Many countries are investing millions in an attempt to find that which is yet unproven to even exist. History has shown that men of science have repeatedly devoted their lives to theorems they held to be true, only to be proven incorrect. Some classical, Newtonian laws of physics were considered fact for hundreds of years and then turned on their heads with the arrival of quantum theory.

As a man not of science but of thought, I’m interested to know yours. Are my facts even correct? If they are, what leads so many to believe it is worth the funding for something that may be nothing more than a desperate attempt by science to complete a missing part of a puzzle – an endeavour that has ruined many physicists throughout the ages?

I know what Amit would say, and I would agree with him: “Boondoggle.” (exactly what he thinks of the last gizmo)

Are you suggesting then that there is no ‘dark matter’? And is this the position of post-materialist science?

The reason this interests me is because so much money is being funneled into this research and I don’t see how any scientist could get funding for such an expensive project when the aim is to find something nobody has yet proven to exist.

Yes, it’s true. Dr. Goswami just shakes his head and laughs about Dark Matter.

I would say that yes, there is dark matter, but whether or not it is relevant to us right now at this particular point in time is another issue.

Hi Ceri, no not suggesting that at all; Amit has expressed his opinion publicly regarding the LHC and CERN, etc., that they’re just monuments of scientific hubris, basically, that the world has more immediate concerns all that funding for this new international project can go to. His approach is of placing human concern above scientific. Refreshing. That’s the mark of the authentic scientist, in my opinion.

The call of quantum activism, as I see it, is the call to explore Consciousness, a call to interweave extroverted science with modalities of introversion.

Forgive me for not knowing the science behind much of this, but couldn’t potential results of these projects disprove much of classical physics, thereby making the public more open to ideas such of those taught by quantum activism?

Quantum mechanics has been around for a century and people still think in classical terms. I believe that there are deep-seated issues of Habit (in terms of social fields of formative causation) involved, and that’s what we’ve started tackling @ the “problems of classicist …” group. It goes very deep. Personally, my opinion is that finding empirical “proofs” of the existence of Higgs-Boson and Dark Matter/Dark Energy won’t do a darn thing to change prevailing antiquated paradigms into quantum-based. They will only support currently popular theories, and prove the existence of “objects” outside of consciousness, no different from discovering, say, a new planet.

‘Consciousness’ is a scary concept to classical mechanics, and so is nonlocality. I even read a prominent scientist (who is a realist) who devoted pages in his book in favor of Dr. Johnson’s kicking a stone to demonstrate the veracity of empirical realism. I was aghast. If a large community of scientists still can think this way (and it’s politically correct to do so among them), how will materialism ever lose its grasp on the less-educated, common-denominator collective consciousness?

Materialism is losing its grasp
keep looking all around you. Keep up that meditative awareness for as long as you can.
In my humble opinion, my eyes see an awakening all around me.

Just for the sake of instigation I offer a different point of view: Let’s say that you are in the spirit world, in total knowing in the field of pure potentiality. Yet you cannot experience anything since you know everything. (God Stage of consciousness / one with God in high level vibration). So what now? You get an idea that you wish to know yourself EXPERIMENTALY! Great! How to go by doing that? 1: You have to forget all that you know (temporarily of course, only for the duration of the ride.)
2: Snap some energy into matter to create your body and your environment so you can start your play.
Welcome to life brother! Why not keep on going and paying the game, why are you in such a hurry to return to the God stage of consciousness? Is the ride getting harder, are you being tired? Keep it up; this is the name of the game, to know yourself experimentally.
There will be plenty of time for rest where time probably does not even “matter” or exist
Just a thought, Z

Very interesting theory Z

David I myself am new to the concepts of post-materialist science, and it is specifically nonlocality which stands in my way.

I don’t want to say the concept wasn’t explained in enough detail in The Quantum Activist; it is more likely I simply didn’t fully understand it, but as it stands I can only conceive of nonlocality as something to solve a paradox, the Higgs-Boson of the post-materialist world if you like, but which ultimately seems to me to have its grounds in religion.

What is it that leads Dr. Goswami to believe in a non-local consciousness, besides the paradoxical need for an ‘outside’ instrument of equlibrium?

Hi Ceri, I don’t think post-materialist science exists as of yet, at least not in the realm of the mechanical sciences; anything “non-materialist” would be considered “fringe” science and hence an endeavor for kooks and crackpots. But that’s the medievalism that prevails. As for nonlocality, it isn’t based in religion, it was inferred early on, and then proven by Bell’s Theorem (or Bell’s Inequality). It pulls the rug from local hidden-variable interpretations of quantum mechanics, such as those of the reductio ad absurdum EPR “Gedanken”-arguments.

In the case of consciousness-based quantum interpretations, they’re traceable back to Heisenberg, Bohr, and even von Neumann with respect to the wave-collapsing subject, so again it’s not anything new under the sun in the field of scientific hermeneutics of quantum phenomena. Religion is not the basis, but rather, retrojections can be made to the Upanishads, Vijnanavada and so on, even Taoism (Copenhagen school) with regard to quantum interpretations, so that’s perhaps where the slight mixup occurred.

As an aside, I’m not big on the Higgs-Boson either, and I don’t believe in the possibility of supersymmetry to the exclusion of the conscious agent; after all, how can it be precluded to make for a so-called theory of “everything”?

Consciencousness is evolving both the objective and the subjective through tangled hierarchy in order for the objective/subjective to become one that is creatively at a state that was not before. Heaven will be manifest on earth in infinite fractalian archtypes, boundless, bliss, joy and love for all sentient beings. There is no doubt.
In the, “before time” we were one, not many, perfect but alone, without form, without cause and effect. Now we are the many in the one, exploring, playing, moving toward perfection. Fret not my immortal brothers and sisters, about the little shadow play of this world. It is our tool, our clay, our rollercoaster, there is no “real” danger here. The show must and will go on!

I still wonder as I look out at my mind, with cotton balls (my mom’s childhood belief of clouds) floating up by a big spoon and a small spoon and a space needle in Seattle, shooting up with dark energy is the mirror of shooting up with heroin. I wonder if dark energy is QC’s anxiety? Why doesn’t she/he fill the Universe with matter? Was this forum about dark matter or dark energy?

oh, sorry.