Bettina Odeh

Germany

Explore the harmony between scientific proof and spiritual experience to deepen your personal practice.

English

Science and spirituality are generally considered to be in conflict with each other. It seems like if you believe in science, you cannot believe in spirituality, and vice versa. Is that really true? This talk dispels the notion and discussed how we can incorporate science into our spiritual practice.

Reconciling Science And Spirituality

 There seems to be a misconception that science and spirituality are in conflict. That believing in one automatically means disbelief in the other. That we have to pick and choose between one or the other. That we cannot believe in both science and spirituality at the same time. This I believe is quite far from the truth. Let's dig a little bit deeper into science first. Science is essentially what is called the scientific method. And what the scientific method is, is that bring me a hypothesis, bring me a question. I will do a number of tests and experiments, and using the data from those tests and experiments, I will prove whether the hypothesis is true or not. And that's it. All of science is basically that, and this process builds upon itself. The apple fell on Newton's head. He hypothesized that there is something, which he called gravity, that caused that to happen. And he went back to his lab, he did a bunch of tests and experiments, and he proved that yes, this thing that he called gravity does exist. And he came up with a bunch of equations and formulas that allow us to encapsulate and define gravity. Those same equations and formulas are what allowed us to go to the moon. Those equations and formulas gave us the comfort that our moon rover will land exactly where we predicted it to land on the moon. That's the beauty of science. Once you prove something, it is true for everyone, it is true around the world, all around the universe. These scientific tests and proofs have resulted in theories and understandings of the universe that we would not have been able to do without the scientific method. Basically, everything in science needs a proof. Proof is the essence of science. Give me a proof, give me a mathematical equation, give me data, otherwise it does not exist. There's even a thousand page proof from over a hundred years ago that 1 plus 1 equals 2. Because you cannot just say that 1 plus 1 equals 2, you cannot just believe that 1 plus 1 equals 2. You need to have some kind of a logical proof for it to be valid. And once you have proven that 1 plus 1 equals 2, that gives you the scientific basis to be able to build on top of that and prove bigger and more complex concepts building off from that base fact that you have proven. If it cannot be proved, it does not exist according to science. And if it can be proved, only then does it exist. And because with science, things can be proven repeatedly and consistently, if a fact exists, if a fact is true, it exists for everyone, the fact becomes a universal fact. Spirituality on the other hand is a little bit different. Spirituality removes the need for proof, and it goes more by subjective felt experience. Spirituality says that it exists if you have felt it through your senses. Really, spirituality says that it exists if you say it exists. That's it. However, if you have felt it, if you do say it exists, it does exist, but only for you. You cannot claim it exists for everyone. That's the subjective part of spirituality. If something exists for you, it does not mean it exists for everyone. It exists only for you. It is your reality. This actually can be quite powerful, because it gives you the power to shape and mold your world and your existence in any way you want. Let's actually take an example, a question that science and spirituality seem to be at odds over for eons. Does the soul exist? Pretty much all spiritual traditions seem to agree that something that might be called the soul does exist. You can call it whatever you want, but generally spirituality says that a part of us that is beyond just the physical does exist. And that part is generally what is called the soul. According to science though, nope, the soul does not exist. But I don't think this really is going against spirituality. Science is really just doing what it does. Science is saying that there is no measurable way to account for a soul. And scientists have done experiments on this. They have tried to track all kinds of measures on a person right before and after death. Things like weight, energy field, height, and so on. And they have not been able to prove or detect any significant change in any of these measures right before death and right after death. They could not find any difference that could justify the existence of something called the soul. Now, I don't really think that science is saying that the soul does not exist. I think all science is saying is I cannot measure or prove anything that can be called the soul. And none of the devices we have today can measure something that could be called the soul. Bring me new data tomorrow, new ways of measurement, new devices, new technologies, and I might be able to measure it. And maybe we will have a device at some point in the future that can measure the soul. And at that point, if there is data and proof, science is always flexible enough. And at that point, science will change its position and start quote unquote believing in the soul. So, if we cannot measure the soul, why do so many people around the world believe that the soul exists? It's because mystics for thousands of years and adhering to many, many different spiritual practices have looked within, have introspected, and they have felt something. They have experienced something that they could not explain or prove, but they also could not deny. And this has happened enough times to enough people around the world to suggest that there is something, there is a part of us that is beyond just the physical. And that is really what the mystics call the soul. It is not something that we can prove across the board, at least not yet, but it is something many, many individuals around the world have felt and experienced. In a lot of ways, I feel science is a subset of spirituality. Spirituality allows us to understand ourselves and the universe. Science is a part of that understanding, which we have a really, really good grasp of, which we have numbers and data and equations to comprehensively prove and understand. I think even in our day-to-day lives, science and spirituality should go hand in hand. Even in our own personal practice, we should use science, we should use the scientific method. After your meditation or your yoga session, go back and think and reflect. The experiences that you have during your practice are data. Use that data to reflect and understand yourself and your practice. Use that data to make your spiritual connection better and more effective. This is how science can help us become more spiritual.