Do you have a physics degree, Michael? A bit of what is in physics goes
back centuries to Greece and other countries like China and yup probably
India as well. It's just observation and certainly could be coded in
Indian science. Pagels must not know biochemistry or just thought that
ayurveda uses exotic herbs he didn't have access too. Examining the
chemical properties of cinnamon, ginger, fennel, cloves he might have
had a different opinion.
On 11/05/2014 11:02 AM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] wrote:
The notion that ancient Hindu mysticism is just quantum physics
wrapped in metaphysical garb seems to have originated with Fritjof
Capra in his book /The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels
Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism/ (1975).
The book's first two parts are excellent expositions on ancient
religions and modern physics. The third part, which tries to connect
the two is an abysmal failure and about the purest poppycock this side
of Bombay.
Nevertheless, it has been this third part which has influenced
numerous New Age energy medicine advocates to claim that quantum
physics proves the reality of everything from chi and prana to ESP
<http://www.skepdic.com/esp.html>.
The idea that there is such a connection is denied by most physicists
but books like Capra's and Gary Zukav's /The Dancing Wu Li Masters :
An Overview of the New Physics /(1976) overshadow and are much more
popular than more sensible books written by physicists.
Chopra and other defenders of Ayurveda, following Capra and Zukav, are
fond of claiming that modern physics has substantially validated
ancient Hindu metaphysics.
However, physicist Heinz R. Pagels, author of /The Cosmic Code:
Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0553246259/roberttoddcarrolA/>/ vehemently
rejects the notion that there is any significant connection between
the discoveries of modern physicists and the metaphysical claims of
Ayurveda. "No qualified physicist that I know would claim to find such
a connection without knowingly committing fraud," says Dr. Pagels.
The claim that the fields of modern physics have anything to do
with the "field of consciousness" is false. The notion that what
physicists call "the vacuum state" has anything to do with
consciousness is nonsense. The claim that large numbers of people
meditating helps reduce crime and war by creating a unified field
of consciousness is foolishness of a high order.
The presentation of the ideas of modern physics side by side, and
apparently supportive of, the ideas of the Maharishi about pure
consciousness can only be intended to deceive those who might not
know any better.
Reading these materials authorized by the Maharishi causes me
distress because I am a man who values the truth. To see the
beautiful and profound ideas of modern physics, the labor of
generations of scientists, so willfully perverted provokes a
feeling of compassion for those who might be taken in by these
distortions. I would like to be generous to the Maharishi and his
movement because it supports world peace and other high ideals.
But none of these ideals could possibly be realized within the
framework of a philosophy that so willfully distorts scientific
truth (Pagels
<http://web.archive.org/web/19990420021943/http:/www.trancenet.org/research/pagels.shtml>).
From:
http://www.skepdic.com/chopra.html
image <http://www.skepdic.com/chopra.html>
Deepak Chopra - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com
<http://www.skepdic.com/chopra.html>
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