The Science Delusion and Materialism

Jul 5, 2024

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.

The Science Delusion

  • 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.

Main Assumptions of Materialist Science

  1. 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.
  2. Matter is Unconscious:
    • Everything is made of unconscious matter.
  3. Governed by Eternal Laws:
    • Laws of nature have been fixed since the Big Bang.
  4. Conservation of Matter and Energy:
    • Total amount of matter and energy remains constant since the Big Bang.
  5. Purposeless Nature:
    • Universe and evolution are purposeless.
  6. Memory stored in the Brain:
    • All memories are contained within the brain.
    • Challenges religious ideas of life after death.
  7. Material Biological Inheritance:
    • Biological inheritance is purely material (genes, epigenetics).
  8. Mind = Brain Activity:
    • Mind is the activity of the brain, “minds are what brains do.”
  9. Psychic Phenomena are Illusory:
    • Telepathy and similar phenomena are considered illusions.
  10. Mechanistic Medicine Works:
    • Only surgery and drugs are valid; alternative therapies are placebo effects.

Questioning Scientific Dogmas

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

Dark Matter and Energy

  • 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.

Nature of Matter: Consciousness

  • 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 Theory and Consciousness

  • 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.

Minds and Fields

  • 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 and Spiritual Phenomena

  • 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.

Conclusion

  • 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.