The Physics of Enlightenment
- Prof. 0. S. Reddy

What does physics have in common with enlightenment? Physics apparently belongs to the external world of physical phenomena and enlightenment to the internal world of perceptions. A closer examination* However, reveals that physics and enlightenment are not so disconnected as we might think.

First, there is the fact that only through our perceptions can we observe physical phenomena. In addition to this obvious bridge, there are other intrinsic similarities. Enlightenment entails casting off the bonds of concept ("veils of ignorance") in order to perceive directly the inexpressible nature of undifferentiated reality.
"Undifferentiated reality" is the same reality that we are part of now, as always have been and will be.
The difference is that we do not look at it the same way as an enlightened being * does. According to the philosophy of enlightenment, everything is a symbol. The reality of symbols, however, is an illusory reality. Nonetheless, it is the one in which we live.

Although undifferentiated reality is inexpressible, we can talk around it using more symbols, the physical world as it appears to the unenlightened consists of many separate parts. These parts, however, are not really separate.

According to mystics from around the world, each moment of enlightenment (grace/insight/ Samadhi) reveals that everything - all the separate parts of the * universe - is a manifestation of the same whole. There is only one reality. It is whore and unified. It is one.

Enlightenment is a state of being. Like any state of being it is indescribable. It is a common misconception (literally) to mistake the description of a state of being for the state itself.
For example, try to describe happiness. It is impossible to do that. We can talk around it, we can describe the perspectives and actions that usually accompany the state of happiness, but we cannot describe happiness itself. Happiness and the description of happiness are two different things. Happiness exists in the realm of direction experience. It is the intimate perception of emotions and sensations which, indescribable in themselves, constitute the state of happiness.

The difference between experience and symbol is the difference between mythos and logos. Logos imitates but never replaces experience. It is a substitute for experience.

A state of being is an experience. A description of a state of being is a symbol. Symbols and experience do not follow the same rules.

.This realisation has been brought to the science of physics by the formidable quantum logic. The possibility that separate parts of the universe like you or any other thing are connected in ways which both our common experience and laws of physics belief has forced its way into physics under Bell's theorem.

Laser fusion research and the hunt for quarks are paradigms of physics.

A paradigm is an established thought, a framework. Quantum logic calls us back from the realm of symbols to the realm of experience.

The second Bell's theorem tells us that there is no such thing as separate parts. All parts of the universe are connected in an intimate fashion, as has been claimed by mystics.

The difference between experience and symbol is the difference between mythos and logos. Logos imitates but never replaces experience. It is a substitute for experience. Logos is an artificial constitution of dead symbols which mimics experience on a one-to-one basis.

Einstein argued that unless a physical theory has a one-to-one correspondence with phenomena it is not complete. Every element of physical reality must havefc counterpart in the physical theory. Quantum theory does not postulate a"" one-to-one correspondence between theory and reality, as it cannot predict events, but only probabilities of events.

If enlightenment is seen as the realisation of ultimate unity, then this is how Bell's theorem amply proves it. But it enlightenment is taken as T exist in 'all' exists in 'me' then the unity refers to life systems as the chemical thread of life (DNA) and as the unifying thread of all living systems. All living systems are characterised by the common chemical thread of DNA linking all organisms-from primitive viruses to man. Life is similar in all beings.

whether it be a snake, a bird or a dog. Thus a man could see his own life in all and all life in him. In this sense I am all and all is in me.

A vital aspect of the state of enlightenment is the experience of an all-pervading unity. 'This' and 'that' are no longer separate entities. They are different forms of the same thing. Everything is a manifestation; it is not possible to answer the question.

"Manifestation of what?" Because what is beyond words, beyond concept, beyond form, beyond even space and time. Everything is a manifestation of that which is, "that which is" -beyond these words lies the experience, the experience of that which is. Everything is that which is. We are part of that which is. In fact, according to the discovery of Bell in 1965 formulated in what is called the Bell's theorem, at a deep and fundamental level, the separate parts of the universe are connected in an intimate and immediate way.