WHEN THE IMPOSSIBLE BECOMES POSSIBLE

WHEN THE IMPOSSIBLE BECOMES POSSIBLE

When does the impossible become possible? When opposites become one, when all becomes one, and one becomes all. Then thought becomes mathematical, science becomes poetry and poetry becomes science.

The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all of the previous centuries of its existence.

-       Nikola Tesla 1856

Many years ago, I cried out to the universe: “God, I want to know everything!”

The Universe answered, but it took me 70 years to fully understand the answer, and for science to become poetry.

There is no such thing as an empty space. …Space and time claim no existence of their own. They are structural features of the field. -  Albert Einstein 1952

The realization that space and time have no existence of their own, allows us to understand the true meaning of following poetic statement:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour                              - William Blake 1862

But we seem to live in a very hard, physical world. The minute we are born, our soul tells us we are infinite and eternal, but the world insists that we are finite, insignificant and very mortal. Life appears to be the beginning of a journey that only ends in death. Which vision is reality? The man who discovered that the physical universe is quantized, said:

As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear-headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter. – Max Planck 1905

Is it possible that the physical universe is an illusion? Is it possible that life is meaningless? Is it impossible to know?

When does the impossible become possible? It doesn’t happen when we take everything apart to see how it works; it happens when we put it all together. When we come to know that the physical and the non-physical are one, when a stranger is instantly known as yourself, when you are everything and nothing at the same time, i.e., when you are fully awake and fully conscious.

Yesterday I met a stranger. But there was a de-ja-vu moment: I knew her, and she knew me, from the beginning of time, for the past and future are inventions of the mind. We never experience anything but the present, there is only here and now, then and there are phantoms of the mind. In reality, there is only the I AM, the one consciousness that we all share.

A good friend of many years, formally trained as a scientist, but also a deeply religious man, once said “science has its limits. There are questions science cannot answer.”

Are there questions that are Impossible for the rational mind to answer? He was both right and wrong. Are there important questions that are impossible for science? Yes for science as we know it. No for science as it must become. The physical universe is quantized, discrete, separate. But consciousness is infinitely continuous, and consciousness is the only thing we experience directly. Matter, energy, space and time, we only experience indirectly through the imperfect organs of the senses. Consciousness we experience with our whole being.

Mainstream science today tells us that there is nothing but matter and energy interacting in time and space. But the great minds I quoted above, upon whose work mainstream science relies, said “There is no matter as such”, “Space and time have no existence of their own.” And science will advance by leaps and bounds when it begins to study the non-physical phenomena we experience directly.

The truth is: the physical universe, a fraction of the reality we experience, is quantized, while consciousness, the only thing we experience directly is infinitely continuous. When we realize that they are one and the same, the impossible becomes possible, and we can hold infinity in our hand, experience eternity in this hour, see the world in a grain of sand, and Heaven in a wildflower.

ERC 2/1/2020