Physics and Yoga - 1

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Namaste All,

 

Here is an attempt to post a few mini-essays on the

relation between the views of modern science

and the Vedas.

 

Comments are most welcome. If some reader feels the

presentation is flawed, please bring it to my notice.

 

 

Physics and Yoga

 

In my opinion, if the relation between yoga and

physics is addressed, it should go a long way in

understanding Vedas in general. Let us take up the

core issue to start with:

 

How do yoga siddhis fit in with our understanding of

physics ? Is the concept of yoga siddhis at conflict

with the scientific view of the world ?

 

Consider a table with a pen on it. The pen is at the

left end of the table. Without physically doing

anything,

by thoughts alone is it possible for the pen to be

'teleported' to the right end of the table ?

 

Yoga sutras assert that such things are possible

and the suggested technique is a particular

meditation that Patanjali terms 'Samayama'. Almost

all of us have heard accounts of advanced yogis

perform such feats. Shri Satya Sai Baba for example

is attributed fantastic powers.

 

Based on classical physics such a phenomenon is

impossible. However in quantum physics, which in fact

is the contemporary point of view, such phenomena

are not ruled out.

 

In quantum physics, for any situation one can

in principle write down a wave equation. Wave

equation describes the evolution of the state of

a physical system. The initial knowledge that we

have about the system constitutes the initial

state of the system. The wave equation then

allows us to compute the probability that the

system will be in some particular state. In the

above example one can write an equation for

the system consisting of the table, chair, air

in the room, wall, floor and ceiling (say we

restrict the list to just these objects). The

initial state of the system is the pen being

on the left corner of the table. Let us use the

wave equation to compute the probabilities of the

following two states:

State 1. The next second the pen is on the left

corner of the table.

State 2. The next second the pen is on the right

corner of the table.

 

I have not done the math, but I am quite sure

that if one were to do the math (which would be

impossibly complicated) we would get:

Prob(State 1) = P1 ~ 1

Prob(State 2) = P2 ~ 0 (~ represents approximately).

 

Important point is, P2 though vanishingly small,

is not zero.

 

Even more important point is, quantum theory has

no control on which of the states the system will

be observed in. The most unfortunate point is

hardly any physicist makes any serious attempt to

inquire into this.

 

Ordinarily an observation will result is State 1

but on rare occasions one might observe the system

is State 2. Say we observe the system the state 2

what happens after that, do we momentarily

see the system in state 2 and then the system

reverts back to state 1 ? No, on observation

the evolution of the system stop, also known

as collapse of the wave function. We now have

to formulate a new wave equation, with state 2

as the initial state of the system. Now this

wave equation will have P2 ~ 1, and P1 ~ 0.

That is if we succeed in observing the pen

once on the right corner, most likely all

subsequent observations will correspond to

the system in state 2.

 

If one were to bring mind into the picture,

and postulate that it is some activity of the

mind that is responsible for choosing which

state would be really observed, it would NOT

AT ALL be in contradiction with physics.

Such an approach would in fact complement the

quantum theory.

 

More later .....

 

Warm regards

Shrinivas

 

 

 

 

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