Created:
February 28,1998.
Last update:
February 28, 1998.
The Starting Point
( 1 )
Science and its Methodology
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Created: February 28,1998. Last update: February 28, 1998. |
The Starting Point( 1 )
Science and its Methodology
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Prologue:I was born in Surabaya, on the island of Java, Indonesia, and grew up in a mixed community amongst the Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, Confucianists, Christians, and Muslims, under the influence of the old traditional Javanese mysticism, known as kejawen. In those community, supernatural phenomena are true living reality. And since my early childhood I have been wondering how things work, including supernatural phenomena.To follow my inner drive to know how things works, I went to Europe and studied Engineering in a German University. However, with all the scientific knowledge I have learned, I still could not find any satisfying explanation on how supernatural phenomena works. There are many books and stories about ghost, spooks, and other para-normal or supernatural occurrences including university publications from the department of para-psychology, as well as from other paranormal research organizations. But it appears to me that most of those publications are merely collection of events trying to convince the masses that paranormal phenomena do really happens. On the other hand, from the opposite side of the spectrum, there are the skeptics, who keep trying to debunk and sometimes even ridiculing any claims of paranormal evidences. These two camps are keeping each other busy arguing, exactly as what happened inside myself. My rational and scientifically trained mind was quite critical, and at times even skeptical, but I can not deny my own life experience. This created an inner contrast within myself, that set me on my journey in search for the answer, to reconcile my scientific mind and my spiritual heart.
My two basic questions were:
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Science and its methodology.The main aim of science is to investigate and to understand the law of nature using a certain methodology, that has been developed along the development of science itself. The basic steps are:
A basic theory supposed to be coherently applicable in all branches of knowledge. Looking into the so called hard core science, as in Physics, the goal of any scientific theory is to investigate the law of nature governing a wide gamut of happenings with as small a number of rules as possible. In example; the Newtonian Law of Movement and its very simple formula: [ F = m . a ] applies for all movement, from an apple falling off the tree to celestial orbit of planets. However, at the turn of the 20th century, we found out that the Newtonian Physics is only valid for the world of macroscopic objects, - things we can see, smell and touch. Outside the "Newtonian border" there are:
At present our physicists are still working hard trying to formulate the "Grand Unification Theory" (GUT), and the "Theory Of Everything" (TOE), which supposed to unify all the above into one single basic theory. Once formulated, the TOE would cover the world inside as well as outside the Newtonian border, but will still be within the physical realm since Physics only deals with our objective physical reality. In the realm of the mind and consciousness as in Psychology and Para-psychology, we have a tremendous amount of information from empirical observation and experimentation. But, we haven't figured out any definite underlying principle governing this realm. Only recently some physicists are trying to understand the realm of the mind. (i.e. the Physics Consciousness Research Group). Beyond those, is the mystical or spiritual realm with the numerous Religions, Philosophies, Mythologies, Occultism, Esoteric traditions and all kind of other belief systems up to the New Age movement. In occultism and in some esoteric traditions, there are actually some basic rules and principles underlying the occult phenomena. Unfortunately, due to our limited ability to understand, we took it as "dogma", and handed down secretly within groups of a few select people, from generation to generation. Through the ages, they become more and more distorted and have lost their true meaning. Many efforts have been done so far, to re-gain some understanding, but most of us still believe that this realm is beyond our comprehension. Supernatural phenomena as well as mystical or spiritual experience definitely lies beyond contemporary science as we understand it. Therefore, science as it is now, can not explain phenomena beyond it's area of investigation, which is the objective physical realm. The Laws of Physics do not apply in the realm of the mind, consciousness, psyche and spirits, as the Newtonian Laws do not apply outside the Newtonian border. |
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