December 11, 2013

By Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: In a much-awaited speech on the reform of higher education in Muslim societies, Anwar Ibrahim disagreed with the popular notion among Muslims that Western education is devoid of an ethical and moral dimension.

Anwar said this notion, widely disseminated in Islamic intellectual circles, has been a hindrance to the development of Muslims, particularly in the scientific and technical spheres.

[T]here is a general perception among the discourse of many Muslim scholars that Western education and philosophy is secular and bereft of an ethical and moral dimension. To my mind, this is unfounded, declared Anwar in a keynote address to a symposium organised by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Washington DC on Monday.

Malaysias parliamentary opposition leader, highly regarded abroad than at home for his intellection, observed that the misperception of Western education as ethically vacant was also shared by intellectuals in the West.

He said seminal Western thinkers like John Locke and Adam Smith were concerned to base their philosophies on a moral core, but that Smith, in particular, the icon of capitalism, has been seriously misread. Anwar argued that the moral sentiments that were an integral part of Smiths economic propositions were not at loggerheads with Islamic percepts.

He likened Smiths concern for morality in economics with Islamic thinker Ismail Faruqis conception of a good economy as the expression of Islams spirituality.

To Faruqi, the economy of the ummah and its good health are the essence of Islam, just as Islams spirituality is inexistent without just economic action.

Anwar held that the Islamic percept inna al din al muamalah (religion is indeed Mans treatment of his fellows) made it imperative for Man to order human life so as to make it actualise the pattern intended for it by its Creator.

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Comment on Western Education is not bereft of Ethical and Moral Values by Thumb Logic

(Above) NBC News states: Dr Morse has done more to prove the existence of life after death than any other scientist

Dedicated to healing therapies for grief and loss, the treatment of autism, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and the human spirit"

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LEARNING FROM THE NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

"If an angel spoke to you today, would you listen? How would you know it was real? How could you trust what the angel had to say?"

What is a Near Death Experience

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MELVIN L MORSE MD FAAP One important way to achieve our missionis to promote an understanding that we all have a"God Spot"in our brain which permits communication with a source of wisdom and knowledge that exists outside our physical bodies.We want to explore and promote the practical applications of understanding thisnew paradigm of consciousness.

Idon't "believe in" near death experiences. It is my opinion that the scientific research validates that near death experiences are real. The science of 2011 indicates that we all have a "god spot" or (as per Mario Beauregard MD) a "god brain" that connects us with the divine, the all knowledge timeless space-less domain.

Children who have experienced thisall knowledge domaindescribe it as a "light that had a lot of good things in it" (age 5), or "I saw the sun and it had a happy face for me" (a 3 y/o),"you'll see, Dr. Morse, heaven is fun"(age 7), most intriguingly, "I went into a huge noodle when I died, well it must have been a tunnel because I don't think noodles have rainbows in them.(age 5).

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Spiritual Scientific Inc - Institute for the Scientific Study ...

In this subdomain of Science and Spirituality, we contemplate our basic reality as Consciousness and behold this manifest Cosmos arising out of Consciousness. We'll especially consider the many uncanny, "miraculous" anomalies of this dream-like Cosmos and the Consciousness which subsumes it.

We start with an excerpt on Consciousness as the basic, essential reality underlying all appearances and experiences. This essay comes from my upcoming book, Spirit, Science and Deep Wonder.

Here is an old handout I've given students for many years on Cosmic Miracles, the stupendously "uncanny"many scientists would openly say "miraculous"fine-tunings inherent in the appearance and unfolding evolution of our physical universe, without which there would simply be no universe. Such serendipitous miracles can give anyone evidential basis for a spiritual faith that this earthly situation of ours is not some existential nightmare of absurd meaninglessness, an entirely-by-chance "accident," but rather a wondrously beautiful and meaningful drama lit up at every turn by some kind of Divine Superintelligence.

And here is a useful short paper on learning how to discern fact from fiction, along a ranging continuum from mere conjecture or fantasy to plausible possibility to some degree of likelihood (based on stronger and stronger evidence) to what we can as a society agree upon as "fact."

On a very popular, controversial topic, here is an essay on Miracles, an excerpt from the first part of the Appendix, "Miracles and Other Unusual Phenomena" taken from my book Women of Power and Grace: Nine Astonishing, Inspiring Luminaries of Our Time [Wake Up Press, 1995]. The reader will also find in the endnotes to this essay an especially useful set of bibliographies on physics, cosmology, parapsychology, etc.

In case you think such paranormal powers are the stuff of mere fantasy and over-zealous reporting by cognitively-challenged "flakes" and "crackpots," here is an impressive report on the psi power of Remote Viewing, which was thoroughly studied and applied by the U.S. government at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) from 1972 to 1986, and then at the U.S. Army's Fort Meade from 1978 to 1995, with many satisfied customers, including the CIA, NSA, NRO, and other federal agencies. I include with my essay here on Remote Viewing an appendix reproducing a significant press release from the Journal of Scientific Exploration, which first revealed the phenomenon of remote viewing to the scientific world in a special 1996 issue devoted to the subject.

The bottom line: our universe and the powers of Consciousness (in both its "normal" and "paranormal"/nonlocal aspects) are far more interesting than we have been led to believe.

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Science and Spirituality - Enlightened Spirituality, Welcome ...

Frank Huguenard, Staff Writer Waking Times

In modern times, attempts are often made to use the modern scientific method to infer or prove the existence of a spiritual dimension. Electrodes are attached to mediators head, psychics and remote viewers are tested for accuracy and consistency, and the results of intentions and prayers are statistically measured and quantified.

But what happens when, instead of attempting to use the finite to prove the infinite, we apply the systematic modeling that the modern science methodology gives us over the works of all the great masters? Can we possibly distill a common framework by analyzing the teachings of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, Rumi and so many others and resynthesize the findings into a workable hypothesis? A hypothesis so comprehensive that when applied to all of the worlds major religions, it can be mapped across them universally while at the same time encompassing everything from remote viewing and reincarnation to Near-Death experiences (NDEs) and Out of Body experiences.

The true spirit of science, going back thousands of years, has always been a quest for knowledge, for the truth. In fact, the wordsciencecomes from the Latin wordscient,which simply means to know, as in omniscient or All Knowing. The relatively young Modern Scientific Method has its short coming, but it does give us a step-by-step process that includes assumptions, definitions, axioms, postulates and hypothesis and then suggests protocols, methods and techniques to either prove or disprove a given theory.

So if we were to use this step-by-step process to examine what all of the great masters have attempted to communicate, what would these basic axioms, definitions, assumptions and hypotheses be? And which theory would we then isolate and which protocols, methods and techniques would we use to either prove or disprove this theory? And in a truly scientifically-minded approach, research into various spiritual traditions would not only include the most prominent texts, but also all the available information. For example, in drawing a comprehensive comparison between the fundamental messages of Christianity against other traditions, it would be unscientific to exclude the many, many documents that were removed from the bible such as the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary, the Didache, Pistas Sophia, Gospel of Peter, etc.

To begin this process scientifically, we would start with the simple definitions and axioms that we find in every faith. We can take, for an example, a simple definition of truth. If we look at what all the masters have said, you will recognize a definition for Truth as this: The Truth is that which doesnt change, anything that changes isnt real. Furthermore, we can take as a working axiom, things like the concepts that we are not our bodies, we are not our egos, we are not our memories and we are not our minds. As in all things in the scientific process, we begin to use these basic building blocks of definitions and axioms to slowly build up a model.

While the Modern Scientific Method rejects reincarnation out of hand because it is absolutely impossible to prove or disprove using their techniques and protocols, there is sufficient evidence in each of the great traditions of the world that reincarnation is real so it would be unreasonable to exclude it as a postulate in our model. If you look at something like the concept of Original Sin in Judaism and Christianity, which to a lot of people seem like outmoded mythical concept, all of the sudden it begins to make complete sense when juxtaposed against the idea of Karma in Eastern Traditions.

The one primary concept that seems to be a common threadamongstall Masters is that there is a Self. Atman. God.Cosmic Consciousness. The Non-Dual. Additionally, we can extract from this idea the corollary that, through attaining higher levels of consciousness, it is possible to become Self Realized. What that Self really is, has never really been described (other than through parables), but we can assume it exists. So looking at this model scientifically, we will take the existence of one all-pervading Self as our primary theory. We can take it a step further and apply a scientific truism that, if one human being can have an experience, then every human being can have that same experience. Therefore the basic tenets of the modern scientific process, repeatability and independent verification, are part of our scientific approach.

Once we have scientifically created our model for spirituality, using as a basis all of the great Masters works, we can then go back to some of the individual quotes and derive new meanings from them. For example, when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the light, he is speaking as a Self-Realized Master and not from the perspective of an individual, separate from the Whole. So, naturally, any self-realized master could speak exactly the same words and none of them would be contradicting each other. You can easily see here how, from one perspective, it appears that Jesus is fostering exclusivity, but, from another perspective he is using a scientific approach. There is only one destination because there is only one Self. At least these are the basic theories, postulates, corollaries, axioms and definitions that we take as our model to prove or disprove.

To get to the truth, we again look scientifically at a cross section of all the traditions to extract the protocols, methods and techniques recommended by all the Great Masters to be used for verification. We are told that, although we are just one, the thing that creates and perpetuates this false sense of separation is the ego. We are also told that reincarnation plays a vital role in perpetuating this delusion, and that part of what prevents us from knowing our true Self is our own mind, which is constantly looking to the world without rather than the world within. So we know that to conduct our scientific experiment within the prescribed guidelines, regulating things like diet and other activities greatly enhance the possibilities of success.

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Science & Spirituality - Waking Times

Your Global Spiritual Science Portal Where Spirituality Meets Science To Create Paradigm Changes In Human Awareness Ancient Knowledge Reveals Secrets To The Science of Manifestation Holistic Science & Technology Delivers The Potential For Sustainable Pollution-Free Energy, and much more Fostering A Paradigm Changing Holistic Understanding Of Science, Energy, Consciousness and Spirituality

The SPIRITUAL SCIENCE WEBSITE advances the case for re-unifying SPIRITUALITY with SCIENCE to facilitate a paradigm shift towards a more holistic 21st Century Science that aligns with humanity's expanding consciousness and new knowledge that has emerged from many facets of leading edge human endeavour over the past five decades, and more.

This Ingenious Little Video on Duality Consciousness and "What It's All About" ... Thankyou Louis!

A growing number of modern day scientists and philosophers hold the view that Science is limited in its completeness and potential application because it denies metaphysical causality and dependency, which in turn fuels a paradigm for potentially unproductive research and theoretical activity. We share that view but also acknowledge the efforts of all scientists, philosophers and others alike, no mater what beliefs they hold, for endeavouring to expand scientific and human knowledge in their respective areas of interest and expertise.

This website also provides key insights into METAPHYSICS, CONSCIOUSNESS, ENERGY, SPIRITUALITY, the nature of REALITY, and the metaphysical causality and dependence that applies to what we humans perceive as the physical Universe and all life. We believe that SPIRITUAL SCIENCE offers potential for expanding humanity's awareness in MASTERING the holistic application of expanded KNOWLEDGE and TRUTH, and with such a paradigm change will come an abundance of new holistic technologies, scientific advances, and the expanded spiritual awareness and wisdom that humanity needs to create sustainable peace and harmony with each other and the environment.

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Spiritual Science - Spiritual Science - Homepage

Effects of Yoga-Postures of Hand (Hasta Mudras) Increasing awareness about yoga and authentic experiences of its positive effects upon one's wellrbeing, have also created interest in the scientific foundation of yoga. The asana, pranayam, bandha an... Can Animals Predict Weather? Inspite of all the expertise deployed in data-collection, modeling and inference in which a large number of talented, skilled and well trained brains are employed for doing the job with high-tech comm... Bio-Energy: Medical Imaging to Psychic Healing Science and Spirituality [Bio-energy fields, aura-measurements for diagnosis of psychosomatic disorders, and energy-healing by Reiki, Pranic, Siddha-science, etc are gaining popularity ... Timeless Existence The volume of air inflated in balloon remains confined to a fixed size. The moment this sheath is removed, it spreads freely and unifies with its gigantic expansion in the open space (in earth's atmos... Science and Spirituality - Human Bioelectricity Each living being has its own specific bioelectric field (Aura) around the body. This bioelectric field also exerts its influence on the environment around the individual. Experienced yogis can lear... Kama - The Hidden Source of Vital - Spiritual Energy Gayatri the Eternal Supreme Power of God, is revered as the origin of the infinite gamut of spiritual, conscious, unconscious and super-conscious faculties, cosmic energy and material existence. Th... Science and Spirituality - Control and Refinement of Hormones At a superficial level, it appears that some chemical processing of the food intakes generates blood, and that the flow of blood is the source of heat and energy in the body. However, deeper analysis... Awaken the hidden powers of hearing by Nada Yoga The ear in a human body is said to be the most sensitive and powerful radar available in this world. Apart from its unique capacities of sensing, filtering and identifying a large variety of sounds i... Science and Spirituality Prana and Bioelectrical System of Human Body An unlimited resource of electrical energy forms the basis of physical manifestation of Nature. The discovery of this fact and persistent efforts to utilize this immense power of Nature has been of gr...

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Scientific Spirituality - (Akhandjyoti)

From the Publisher With science and religion we have two seemingly opposed views of how life, the universe and everything began:

1) Scientists generally believe that a perfectly balanced universe spontaneously appeared out of nothingness, and that life, consciousness and intelligence randomly evolved from inert matter.

2) Christians generally believe that an all-powerful and all-knowing God created the world and its myriad of life-forms (in just six days).

Not only do they both seem pretty unbelievable, they appear to share no common ground. However, recent scientific discoveries have unknowingly provided evidence that supports the multi-dimensional nature of reality that Hindus, Buddhists and Kabbalists have known about for thousands of years:

1) The latest scientific models state that the universe is multi-dimensional, with six or more hidden spatial dimensions, and is primarily composed of non-physical matter (dark matter and dark energy).

2) Respected doctors and medical practitioners are now openly investigating near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences and past-life regression, and are beginning to discover the multi-dimensional nature of human beings.

By combining modern scientific facts with ancient spiritual knowledge we begin to uncover the whole truth and bring unity out of the existing duality. There can be only one true reality, but we will never discover the whole truth if we hold on to our preconceived ideas and only look from one perspective. Einstein said: "Religion without science is blind, science without religion is lame", because they are two sides of the same coin.

Science and spirituality both agree that we live in a multi-dimensional universe, and paranormal phenomena suggest that life exists in these other dimensions. Human beings may be at the top of the evolutionary ladder in our 3-dimensional physical world but a hierarchy of increasingly advanced beings live in dimensions that exist just beyond our normal range of perception. These higher-dimensional beings are omniscient and omnipotent in our physical world, which is how our concept of god originated.

A handful of these highly advanced beings periodically incarnate to teach the most advanced members of humanity about the true nature of reality. The great masters such as Krishna, Buddha and Christ (and many others who kept lower profiles) are the originators of esoteric knowledge - the one true science and the one true religion. The information was shrouded in mystery and symbolism to prevent the uninitiated from fully understanding it in the event that it became public knowledge.

Most of the world's major religions were built around carefully selected pieces of this esoteric information that were taught to the general public at various times throughout history. As time passed and the religions grew, bureaucracy, dogma and superstition developed, which further distorted the original teachings. Science developed in response to the woefully poor explanations of reality offered by western religion. The early scientists were persecuted and deemed heretics for questioning the Church and delving into the mind of God, when all they sought to do was to understand the world in which they lived. Scientific scepticism of all things mystical is still very much apparent today.

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The Science of Spirituality: Integrating Science, Psychology ...

The universe comes out of the union of two fundamental forces: matter (jada, or 'that which gives shape') and consciousness (chetan). These are also respectively known as prakrati (the manifested form) and purusha (the invisible enlivening spirit). Both have their own merits when considered in isolation; however, it is the union and co-operation of these two entities that works wonders. The human body is a very good example of this fact. Our body is made up of five basic elements the panca tatvas1. The body is an integrated form of various organs, muscles, nerves, arteries, veins etc., and can be used to accomplish any desired work but is non-functional without consciousness. The consciousness part of man (termed "the soul") thinks, decides and directs organs towards a particular task. The separation of consciousness from matter results in death. A dead body is useless since it is not functional. In the absence of consciousness, it rapidly decays and its constituting elements eventually dissolve into their cosmic states.

In essence, it is the association of matter and consciousness that gives rise to functionality. Matter alone, otherwise, is unorganised and of very little use even though it is present in abundance in the universe. For example, water is plentiful in oceans but is too salty. The atmosphere is full of gases, electro-magnetic rays, X-rays etc. but these components are not useful on their own. It is the human intervention, or alternatively the intervention of developed consciousness, that organises matter so as to make it useful. For example, man has developed methods to process water to make it fit for human consumption. Fire and electricity were present in the universe since times immemorial, but mans intelligence organised these entities in a utilisable form. Thus, although the components of Nature are powerful in their own right, their usefulness has depended on the inventive skills of human consciousness.

Science and spirituality:

The discovery of the powers of Nature, their organisation and the skills that make them useful to man is called science. Science can thus be called the unison of matter and consciousness. Science has made possible the progress of the human civilisation.

It should be noted that the knowledge of the use of matter is not enough; its righteous use should also be considered. The same criterion also applies to consciousness. In the absence of their righteous use, matter and consciousness are open to be abused. The attraction of immediate gains is such that its long-term effects are not appreciated and this shortsighted judgement prompts man to misuse power. Ultimately, he creates a web in which he gets trapped, just like a fish caught in a net. This results in suffering, public anger and self-destruction, and yet it is a practice generally adopted by most people. The society and the government rarely succeed in preventing such practices....

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Scientific Spirituality: The Religion of the Future - (Akhandjyoti)

Book Description

Scientific Spirituality is an easy to read book that reviews advances in science and how they help our spiritual beliefs. Some advances have been around for some time, such as evolution, brain functions, and the various traits of our personalities. Others are newer but are becoming established, such as the Big Bang theory, how genes work, the types of brain waves, and how people learn. Still others are so new that scientists aren't sure if they're real or not, such as string theory, reincarnation, artificial life, and parallel universes.

Dr. Bender has brought published research from a broad range of fields, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, anthropology, archaeology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, theology, mysticism, topology, and probability, to describe the essentials of spirituality. Scientific advances help find logical, rather than magical, interpretations for extraordinary spiritual events people describe. The result is a cohesive view of spirituality that's consistent with science.

Scientific Spirituality is both a "what if" and a "how to" book for people trying to understand how science and spirituality connect, what if your spirit lived forever, and how to improve your spirit for eternity.

482 Pages Over 120 Illustrations (over 90 in full color)

General Table of Contents

See a Table of Contents with the main topics in Scientific Spirituality. The book includes an extensive list of references for more information on every topic in it.

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Scientific Spirituality