- [Instructor] At the heart of Western culture
lies a foundation in the scientific method.
It is the premise that an objective reality exists
and that the secrets of which can be ascertained
through replicable and shareable experiments
through the testing of informed hypothesis.
Yet even with our modern science grounded in practicality
in the material universe,
some of the greatest scientists, philosophers, poets
and minds of antiquity and even many modern day ones
have acknowledged something particularly interesting
in their approach to understanding reality as a whole.
It would appear as though the influence
of spiritual or esoteric materials
on notable scientists ranges from direct translations
of the Emerald tablet by Newton to philosophies
on religion and science from figures that seem to agree
with the important hermetic principles, including names
like Leonardo da Vinci, Francis Bacon, Paracelsus,
William Blake, Carl Jung and even Einstein and Hawking.
Many of these legendary figures acknowledged the debt
of gratitude to the Corpus Hermeticum,
a spiritual philosophy on the nature
of God and being which stretches all the way back
to the dynastic period of Egypt.
To these people the Hermeticum provided
a foundational philosophy in their respective approaches
to understanding the universe.
So why do science and spirituality always
seem to be at odds?
Well, let's talk about it.
(bright music)
Now I know what you might be thinking.
We're setting ourselves up for a ton
of debates in the comments, but here's the thing,
science and spirituality are not all that different.
I know we've been making these videos for years now
spring support and debunkers across the board
but it dawned on us recently.
Hey, why don't we make a spirit
science episode about science.
Truly in the scientific paradigm we live in today,
countless spiritual philosophies have
influenced the scientific method since its very creation
as a disciplinary field.
And on the other end of it many modern day scientific
discoveries in the fields of psychology
quantum physics and even magnetics for example
are actually confirming things that mystics
have been saying for generations.
Take meditation.
For years it was thought as some foreign mystical Eastern
practice but in recent years, studies have shown benefits
against an array of conditions, both physical and mental
including irritable bowel syndrome,
fibromyalgia, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, and even PTSD.
Dr. Gaelle Desbordes' research at the Martino Center
for Biomedical Imaging has consistently shown changes
in brain activity in subjects who have learned to meditate
hold steady even when they're not meditating.
And that sense of wellbeing
and peace stays with practitioners up to six months
after an initial session.
The debate of how much spiritual
and philosophical disciplines affect our reality
is also a key point of debate in quantum physics.
This clip of Dr. Eben Alexander beautifully illustrates
this debate culminating with his central argument
that what drove the founding fathers of quantum physics
into the arms of mysticism was a belief that on a subatomic
level, the conscience mind, that which we call
the soul played role role in the unfolding
of what we observe in our reality.
With all of these new advancements and discoveries
it's hard to believe that there is still so much animosity
between the fields of faith science.
In large part, I think that it might draw from the fact
that science is based on the freedom to question reality
whereas religion historically is based on the duty
to believe in a particular doctrine, system or ideology.
However, it's important that we make the distinction
that religion and spirituality
are fundamentally different things.
While the open curiosity of science is arguably
a natural enemy of dogmatic religion
it is undoubtedly an ally
of early gnostic spirituality.
Gnosticism meaning having knowledge in Greek arose
from early Christian, Pagan and Jewish principles
and features and emphasis on personal spiritual development
over more Orthodox and systemized tradition.
In fact, modern science arguably has its very roots
in early Gnosticism and the mystery schools that came before
Both Galileo and Copernicus saw themselves
as simply reviving the ancient Pythagorean tradition.
Later even Isaac Newton had a strong interest
in alchemy and saw his study on ancient philosophy
and mythology as more important than his scientific work.
To that extent, he actually claimed
in some of his manuscripts to have discovered
the underlying Gnostic truth of all religions.
This phenomenon and link between science and spirituality
isn't some relic of the Renaissance however.
With Wolfgang Pauli, one of the founders
of quantum physics being passionate and vocal
about his interest in Gnostic Christianity
and its impact on his work.
And Werner Heisenberg winner of the Nobel prize in physics
and arguably the father of quantum mechanics in 1932
even asserted that modern science was simply
confirming ancient Pythagorean beliefs
to an inconceivable degree.
And now you've heard of Einstein, right?
Famous science guy, wacky hair, good sense of humor.
The legend in science responsible
for the all pervading theory of relativity,
right, that guy.
Well, even his response to the question
of how he viewed the nature of the universe
and God could be mistaken for the words of an ancient Sage
if the names were changed around.
He said, how can the cosmic religious feeling
be communicated from one person to another
if it can give rise to no definite notion
of a God and no theology.
In my view, it is the most important function
of art science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive
in those who are receptive to it.
Now, to briefly explore the subject of scientific realism
many modern scientists embrace the idea
of Einsteinian realism.
That is the belief that absolutely everything
which exists in our cosmos,
everything that we can ever know about
is simply the emergent outcome of the operation
of certain unknown non-linear partial differential equations
over a finite space time reality.
What's amazing is that even this is simply
a modern rendition that was debated in ancient India
over a thousand years ago that was ultimately based
on the Upanishads, ancient spiritual texts
which were originally tenants of Sanskrit philosophy.
Alternatively, Heisenberg reminded us that theories
of physics are really just part
of our efforts to predict the stream
of experience ever more completely and ever more precisely.
While the growing inaccessibility of science
is an ever increasing issue
in our society with journals and papers being hidden
behind paywalls and layers of academic jargon
akin to the allegorical passages
of the Tao Te Ching in their closely guarded comprehension
among elite academics, it seems as if modern science
is most argued to be literal in its approach.
To an extent, science is equated with a kind of materialism
an approach that seeks to reduce everything
to physics because matter is all that exists.
Ironically though, many of the great scientists
of history did not follow this line of thought.
If anything, this supposedly literal bedrock
is where everything begins to fall apart.
As prophesied in the Hermeticum, Hermes vision
of a world where science dismisses spiritual philosophy
as careless superstition is undoubtedly here.
However we'd like to offer a different view.
Perhaps our modern science is a legacy
with Gnostic values at its heart, both science
and Gnosticism are based on questioning what is taken
for granted, with both refusing to accept anything
on blind faith.
Both garde conceptual images of the world
as working models that can ever be changing
and evolving with new discoveries.
Much like scholars of Alexandria and the ancient Gnostic
brotherhoods, modern scientists are internationalists
who embrace each other's discoveries and work regardless
of nationality, faith or political ideology.
The very honorary title of PhD, which breaks
down to doctorate of philosophy is defined
as you having contributed something new to the wider
Corpus of human knowledge and understanding.
And it is awarded under this criteria.
In fact, Gnostic and scientists actually mean the exact
same thing knower or seeker.
While complimentary and sharing the same goal
of understanding the mysteries of existence
the two fields of spiritual mysticism
and science do diverge on their approach
while science aims to obtain an objective knowledge
of the cosmos spirituality is concerned
with subjective self knowledge where science is concerned
with tangible appearances and replicability.
Spirituality is concerned with the ineffable essence
of things and where science is
about solving the mysteries of the infinite,
spirituality is about dissolving into them.
In a maxim, science is attempting to understand
something so complex that it cannot be comprehended.
Spiritual mysticism such as Gnosticism
is attempting to understand something
so simple that it cannot be understood.
Despite the constant attempt
to distance themselves from each other
it would appear that science and spiritual
philosophy are in fact two sides of the same coin.
Two halves of a single whole concept.
Now, if you've watched this whole video so far
and you're still not convinced
I invite you to consider the following.
Today we all know the very prevalent
modern theory of the big bang
but did you know that this was inspired by a spiritual
philosophy of all things emerging from the one.
The big bang theory, no, not the TV show,
thank you Sheldon, was first publicized
by the works of Georges Lemaître,
a Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest.
The theory accepted by nearly all astronomers today
was a radical departure
from scientific orthodoxy in the 1930s, as it proposed
an ever-changing mutable model of the universe.
Similarly to how the, Hermeticum tells us
that the mind of God is constantly creating in its thoughts
as opposed to the static model that was mainstream.
In fact, the idea that every observable galaxy
had originated from a single point
seemed preposterous at the time.
Lemaître attacked the problem of cosmology
from a thoroughly physical point of view and realized
that his solution predicted the expansion of galaxies
that observations were only then beginning to suggest.
Appealing to the new quantum theory of matter
Lemaître argued that the physical universe was initially
a single particle, the primeval atom, as he called it.
Which disintegrated in an explosion giving rise
to space and time and the expansion
of the universe that continues to this day.
This idea marked the birth of what we now know
as big bang cosmology.
Now it is tempting to think
that Lemaître's deeply held religious beliefs
might have led him to the notion of a beginning of time.
After all the Judeo-Christian tradition
had propagated a similar idea
for millennia, yet, Lemaître clearly insisted
that there was neither a connection
nor a conflict between his religion and his science.
Rather, he kept them entirely separate treating them
as different, parallel interpretations of the world
both of which he believed with personal conviction
stating that, as far as I can see, such a theory
remains entirely outside any metaphysical
or religious question.
It leaves the materialist free
to deny any transcendental being.
For the believer, it removes any attempt
at familiarity with God.
It is consistent with Isaiah speaking
of the hidden God, hidden even
in the beginning of the universe.
With that, I think there is a certain poetic irony
with ending the episode back at the beginning of all things.
And so with this, I kindly invite you to come
and join us in deeper exploration of the mysteries
of the cosmos within spirit mysteries, our new platform
for evolving consciousness and dissolving into the infinite.
Thank you so very much
and we'll see you on the other side.
(bright music)