Out of body religious experiences

[Sir_G]

Thanks John for your kind words they are very much appreciated.

Tom, have you read a book called the Tao of Physics by a fellow called Capra and is touted as an Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism. In it he says "Physicists do not need mysticism, and mystics do not need physics, but humanity needs both. – (epilogue)"

He in turn had conversations with a chappy called Heisenburg who came up with the uncertainty principle after chatting with Capra. The book grew out of an inspirational moment Capra had while under the influence of psychedelics. Capra later discussed his ideas with Werner Heisenberg in 1972, as he mentioned in the following interview excerpt:

I had several discussions with Heisenberg. I lived in England then [circa 1972], and I visited him several times in Munich and showed him the whole manuscript chapter by chapter. He was very interested and very open, and he told me something that I think is not known publicly because he never published it. He said that he was well aware of these parallels. While he was working on quantum theory he went to India to lecture and was a guest of Tagore. He talked a lot with Tagore about Indian philosophy. Heisenberg told me that these talks had helped him a lot with his work in physics, because they showed him that all these new ideas in quantum physics were in fact not all that crazy. He realized there was, in fact, a whole culture that subscribed to very similar ideas. Heisenberg said that this was a great help for him. Niels Bohr had a similar experience when he went to China. – Fritjof Capra, interviewed by Renee Weber in the book The Holographic Paradigm (page 217–218)

As a result of those influences, Bohr adopted the yin yang symbol as part of his family coat of arms when he was knighted in 1947.

The Tao of Physics was followed by other books of the same genre like The Hidden Connection, The Turning Point and The Web of Life in which Capra extended the argument of how Eastern mysticism and todays scientific findings relate, and how Eastern mysticism might also have answers to some of the biggest scientific challenges of today.

All very interesting but still just another persons truth from their point of view.

(sections of this post are direct quotes from wikipedia, I'm honestly not that smart. *grin*)

Mung Beans

G

PS Just saw your post moptop and laughed my arse off. Cheeky thing!