Ssshhh! Listen

Ssshhh! Listen

Listen calmly O my mind!

To the most beautiful music you can ever find.

In the silence of this moment,

Listen as the universe sings to praise the omniscient.

Let go O my mind,

All your fears dragging you behind,

Let go all your worries,

And like a bird flying in the high skies,

Let your dreams fly like kites.

Believe, believe O my mind;

Believe that you are divine

Believe that neither death nor destruction is for you,

And search for that true bliss lying within you.

Believe in the love of your heavenly father,

Believe that you are neither earth, water, fire nor ether

Nor any of those combined together

You are what your soul says,

You are pure consciousness.

                                                                                               -Debabrata Banerjee  

Consciousness-2

The first breakthrough in understanding consciousness came in 1929, when German neurologist Hans Berger used electrodes placed on the skulls of subjects to measure electrical activity within the brain. Called the Electroencephalogram (EEG), it allowed Berger to discover two types of electrical activity, called alpha and beta waves, that seemed to be linked with key aspects of consciousness.  Whatever consciousness is, it is likely to be linked to so-called brain waves- the rhythmic flows of electrical activity between neurons. Hard-working brains show the fastest type- beta waves with frequencies up to 40 cycles a second (Hz), while resting brains typically show slower, larger amplitude alpha waves. Drowsiness or meditation produces even slower theta waves of 4-7 Hz, while delta waves of just 1-4 Hz appear only during sleep.

Although its systematic study has only just begun, consciousness- in the opinion of some eminent scientists’ today- is an absolutely fundamental part of this universe and cannot simply be computed away as airy metaphysics.

Having to embrace the concurrent existence of complementary properties to explain the quantum world- such as the simultaneous existence of both wave and particle nature for electrons- paves the way for science to find an essential link between consciousness and primary field. From this viewpoint the fundamental realities of the primary field and consciousness are inseparable aspects of the same underlying process.

David Bohm has named this underlying process the implicate order. Basil Hiley suggests: “Mind and matter are but different projections from the deeper implicate order where such a division does not exist.” He also emphasizes that “the implicate order is not some woolly metaphysical construction, it is precisely a description of the underlying process,” which is supported by credible mathematical analysis.

Since coherent superposition is an inherent characteristic of the quantum world, space and time are not expected to be mere numbers at some level. At the deepest level of space even the Plank’s dimensions can be deemed merely as expectation. Bohm and Hiley call this pre-space, which gives rise to John wheeler’s proposed pre-geometry. At the pre-space level according to Bohm and Hiley, the universe is an undivided whole-everything is connected to everything else, and made coherent by the self-organizing property of the quantum potential.

The essence of the implicate order is the one source that unfolds both the primary field (the common source of at least everything physical) and consciousness. Based upon this thesis, it would be logical to infer that the one source of the world’s great spiritual traditions is grounded in scientific reality.

Schrödinger believed in the Vedic concept that all conscious beings are aspects of that same universal entity.(“filled with Brahman are the things we see, filled with Brahman are the things we see not. From out of Brahman floweth all these, from Brahman all, yet he is still the same.”- Isha Upanishad).

 Expressed in terms of our scientific worldview today, consciousness would be manifest when the individual brains quantum state is in resonance with the cosmic potentiality of consciousness. After Schrödinger, we may humbly assert that we are all equipped to be tuners of the universal source of consciousness....

OM TAT SAT....

Consciousness-1

Let me ask you a question. Suppose a universe was made and nobody was there to see it? Behind this question which may seem like a pointless debate lie some very profound enigmas. Scientists have lately warmed up to an idea they once considered unscientific.

The idea goes by the esoteric name of weak anthropic cosmological principle. The essence of this principle is that the initial conditions and the natural constants of our universe were not exactly what they are; there would be no one here to observe it, much less to esquire into its origin.

Examining the details of the universe eminent physicist Freeman Dyson also finds that “the universe in some sense must have known that we were coming.” The anthropic principle seems to offer a unique solution for the particular way our universe came to be. The Big Bang theory provides that at its inception the universe was infinitesimally small, much smaller than an atom, and therefore, subject to the laws of quantum physics. This means the universe could have begun in many possible ways. Thus if the anthropic principle is factored in it turns out that the eventual evolution of intelligent beings was a necessary condition why this universe came into being.

To quote John Wheeler “It is incontrovertible that the observer is a participator in genesis.” The observer, that’s consciousness and we are conscious agents, vehicles for manifestation of potentiality that was there from the start. Now the question arises what is the nature of this observer ship?  John Wheeler strongly believes that “in defining any useful concept of reality” we have to take into account the indispensable place of the participating observer as evidenced in quantum mechanics.” The foregoing cannot really be true unless consciousness is as essential an aspect of nature as are the fields that give rise force and matter and the primary field that give rise to them.

But what is this consciousness that I have been referring to? Understanding consciousness it seems is the next big leap in our understanding of this universe.

For something most of us are we possess, consciousness has proved amazingly hard to pin down. As early as the 5^th century AD the philosopher and catholic Saint Augustine of Hippo identified self-awareness as a key aspect of consciousness when he declared: “I understand that I understand”. It took another 1200 years before the first working definition of consciousness emerged, with the English philosopher John Locke claiming it to be “the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind”. As for how this perception emerged, the 17^th - century French philosopher Rene Descartes used what he regarded as unimpeachable logic to conclude that the conscious mind must surely be made of different stuff from brains and bodies- a distinction now known as Cartesian Dualism. He summed this up in the famous saying “Cogito, ergo sum”-I think therefore I am. The advent of anesthetics- in which physical exposure to chemicals like ether triggered unconsciousness- had revealed an intimate connection between the body and mind, flatly contradicting Descartes’ claim.

It seems clear that what we call “mind” is, in part, a process that enfolds a multitude of functions at ascending levels of complexity and refinement.  The vast majority of these functions take place below the threshold level of consciousness and account for what keeps us alive (the most basic is the regulation of heart-beat). Furthermore these functions are firmly rooted in the brain’s oldest structures, structures we share with the animal world. This is demonstrated in the laboratory as we observe various regions of the brain respond to stimuli. So far the mind appears to be a bottom up construction, an electrochemical computer programmed by the brain’s evolution over millions of years.

Eminent neuroscientist John Searles’ asserts that “all the stimuli we receive from the world are converted by the nervous system into various rates of neuron firings at the synapses.”  But he, despite being a bottom up theorist states that “Nothing is intrinsically computational.” As we ascend to the next level of brain functions, something happens that cannot be easily explained by brain chemistry or algorithms. We become conscious agents. We no longer simply sense and behave, like automatons  we experience, and we affect experience. No computer exists that can form a thought expression like; “You won’t believe what happened to me today!” Roger Penrose argues that no computer ever can, because “consciousness, in its particular manifestation in the human quality of understanding is doing something that mere computations cannot.”

Penrose further insists that “a scientific world view which does not profoundly come to terms with the problems of conscious minds can have no serious pretension of completeness. Consciousness is part of our universe, so any physical theory which makes no proper place for it falls fundamentally short of providing a genuine description of the world.” Nobel physicist Eugene Wigner states: “The principal argument is that thought process and consciousness are the primary concepts, that our knowledge of the external world is the content of our consciousness and that the consciousness, therefore cannot be denied.”...

to be continued.....

Dear Teacher,

I still can faintly recollect that fateful day,

The day when I left my mother’s arms and comfort of home;

To come under your umbrella,

And begin the journey towards becoming myself;

Like every eventful journey that too had began with teary eyes,

Tears perhaps for the fear of facing the unknown,

Or perhaps they were the tears of a joyous heart,

Anticipating its rebirth and preparing for a new life.

Through all these years I have learnt and grew under your ever watchful eyes,

You have encouraged me in my every success

Reprimanded & corrected me for every wrong step I ever put,

And whenever I was lost in the darkest of alleys,

You were always there showing me the way to light.

Through all these years by your selfless care and protection,

You have helped to scalp out myself,

 Like the artisan who delicately curves out God’s idol,

From just a formless heap of mud.

You have helped me create my identity,

To have a face among the faceless millions.

No words of praise that I say today can do justice to your selfless service,

But there is one line that I want to scream today at the top of my voice,

Although I haven’t seen the mythical God,

I don’t have any regret either.

Because God for me is you my teacher.                                     

                                                                                          -Debabrata Banerjee 

A Simple Question

What is life?

Is it a grand persistent illusion to quote the mystics?

Or is it hard rock reality as proclaims the skeptics?

Is it harsh and rude like the prose?

Or simple, fluid and elegant like the poetry?

Perhaps even both who knows?!

Is it about dying at every moment?

Or art of learning how to live?!

Is it learning through experience?

Or a journey towards an unknown goal, worth pursuing with patience?

Or perhaps something more profound; who comprehends?!

Is it a string of failure running after ever illusive success!!

Or about growing from strength to strength?

And who can either define failure and success?

Is it about bonding with some for a very brief time?

Or these emotions are just bondage that binds!

Perhaps it is complex like a labyrinth!

Or under the apparent complexities simple and elegant

But whatever it means for each one of us

With its various forms, faces and colors;

It amazes me to notice…

It is simply the most beautiful gift one can ever receive!

Isn't it ?!

                                                                                      -Debabrata Banerjee  

A Sincere Prayer

O rain come, come riding;

Come with the trumpets blowing,

Come with your chariots roaring,

Come o fearsome warrior,

Summon all your strength and vanquish whatever is dark and evil,

Come with new leash of life for the lifeless, hope for the hopeless;

Come to become the voice of weak and downtrodden;

To become their weapon against the strong and corrupted;

Wash away whatever is impure;

Whatever is evil, whatever is rotten and is to be abhorred;

Making way for the new, that which is fresh and pure;

Come to show that truth can’t be vanquished;

Even in the darkest of hours it is just behind the veil;

It will come piercing the veil of ignorance, the veil of darkness;

Ignited by the spark of knowledge it will spread like the wild fire,

Destroying the rotten, the dead under its flames while the evils in fear perspire;

And after your wrath is over…all the dirt will be gone;

The new air will bring with it the sweet smell of freshness;

The sky, the birds, all of nature will be dancing in anticipation of hope,

The sun will be bringing with it new rays of life,

All that is dark, evil and rotten would have been washed;

To make way for the new, the pure, the sanctified,

What a wonderful new dawn it would be for the mankind….

                                                                                 -Debabrata Banerjee  

Quantum World

The quantum world that is the world of infinitesimally small…the world of electrons and Photons, is pretty different from what we observe in daily life. The reality at quantum dimensions is so weird and understanding that great physicists of the status of Einstein, Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman have failed to understand it fully. Niels Bohr quipped, “If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows that he has not understood the first thing about it”. The problem with the world at quantum level is that the quantum particles seems to have no regard for the rules of  classical mechanics framed by Newton and others that seems to so well describe our observable universe.

For example

1.     At quantum levels you can create reality by simply looking at it.

2.     A quantum particle can occupy more than one place or take more than one path at the same time. This simultaneous coexistence of all possibilities is known as coherent superposition or quantum coherence.

3.     Quantum entanglement: As shown by Non locality experiment that if we send twin photons that were joined earlier to different sectors of space, any action performed upon one instantaneously affects the other as if they remained forever bound in spite of their spatial separation.

In Quantum world a quantum particle actually exists as a wave function with the probability of finding it extending till the end of universe but with a high probability of finding it at one particular space. This description of quantum particle actually arises from the famous uncertainty principle of Heisenberg who stated that it is impossible to measure the position and velocity of a quantum particle accurately beyond a certain fixed level of accuracy defined by his equation. This impossibility is not due to the fault of measuring instruments but is inherent characteristics of quantum world. That the position of quantum particle is defined in terms of probability led Einstein to utter: “God Does Not Play Dice”. However as soon as a quantum particle is observed by a conscious agent they collapse from their wavy nature to reality at a particular position.

For example let us consider that you are an electron seated in a chair. But in quantum world you are actually a wave spread over the entire universe with high probability of finding in your chair. You will remain in that state until and unless a conscious agent looks upon and collapses you into reality seated in the chair. This may sound like the staff of science fiction but the postulates and predictions of quantum mechanics have been proved through numerous experiments like EPR and Young’s Double Slit Experiment.

                                            THE EPR EXPERIMENT 

Now the question is what is consciousness (click on the link to know more about consciousness)? Scientists are too in debate over this question and we will deal with it in our next article.

Let us return again to uncertainty principle of Heisenberg. The uncertainty principle can also be stated in terms of energy and time. It states that if time is stretched enough and we look at very very tiny interval of time while trying to find out about the energy of a certain small volume of space we would be so uncertain about its energy content that a particle may pop out of existence out of nothingness provided it vanishes as soon as it appeared. To show you how this could happen let me tell you a small story.

Around 1928 Physics was suffering from another big problem. The two most important theorems of physics did not agree with each other. On the one hand you had Einstein’s special theory of relativity that described the description of particles moving at a speed close to the speed of light encapsulated in the beautiful equation E=MC² and on the other hand Planks discovery of quantum and the revolution that followed describing the bizarre rules of very very small. Problems arose when trying to describe the behavior of particles that were small enough for quantum rules to be applies and moving fast enough for Einstein’s special theory of relativity to be applied, (especially the behavior of electron). If this theory could not be married it meant that one of them had to be wrong.

At this critical moment Paul Dirac; a brilliant scientist came up with a very elegant description of election that helped to marry the Einstein’s special theory of relativity with plank’s quantum mechanics.

This elegant equation is known as the Dirac equation. In his description of electron Dirac was forced to use a set of four equations represented by the symbol γ.

                       

While the first to equations were quite familiar and referred to the behavior of electron as observed in the laboratory. The next two pair were suggesting to a type of electron never before observed. In some way just like the electron yet very very different. It came to be known as the anti-electron. Dirac realized that if the things and anti-things ever meet each other they would instantly annihilate converting all their mass into energy.

Now here was the answer to the riddle of empty space. Heisenberg had suggested that matter could pop into existence from empty space for very very small amount of time. Dirac provided the mechanism how this could happen. So actually whenever a matter particle pops into existence from empty space so does its anti particle and then they quickly fall back upon each other and annihilate.

Strange as it may seem just like a compulsive credit card addict, pairs of particles and antiparticles constantly borrow energy from space to pop into existence before annihilating again and returning back the energy. Thus what may seem as vacuum is constantly seething with this activity which is known as quantum fluctuations. But as soon there is sufficient energy made available by any source, stable particles are able to emerge and have a ‘real’ existence in the world.

Now you might be wondering why am I discussing so much about nothingness and quantum world?! Well for the curious mind here is the answer…Wherever you see in the observable universe including sun, moon; stars, you and I all have come out of this vacuum. So to understand and get the big picture you have to understand the small…. Om tat sat