My talk on Physics and the Indian Spiritual Tradition, Kolkata, February 10, 2018

On February 10, 2018, 6 to 7pm, I will give a talk titled “Physics and the Indian Spiritual Tradition” at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, India.

This will be the 2018 event of the India Awakens conference program. Please see the video proceedings of the 2017 online event and stay tuned for the announcement of the 2019 event.

Physics and the Indian Spiritual Tradition

In this talk, I will develop two strands of thought, initially separate but eventually converging.

In the first strand, inspired by scientific and spiritual insights, I will outline some speculative theories of physical reality, proposed by leading philosophers and scientists, and argue that fundamental science is getting closer to traditional spiritual teachings.

In particular, Indian spiritual traditions, as formulated in the explanations and translations available to me, seem especially able to illuminate and guide research in fundamental physics, cosmology, biology, and the sciences of brain and mind.

A cosmic, divine Mind, embedded in the fabric of fundamental reality itself, and of which individual minds are but pale reflections, could shape the becoming of space, time, particles, fields, matter, energy, and life forms. The Mind could remember the memories of the universe, including individual lives.

The interconnection of all things, the action of mind over matter, and different forms of afterlife, could be actual physical phenomena waiting for scientific explanations.

In the second strand, inspired by futurist thinking, I will argue that science and engineering will bring us closer to the cosmic Mind. In the words of a contemporary Mormon scholar, “the end point of engineering knowledge may be divine knowledge.”

Empowered by divine knowledge, and guided by both spirituality and “can do” engineering, we will eventually meet the Mind, become cosmic engineers in the divine control room, and contribute to realizing the promises of spiritual traditions, including afterlife.

This is, I believe, an ideal fusion of Eastern and Western thinking.

Cover image from Wikimedia Commons.