Vedanta Philosophy & Modern

Science : A Comparative Study

Prof. Ananda M Ghosh.

Kolkata, India.
From The Big Bang to Mindful
Human Beings -- A Journey

❂ Nature with space + time + sub-atomic & atomic

Matters were created first out of that Big Bang
explosion < occured about 13 billion years before>
❂ Big Bang was triggered by the Omnipresent
Consciousness ( Bosonic God Particles )
❂ Much later, Life appeared on this Earth when Natural
environment became life- supportive
❂ Life, which just started as an animal, got elevated
ultimately upto a Conscious creative Mindful Man
❂ Personal Creativity /Cogition levels vary in persons
due to improper use of built-in consciousness
A. M. Ghosh 2
How Human Mind can discover
Truth ?

❂ Genetically coded Human Potentialities

can be manifested by education /
meditation + filtering out pure thoughts
from impure Ones
❂ Enriched Mind can discover truth either
in the form of Science or in the form of
Philosophy, such as, Vedanta [ collection of
Wisdom of Indian Sages ]

A. M. Ghosh 3
Science Vs. Vedanta Philosophy

❂ Science takes Bottom-up approach

• Starts with Physical Objects and ends with
Quanta and Uncertainty of Measurements
❂ Vedanta takes Top-down approach
• Starts with the Ultimate Truth as Bramha and
ends with total surrender to One Global
Super - Consciousness [say - God ]
– Vedanta Demands :: Complete Purification of
the Observer’s Mind and Selfless Love for ALL
A. M. Ghosh 4
Logical Inferencing Vs. Truth
Realization

❂ Intelligence Can draw logical Inferences --

but Consciousness is essentially required
for the Realization of Absolute Truth
❂ For Verification & Confirmation .....
• Science believes in experimental
verification before accepting anything as
True
• Vedanta believes in mental vision of ONE
Bramha -- as the root of ALL Truths
A. M. Ghosh 5
FACT -- We Fail to note very often

❂ Every human observer can be regarded as an

ATOM of the Physical Universe, but every such
conscious atom contains a mental universe of
its own
❂ Physical Universe is Unique for ALL, but
mental universe is different for each one
❂ Science deals mainly with the measurable
Physical Universe and ignores the influence
of individual Observer’s mental state(s)
A. M. Ghosh 6
Limitations of Observations

❂ Human Observers detect external phenomena

by 5 Sense organs and process those
acquired signals in Neural-Networks for final
interpretation, classification and
❂ Realization of the Truth {using Minds’ working
memory + Stored Knowledge + <partially or fully>
Manifested Intelligence and Consciousness }
❂ -------------------------------------------------------------
• [ Remember :: 96% of the External Universe is Dark ;
4% is observable, so only measurable ]
A. M. Ghosh 7
Duality of Real Existence

❂ Physical Universe is only a Part of the

Whole Real Existence
❂ Imperfect Human Observations ( manipulating
only physical existence ) cannot reveal the
complte Truth
❂ Apparent truth is taken as Maya in Vedanta :
and as Probability in Science ..... Moreover ....
❂ Local / global or < particle /wave > existence
Duality confirms -- physical objects are local
projections of the complete global existence
A. M. Ghosh 8
 Science Vs. Philosophy

❂ Science
❂ ---------------------
❂ Observations (external)
❂ Axioms / Theories
❂ Experimental
Verifications
❂ Tangible Applications
for welfare of mankind
A. M. Ghosh
❂ Vedanta
❂ ----------------------
❂ Observations (mental)
❂ Realization / Meditation
❂ Conscious contact with
the Absolute ( like Client-
Server communication )
❂ Selfless LOVE for All +
equal resource sharing
9
 Reasoning Vs. Realization

❂ Sci ence ❂ Veda nta

❂ ------------------- ❂ --------------------
❂ Knowledge driven ❂ Realization driven
❂ Demands experimental ❂ Demands Mental
Facilities Purification
❂ Cause- Effect forward ❂ Cause - Purpose
Chaining backward Chaining
❂ only 4% is physically ❂ 100% realizable as
observable (so detectable ) Vision in a Pure Mind
A. M. Ghosh 10
Objective Vs.
❂ Objective Science
❂ -----------------------
❂ To find the most
fundamental Particle /
Energy of the Physical
Universe only
❂ To apply that acquired
knowledge for adding
physical comforts to life
A. M. Ghosh
Subjective
❂ Subjective Vedanta
❂ ---------------------
❂ To find the Ultimate
TRUTH that connects
everything as a Whole
❂ To apply that Universal
LOVE for balanced
growth of anything &
everybody on this Earth
11
Mathematical Vs. Mental Models
❂ Science
❂ -------------------------
❂ Mathematical Model
based search
❂ Cause-Effect Logic
❂ Experimentally Verified
❂ Requiring Observer’s
Intelligence ( Scientific
Consciousness ) only
A. M. Ghoshconsciousness ) only 12
❂ Vedanta
❂ ---------------------
❂ Real - Reflection
-Realization based
search
❂ Cause - Purpose Sync.
❂ Mentally Realized
❂ Requiring fully Purified
Mind ( Bramha
Era of Modern Physics -- from
Quanta Concept to EPR experiment

❂ 1900 - Max Plank’s Radiation Quanta ( mentioned in

Sankhya as Tanmatra )
❂ 1905 - Einstein’s E = m * c^2 + particle property of light
( photon )
❂ 1913 - Bohr’s Atomic Model ( Anu of Baiseshik )
❂ 1925 - Schroedinger --> Wave equation ( chaitanya or
consciousness in Vedic texts)
❂ 1927 - de Broglie --> wave properties of matter
❂ 1927/28 - Heisenberg --> Uncertainty Principle
❂ 1935 - EPR ( Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen ) experiment {that
confirms Quantum ExistenceA.&M.non-local
Ghosh
connectivity } 13
Swami Vivekananda’s Realization & its
Scientific verification

❂ “ One atom in this universe cannot move

without dragging the whole world along
with it.” < expressed in 1897 >

• Bell’s Theorem established mathematically

the holistic universe concept in 1964
• Alan Aspect experimentally verified the theory
in 1982 [ non-local connectivity of photons ]
• { Thus a Monk’s Realization got ultimately Verified
A. M. Ghosh 14
Scientifically after 85 years }
Hologram & Holographic Brain Functions
[ a part can contain information of the whole ]

❂ 1947 - Dennis Gabor developed the Theory of

Holography { that needs coherent [ i.e. pure ] light rays}
❂ 1960 - Bassov + Prokhorov + Towns Invented LASER
( as a source of pure coherent light rays ]
❂ 1960 - Karl Pribram - proposed holographic model of
Human Brain ( human brain can be regarded as a
hologram of the entire Universe )
❂ 1982 - Bohm - Pribram proposed Holographic
Paradigm [ i.e. Everything is a holographic
projection of ONE Universal consciousness ]
A. M. Ghosh 15
Physics of Post - Einstein Era
❂ 1958 - N. Bo hr [ non-material particles exist &
micro-universe is observation/observer dependent ]
❂ 1964 - Joh n Bell [ local / non-local principle { l > c* t
}]
❂ 1972 -1 982 - Da vid Bohm --> Subjective Universe
{ Wholeness and the Implicate order } + Holographic
Universe { part contains the image of the Whole}
❂ 1982 - Al ai n A spect --> proved unbroken wholeness
( 2 photons from an atom always communicate
even when moving in the opposite directions )
❂ 1986 - Mi lo W olf f --> E = hf = mc^2 ( could theoretically
establish a connection between relativity and wave mechanics) --16
A. M. Ghosh
[ particle as a Stable Standing Wave { SSW model } ]
Proposed Spherical Standing Wave
( SSW ) Model of an Atom

Local effects

Non - Local effects

Atom as a
Spherical
Standing Wave

A. M. Ghosh 17
Prof. Niels Bohr’s Comments (in 1958)
-- A Turning Point in Science

❂ “… life cannot be defined as a system of

material particles only.”

❂ “… the behaviour of microscopic physical

systems cannot be described in a
language independent of the means of
observation .”

A. M. Ghosh 18
Quantum Properties of Biological
Systems
❂ Prof. Bohr said : "...the existence of life itself should be
considered, both as regards its definition and
observation, as a basic postulate of biology, not
susceptible of further analysis, in the same way as the
existence of the quantum of action, together with the
ultimate atomicity of matter, forms the elementary
basis of quantum physics." [ 1958 ]
❂ { Von Neumann ( his research during 1932- 1946)
proposed a link between Consciousness &
Quantum mechanics}
A. M. Ghosh 19
Need of a New Scientific
Approach for Consciousness
❂ "...the impossibility in psychical ( i.e. Psychological )
experience to distinguish between the phenomena
themselves and their conscious perception clearly
demands a renunciation of a simple causal
description on the models of classical physics, and
the very way in which words like "thoughts" and
"feelings" are used to describe such experience
reminds one most suggestively of the
complementarity encountered in atomic physics.”
[ said Prof. N. Bohr in 1958 ]

A. M. Ghosh 20
 Mindful Universe : Henry Stapp

❂ 1977- 1993 : Henry Stapp: “ things outside space &

time affect things inside space & time” and
❂ Human Brain functions as a quantum system
( ref : Mindful Universe -2007 ]
❂ Effect of meditation on Monks of different
faiths was observed by Dr. Hameroff ( in 1994 )
using fMRI -- local references to the meditators get
lost & the realization of wholeness appears (
experienced by all Indian sages during dhyana practice )
A. M. Ghosh 21
TRUTH Realization - a subjective or
an Objective phenomenon ?

❂ Trained Scientists can discover Nature’s mysteries.

❂ Purified mind of a Sage can realize universal Truth.
❂ Quantum collapse takes place in observer’s Brain -
Cells [ i.e. Neurons ] to draw inferences
❂ Question is -- human discovery or realization
process should be treated as an objective or
a subjective phenomenon ?
❂ { out of many subjective possibilities just one
objective actuality is picked up by human observer
❂ // Quantum measurement theory now confirms it }
A. M. Ghosh 22
Henry Stapp’s Interpretations

❂ Human consciousness and the physical world cannot

be regarded as distinct, separate entities. What we call
physical reality, the external world, is shaped - to some
extent - by human thought.
❂ We are intimately associated not only with the earth
we inhabit, but with the farthest reaches of the cosmos.
❂ If the statistical predictions of quantum theory are true,
an objective universe is incompatible with the law of
local causes.

A. M. Ghosh 23
Quantum Reality of micro
-Cosmos

❂ quantum physicists now say that each particle

of the universe contains all the information
present in the entire cosmos
❂ the universe is constructed on the same principles as
the hologram [ Bohm ] , and to read that hologram
correctly, an observer should have totally Purified mind
( like Laser for Holography )
❂ The Interpreter human Brain works on the principle
of probability collapse of Quantum Mechanics
A. M. Ghosh 24
Thoughts of Vedic Sages -- from
Rituals to Bramha Consciousness
❂ 1: Rituals to please Nature’s Super-Power
❂ 2: Sankhya & Yoga - felt the need & invented methods
of augmenting Mental capability of observers to
discover/realize truth correctly
❂ 3: Nyaya & Baiseshik - discovered & applied Logic +
argumentation to detect fundamental elements in all
living + non-living
❂ 4: Vedanta ( Upanishads ) { Identified Bramha
Consciousness as only REAL -- all else Relative }
❂ Idol Worshiping ( mainly meant for the beginners )
❂ Ul timate GOAL :: to Unite with the UNIVERSAL Selfless Lover ( i.e.
Brahma ) realizing OnenessA. in ALL
M. Ghosh 25
M. Lockwood’s Observation (1989: Mind,
Brain & the Quantum ; Oxf. University Press )

❂ [1] Phenomenal -- what we experience & report

about ( i.e. Qualities of things or Qualia ] and
❂ [2] Physical embodiment -- what induces &
processes the sensations
❂ are two aspects ( or representations ) of the
same real ‘staff ’
❂ --- a relationship analogous to wave / particle
complementarity
A. M. Ghosh 26
To explain the concept of Self < ahankar
or I-ness > [ Chalmer’s Hard Problem ]

❂ Scientists Tried to Explain Qualia on the basis

of Neurological activities in Brain
• NCC ( Neural Correlates of Consciousness )
❂ Vedanta’s Vision -- REAL existence is
Consciousness ( i.e. Bramha ) only
❂ Physicists now accept the existence of
Quantum Mind ( QM ) -- > brain generating
thoughts and feelings to raise fundamental
questions & find answers
A. M. Ghosh 27
Modern Physics beliefs in -- Two
Forms of Existence { Goswami Model }

❂ Objective Physical Existence ( Local or

Maya Existence )
❂ Subjective Quantum Existence ( Quantum
Non-Local Existence)
• I- ness Centric ( Jib-atma ) --> Neuro-Cognitive
engine [ particle-centric ]
• I- less Centric ( Param-atma) -->
Consciousness-engine [global wave-centric ]
A. M. Ghosh 28
Prof. Amit Goswami’s research on
Monistic Ontology

❂ “ Consciousness is the ground of all being

-- free will is only Real.”
❂ Downward causation approach ( cause-effect
Chain ) -- remains confined to Physical
Observations only
❂ Upward causation approach ( cause-purpose
Chain ) -- needs pure & perfect Conscious
Observation or Vision to reveal the Absolute
Truth
A. M. Ghosh 29
3-Layer Architecture of Consciousness

❂ [3] Quantum Mind ( Global Selfless Mind

or divinity )
❂ [2] Access - Consciousness ( Acquired by
Educated or otherwise Purified Mind )
❂ [1] Phenomenal Consciousness ( Sub-
Conscious Selfish Mind [ or animality ]
• [ Selfless Work or Sage like Meditation can
make a man True Observer of the Real
Universe ] A. M. Ghosh 30
More on Consciousness

❂ Phenomenal [ P-] Consciousness ( as

acquired through the process of evolution )
❂ Access [ A-] Consciousness ( acquired
through Education / meditation )
❂ Quantum Mind [QM] ( Connecting individual
mind with the Universal Mind in a client -
Server mode ) --> { Atma communicating with the
Paratm-atma }

A. M. Ghosh 31
Scientific Studies In Search of
Consciousness
❂ Brain Neural - Networks ( NCC Models)
❂ Penrose & Hameroff’s -- Orch-OR Theory
❂ Amit Goswami’s -- Monistic Ontological
approach ( 2005] < Science within
Consciousness >
❂ Dr. Andrew Newberg’s Experiments on
Meditating Monks -> [ ref book : Why God Won’t
Go Away ]
A. M. Ghosh 32
Two Descriptions of ( just ) one
REAL existence
❂ Physical / Phenomenal
❂ Particle / Wave
❂ Objective / Subjective
❂ . . . Two describable sets of properties both
hold concurrently { like orthogonal projections}
❂ . . . The act of observing is what causes the
perception state vector to collapse into one of
many possible existential states
A. M. Ghosh 33
Henry Stapp’s Views : How Mind can Interact
with Matter via Quantum Processes
❂ Collapse events are occouring in neural-net
❂ Collapse of Brain states in the process of
choosing between many possible alternatives
❂ Body - Mind is having Particle - Wave
relationship
❂ Universe is not a fixed 4-dimensional structure
but is constantly forging ahead into the future
❂ Free-Will could be seen as directly instrumental
in the evolution of the Universe (Quantum
Darwinism) A. M. Ghosh 34
David Bohm [ in 2005 ]
❂ As Quantum theory & Relativity contradict one
another, there is existence of a more
fundamental level in the physical Universe
❂ Implicate order can explain both matter &
consciousness [ explicate orders are mere projections
of more fundamental Implicate order]
❂ Consciousness can be corelated to Karl
Pribram’s (1991) Holographic conceptions

A. M. Ghosh 35
Roger Penrose : The Emperor’s in
New Mind & Shadows of the Mind

❂ Humans are Hyper- Computers ( brain can go

beyond what can be demonstrated by
mathematical axioms )
❂ Quantum collapse to non-Real can take place as a
result of Measurement imperfection or
decoherence in brain waves
❂ Objective Reduction (OR) depends on neither Random
nor Computational activities in brain { it just selects
information from space-time geometry when exceeding
the limit of Plank-length } .... [ math-Logic consciousness]
A. M. Ghosh 36
Stuart Hameroff [1987 ] .. Discovery
of Micro-tubles in Brain - Cells

❂ Micro-tubules, which provides a supportive

structure, can trigger Coherent quantum
collapse during deep meditation/concentration
❂ Micro-tubules also support macroscopic
quantum features like Bose Condensates {at
neurons junctions} causing Orchestration
❂ Thus ..... Orch - OR model came to exist as
an acceptable model for Mathematical Cognition

A. M. Ghosh 37
Quantum Mechanics or Fields
cannot fully explain Quantum Mind

❂ Consciousness is related to quantum

coherence ( effect of Yoga is thus proved )
❂ Orchestrated coherence, as assumed in Orch
OR Model, explains Mathematical Cognition only
❂ De-coherence is shielded by the lattice
geometry of Micro-tubles { helping Orchestration }
❂ Neither QM nor QF can explain fully colour, taste
or smell sensing capabilities of living brain
A. M. Ghosh 38
M. J. Donald’s Views [ reported in
2002] on Consciousness

❂ Brain Processes are fundamentally de-coherent

❂ Quantum events in brain depends on the
mental structure of the Observer
❂ it is possible to suppose that the initial state of the
universe was in a vacuum state – and all the remaining
information which constructs our apparent individual
reality is individually observed information . [ agrees
with Vedanta’s Maya views ]

A. M. Ghosh 39
Western History of
Consciousness Studies

❂ Rene Descartes - about thought (1640)

❂ John Locke - about human understanding [1688]
❂ G.W Leibniz - about awareness / self-awareness
& observations [ 1686-1720]
❂ Immnueal Kant - a richer structure of mental &
intentional organization [1787]
❂ since then consciousness research remained
as a neglected topic upto the end of 1970s
A. M. Ghosh 40
Different Aspects of Consciousness

❂ Sentience - capable of sensing + responding

❂ Wakefulness - not in sleep state
❂ Self- awareness
❂ Desire / Motivation
❂ Qualitative Consciousness [ Qualia ]
❂ Phenomenal Consciousness
❂ Access Consciousness
❂ Ontological [ Subjective ] Consciousness
A. M. Ghosh 41
Consciousness - A Constituent
Feature of Reality
❂ Free Will or Freedom of Choice
❂ Intrinsic Motivation
❂ Realization [ Higher Order Thoughts ]
❂ ----------------------------------------------------
❂ Vedic sages considered Mind’s ego as a
fundamental element of the Nature
❂ Vedanta takes that ego as an inperfect
projection of the Almighty Bramha
A. M. Ghosh 42
Class -- Objects Relationship
❂ According to Vedanta
❂ Bramha or Consciousness is an Abstract
Class from which
❂ Nature is derived as a Physical Concrete
Class and
❂ Mind is derived as another Mental-Property
Concrete Class
❂ Out of these two Concrete Classes all Matters and
Minds are evolving in this ever Expanding Universe
A. M. Ghosh 43
To Conclude ...
❂ Science deals mainly with the Nature
❂ Vedanta takes Bramha (consciousness)
as the root of all causes
❂ Human beings act as a Bridge between
these two forms of existence
❂ only Coherent (i.e. pure) Mind can see
these two extremes to meet together
as Bliss Absolute
A. M. Ghosh 44
 The End

❂ Thank You. Namaste !!

• Comments & suggestions from the viewers

are requested by the author.

A. M. Ghosh 45