Harmony Between Science and Spirituality - The Meaning of Life Show | Ashok Gupta | iRise |

And spirituality, it's a very heavy topic and the purpose of today is to leave you utterly confused. I make no qualms about it. What we're going to look at isn't something that you will hear every day. It's not something that people discuss every day. And yet we're not going to shy away from the challenging conversations or the difficult conversations. So once again, a warm welcome. This is part of irise. So irise is the platform upon which this is streaming. And irise is a personal transformation app and website. It's the only personal transformation app you'll ever need. And you can find out more@iriseapp.com and after this, Facebook Live. We'll be going onto the app, onto the Live Events tab of the app and the website and we'll be having a discussion on what we've covered today. And we had a wonderful discussion with some beautiful souls last week. And people, thank you so much for your wonderful feedback and how people said, look, this is such a great thing to do each week to get away from all the trials and tribulations of daily life and actually do something that's meaningful, that's powerful. Going deeper into the discussion of why am I here? What is the meaning of life? And that is the purpose of the Meaning of Life video series, which is on the Irise app, is to discover more happiness, meaning and purpose in your life. And that's why we're here, and that's why we're discussing these topics. So last week we discussed meditation, and today we're discussing science versus spirituality. Do they clash or is there a way of bringing harmony between these two subjects? And what's the so what? Even if we did, how does that impact on my life? What difference does it make to me? So that's what we'll be looking at. So first of all, let's really define what we're talking about here. What is spirituality? So what is the difference between religion and spirituality? In fact, many people ask, so religion is something that can be defined as a kind of institution which has a set of organized practices, a belief structure that's shared amongst the members of that institution. So it's almost a construct somewhere where you go to experience that belief system. And certainly spirituality is part of that belief system. And it's often something which starts off external and then people go inwards as a result. Spirituality could be defined as a belief that there's something more than the existence around us and going on a quest or a journey to seek out those answers which are personal to you, it's a personal journey of self discovery. And it's also one of realizing your inherent power to deal with life's ups and downs and life's challenges and connecting to something greater than yourself. And science is science. Science is, I suppose, the modern way that we live life. And we'll come on to that in a moment. And over the years, the kind of investment or the kind of numbers of people who actually follow religion has declined. And it's left what we might call a spiritual vacuum. And more and more people are looking at spirituality as another way of, I suppose, following a certain spiritual practice or something that they can benefit their lives in some way. And so do religion, spirituality, science, do they clash? Are they different? And once again, the relevance of this is how does it impact on our lives? Are we here to just wake up, go stress, come home, have dinner, go to bed, repeat the whole cycle again? Is that the meaning? Is that the purpose of our lives? And what can science tell us about the way the universe is structured or some of the underlying scientific principles that break down the way that we look at the universe? So we'll be deconstructing all of this, and as I said, it may leave us utterly confused. But out of that confusion can sprout some new ideas. And as we go through this, there is not a single part of me that wants you to believe this or buy into this. This is simply a reflection, a way that I've been journeying and understanding this, and hopefully it may be something useful for you. And then obviously we'll go on to Irise afterwards and have a discussion about it. So let's start off with that biggest question of all. Why are we here? Now, we know from different religions, they believe that we're here to be separated from some kind of divine entity, and we're here to reconnect with that divine entity through the living of our lives in a certain way. And someone who's purely a scientific materialist will say there is no inherent meaning to life. Does that mean we're just drifting on this rock, a pointless existence, floating through life on this blue planet? Yeah, that would be a kind of purely material, scientific way of looking at it, that actually life and consciousness and everything that we experience is just an accidental byproduct of some random scientific process that created this universe. But what's really interesting is that 90% of adults in the US believe in some type of spiritual realm, and yet they also believe in science. And there may be some a feeling of incongruence, you know of holding those two positions that. How can I, you know, from Monday to Saturday, I live my life in this materialistic universe. And then on Sunday I go to church, or Sunday I go to a religious or spiritual practice. And somehow there's a separation between those two things. And yet, what happens if we can understand that this is actually fully integrated, that every moment of our lives is spiritual? Sometimes we use spirituality as a way of getting away from the material world or the scientific world around us. But actually, what if we could see the material world around us as an inherent part of our spiritual journey? Every moment is spiritual. Every moment is sacred. What happens if we could marry those two together? It was Carl Sagan who, a very famous astrophysicist and philosopher, who said, science is not only compatible with spirituality, it is a profound source of spirituality. And what I want to break down for all of us is this idea that somehow science has fully explained the universe around us and that the world around us behaves in a very logical and rational scientific way. That is the perception amongst most of the population. And yet quantum physics comes along and completely destroys that worldview. So the classical scientific view is that the whole world around us operates like these two pool balls here. That we can predict that if we hit this pool ball to this other pool ball, if we can work out the angle and the speed, it will impact this pool ball, and that pool ball will go in this direction. So everything is predictable and measurable. Newtonian physics. And then along came quantum physics in the late 19th and 20th century and completely blew that idea apart. And it said, essentially, sure, at the bigger level, there's predictability, but when we dive deep into the smallest level of everything in the universe, it doesn't behave predictably. It behaves very unpredictably. And so we have this juxtaposition of scientific materialism that says everything's logical and rational and we can explain everything in the universe through scientific materialism. And yet this other idea, quantum physics, blows that apart and says the world isn't actually predictable. It behaves in absolutely unusual ways. And funny enough, many quantum physicists actually sound like philosophers. It's so interesting. I was reading an article the other day where different scientists were discussing the fabric of the universe. What is the universe made up of? And this launches into our first principle that can blow apart our scientific explanation of the world around us, or certainly scientific materialism. The idea of what I call what's the matter? This is our first principle, what's the matter? So when we look at things and we Go back to this little ball here. This all looks solid, doesn't it? And yet you might say, yeah, it's solid, because, look, if I push my finger against it, I can't get through. So this is solid. This is solid matter. And yet, from a quantum physics perspective, the reason that my finger can't go through this is nothing to do with the fact that there's solid matter here. It. It is the challenge of forces against each other, electromagnetic forces that are preventing my finger from going through this. And so when we take something like this, or let's say your hand. Look at your hand right now, it looks solid, doesn't it? But if we zoom in, we'll be able to see trillions of cells in your body. 55 trillion cells. And if we zoom into cells, we'll see trillions of atoms. And if we zoom into those atoms, we'll see all the protons and neutrons and electrons within the atom. And if we zoom into those particles, we will then find what we call subatomic particles, which are even smaller than those neutrons and protons inside the atom. So we zoom in, and we find more and more and more particles. Right? And then as we zoom in further, there is no proof that there is any solidity in the environment around us. There are many people who see the entire universe as almost like a hologram. So that's our first principle, is that science doesn't necessarily tell us that there's anything solid in the universe around us. And in fact, we think science can explain everything. And yet, 96% of our universe is made up of dark energy and dark matter. And those two things are things that scientists have no explanation for. We can't touch it. We can't measure it. We can do nothing. We can't even relate to it. And that means that science is based upon 4% of the universe, which is the universe that we can measure. And so how do scientists deal with this? Well, there's a latest theory, which is called superstring theory. Yeah, and superstring theory is this idea that everything in the universe is made of tiny vibrating strings like this. So imagine this piece of string here, that everything in the universe at the smallest level is made up of these tiny vibrating strings. And the way that these strings vibrate determines whether that piece of matter turns into a particle or a neutron or a subatomic particle, which, what type of subatomic particle it turns into, which then creates a chair or a car or anything. The fundamental building blocks of life are these tiny little vibrating strings. And yet, once again, it's very, very difficult to measure this, Very, very difficult to provide any kind of proof for this. But certainly, could the entire universe, instead of being made up of solid matter, we previously thought, do we break that down? And actually the entire universe could just be made of vibrations, not even anything solid. We say strings just to give us an idea. But maybe the entire universe is purely vibrations. And what's very interesting about that explanation is if you look at a quantum physics textbook and some very deep Eastern philosophies, and you look at what they're saying, they're indistinguishable. But very ancient Eastern philosophies had talked about this idea that the whole universe is simply an illusion, it's just vibrations within consciousness. And quantum physics seems to be coming up with a very similar conclusion. Now, once again, there are very many different interpretations of this type of idea and knowledge. So I'm certainly not saying this is the only way of interpreting it, but it certainly breaks down our scientific, materialistic way of looking at the universe around us. This is just all vibrations of energy, not solid matter. Our second principle, and this is all, you know, within the second video of the Meaning of Life experiment on the Irise app. The second thing I like to talk about is that not only could everything just be vibrations around us, but that actually our consciousness may impact on those vibrations, that what's in here affects what's out there. Yeah. Now, what a crazy idea. And in fact, the first law of quantum mechanics states nothing that is observed is unaffected by the observer. So once again, we as conscious beings aren't just passively watching things, but our process of observing it actually affects this ball or affects the matter around us. And some of you may have heard of Schrodinger's cat, a very famous theoretical experiment proposed by Professor Schrodinger. And he proposed this idea that if we put. And I'm going to demonstrate this now using this Amazon box, if we put a cat in a box. Now, unfortunately, I didn't have a cat that I could use for this particular experiment. So we're going to go with Leo the Lion, that some of you know from some of my previous videos. So we put Leo the Lion inside this box and we shut the box. So there is Leo the Lion inside the Amazon box. Now imagine that inside this box there is poison and also water. And don't worry, no cats were harmed in the making of this experiment. So there's a 50% chance that the cat, Leo the Lion, is going to drink the poison and there's a 50% chance that he's going to drink the water, let's say. Okay, so the experiment has occurred and now we know that either the cat has drunk the water or the poison. Now, is the cat dead or alive? We don't know because we haven't looked inside the box yet. Now you might say, well, yeah, the cat is either dead or alive, but when we're looking at the very small particles of the universe, actually the cat would be dead and alive at the same time. And until us as human beings open this box and reveal which way it's gone, Leo the lion is simultaneously alive and dead. Now, luckily, he's alive, he's come out of that quite well. That is the theoretical experiment as proposed by Schrodinger. And it's one of those conundrums of science that how is it that everything around us is in a state of vibrations and a state of what they call the wave function, and until we look at doesn't collapse into solid matter. And there have been many experiments that have shown this. And before they used to think, oh, it's just small particles that do this, the subatomic particles, photons, etc. But they've got to the stage now where they've been able to actually combine 800 atoms on the double slit experiment for those people who are interested into science. And they found that the same principle holds even for 800 atoms together, which actually in the quantum level is a huge amount of matter clumped together. So our consciousness impacts on the world around us. Isn't that absolutely fascinating? And thirdly, so the first principle, is there anything solid in the universe? Perhaps not. Perhaps it's all just energy and just vibrations. That's not actually solid matter. That breaks down this idea that it's all solid and real. The second idea, as we just discussed, is that our consciousness impacts on this vibration and this energy, turning it into matter, or certainly observing it as it turns into matter and impacting on it. So we're connected to the universe. The third principle is that everything in the universe is connected. And we. Once again, it sounds a very esoteric, almost philosophical concept. And yet modern science, modern quantum physics is proving exactly this concept. And it fits in with the underlying mathematical theories of string theory, which is this idea, let's say I take these two balls again and one of them is spinning clockwise, and one of them is spinning clockwise as well. Now, if I throw this ball onto the moon, later on, if I suddenly observe this ball going the opposite way, anti clockwise, the ball on the moon will also start moving anti clockwise, right? And they've done experiments to prove this, this interconnectedness. And once again, it was thought that this is just for very small little things in the universe. But they've been able to clump together molecules and show the same impact. That everything in the universe is connected. Almost like the idea of the butterfly effect, that a butterfly flapping its wings in South America could cause a hurricane in the Pacific. That everything is interdependent and connected like it's one thing. And once again, in eastern philosophies, they've talked about this idea of one consciousness, that we have this perception that we are this individual, separate consciousness, separate from beings around us. But what about the idea that everything is one and everything is connected? And once again, it seemed hokey, it seemed like very woo woo, very Eastern, very out there. And yet quantum physics is showing us that there is actual interconnectedness and interdependencies through every single particle of the universe itself, as if it is one thing. So where does that leave us? Everything is vibrational energy. Our consciousness impacts on this energy, and everything is connected. These are some of the underlying principles that are coming through in modern scientific experiments. And once again, scientists themselves have an internal bias because the idea that consciousness could come first, that consciousness could be the basis of everything, just seems so far fetched from the scientific materialism that there is inherent bias away from those types of theories. You know, it was in the 17th and 18th century that science and anything spiritual separated. So anything to do with consciousness, thoughts, emotions, was the realm of religion, and anything scientific and measurable was the area of science, that separation. And now we have the opportunity to bring these things together in harmony and realize there is an interconnectedness and an interdependency of these hypotheses. Now, where does that leave the nature of reality? What is this universe? Is it real? Is the world real? I would like to propose an idea that I call the Metaverse theory. It could bring harmony between all of these findings in science and spirituality. And that is the idea that what if consciousness comes first? So traditionally we think of the idea that we have subatomic particles which make up neutrons, electrons, protons, and that then makes up an atom, and atoms make up molecules. Molecules then make neurons, neurons in our brain then fire electrical signals, and that creates the subjective experience of being aware and conscious and alive. So the material world comes first, and then consciousness is an accidental byproduct of that universe. Now, what if we were to turn that on its head and say, actually, maybe consciousness comes first. And what if vibrations in consciousness, that one consciousness, was the basis of the entire existence, and that then going to our second point about what's in here affects what's out there? What if our consciousness, being aware and awake and alive, impacts and creates the material world around us? You may say, Ashok, that just sounds so crazy. And what if I were to tell you that this is a natural phenomenon that we experience every day in this scientific universe? And it is when we have a dream, when we have a dream, everything is happening within one consciousness, our consciousness. And suddenly, within that one consciousness, what happens in your dream? You suddenly meet some friends, you go for a walk, you eat some food, you push someone away. And that dream can feel so real that you can actually have measurable emotional reactions in your body. And you can wake up thinking that that dream was so real it could be a nightmare. And so every day we experience a dream. And what is that dream made up of? Is made up of consciousness. The vibrations in our own consciousness, the people, the situations we meet in that dream, made up of our own consciousness. So the idea that consciousness comes first has a proven concept or reality in things we experience every day. And we apparently have 20 to 30 dreams a night, but we rarely remember them beating that dream made up of our own consciousness. So the idea that consciousness comes first has a proven, I suppose, concept or reality in things we experience every day. And we apparently have 20 to 30 dreams a night, but we rarely remember them. So it reminds me of that film Inception, where they have a dream within a dream within a dream. So imagine that the entire universe is happening within one consciousness, just like for those people last week we talked about the one sunlight, then putting the bowl in the one sunlight and capturing an individual consciousness within that one sunlight to create a sense of separation. We'll talk about that another time. And imagine that the entire universe is one consciousness and is like a computer game. This is the Metaverse theory. Now, there are so many advances in virtual reality right now, but imagine you're wearing some virtual reality glasses and you're looking at the universe through this VR headset. The game looks really real and the people look really real. And you're exploring this metaverse. Companies like Google and Facebook are all trying to design this virtual world at the moment. But what happens if our reality here is already a virtual world? And what would then happen is imagine you're in this computer game, and there's lots of different rooms in this computer game when you step into a Particular room. Everything is going to be just a vague haze of probabilities. But it's only when you step into that room that the computer game then creates the table or creates the chair or creates the walls. Because until you step into the room, the game doesn't need to create that room for you. It is just a haze of probabilities. It is simply a software. Like if you play a computer game, isn't it amazing that the computer game knows exactly how to respond to your movement? So you. It knows if the person goes into that room, then we create this. And if they go and interact with that character and go over there, then the game changes like this. So the game keeps changing according to our decisions and the things that we observe. And things only come into material existence when we're there to observe it. Just like when you're having a dream. In that dream, what exists outside your dream, it is a haze of probabilities. Until you step into that part of your dream. It's just theory. And so could it be that this entire universe is like a virtual reality system? Like an intelligence, like a software? And we are the individual characters in that consciousness. With this perception that we are separate and individual from that one consciousness, Just like the characters in the dream. And the purpose of the game may be to remember who we really are. To eventually be able to take off the virtual reality headset. And recognize ourselves as who we really are. So we're in the game. And if the purpose of the game is to remember who we really are, Then the people in the situations in the game are there to remind us, to help us grow, to expand to a bigger, brighter, better version of ourselves. And this is all being played out within this one consciousness. I told you, it's going to confuse you today. And these are ideas for us to play with. And why is this important, you may ask? Why is even thinking about quantum physics and science. And the nature of reality even important as who we really are? So we're in the game. And if the purpose of the game is to remember who we really are, Then the people in the situations in the game are there to remind us, to help us grow, to expand to a bigger, brighter, better version of ourselves. Because once we realize it's a game, then we don't become so attached to the game. And we realize that the purpose of the game is to play the game well and come out of the game, to win the game, to get to the end of the level. And once you've reached the end of that level, then you Go up a level to another level of the game. And this helps us with a very powerful spiritual concept, which is Vivek. Sanskrit word, vivek or viveka. And what that means, so I'll take these sunglasses off now, is discernment, sometimes called discrimination. And this is all being played out within this one consciousness. I told you it was going to confuse you today. And these are ideas for us to play with. And why is this important, you may ask? Why is even thinking about quantum physics and science and the nature of reality even important? A discernment or discrimination between what is real and unreal? If we buy too deeply into this material world around us, then we become lost. We become attached to the ups and downs of life and we become depressed and we stop having fun in the game. But when we realize that it is like a computer game, it's a play, and we start having fun with it, we don't take it too heavy, too seriously, and we start accepting the ups and downs as just part of the game. Just like if you're watching a film, you may get engrossed in the film, but you know it's not real. Now, of course, we have to be very careful that this doesn't become a spiritual bypass where we think. Because once we realize it's a game, then we don't become so attached to the game. And we realize that the purpose of the game is to play the game well and come out of the game, to win the game, to get to the end of the level. And once you've reached the end of that level, then you go up a level to another level of the game. Oh, well, none of it's real, so none of it matters. And that we don't attend to our own emotions, which are very real. We say, oh, well, I'm feeling anxious, but none of it's real, so it doesn't matter. We still acknowledge and tend to our emotions, but at the grander level, we pierce the veil of the illusion and recognize it's all a game, it's all at play. And some of these scientific observations, in my view, the idea that this is one big software computer game solves the problem of the fact that there's no solid matter in the universe and everything's made of vibrations. Because this helps us with a very powerful spiritual concept, which is Vivek. Yeah, Sanskrit words. Vibrations would be vibrations of that mathematical coding, like a software, it would solve the issue of why does matter seem to be interrelated with consciousness? Because we're Vivek or Viveka and what that means, so I'll take these sunglasses off now, is discernment, sometimes called discrimination. A discernment or discrimination between what is real and unreal within the conscious game itself. It's being played within consciousness. And things only come into existence where required. And thirdly, this idea of entanglement, everything is one, everything is interconnected because there's only one game. So something you do in this room will affect the rest of the virtual reality game. It has ripple effects throughout the game. If we buy too deeply into this material world around us, then we become lost, we become attached. And that's how everything is interconnected. So this metaverse theory can hopefully bring to the ups and downs of life. And we become depressed and we stop having fun in the game. Science and spirituality together and say the text that you read in Quantum Physics. But when we realize that it is like a computer game, it's a play and we start having fun with it, we don't take it through heavy too deeper. Spirituality from the east are so similar, so many crossovers that maybe this is a deeper understanding that can lead us to the deeper truth. So thank you so much for watching today. We're going to go on to our discussion group now straight after this on iriseapp.com just click on the Live Events tab and you'll see the zoom link there. And we'll have a really uplifting discussion about what we've covered today. Get people's perspectives, people's confusions, and I'll answer your questions about science, quantum physics, seriously. And we start accepting the ups and downs as just part of the game. Just like if you're watching a film, yeah, you may get engrossed in the film, but you know, it's not real. Now, of course, we have to be very careful that this doesn't become a spiritual bypass where we think, oh well, none of it's real, so none of it matters. And that we don't attend to our own emotions, which are very real, certainly whatever I've studied myself. And then we'll go from there. And we will see you also next Tuesday. We will see you for Self Love. A Meaning of Life Live will be on Self love. And we'll have a discussion about that as well and how it impacts on our relationships. So thank you so much for watching and see you next time. Thank you and goodbye. We say, oh, well, I'm feeling anxious, but none of it's real, so it doesn't matter. We still acknowledge and tend to our emotions, but at the Grander level, we pierce the veil of the illusion and recognize it's all a game, it's all a play. And some of these scientific observations, in my view, the idea that this is one big software computer game solves the problem of the fact that there's no solid matter in the universe and everything's made of vibrations, because those vibrations would be vibrations of that mathematical coding, like a software, it would solve the issue of why does matter seem to be interrelated with consciousness? Because within the conscious game itself, it's being played within consciousness. And things only come into existence where required. And thirdly, this n of entanglement, everything is one. Everything is interconnected because there's only one game. So something you do in this room will affect the rest of the virtual reality game. It has ripple effects throughout the game, and that's how everything is interconnected. So this metaverse theory can hopefully bring science and spirituality together and say the text that you read in Quantum Physics and Deeper Spirituality from the east are so similar, so many crossovers, that maybe this is a deeper understanding that can lead us to the deeper truth. So thank you so much for watching today. We're going to go on to our discussion group now straight after this on iriseapp.com just click on the Live Events tab and you'll see the Zoom link there. And we'll have a really uplifting discussion about what we've covered today. Get people's perspectives, people's confusions, and I'll answer your questions about science, quantum physics, or certainly whatever I've studied myself. And then we'll go from there. And we will see you also next Tuesday. We will see you for Self Love. A Meaning of Life Live will be on Self Love. And we'll have a discussion about that as well and how it impacts on our relationships. So thank you so much for watching and see you next time. Thank you and goodbye.