through drugs or surgery.

"By decoding a small piece of the universal hologram, one may unfold information about the whole universe stored within the matrix," Dr. Gerber says. "The selective focusing of consciousness via psychic attunement may hold the potential for such decoding of the universal hologram."

Such techniques as shamanic journeying and distance healing tap in to this holographic "non-ordinary" reality.

Now we know that reality is infinitely more complex than science has ever envisioned, says Valerie V. Hunt in "Infinite Mind: Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness (Malibu Publishing Co.; Malibu, Calif.; 1989). "This extended concept of reality postulates an open system -- where constant interactions and transactions take place back and forth between all existing systems," which is in contrast to the closed Newtonian systems of the past.

"As a result of my work," she says, "I can no longer consider the body as organic systems or tissues. The healthy body is a flowing, interactive electrodynamic energy field."

In "The Scalpel and the Silver Bear" (Bantam, New York; 1999), Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord, M.D., details the positive health effects of Navajo traditional medicine in the hospital setting.

Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., in "Coyote Medicine" (Simon&Schuster; New York; 1997), explains how Cherokee healing ceremonies have aided his patients in treating chronic conditions and terminal illnesses.

Dr. Brian Weiss, M.D., in "Messages From The Masters" (Warner Books; New York, 2000), gives extensive case histories of patients who have been helped by past life regression to heal illness.

Psychotherapist Sandra Ingerman, in "Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self" (Harper; San Francisco; 1991), offers techniques in core shamanism that are proven effective in healing "the inner child" and restoring balance and vitality in daily living.

If such "far out" ideas as Reiki, homeopathy, energy balancing massage, acupuncture, shamanic healing techniques, past life regression, Native American sweat lodge and sacred pipe ceremonies, flower essences, aroma therapy, herbal and "folk medicine" remedies and quartz crystal and Earth stone healing can influence these subtle energy patterns to improve human functioning and heal illness -- and are being used successfully within hospitals, in flourishing new health-related fields and by millions of people in daily practice -- why are these accepted methodologies being viewed skeptically by science?

James Redfield in "The Celestine Vision" (Warner Books, New York; 1997), notes that scientists, particularly in large research organizations and universities, have a vested interest in their research.

Their reputations in the scientific community, their ability to obtain grants and amass assistants, departments and greater funding for themselves and their work is determined by building a body of knowledge that supports their assertions, rather than challenging existing ideas or exploring new theories.

In short, scientific observation has a tendency to only support what it has already found rather than investigate aberrations from its pre-conceived notions that could lead to new discoveries more quickly.

Individual scientists ("leaders" in their "fields") have entire lifetimes wrapped up in maintaining their viewpoints and universities, multi-million dollar research labs, government medical institutions and global, trans-national pharmaceutical companies depend for their financial survival on maintaining and controlling accepted medical models.

Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., professor of physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center, found this out the hard way when she discovered through research a potential method for treating AIDS using the body's own chemical structure.

She could not find funding because it challenged the accepted avenues for treatment ("Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine"; Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1999).

Not only is there an institutional bias against new healing technologies that are freely accessible to the masses (indeed, God-given and within every human only waiting to be unlocked), but clues toward exploring new avenues are excluded by the scientific establishment from the start.

Hunt expands on this idea by noting that "Behavioral science researchers have coined a picturesque expression, 'the random rat' for subjects who nullify otherwise clear-cut results and distort correlations. Such situations show up in most closed systems research where some of the data collected are so abnormal that they seem to come from another experiment."

Such data, however promising or intriguing, is routinely rejected.

So, what can we gather from all this?

Foremost, we must at the same time reject existing ideas of what constitutes "science" and embrace them.

Those who express skepticism at theories that seem counter to science must remember that the very foundation of science is a view toward finding the truth, even if theories run against conventional wisdom.

Those who, professing "science," say they are skeptical must first affirm that they, in fact, are not being "skeptical" but prejudiced -- a great distinction -- and, thus, are being unscientific at its essence.

Secondly, it must be understood that some phenomena just can't be measured mechanically.

When it's believed true that matter can exist and not exist at the same time, that time can be a field and thus incorporate and change and be changed by any standard of measure being used, an open mind is a prerequisite.

Part of that open mind must be an understanding of how the scientific view came to be and, thus, how it is lacking: its strengths and its weaknesses.

The very reason for science was to impose a sense of order and continuity upon viewing our world that was as foundational as Church teaching. It was necessary to standardize and explain the then-new knowledge of physical matter and events that spirituality (the Church) couldn't adequately detail.

(The rise of Protestantism and The Age of Science can be seen as roughly parallel, an attempt to empower the individual in seeing and explaining the world through the separate lenses of Divine belief and human reason.)

Science has done a truly miraculous job both in codifying constants in physical laws and properties and leading to material technological advancements undreamed of only decades ago.

Individuals have been empowered to use their God-given reason to explain the world. And spiritual belief for the individual has been transferred from a central authority.

But the birth of science was only tolerated by the early Church so long as it left spiritual matters alone. This divorce of reason from spirituality has had devastating effects upon modern civilized society.

Science and religion have equally suffered from this bi-polar view of the universe.

It has had a limiting effect on science. The mere mention of what are deemed spiritual applications to physical matter is routinely rejected by scientists, no matter how effective they prove.

Religious leaders are reluctant to stray into areas that science claims as its turf.

With the physical and social global crises facing the Earth's inhabitants, it is essential that this rift be mended. It is time for the marriage of physical scientific law and spiritual principles to launch a new consciousness.

Science alone and spirituality alone as they uneasily co-exist today cannot solve the complex social, psychological, biological and technological problems that face humankind.

The boundaries of science are too restricted to accept inconstant, ephemeral or infinite principles; the open-ended questions and divergent answers of spirituality are too inconstant or infinite to be reduced to scientific formulae.

Both disciplines offer only hints of truth and both are necessary to achieve the results of building a new, responsible and advancing global society.

The basic model of the universe most of us living today were taught as youngsters and is still controlling the medical establishment, for example, is proving too limited to explain our world.

The very pillars of "reality" as we have known it for hundreds of years are crumbling with the onslaught of new knowledge.

The difference between the "accepted," institutional view of the world today can be likened to how the Church viewed the Earth as central to the universe when Galileo first glimpsed Jupiter's moons.

But, through mass media such as the Internet, and an increasing body of knowledge transmitted instantaneously through the global news networks, we each have our own telescopes now.

We can no longer accept the "traditional" accepted view of the universe as dictated by a bureaucratic social organization (the scientific establishment) which accepts one viewpoint as true to bolster its own authority in the face of a universe of data to the contrary.

Science can build bridges and put a man on the Moon. But its integration of what can be and is being perceived by researchers in the field (the human race in this instantaneous information society) is falling behind.

The human level of understanding and communication today has outstripped science. It cannot assimilate the information being put into its constructs (paradigms) but is reluctant to create new ones. And its strict adherents scoff at what they do not understand.

Science is only a tool for explaining the universe. It is not a religion. It can be very effective. Our society would not be as technologically advanced as it is without this invaluable tool. But, as with the man who only owns one tool, a hammer, everything with this one tool is easy to "fix."

We must incorporate time-tested, ancient tools and new ones to truly understand and work with the world around us.

If we accepted only the limited, provable scientific viewpoint of the past, we'd think that the two men in the bicycle shop are mad mystics for believing that "heavier than air" devices can fly like a bird.

By the time the scientific establishment accepts and explains a concept, Galileo has already discovered a new world.

Blendings of traditional scientific method and its products and the new consciousness are sprouting daily. Vibrational medicine, past-life regression, indigenous herbal and shamanic techniques are proving useful, even as they stretch the borders of science to explain.

In pure research, there are such pioneers as Candace Pert, who has scientifically demonstrated the links between the mind and the body, with repercussions in human healing that are earth shaking.

In new medicines, the giant pharmaceutical companies are harvesting the world's rain forests, trying to make time-tested, but "unscientific," indigenous healing practices subject to brand name ownership. In other words, a folk remedy or ancient healing technique is only "scientific" if it brings a large corporation a profit.

Physics and cosmology are blending our world's greatest scientific minds with beliefs that previously were only the oral traditions of native societies to explain the universe and the workings of our world.

Our highest mathematicians are becoming one with Zen Buddhists in outlook.

Given enough time, science and spirituality will meet as a common, universal body of belief.

But, given the challenges facing the Earth, time is at a premium. The time for accepting new ideas, exploring them and disseminating them globally is now.

Science should not be chastised so much as challenged to meet the needs of our people, to heal the Earth, ourselves. It should be gauged realistically as the powerful tool for change that it has proven to be, but only one tool in a "medicine kit" of human capability -- able to wed with the Divine.

It is insight and belief, creativity and the Divine spark within each of us that changes our views of the universe in concrete ways, with science seeking to explain it afterwards, even as the body of information proceeds through our individual efforts in use and belief.

The scientific establishment is only now beginning to awaken from the mindset of the medieval Church that only its dictates explain the world and its tool is the only one in the toolbox.

In the search for "constants," the only constant is change.

In other words, we should listen to what the "random rat" has to say.