From Science to Spirituality: Finding Spirituality In Science

By Neil C. Griffen

The book starts out with an explanation of the scientific method. It traces the history to the present day. Then it explains why science cannot explain everything such as how the brain works, psychic phenomena and life after death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadersMagnet LLC
• Release date: Jun 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781951775698

Neil C. Griffen

"Neil was born and raised in upstate New York. He attended Fredonia SUNY, NY where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Physics. He attended Pennsylvania State college and obtained a Master's degree in Physics. He then served in the Air Force for four years. A year was spent in Vietnam. He then attended The Ohio State Unive3rsity to obtain a Ph.D. in physics. During the time at Ohio State University, he joined the First Spiritualist Church of Linden in Columbus OH. Here he was certified as a medium. After completing the course for ordination he was ordained. Then he was elected as President of the Ohio State Spiritualist Church. A few years later has elected to the National Board of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches He worked for Mettler-Toledo where he was awarded nine patents. He then joined Lakeshore Cryotronics where he earned another ten patents."

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From Science to Spirituality

Copyright © 2020 by Neil C. Griffen

Published in the United States of America

ISBN Paperback: 978-1-951775-67-4

ISBN Hardback: 978-1-951775-68-1

ISBN eBook: 978-1-951775-69-8

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of ReadersMagnet, LLC.

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Scientific Method

Chapter 2: Fundamentals of the Laws of Motion

Chapter 3: Fundamentals of Atoms

Chapter 4: Time and Space

Chapter 5: A New Atomic Worldview in the Twentieth Century

Chapter 6: Psychic Photons

Chapter 7: Vacuum Fluctuations

Chapter 8: Creation of the Universe

Chapter 9: Genetics, DNA, and Evolution

Chapter 10: The Brain

Chapter 11: Breaking Edge Research

Chapter 12: Science: Is That All There Is?

Chapter 13: Ramifications for Religion and Spirituality

Chapter 14: Brain and (Spirit) Mind Interaction

Chapter 15: Mindfulness, Nothingness, and Oneness Mindfulness

Chapter 16: Ego, Mind, and Brain

Chapter 17: Combining the Two Worlds Into One: The Laws of God

Chapter 18: A Primer On Spiritualism

Chapter 19: Healing Techniques From A Spiritual Perspective

Chapter 20: Hand In Hand

Chapter 21: Finding God in Science

Suggested Reading

Appendix I: Pseudoscience

Appendix II: Not All Truths Are Equal

Endnotes

There are beauty and

grandeur in the many things

that I do not understand.

They become more so once I do

begin to understand.

—Neil

To Maudella Jane Rowe, who helped me discover the wonder of Spiritualism.

To B. Anne Gehman, who inspired me.

To John J. Gary, who encouraged me to publish this book.

Preface

When I was in high school, I used to drive my mother, a good Presbyterian woman, crazy with questions about religion. I found many of the tenets hard to accept or understand. Yet religion held a powerful attraction and I wanted to find out more. There were no other religions in my life so I tried hard to accept what I was told was correct.

After high school, I attended college at SUNY at Fredonia, NY. My major was in physics. Why physics? The simple explanation is that as I was going through high school, in every course I would ask myself the question, ‘Is this the one I want to major in when I go to college?" The answer was always no. The last course I took was physics. So, since the rest had already been eliminated—physics it was.

After the first year, it became fascinating. It satisfied my basic desire to know how the world works. Unfortunately, it was limited to the physical world.

Religion, heaven, and spirit were not compatible. Unbeknownst to me at the time I applied to Fredonia

College was a nearby center for Spiritualism and New Age activities. It is located in Lily Dale, New York, about twelve miles away by bicycle. They presented a new concept—one that made sense. We live in a natural world and dying is just the spirit leaving the body. That sounded nice but as a budding scientist, I had to have proof.

I received several private readings and witnessed many public demonstrations. Guesswork or shrewd mind games seemed to be an easy explanation for much of what I saw. One particular exception was a turning point in my life. I rode my bicycle up to the house of a medium. She was around eighty years old and was recently in the hospital. She and I had never met before. I was told that mediums do readings by observing body language and asking leading questions. I was ready.

As the reading began, I could see she was physically weak and seemed a little tired. The first thing she said was, I have a man here who says his name is Floyd. A hit, I have an uncle named Floyd that passed several years before. Then she added, He says you come from a family of five. I got her; there are only four in my family. I was ready for the old dodge, Well was there someone who was like a member of the family? Instead, she drew quiet for a moment and then said, Well he says you come from a family of five.

This irritated me. I know how many there are in my family! I strongly told her that there were only four. Again, she paused then remarked, Well he is telling me five. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Twenty-two years before my birth, my mother gave birth prematurely to a daughter. She lived for about two days. She was not mentioned often in family conversations. To someone on the spirit side, it would look like a family of five, my father, mother, older brother, who had recently passed, my sister, and me. All five were alive and still a part of the family.

This was enough to convince me that something was going on. I was the president of the Presbyterian College club during my first year in college. I continued to visit Lily Dale in the summers. By the time I graduated, I was not an active Christian.

A few years later, I was in Vietnam. This became a very difficult time for me spiritually. My Christian background heavily influenced me but Spiritualism was also a strong component in my belief system. It felt like I was adrift in a boat without oars. I remember one Christian meeting where the Chaplin was talking about salvation. He explained that once someone had heard about Jesus but rejected him, that person would not get into heaven. That seemed so unfair. What about those who never did hear about Christianity?

I started questioning, How much do you have to hear before it is enough? After some discussion, the conclusion was that if I flew over a group of people in a helicopter who had never heard about Christianity and shouted the word Jesus over a megaphone that would be enough. I found this utterly unacceptable. How could God be so unfair or cruel? To this day, I do not believe this is a widely held view among Christians. But at the time, the statement did cause me to take a harder look at my beliefs.

Being in the middle of a war is not a good time to have a crisis in faith. Finally, in desperation, I called out to God to show me the path to follow to find the truth. The answer became clear to me. I will live my life honestly. If in the end, I am judged wrong, then so be it. I will not base my life on what I do not believe. Spiritualism made sense to me. It also blended perfectly with my physics background.

After the Air Force, I attended Ohio State University where I received my doctorate in physics. At the same time, I took mediumship development courses from a local church. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches also ordained me. I was active in the movement for the next twenty-five years.

Although the church provided much of my religious education, most of my understanding came through my guides. I would find myself talking as if I were trying to explain to someone some lesson or concept. As I did, the ideas just flowed into my mind. This was excellent preparation for the future when I would lecture.

I could see the interplay between Spiritualism and physics. It soon became clear that the physical and spiritual worlds were not separate but blended smoothly. This book is about my understanding of how the two worlds blend.

Introduction

Science has a role to play in religion. Gone are the days when religion was an authority on everything. For the past one thousand years, science has been slowly acquiring knowledge of how the world works, while much of religion has remained based on teachings from long ago. New scientific knowledge has often introduced conflicts. Some examples include evolution versus creation, earth-centered verse sun-solar systems, the role of evil spirits in disease or other disasters, and stem cell research.

Another example I like to use is from about six hundred years ago in Europe. It was generally believed that the plague was caused by evil spirits or as a punishment by God. It was not until an association with rats and or contaminated drinking sources were found that the idea changed.

Religion focuses on God, His message to us, and how we are to live our lives. Religion, in general, does not ascribe to the tried and true principles of scientific investigation. Many in religious and spiritual fields do not have an extensive background in science. Because of this and because the scientific approach is so different from religious approaches, science is often feared and treated as inferior to religious truth. This becomes a built-in bias—a major obstacle to achieving the goals of this book, as the people I would most like to reach will be biased against reading it.

To a scientist, the question arises, How can you be sure of what you are saying if it cannot be tested? This is the heart of the scientific method. So here is a built-in bias against religion, at least where its teachings are not verifiable. Since trying to keep science and religion separate is no longer possible, the question is how best to combine such seemingly irreconcilable paradigms or worldviews.

I suspect this book will be the most appealing to a third group. Amongst these are New Age, New Age Thought, Holistic and Alternate Health adherents, Spiritual Healers, and other groups that do not focus on God as an anthropomorphic being, but rather as a Universal Energy or Divine Source. Science can support their knowledge and work, as there is already a growing body of evidence of the effectiveness of their approaches.

This book is an overview of many topics, and encouragement to delve deeper into the subject of the relationship between science and religion. The first part is a brief simplified non-mathematical history of the basic advances in physics from circa 1500 A. D. to today. This will give someone not familiar with science a brief introduction to many of the concepts developed, give insight into the physical laws that shape our world, and a glimpse of how a scientist thinks.

The second part of this book builds on the current understanding of how the physical world works along with religious teachings to gain insight into the supernatural world.

It is my considered opinion that science supports religion, not invalidates it. As one begins to think like a scientist, a new worldview emerges. The physical world is complex and sometimes chaotic, but the science of chaos gives insight. The basic definition of chaos is that within systems that appear to be chaotic or random, there is an underlying or hidden set of rules that explain much of the behavior. Science studies and codifies these rules.

If the world is an orderly place, then it is consistent with God creating an ordered universe. Science and religion agree here. This is a great place to start. Much of the dissention occurs when religious people fail to appreciate the order and detail in science and scientists fail to appreciate how religion gives insight into the world of which science only studies a part. Many scientists see beauty in the laws of science and mathematical equations. It instills a sense of awe. Religion does this for both the physical and the spiritual planes of existence. Together they merge into a synergy of wisdom and understanding.

TWO PATHS TO TRUTH

Both science and religion seek the truth. Both are noble in their efforts and are dedicated to their craft. If the two approaches come to different conclusions, which approach will provide a better answer?

Greek philosophers such as Plato thought that truth was based on the mind not senses, which could be fooled. The religious approach is also that the senses can fool you. Only that which comes from God or through spiritual channels is reliable. This concept is hard to disagree with; God does not lie. One caution here is not to extend the interpretation of such sources to mundane issues. Such issues were the beginning of science and religion going down different paths. In the middle ages, discrepancies between what was true by divine authority and by observation became more numerous. In its defense, the church would often brand ideas that were not consistent with the church’s teachings as heresy. The people that held them were branded as heretics. The church often took severe action against such people.

As the number of discrepancies increased and gained more credibility through many different observers, the church was forced to relent on some issues. The most famous one is the debate about whether or not the Earth is at the center of the solar system. The church held this truth until the late 1500s. Dissension on many other issues continues today. Evolution is a prime example. Where and how is a line drawn between religious truth and scientific fact?

The adoption of the scientific approach began to grow rapidly in circa 1500. This consisted of a set of rules for establishing the validity of ideas and theories. Here was a clear set of rules to determine whether or not something could be said to be true. Here true means it meets the new rules of the scientific procedure. It soon became widely accepted as a means for scientific research. A whole chapter is devoted to this concept in this book.

The initial motivation for much of the study of science was to understand better the nature of God and how He worked in the physical world. It was not to work against the church and its teachings. Examples include Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Sir Isaac Newton. These are familiar names to scientists and are discussed in this book. These and many other of the early scientists were members of the religious elite.

The debate today has evolved to whether the gaining of a correct understanding of the world is guided by science or religion. For the most part, the choice is clear. If it involves technical things such as electronics, gravity, chemistry, or physics, religion has little to say; science specializes in these. If the question is about salvation or pleasing God, then religion is best; science cannot address these subjects. Gray areas such as abortion, human genetic engineering, or how the world was created are areas where serious conflicts arise. There are also moral questions about uses of particular areas of science or whether science, including psychology, has reached the proper conclusion given accepted religious teachings.

GOD IN THE WORLD

For questions regarding how God intervenes in the laws of nature, the question is far from settled. Are miraculous events merely coincidences or luck, or has a Divine Force intervened to create or prevent some physical events? Are seemingly miraculous healings or being saved from certain death just due to things we do not understand, a product of nature, or luck? Or, did indeed a Divine hand step in to bypass physical law?

Even more disturbing, at least to me, is the claim that under a Divine Authority, we will be judged. Where we spend eternity will be based on events that occur while living. Compounding the problem is the number and variety of religious authorities whose teachings vary considerably. This is no small matter when some believe they are right and that others who do not believe as they do will spend eternity in pain and suffering. Others teach that reincarnation will continue until the lessons are learned. Surely knowing who is right would be of interest.

Religion would gain by learning about how the brain works and how emotions are generated. In the past, sin was a simple thing; it was breaking the laws of God. Now, some people are deemed to be suffering from a disease that affects how the mind works. As the function of the brain and the psychology of behavior are more clearly understood, it is becoming harder to tell willful behavior from that induced by a chemical imbalance or malfunctioning brains. Is a schizophrenic a sinner or someone who is ill? Is a saint someone with just the right brain structure?

Miracle healings still use physical laws, at least in part, when they occur. Rather than just attributing it to a supernatural event, it would be better to study the mind/ brain/body interactions that occur during these events. Perhaps the neurochemistry and structure of the brain that was activated can lead to improving methods of prayer and meditation. Running a brain scan during the process of spiritual healing may lead to improved techniques. It also sheds light on the deeper question of how that part of us that is non-physical interacts with the part of us that is physical.

Science today does not generally include God, spirit, or the supernatural as a possible explanation for religious experiences or paranormal phenomena. On the other hand, religion requires the supernatural; the physical world is subservient to it. There is enough evidence of the paranormal or God to justify using the concept in scientific endeavors. (Some of this evidence is discussed in this book.) Explain all that you can with physical laws, but then move on to work with non-physical influences in a scientific manner.

To me, trying to understand life without a spiritual component is like trying to explain how a radio works without acknowledging the existence of radio stations. An examination of the radio alone will leave unanswered questions about where the music is coming from.

BOOK’S GOALS

One of my goals in writing this book is to encourage scientific investigation as a way of opening to the possibility of mind/spirit integration, and not merely an attempt to explain spirit as a function of physical phenomena. I hope to let the advances in science presented here to stimulate the mind to consider new ideas and approaches. It is written like a textbook to inform, of offering ideas and theories rather than narrow or biased points of view. This is not part of some evangelical attempt to sway anyone to any particular religion or culture. Rather look at different spiritual phenomena as a scientist would—an open, honest, unbiased consideration of the facts. Each of us has a set of beliefs about God and spirituality. I want to challenge these beliefs to expand how we look at religion and spirituality.

To stimulate thought, just reading this book will not do much. As you read the words, thoughts will come into your mind. Write these down, think them over, and become engaged. In so doing, the book will not be a passive exercise, but an insightful adventure into new worlds.

When you have finished reading this book you will have a greater appreciation of the wondrous world in which we live. The range of ideas presented will allow you to break free of past mindsets and recognize the potentials of new paradigms. By discussing aspects of our being, you will gain a greater insight into whom and what we are.

I strongly urge you not to agree with me too quickly, especially in the later chapters. Firmly held thoughts must not be given up easily, but only after prolonged thought and consideration. I want the reader to analyze what is presented here and find it correct, wrong, misleading, or simply dumb. The result will be growth. And yes, none of this is the final answer; it is just a snapshot of some current opinions. A deeper motive is to plant seeds of thought. When the time is right or when needed, these seeds