The Science of Spirituality
The concept of all things, from the most miniscule to the cosmic, in the universe being created by, made up of, sustained by and manifest through tiny particles vibrating to various ‘Great Chords’ is present in the ancient traditional civilizations and is reflected throughout history and in the cosmologies of modern theoretical science, presently in the forms of String Cosmology, Brane Cosmology and the like.
In some instances, such as the physics of ancient (and modern) Hindus, as found in the Upanishads and related open writings, the concept is explained in great detail. In other traditions the cosmic chorus is metaphorically manifest as the ‘Word’ or ‘Thought’ of God; each ‘word’, ‘thought’ or ‘command’ representing a different octave.
To continue with the example of Hindu physics, which forms the basis of (and acts as a kind of rosetta stone to) Eastern metaphysical thought, the Upanishads teach that all ‘matter’ exists on four levels or planes; each vibrating to a great octave, with gulfs of ‘lost octaves’ between. All things exist on all four planes and are subject to laws. The Earth, a globe of prakriti (physical matter), floating in an ‘ocean of ether’. Having a Sun as it’s center of gravity, this etheric realm is also necessarily a globe. This further explaination from Thomas E. Willson’s 1901 work, “Ancient and Modern Physics”:
This etheric sun-globe has a diameter of over 300,000,000,000 miles. All the planets revolve around the sun far within its atmosphere. The etheric sun-globe revolves on its axis once in about 21,000 years, and this revolution causes the precession of the equinoxes. This etheric sun-globe is revolving around Alcyone with other etheric globes having suns for their centers and solar systems of prakritic globes within them in a great year of 5,640,000,000 of our common years. Its orbit has a diameter of 93,000,000,000,000,000 miles. Beyond the etheric globes, and between them, is a third form of matter called prana, as much rarer and finer than the ether as the ether is rarer and finer than prakriti. As this prana has Alcyone for a center of gravity, it is necessarily a globe; and there are many of these pranic globes floating in a vast ocean of manasa–a form of matter as much finer than prana as prana is finer than ether, or ether than prakriti. With this manasa (which is a globe) the material, or physical, universe ends; but there are spiritual globes beyond. The material universe is created from manasa, downward, but it does not respond to or chord with the vibration of the globes above, except in a special instance and in a special way, which does not touch this inquiry.
The physical universe of the ancient (and modern) Hindu physicist was made up of these four kinds or planes of matter, distributed in space as “globes within globes.”
The true diameter of the earth, the ancient Hindu books say, is about 50,000 miles. That is to say, the true surface of the earth is the line of twenty-four-hour axial rotation; the line where gravity and apergy exactly balance; where a moon would have to be placed to revolve once in 86,400 seconds. Within that is prakriti; without is ether. It is also the line of no friction, which does exist between matter of different planes. There is friction between prakriti, between ether, between prana; but not between ether and prana, or ether and prakriti. Friction is a phenomenon confined to the matter of each plane separately. We live at the bottom of this gaseous ocean–on its floor –21,000 miles from the surface and only 4,000 miles from the center. Here, in a narrow “skin” limited to a few miles above and below us, is the realm of phenomena, where solid turns into liquid and liquid into gas, or vice versa. The lesson impressed upon the pupil’s mind by Hindu physics is that he lives far within the earth, not on it.
There is a comparatively narrow “skin” of and for phenomena within the etheric sun-globe, say the Eastern teachers, where the etheric solids, liquids, and gases meet and mingle and interchange. Within this “skin” are all the planets–the “gaseous” atmosphere of the etheric globe stretching millions of miles beyond the outermost planetary orbit. The earth is in this skin or belt of etheric phenomena, and its ether is in touch with the ether “in manifestation” on the etheric globe. The sun and other etheric globes are within the corresponding “skin” of phenomena of the pranic globes. The prana, manifesting as solid, liquid, and gas, or in combination and in forms, is in perfect touch with that of the etheric globe, and through that with the prana of the earth. That our prana is in touch with that on the pranic globe in all its manifestations means much in metaphysics. The same is true of the manasic globe, and of our manasa.
The great lesson the Eastern physics burns into the pupil is that we are living not only within the prakritic earth, but within each of the other globes as well in identically the same way and subject to the same laws.
This question of the four globes, of the four planes of matter, of the four skins, and of the four conditions or states of all matter and necessarily of all persons, from the purely material standpoint, is not only the foundation of Oriental physics, but the very essence of Oriental metaphysics–its starting-point and corner-stone. To one who carries with him, consciously or unconsciously, the concrete knowledge of the physics, the abstract teaching of the metaphysics presents no difficulty; it is as clear as crystal. But without the physical teaching the metaphysical is not translatable.
This represents just a small part of the expansive and specific knowledge of ancient India. I refer this particular exerpt for a nuber of reasons:
It is worth noting that while the ancient traditional peoples of the West may appear to differ from their Eastern counterparts in that they viewed existance as taking place on three planes (spiritual, psychic and corporeal), one actually finds the hindu concept of prakriti, ether, prana and manasa reflected in the Western venacular; “earth, air, fire and water” (the four “elements” on which much of ancient Western traditional and metaphysical thought is based). Moreover, Hindu metaphysics also has it’s corresponding belief to the western traditional “3 worlds” in referencing that “Ether (the air element) is the source of all Energy; Prana (the fire element) is the source of all Life; and Manasa (the water element) is the source of all Mind”. This is a point to which I will return later.
To those who are aquainted with the String Theory & Brane Theory of our own modern theoretical physics may have already noted the striking resemblence between the concepts of multi-dimentional existance, the globe-like structure of these dimensions (or planes), the vibration of all matter within each of these to a great “cosmic chord” and the idea that “we are living not only within the prakritic earth, but within each of the other globes as well in identically the same way and subject to the same laws” shown above to those same concepts expressed in String Theory, and by further adding to this the “corresponding ’skin’ of phenomena, which is echoed in Brane (membrane) Theory.
Others more inclined to Pythagorean writings might have made the connection between the above mentioned “vibrating of all matter to a great celestial chord” present in both ancient Hindu and modern Western theoretical physics, to the mathematical harmony of “The Music of the Spheres”. Pythagoras and later classical and medieval philosophers believed in an inaudible “universal music” (Med. Lat. musica universalis), a concept of the proportions in the movements of celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars – which were believed at the time to revolve around the earth in their proper spheres – as a kind of music; in a mathematical and harmonic sense.
While not all traditions and cosmologies are so explicit in their description, a staggering number of references to the universe as having been manifest and sustained by sound (and / or vibration) can be found in the world’s traditional teachings. Probably the best-known of these references is found in the Book of Genesis from Christian and Jewish tradition wherein creation began with the command: “Let there be light”. [Genesis 1:3] From the Gospel of John; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made by Him.” [John 1:1] Also from Christian tradition, the Gnostic text “Trimorphic Protennoia” (the triple formed primal thought) tells of a divine figure “in the likeness of a female” who says, “I am the Invisible One within the All… (I) am the real Voice. I cry out in everyone, and they know that a seed dwells within.” [http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/trimorph.html]
From the Hindu Vedas: In the beginning was Brahman, with whom was Vak, or the Word, and the Word is Brahman”. Kabbalists also believe in the Divine Word as that which creates and sustains the Heavens and the Earth. They, too, believe that the various forms in the universe are the product of particular unique combinations of letters or sacred words. Like Hindu and Buddhist sages, some kabbalists believe that by calling upon one of the names of God, the specific energy or influence assosiated with that name is released.
All of these insights were related in a time before science and spirituality were cast as opposing forces. The spiritual nature of the ancient sciences – and the science of ancient spirituality – produced cosmological theories which our modern day scientific community – so exclusive of the spiritual world – is only now coming to terms with. Think what we could have acheived by now…
