Monday, June 2, 2008

Life before Life and quantum physics

This Wednesday’s eve program at Esalen was talking about life after death with Michael Murphy and friends.
What I remember from it is more about life before life.
Researches have interviewed young children that had memories of previous lives. These description (very accurate at times) lead to a search to find if the description matches a specific being that has died. It was truly amazing to hear about the details that match, including scars that had “passed” on.
It seemed though that most memories were related to a person that had died young or not a natural death. This could lead to either thought; that reincarnation does not happen always, or that these certain instances are more likely to stay vivid in the child remembering.
There are around 2600 case studies done, and now Esalen is supporting further research.

I can understand existence beyond our brain, beyond this body, a total connectedness, a primal energy force, yet to realize that a separate consciousness can keep its cycle of life after life for whatever reason that maybe, is indeed of great curiosity to me.
Does it even matter? What can we learn from this? Is there such a thing as an old soul?
Does a soul really free itself, or is it just a realization of a different state of consciousness?

Last weekend, I was participating in a workshop titled “Do we need spirituality in the age of science?” Atoms are constructed of two elementary particles known today, the electrons and the quarks. But what lies behind this?
Mani Bhaumik, the person who invented eye laser surgery, was sharing with us scientific research leading towards the idea that the 4 main energies known today (including gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force and the week force) connect at extreme high temperatures.
This idea leads to the concept of a quantum field; an energy field that is connected to all, this field exists beyond time and space. Quantum physics describes the subatomic world as one that cannot be depicted in diagrams -- particles are not dots in space, but are more like "dancing points of energy."
Can you understand? My Zen master would ask.
To truly understand, I feel that it is necessary to go beyond the mind, to actually experience this and own it.

Time to sit on the meditation cushion…

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