Chapter 2: Consciousness🔗

The whole purpose of science is to get to the bottom of the truth of all that exists, and find a common thread which explains everything. In science, the fundamental concept would be called a model, and a perfect model that explains everything is called 'the Theory of Everything'.

It is always elegant to have a single model or law that explains all the forces of nature. Of course, no model is perfect, and what signifies a good model in physics is:

• It is simple enough, but not any simpler

• It contains very few elements which are arbitrary or adjustable

• It explains all the existing observations

The perfect model would be called the Theory of Everything, but is yet to be elucidated.

It is important, both in terms of science as well as metaphysics, to understand some basic facts relating to space, time, motion and energy.

At the very gross level, scientists estimate that there are more than 100 billion galaxies, with each galaxy having more than 10 billion suns. This in fact is just a rough estimate of the size of the universe, which incidentally is not finite, because it is constantly expanding in acceleration.

Now, within a galaxy, everything moves. In the universe, all galaxies are in motion. In effect, the earth moves 2500 miles every 2 minutes around the sun, and the sun moves 20,000 miles around the center of our galaxy. Thus, a person or object sitting absolutely motionless on earth is actually in motion all the time.

Early concepts of space were limited to three dimensions (X, Y and Z axis), on the assumption that any point marked in space would be stationary, and therefore its exact location or speed could be easily mapped out.

Einstein soon realized that nothing was really stationary and all readings were based on the location of the observer. At the same time it was shown that the speed of light is exactly the same, regardless of the frame of reference. Thus, it was understood that time and space are intertwined, as time too is a dimension like space.

Thus, the fourth dimension of time was added (future-past) apart from the usual left-right, front-back and up-down dimensions of space. This is called Einstein's theory of special relativity.

Theoretical physics developed further and it was soon realized that space-time is not flat, but is actually curved. This curvature is due to the presence of mass and energy in space-time, and the effect is known as gravity.

The next phenomena that need to be understood are the forces of Nature. The forces of Nature are divided into four classes: ‣ Gravity ‣ Electro-magnetism ‣ Weak interactions ‣ Strong interactions

Entanglement is a concept in quantum mechanics related to the particle theory. Particle theory says that all matter is made up of virtually identical particles of four different classes.

‣ Quarks e.g. protons and neutrons

‣ Leptons e.g. electrons and its neutrino

The above two are called elementary particles. Particles that are involved in exchange of energy are called exchange particles, like:

‣ Photon, related to electromagnetic interaction

‣ Gluon, related to strong interaction within the nucleus of an atom

‣ Graviton, related to gravity - the only particle that lacks experimental evidence for its existence

When any two elementary particles come into contact with each other, they get entangled in such a way that, if one were to study one particle for its location or its velocity, one can accurately predict that the second entangled particle has instantaneously developed the same velocity, regardless of its location. The only difference between the two is that if one has an entity called spin in a particular direction, the entangled particle has a spin in exactly the opposite direction (mirroring).

A physicist of Indian origin, Amit Goswami, recently published an article in a physics journal showing that entanglement affects people. He had two people meditate together, and then separated them in two chambers (one person in each) where they couldn't see or hear one another. When one person had a light strobed at his eye, it caused the firing of a certain frequency in the brain. Remarkably, at the same moment, the other person's brain also fired, even though he never saw the light. This proves that the energies of people intuitively affect each other.

(Reference: Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (and a Way to Get There from Here) by Bruce H. Lipton & Steve Bhaerman )

Vedic sciences have always maintained that Consciousness is the very substance of space-time, and has nothing to do with living or non-living aspects of matter. As humans, we are inextricably bound to the laws of space, time and other dimensions.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda has clearly defined the existence of 11 dimensions of Consciousness (space-time). As per His elucidation, Space can exist by itself without anything else. On the other hand, time can exist only in the presence of space, but can still exist without other dimensions including the obvious ones - depth, length and breadth. For instance, in parallel dimensions (parallel universes in astrophysics), beings that exist in space without time are called Devatas.

In quantum terms, thought too is energy (a packet or quantum of energy). Every cell of our body produces thought in the form of signals, which may be electrical, chemical or otherwise. These can be measured in TPS (Thoughts Per Second). The normal TPS of the average human being can be hundreds or thousands of thoughts. Some thoughts are processed through the volition of part of the brain, while others are processed unconsciously. Some thoughts which the brain determines as unwarranted noise are not processed, allowing one to pay attention to what is considered priority at that time.

A TPS of zero is the state of Advaita or Enlightenment. Here the energy of thought (particles) is no longer present. However, based on quantum mechanics, a vaccum state cannot exist, and thus, virtual particles are created to occupy the space of the cell.

As discussed earlier, space is made up of strings of potential energy, which are in constant vibration (spanda) leading to the creation of virtual particles. This is the very basis of the Vedic truth of Consciousness.

During the process of entanglement, our TPS comes down to zero, and the virtual particles of Paramahamsa Nithyananda's no-mind state become our reality.