Mysterious Messages from the Lab—When Science Meets Religion

In early July, a symposium entitled "The Mysteries of the Spirit World" put on by the Oah Buddhist Foundation attracted several thousand visitors, packing the Soochow University auditorium.

The first speaker was Lee Si-chen, a professor of electrical engineering and a dean at National Taiwan University (NTU). Ever since Lee participated in a National Science Council qigong research program 13 years ago, he has thrown himself into the field of "developing human potential." Seven years ago, he began training a few children to practice a "finger reading" technique developed in mainland China. He has found teenagers who can put their hands into a sack and use their fingers to read the Chinese characters on papers inside. The children see a screen in their mind's eye and the characters flash on them one stroke at a time!

Lee says that just last year something even more mysterious took place. In a "challenge" experiment for which professors from various universities were in attendance, one devout Buddhist professor wrote the character for "Buddha" on a piece of paper. Unexpectedly, this established a link to the mysterious "information field."

The Green River wends its way through Taichung City, carrying the city's many moods with it to the sea, and drawing together the past and future. The river is one of the highlights of the Taichung cityscape.

God is laughing at us!

"When the girl Kao Chia-wu said during the experiment that she saw a field of light instead of a word [when finger reading "Buddha"], it threw me for a loop," recalls Lee, who is not a religious believer and had over the course of many years never considered using religious terminology for his finger-reading experiments. He did not expect that when similar words were repeatedly tried Kao would see illuminated human figures, including one jovial man who laughed at everyone. There was another little girl surnamed Wang who was given a piece of paper with the mantra "Om Ma Ni Bai Mei Hone" written on it. Instead of seeing any written characters, she heard people reciting chants in a temple.

"This unexpected result of the experiment had a big impact on me," says Lee. "I was shaken by it." One of Taiwan's foremost semiconductor experts, Lee had long been involved with scientific research and had never doubted the reality of "finger reading," which had been verified in numerous tests. He simply didn't understand the mechanism behind it. Never had he expected that behind this seemingly useless skill was a hidden channel to a mysterious information field.

An old man rides his bicycle past a temple in the early morning hours. In Tainan, time seems to move in slow motion.

Unhealed wounds of past lives

Lee is not the only one to probe this information field from a scientific perspective. Dr. Wang Wu-shih, a professor of psychiatry at NTU who is now working at Hualien's Yuli Hospital, has his own thoughts on the subject which arise out of his work in hypnosis.

Like Dr. Brian Weiss, who wrote the best seller Many Lives, Many Masters several years ago, Wang's contact with the spirit world came as a result of his medical practice.

Wang describes a young patient who suffered from heart palpitations, asthma, skin diseases and so forth. When put under hypnosis, it was discovered that in a past life (during the Zhou dynasty 3,000 years ago), the patient was thrown into jail for committing a crime. He died strangled by his chains. The source of his asthma was those wounds, as well as the putrid stuffy air in the jail. The nagging skin problems were the result of being soaked in filth there. These problems had followed him from an earlier time like some unhappy message that demanded to be delivered. Undergoing hypnosis 24 times, the patient revisited the scene. To dispel his sense of chill, he imagined that he was soaking in an energizing hot spring. Thereafter, his condition finally took a clear turn for the better.

In modern Western civilization, science and religion have clashed time and again. Science's stress on objectivity and practicality has suppressed belief in religious mysteries for which no scientific proof is available. Yet the scope of science has been gradually expanding, so that it is now invading the "unknowable world" that was once religion's exclusive domain. Nevertheless, mainstream science still tends to be dismissive of research into the supernatural. Lee Si-chen, who was once called in to "bust ghosts" at NTU Hospital, is often referred to as a "scientific exorcist." During his lectures, Wang Wu-shih often says, "I do hope the psychiatrists in the audience won't try to have me committed!"

Kao Yung-chuan, a professor of physics at NTU, firmly believes that the special abilities demonstrated in Lee Si-chen's experiments are just "magic tricks." He points out that the structure of knowledge must be constantly refined. Basic science tells us that you cannot see without using your eyes. If you say that your hands can read, then why can't the blind employ this method to restore their sight? Can it be that the knowledge contained in our medical textbooks is going to be completely overturned?

"Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps one day I really will see God," says Kao Yung-chuan smiling. "When I see him, the first thing I'll say is 'Sorry for doubting you; you were here all along.' Then I'll say, 'Damn you! Since you really do exist, why is there so much suffering and unfairness in the world!'"

Kao Chiao-wu, with a metal strip on her head that measures electromagnetic waves, proceeds with one of Lee Si-chen's "finger-reading" experiments. Kao lives abroad, and whenever she comes back to Taiwan, she both works with Lee and fields numerous fortune-telling requests from friends and relatives who have heard about her extraordinary powers. （courtesy of Lee Si-chen）

"Idealism vs. materialism

"Science and religion are by their basic essences two completely separate realms," argues Liang Nai-tsung, formerly a researcher at the Academia Sinica's Institute of Physics and now a professor of Physics at National Tsing Hua University. Liang, who is also a high-level Buddhist monk and chairman of the Oah Buddhist Foundation, points out that religion and science have different research topics, different sets of rules, and different questions that they are ultimately trying to answer. Since actually there are no places of conflict between them, there is no point in talking about how to reconcile them.

Liang Nai-tsung notes that when scientists examine different natural phenomena, the most important principles for them are generality and repeatability. If scientist A produces certain results from an experiment, scientist B should be able to obtain the same results. What you produce once, you should be able to duplicate at another time and place. On the other hand, religion, which centers on "mystical exper-ience," is entirely personal. Because there are no two people in the world who are exactly alike, there will naturally be no two identical paths to enlightenment. If there really were a well-trod public road to spiritual cultivation, then what exactly would you be cultivating?

Sung Kuang-yu, a dean at Fokuang University and head of its Institute of Life Studies, points out that modern Western science has been built on a "mechanistic conception of the universe." Scientists have believed that the universe's truths can be found by continually breaking things down into smaller, simpler components, analyzing them, and then putting them back together piece by piece into a detailed structure.

Sung turns up his nose at this mechanistic paradigm: "It's like a computer describing every human cell down to the smallest detail but not understanding what this thing 'a person' really is." Sung holds that scientists are blinded by their viewpoint into ignoring that spirit and soul transcend the physical. By trying to find the truth about the human condition outside of spirituality, scientists are groping in the dark with their study of material phenomena. They have become the "biggest heretics" of all.

In the eyes of the religiously enlight-ened, science is foolhardy. Yet modern science has started taking steps toward the spiritual realm, moves that suggest the two fields may not be working at cross-purposes after all. From the standpoint of scientific research, the turning point began with the emergence of "quantum mechanics" in the 1920s.

Lee Si-chen is an NTU professor and one of Taiwan's foremost semiconductor experts. His research into qigong and extraordinary human powers has inadvertently led him to discover a mysterious new realm. （photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang）

Wonder in emptiness

The term "quantum" describes the smallest bits in the mechanistic view of the universe: from as large as an atom to as a small as hundreds of hard-to-measure nameless particles.

When "quantum mechanics" first appeared on the scene, scientists discovered many hard-to-explain phenomena, the two most famous of which are "wave-particle duality" and the "uncertainty principle."

Chen Kuo-chen, a professor of physics at Soochow University who has been a practicing Buddhist for many years, explains that light is observed as a particle or as a wave only through the measurements of laboratory instruments: It all depends on how you design the experiment. When the experiment looks at the overall effect of light, light appears to be composed of particles. On the other hand, if it looks at specific parts of the whole, light appears to be a wave.

Einstein, who said, "God does not play dice," reportedly refused to accept "wave-particle duality." It bothered him to his dying day.

"In theory, scientific experiments should be completely objective, and it should make no difference who is conducting them," observes Liang Nai-tsung. "But once you get into the quantum world, you discover that the subjective positions of those carrying out the experiments have a deep impact on the results of the experiments." Liang explains that the discoveries of quantum mechanics are similar to the religious ideas that "mind and matter are one" and that "people's minds can change the outside physical world."

In his book, The Spiritual Universe, the famous American scientist Fred Alan Wolf gives this amusing example: A quantum pot of water that no one is observing will behave according to the principles of physics, but if the experimenter intends to observe its boiling point, then even if it is now sitting on a block of ice it will be affected by the experimenter's will to boil it.

Wolf also points out that so-called vacuums (spaces devoid of matter or energy) are not in fact entirely dead and empty. Rather, within a vacuum there are constantly vibrating particles that cannot be seen or touched but can create tremendous energy. This finding supports the Taoist ideas that "in nothing was the universe begun" and "in emptiness there are miracles."

To embrace Hualien is to embrace mountains and streams. These people frolicking in Liwu Creek are enjoying one of life's simple pleasures.

Higher states of consciousness

Western science entered this mysterious world because it broke through old roadblocks, but can natural science, which has been on a 300-year roll of success, really change course and solve the ancient mysteries of religion?

Liang Nai-tsung, who is himself a professor of physics, can't help but say, "They're still far apart! Science is far beneath religion and lacks any capacity to evaluate it or resolve its mysteries."

Are the "light" of physics produced by a light bulb, the light that radiates from the Buddha, and the light in our dreams, really one and the same? asks Liang. Can we borrow concepts from physics like wavelength and frequency to analyze its structure?

With the crudeness of science as it now exists, the answer is definitely "no." Liang, however, can easily answer this question based on the Buddhist conception of the 12 links of dependent origination.

Liang points out that the mechanism of human vision is not limited to what you can see with the eye. Seeing with the eyes is one of the six low-level senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and brain consciousness). This is the realm of modern medical science. Yet apart from these, our higher level spiritual consciousness can see, hear, feel and manipulate things. Moreover, because it lacks the constraints of the physical, this higher level of consciousness is much more far-reaching.

In our dreams our minds see things. Finger-reading children see a screen, which appears to them because they have opened their minds' eyes. Liang, who opened such a screen himself in the course of spiritual cultivation, says that the world he saw with his "third eye" was more varied and marvelous than what he saw with his physical eyes.

This ferry making its way across Hsitzu Bay lends a laid-back atmosphere to Kaohsiung, Taiwan's premier harbor metropolis.

From one thought comes the universe

Liang employs Buddhism to supplement science where it comes up short, but Chen Kuo-chen is trying to use science to explain Buddhism. He uses Fourier transformation to explain the Buddhist concept of "10,000 years as a single thought; a single thought as 10,000 years."

Chen points out that when physicists want to describe the phenomena of space and time, they often use "wave functions" and de Broglie's hypothesis that wavelength equals Planck's constant divided by momentum. These show that when the bandwidth of momentum narrows, the wavelength increases.

Chen makes the following analogy to the information field: "the bandwidth of momentum" is like a slot for receiving letters. Because there are countless information waves floating through the air, most people's minds are a jumble, with many messages crammed in simultaneously in the same slot. Naturally many of these messages get garbled or cut off.

When a person who has cultivated his spirit concentrates, it is as if the slot for receiving messages is made extremely narrow, so that now they can receive only one letter but can read it in its entirety. Their sense of time and space (wave span) at such a time is of virtually unlimited size and length, very possibly encompassing the past, present and future, capturing both what is happening in front of their eyes as well as what is occurring half a world away. Chen says that some people felt the September 21, 1999 Taiwan earthquake coming and could even gauge its severity and destruction. Some high religious masters understand all the karmic ramifications of their actions for three incarnations. Their mysterious, extraordinary powers grow out of their ability to narrow that slot.

Looking for soul in physics

Science and religion can make up for each other's insufficiencies and can provide evidence to support each other. Nevertheless, pursuing the study of science to prove religious meaning is an altogether different endeavor.

Hsu Chih (sect name) is a graduate of NTU's physics department. He became a follower of the T'ienti Teachings sect when he was a sophomore. The year before last he gave up a high-paying science job to live as a monk in the Leilia Temple in Yuchih, Nantou, where he has been researching "communication between Heaven and earth" on behalf of T'ienti, hoping to uncover the mechanism for "receiving holy commandments amid the emptiness." With the enthusiastic support of T'ienti, he took the test for graduate school in physics and was admitted to the program at NTU.

Hsu Chih points out that science is still unable to provve the existence of the soul,upon which the T'ienti Teachings are predicated. Hsu Chih relates how several times during meditation he has experienced "the complete casting off of the body. I actually felt bodiless, whereas my mind was still acutely aware." That made him wonder: If the feeling of the soul is so clear, why can't science verify it? He, therefore, wants to find "spiritual effects" that can be observed in the physical world.

With modern science taking steps toward the spiritual world, "Taiwan is naturally best situated to take a world-leading role in this work." Lee Si-chen points out that both Taoism and Buddhism have unique views about the operations of the universe. Furthermore, the Chinese in Taiwan have inherited from their ancestors both the active practice of qigong (the movement of internal energy) and the reflective practice of meditation. Research into these has been extensive, to a degree unimaginable in the West. What's more, the mainland, though blessed with natural resources, has for many years suffered under Marxist materialism, which doesn't acknowledge the existence of God or the spiritual. The limitations caused by this ideology will be extremely difficult to overcome. As a result, even if the mainland has been aggressive in its research of "extraordinary powers," it has not extended this research to the mysteries of the soul.

Cultivating supermen

Lee Si-chen's experiments have allowed the religious community to believe that they have found a scientific fellow traveler who will verify the truth about religious understanding. Nevertheless, as a scientist Lee Si-chen's point of view and attitude is far removed from that of religion.

"What I want to ask is, if that 'information field' really exists, what purpose does it serve? And what meaning does it have for humanity?" Lee makes this analogy: Three million years ago a few anthropoids made the effort to straighten their backs and walk upright. They raised their arms, and used their hands to pick things up, attack others and manufacture tools, consequently developing greater visual and mental powers and greatly advancing knowledge. After hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, these finally became modern human beings.

"After I started to research how to develop human potential, many people wrote me letters saying that they are usually reluctant to tell others about their special powers," Lee recalls. "It was then that I knew that there were already many people with these abilities." Lee hypothesizes that Pian Que, the Warring-States-era physician, who could see into people's organs, and the physician Hua Tuo, who looked into the great Wei strategist Cao Cao's brain and saw a tumor, probably both had these special skills. Jesus Christ was even more clearly in possession of them. Moreover, many great writers and artists and people with great political ambitions like Hong Xiuquan, who established the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace, have surely enjoyed extraordinary powers of higher consciousness.

"If people are willing to cultivate these skills, then 500,000 years from now there will be a new 'super-humanity' that will arise, and those without these special powers will be their servants," remarks Lee in one of his more startling predictions. In order to pass down the "teachings of our forefathers," starting with his grand-children, the Lee children are beginning to practice finger reading before they turn ten, so that they won't lose in the evolutionary sweepstakes!

Apart from studying "finger reading," do you also need religious cultivation? "It's not necessary!" says Lee, who believes that religion is also something that is derived from the "mysterious information field." If you can communicate directly with that field, then why make an indirect approach? "Our approach might be described as 'scientific religion!'" says Lee.

Convergence or divergence?

If one day science's "structural analysis" really were able to penetrate the "mysterious information field," and define the difference between "karma" and reincarnation"; if one day science finds the way to the world of the Buddha and the world of the Devil and shows that their powers come from agitated particles in information waves or other physical phenomena; if one day science proves that there is no God protecting humanity, no rewarding of the good or punishing of the evil, no karmic cause and effect-what then?

In the face of such bold doubts, Liang Nai-tsung argues that modern science-in its primitiveness and shallowness and its infatuation with materialism and functionality-is far from sufficient to uncover the mysteries of the universe and break apart the secrets of life. And while the practice of religion includes curiosity and reverence for the mysterious Lord, what is even more important is raising the quality of the heart and mind, eliminating inflexibility and recovering the self's original state. For this, religion will always be irreplaceable.

The relationship between New Age science and religion is very complex. Is it just about mind? Or is it just about matter? Or is it about the unity of mind and matter? Or are both mind and matter empty concepts? Let's patiently wait and see.