What I hope to do this morning is to give you a brief glimpse into

the quantum mechanical body-mind, to at least attempt to

understand the exact nature of what the human body is like and
also the exact nature of what the Cosmic Body is like
We use terms like mind and body and universe, but what really is
the exact nature of these things! What is the mind, what is the
body, what"s the exact nature of physical reality! #s children, we
always had questions like, $Where was I before I was born! What
am I doing here! What happens after death! #m I confined to my
physical body! #m I %ust a skin encapsulated ego in a bag of flesh
and bones! What really happens to me! &o I have a local address!
Where do I live in this universe!$
#nd it"s interesting that science today is beginning to ask the same
questions #fter all science is the quest for the truth and if you"re a
real scientist, these are the questions that are most critical to us
'ne of the interesting things that science has found, this should
have been obvious all along, is that what we call perception, what
we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, is really the least reliable test
of what reality really is We cannot trust our senses at all(
#fter all, the senses tell us that the earth is flat and we don"t believe
that anymore )he senses tell us that the ground that we stand on is
stationary and we know it"s spinning at di**ying speeds and
hurtling through outer space at thousands of miles an hour )he
senses tell us things have a certain taste, smell, si*e, texture
+aybe that"s not the way they really are
)here was an experiment done at ,arvard +edical -chool about
./ years ago # group of scientists took some kittens and brought
them up in a room that had only hori*ontal stripes #ll the visual
stimuli in the room were hori*ontal #nother group of kittens was
brought up in a room that had only vertical stripes #nd when these
kittens grew up to be wise old cats, it turns out that one group of
cats could see only a hori*ontal world )he other group of cats
could see only a vertical world #nd this had nothing to do with the
belief system of these cats
It"s a phenomenon that psychologists call 0remature Cognitive
Commitment 0remature, because we make it at a very early stage
of our development Cognitive, because that"s how they cogni*e or
see the world #nd commitment, because it fixes us to a particular
reality, it imprisons us in a fixed mode of perception
)here are many variations of these experiments In India, when
they train elephants, they take the baby elephant and tie it with an
iron chain to a huge tree )hen they start cutting the si*e of the
chain and the tree 1ltimately you can tie the elephant which a big
animal now, with a flimsy rope to a green plant but the elephant is
unable to escape It"s made a commitment in its body-mind that it"s
in a prison(
'r you can do another simple experiment )ake some flies and put
them in a %ar #fter a while remove the lid from the %ar and you"ll
find that most of the flies, except for a couple of pioneers, will not
be able to escape )hey make a commitment in their body-mind
that they"re in a prison
0eople will tell you who work in aquariums that you can separate
fish from each other )hey"re in big glass tanks and the separations
are transparent glass partitions 2ou can remove the glass partition
after a while )he fish will swim to the edge of where the partition
was and return )hey made a commitment that that"s as far as they
can go
#ll these experiments, and there are many variations of these, are
pointing to a very crucial fact as far as the mechanics of perception
is concerned #nd that is that our initial sensory experiences and
how we interpret them or how they are interpreted for us actually
structure the very anatomy and physiology of our nervous system
in such a way that ultimately the nervous system serves only one
function3 to keep reinforcing the initial interpretation #nything
that doesn"t reinforce the initial interpretation doesn"t even get into
the nervous system -o if you don"t have a concept or a notion or
an idea that something exists, then your nervous system won"t even
take it in
)hat"s a very peculiar fact because it tells us that with bits of
sensory experience, we"ll never be able to comprehend the whole
We never will be( #fter all the human eye can see only between
45/ and 6// billionths of a meter )here"s nothing sacred between
47/ and 48/ It doesn"t exist for us
#nd so too for the other senses )his is true not only of the human
species but of all species # honeybee, for example, doesn"t have
the apparatus to see the usual wavelengths that you and I perceive
It senses ultra-violet When a honeybee looks at a flower at a
distance it doesn"t see a flower It sees honey from a distance but it
misses the flower altogether # snake would experience the same
thing as infrared radiation which means nothing to you and me #
bat would experience that as the echo of ultra-sound which also
means nothing to you and me #nd a chameleon"s eyeballs swivel
on two different axis 2ou can"t even remotely imagine what this
would look like to a chameleon
-o what"s the real nature of the world! What"s it really like! We
can"t trust the senses )hey give us a very distorted view )hey
break up that wholeness into a small fragment and we call it
reality We happen to agree about it We even call it $ob%ective
reality$ and we have a whole methodology that we call $science$
to explore that If you really understand what science is, then
science at least until now has not been a method for exploring the
truth -cience has been a method for exploring our current map of
what we think the truth is #nd the map is not the territory )he
territory that we explore is really an extension of the map we have
If we don"t have the complete map then we will not explore the
territory that is not within the framework of that map
-ir 9ohn :ckles who won the ;obel pri*e in physiology and
medicine several years ago made the statement, $I want you to
understand that there are no colors in the real world )hat there are
no textures in the real world )here are no fragrances in the real
world )here is no beauty, there is no ugliness ;othing of the sort
'ut there is a chaos of energy soup and energy fields <iterally We
take that and somewhere inside ourselves we create a world
-omewhere inside ourselves it all happens$
It"s not out there at all( =o to a physicist and ask him what"s this
made up of! #nd he"ll tell you there are %ust four basic forces3
gravity, strong interaction, weak interaction and electromagnetism
that make up everything that exists =ravity is that which holds us
to the ground, makes the planets move and holds them together
)he strong interaction holds the nucleus of an atom together If you
disrupt it you get a nuclear explosion )he weak interaction is a
force that is responsible for transmutation of elements and
radioactive decay #nd electromagnetism is that which we
experience as light, heat and electricity
#sk a scientist, $Is there anything else!$ and they"ll say, $;o, there
isn"t anything else :verything that exists out there is made up of
these forces$ #nd ultimately even these forces come from one
unified force which scientists today call the 1nified >ield #nd
everything that is there, all stars, all galaxies, all flowers, all
human beings, everything that exists is %ust these forces of nature
-o what is the material world then! )he material world is a cord
that comes out of these forces and the cords of intelligence that
structure particulate matter in fact exist inside us We are the
creators of this world <iterally
)here was an interesting conversation I once heard between a
spiritual master and his student in India #t one point the student
looked at this master and he said, $I don"t know about you 2ou
must live in a different world$ #nd the master said, $;o We live
in exactly the same world )he only difference is you see yourself
in the world, and I see the whole world in myself It"s a minor
perceptual shift that you need to make$
-o let"s talk about this minor perceptual shift Because our current
understanding is that this world is made up of matter that exists in
space and time )hat even human bodies are nothing other than bits
and pieces of matter )hat the human body is a physical machine
that has somehow learned to think )hat it"s the dance of molecules
that creates the epi-phenomenon of consciousness3 thoughts,
feelings, emotions, desires, concepts, ideas, philosophies, dogma,
religion #ll these 0oetry is the expression of the dance of
molecules -omehow these molecules move around and we get this
epi-phenomenon called thought We have physical machines that
have learned how to think
#nd of course this superstition is very pervasive in the world of
contemporary medicine also We are basically bogged down in the
superstition of materialism which says that sensory experience is
the crucial test of reality )herefore, all our healing methodologies
are also based on this superstition We have magic bullets for the
treatment of illness #nd we have the expressions like, $0lop, plop,
fi**, fi**, oh what a relief it is$ 'r if you can"t believe you ate the
whole thing you can have a couple of #lka -elt*ers If you can"t
sleep at night there"s a sleeping pill It will cure insomnia 2ou"re
feeling anxious! )here"s a tranquili*er It will give you tranquillity
2ou have an infection! )ake an antibiotic It will cure the problem
of infection 2ou have cancer! )here"s chemotherapy, radiation,
surgery If you have chest pain, you can pop some nitroglycerin
Better still, have a bypass operation
)hese are the magic bullets that are supposed to get rid of disease
and improve our health but in fact all these magic bullets are
symptomatic approaches )hey relieve symptoms or at best mask
symptoms while the underlying process remains unchanged
-ometimes they interfere with mechanisms of disease #nd mostly
scientific research today is basically elucidating mechanisms at
disease -o if we know how bacteria multiply, we can kill them and
then we"ll get rid of infection If we know how cancer cells
multiply, we can kill them and then we"ll get rid of cancer It
doesn"t work because mechanisms of disease aren"t origins of
disease We can interfere with mechanisms of disease and disease
finds an alternative way of expressing itself
>or example, one of the leading causes of death is not the #I&-
virus or ,I? disease but from antibiotic resistant organisms that
are acquired in hospitals -everal years ago, the California +edical
#ssociation did a study which revealed that over @//,/// people
die in the 1nited -tates from antibiotic resistant organisms
acquired only in hospitals )he number one cause of drug addiction
in the world is not the street drugs of Colombia, but legal medical
prescriptions #nd despite the fact that more people have done
research on cancer in this country than have cancer, despite the fact
the incidence of cancer in fact has increased in the last 4 decades,
anywhere from 4/-4//A, depending on the type of cancer you"re
talking about 47A of all patients in a university hospital,
according to a study published in the ;ew :ngland 9ournal of
+edicine, were suffering from iatrogenic disease which means
disease as a result of biotechnical medical intervention3 disease a
patient had because they happen to see a doctor
-o something is wrong -omething is wrong I don"t mean to really
give the impression that biotechnical medical intervention is not
useful It"s extremely useful in acute illness But it does not alter
the overall expression of disease in a population It merely changes
its expression We no longer have epidemics of polio, tuberculosis,
measles, diphtheria and smallpox But in their place we have
higher incidence of cancer, heart disease, degenerative disorders
and obesity )he overall picture hasn"t changed because the model
that we"ve structured of the human body is not the correct model
)he human body is not a fro*en sculpture fixed in space and time
)he human body is a dynamic bundle of energy, information and
intelligence that constantly is renewing itself and is in exchange
with the larger field of energy, information and intelligence that we
call the universe )hat in fact if we could really see the human
body as it is, not through the artifact of sensory experience, you
would see it to be much more exciting
)he =reek philosopher ,eraculutus compared the human body to a
river ,e said a river is a very mysterious thing When you look at
a river it looks the same to you in every second of its existence but
in fact it"s not the same river ,e said you cannot step into the same
river twice because new water flows in all the time
#nd it"s true also of the human body If you could understand your
body as it really is, you would see that the real you cannot step into
the same flesh and bones twice because in every second of your
existence you"re renewing your body, changing it more rapidly,
more effortlessly, more spontaneously and more easily than you
can change your clothes We can take a number of processes3
eating, breathing, digestion, metabolism, elimination, but most
fundamentally the movement of consciousness which expresses
itself as these processes, and you would see how effortlessly, how
easily you can change your body and in fact are doing so all the
time
)he physical bodies that you"re using to sit on these chairs, for
example, aren"t the ones that you walked in with a little while ago
:ven with one breath you take in @/ to the power of .. atoms #n
astronomical amount of raw material that ends up as your heart,
brain and kidney cells, your neurons, your &;# With each breath
you breathe out @/ to the power of .. atoms It"s an astronomical
amount of raw materials that is coming from every bit of your
body 2ou are literally breathing out bits and pieces of your brain
tissue and heart and kidney #ctually, technically speaking, we are
intimately sharing our organs with each other all the time
)he #merican poet Walt Whitman said, $:very atom belonging to
you as well belongs to me$ #nd this isn"t a metaphorical statement
at all $:very atom belonging to you as well belongs to me$ I can"t
even call my personal body my own #nd I try calling everything
else my own I can"t even claim a copyright on my own physical
body Bight this moment in your body you have a million atoms
that were once in the body of Christ Based on radioactive isotope
studies and mathematical computations it can easily be shown that
in this moment of your existence you have a million atoms that
were once in the body of Christ, in the body of =autama Buddha or
<eonardo &a ?inci or +ichelangelo or +r -addam ,ussein 2ou
can"t separate yourself from anything physically or anybody that
has ever existed
In %ust the last 4 weeks, a quadrillion atoms, @/ to the power of @6
atoms have gone through your body that have gone through the
body of every other species on this planet #nd if you do
radioactive isotope studies which have been done very elegantly,
you can prove beyond a shadow of doubt that you replace C5A of
all the atoms in your body in less than one year 2ou make a new
liver every 7 weeks, a new skin once a month, a new stomach
lining every 6 days, a new skeleton - it seems so hard and solid, but
the skeleton you have now you didn"t have three months ago :ven
the brain cells that you think with as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen
and oxygen, as those basic elements, they weren"t there one year
ago #nd the &;# that holds memories of millions of years of
evolutionary time, in fact hundreds of millions of yearsD the actual
raw material of it comes and goes every six weeks )hose atoms
drift in and out like migratory birds every six weeks
#nd if you want to be a real stickler about it and account for the
last atom and every little sinew and collagen and cartilage, then in
less than two and a half years you replace every atom in your body
down to the last single atom -o if you think you are your material
body then you certainly have a dilemma Which one are you
talking about! )he @CC@ model is not the same as the @CC/ model
or even the one from a few months ago
-o here I stand before you with my lCC@ model and yet I don"t feel
that I wasn"t here last year 2et I don"t feel that I wasn"t here . years
ago +aybe there"s a deeper reality to the physical body +aybe the
physical body is what the Bishis of India call maya, illusion, that
which gives us the appearance of something but in fact there is
something else behind the mask of mortality Behind that facade of
mortality there"s something else which outlasts the physical
expression of the physical body
I stand here with a physical body but I have memories and hopes
and aspirations and ideas and dreams that were there last year, that
were there . years ago )hey also change but not so rapidly as my
physical body )he shelf life of my emotions is a little longer than
the shelf life of my molecules
-o maybe the body is merely the place my memories are calling
home for the time being +aybe the &;# is also %ust that place
that my evolutionary memory is calling home for the time being
+aybe I"m not physical molecules that have created the machine or
created the epi-phenomenon of consciousness +aybe I"m
consciousness itself that has learned how to create the physical
machine +aybe I am a force of intelligence coming out of that
same unified field that makes stars and galaxies and rain forests
+aybe I come from that same place too #nd maybe that place was
never born and never died and in fact was always there I"ve %ust
forgotten for the moment
#nd this is exactly what scientists are beginning to see -cientists
are beginning to see that it is not thoughts which are a product of
molecules, but in fact molecules are structured out of fluctuations
of information in a field of infinite information )hat it is
consciousness which is the phenomenon and matter which is the
epi-phenomenon It is consciousness which conceives, governs,
constructs and actually becomes physical matter
In the last few years we"ve seen some extraordinary research in this
field coming out of prestigious universities and medical schools
and places like the ;ational Institute of ,ealth #bout ./ years ago
it was discovered, for example, that our thoughts and our feelings
have physical substrate to them When you think a thought you
make a molecule )o think is to practice brain chemistry #nd in
fact these thoughts are translated into very precise molecules
known as neuropeptides "$;euro$" because they were first found in
the brain #nd "peptides" because they"re protein-like molecules
#nd thoughts, feelings, emotions and desires translate into the flux
of neuropeptides in the brain
2ou can think of these neuro-peptides like little keys that fit into
very precise locks called receptors on the cell walls or other
neurons -o the way this part of the brain speaks to another part of
the brain is not necessarily in :nglish with an Indian accent, but in
the precise language of these neuropeptides
What was found subsequently, which was absolutely fascinating
was that there were receptors to neuropeptides not only in brain
cells but other parts of the body -o when scientists started looking
for receptors to neuropeptides in cells of the immune system, for
example3 ) cells, B cells, monocytes and macrophages - when they
started looking at them, they found that on the cell walls of all
these there were receptors for the same neuropeptides which are
the molecular substrate of thought
-o your immune cells are in fact constantly eavesdropping on your
internal dialogue ;othing that you say to yourself, which you"re
doing all the time, even in sleep, escapes the attention of the
immune cells ;ot only that, the immune cells, it was subsequently
discovered, can make the same peptides that the brain makes when
it thinks ;ow here we come to a startling finding, because if the
immune cell is making the same chemicals that the brain is making
when it thinks, then the immune cell is a thinking cell It"s a
conscious little being
In fact, the more you look at it, the more you find that it behaves
%ust like a neuron It makes the same chemical cords that the brain
uses for emotion, thought, feeling and desire #n immune cell has
emotions It has desires It has an intellect It knows how to
discriminate and remember It has to decide when it sees a
carcinogen, $Is this a carcinogen! -hould I go after it! -hould I
leave it alone! Is this a friendly bacteria! -hould I go after it or
leave it alone!$ It has to remember the last time it encountered
something In fact it remembers the last time somebody else
encountered the same thing
2our immune cells can immediately recogni*e anything that has
ever been encountered by any living species If you are exposed to
pneumococus for the first time in your life, your immune cells still
remember the last time somebody somewhere in prehistoric time
encountered a pneumococus and knows how to make the precise
antibody to it It"s not only a thinking cell but it remembers way
back into the evolutionary history of not only the human species
but other species as well -o you ask a good neurologist the
difference between an immune cell and a neuron and they"ll say
there isn"t any )he immune cell is a circulating nervous system
;ow if that wasn"t enough of a startling discovery, the subsequent
discoveries in science have been even more interesting, because
when scientists started looking elsewhere in the body they found
the same phenomenon When they looked at stomach cells and
intestinal cells they found the same peptides )he stomach cells
make the same chemical cords that the brain makes when it thinks
'f course they"re not verbally as elite as the brain, in that they
don"t think in :nglish or -wahili, but nevertheless, they are
thinking cells When you say, $I have a gut feeling about such and
such,$ you"re not speaking metaphorically anymore 2ou"re
speaking quite literally because you"re gut makes the same
chemicals as the brain makes when it thinks In fact your gut
feelings may be a little more accurate because gut cells haven"t yet
evolved to the stage of self doubt
What science is discovering is that we have a thinking body :very
cell in our body thinks :very cell in our body is actually a mind
:very cell has its own desires and it communicates with every
other cell )he new word is not mind and body connection, we
have a body-mind simultaneously everywhere
-o when you say, $I have a sad heart,$ then you literally have a sad
heart If a scientist was looking inside the heart, he"d find it heavy
with sadness ,e"ll find it heavy with sad molecules If you say,
$I"m bursting with %oy,$ a scientist could look at your skin ,e"ll
find it loaded with emipramine which is an antidepressant which in
fact, has been used in the treatment of depression by psychiatrists
If you say, $I feel exhilarated, unbounded and %oyful,$ and I was to
examine your blood, I would find high levels of interluken and
interferon which are powerful anticancer drugs
#bout two years ago, interlukens and interferons were released for
the treatment of kidney cancer and melanoma )he only problem is
they"re extremely expensive #n initial course of interluken can
cost you something like EF/,/// But you could take a %oyride on
$+agic +ountain$ and make a few million dollars of interluken
too 'f course, if that was your idea of fun In fact it isn"t the
%oyride at all, it"s your interpretation of it Because if you panicked
on that %oyride you wouldn"t make interluken, you"d make cortisol
adrenaline which is completely the opposite It destroys the
immune system
When you have the experience of tranquility, you"re body makes
?alium and it"s identical to the ?alium that ,offman <aBouch
makes except it"s made in precise doses for the right target organs
It doesn"t make you feel like a *ombie It is an immuno-modulator
It modulates the activity of the immune system :ven little white
cells know how to make ?alium If you are %ittery then your body
makes %ittery molecules, adrenaline, more adrenaline, cortisol #nd
they"re not made %ust by the adrenal glands )hey"re made
everywhere in the body <ittle platelets make adrenaline and they
huddle together in their fright )hat"s how the clotting cascade
starts
-o I think the first ma%or breakthrough in medicine, if that"s what
we"re going to call it, is that the mind has escaped the confines of
the brain It"s not confined to the brain, it"s everywhere in our body
#nd if that wasn"t enough, it seems that now it"s breaking the
confines of the body - out there 'ur mind is not even imprisoned
in our body It"s completely non-local It"s everywhere in space and
time In fact, our mind is part of a non-local field of information
that we can only call the cosmic mind
)he =erman philosopher ;iet*sche said, $We live on the
presumption that we think when it"s equally possible that we are
being thought$ #nd, there may be something to that What we call
our Cosmic Body of the universe may be in fact a pro%ection of our
collective consciousness We"ve learned to create that too 9ust like
we"ve learned how to create the body, we"ve learned how to create
the universe
# few years ago, scientists got interested in a group of hormones
called pheromones that were produced by plants -o if you infect a
plant, for example, with gypsy moth, the plants will give off
hormones into the atmosphere called pheromones that immediately
inform the rest of the forest that there"s gypsy moth around - be
careful #nd the rest of the forest will immediately make the
appropriate antibodies to protect itself # plant is aware It"s got a
mind it informs the others, $)his is what"s happening Watch out($
Insects communicate through pheromones too 2ou"ve seen
termites build perfect columns in the dark with arches that meet at
the top, perfect architectural designs ,ow do they do it! )hey
communicate through pheromones -exual and mating behavior is
influenced through pheromones
But recently it"s been found that these pheromones in fact may also
be the molecular substrate of our emotions #n experiment was
done at -tanford, a particularly cruel experiment, where mice were
taken and were given electric shocks #fter a while the mice were
removed from the room 'ther mice are brought into the room and
as soon they enter the room they panic )hey release stress
hormones and cortisol because they have inhaled the pheromones
of fear
#nd now it"s known that in fact for every single emotion that we
have there is a counterpart, a molecular event that happens not only
inside our body but in fact we release those pheromones as
information substrates into the environment -o now when you say,
$l went into this room and I felt that the atmosphere was really
tense$ )hat"s physiological When you say, $I went to this holy
shrine and I felt peace, love and compassion$ )hat"s completely
understandable from a physiological point of view 2ou say, $I
don"t know what it is about this chap, but he certainly gives me the
creeps$ )hat"s also completely understandable
:merson, the philosopher, said, $Who you are shouts so loudly in
my ears, I cannot hear what you"re saying$ #nd he was making a
physiological statement, completely understandable from the
dynamics of how neurobiology operates What we will call the
universe is in fact a Cosmic Body that we have created in exactly
the same way that we have created our physical body
#nd in fact, even though the artifact of sensory experience said,
$)here"s a world out there separate from me and there"s something
here that"s my body that"s separate from that,$ that"s not
physiologically true We are not skin-encapsulated egos confined
to a bag of skin and bones We may be the 1niversal +ind itself
)here "s a 1niversal Body that we have, there"s a Cosmic Body that
we have and we share our personal body and our Cosmic Body
with each other all the time #nd we have learned to create both in
exactly the same way, and our Cosmic Bodies are as crucial to our
survival as our personal bodies )hey"re equally our own
-o, this is the teaching that comes to me, at least I can"t take any
credit for this incidentally I"m %ust a messenger of a very ancient
form of teaching that is known as the ?eda, and #yurveda is the
part of ?eda that deals with health, the health of nature #nd ?eda
says that if you %ust remember who you are, you"ll suddenly
recogni*e that you, in fact, are the Creator
#t one time a fundamentalist preacher met a ?edantist, and the two
were talking for a while #fter a while the fundamentalist looked at
the ?edantist and he said, $It seems to me that you"re an atheist$
#nd the ?edantist looked back at the fundamentalist and he said, $I
used to be one until I reali*ed I was =od$ #nd of course this
offended the fundamentalist who said, $#re you denying the
divinity of 9esus Christ!$ #nd the ?edantist said, $,eavens( I"ve
never denied anybody their divinity Why would I do it to 9esus
Christ !$
)his is the essential teaching of the ?edic tradition, and it has very
practical applications )he ?eda says, $#s is the atom, so is the
universeD as is the microcosm so is the macrocosmD as is the human
body, so is the Cosmic BodyD as is the human mind, so is the
Cosmic +ind$ #nd if you feel uncomfortable with the word
$Cosmic +ind,$ we can simply call it a $non-local field of
information with self referral cybernetic feedback loops$ I give
talks these days at medical schools and people are very
comfortable with that definition
'ur bodies are literally the music of nature We have here a
symphony which is part of a symphony that has been there forever
)he ?eda says, $Behind the mask of mortality is that quantum
mechanical body, that subtle Causal Body, it"s something you
always had 2ou always had that >ire cannot burn it Water cannot
wet it Wind cannot dry it Weapons cannot cleave it It was never
born and it never dies$
Is there any basis for that! )oday we are seeing that in fact there is
basis If you could see the body again as a physicist could see it, all
you"d see is atoms #nd if you could see the atoms as they really
are, not through the artifact of sensory experience, you"d see these
atoms of particles that are moving at lightning speeds around huge
empty spaces )hese particles aren"t material ob%ects at all )hey
are fluctuations of energy and information in a huge void of energy
and information If I could see your body not through this sensory
artifact, I"d see a huge empty void with a few scattered dots and a
few random electrical discharges here and there CCCCCCCCA of
your body is empty space( #nd the /////@A of it that appears as
matter is also empty space
-o, it"s all empty space )he question is what is this empty space!
Is it an emptiness of nothing or a fullness of non-material
intelligence! In fact it is a fullness of non-material intelligenceor
information that influences its own expression #nd with that
definition, it"s very obvious that this empty space is not an
emptiness of nothing but a womb of creation #nd nature goes
back exactly to that same place, to fashion a galaxy and a rain
forest, as it goes to fashion a thought It"s the same place #nd it"s
inside us, it"s our inner space which gives rise with ama*ing
fertility to all these things that are so crucial to us3 right, wrong,
=od, ,eaven, sin, salvation, damnation, grace #ll this comes from
the same place We are it( It"s right there
Bringing that to quantum healing, bringing that whole perspective
to quantum healing, we can see how practical it can become
Because we have to begin to understand the body is really,
ultimately, %ust a field of ideas #nd the universe is %ust a field of
ideas, literally a field
# scientist by the name of ,erbert -pecter did an experiment about
./ years ago ,e was at the ;ational Institute of ,ealth, head of
+olecular Biology In this particular experiment he gave mice an
in%ection of a chemical called 0olyisee which stimulates the
immune system ,e had the mice smell camphor at the same time
#fter a while the mice would smell camphor and it would
stimulate the immune system ,e took some other mice and gave
them psychlophosphamite which is a chemical that destroys the
immune system and had them smell camphor at the same time
#nd they smell camphor and they destroy the immune system
,ere"s . groups of mice now 'ne that smells camphor and
stimulates the immune system 'ne that smells camphor and
destroys the immune system
In one group of mice if you give them pneumococcide they get
pneumonia and die of it very quickly If you give them
carcinogens, they get cancer and die of it very quickly In the other
group nothing happens #nd what"s the crucial difference between
survival and death in these mice! It"s the interpretation of the
memory of the smell of camphor
Is this relevant to us! 2ou bet it is Because like those mice, we too
have conditioned ourselves to respond to memories in a certain
way We link stimuli to certain memories and every time we"re
exposed to those stimuli we reinterpret the universe and ourselves
according to the memories We become the victim of the stale
repetition of outworn memories
It"s estimated that the average human has 7/,/// thoughts a day
)his is not surprising What is disconcerting is that C/A of the
thoughts you have today are the ones you had yesterday
-o through the same mechanics we keep creating and become
bundles of conditioned reflexes and responses constantly being
triggered by people and circumstance into the same predictable
biochemical responses and ultimately into the same behavioral
responses and ultimately into the same patterns of disease, aging
and death We take our sensory experiences to be real )he sage,
the seer #udishankra, who lived a long, long time ago in the ?edic
tradition of India said, $)he reason we grow old and age and die is
we see other people growing old, aging and dying #nd what we
see we become$ What we see, we become - because we hold that
to be true We cannot see the world again with fresh eyes
In the -hiva -utras, which are again thousands of years old, the
yogi of all yogis, -hiva himself, says, $If you want to recreate the
world, then look at it with fresh eyes$ )he way it really is <ook at
it without the camouflage of your own memories # true yogi says,
$I use memories but I don"t let memories use me$
In the -hiva -utras, again, <ord -hiva says, $<ook at a beauteous
person or an ordinary ob%ect as if for the first time$ ,ow many
people can do that! Because they"ve forgotten to get in touch with
the one who is seeing We are %ust a bundle of conditioned reflexes
)he outcome of our thoughts and feelings But who is having these
thoughts and feelings! )he one who"s having these thoughts and
feelings is not the thought )he one who is having these feelings is
the silence between the thoughts )he one who is having these
feelings is consciousness itself But consciousness itself is not
thought, it"s the source of thought
Becently I had a patient with a very dramatic outcome I %ust want
to go over a couple of case histories to show how relevant this is
In fact, how relevant this is to not only our survival as a species,
but the survival of our own planet
)his young patient that I had, Ghe was in fact from this areaH - he
was one day repairing an antenna on the roof and he picked up a
wire, but it happened to be live and had @.,/// volts in it ,e was
immediately electrocuted )he mechanism of death for this is
ventricular fibrillation which is an electrical event in the heart
,e fell from the roof @6 feet to the ground and as luck would have
it he fell with the right impact at the right place with the right
location of his chest with the right amount of angularity to restart
another current and defibrillate -o it"s as if =od called him and
then changed ,is mind
#nd you ask him, $Bob, what happened!$ ,e says, $I went into the
gap$ I say, $What was there in the gap!$ ,e says, $It was sheer
unbounded %oy It was absolute, total bliss$ 2ou ask him, $Were
there any thoughts there!$ $;o I didn"t have a mind$ $&id you
have a body!$ $;o I didn"t have a body$ $-o what was there!$ ,e
said, $l was %ust aware $ 2ou ask him, $What were you aware of!$
$I was aware that I was aware But it was pure wakefulness I was
grounded totally and completely in the experience of my own
immortality$
-o much so, that he now doesn"t know what the meaning of fear is
In fact, not only was he lucky to have this experience, but like a
true scientist, he started experimenting in this field of pure
awareness ,e would go into the gap ;ow he knew how to slip
into it, and from there he would put his attention on his leg which
had completely burned )here was no muscle - nothing ,is femur
was exposed to the atmosphere 'ver the course of . years, by
diving into the gap, pro%ecting his awareness from there, be has
actually regrown a new lower extremity Because he found that
place from where everything was created It"s his own -elf It"s his
own -elf
#nd where is the -elf! Is it in the brain! Is it in the body! Where is
it! Because this is really the only important experience as far as the
?edic teaching of India is concerned It"s the only important
experience )he Bishi says, $#ll your problems exist because you
never paid attention to yourself, only to your experiences$ #nd
you"re not your experiences 2ou"re the one who"s having those
experiences :nlightenment is not another experience It"s the
discovery of the timeless factor in every experience #nd who"s
that timeless factor! It"s you(
Where is the -elf! -cientists have been looking for it for a long
time &r 0enfield the neurophysiologist and neurosurgeon in
Canada, also a ;obel <aureate, when he operated on patients, he
would cut open the skull and look inside &uring operations, he"d
take an electrode and stimulate different parts of the brain
-o he"d stimulate some part of the motor cortex and the patient"s
arm would start going up )hat"s the part that controls movement
,e"d ask what"s happening to the patient )he patient would say,
$+y arm is moving up$ #nd then he"d say, $#re you moving your
arm!$ )he patient would say, $;o It"s moving up$ )hen he"d say,
$'I ;ow you move it$ #nd the patient would move the arm up
;o matter where you look you"ll never find the decision maker in
the brain 2ou"ll only find the execution of those decisions )he
motor cortex, for example, in the brain, it"s that place that executes
the commands But where is the commander! 2ou cannot find it
It"s not local It"s everywhere or nowhere depending on your
perspective It"s everywhere and nowhere at the same time #nd
that"s who you are( )hat"s who you are 2ou"re everywhere and
nowhere at the same time 2ou don"t have a local address
#nd you"re not confined to your physical body either )he Bishi
when he finally understands his from his own experience of
immortality, he says, $When I"m in this state, I know for sure that
my real state is this Bliss Consciousness )his bliss that follows me
wherever I go It"s closer to me than my body, and there is no past
because what I"m seeking is so near, there is no room for a past
What I"m seeking is the one who"s doing the seeking It"s closer to
me than my body, closer to me than my mind It follows me
wherever I go #nd when I know this then I"m in bliss$
)his is not happiness ,appiness has reasons for it 2ou"re happy
because of a reason But when you"re happy for no reason
whatsoever, then you"re in bliss When you"re grounded in this bliss
then you recogni*e that you"re not in the body, the body is in you
2ou"re not in the mind, the mind is in you 2ou"re not in this
universe, the universe is in you Body, mind, universe %ust
happened to you because you find them interesting )hat"s all
)his is ultimate Juantum ,ealing that gets rid once and for all of
the maya of mortality, of the facade and superstition of
materialism When people get grounded in this experience then
they lose all fear, including the fear of death
)he poet )agor said, $)his is %ust a remembering$ #nd it, again,
comes not by going outside It comes by going inside, by doing
that inner work, by going inside, by remembering It comes by
remembering that -ilent Witness that was with us )here"s a part of
you that was with you when you were born It was with you when
you were a child It was with you during adolescence It"s there
right now listening It"s independent of all the experiences It"s that
-ilent Witness inside
)agor, in one of his celebrated poems, he says, $I was not aware of
the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life What
was that power that brought me into this world in the middle of the
night like a little bud that opens up in the forest at midnight #nd
yet in the morning when I looked upon the light, I felt that I was no
stranger in this world )hat the inscrutable without name and form
had taken me in its own arms like my mother :ven so, in the
moment of death I will step into the same unknown that has been
ever known to me $
What you need to be afraid of is not the unknown, because that"s
where we live all the time What we need to be afraid of, if
anything, is the known( Because the known is the rigid patterns of
past conditioning that imprison us in a prison of space, time, and
causation - squee*e us into the volume of a body in the span of a
lifetime When that"s not the way it really is
,e says, $Because l love this life I know I can never fear death
)he child cries out when it"s mother takes it from the left breast
only to find in the very next moment consolation in the right one
-pace, time, matter, energy are similarly engendered by
frequencies of self interaction Curving back within myself, I
create again and again 1ltimately I"m not all of this, I"m the field
itself$
In the =ita, <ord Irishna, speaking to #r%una says, $Inow
yourself as the field and the knower of the field$ )he poet Bumi
says, $'ut beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a
field I"ll meet you there$
-o I"d like to end with a little quote from >ran* Iafka, whom
everyone remembers as more or less a writer whose literary
reputation rests on his portrayal of acute suffering But he said
something which is a brilliant affirmation of the path to
enlightenment ,e said, $2ou do not need to do anything, %ust
remain sitting at your table and listen &o not even listen, %ust wait
&o not even wait, %ust be quiet, still and solitary, and the universe
will expose itself to you It has no choice It will roll in ecstasy at
your feet$
In those words, one feels the breath of reality because they speak
to us without disturbing their own stillness #nd if we really want
to know what they whisper to us, then we must learn to be equally
still ourselves )hank you very much