What is the nature of reality? Views from Science and Spirituality.

Advaita Vedanta, the highest spiritual teaching in Hinduism, expounds the central message that underlying all physical reality (or empirical reality), there is one Absolute reality, Brahman, with the quality of Existence, Consciousness and Wholeness (Sat Chit Ananda). What exactly does today’s science, with all its advances, say about the nature of reality? Is there any reconciliation between science and religion in general, and Advaita Vedanta in particular? To understand this, we need to consider two different areas of science, Quantum Physics and Neuroscience. 

Nobel Prize-winning German physicist and the father of quantum theory, Max Planck, once said, “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness”. What could be his reasoning for this astounding conclusion? Well, the subatomic quantum world does not really obey the laws of classical newtonian physics that we all learn in high school. Electrons, which are the fundamental building blocks of the everyday world we transact with, were originally thought of as particles. In the early 20th century a famous experiment called the “Double Slit” experiment, has shown that electrons actually behave as waves and that they act as if they exist in multiple locations at the same time (aka Superposition). One can only know the exact location of the electron, when a “Conscious” observer makes an observation (measurement). By extension, this implies that all physical matter (aka electrons) have no real existence, when no one is observing. Physicist Jim Al-Khalili says “Quantum world, in a weird sense, suggests that the moon does not exist when we are not looking at it”. However, when a “Conscious” observer makes an observation, matter is summoned into existence. This is called the “Copenhagen Interpretation” and it has profound similarities with Advaita Vedanta. Even after almost 100 years, since the double slit experiment, this behavior is a mystery to scientists and there is no consensus on why the subatomic world behaves so radically differently from the macroscopic world. Physicists are still researching for the elusive “Theory of Everything” that could potentially explain the conundrum quantum theory presents. 

Today’s leading Neuroscience research can explain precious little about consciousness. According to the Scientific American journal, Consciousness ranks 3rd among a list of top 5 unanswered scientific mysteries. The most puzzling question for researchers is, how does subjective conscious experience arise from mere processing of information of the objective world? That is light entering in to our eyes, and the resulting firing of neurons in our brain in the form of electrical impulses.This is characterized by philosopher Joseph Levine as an “explanatory gap” and David Chalmers as the “hard problem of consciousness”. Chalmers distinguishes between this hard problem and ‘easy problem’ of consciousness. Easy problems relate to the objective study of the brain. The matter for investigation here is how the brain causes the wide variety of cognitive activities of humans. Whereas, ‘hard problem’ of consciousness relates to subjective experience, and it seems to be difficult for researchers to satisfactorily explain this subjective conscious experience in purely objective physical terms.

Many scientists have tried to understand consciousness by measuring brain activity. But philosophers suggest that such attempts merely point to the person's ability to report an experience and that these studies are confounding contents of consciousness (easy problem) with consciousness itself (hard problem). Neuroscientist Sam Harris, in his book Waking Up, suggests that the reality of consciousness is irreducible and that only consciousness can know itself and that too directly through first-person experience. Another renowned neuroscientist, Anil Seth, claims that what our brain perceives is actually controlled hallucinations, that we are all hallucinating all the time, just that when we agree on our hallucinations we call that “reality”. Evan Thompson, a western philosopher, in his book Waking Dreaming Being, says that the scriptures, specifically Upanishads, are the first recorded consciousness studies in human history. He goes on to say that the sophisticated psychology of consciousness in the Upanishads represent a quantum leap forward in human development, so much so that human history should really be divided between “Before Upanishad” and ‘After Upanishad” instead of B.C and A.D. Similar to the state of affairs in quantum physics, there is no consensus among neuroscientists on how consciousness arises. However, there is a growing body of research in consciousness studies to understand and answer one of the most profound questions, “what is the nature of reality?”.

Science will never be able to comprehend the Absolute reality, since the Absolute reality is not available for perception, objectification and inference, which are the basis for any scientific reductionist approach. Although science may not fully comprehend the absolute reality, in the distant future science may acknowledge consciousness as a fundamental fabric of nature of physical reality.

References:

Various talks by Swami Sarvapriyananda 

Various talks by Swami Tatvavidananda
Waking Up, by Sam Harris
Secrets of the quantum world, by Jim Al-Khalili
Waking, dreaming, being, by Evan Thompson
TED Talk, by Anil Seth
TED Talk, by David Chalmers
Quantum Reality: Space, Time & Entanglement, World Science Festival
Quantum Physics and Reality, World Science Festival
Scientific American, Biggest Questions in Science, June 2018
Science & Vedanta, talk by Dr. Anoop Kumar