“Marvelous indeed is the Lord’s universe.  Within it He is working all His wonders of creation.  Do not be a walking “dead man” in this world; observe, analyze, and appreciate what God and his agent, man Have wrought here.  How intricate is the universal mechanism!  Reflect on the way we are made, and in what orderly fashion the whole machinery of creation runs according to cosmic law.” (pp.251, Man’s Eternal Quest)

The Evolution of Health Science and the SRF message

By Dr. Stephen Brena


Science as we understand it today emerged in Europe with Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei in the seventeen century. Newton and Galileo developed the concept of a "clocklike universe," governed by fixed physical laws which can be known by reason and are predictable: the laws of motion and gravity. In the nineteen century these laws were integrated by the Maxwell Equations which define the basic properties of electromagnetism. With the advent of the twenty century two new ideas were developed and empirically demonstrated: Relativity and Quantum Physics. Together, these two theories demolished the Newtonian notion of a predictable, mechanic universe. While the laws of classic physics still apply on a gross level of material "reality," a much more subtle reality is present at the subatomic, energy level, the puzzling world of the duality particles-waves. In his book "Superfoxe" the physicist Paul Davies has remarked that to ordinary people the universe seems to be a collection of separate solid objects, but to the Quantum physicist it is an inseparable web of vibrating energy patterns in which no one component has reality independent from the whole which includes the observer in its entirety.

Health Science has followed an evolutionary course similar to that of Physics. From the medical discoveries of the nineteen and early twenty century there emerged the concept of the human body as a mechanical engine, with known, separate "parts," the anatomical organs, whose functions were predictable according to well defined physiological and pathological principles for health and disease. Hence, the increasing super-specialization of medical science, with each physician being an "expert mechanic" in the maintenance and repair of the various bodily parts, of organ-systems.

During the second half of the twenty century the concept of the human body as a mechanical engine evolved into a deeper understanding of living creatures -- humans and animals -- as biochemical factories at the molecular levels, with complex and interwoven biochemical and electric actions and reactions. The functioning of all bodily systems appears to be no longer separated, but integrated into a whole, so that a dysfunction in one system can result in disease of another system. Hence, the decreased predictability of the rules of good health and the prognostic course of any disease.

In more recent years, Physics has entered the field of medicine at the cutting edge of Health Science. Evidence from empirical research is showing that electromagnetic fields play extreme subtle and crucial roles in regulating biochemical intermolecular activities, by facilitating or preventing the passage of electrolytes across cellular membranes. Magnetic fields capable to influence living organisms are generated both in the environment and within the body itself through the electrical activities of the brain, the heart and other organ.

To grasp the intelligent complexity of vital functions, an example may be useful: the simple intention to move a finger first triggers the activity of neurons in a specific cortical area, on top of the brain, known as the "supplemental motor area"; in turn, the neuronal activation in this area activates the motor cortex of the brain, which activates the motor nerves in the arm, and they activate the numerous muscles of the hand, finally resulting in the motion of a finger. All these neuromuscular activities occur within milliseconds in neatly ordered sequences through the medium of specific substances known as "neurotransmitters. To be effective, certain molecules of the neurotransmitters must linkup with other specific molecules. For example, molecule A must find and linkup with molecule B, molecule B must linkup with molecule C and so on. If molecule A links-up by mistake with molecule P, the end-chain result may be the motion of the big toe instead of the intended finger's movement. Intermolecular traffic is modulated through specific magnetic frequency resonanances (a frequency is a vibration rate), so that molecule A can only linkup with those molecules B with the same frequency resonance.

Sixty years ago, when medicine was still grossly mechanistic, Paramahansa Yogananda taught that all vital phenomena are guided and controlled by an omnipresent intelligent force, Prana; in the Gita Commentary, he called it "the soul of cells". If not yet to the empirical scientist, it is intuitively obvious that all these orderly complex biochemical and electromagnetic events cannot occur blindly, but must be controlled by an omnipresent cellular intelligence, which is the "soul" of the cell, Prana!

In his precious, little booklet "Scientific Healing Affirmations" (first printed in 1958), Paramahansa Yogananda mentioned electrical treatment as a useful method to bring back a lost harmonious condition to the cells. Today, a very large variety of diagnostic and therapeutic treatments are based on electricity, including electrical stimulation of nervous structures for relief of pain and laser surgery, which has largely replaced open surgery in many therapeutic interventions.

Another field where Health Science is rapidly evolving is that of mind-consciousness research. Mind and consciousness have been the battleground of competing theories since the beginning of the history of ideas; theologians, philosophers and scientists have been often at odds with each other over doctrines and intellectual interpretations on the nature of mind. To avoid controversy, in the seventeen century, Rene Descartes proposed the idea of two independent realms of Nature: that of mind, the "thinking thing" ("res cogitans" in his own words) and that of matter, the "extended thing" ("res extensa").

During the following centuries, up to the second half of the twenty century, the Cartesian conceptual split was largely accepted by the scientific community, which successfully concentrated mainly on the material domain, within the framework of a mechanistic model of nature. In the last few decades of the XX Century, Cognitive Science and Neuroscience have tried to overcome the Cartesian division between mind and matter by proposing new conceptual and empirical theories about the nature of mind and consciousness.

Many modern scientists consider the mind as a personal experience emerging from the bio-electrical chemistry of neural networks, viewing the mind as a byproduct of brain activity. Many other scientists have difficulty to accept this theory for its failure to explain how neuronal activity can be transduced into thoughts and feelings.

For instance, Sir John Eccles, from his own neurophysiological research that won him the Nobel prize, is convinced that there is a non material "mind" which acts upon the material brain; the mental "world" of Eccles is not a Cartesian "thing," but a pattern of ultra-subtle energies. With the help of Quantum physicist Frederick Beck, Eccles postulates that mind-brain interactions can be explained by taking into account the discoveries of Quantum physics and of the microstructure of the brain cortex. He conceptualizes the mind-brain linkage as a flow of information carried on by mean of Quantum mental units that he calls "Psychons" (from the greek "psyche," the mind).

Likewise, physicist Nick Herbert observes that mind is a fundamental process in its own right, widely imbedded in Nature as gravity and electromagnetism are. Like Eccles, Herbert postulates that mind interacts with matter at the level of emergence into activity of Quantum events. Herbert has shown the mathematical possibility of Quantum mind-units, which he calls "Cogitons" (from the Latin "cogito," to think).

While at the present, the scientific community rejects all theories which try to explain mind-brain linkages as Quantum events, it is interesting for SRF devotees to reflect that "Psychons" and "Cogitons" are conceptions similar to the "Toughtrons" described by Yoganandaji.

Again and again, the open-minded and informed modern thinker cannot avoid to be puzzled by the convergence of modern theories and mathematical reasoning with ancient Hindu theories, so clearly explained in SRF teaching, concerning matter, mind and consciousness.

A similar convergence can be subtly detected in recent theories which equate the mind with cognition. Cognition is the activity involved in the self-generating and self-expanding process of living. According to some contemporary thinkers, such as Francisco Varela and Humbert Maturana, cognition is not a representation of an independently existing world, but rather a continuing existential living experience. Life itself is evolution of cognition; in the words of Maturana and Varela: "to live is to know". The identification of mind with cognition is best appreciated by reconsidering the old question of mind-brain relationship. Mind is not a "thing" but a process of cognition, the brain is a specific structure through which this process operates; the mind-brain linkage is therefore one between process and instrument. Moreover, the brain is not the only instrument through which the process of cognition operates; the entire structure of the organism seems to participate in this process. Mind and matter no longer appear to be separate "things," but can be seen as representing two complementary aspects of life: process and structure, linked together in an undivided web.

Although there is still no firm agreement among cognitive scientists, philosophers and neurophysiologists about the nature of consciousness, there is a growing consensus on two important points: the first is the concept of consciousness as a cognitive process, emerging from complex living experience; the second point is the distinction between two types of consciousness, which emerge at different levels of complexity. "Primary consciousness" arises basically from sensory and emotional experiences and is probably shared by mammals and perhaps, other vertebrates; an "Higher-order consciousness" -- as it is sometimes called -- involves awareness of a '"self" who is the subject of introspection, thinking and feeling. This self-awareness is associated with language, conceptual thoughts and all the other characteristics that fully unfold in humans. As Fritjof Capra points out in his recent book "Hidden Connections," the higher-order consciousness could well be called "reflective consciousness" because of the crucial role played by reflection in arising self-awareness.

The identification of mind and consciousness with the process of cognitive life itself is a novel idea in modern science, but it is one of the deepest and most ancient intuitions of humanity, which is fully exposed in the Bhagavad Gita and magnificently explained in the Gita Commentary by Paramahansa Yogananda. SRF devotees know that consciousness is the essence of being and that Cosmic Consciousness is divine Reality itself. Cosmic Consciousness is omnipresent in Creation as universal (Christ) Consciousness and as individualized consciousness (the soul). The mind, in its polarity of Manas and Buddhi (sensory and discriminative mind), is one of the twenty-four principles of nature; universal mind operates in each individual according to the neural capacity of the brain. The soul, experiencing the world through the sensory mind, becomes the "ego" (the pseudo-soul). The primary consciousness of the contemporary thinkers is ego-consciousness. During an advanced stage of meditation that our Guru calls cognitive meditation, the soul awakens to the intuitive knowledge of the operations of the discriminative mind -- the "reflective consciousness" -- By further and deeper Kriya meditation, the mind is stilled and pure soul consciousness appears, eventually expanding into Christ Consciousness and into the oceanic joy of Cosmic Consciousness.

By linking together cognition, mind and consciousness, contemporary science may have taken the firs step in recognizing a fundamental unity among scientific and spiritual principles. As every SRF devotee knows, to promote the realization of such unity is one of the aims and ideals of Self-Realization Fellowship.

Actually, contemporary theories of mind and consciousness are byproducts of an entire new science, which started about four decades ago and is still in full development, with numerous competing theories. It is known with various names, such as "Systems Science," or "General Systems Theory" or "Science of Complexity." It constitutes a somewhat fuzzily defined academic field that includes practically all disciplines, from mathematics and biology to philosophy and social science. Systems Science argues that the complexity and diversity of the empirical world we experience, could be best understood and described by concepts and principles which are independent from any specific domain. Hence, if science could uncover those general laws, it would be able to solve problems in any field pertaining to any type of systems. The Systems Research approach is quite different from traditional analytic methods; it emphasizes "processes" rather than "structures" and looks at the interactions and interconnections among the different components of various systems.

Along with this new way of thinking, there emerged, about three decades ago a fresh new look at the functioning of the human body and related problems of health and disease. It is known as "Holistic Medicine" (from the Greek word "holos," meaning "whole"); it postulate that health is much more than simple absence of disease in the anatomic organs; health results from a harmonious functioning of all physiological processes, molecular, bio-electro-magnetic and cognitive, in close connections with environmental biorhythms and social factors. Malfunction in one parameter may lead to the breaking down in the physiology of a bodily organ and to a specific disease. Healing is not limited to restore proper function in one organ but in fostering a new balance in all living processes. For this purpose, Holistic Medicine advocates the use of all possible methods of treatment in addition to traditional therapies. The study and the correct application of these unconventional methods is known as Alternative Medicine. Years before alternative medicine came into existence, in his book "Scientific Healing Affirmations," Paramahansa Yogananda mentioned some of the treatments presently advocated by Alternative Medicine, such as massage, spinal adjustment (chiropractic), imagery and relaxation, proper diet and exercise. In his definition of suffering as caused by a combination of physical disease, mental disharmony and spiritual ignorance, Master has not only anticipated, decades before it emerged, the conceptions of Holistic and alternative Medicine, but has reached into a spiritual dimension which Health Science has yet to uncover. Only recently have few reports about the value of spiritual methods, such as prayer and meditation, started to appear in peer-reviewed medical journals.

In summary, the evolution of Health Science from the beginning of the XX Century to the first years of the XXI Century does document the complexity and basic interconnectedness of all living phenomena. To live healthily means to be in harmony with the entire web of life, biological, mental, ecological and social. Traditional and alternative treatments may help to temporarily correct imbalance in one parameter, but true healing can result only when balance is restored in the wholeness of the living organism.

Actually, there is nothing real new in these modern theories of health and healing: the value of balanced and moderate life is an old message, common to all spiritual traditions of humankind. It is also a new message from Self-Realization Fellowship to men and women of the XXI Century: to know how to live healthily by following the "How-to-live" teaching of Paramahansa Yogananda and to know how to live joyfully in spiritual enlightenment by the practice of Kriya Yoga.