Nikon D600 with FX 28-300mm VR lens,160mm, 1/500 sec @ f10, ISO 400, -0.67 EV, no flash © Steven Crisp
"What If?" It's a good question, don't you think?
Or you might call it a way of questioning. Of contemplating. Of looking more deeply.
I've been doing that recently, having reinvigorated my spiritual inquiries. And I must say it's all pretty fascinating. Those who know me have heard me say "I'm spiritual, but not religious." Indeed, I have called myself a-religious, and have some issues with a personified God. I was not entirely sure why that issue was so visceral for me, but I guess that's just my karma (no, that's not irony, just some humor ;-)
During my recent investigations, I came upon a physicist named David Bohm. I had heard the name before (as a wannabe physicist myself), but really knew nothing about him. And then I stumbled upon this movie, Infinite Potential. I think it's well done, and ties together some complex physics topics, with the drama of the A-bomb development, McCarthyism, and a scientist looking deeply for the fundamental underlying mechanisms of the cosmos. Which ultimately brings him in touch spiritual insights from past millennia that help guide his thinking. Here's the movie trailer (and by all means, if any of those topics sound interesting to you, you may want to purchase the movie, like I did, even having watched it twice before):
So anyways, "What If?"
What if our scientific world view, with its remarkable progress using experimentation to prove out theories, is still not the whole story?
What if underlying all that we can detect and classify, still lies something that would be able to explain some remaining conundrums, like entanglement (non-local effects), like wave-particle duality, like Schrödinger's cat (paradox), like dark matter/energy that is vastly greater than observable matter/energy throughout the universe?
What if consciousness, which remains poorly understood, has some role in this, and/or applies beyond one's physical body?
What if it's not only possible, but repeatable, and trainable, for individuals to gain control of their own mind-bodies, and realize the truths of impermanence, not-self or egolessness, and equanimity or non-reactivity, and then enter states of non-duality.
I think the biggest take-aways from the movie and from these sample what-if questions are that we really need to keep our minds open, alert, and inquisitive. While it might temporarily "feel good" to think we have an answer, opinion, belief, or even an orthodox interpretation on these or other important questions, we should never close our minds to the possibility of new information or direct experience that might tell us otherwise.
And in the end, a recurring question we can ask is:
4 comments:
Infinite Potential: I had to walk away from this video a couple of times: it had touched a very deep...something...in me. Back when I was still a child and the operational word for me was always "why". The only way I could answer that was to go to the very beginnings of things, which at that time were atoms. If I could understand that, then I could build layer upon layer of observation until I would finally understand the deep "why". So much more, but I have no more words at this time. Thank you deeply for sharing this.
Hi Pat,
I'm glad you found the movie "moving" in some way. I too had that experience as I watched it (and have since watched twice more). It was like, "yeah, why aren't we asking these questions below (or within) the answers we already have? Why are they negotiating interpretations and silencing others?"
I also have a funny childhood story. I remember one year we learned the "cloud model" of atoms, made up of a nucleus and one or more "orbiting" electrons in whatever grade we learned that. I must have grasped that model well and "got a good grade". Only to come back to school the next year and be told, "OK well, what we taught you is not reality, not the truth. So let's begin again." And we went on to learn the next "model of reality" that our growing brains were ready for.
I remember being angry for having been knowingly duped. It wasn't that I expected to be taught graduate level classes in Jr. High (or whatever), but rather the fact that they never told me they were using approximations or simplifications to learn a few needed basic principles. And now, how could I trust them I was learning ... the truth.
Haha, little did I know then, no one knew the truth! Ultimately, I believe it was this not-knowing that led me to major in physics. But alas, I did not have the science/mathematics chops to push the envelop in that domain. Yet, that search for truth (or at least that which resonates deep within my core) is still with me today, and why we're having this conversation.
Thanks for your visit Pat, for your comment, and for your continued offerings in the dynamic interplay that is Life.
I had a similar high school experience. I loved learning about atomic structure, which back then was electron rings, valence, etc. It was fun diagramming atoms, probably like my husband liked diagramming sentences. But then things changed. I never understood the nebulous cloud. In addition, I never understood the square root of negative one in calculus. Thus ended my journey into the physical sciences. I walked through a different door, then, years and years later, walked through the door that was waiting for me, and here I am, still enjoying whatever doors appear.
Reminds me of Monty Hall and Let's Make a Deal.
Didn't you always want the contestant to pick Door #3, the mystery door?
The others were so boring 🤣
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