The Separation of Science and Mysticism: A Detriment To All?

As many of my treasured readers may know I have been taking an abundance of mathematics and physics courses over the past two years while getting my Master's degree in bio-medical engineering. I am pretty sure at this point, that the ghost of Sir Isacc Newton has begun haunting my brain, scraping his chains through the halls of my cerebellum. For anyone who has taken at least Physics I and II and Calculus I and II, you will know that Newton pretty much has his named stamped on everything from his "Three Laws of Physics (which form the foundation from which most other physical laws/theories are defined) to "Newton's Method" ( a method for finding successively more precise approximations for the zeros of real functions in Calculus). For all intensive purposes we could say that Newton for the most part, invented Calculus ( although this is highly debated as another scholar during his time was working on the fundamentals of Calculus but from a different perspective). However, in terms of what we as students learn in university it is Isaac Netwon's principles in both mathematics and physics that govern the majority of material that is taught. But what is never spoken about is that Newton was also a famous alchemist and mystic. In fact, the majority of what we study in science and mathematics today were discovered by great intellects who were also mystics, alchemists, and magicians...Giordorno Bruno, Pythagoras, Plato, Poincare, Einstein, Descartes, Kepler, Bach, Roger Bacon, Pascal, Copernicus, Albertus Magnus, Geber, Paracelsus. This list is far from complete and leaves out the many mystical thinkers who have made great contributions to other important areas such as literature, music, and art that so highly influence us today.

Contemplating this and studying the universe from both a magical and scientific perspective it seems obvious to conclude that humans are functioning with limited knowledge on both sides of the fence. Limited because these famous scientists and mathematicians combined their work with techniques, and teachings that gave them a more complete understanding of the nature of reality which has now been separated from thier discoveries. Where they were praying, meditating, and connecting with the Spirit to uncover the mysteries of the universe and nature, we are left with the bare-bones of what they percieved. Where they were eating the hot, sumptuous pie just barely cooled from the oven, we are left with the crust (which is exceptionally tasty), but not the filling or its freshness. These masters were getting in touch with higher states of consciouness that helped them to uncover some of the many wonderful principles that we exploit today in our inventions, studies, experiments, and discoveries.

Albert Einstein for example, used to use a personal technique that he uncovered when he was working on the Special Theory of Relativity. He would sit in a chair with a metal ball and a metal bowl. Thinking of his question or what he was working on he would let himself drift off to sleep. Just before he would fall asleep he would enter that state of consciousness between waking and sleeping which is totally unbounded by the intellect, this is known by some to be transcendental consciousness, the dialectic, hypnogogia. In this state he would uncover the answers to the mysteries that he contemplated, unrestricted by the intellect, emotions, and sensations and attachments to the physical world. When he began to transition into the sleep-state the ball would drop into the bowl and wake him up so that he remembered what he uncovered. Although one of the world's greatest physicists, Einstein believed he could get in touch with the underlying unity of existence to unveil its true nature and make some of the most important discoveries to physics since Newton himself.

The seperation of science and mysticism didn't happen during the Age of Enlightenment, but has been a part of intellectual thinking since antiquity and has affected our studies of mathematics and science from its inception. Pythagorean cults are a perfect example. Although no writings exist from Pythagoras himself (he beleived in the concept of "mouth to ear" that still lives in the Golden Dawn tradition today). We do know by cross-referencing the writings of his students that Pythagorous was a mystic, mathematician, musician, and astronomer who did not see the seperation between these subjects but instead viewed them as being bound by a unifiying principle. He taught unification with the Spirit though harmony, humility, honor, and the contemplation of the infinite through numbers and music. It wasn't until after his death that two "Pythagorean Schools" emerged, one that focused soley on his mathematical and scientific teachings and the other which focused soley on his spritual teachings. It seems that the separation of holistic knowledge into bits and pieces was fated from antiquity.

If we begin to research and study the life-works of many of the scholars listed above, it becomes quite clear that the physical knowledge that we have obtained from their works is but a mere reflection of the spiritual principles that they uncovered simultaneously. "As Above, so Below" is the great spiritual edict, or as many a Golden Dawn magician may say, "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether". If we contemplate these teachings of pure math or physics or chemistry from the view point that there is a reflective side of these subjects, a new world, a more complete world, begins to open itself up to us.

The next thing that we may deduce (or debate) is that not only is the corpus of out scientific knowledge incomplete, but possibly the corpus of our magical teachings. Is it so far fetched, to look at the study of something such as electro-magnetic fields and associate them with the way that magical current flows during hand-on healing techniques? Chapter X of The Kybalion concerning polarity begins, "Everything is dual, everything has poles, everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same, opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree..." For those of you who may have studied electricity, current, and electric fields this may sound similiar to you. Protons and electrons have an equal but opposite charge. Protons having a positive 1.67*10^-19 charge and electrons having a negative 1.67*10^-19 charge. These elementary particles are governed by Newton's "Third Law of Action and Reaction" which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Not only does this govern the movement of objects in the macroscopic realm but also the behavior of particles in the microscopic realm. The fact that these two particles are equal and opposite are the reason that atoms are held together and that molecules are made.Next comes what is known as an electric field where a distribution of charge (a bunch of charges bundled up together) causes what is known as an electric field. A single particle has an inner or outer pointing electric field, but it is the distribution of charge that causes things such as electric current.

Now let's look at this from an esoteric point of view. How many of you have under-taken the study of an energy healing technique or been the recipient of one and thought "Wow, I can feel this energy flow out of my hands" or "I can feel you touching me even though you are inches away from my body"? Is is so hard to make the connection that these energies may behave similarly to what we study in science? That there may be some type of energetic current or distribution of energetic particles causing this flow and that we may turn it on and off by at will? We spend a great deal of time honing our magical will in order to control these energies.Combined with a more specific understanding of how these energies work we could allow our will to turn into a sharply honed knife. And what about distance healing? Could quantum physics govern the principles of healing from far away? What about the discussions of the astral plane, where things such as time have no meaning? In the realms of quantum physics time is totally transcended, in fact the results that we receive from our experimental studies in quantum mechanics are totally dependent upon how we observe them because they deal with a plane of existence that is nothing but potential. Does this sound familiar?

Now this post is not meant to prove the connection between science and magic. I think that has been well written and well documented. The point that I am trying to make is that not only are we as a species of intelligent beings doing ourselves a great disservice by poo-pooing time honored and proven techniques (meditation, yoga, magic, etc..) that can help us to gain greater physical knowledge, but that we as magicians may not be utilizing all the knowledge that is available to us either. (Yes, I believe a physics book could be part of your grade material if used in the proper way) I have often heard it said by modern day mages that if science was only willing to take on the studies of esotericism our discoveries would grow exponentially. But I have rarely heard it spoken of the other way. However, over the past two years I have come to believe that when the separation of science and mysticism of an individual's teachings and discoveries takes place not only does the scientific community suffer, but spiritual community does as well. It makes complete sense that one should study chemistry along with alchemy, or physics along with ritual magic and meditative techniques. Knowledge is universal. It is one, it is not meant to be separated from itself into pieces. You cannot bake a pie with just a crust or just a filling, you need both. Please tell me your thoughts...

Nosce Te Ipsum

VH Soror FSO

Gamma Frequency Oscillations Connected To Perceptual Binding/Consciousness

The study of human consciousness and perception has traditionally been ignored amongst the hard sciences due to its subjective and therefore assumed un-measurable nature. Studying the subjective aspects of the human condition has traditionally been left to the softer sciences of psychology and sociology and even considered to be more in the realm of philosophy and religion. However, recent applications of quantum physics, chaos theory, neurosciences, and even plasma, fluid, and solid state dynamics have opened the door to studying the subjective aspects of the mind and what have been termed the “neural correlates of consciousness”. Proposals for a theory of consciousness have ranged from quantum approaches applied to microtubules (Orch-OR Theory; Penrose and Hammeroff) and ion channels (Bernroider) to electromagnetic theories (Vitiello, Frohlich) and even the application of chaos theory to algorithms produced in the brain (Vandervert). Most proposals have subsequently been disproven by empirical data showing that the thermal temperatures present in the brain could not harbor the quantum effects suggested coupled with their inability to explain how the human mind combines a wide-range of stimuli into coherent experiences (the binding problem). Just as well, “mind as computer” theories are harshly debated in the scientific community with little scientific evidence correlating said theories with the exquisite nature of neural functioning. However, recent studies in gamma frequency oscillations and their corresponding neural correlations seem to be filling in the blanks that have traditionally made studying consciousness and perception so difficult. This blog will discuss the findings of these studies, the bio-physical correlates and the effects of gamma oscillations on coherency and perception within the brain.

In the last two decades advances in neuroscience and the use of electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) techniques have solidified the observation that brain regions communicate by synchronizing the firing of neurons. The rhythmic input that is produced in the extracellular field potential results in brain oscillations represented by delta (0–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), beta (12–30, Hz) and gamma (30–200 Hz) frequencies respectively. Previously thought to be a bi-product of waking, sleeping, and dreaming states, research in the past two decades has uncovered the possibility of these frequencies (especially those in the gamma range) representing a more causal roles in normal cognitive processes including memory, attention, perceptual binding and the experience of consciousness. Experimental data shows that gamma oscillations become highly correlated during different perceptual tasks amongst long-range neural networks which may lead to the creation of a unified field of perception.

Initial experimentation by Singer and Grey (1989) analyzing the visual cortex of cats presented with moving bars of varying orientations produced results showing that gamma oscillations work to synchronize inter-columnar input in the cortex when the bars were perceived. During a cycle of gamma frequency oscillations the neurons in different parts of the cortex fired “in phase” (i.e at the same time) leading to the proposition that gamma oscillations helped to “bind” different aspects of the scenery and convey a unified representation (Williams 2010). Further studies have found that the firing of cells in the visual cortex and elsewhere can become highly correlated over distances of many millimeters during perceptual tasks (Robinson 2007). Most studies of cortical network dynamics have focused on “random wiring” or “neighborhood couplings” however, recent studies point to more complex state of activity by utilizing local and long-range “patchy connections” (horizontal connections). Patchy projections seem to provide an exceptionally efficient way of wiring, as the resulting networks use significantly reduced wiring costs. Furthermore,” the eigenvalue spectra, as well as the structure of common in and output of the networks suggest that different spatial connectivity patterns support distinct types of activity propagation” (Voges 2009). In particular, the existence of strong two-point correlations in inter-columnar processing was closely associated with the oscillatory behavior in the gamma range. Two-point correlations of firing rates or local field potentials often show peak near-zero-time lag, even amongst easily detectable axonal conduction delays between the cells of interest. Correlations between cells are found to be highest when subjects are called upon to use similar preference features (line orientation, ocular dominance, etc.) and lessened as the disparity of presented stimuli increased (Robinson 2007). In cases where multiple stimuli were presented simultaneously, neural-cells partitioned off in “highly correlated groups each of which corresponded to one stimulus with little correlation between groups” (Robinson 2007). In comparison, the arousal of the same cells when presented with only one stimulus resulted in activity amongst all cells. Although changes in gamma activity were found to be statistically insignificant when a stimulus was perceived and not perceived, the level of correlation of gamma activity increased dramatically between cells depending upon the type of stimulus perceived (i.e multiple or singular). Mean-field theory, normally applied to fluid, static, and plasma physics presents working formulae which show how mm-scale patchy connections can support the properties of gamma oscillations with the proper frequencies needed for spatial structure even when motivated by uncorrelated points. These occur via resonances associated with the periodic modulation of the network connections rather than being due to single-cell properties.

Building on the initial experiments of Singer and Grey, experiments by Bartos et al (2007) found that cortical and thalamic regions display accelerated sub-threshold gamma oscillations of neuronal membranes. Synchronization of these rhythmic movements were shown to be facilitated by intra-laminar neurons which fire rhythmic spike bursts in the gamma frequency range and exhibited wide-spread cortical projections. Experiments focusing on the hippocampus of mice in the temporal lobe showed that gamma oscillations arise from the precise interplay of the action potential firing of excitatory glutamatergic pyramidal neurons and inhibitory GABAergic inter-neurons. Consequently, alternating pairs of current sinks and sources occur in the tissue, which require enhanced Na+/K+- ATPase activity to restore ionic gradients and to maintain excitability. ATPases enzymes are responsible for catalyzing the decomposition of adenosine trihosphate (ATP) in the andesonine diphosphate (ADP) and a free phosphate ion. Dephosphorylation reactions are responsible for the release of energy which is used to drive other chemical reactions. The local ATP consumption in neurons is rapidly counterbalanced by mitochondria via oxidative phosphorylation, mainly in response to changes in substrates and intracellular Ca2 +. The process requires sufficient glucose and O2 supply as well as proper activities of mitochondrial enzymes.

Results obtained by experimentation of gamma wave frequency oscillations and perception emphasize that neural synchrony does not require temporally synchronous inputs, but can be instead draw from a variety of seemingly non-related stimuli. Activated patchy connections in turn help to compose seemingly unrelated events and perceived objects into a coherent perception. It is also apparent that the fundamental cause for gamma oscillation synchrony is governed by the network eigenmode rather than single cell properties (although mean cellular characteristics determine wave properties) and correspond to biological functions in the brain such as ion gradients and enzyme catalyzation. Further exploration of these topics may lead to greater discoveries in brain functioning, neuro-degenerative diseases, and how the neural correlates of consciousness may function. They also show that consciousness and perception both have the ability to be studied empirically and that resulting data is significant in understanding the functioning of the brain, deepening bio-physical concepts, and understanding how humans process information.

Nosce te Ipsum,

Soror FSO