Glimpses of God Book Part 2--Overview of Science Puzzles

Chapter 1. The Field: Science Converging with Spirituality

Since the start of the quantum era in the early 20th century, physicists have struggled to understand the nature of a universe where the basic elements of matter have an inherent probabilistic characteristic fortheir location and movement; where the act of observing an experiment seems to influence the outcome of the experiment; where the universe might have more than our apparent three dimensions plus time; and where basic elements can become “entangled” (cohered) in such a manner that communication is not limited by the speed of light. This is “reality” at the leading edge of physics.

Astronomers and cosmologists, as they obtain more information about the nature of our universe, are struggling to understand a physical universe that is amazingly fine tuned to produce not just recurring harmonic ratios, but also the—otherwise extremely improbable—conditions under which life can emerge and evolve in the cosmos. We are dealing with probabilities of one in a billion or lower. This is “reality” at the leading edge of astronomy.

Amazing discoveries and observations are also occurring in biology and studies of the mind and consciousness. At the frontiers of science, the old order is starting to break down as anomalous discoveries accumulate that cannot be fitted within our existing scientific theories and paradigms. New theories and worldviews are coming forward to explain the anomalous behavior. This chapter provides a brief overview of the new theories and worldviews. At the heart of the new worldview is the concept of a universal field of energy and information that connects all life and matter. This is a fundamentally new scientific paradigm. The two most significant sources for helping the general public understand the rationale and the characteristics of a new universal field are:

• Irvin Laszlo’s Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral theory of Everything
• Lynne McTaggart’s The Field: the Quest for the Secret force of the Universe

Hints of a field are present in many of the world’s spiritual traditions and beliefs, especially Eastern ones: Hindu’s Akashi and the Chinese Taoist belief that a basic energy (the Chi) pervades all life. This is why I titled this chapter with the suggestion that there is starting to be a convergence of science and spirituality.

The field concept, called the Akashic Field and the Zero Point Field by Laszlo and McTaggart’s scientists respectively, is from a scientific perspective a hypothesis. It has not been accepted by the larger scientific community. It seems that only a small minority is actively working on it. But this is the way it is when any radical new paradigm or hypothesis is put forth.

Laszlo has superb capabilities for taking a broad philosophical and system perspective and developing new system hypotheses. I consider him a systems scientist: a person who can assimilate information from a wide range of disciplines and synthesize the individual information into a grander system vision and theory. Laszlo’s book is the culmination of 20 years of research and five books. It is a good complement to McTaggart’s in that it summarizes the key problems and new ideas in four different scientific fields, and then shows how the concept of a universal information and energy field provides an integrative, plausible solution for most of the intractable problems in each.

McTaggart’s book reflects her ability to develop personal and professional relationships with key scientific individuals who are conducting the leading scientific research and theorizing required to support a new scientific paradigm. They have “tutored” her sufficiently on key aspects of their work so that she is able to take the highlights of their original discoveries and weave a dense and compelling story of their efforts. The integrated totality of their discoveries and how the individual ones reinforce the overall paradigm is what makes her book compelling.

In the remainder of this chapter, I supplement highlights from the two books with additional information brought in from other key sources; three of which are the following:
• Michio Kaku’s Parallel Worlds for quantum physics and cosmology
• Bruce Lipton’s Biology of Belief for evolutionary biology
• Rupert Sheldrake for evolutionary biology and consciousness