The Science Delusion and Materialism

Speaker's Introduction

Speaker appreciates the effort to learn English, notes the challenge of giving a talk in another language in London.

Claim: Science claims to understand reality leaving only details to fill in.
Supported by technological triumphs (medicine, planes, internet, smartphones).
Majority don't question underlying scientific doctrines, leading to a dogmatic belief system dating back to the 19th century.

Nature is Mechanical:
- Universe, animals, plants, and humans are machines.
- A metaphor, not a testable theory.
- Replaced the older metaphor of nature as an organism.
Matter is Unconscious:
- Everything is made of unconscious matter.
Governed by Eternal Laws:
- Laws of nature have been fixed since the Big Bang.
Conservation of Matter and Energy:
- Total amount of matter and energy remains constant since the Big Bang.
Purposeless Nature:
- Universe and evolution are purposeless.
Memory stored in the Brain:
- All memories are contained within the brain.
- Challenges religious ideas of life after death.
Material Biological Inheritance:
- Biological inheritance is purely material (genes, epigenetics).
Mind = Brain Activity:
- Mind is the activity of the brain, “minds are what brains do.”
Psychic Phenomena are Illusory:
- Telepathy and similar phenomena are considered illusions.
Mechanistic Medicine Works:
- Only surgery and drugs are valid; alternative therapies are placebo effects.

Science should apply skepticism to its own assumptions.
Few assumptions are backed by evidence; questioning opens new possibilities for science.

Discovery of galaxies' unexpected gravitational effects led to dark matter theory.
Dark energy proposed to explain accelerating universe expansion.
95% of universe made of unknown dark matter/energy, challenge to conservation assumption.

Materialism: Matter is unconscious, a view dating to Descartes and 17th-century dualism.
Dualism: Universe split into unconscious matter and spiritual realm.
Materialism replaced dualism, claiming no spirit, only brain activity accounts for consciousness.
Consciousness studies challenge materialism.
Panpsychism: Everything has a form of consciousness; modern science rediscovering animist views.

Quantum particles as processes, not things (waves, not small billiard balls).
Whitehead’s interpretation: Relation of mind and body is time-based, mind is future-oriented (possibilities), body past-oriented (actualities).
Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ goals: Nature directed towards goals, similar to mind's concern with possibilities and decision-making.

Brain-based mind theory suggests consciousness is confined to the brain.
Field theory of mind: Minds extend beyond brains (like magnetic fields).
- Vision theory: Consciousness not just brain activity, projections of perceived reality.
- Perception experiments: Feasibility of detecting staring from behind, tested with significant evidence.
- Telepathy experiments: Telephone and electronic communication reveal telepathic tendencies, replicated in multiple studies.
- Animal telepathy evidence: Document experiences showing animal-human telepathy.

Psychic phenomena (telepathy) reveal extended mind capacities.
Spiritual connections: Practices like meditation and mystical experiences suggest spiritual realms.
Challenge to brain-centric view: Minds might extend into psychic and spiritual dimensions.

Encourages questioning materialist dogmas to make science more exciting and inclusive of new discoveries.
Proposes an extended, interconnected view of the mind beyond material confines, integrating psychic and spiritual aspects.