Science and Consciousness

"Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature and that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve...I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness." - Max Planck(Nobel prize winner and the founder of quantum theory.)

 

"Science is crucial to our understanding of the universe, but like the universe, to truly understand it, there must be a balance. Those who have embraced science as the only possible method of definitively understanding the universe and who have deemed consciousness as nothing more than merely a construct of the brain and matter as absolute in it's existence, have, in effect, doomed themselves to a state of limited, unbalanced, perception. As such, they will never see anything beyond the physical and, through copious self-defeating efforts to understand our universe, will never find the answers that they seek." - Aaron Hutchins

 

 

Science is more or less the study of the physical universe around us and through science we are able to better understand the physical world. The one problem with this, however, is that even if we someday attain the ultimate understanding of that physical universe through science, it will still never explain what came before the universe or even what lies outside the universe and because of this it will never, in itself, truly, fully, explain the nature of our universe.

 

We live in a 3 dimensional universe and, as 3 dimensional beings within that universe, we are not able to physically see beyond the 3 dimensional space around us. In fact, we are not even able to see the 3rd dimension as it really is. Only someone who lives in the 4th dimension could do that, just as we can only actually see things in 2 dimensions. We only perceive the world around us to be 3 dimensional and not flat based on the way that light hits them and we only perceive there to be depth or distance between objects based on their apparent size. So, we can not see the higher dimensions of our reality because our 3rd dimension is encompassed within them.

If we could somehow break out of this universe of 3 dimensions though, then we would no doubt clearly see the reality of our 3 dimensional universe, most likely amidst an infinite sea of other 3 dimensional universes, suspended in the quantum foam of higher dimensional space(or hyper space). We can not however. We can't even imagine what it looks like. Therefore, on it's own, science can never give us the full picture of the universe. This is where the exploration of consciousness comes in.

 

To understand reality fully we must study the physical, while also exploring the universe and beyond through consciousness. If everything in the universe truly was once part of one infinitesimally small point of space called the singularity; and if subatomic particles like electrons, which permeate our bodies and everything in the universe, have been proven through "quantum entanglement"(or as Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance") to maintain their immediate connection with one another regardless of distance, then the subatomic particles that make up our brains and our bodies and that facilitate our consciousness surely still have an interconnected link to all the other subatomic particles in the universe that were once also part of that same great singularity that existed before even time itself began. It's this intertwined nature of all things, at the most fundamental levels of our existence, that can be explored through consciousness by tapping into that subatomic link that we all have with the universe itself.

 

In short, if we want to understand the physical universe and everything contained within that universe since the big bang, then we can most certainly look to science. However,  if we also want to understand what happened before the big bang or what lies outside the universe or even where the universe came from, then we must do so through our consciousness by tapping into that interconnectedness with the universe that lies within the very framework and makeup of each and every one of us, in body and mind. So, in light of these things, it would seem that the clearest picture of our universe, if not all reality, can only be found through a healthy exploration of both science and consciousness.