FRONTIER SCIENCE/SOCIAL CHANGE

by Paul Von Ward

"Science, Too, Can Be Nearsighted"

When metaphysicians make claims that are contradicted by the evidence of human experience, scientists are quick to point out the discrepancy. Would be metascientists must just as quickly call attention to the nearsightedness of scientists, to keep them honest and to prevent a "halo effect" from influencing those ready to believe any "scientific expert's" claim.

One such scientific conclusion that needs challenging is the "discovery" reported in early 1998 that the universe not only continually expands, but at an accelerating rate. The conventional scientific interpretation of limited information implies the universe will end by pulling itself apart, leaving no room for phenomena like rebirth/regeneration or eternity. That conclusion has been judged by some science writers to be the most important discovery of 1998, because the alleged evidence appears to provide support for the Big Bang/Opened-Ended Universe theory. Holders of that view claim the source of everything exploded from one small point around 15 billion years ago, has been expanding ever since, and will vanish in entropy--the process of running down.

Let's now consider why the above interpretations are premature. Metascience, based in a body of perennial wisdom from prehistory, frontier science, and intelligent use of imetaphysics, offers a plausible larger perspective, one that provides for a supreme architect and a larger design. For example, the Hermetic Principles (probably more than 12,000 years old) imply that the universe operates on the basis of seven principles, including the Principles of Rhythm and Correspondence. A concept espoused by ancient Hinduism (possibly as old as the Hermetic Principles) states the universe expands and contracts during a period called the Year of Brahma, lasting 311 trillion years. A look at the evidence from this larger perspective gives a different interpretation.

The evidence consists of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations that some star systems seven billion light years from Earth appear to move away from us at a faster rate than those nearer. This seems to indicate the universe is not just coasting as it would from a singular big bang, but is actually speeding up as it expands. The fallacy in some scientists' leaping to conclusions is the assumption of straight line extrapolations, i.e., they assume the observation of one direction, one speed, and one rate of acceleration for a given time period applies to all time. The above mentioned Hindu and Hermetic concepts encourage us to consider the possibility that facets of the universe may have cycles that go up and down, expand and contract (Principle of Rhythm). If that is so, a pattern may be at work in the universe's behavior that we have not discerned because of the narrow sample of data.

The example of a plane being catapulted from an aircraft carrier has been used as an analogy to describe the HST data: As the plane is flung into the air from the carrier it goes at one speed (as matter could have done from the big bang), but then it picks up speed from its own engines (as the postulated antigravitational force of acceleration). That analogy may have meanings unintended by the person who selected it: It implies a carrier that provided force for the initial propulsion, and a creator of the carrier and plane, not unlike the model of a universe created by a preexisting, intelligent force that designed the principles involved. The analogy also implies the speed of the plane can vary over time, depending on the amount of power available and used (by some level of consciousness).

A better analogy (taking advantage of the Principle of Correspondence--"as above, so below") might be the positing of a scientist seated on an atom in a molecule of ice, taking measurements of the speeds at which other atoms move away from it in the process of being heated and transformed into a liquid and then a gas. The observed speed of acceleration would depend on the stage in the cycle and the amount of heat being applied. This analogy has the advantage of accounting for the data collected though the HST measurements AND the possibility that longer wave patterns are at work. If the life rhythm of the universe is like the sine wave (~~~~) illustrated by the expansion/contraction of atoms in different forms of water, it would be very misleading to assume that an extrapolation of a straight line from any data point reveals the true direction.

This "great discovery" is an example of the folly of making one assumption on the basis of another assumption about which we cannot be certain. Both scientists and metaphysicians do it: We humans are loath to admit to that which we do not know. In this case, Einstein originally posited a "cosmological constant" that suggested the mysterious anti-gravity force some now think responsible for the universe's acceleration, but he later rejected it because he had no proof. Physicists now conduct experiments (free energy, warp speeds, gravitational inertia, etc.) positing such forces in the vacuum, but the fact of their existence would not confirm the Big Bang/Open-Ended theory. These experiments, instead, suggest the possibility of a more complex universe than we imagine, including the existence of forces beyond the four now identified in physics and the role of principles, even involving cosmic consciousness, that our far distant ancestors apparently understood better than we.

The current gap between the worlds of science and metaphysics leaves all society much more in the dark about who we really are in the universe than if both camps had attempted to synthesize all ways of knowing. Pride of position and power keeps people from admitting others have parts of the puzzle they need to see more clearly the whole picture. The price for such arrogance is less than full utilization of the human capacity for co-creation at all levels of reality. Modern technology-based science is awesome in its descriptive power, but it requires input from ways of knowing that are inherent in the cosmic consciousness of which humans partake.

Copyright 1999
Paul Von Ward
All Rights Reserved