SAGES AND SCIENTISTS: HOPE THROUGH CONSCIOUSNESS

By San Diego Entertainer | March 29, 2010

The 1^st Annual Sages and Scientists 2010 Symposium was held at the La Costa Resort and Spa. The symposium featured three days with Deepak Chopra and a panel of the world’s most brilliant minds. Day 1 was enlightening and I was excited to see what Day 2 had to offer.

Day 2

I awoke at 4:30 am to get ready for the 6:00am Yoga session, given by a Chopra Center instructor, which was included as part of the three day Sages and Scientists Symposium. After parking my car I made my way to the yoga class. I was wearing flip flops, a hoodie and my yoga mat in tow, as I made my way through the front lobby. Lo and behold!  I looked up and there was Deepak sitting on a couch sipping his Starbucks.

Deepak had a very cool aura about him. He wasn’t the typical arrogant Hollywood type nor was he the strange out of this world “guru” we might imagine. Deepak’s “coolness” came from his humbleness and his simplicity. Deepak is a dad, a husband, a grandfather and a teacher; just a normal guy.  He stopped me and another yogi because he knew we were attendees of the symposium. He asked us what we thought of the first night of the event. Although I tried to look cool and aloof to be chit-chatting with Deepak, secretly inside, I was doing “the happy dance.” I wanted to tell him how excited I was for our private interview that was scheduled for the following day, but refrained so I wouldn’t seem too eager and unprofessional.

After telling Deepak how much we enjoyed the first night, we said goodbye and made our way to the class. The class began and I was intrigued to be practicing yoga using the Chopra Center method.

There is a series of postures and mantras that the Chopra Center adheres to. I’ve practiced yoga at many different centers and places throughout America and had never done yoga in that way. It was interesting to say the least; I would recommend it to anyone wanting to try yoga for the first time or to anyone curious for a new style. The Chopra Center offers classes for as little as $15 www.chopra.com/lacosta . Once the class ended, we all took time to freshen up and get ready before walking into the Poinsettia Ballroom for the second exciting day at the Symposium.

ETERNAL LIFE

Deepak was wearing his famous red sneakers and used them as an example to prove that the color red itself did not exist. He said that seeing the color red is not an experience and that it is merely electromagnetic activity in the brain. The color red as we know it is something that exists inside our consciousness and not outside in the world, it is internal. And with that, he directed our attention for the day at that concept, “Where is consciousness?”

Space and time, he said, only exists in our consciousness; they do not exist otherwise. The self of the individual is the self of the universe. Deepak said that “the world is, as we are” and whatever we are is what the world is and will be. By taking action to “be” a certain way, we can “create the world” as we wish.  The deeper reality of life is that we all share one body. He made the point that “if everything is consciousness, then transformation can only take place through consciousness.” Everything in life as we have come to know is conceived, produced and governed in this so-called consciousness.

Dr. Dossey (www.dosseydossey.com) was soon introduced and talked about the concept of non-locality. Dr. Larry Dossey is an M.D. who specializes in internal medicine. He graduated from Southwestern Medical School in Dallas Texas. He also served as Chief of Staff at Medical City Dallas Hospital. He was the Executive Editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, the most widely subscribed to journal in its field. Dr. Dossey is very well respected by his peers in the medical community throughout the country and has been invited as a guest lecturer at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Cornell and the Mayo Clinic to name a few.

According to Dr. Dossey, evidence from studies suggests that consciousness is non-local and is infinite in space in time. The term “non-local” that is used frequently refers to the fact that the thing in question cannot be confined or measured into a specific place or location, thus being non-local (everywhere). He says that a mind that is infinite in this way is omnipresent (present everywhere, simultaneously), therefore a non-local mind is immortal, eternal and boundless (“the collective consciousness”).

Like the physicist, Dr. Duerr, referenced in my first article on the symposium, Dr. Dossey also makes reference to old science and that it describes consciousness as finite and physical. Old science contains the ideology that intention does not have an effect on the state of the world. According to old science, cerebral functioning (cerebral cortex-interprets sensory functions, thinking, perceiving etc.) is necessary for consciousness to occur.

Dr. Dossey told the audience about a study that was done on a man with an exceptionally high IQ who was called a genius.  The inside of this man’s skull was analyzed and was revealed that his brain was almost entirely filled with fluid. His cerebral cortex was the size of a rabbits’; the cerebral cortex of a normal human encompasses two thirds of the brain mass. This example opens the door to disprove the original theory of old science that consciousness occurs in the cerebral cortex.

Dr. Dossey relays that “new science,” or the evolution of science, has discovered the reality of non-local manifestations of consciousness. In this sense, consciousness works through the brain, but does not “come” from it. He went on to discuss the findings of over 2,200 published reports on the curing of diseases and illness through remote healings.  It has been studied that prayer in humans has yielded significant results. Many healing studies have been done on non-humans; seeds, micro-organisms, cells etc. and the results suggest that healing through intention is real. Refer to my continued coverage on Day 3 as it describes the healing miracles of Trivedi.

Dr. Dossey addressed a question on the minds of most people; “how does it work?” and the answer is, “something unknown is doing something that we don’t know.” New science has taken the step towards the realization that the answers lie outside of sciences’ current epistemology.  Dr. Dossey’s message was that our thoughts are connected with nature through non-local connection.

The next speaker, Dr. Jim Tucker, had additional evidence to add to the context of the greater knowledge that exists outside of old science. Dr. Tucker is a board-certified child psychiatrist and serves as the Medical Director of the University of Virginia’s Child and Family Psychiatry Clinic.

Dr. Tucker introduced us to stories of his patients who have memories of previous lives. He has written a book called Life Before Life in which he includes the various studies on the phenomenon. According to his research and personal encounters with these patients, he has noted that the memories occur in children between the ages of two and five and stop between five and eight years old. He accounted an incident of a child born without fingers. This child talked about how his fingers were chopped off and the pain he had felt, even though his fingers weren’t chopped off (he was born that way). The child’s relative who was deceased prior to the birth of the child, had his fingers chopped off. This child spoke as though he was that man.

In another example, a child was born with a grotesquely prominent scar on his skull. It had turned out that a relative of the child who was at the time deceased, had a major brain surgery that left a massive scar on his skull, in the same area that the child’s scar was located.

The results of the studies shared were jaw dropping. There were other children who had cross gender behaviors, apparently remnants of past lives, and caused gender identity issues in the current life.  Feelings and emotions from past lives were carried over.

There was a picture presented of a three year old child with a severe smoking addiction which he had acquired in the previous life. One child apparently was the reincarnated version of his dead grandfather.  This child gave very specific details of the grandfather’s life, things that were verified to be accurate.  Some children even went on to discuss heaven and hell in great detail as well as other realms of existence. Some of these children have said that we each choose who our parents are going to be before we are actually born. You can watch Dr. Tucker’s interview on the subject on YouTube.

Dr. Tucker’s experience with his patients added to a very consistent theme amongst the speakers:  old science vs. new science, evolution of science, that which lays outside our current epistemology, the interconnectedness of people—to the point of the continuity of life into at least a second life. To say the least, there is more to life than people know or can understand. There needs to be an open-mindedness to allow for the evolution of thought to occur and allow us to shift into the new paradigm of thought.

Dr. Marilyn Schlitz (www.marilynschlitz.com) who has taught at Stanford University and the Harvard Medical Center also shed light on the need for humans to open their minds on a new way of perception. The stories that Dr. Tucker shared are hard to believe and Dr. Schlitz said that people are hard wired to reject things that they don’t know. That essentially makes the evolution of science and knowledge difficult, because at a fundamental level, people don’t want to let go of what they know. People have the mentality, as she described as being, “stuck in the mud.” If one person frees themselves from the mud, they can come back to save the others. Her analogy is directed towards everyone who is stuck in the old paradigm of thought and the need for those brave few who have managed to shift their thoughts to the new paradigm to take the responsibility to help those who are stuck. She continues to say that people are interconnected and entangled with each other.

She added some final points to ponder by discussing “The Love Study” and said that it was important for people to shift their thinking by doing the following:

1. Recognized that we have biases
2. Give up the need to be right
3. Explore things with a beginner’s curiosity
4. Embrace the mystery that is among us
5. Consciousness matters, it’s important; relationships and communication matter(if we are separate we are not responsible). Once we realize the importance of relationships we are responsible.

Yet another scientist, Dr. Schlitz, gave her testimony on the interconnectedness of all things (omnipresence) and gave the advice to not block out things which are unfamiliar. Just because we do not know something, does not make it false.

THE NEW SCIENCE: WATER

Dr. Rustum Roy (www.rustumroy.com) is among the two or three active leading materials scientists in the U.S. Newsweek has described him as being “the leading contrarian among U.S. scientists.” After a recent testimony given by Dr. Roy to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Technology and Research, he was given a standing ovation, the only one in the past 16 years. Dr. Rustum Roy has been invited to The White House five times and has met with George W. Bush, The C.I.A. and the Department of Defense.

He wrote a book called Scientific Qigong Exploration, on research of the effect of human intention. Dr. Roy found that throughout the world, prayer has had a significant effect on water. According to his research, water structure can be changed drastically by electromagnetic fields, radiation etc.  He states that water is the most isodesmic material found, in that it has both the strongest bonds and the softest. A simple prayer to bless water has caused a change in its molecular structure. He said that water exists in a myriad of structures and that “water is the carrier of consciousness and the carrier of life. Water is the most dominant medium to change human consciousness.”

Dr. Vladimir Voeikov also legitimized Dr. Roy’s findings. Dr. Voeikov stated that energy is released in the form of photons. Water by itself does not exist, it has an eternal substance. All creation is connected to water and water was not created. Water is the transformer of energy of higher grade water. He left us with a simple fact to ponder: 99% of a sperm cell and an egg is water.

Dr. Rustum Roy has also stayed consistent with the theme of the Symposium; the capability of the paradigm shift through consciousness.  He said that science must be bonded with love to have a loving intention. Dr. Roy, along with his peers, said that it is necessary to shift our consciousness towards loving intentions if we are to save the world from its current path of destruction.

BEYOND SCIENCE

Dr. G. Patrick Flannigan invented the Neurophone, an electronic nervous system that transmits sound through the skin, directly to the brain. He received a U.S. patent on this device and it had been written about in Life Magazine.  At age eleven, he developed and sold a guided missile detector to the U.S. Military, at seventeen he was employed by a think tank at The Pentagon and later was a consultant to the NSA, CIA and NASA.  Currently he is an inventor, philanthropist and promotes human healing.

Many people are familiar with the Om chant. The Om chant is considered the most important word in the mantra tradition. Om has been said to be the sound of creation and existence. It is said that at a fundamental level, the universe is made up of vibrations. Om is considered the humming sound of the cosmic universe.  Dr. Flannigan talked about a symbol called, Sri Yantra which is a very powerful and beautiful geometric mandala. The geometries found within the symbol are synonymous with creation. The symbol is created using nine interwoven isosceles triangles; four that point upward and represent the dynamic feminine energy and five downward that represent the masculine energy of static wisdom. The Sri Yantra symbol is the visual expression of the sound, Om. The geometric pattern of Sri Yantra has been recorded electronically and emerges during the Om chant.

Dr. Flannigan conducted a worldwide Om chant during the Earth dance, Fall Equinox in 2007 and as a result a scientific measuring device at Princeton University went out of control. During the Symposium, not only did Dr. Flannigan allow us to listen to it, he provided one of the most amazing laser shows I had ever seen. I urge the readers to listen to it:

POWER OF HUMAN INTENTION

The final speaker I have decided to write about is Dr. Ervin Laszlo (www.ervinlaszlo.com) who is a professor of philosophy and has received many honorary PhDs from the U.S., Canada, Finland and Hungary. He is the founder of The Club of Budapest and like the other speakers, testifies that there is no absolute separation between people, things and the universe.

Dr. Laszlo says that the whole universe is an entangled system. There is an information field in the cosmos that intercepts signals and communicates things and acts on them through energy. He says that energy, above all is something that transforms information through a set of interactive patterns of informed energy.

He said that space is the field of energy of informational fields. He wanted to reiterate the interconnectedness of all things by using the example of waves. He said that on the surface the waves create a pattern; one wave after another, and so on. What we forget to see is that even though each wave is a separate wave on its own, it only appears that way; it is actually a part of the whole, the ocean, water, and is not separate at all. All of life and the universe operates in this exact way. He also used the word “non-locality”; by saying that there is a structure and process in the universe that constantly creates. Non-locality is the key to consciousness. The concept of coherence is universal.

He made a very startling observation as well. He stated that humans are the only species on the planet that are capable of interpretation of things which we perceive, and make conclusions based on those perceptions. He asked, “what if those interpretations could be wrong?”

He said that our planet’s biosphere is no longer coherent and is now detached and searching for its balance. Humans are destroying the balance; we are creating an imbalance. We have disregarded our responsibility to keep the equation in balance. We are now paying the price. He said that cancer is essentially the break in communication of one part from the other. We are a cancer because we are destroying our system on this planet.

Dr. Laszlo said that healing of the self is key. He said that life on this planet is at a critical tipping point. There are only two possibilities: 1. A break down where the system disassembles itself 2. A higher consciousness ensues and humans wake up and begin to make the changes. The changes must come from the self, from within; they must come from having intentions of love in all aspects of life: work, family, health, relationships, nature etc.

Scientist and guests from all over the world attended the Symposium: Argentina, Germany, Russia, Canada, Spain, Mexico, Japan and so many more. There were hundreds of people at the event. Everyone was from a common mindset; world peace through consciousness.

Dr. Laszlo and everyone that spoke before him discussed non-locality, consciousness, interconnectedness, knowledge beyond what is known and they all came to one final conclusion: “People must commune together to save the planet and the species.”

Deepak invited everyone in the audience to take a vow of non-violence. He asked all those who take the vow, to stand up. Every single person stood from their seats. I invite you, the reader to do the same, please take a vow of non-violence and stand up—take it one step further by writing your intention on Mallika Chopra’s website, www.Intent.com . After attending the symposium, my heart was ignited by the fuel of love, and it caused me to take action. Find out what I’m talking about by visiting www.Friendsof1Love4All.org.

Arzo Yusef is our self empowerment and improvement contributing writer who had the opportunity to attend The Sages & Scientists Symposium and interview Deepak Chopra. Check back for extended coverage of the event and interview with Deepak Chopra and Mahendra Kumar Trivedi on sdentertainer.com