When I was young I would often lie in bed and before sleep overcame me, I thought a lot about my existence and wondered who I was. Often the walls of my bedroom seemed to close in on me and I felt imprisoned, or I felt very small and the walls were miles away. We lived in the country, and sometimes I would go out at night, lie on the grass, and look at the vastness of the universe – how insignificant I felt!
At such times I would contemplate about death: what would happen when I died or, as I know more correctly now, when my body died?
It seemed to me that there were 2 possibilities: when I died there was either nothingness; or as Lord Jesus taught, if we love Him, we can go to the Supreme Father. Any another possibility I did not want to contemplate!
I lay there thinking about the first possibility that after death there is only emptiness. English poet Philip Larkin describes it this way in his poem Aubade:
“That this is what we fear – no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anesthetic from which none comes round”
And I did fear that! Even though I was so young that did not make sense to me. Everything seemed to have a purpose; and was my purpose just to live and then die, ceasing to exist?
As I grew older I learnt more. I could not see how the universe was a random event that ‘miraculously’ became this amazing complex design all the way down to the atom. To me a design required a designer.
Up until a few years ago scientists would scoff at the notion that there is a Supreme Entity behind the universe, and the way it functions. But in 2014 medical doctor and scientist Robert Lanza M.D. published a book ‘Biocentrism’ that shook the foundations of current scientific thinking. His view that life (consciousness) creates the universe, instead of the other way round, is revolutionary! He says:
“Consciousness……is a problem for physics. Nothing in modern physics explains how a group of molecules in your brain create consciousness. The beauty of a sunset, the miracle of falling in love, the taste of a delicious meal – these are all mysteries to modern science. Nothing in science can explain how consciousness arose from matter”. From ‘Biocentrism’
“As recently as a century ago, science texts routinely cited God and “God’s glory” whenever they reached the truly deep and unanswerable portions of the issue at hand.
Today, such humility is in short supply. God of course has been discarded, which is appropriate in a strictly scientific process, but no other entity or device has risen to stand in for the ultimate “I don’t have a clue.” From ‘Biocentrism’
Lanza is so well regarded for his thinking that he has received many accolades, including being named in the top 100 of Time magazine’s most influential people in 2014. From my understanding he is not necessarily a ‘religious’ man. I’m sure he sees himself a scientist first and foremost – but clearly an open minded, honest, seeker of truth.
…I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being – moving or non-moving- that can exist without Me….. Know that all beautiful, glorious and mighty creations spring from but a spark of my splendor….. With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe”. The Bhagavad Gita [The Song of God] 10:39,41-40.
Namaste