Science is one of the way to understand the world and its functioning. It starts from studying phenomenon and then proceeds both horizontally and vertically to understand it. Horizontally, it tries to see and study the events and circumstances that surround the phenomenon closely in terms of Space and Time. By making these observations repeatedly it arrives at a mathematical model of cause and effect. What is seen to repeatedly precede an event is cause, what follows is effect. But since there are any number of variables at any given point of time, science picks up likely variables by exercising a selection especially in terms of Space and similarity. Thus for example, while studying the cause of a disease, one will select physical and biological elements and forces that are closely connected. It is a certain angle of vision, a selection that includes some elements and leaves out others. However, one of the ways that Science advances is by expanding its field of enquiry to look for distant events and also includes in its ambit other fields and forces such as psychological and possibly spiritual.
However there is another dimension of study. It is the vertical dimension. In this process Science digs deeper and deeper to discover and isolate with precision the phenomenon itself. In the event of diseases it would mean moving beyond symptoms to the organ pathology and biochemical imbalances and immunity disturbances to organisms and genetic studies. Medical science has proposed thus far in its effort at widening and deepening the scientific consciousness.
But what really is the scientific mind or the scientific consciousness itself. It is, as we have said, one approach to Reality and like all the diverse approaches to Reality it can easily become a cult or a religion if it believes itself to be exclusive and ultimate. Then it takes the form of a fundamentalist dogma wherein the god of Science is the all-powerful deity beyond all others (or perhaps others do not even exist, – a monotheistic Science or Scientific monism). With its superior and condescending air it looks down with contempt on all other approaches. In the process it misses out on two very important elements, – an enrichment by taking into consideration other approaches and, secondly, a heightening of the scientific consciousness. Therefore, if Science must evolve it must work towards the evolution of the scientific mind and the scientific consciousness. It is the same with religions, cults, philosophies and ideologies.
The problem is that each of these approaches has closed itself in a mental compartment, almost a prison and is unwilling to see further or beyond. Very often it denies other approaches thereby entering not only in a prison but a hole. The walls of the prison are limited by the limits of its inquiry and the certitude of having found the Reality. Further, like any cult, the followers of Science have often been unconsciously conditioned and indoctrinated into a belief system. This belief system is in the certainty and absoluteness of its methods. This blinds the scientific mind as it then moves and gropes in blind ended circles and closes doors to new things.
Take for instance widening. The scientific mind accepts to widen itself only upto a certain point. But lets say, what if the far, distant elements such as the sun and the moon effect our state of health and illness just as they effect the movement of winds, the rise and fall of water, the change of seasons upon earth? Are not these things also intimate to us. In the early days of Science when it was open to wonder such studies were held but as Science began to enter a blind closet these things are regarded as ‘outdated’. In other words we need to examine if far and distant events also influence our everyday living ‘today’.
Or, to take another example would an event before conception, prayer of the parents or an upheaval of Nature for example, influence the future course of a child?
Similarly, when we deepen into discovering the ‘forces’ at play in health and diseases, we often stop at studying organisms, genes and biochemistry. What about electrical wires and the electro-magnetic environment, the computer network, the radio-waves, the various panels for scientific appliances? Do they effect us or not? Again we have to largely draw a blank here. Yes, it won’t be surprising if we discover one day that a whole re-organisation of the physical world by the scientific consciousness and its appliances, the loss of natural environment from the flow of winds to the changes of temperature has led to a marked decrease in body resistance and made us much more vulnerable to diseases. Of course hygiene is one thing but a total artificial environment cutting us from the sum total of material Nature that acted upon us is quite another.
This is another area of study. Perhaps an even more important one since this is the stuff of which our physical bodies are made, this the environment adapting to which humanity has evolved. But now we are cut off from all that nature, wired in many ways so to say. But the most important aspect is a heightening of the scientific mind. This is only possible if the scientist regards an evolution of consciousness as a fundamental inbuilt process in the cosmos. We are a part of this evolving consciousness and we can evolve further. This would mean, in practical terms, the evolution of a new consciousness, a new way of thinking and feeling, a new way of sensing and perceiving, a new way of responding and acting upon the world and its challenges. This change would also imply, as has happened in the leap from the animal to man, the evolution of new capacities and powers, a new mode of knowledge more direct, intuitive and holistic. When that happens, science would have taken a tremendous leap. We may then discover new and hidden causes that are now concealed to thought and vision. And along with this new knowledge, we may also discover new and more powerful ways of healing, ways more direct, intuitive and holistic as well. Or perhaps we may discover the root cause which is hidden to our sight. We wait for that day for the last word of science is yet to be spoken and the last act of the drama of creation yet to unfold itself.
Alok Pandey
