Anything Is Possible

I like articles like this one that illustrate just how strange science is proving reality to be. 

Many of us think we know what science says is and is not possible. But what many of us think of as ‘scientific reality’ is really what is called Newtonian Physics. Part of the reason for this is Newtonian Physics lines up nicely with what our senses tell us is possible. If you drop something, it falls at a predictable rate. Things cannot teleport. There is not ESP. 

While Newtonian Physics is useful for many things, it is not the cutting edge science that brings us smartphones, microchips, and AI. That science is called Quantum Physics. And, the reality of quanta is nothing like the reality of our senses. 

For instance can something in our reality be two different things at once? Well quanta, the smallest building blocks or what we call our reality are both particles and waves. Which one they display as depends on the observer. That is a little like saying that my friend Ainsley is both a man and a woman and which sex they are depends on who is looking at them.

I like to bring these kinds of things up in classes because most of us have a lot of mental rigidity around what we consider “scientific facts.” I am very pro-science. But to truly be scientific means to keep an open mind. That is part of what makes science a powerful mode of discovery. We assume we don’t already have the answers so we find ways to objectively test to get the answers as free of our cognitive bias as possible. So the true spirit of science is the same as spirituality, don’t know mind. 

That is why I love articles like the one I am sharing here. It shows us that the world we think we know, what we think is possible, may be too limited. Like, how about an alternate universe where time runs backwards? Do you think that is possible? Well, we may have just discovered evidence of it. 

The power that makes true scientific discovery possible is the same power that allows personal discovery, the power of what I will call the don’t know mind. Admitting we don’t know can be one of the scariest things for us to do as human beings, and yet that is exactly where our breakthroughs can happen. 

Jai Bhagwan!

-Douglas Johnson E-RYT 500, YACEP

Spring Fling - A Bhakti Yoga Retreat

March 29-31