My Take on the Physics of Spirituality

I am reading a new book entitled, “Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine”, by Alan Lightman. He very eloquently connects the dots between physics, quantum mechanics and spirtuality. Science would have us believe that the law of physics govern everything living and non living thing in the universe. However, “the world appears to run, not on absolutes, but on relatives, i.e., change, impermanence and multiplicity. Nothing is fixed. All is in flux”.

I am not a scientist, but I am a spiritual being always on a quest for truth. For example, most of our religious beliefs are founded on absolutes. However, there are exceptions. For instance, “in Buddhism a fundamental belief is impermanence. And in the Reconstruction branch of Judaism is the belief in constant change.”

Life is always shifting and changing. In our prayers we ask God to change this or that, or to heal this person or that person. Even our fundamental Christian beliefs depend on shift and flux, change and impermanence and the ability and willingness for the Almighty to show favor in certain circumstances depending on our faith, or depending on the laws of science? Or both? Is one dependant on the other, or is the other totally exempt from the laws of science or the laws of God? Are they the same, in all cases? I think not.

One of the most confusing debates revolves around whether matter has some special connection between the living and non living objects. Some beliefs such as Reiki and Energy Healing depend on the fact that energy and matter are a 6th sense that is tangible and has an uncanny connection to that which is non living. Can it all be measured in atoms and molecules? What new law of physics do we touch when a pastor lays hands on the sick and they become healed? Supernatural healing is not an absolute. It does not work all the time on every human being. Some die, some live, and some remain sick after countless prayers are offered up to God.

Yet, the Bible is largely believed to be a book of absolutes and not “relative” to each and every particular ciurmstance that Yaweh or Jesus writes about in the sanctioned text.

For instance, the early church believed in the absolute perfection of the Heavens. But, when Galileo discovered the telescope and concluded there where black spots on the sun, this went against the Church’s belief in the perfection of the Heavens. His findings were considered a direct attack on the theological beliefs of the Church at that time. Shocking as it may be, for this offense, “Galileo, a pious Roman Catholic, was tried by the Inquisition and was forced to recant his astronomical observations and lived the rest of his life under house arrest”!!! Galileo! Were you aware of that? Can you imagine the stupidity of this? Can you even fathom the later discoveries that were never made by him that could have furthered the cause of science? As we now know, the black spots on the sun, are in fact, temporary concentrations of magnetic energy.

In another instance, “Italian philosopher and writer, Giordano Bruno in this book, ‘On the Infinite Universe and World, 1584’, he writes, ‘there can be inifinite worlds, (earths) with similar conditions and an infinite number of suns’. For these astronomical proposals he was burned at the stake in 1600!! Is there anyone today who does not believe in the infinite possibility of other planets, suns and solar systems? We have proven that just 40 light years from earth are planets with the same characteristics as earth’s relationship to our sun, and the possibility of liquid water. The odds of us being the only liveable planet in our solar system or beyond is quite minute.

We are still trying to figure out and understand quantum phyisics and quantum mechanies. However, the smallest measure of space, thousands times smaller than the atom is what we call planck space. There is no space in plancks. It is almost like the measure of nothingness. In this curious accumulation of nothingness, can we find an absolute about the universe, our world, God, or the spirit of Man as we know it? I wonder, because at the planck level time all matter is chaotic. It has a spirit and will of it’s own. Just as the spirit of Man and the Spirit of God are seemingly chaotic. Perhaps the two influence each other? We know God’s will infiltrates our own when we pray and ask for guidance, but does it also work the other way around?

I am curious as to whether the smaller space grows, does it at some point begin to collect as negative space, the opposite of what we see in form? Is, say, the wind the polar opposite of this planck only because it can be measured? Does space begin to reverse itself when we get to this small of a measurement? Is the space between the wind full of plancks? Just as the Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God cannot be calculated, is this where God resides, in those measurements of space so small that they cannot be measured?

In my mind, the Almighty is so powerful and mighty that He/She can do anything whatsoever to bring about Their perfect will. He operates on this small, macro scale of time and energy and can use whatever He/She sees fit to bring about miracles or any other measure of outcomes to a certain issue or problem? If His will is perfection, then He must govern on this the smallest of small scales that cannot even be counted. He must also reside in the chaotic.

Is this what connects the Spirit of God to the Spirit of Man? Those unmeasurable calculations of space that are so tiny that nothing else can reside within them?

“Does anything we do on our most modest planet have any affect on Planet X a billion galaxies away?” What do they know or care about what happens here on earth unless there exists an infinite and permanent observer such as God, some absolute authority or scaffold by which to judge and preserve meaning?……..perhaps meaning itself is an illusion…..fish and squirrels get by quite well without meaning……. I think I see meaning in the moment, but not beyond. Perhaps this moment is all there is.”

Mindfulness comes to mind when I think of being in the moment, that and meditation. If all we have is this one moment then staying in the moment could be the measure of life itself. Being in the moment with all of it’s intricate possibilities of creativity is what is our life purpose. This one moment untangles the chaos. To think and create and feel right now, right here, not thinking or worrying about tomorrow or what might or might not happen?

“The exquisite experience of joy, when I am completely consumed by a pleasuralbe activity such as conversations with good friends, good food, or laughing with my children, is certainly one of being in the moment. However……I am not satisfied with the moment. The Now is not good enough. We want to go beyond the moment. To build patterns and and systems and memories that connect moment to moment. In doing so, we long to be part of the Infinite.

I choose to believe it is because the essense of the Creator who set in motion all of the properties of the universe, resides in each of us. And, it is our longing to once again, be reunited with Him. God resides in me, as Me.

One sacred moment at a time.